Chapter 160 - Withstanding

Nuwa and Zagreus wave goodbye to their foster mother and continue onwards. Zagreus knows the 10th chamber is two-thirds of the way to Megaera, so there usually is a challenge waiting for him. What appears in front of Nuwa's eyes is a perilous chamber with frequent pitfalls and no guard rails. The only way across is a rectangular, winding walkway with regular spike traps.

Nuwa balks at the onset of danger. She remembers setting up terrain like this back when she played tower defense games to make the enemies walk the maximum amount of pathway and inflict the greatest amount of damage, but now she has to face it! There is absolutely no way she can survive this chamber without Zagreus' dash. She would either be skewered by spikes or fall into the River Styx for an instant death once the enemies start spawning and throwing projectiles at them.

Zagreus holds her hand tight and says with a reassuring tone, "We need to stick together this time. Do you want to get on my back?"

Recalling that Zagreus has faced this chamber many times in the past, Nuwa smiles with relief and replies, "Yes, please." She jumps up and sits her thighs upon his shoulders like she used to when she was a toddler. Now that they are adults, however, there is a decidedly more raunchy tone to their horseplay. Her bare pussy lands on his spine with a squelch due to the displacement of the remaining semi-solid cum still dripping out of her folds.

They both press down their renewed arousal and get serious. Nuwa wraps two of her bigger snakes around her brother's shoulders for stabilization and holds her bow with her clothed left arm in a battle-ready stance. Zagreus is always prepared for combat at the blink of an eye, so he struts casually along the initial wall-adjacent path, which is relatively safer for them compared to the next row of pathways which feature several meter drops into the River Styx.

Shades begin spawning, and to Nuwa's dismay, they are all magic-casting witches! These witches can fly, unlike the siblings, so using knockback attacks to push them into the Styx is not an option. Zagreus expects the witches in this chamber. He slashes with a spin attack to destroy the first wave of magical blasts. The second wave of blasts is more spammy and less uniform. Nuwa fires a Cast in one direction, but it only destroys two of the opposing magical blasts and misses a witch. Zagreus shouts, "I'm going in, sis!"

Expecting a dash back towards the door, Nuwa is disoriented to find that Zagreus dashed over the short gap between the winding pathways, directly over the insta-death River Styx, right onto a pressure plate! He follows that up with an immediate dash to the next row as the spike trap activates behind them.

Nuwa finds herself much closer to the witches, as well as the barrage of magical blasts. She recovers her bearings enough to Cast again in the direction of a nearby witch, before she is again disoriented by Zagreus chaining dashes to arrive in the midst of the witches. She pitifully laments that this is not how tower defense games are played.. unless they include flying enemies.

The main reason behind Zagreus charging ahead is that his Divine Dash provided by Athena's Boon deflects all projectiles, including magical ones. As long as he keeps dashing and does not land himself somewhere dangerous during the short timing (only one second) where his double dash goes on cooldown, he and Nuwa are effectively immune to the witches' onslaught.

With his 10 years of experience standing on a knife's edge, constantly reliant on his dash to save him from death, Zagreus' timing and positioning is impeccable. Despite weaving on and off of pressure plates that trigger spike traps with the tiniest of delays, over the deadly pitfalls between rows, and volleys of magical blasts, the currently hyperfocused Zagreus appears to face it all without trouble.

Nuwa is so in awe at her brother's prowess and discombobulated from the continual short-distance teleports that she forgets to help. He shows no sign of being bothered by her lack of support. Nuwa does not weigh much to him and he loves spoiling her.

This moment is surprisingly comforting for Zagreus. In the simultaneous monotony and thrill of battle, feeling his sister's juicy and bare cunt on his back as well as her defined thighs around his neck allows him to digest the fact that the innocent Nuwa he had practically raised is no more. She has not only become a new woman, she has also grown up during his time away. Of course, he knew this already, but hadn't fully accepted it before.

Now that he is connecting with her on a deeper level than ever before by including her in his escapes, cumming deep inside her, and sharing his darkest sexual fantasies, he finally starts to consider today and now as a precious moment. Spoiling and playing with Nuwa were the most precious times of his childhood, but ever since he found out that his birth mother is on the Surface, he had become a man possessed.

In the tightly knit family that was the House of Hades, having a member of the family that should have been close to him, only to end up excluded, was unacceptable in his eyes. Ten years later, he had not realized it, but the constant beatings from Megaera and shades had burdened his psyche with a depressive haze. Only now that he is reconnecting with Nuwa did he realize how lonely he had been to be on his quest this whole time. He smiles softly.

Suddenly, Zagreus' movements and attack patterns take on a new form. Before, he had been avoiding all the blasts with some difficulty, but now he is making it look like a breeze. The fight devolves into a one-sided massacre. Some of his spear strikes mysteriously land twice in a single motion, as if the Eternal Spear itself is unsatisfied with his current damage output.

Shortly thereafter, Nuwa feels Zagreus come to a stop. She regains her bearings and raises her bow only to find all the witches dead.

Zagreus laughs heartily and shouts, "Keep 'em coming, Father! I can do this all day!"

In a dumbfounded tone laced with admiration, Nuwa says, "Big bro.. you're so strong." as she replaces her bow on her back.

He proudly puffs his chest and declares, "I broke through just now. I should be mid-t3." Nuwa claps her cheeks with a 'squee'.

Next, he tilts his head to kiss her inner thigh and says, "I have you to thank. Having you on my shoulders sent me on a trip down memory lane."

Nuwa strokes his hair and humbly replies, "You're just saying that! Was it a pleasant trip, like the time I hid in one of Cerberus' mouths during hide and seek?"

Flinching, Zagreus objects with a groan, "You almost scared me to death that time. You were lucky you picked the friendly head!" Cerberus is even stronger than Megaera, so Nuwa really would have been close to an instant death if she had picked the snappy head to hide in. She would have revived, but the event would surely have traumatized her.

Zagreus clarifies, "No.. it was sort of all the times I held you on my back put together."

"Hmm.." Nuwa's snakes lean down to lick Zagreus' face affectionately.

He picks up the Chthonic Key drop that rests in the middle of the room and continues to the next chamber.

~ ~ ~

Lo and Li once again find themselves in Tsunade's office for the second time in a single day. This time it is alongside Minato. The twins do not know what is going on, but they can sense something is unsettling the town. Tsunade is not in yet, so they turn to Minato and gesture for a hint on what they had been summoned for.

All Minato has to say is "squirting" for them to feel abrupt incongruencies on what is normal begin to emerge in their own minds. Judging from their slight cringes, Minato can tell they are experiencing the same discomfort he is, meaning they are at the same soul tier and that they understand the issue.

Tsunade enters and plops down on her chair. She looks at the three visitors and states with a measured tone, as if preparing herself to hear bad news, "Alright, I called the twins. What's the matter, Minato?"

Minato coughs and ponders on how to say what he has to say. He glances over at the twins and recalls how they shielded his son. Given that they are on his side, he readily throws them under the bus with him. "Ehem, WE believe that Naruto has set another new normal. He is no longer wearing the Ring, so he should have done this in order to remove the Ring from his person. The good news is that the rule he set is relatively innocuous, but the bad news is that it might.. disrupt marriages."

Tsunade blinks and directs her anger at Lo and Li, both of whom she holds primarily responsible for allowing the Ring out of her clutches. She says with gritted teeth, "And what is this 'new normal'?"

Lo absentmindedly looks back at Tsunade with an awkward face containing vague traces of arousal, entirely unbefitting of the current situation. Li nudges her to bring her focus back to the conversation. Out of the two sisters, Lo is the subject matter expert when it comes to sexual matters. They have an unspoken agreement when someone directs a query at both sisters for the twin with the greater knowledge on the topic to take the initiative in the conversation.

Lo states, "The new normal he set is that [all women have squirting orgasms that feel twice as good as before]."

Coughing in embarrassment, Tsunade mutters, "That perverted kid. He probably meant this as a favor to suck up to his granny. It doesn't even affect me, that idiot."

Speaking up, Tsunade says to Minato, "I don't see the big deal with this change, honestly. How are marriages being impacted?"

Minato replies awkwardly, "Um.. it would be better for Lo to explain."

Lo nods graciously and takes the baton. She explains, "The female orgasm is an elusive mechanism. Some women with high libido cum quickly, easily, and with high frequency. Some women are frigid and never experience orgasm in their entire lives. Though our shinobi full body muscle training and sex toy manufacturing industry mitigates the latter trend for the most part, it still exists."

Tsunade groans in frustration as she starts catching on to what problems that hateful kid has caused this time.

Lo continues without pause, "Only about 10% of women squirt noticeable quantities of female ejaculate, that too only when they are aroused enough or their muscles are sufficiently loose enough to let go of their bladder. What Naruto did was make it normal for all women to broadcast their orgasms openly."

"In fact, a woman might fake her orgasm for a variety of reasons. She might be frigid and trying to hide it. She might have a very high threshold for orgasm and not want to spend a full hour of stimulation every day to get off. She might like stroking her partner's ego by pretending that he can make her orgasm like crazy, when she has yet to orgasm. These kinds of women are rather selfless in that they prefer preserving the emotional connection of their relationship over the satisfaction that might arise from a better sex life with another person."

Tsunade interrupts her, "Alright, alright! I get it. So what exactly happened? Some women are feeling great now and others are getting the short end of the stick?"

Minato chimes in, "In regards to the women faking their orgasm, their minds have been influenced to retroactively believe that they have always used a water jutsu to fake it in the past."

Lo lets out an 'ah-ha!' and says, "Even though they believe that they have always used a water jutsu to fake orgasms, they lack the procedural memory to use a water jutsu during their fake orgasm. I can feel this would be the case if I were to try it. We can consider this a limitation to the Ring's power. It can influence declarative memory that deals with the recall of facts and past events, but not procedural memory that deals with instinctually performed actions. Therefore, every woman who fakes orgasms will be 'outed' after they have sex."

Tsunade sighs heavily and considers countermeasures, "It is not night yet, but people are going to start going at it soon. How do we stop this from becoming a disaster?"

Minato asks curiously, "There can't be.. THAT many women who fake orgasms, right?"

The three ladies stare at Minato with a blank look. He backs off and he does a zip-up motion on his lips.

Li suggests, "We could use the emergency announcement system to do a public service message as a reminder to women to practice their water jutsus. If everyone is doing it, men won't know who is practicing for sex and who is practicing for other purposes. The practice they get could help and the ambiguity that men feel could buy us some time."

With no better ideas coming to mind, Tsunade says, "Do it, then." and waves them off. When everyone is gone, she slaps the table in annoyance, lost in thought. 'Danzo is going to send his people to retrieve that Ring. He might even go himself. That Ring is a political weapon of mass destruction. Should I send my people or will it be as Lo and Li said? No matter what we do, the Ring is fated to stay with Naruto..?'

~ ~ ~

Toph sits cross legged upon a large, sturdy leaf and roars, "Pick up the pace, blondie!"

Naruto grunts with exertion and pulls harder. There are heavy stone weights around his shins and arms. He has the stem of the leaf that Toph is sitting upon wrapped around his neck and hands to allow him to pull her along. This particular leaf and stem originate from a nearby giant banyan tree and are both incredibly resistant to damage.

He vaguely contemplates how life can get worse than this. Not only is Toph forcing him to train to exhaustion, the moment he can no longer go on, she calls him a pussy-ass bitch and shoves raw bugs into his mouth. He still has a stream of bug entrails on both sides of his mouth.

The one time he cried, she beat him up badly and somehow, the pain she had inflicted upon him was as bad as when he lost his dick earlier.

All of his recovered chakra goes to reducing the burden that his muscles have to pull. He had long estimated the tiny demon's body to weigh about 250 lbs (110 kg) and each of his four braces to weigh 50 lbs (22 kg). He only has the Gate of Opening available, which can handle that load, but Gates are not meant to be used for a prolonged duration of time or else he will face permanent sequelae.

Naruto takes a slow step forward in the mud. He breathes heavily with sweat dripping down his loosely hanging chin. He cannot slip or slow down or else Toph will interpret that as him attempting to take a break. Having no energy to talk or even wonder why this is happening to him, he can only trudge onward with his back slanted forward and eyes laser focused on where he will take his next step so as not to slip.

On his next step, however, he spots a pair of large shoes in front of him. Whoever is in front of him is in his way and might result in him receiving another torturous punishment, so Naruto grunts in distress. The resulting sound he lets out is so pitiful that the person in front of him flinches slightly. Naruto then hears a gruff voice say, "Young lad, you look like you're on the verge of death itself! How could this happen?!"

The righteous and accusatory tone in the gruff man's words immediately brings hope to Naruto! He will be saved from this living hell!

(A/N: You can tell I'm bad at writing when I use 'with' 40 times in a chapter like this one. So I put an extra one in the chapter title out of spite.)