Naruto: Passerby and Returnee

Chapter 115 "Dream"

Where is he?

An indescribable bitterness lingered in his mouth, and heat was rapidly draining from his limbs, but he couldn't stop now. Even as the feeling of suffocation intensified and his vision blurred, his hands continued to grope in the dim seabed, cutting and scraping as they pleased. After a long while, he finally touched the familiar rough texture, and a surge of joy filled him. He deftly pried the object off the seabed. The rope around his waist tightened painfully, but the heavy weight in his hands made all the hardship of the journey worthwhile. The moment he broke through the water, air rushed into his lungs. He exhaled the bitter water and pushed what he was carrying to the surface.

They are seashells, lots and lots of big seashells.

Oh, he's in the sea. He's been a pearl diver since he was a child, his whole family has been. His mother died of illness a long time ago, and they never had money for medicine. His father is old and can't swim anymore, but he still has the strength to pull the rope. He couldn't bear to leave his child behind, so he insisted on coming with him.

"Dad, the shells this time are big and good, we're sure to find lots of pearls."

"What's so interesting about seashells? Hurry up and get on." The father's skin was wrinkled and dark from being in the water for a long time. He squinted his cloudy eyes as he dragged the seashells onto the small boat, and then groped his way to retrieve his son.

He felt a bit cold, but not to the point of being unable to bear it. He leaned against the edge of the boat, wanting to rest for a while before going down to sea again. His girl said she wanted a round and large pearl, but the officials wouldn't allow them to keep such things, or they would be beaten to death! However, these days, it seemed the government was talking about some foreign... foreign tribes were going to attack? They didn't care about them at all, which allowed the father and son to find a gap to sneak into the sea.

Let the foreign tribes fight if they want. Anyway, this is the only skill they know. They can live their lives as long as they work for someone else. The pearls that the girl longs for are still the most important thing.

As he thought this, his gaze unconsciously drifted towards the sun. He could see the sunset at sea every day, and usually, seeing it meant the end of his long day's work. But now, he only hoped the sun would set slowly. Suddenly, he saw a white dot of light rising beside the red sun. The sun was setting, but that light was rising.

"Dad, look over there."

He pointed in amazement at the strange sight he had never seen in his twenty years of life, and then to his horror discovered that his fingertips... were disappearing!

Before he could react, his nearly blind father suddenly lunged in front of him, trying to block the bright light. But this was futile; instead, it revealed an even more terrifying sight. He saw the light penetrate his father's emaciated body, and a living person, like salt dissolving in water, rapidly melted away and vanished.

Help! Someone please save them! Who can save them?!

The blinding light instantly turned into a light source that was still blinding but barely visible.

That looks familiar... Oh, isn't that the light on the operating table?

He saw several fully armed doctors circle around him, examining him and checking him over and over, but the final conclusion was that his leg pain was a complication caused by obesity.

A surge of anger made him jump out of bed, acting nothing like a patient with leg pain. Actually, he wasn't in much pain; he'd just gotten used to being paranoid, and for even the slightest ailment, he'd want to call in all the specialists in the hospital for a consultation—after all, he had plenty of money.

His greatest fear was having money but not being alive to enjoy it.

"Sir, what you should do most right now is control your diet. Joint cartilage wear is irreparable damage; it can't be cured. In the later stages, the only option is biotechnology implantation..."

The doctor said so much, but he only heard three words: "Cannot be cured." He immediately became furious and launched into a tirade against the group of renowned doctors.

"You can't cure it, huh? Then you might as well shut down this hospital. I'll have someone tear down the roof right now!"

Suddenly, a beam of light fell on the doctor in front of him. He didn't realize where the light came from, but within seconds he saw a person disappear from head to toe without even having a chance to make a sound! Terrified, he jumped back with all his might. But when he looked up, he found that more light was falling. It easily penetrated the roof and melted the ground. Through the holes created by the eerie white light, he could even see the night sky as bright as day!

Run...run! No, that thing is too fast, let's hide! Anyway, someone will always be able to solve these problems, as long as we can survive!

He turned and stared at the cabinet in the corner. A doctor was trembling as he tried to insert a key into the lock. Without hesitation, he rushed over and shoved the doctor, who was much shorter than him, aside. The light was there, but he didn't care if the man died. He wanted to live, so he struggled to squeeze his bulky body into the metal cabinet and desperately slammed the door shut.

The reassuring darkness descended, and he paid no heed to the dull pain of being squeezed in his body, only thinking about the one thing he would do after he was safe.

Those damned aliens, may they all die already!

"Can you still hold on?" His companion's call made him open his eyes again, but his blurred vision meant that he really couldn't hold on for much longer. This was the first time he had used Susanoo at such a high intensity for such a long time. He not only had to withstand the corrosive effect of the unknown intense light, but also had to control Susanoo to fly upwards and get closer to the light source.

Only a short while later, he developed a severe headache and felt his vision was deteriorating drastically, as if he might go blind at any moment—and this was even after being enhanced by the Otsutsuki cells. He couldn't even begin to imagine how his father had silently endured for so long, managing to carry them to an altitude of ten thousand meters.

"Let me do it again." The familiar voice suddenly made him perk up, and he turned to look behind him.

The purple energy he was most familiar with spread out, filling the already translucent interior of Susanoo. The person opened his last remaining eye, the tears of blood continuing unabated.

That's Sasuke, that's Sasuke! Stop pretending, stop! Stop, just stop! Can't you escape to another dimension?

"Sasuke!" Naruto suddenly jumped up, startling Jiraiya, who was writing something by the bedside.

"You're awake? You weren't having a nightmare, were you?" Jiraiya found it very strange again. Would a normal person be startled awake by calling a friend's name?

However, Naruto didn't even glance at him, got up, stayed for a moment, and then disappeared.

"Hey! So what if you have the Flying Thunder God Technique! Still running around like that!" Jiraiya jumped up, but it was just impotent rage. He couldn't understand why a child could torment him to the point of being hospitalized several times due to ruptured meridians, and then not rest properly, only to disappear as soon as he woke up. But the child was his own, and he couldn't just ignore him, so he resignedly put down the new chapter he was writing.

With the Sage of Six Paths above, this child must never leave the village!