Naruto: Passerby and Returnee

Chapter 271 A Person's Life

"For all life forms with a soul, their absolute weakness is the soul, and destroying the soul is the only way to completely kill the life form."

"Naruto" walked slowly, seemingly genuinely wanting to teach, but every word sounded completely foreign to the Naruto beneath the water. Moreover, Naruto was a complete learner who relied entirely on sensory experience; rote memorization of theory was a disaster for him, impossible to grasp in a short time. However, "Naruto" clearly understood Naruto; after speaking, he didn't explain any of the terms, but instead controlled his body to walk out of the tunnel.

The demon's purple-black body was stretching out wildly, and its several elongated heads turned simultaneously the moment "Naruto" appeared, staring straight at him.

Enormous, evil, and ferocious—that's how a normal person would perceive a demon. But in Naruto's vision, he saw two points of light within a mass of darkness. One was incredibly bright, yet had a center like a black hole; the other was merely a faint point of light, yet utterly pure. A thin "line" connected the two points of light, with energy flowing through it every moment.

Naruto was observing the demon, and the demon was also observing him.

"That man has a repulsive odor about him," the demon commented, whispering in a devilish voice, "Perfect, let him be the first. I'll show you what it looks like when he dies."

"Don't come any closer! Run!!" Shion's roar came from inside the demon's body. Naruto finally breathed a sigh of relief. He hadn't seen Shion when he came in, and he thought something had happened! It seemed that the priestess's power could still resist the demon, and being swallowed was temporarily alright.

Naruto continued forward, and finally spoke again.

"Don't be afraid."

The monster's heads were all taut and arched, poised to pounce! Everything in the dream was unfolding, but Shion, trapped within the demon's body, could do nothing. In despair, she called out her mother's name, transforming once more into the little girl who could only weep.

When she first faced the demon, her mother was so strong, appearing suddenly beside her when she was in danger and shielding her from the deadly torrent. And now, what good is crying? As long as she lives, Naruto... will definitely die!

"Aster".

The faint light shone brightly in the darkness, and Shion felt a familiar warmth—her mother's embrace. What had her mother done to protect her back then? The reason the priestess and the demon were evenly matched must be due to that extraordinary power. The amulet continued to emit a protective light; if Naruto wore it, could he withstand the demon's attacks? If she lived, Naruto would die, so if she gave up hope of survival, would things be different?

"So that's how it is. The priestess's power is that, as long as she risks her life, she can turn back time..."

"No." That familiar voice suddenly rang in my ears.

Just as Shion was about to act, her long reverie was interrupted. The first thing she saw when she opened her eyes was a scene of her rushing towards Naruto. However, the scene she feared did not happen. The monster's head crashed into an invisible wall, and everything went black instantly—it was clearly destroyed! Before Shion could even react in shock, the darkness was pierced by a beam of light, and Naruto, who had been hundreds of meters away just moments before, walked in from the light.

“Your situation is more complicated than I thought.” The eyes that looked at her were golden, calm and unwavering, showing no emotion even when discussing something so important. “You share the same soul with the demon. Kill him, and you will lose your specialness and become an ordinary person.”

Shion didn't have time to think about why Naruto had become like this, or why he knew these incredible things. Killing Moryo, something she had never dared to even imagine before, was mentioned so casually, which gave her a sense of hope that it could be achieved.

"It doesn't matter what it becomes! As long as the demon is dead, no one else will die!"

“Everyone dies eventually…” Naruto paused slightly, “Don’t be afraid, Shion. You have a happy future.”

The faint point of light had been flickering within Shion's body. Just moments ago, the two points of light suddenly blazed brightly, and only then did Naruto notice that the brighter point was surrounded by dark energy. However, the surrounding area was originally a dark, purplish-black color, so he hadn't noticed it at first. The "lines" between the points of light transformed into "rivers," and as the light amplified the tiny point of light, the dark energy surged irresistibly towards it.

However, Naruto only said one sentence.

"No."

A strange surge of energy appeared in his mind. He saw the "rivers" connecting the two sides abruptly break off, and he felt fluctuations in space, and even more so, ripples he had never seen before, completely unlike anything he had ever witnessed. The attack of the demon was easily blocked, and its massive body was cleaved open by an invisible blade. The creature walked openly into the demon's body, stood before Ziyuan, and uttered a string of incomprehensible but seemingly profound words.

Seeing that Shion was crying so hard she was about to pass out, Naruto frantically patted the water's surface, so anxious he wished he could dive out.

"Can't you see how sad Ziyuan is? She's only fourteen, just a little girl! Say something nice!"

"Everyone dies eventually..." Naruto didn't seem to want to talk to him, but something happened that made many images flash through his vision.

He saw Shion grown up, no longer wearing the cumbersome shrine maiden's attire, surrounded by many children, all of them smiling. He saw an even older Shion, walking down the street with a brown-haired child; their eyes were almost identical, even the curve of their smiles was the same. He saw an old Shion; to be honest, apart from those bright purple eyes, he almost couldn't recognize her, but Shion was still smiling, swinging on a swing like a child, with an old man, just as old as her, happily pushing her along.

Life is both so long and so short; in a fleeting moment, he saw Shion's brand new future. She was no longer a priestess sitting on the altar, but a teacher, a wife, and a mother. Her life was both ordinary and extraordinary, simple yet happy.

"Don't be afraid, Ziyuan. You have a happy future."

After saying this, the connection between the two beams of light completely disappeared, and Ziyuan's figure vanished as well.