94 Iwa's Guest.

(Three Days later, Iwa.)

A single root shinobi made his way to the reconstructed wall of Iwa, approaching in the dead of night as to hide from any prying eyes. It didn't take long, and as he was heading over the light in a section of the wall extinguished, only to be turned on again a moment later.

Memorizing the location, the root shinobi swiftly made his way towards it, running up the wall and landing on top of it soon after.

As he did, he came face to face with the figure of an Iwa shinobi holding a woman and a child in his arms, both eyes firmly closed as the Iwa nin did not bother to acknowledge the root shinobi's existence and merely made his way down the wall, heading towards the direction the root shinobi came from.

Sparing but a glance, the root shinobi made his way inside the village, using the shadows as he slowly waved through the buildings uninterrupted.

'Young patrols… too young. The veterans have been sent to the frontlines in anticipation of a counterattack. They will probably try and hold off as long as possible for the civilians to evacuate back to the capital. There we can't officially touch them. So far everything is going as planned.'

Stopping in an alley, the root shinobi looked around quickly, making sure that everything was clear, before pulling a vial from his vest pocket.

The vial was transparent, holding a red liquid inside it that gleamed in the night as the root shinobi grip suddenly strengthened… only for the vial to remain unharmed.

Reflected back on the glass of the vial, the root shinobi's headless corpse could be seen falling off as a thin figure dressed in white could be seen behind him, one hand holding a stretched sword and the other reaching past the headless corpse to grab the vial as the body fell down to the ground.

The young man brought the vial closer, completely disregarding the bloody corpse at his feet as he kept a pensive face.

'Just in time.' – The young man thought as he suddenly noticed something on the vial… or the lack of it.

'… no seal, no protective measures other than the glass.' – As he felt something wrong the young man's eyes sharpened as he sent some energy to the vial, which remained completely unresponsive.

'Either way, it's not safe to open it here. The divination pointed to this place, a critical juncture, though in what way remained illusive.'

As he stored away the vial, a loud blaring noise suddenly echoed through the village.

*CAW* - The caw of a crow sent powerful waves of erratic chakra through the village as the young man suddenly looked up, noticing an abnormally large crow staring at him with blood-red eyes.

Not a moment later the young man found himself on an open field, a familiar sight for him as he glanced behind him, a giant pagoda standing proudly tall as he turned his attention to the front.

(A.N: Cultivators got all kinds of shit in their inner/spiritual/mental space depending on the novel you are reading. The first thing that came to mind was the pagoda and the inner world, if you don't like it, think of it as anything else. Not going to the length of the entire universe or whatever is dumped inside a cultivator by the 5000th chapter… though to be honest, never found one that kept me interested enough to read for that long. Most cultivation novels became rinse and repeat after the first 500 chapters. Nothing differs except the names either, read 10 novels and it felt like you read the first ten times but with different names. Though the ones that are good are actually really good. Anyway, I'm jabbering away too much, hope you enjoy the rest. 😊)

A reddish black mass of goo, always shifting as if unstable stood in front of him as the young man's eyes narrowed at it. Instead of attacking or even talking, the creature merely looked fascinated as it observed itself.

But that didn't last long as it suddenly turned its 'face' in his direction.

"Well well well… would you look at that, quite the power you have there… I can barely materialize. I expected you to come for the head, but it seems I may have underestimated your intelligence… slightly." – a broken, distorted voice came from the figure as it slowly approached.

"A cultivator by the looks of it, and not a weak one at that. A real pleasure to meet you, though going by the fate of my agents, I presume you are not here with the best of intentions."

"Then perhaps you should run, cultivators aren't known to be of the most reasonable kind… Kei Uchiha." – The young man finally spoke, and with a swift movement pulled and stabbed his sword straight into 'its' chest.

The creature remained pensive, walking another step forward, letting the sword slide further into the body as it leaned its head beside the cultivator.

"Kei Uchiha huh? …Yes, from what I've read, cultivators' arrogance is rather legendary as well." – It whispered as it suddenly formed a sharp claw, plunging it in its opponent and simpy shrugging once it broke like glass on contact. The creature slowly fell backward, breaking into glass shards and disappearing.

"That said though, this is quite the world you have here… truly impressive." – The young man made a sharp turn as he saw the same figure sitting in the grass, running his hand across it as if he was appreciating it.

"No taste though, but it does make sense." – Another voice was heard as the cultivator glanced at another identical figure, blades of grass falling from its 'face', indicating its most recent meal.

"How confused you look… but I can't blame you. A single mind can only think of so much within a certain amount of time… that is if it even bothered to in the first place. The more two worlds differ, the heavier the restrictions applied. This much is simple deduction, water mixes with most of the liquids with no problem… but water and fire aren't so compatible, are they? A violent reaction is the end result… not so unfamiliar to what would happen should you try and use your energy in this world… it made you so easy to pinpoint in this entire village."

Indeed, from the beginning the crow didn't dare to come close to the city, its senses warning it of something much more powerful within it. But the moment the cultivator used his energy to investigate the vial, the violent yet invisible reaction of chakra was clear in its Sharingan.

The cultivator's eyes narrowed as he read between the words of his opponent. It was clear that now he was discovered. They originally believed that nothing could trace their assassinations back t them... but now he had jumped into one of the traps meant to expose them with both of his feet. They had underestimated his intelligence severely. Kei was using chakra to intrude in his mind, and while expelling him would have been but a simple matter, the backlash they could both suffer would be too severe of an exchange, especially given that this was a world of chakra, not compatible with his QI, making it 10 times more dangerous for him as he was likely to suffer internal injury from the backlash while Kei could walk it off with a headache or unconscious state.

As his train of thought was about t continue the same voice was heard, but this time much closer.

"They? So it's not only you… good to know." – Another one appeared, staring straight at his face as two Sharingan rotated in his eyes.

Apprehension appeared on the cultivator's face as his expression only seemed to ask one question. - 'How?' – his sword was quickly raised and only pointed at the figure with the Sharingan in its eyes, slowly becoming more and more human as time passed.

"Just like you'll be able to eventually use that weird energy in this world, I will be able to use chakra on you. We are both adapting… except I'm much faster by some couple hundred years. That said, forcing it like this does have its price." – Kei said as he shook his head.

While Kei's body had the ability to adapt infinitely faster than any mortal… he wasn't using his physical body at the moment, merely intruding in his opponent's mind using his Sharingan, and the backlash of forcing chakra to a person with a different and much more violent energy would not be physical.

"But words are only that, words. So, with that said… let me give you a taste." – And with that, Kei rushed towards him, the cultivator preparing to retaliate as he cut forward with a wide slash, leaving no space to avoid the strike as Kei's head flew right off, the body continuing past the cultivator.

As the sword returned to its sheath, the falling head of Kei smiled at him with a mocking expression.

"Such a fool, there are no physical restrictions within the mind." – The cultivator raised an eyebrow at Kei, unaware of the headless body that didn't stop.

A moment later he quickly turned his head, only for the headless body to release a punch on the pagoda behind him, a giant shockwave releasing as the backlash sent the body flying and dispersing with nothing left. The energy released in retaliation expelled Kei from his mind and the backlash would be enough to leave any shinobi brain dead… but Kei had no such limitations, a mocking smile on all of the figures' faces as they dispersed.

It was at that moment that the cultivator clutched the side of his head. While the retaliation was a reflexive move towards the attacker, the world didn't care, actively suppressing him as golden dust started to appear from the pagoda, slowly dispersing in front of his eyes. The process would take years, decades even, but it was happening.

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(Hokage hospital room, Land of Iron)

Meanwhile, the Hokage merely watched at the images through the crow's eyes. The cultivator had suffered injuries, most likely internal as an enormous amount of chakra started to gather around him, pressing into him and cornering him.

While even Kei couldn't have known what exactly was going to happen, it was simple for him to deduce that it wasn't going to be anything good.

'What can possibly go wrong with two energies coming into conflict with each other.' - Kei thought as he lay comfortably in his bed.

(P.S: Still not done with Iwa, just think its enough for this chapter. Hope you enjoyed 😊)