73 Exposing Evil

A terrible roar was heard from the other side of the peak. Enma flew in from the sky and slammed into the ground near Natsume and Saru. His face and eyes were red with rage. "Where is he? I will never forget that scent!" He turned to look at Natsume and then back at the wall. He too studied this wall and memorized nearly everything on it. Then, he saw the destroyed palm imprint of one of the elder sages and he roared once more.

"You! I should not have trusted someone with those eyes again! Leave my mountain immediately!" Enma huffed and puffed while pointing at Natsume. Hearing him blame her, she had an aggrieved expression. But internally, she also blamed herself for what happened. She stepped away to leave, but Saru stopped her.

"No leave, not done." Saru had just become enlightened as a sage monkey and still had difficulty with words, but he got his point across. Enma turned to Saru. He felt betrayed.

"I am the Monkey King; you will listen to me!" He screamed in anger.

"Monkey King, not Sage Monkey King. Only listen to Great Sage." Saru glanced over at the statue of Yonbi. Since he became enlightened, he realized a few things. Other than Enma being the only Sage monkey left, he did not represent the whole Mount Kakazan. In a sense, as sage monkeys, their only difference was seniority. Enma could only borrow the authority of Mount Kakazan once a year.

"That creature destroyed our Mount Kakazan once already, how dare you betray the Great Sage by letting it stay!?" Enma was about to explode in anger. If not for being in a sacred place, he would have already come to blows.

"No evil." Saru looked at Natsume and smelled her. Enma calmed down for a moment and also focused his senses on Natsume. The scent of the vile creature was long gone. Once his anger began to go down, he realized that she wouldn't have been able to get past the cloud barrier if it was attached to her. Enma's breathing settled down and he looked back at the wall. The destroyed palm imprint was the only thing affected.

"Where did you go?" He turned back to Natsume and asked. Whatever happened was acquired from the peak. Since he had not sensed the existence of that creature in his time here, it was hidden away somewhere. Natsume seemed to understand his question and thought about the memorial cave. She didn't say anything and brought them there. Enma had never seen this opening before and shrunk his body down enough to enter. He came out with a pile of incense sticks.

"All this time, right under my nose! Aaaah!" He was angry with himself that the invader had left behind a trick. These sticks contained a trace of his vile energy. The method that they were left was also too despicable. He naturally recognized the names on the wall and understood his intention. Using people's grief and empathy to target Mount Kakazan!

When Natsume saw the sticks, she made the connection as well. Although she kept a calm expression, inside she was relieved. If she was the one to bring the calamity to this place, she couldn't forgive herself. However, since the paranoia had already started brewing, it couldn't be reversed. She was already convinced that all the bad things that had happened to the Uchiha clan were caused by Zetsu.

"How can you sense it? I don't see anything different, even with Sharingan." Natsume wanted to defend herself, but she couldn't even find her enemy.

"This creature is impossible to detect normally. After the invasion, an elder sage left behind a sage technique to detect evil." Enma wouldn't admit to being wrong about Natsume and talked to her as if nothing happened. However, his explanation was confusing to her. The influence from her past life had given her a different worldly perspective.

"What exactly is evil?" Her question made Enma speechless. He tried to answer a few times but closed his mouth and continued pondering. Eventually, he couldn't come up with an answer, but seemed to become enlightened. He destroyed the sticks by crushing them and rushed to the Adamantine Staff. He sat down and began to meditate. Natsume turned to Saru and he shrugged his shoulders.

"Not evil." He said as he pointed to Natsume. Although it wasn't the answer she wanted, it still made her happy. "Fight?" Natsume burst out in laughter. Saru's simple and straightforward personality lessened her foul mood, and she nodded her head. Since they couldn't go all out on the peak without the risk of causing damage, they descended the mountain to the training ground.

"Show me what you've got!" "Fight good!" The two said to each other as they stood at either end of the training field. At first, they relied on pure physical combat. Natsume was getting overwhelmed very quickly and she lamented how nice it is to be able to utilize Nature energy. Therefore, she decided to play to her strengths and try out her newly developed jutsu.

"Lava Style: Ash release!" She released a jet stream of white ash directly at Saru. However, to her surprise, instead of dodging, Saru puffed up his chest and released a cutting wind. Since this was his first time encountering her technique, he didn't understand it beyond it looking like smoke. He thought he could blow it away, but it backfired. The ash exploded and the flaming explosion was enhanced by the wind. The two were launched away and a giant pit was formed in the center of the arena.

"You learned some new tricks!" Natsume said in shock. Saru had never shown any ability to do nature transformation of chakra. "You too!" He replied. They didn't even wait for the dust to clear before reengaging in combat. They were fully engrossed in battle.

Meanwhile at the peak, Enma was in a trance as he processed his recent enlightenment. He felt that he was on the verge of understanding the Adamantine Staff. Due to this, he did not notice the slight cracks that formed at the base of the Yonbi statue.