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Naruto: The Outsider's Resolve: CH_424: The Banquet of Abyss [UPDATED]
🕑 Added 2025-08-24 22:58:56 +0000 UTCWhile the world of chakra and shinobi was more dangerous, when it came to the depiction of horror, Takuma's original world was far ahead. The internet had allowed people to share their twisted imaginations with other twisted people who were inspired by it and built upon it using everything from simple words to advanced computer graphics. The result was a constant stream of a vast variety of horror born from the collective imagination.
Genjutsu: The Banquet of Abyss
Takuma's special brand of horror was a derivation of that very result.
Genjutsu was a special tool. It wasn't as straightforward as taijutsu, nor was it as versatile as ninjutsu. There were several restrictions associated with it. Not everyone was capable of learning genjutsu. Any decently strong genjutsu required an inordinate amount of focus; most users couldn't move while they were casting. It was easy to break, and once it broke, the target was undamaged.
The last part, however, was a misconception.
It was true that genjutsu left behind no physical damage, but what about mental?
Takuma felt a dark delight as he gazed at Kon's pale face, sweating in terror. His eyes were bloodshot, and his breathing ragged. Takuma could see it, hear it, smell it—the fear radiating from Kon.
That was real damage.
"A scared cripple. How about you piss your pants and get this over with already? Pathetic," Takuma said softly, but it was enough for Kon to hear over his thumping heart.
"Kill him." Kon managed through his gritted teeth before yelling. "KILL HIM!"
The identical agent duo pulled their swords out on command. Takuma did the same, his sword blade glinting in the sunlight. Their blades were broader and longer than his.
He raised his sword and pointed it right at Kon, declaring that he was coming for his head. Kon’s face twisted in half measures of anger and fear.
The duo slowly stopped forward. He gazed at them with caution. Kon said they were his personal grim reapers, handpicked especially for him by Danzo. Ignoring the terrifying fact that Danzo was aware of him and considering him a threat, these two were selected by him. The old warmonger, with his infinite experience in matters of assassinations and nefarious murders, considered the duo enough for him. That alone made them dangerous.
There was a second of silence where both parties simply watched, waiting to see if the other would take action, before they moved simultaneously. As Takuma rushed forward, the agents split up to attack him in a pincer move.
He threw a kunai at Blue, backing it with chakra, but it was effortlessly dodged. The kunai’s augmented speed made Blue slow down just enough that he was now running a second later than his counterpart. Takuma widened it by running straight towards Red. There was now a gap where he and Red would clash alone before Blue would enter the combat.
He and Red clashed, their sword singing on impact. He didn’t want to get caught between the two agents, so he moved in the opposite direction from where Blue was approaching, but at that moment, Red’s sword sparked with electricity.
Takuma felt a jolt travel through his body, leaving weakness in its wake. It was only momentarily, but he almost lost the grip of his sword, and his knees buckled. In that moment, he could only roll to the side and quickly got up to a kneel. Red and Blue seamlessly switched positions. Blue’s sword sparked with electricity as he swung it down. Takuma managed to put his sword up, but the moment metal clashed, he again felt the current weaken his body. Blue’s sword easily overpowered him in his moment of weakness, and the blade left a shallow wound on the side of his thigh.
They were merciless as Red switched right back in with a horizontal slash that aimed to take his head off. He managed to roll underneath it as the sword whistled over his head.
He was in a bad position. Without a proper footing, his options for evasion were limited. Worse of all, he couldn’t make any contact with either sword.
As Red made space for his partner to continue their merciless attack, Takuma jumped at Blue the moment he was within reach. Without space, Blue couldn’t swing his sword, but he could still make it touch Takuma, who felt the electric jolt weaken him, but that didn’t matter as his body’s momentum carried over, and they tumbled on the ground.
The agent managed to come out on top, but Takuma kicked him in the stomach. Blue folded in half as he flew right into his partner, finally giving Takuma the chance to stand up and gain proper footing.
Red managed to support his partner, and the two agents were almost instantly ready to fight back.
Takuma threw a smoke bomb, which Blue instinctively cut, causing it to explode in their face. Instead of going after them in the haze, he turned around and rushed at the third agent on the field.
He needed a moment to think about the strategy before his next face-off against the duo.
———
.
Kon recoiled when he saw Takuma’s expression as the latter sprinted towards him. There was a hunger and bloodlust in his eyes. Kon hesitated before dropping his kunai and reaching out for his sword on his back, only to see Takuma grin wider. It was too late to do anything else. Takuma leapt into the air and brought his sword down on Kon. The contact made an ugly screech with sparks flying like fireworks. Kon’s sleeve around the shoulder ripped apart, and he felt the joint almost pop out of its socket. Fortunately, the lack of one arm had made the other much stronger, and he managed to hold his own.
Takuma suddenly changed the angle of his sword. The blades glided against each other as he redirected Kon’s sword and flung it back so it couldn’t be used for the next moment.
With only one arm, which was now temporarily out of commission, Kon had no way to retaliate.
‘I need to get away,’ Kon thought the panic as he felt the sword suddenly being parried and pushed back, taking his good arm with it.
He wasn't supposed to be involved in the fight. The Gemini Brothers were supposed to take care of Takuma on their own. His job was to ensure that the brothers got enough uninterrupted time with Takuma to get the job done without any external obstacles. He had already done that, but when he thought about Takuma dying while he remained in the base, it didn't sit well with him.
He wanted to talk with Takuma before he died. He wanted to see the moment of his death. He wanted to watch the life and hope drain from his eyes.
He was only supposed to provoke him a little bit before falling back away to a safe distance and letting the brothers do the job.
But then—!
"—Hey, you know what this means, right. That bitchface oldfuck Danzo didn't trust you with the job, so he sent someone else to do it for you—"
"—But you will never be able to take your revenge. Even if I die here today, it won't be because of you. You are utterly useless...—"
"—A scared cripple. How about you piss your pants and get this over with already? Pathetic—"
He couldn't let Takuma die just like that. He wanted to be the one to kill him. He made a mistake.
He tried to leap back, but before he could, Takuma slammed his foot over Kon's, locking in place. He could no longer escape. Before he could think about his next move, Takuma struck him in the throat. He barely managed to move his chin in the way. It absorbed some of the force, but the fist still struck its intended target.
Kon's air supply was immediately cut as he thought that his air pipe was crushed because he felt the force hit his spine in the back of his neck. He felt his vision darken and his balance shaken. He staggered back and tried his best to take control of himself when he saw a silver flash.
Takuma's sword slashed at him, cutting him just above the elbow of his good arm. It sliced through the flesh but missed the bone by a few millimetres.
For a moment, everything slowed for Kon as he saw blood spurt out. The horrifying, blood-filled vision he had seen in the genjutsu was no longer the terrifying one he had seen today. This was his nightmare.
He screamed from the top of his lungs and tried to escape, but Takuma punched him in the stomach, knocking the air out of his body, cutting off his screams. Takuma grabbed him by his hair and held him up. Their eyes met, and Takuma, his face covered in blood splatter, smiled.
"I already took one, I might as well hack this arm as well. Don't worry, I'll still kill you afterwards."
In that moment, the version of Takuma in the genjutsu and reality overlapped in Kon's eyes as the bastard who had ruined his life raised the bloodied sword.
———
.
Takuma’s heart was sprinting with adrenaline as he looked at the Kon’s miserable face twisted in dread. He promised Grey that he would kill the bastard here, thus letting go of the opportunity to relish inflicting pain over a longer period. So, in return, he was going to make his last moments hellish.
But that would have to wait.
‘They’re quick,’ he clicked his tongue when he saw the identical duo in his peripheral vision. It had only been a few seconds since he had charged at Kon. He released Kon's hair and jumped away to dodge a chain made from pure lightning that cracked with sparks of pure electricity. Just as he dodged the lightning chain, a flash of lightning in the form of a bolt zapped towards him at a blinding speed.
Takuma held his breath before twisting in the air to face the incoming attack. As he was in mid-air, he positioned his sword in front of him. The lightning bolt struck the metal. There was only a split-second where the lighting chakra gathered around the sword before jumping straight up. In that moment, before he could even place his soles on the ground, he released the sword.
The lightning chakra, stuck to the metal, but a small portion of it jumped through the air and zapped him. His body tensed for a couple of seconds as arcs of lightning zapped around his body, rampaging through his body.
“Urgh, that’s tingly,” Takuma grunted as he managed to avoid tanking the entirety of a C-rank jutsu. The weakness wasn’t as bad as with the kenjutsu, but it wasn’t going away. He glared at the identical agents, who had both thrown a Lightning Release ninjutsu at him. They hadn't made any attempt to rescue Kon, and even now, they weren't looking at their peer.
It seems there was more going on here than Kon knew himself; the one-armed bastard wasn’t high on the priority of his teammates.
Lightning Release and kenjutsu that put him at extreme disadvantage at melee range. Takuma frowned with a bad feeling. Kon had called him his grim reapers. He now knew they had said this.
His two affinities were Water and Earth.
Water strengthened Lightning.
Earth was weak against Lightning.
Unless they had a second nature, he had no type advantage against the brothers.
And they leveraged their advantage into eliminating his strong suit in close combat.
He needed a different strategy.
Comments
Kelevra
I definitely think wind release for the sole purpose of enhancing thrown weapons and his Kenjutsu would be great But I’d actually rather like to see him try his hand at some samurai style Kenjutsu manipulation
Xardas2995
So with the rewritten chapter. Takuma should go for ranged water release attacks. Maybe also hidden mist jutsu. And he should really consider learning wind release at least to use with his sword down the line. Not right now obviously.
peterodatilo
This is part of Takuma's learning journey. He got overconfident in his strenght, now he learns that the world is bigger than 1 or 2 main threats, and goes back to the grind. I'm actually really hoping that itachi shows up, but it's a far-fetched ideia.
Nidi
Takuma uses earthquake. It's super-effective! Pikachu is unable to continue in battle!
Diego Sánchez Ramírez
Takuma should use ground-type ninjutsu, those are inmune to lighting.
Marcin
Mors Vincit Omnia - Death is the end. It can’t be avoided, and everyone succumbs to death at some point. Which actually brings to mind a thought, if Takuma knows some dead lenguages from back home, he should use em. It will shake the resolve of agents, when their target will speak in language they never heard about :D The small.. niggling thought, that the person in front isnt what he seems.
Marcin
Water clone will go pop the second it gets hit.
Xardas2995
I understand the point very well. I brought it up as well and agree. However, I think ultimately we have to concede that Fiction is also just human (I think so?). As Takuma's skills and arsenal of jutsu grow us readers will probably repeatedly come up with these issues. Which is fine and important in my opinion because it at least retrospectively makes Fiction aware of this. Since he teasered at the end of this chapter that the fight might maybe only take one more chapter I assume that he just didn't want to complicate this whole fight with a shadoe clone any further. Or we get a surprise and this is actually a clone and Fiction is just messing with us. Fiction gave Takuma a pretty strong tool with the long term shadow clone use and while I understand that it should not become a common theme and be overused with Takuma sending a shadow clone everywhere first, here he assumed that Enomoto (someone he is not fond of) is blackmailing him to meet at a remote location.
Aeon
My main issue here : why reduce the IQ of Takuma back down to room temperature ? I get that you want cool fights, but your fight are better when smartly brought up, not when they are caused by Takuma becoming dumb to allow the stakes to exist
Xardas2995
Use the water chain. Let the Gemini brothers shock themselves.
Xardas2995
Water strengthening lightning is not necessarily a disadvantage for Takuma here. All depends on how the two elements clash. If he shoots water bullets at them which soak up lightning the bullets should keep travelling in the same direction still. So the Gemini brothers could also power up attacks that end up hitting them. Takuma has to be conscious that the water is not touching him. Also stuff like earth spikes from the ground will still work because it can hit it's target before it might be able to react.
piledriven
I'm really hoping Maruboshi comes to bail him out. After Takuma gets injured again of course. If only because making stupid mistakes like NOT USING SHADOW CLONES is kinda obvious enough and a sign that he's gotten cocky. Takuma's only going to learn the lessons the hard way unfortunately.
Alchem
As stated by others in the last chapter theorizing this is a Takuma clone, it’s disappointing to see it verified that this isn’t a clone, given he didn’t dispel after the lightning jutsu hit him. Takuma has been branded as a “shinobi’s shinobi” since nearly the beginning of the story. He understands jutsus aren’t everything, that’s why he learned so many skills like lock picking, interrogation, detective skills, espionage, information gathering, knot tying, etc., where other shinobi haven’t. It seems wrong for him not to be that cautious, alert shinobi (a shinobi’s shinobi) and send in his clone jutsu, perfect for reconnaissance, that can not only fight on its own but give info back to the original once it dispels. Sending in a shadow clone seems to be an obvious choice Takuma would make in this situation. Called in the middle of the night by a guy who has a lot to lose by threatening him, an ANBU nin. He should know something doesn’t seem right and be prepared, especially with no backup and knowing he has been targeting ROOT agents in Konoha itself and may be targeted for a counterattack. Some ROOT nin did get away during their hunt and he should expect that they didn’t get everyone in Konoha. Takuma said the goal was to scare, threaten Enomoto. What’s more threatening than not only coming fully strapped, which he did, but show to Enomoto, if push came to shove and he was attacked, that the real Takuma wasn’t even there, that he could be anywhere right now. I apologize if my comment is wrong if it turns out the Takuma in this chapter is a clone who somehow stayed intact after taking damage from that lightning jutsu, but it just doesn’t seem to be the case right now. Love your work and the story. I don’t usually comment but wanted to provide some constructive criticism as I feel like this setup to the encounter goes against who Takuma is as a shinobi. He’s not a heavy hitter like Naruto, Hashirama, Madura, etc. who walk into a situation and just dominate with pure power and will; not to say I couldn’t see Takuma possibly become more like that in the future, but he’s not that right now and doesn’t seem like he would change to be like that 100%. He’s a true shinobi: careful, attentive, lethal. At least that’s the characterization I got reading since the very beginning when he first started learning from Maruboshi.
Lazybeep
Are gemini brothers children of the traitor which takuma killed during war
elijah pickett
Mind Demon
TheFoolishConsort
"Mad Dog" homage to the 2 v 1 of The Raid Redemption movie and Kon is nothing but a dog...and he's mad...yeah.
Maxemuud
Chapter title: Lucid nightmares
LOOKOUT
Shadow clones jutsu is the perfect jutsu for this situation. Literally made for scenarios like these. Along with not asking for any backup makes 0 sense
festive God
Fire fight
Noam Bar
So he became an idiot and went by himself to a suspicious person, no scouting clone, a disappointment from the author, making him regress like that.
Alfie Sutton
Disarmed
Mohammed Sheekh
It would be foolish for takuma to be the aggressor, it would be smart if he let them fling out their powerful jutsu and waste their chakra, then go crazy on them later. He just gotta survive step 1 first
BestHopes2U
I think a good chapter title would be “Horror” or “Terror”
Siva Chandan Chakka
Thank you for the chapter
