Naruto: Passerby and Returnee

Chapter 357 Loulan

"The light inherited from the spiral, severing the dragon's hand, leads to the inner court..."

What was that sound?

"The image that emerges from the past, the eternal song connects our hearts..."

singing?

The sound grew louder as it approached, causing the chaos to quietly dissipate and guiding the nearly lost souls to their final resting place.

He finally woke up, and even though he was immediately overwhelmed by sharp pain, he endured it for the time being and focused on the fox, the only one involved in this adventure.

"Is Nine-Tailed Buddha still there?"

"...Yes." Kurama's reply was weak and listless, as if he was extremely angry and helpless. "I'm tired of saying 'cherish life' all the time. When will you ever really be able to do it?"

"I'm so sorry, I'm really sorry..."

"Shut up."

"The sky, the storm, stirs up bewilderment; holding a burning lamp, I cut through the darkness before me..."

As the two, one human and one fox, were exchanging barbs, the singing started again. This time, Naruto dared not use his super senses carelessly; he only dared to speak to Kurama after roughly assessing that there were no dangerous individuals around. Now that he had heard the voice again, there was no reason not to investigate.

The pain was slowly subsiding. Kurama's chakra was so obvious, yet the opponent hadn't noticed it at all, clearly indicating he wasn't a sensory type, and most likely not even a ninja. The place looked like ruins, surrounded by high walls, with only light filtering down from above, which seemed quite far away.

Could it be a special prison?

Naruto cautiously peeked out from behind some ruins, following the sound. The source of the sound was easy to find; she was sitting quite high up, humming a beautiful folk song, with what appeared to be tear tracks on her face.

The red-haired woman appeared young, and her chakra seemed unrelated to the vortex. Her attire was unfamiliar, and she didn't belong to any of the clans he remembered. This should still be Loulan, right? The outside was filled with the energy overflowing from the broken seal, but the energy flow was very peaceful, not like it had gone berserk. Yet, inside this massive, enclosed building, there wasn't a trace of energy; it was like an isolated island at sea.

Could it be that because he was unconscious, everyone carried him to this seemingly relatively safe place, waiting for the energy outside to stabilize before going out to check? How long must he have been asleep? How could he be completely unharmed after being directly hit by that purple light? That doesn't seem right.

Naruto was full of questions, but he was no longer at an age where he was impulsive. He quietly stayed in the shadows and carefully sensed the situation outside. Unfortunately, the energy in this large area was too abundant. For the first time, he experienced the treatment that other sensory ninjas received when they discovered him.

He was blinded by a single leaf. He could see nothing but the enormous leaf before him.

Unable to obtain more information on his own, it seems the only option is to ask the girl in front of him.

While he was thinking, the girl finished singing and was curled up on a fairly sturdy stone pillar, hugging her knees. Naruto didn't want to scare her or force her, so he decided to use a more natural way to connect with her and walked out confidently.

"It's not very safe to sit that high."

He felt his smile was friendly enough and his tone was gentle, but the girl was still frightened. Like a startled bird, she nimbly jumped off the pillar and ran to the other side of the ruins.

No, is he that scary?

For the first time, Naruto doubted his own charm, but he still had to chase after her, because if the girl was determined to escape, she would definitely run towards the exit. Then, he came face to face with another strangely ugly thing: two puppets, dressed in human-like clothes, suddenly rushed towards him from the exit. As soon as they entered this energy-less island, they scattered into pieces, looking extremely eerie.

Unfortunately, this delay caused the several layers of doors to be shut shut so easily. Their thickness was enough to defend against Hui's newly developed mortars, and it would certainly take a lot of effort to penetrate them.

"Why does this puppet's style look so familiar? Oh... that rogue ninja mentioned in the intelligence report seems to use these kinds of ugly puppets. I've been wanting to complain about this for a while now. The puppeteers of Sunagakure really have a unique aesthetic sense."

"Ha, only you could joke like this. Hurry up and figure out a way out! Don't we need to look for our teammates?"

"I know," Naruto said, clearly not as composed as he appeared. His usual quirks and verbal tics burst out one after another. "I feel like something's not right, like something's missing..."

“I know you have separation anxiety, but could you wait until you’re outside before letting it out?”

Faced with Kurama's teasing, Naruto suddenly slammed his fist down and said, "No, the sensory range is wrong!"

"what?"

“You know how wide my perception range is. Although this area is all desert, there are still people living two hundred kilometers away, but I can’t sense them now.” Naruto said with great certainty, “Right now, I can only sense this... city, and I can’t sense anything further than that.”

This was unprecedented. In all his life, this was the first time Naruto had ever felt his senses were being restricted. He immediately closed his eyes and tried to connect with several marks outside of Loulan, but to no avail, as if those marks didn't exist.

"I have a bad feeling. Try mind-to-body transmission and see who you can connect with." Kurama was also trying to analyze the situation, but his external window was limited. He almost immediately thought of the dispersed chakra, but he also got nothing.

All their close connections with the world have been severed!

Naruto said nothing more, immediately leaving the Flying Thunder God mark on the wall, and then flew upwards with a light touch of his toes. After flying a distance, he repeated the operation below, using the Flying Thunder God twice in succession to confirm that it worked without problems in this space. Then he shattered the glass ceiling that let in light, and finally saw the outside world with his own eyes.

The dilapidated ruins have now become a brand-new city with towering towers. It's clear that it couldn't have been built in a short time. He definitely didn't just take a nap.

"This...no way?"

“We’ve already met people from the future, so it’s not surprising to encounter something like this again.” Naruto had a new understanding of his troublemaking nature. Every time he went on a mission, he would always encounter something outrageous, the kind that could instantly raise the mission’s rating by a level.

However, he doesn't seem to have this memory. How could he forget something like traveling through time?

Never mind, that's not important. This is a rare opportunity, so he needs to take a look.