The damage was superficial, but Chojuro was forced to go into deep defense, trying to catch his breath and normalize the flow of chakra in his body. Meanwhile, I attacked him with fifty chains, which he was barely managing to fend off. Just as three of my chains were about to pierce him, the Mist ninja used Hiramekarei to enclose himself in a spherical chakra barrier. It somewhat resembled the Hyuga's Kaiten and must have consumed a lot of energy. So, my chains surrounded the opponent from all sides and began pounding on the shield, using vibrations to disrupt the energy structure of the barrier.

I was about to finish off Chojuro but had to divert my attention to Zabuza, who managed to surprise me with his abilities. All this time, Sakura had been pressing him with her relentless attacks, leaving him covered in bloody streaks. But now Zabuza activated an ability that could be called the Aura of Death. It resembled Bloodlust but, besides affecting the psyche, it also destroyed the physical body. With my regeneration, I didn't care, but Sakura suddenly felt very sick. The situation was further complicated by the fact that this aura covered a radius of two hundred meters, making it impossible to escape.

I had to leave Chojuro in his barrier and leap toward my partner. Reaching Sakura, I placed a hand on her shoulder, pouring healing chakra into her. The girl was already covered in blood, but my help came just in time. Zabuza tried to attack us, but I drove him back with my chains, which he preferred to dodge.

"Here's a tentacle of friendly help" - I said to Sakura, wrapping one of my chains around her waist. Through it, I could transmit my chakra, ensuring constant regeneration.

"Waaagh!!!" - she responded, charging at the enemy.

I turned my attention back to Chojuro. He had used my distraction to gather his strength, and as soon as I approached him to finish him off, he used another of his techniques.

"Water Style: Great Waterfall Jutsu!" - I heard a shout, and then the barrier burst from the inside with a real water tornado.

All my chains were instantly 'wrapped' around this swirling thing and torn to pieces. But that wasn't the end of it, as the tornado grew larger and larger, destroying all the vegetation in the vicinity. Zabuza, who was on his last legs, tried to escape into this water vortex, but I didn't let him, driving him back with chains and even catching his leg, which slowed him down. Sakura was right on Zabuza's heels, so I was confident his life was short.

The water technique expanded, covering an area with a diameter of three hundred meters. Perhaps Chojuro wanted to get to me this way, but I simply ran to the side, waiting for the opponent's chakra to be exhausted. I wasn't worried about him escaping because hundreds of clones stood around the perimeter of the tornado, each able to control four chakra chains. That was enough to completely block all escape routes, including underground.

The storm raged for a couple of minutes before subsiding. The water dispersed, turning back into chakra, and soon I was able to spot my opponent, who indeed decided to run. But now he was breathing heavily, and the trembling chakra cloak revealed that he had little strength left. However, I suspected that this might be a trap, so I sent my clones into the attack. I could produce them by the hundreds, and with my endless chakra reserves and regeneration, this flow could not end in principle.

A few minutes later, the clones managed to break through the weakened defense, piercing the opponent in several places. Surviving such an attack was not possible to everyone, but I wasn't worried about that. Shinobi were more resilient than cockroaches. Reaching Chojuro, I summoned my parasite and set it on the defenseless victim. Another demonstrative execution took place. A minute later, the wild screams ceased, and I confirmed that I had scored one frag out of ten.

*** Score 1/10 ***

Immediately after that, I rushed towards Zabuza, whom Sakura had managed to subdue with her signature blow, turning him into a bloody mess. Fortunately, she used the fūinjutsu seal I had given her, so the game figure's soul was still bound to the body. Without wasting a second, I fed Zabuza to the parasite, gaining the second frag.

*** Score 2/10 ***

Having dealt with the two opponents, I decided to check on how Sasuke was doing. But at that moment, he emerged from the forest with an air of importance, heading towards us. His body showed signs of blood, and his clothes were cut in several places, exposing his skin.

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"And where's your opponent?" - I asked grimly.

"I killed him" - Uchiha replied defiantly. "Heal me."

It was not even a request but an order. This upstart had really lost his mind. I conducted a quick remote diagnosis and found that Sasuke had received several fairly deep cuts. They weren't dangerous, but one of the slashes had gone through his groin, depriving the last Uchiha of 'his most valuable asset.' He had managed to stop the bleeding, but reattaching the lost piece was beyond his abilities.

"Manage yourself" - I replied with a cheeky grin. - "You don't want to help me, and I don't want to help you. Perfect consensus."

I turned demonstratively and went to find Kakashi. He had been jumping around at the beginning of the fight, but now he was nowhere to be seen. Our commander was found under a pile of forest debris. What was left of him could be described as 'primordial soup.' Zabuza's aura of death had finished off Kakashi, decaying most of his body to a state of rot. Fortunately, there were living cells preserved within his bones, so there was still hope for resurrecting our 'sensei.' Moreover, the fūin I had given him had worked on his corpse, keeping his soul bound to his body.

During my time in this world, I had managed to study Naruto's memories, especially the part where he looked at the Second Hokage's Scroll. Naruto himself only remembered the clone technique, but I had read the entire scroll through his eyes. One of the techniques I learned this way was Edo Tensei. I creatively reworked it, combining it with my healing abilities. As a result, I managed not only to resurrect Kakashi but to make him immortal, granting him endless regeneration. Now he could 'resurrect' even if only a few cells remained of him.

The result reminded me of Wolverine from the X-Men, so I decided to give Hatake steel blades that could extend from his hand. It was much easier to do this than in the Marvel world, because here, blades could be created from chakra and then dematerialized. For these purposes, I used cells from Sakura's body. She was now a genius in Earth-style chakra control, which was very close to Metal style. Plus, my Chakra Chains also seemed to be metallic, so I was able to give Kakashi a deadly weapon with molecular sharpness.

Having finished my experiments, I returned our 'captain' to consciousness.

"Kakashi-sensei, you're alive!" - I couldn't resist another attempt to play on the steel nerves of the guinea pig.

"What? Where?" - He jumped up, looking around.

"Don't worry, Kakashi-sensei, you won't die anymore. No one has ever left for the afterlife from my care" - I said, as the hair on the undead's head stood on end when he understood the meaning of these words.

"What... what did you do to me?" - he asked in a plaintive voice, examining his body, which was once again stripped of all clothing.

"Edo Tensei version 2.0" - I enlightened him. - "Now you can be sure that you will live millions and billions of years and witness the heat death of the universe. And in the end, you will be devoured along with the universe by Azathoth, whom you have already seen" - I delivered the grim prophecy.

"Maa..." Kakashi could not respond coherently.

While I was 'treating' our commander, my clones found Haku's remains. Sasuke had once again blown the opponent's brains out, so the game figure's soul fled straight to Hell. After we finished clearing the battlefield and burying Tazuna, who also didn't escape the fate of becoming primordial soup, we headed to the capital of the Land of Waves. Since the pretext had died, we had to pose as a team of shinobi visiting a friendly country in search of work.

For the next two weeks, we trained hard while helping the local daimyo restore his power. Azathoth demanded that I sacrifice people to him who I deemed worthy of this honor. In my personal opinion, Gato was clearly worthy of having his soul devoured by the Dark Lord of the universe. Considering all the atrocities he committed, even hell wasn't a sufficient punishment.

However, to be precise, it was mostly me, Sakura, and Kakashi who were training, because Sasuke was simply recovering from his injuries. I still hadn't healed him, and without my help, his wounds couldn't heal so easily. Moreover, having lost his cock, Uchiha could no longer have sex with Sakura, so he feigned offended innocence, declaring that he no longer liked Sakura because she allowed me to devour Zabuza's soul. In general, the absurdity was growing, and I began to think that the expression 'third wheel' applied to our situation.

But this 'vacation' didn't last long because my clones, which had literally filled the continent, discovered a team of three Sand shinobi, one of whom I recognized as Gaara. This trio was heading towards Konoha, apparently deciding that the time for battle had come. Previously, I had seen a similar trio from the Land of Earth. I couldn't find out who they encountered, but the clones noticed two of them running away, with one carrying the other on their back. The game was gaining momentum, and I needed to dive into the center of this whirlwind to gather as many frags as possible.