Naruto: The Chosen Undead

Chapter no.172 Dark Souls

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Chapter 172 Havel Vs Naruto

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Seigmeyer sat at the ponticulus of Sen's Fortress, where moss crept along the stones and the wind sighed through broken battlements. The steel curves of his armor clinked gently as he shifted, a rhythmic echo of solitude. The gates loomed ahead, still stubborn, still sealed. The knight tilted his head and let out a long, familiar hum.

"Still closed... still closed…"

He had lost count of how many days he had waited here. But he was in no rush. He never was. Patience was its own form of bravery, he had once told a child.

Then came the sound of footsteps; light, quick, almost joyful. They did not carry the weight of iron-clad menace nor the silence of skulking thieves. No, this rhythm was different.

A smile warmed his face beneath the domed helm.

"Ah… Naruto," Seigmeyer murmured. 

The youth reminded him of days long passed, of times when a tiny hand would tug on his gauntlet and a curious voice would ask about dragons and knights and what it meant to be brave. Lin, his daughter. How she had grown, no doubt a fine warrior now but something about Naruto stirred that memory more vividly than time should allow.

The golden-haired clone stopped a short distance away, cradling a small creature in his arms: a crystal lizard, its scales glittering like captured moonlight.

"Come to tell me the results of your spar?"

"Somewhat," the clone replied with a smile. "I'm not the original. Just a shadow clone sent to deliver this little lady to Firelink Shrine. I thought it might keep the Firekeeper Anastasia company."

Seigmeyer chuckled softly. "That is a thoughtful gesture. I see you've found some peace with yourself."

Naruto gave a brief recounting of the duel with Kakashi, of the uncertainty he had faced, and how something in him had settled. He spoke softly, respectfully. And Seigmeyer listened.

When the tale was told, the clone tilted his head. "I've been wondering… if you knew I had things on my mind, why didn't you come and talk to me?"

Seigmeyer leaned back, letting the breeze stir the grass beneath his boots. "Mmm… that's because I wanted you to find your own answers. I may be a very wise knight... ho ho! but some answers, you see, must be earned."

Naruto looked at him curiously.

"If you had asked me, I would have helped, gladly," Seigmeyer said. "But I am not the sort who points to the road and says, 'Walk that way.' I believe the paths we discover ourselves are the ones we walk with the greatest certainty."

The clone nodded slowly, digesting the thought. "Still makes me wonder," he said at last, "what might've happened if I had come to you and Andre instead of confronting the Undead Merchant in my anger. Things might've gone differently."

"Ah, yes," Seigmeyer mused. "My answer would have been different from the one you found. But would it have been better? I do not know. What matters is this: you chose. And that makes your answer yours."

Silence passed between them, the comfortable silence of understanding.

"Well then, Sensei," Naruto said at last. "I should go. My original is in the Darkroot Basin, if you need anything."

Seigmeyer gave a nod, slow and thoughtful. "Take care, my friend."

The clone turned, vanishing into the mist beyond the fortress bridge. Seigmeyer watched him leave until even the faintest sound of footfall faded.

Then he leaned back with a sigh and returned to his vigil. The wind stirred again.

"Still closed…" he said, and smiled.

A few minutes had passed since Naruto's clone had departed, and Seigmeyer of Catarina had begun to drift into a light doze. The wind whispered across the bridge of Sen's Fortress, rustling the vines that crawled over ancient stone. Sleep came easily to him these days, lulled by patience and routine.

Then, a roar shattered the sky.

The sound did not echo. It consumed. It tore across the heavens like a blade drawn through thunderclouds. It made the earth groan and the bones beneath it tremble.

Seigmeyer jolted upright, his instincts fully awakened. Even before his mind could name the sensation, his gauntleted hand had already found the hilt of his Zweihander. His heart, steady in the face of most danger, now pounded with urgency.

That was not the cry of a wyvern or drake.

It was the roar of an everlasting dragon.

Seigmeyer whispered.

He moved in an instant. There was no hesitation, no second thought. He rose with surprising speed for one so heavily armored, crossing the bridge with thunderous steps, descending the long stone stairs into the old church that housed the smith. Each step echoed like a drumbeat, punctuated by purpose.

He halted at the entrance to the Darkroot Garden. Andre stood at the threshold, arms crossed, expression grim beneath soot-streaked brows.

Seigmeyer exhaled sharply. "Has Naruto returned?"

"No. His original body is still in the basin… with the dragon."

Seigmeyer clenched his jaw and stepped forward, but Andre held up a hand.

"What are you doing?"

"I am going down into the basin," Seigmeyer replied. "If Naruto is still alive, I will buy him time. He must take Oscar and flee."

Andre's brow furrowed. "Can you handle a dragon?"

"I have faced dragon-kin before," Seigmeyer said. "Never a true one. I cannot say I am confident. But Naruto is a knight. And a knight does not let another face death alone."

"You will die."

"I will return," Seigmeyer answered firmly. "That is the curse of the Undead. But Oscar will not. And if he dies down there… Naruto will carry that weight forever."

He turned, ready to enter the fog-veiled garden. His boot shifted, poised for motion.

Then the mist thickened.

It crept forward through the trees, slow and unnatural. The garden's edge became a wall of fog. At the same time, a soft glow shimmered from the carved crest of Artorias, resting in Andre's hand. The light deepened until it cast long shadows across the stonework.

And from that light, a form emerged.

It moved like smoke, fur woven from mist itself. The shape was feline, sleek and ancient, her presence commanding. Eyes gleamed from within the fog—clever, knowing, and old beyond reckoning.

Seigmeyer's grip on his weapon tightened.

"Halt, knight of Catarina," the cat spoke, her voice low and lyrical. "Thou dost tread toward doom. Turn thy course. That path hath been sealed."

Seigmeyer blinked behind his helm.

"Mmm… hrmmm? And by whom am I so warned?"

"I am Alvina, of the Darkroot Wood," she answered. "Matron of the Forest Hunters. I speak for the Greatwolf Sif."

The name made him pause.

"Greatwolf Sif…" he repeated slowly. "Mmm… that is not a name one hears lightly."

"Under his command, the basin hath been sealed," Alvina continued. "The dragon below stirs echoes long forgotten. I have placed wards and woven barriers to stay the hands of fools and martyrs."

Seigmeyer took a step forward.

"And what of Naruto?" he asked. "A boy; no, a fellow knight. Brave, yes. Reckless, certainly. But kind. If any soul could have awakened that dragon, it would be him."

Alvina's tail flicked like drifting mist.

"I have seen no boy near the knight," she said. "If thy Naruto ventured there, then he hath surely perished."

Seigmeyer stood motionless. He did not deny it. But he did not speak. He only breathed, heavy and slow. Then, after a moment of silence, he stepped back.

Alvina's form faded, dissolving into the soft glow of the crest. The light dimmed, retreating into Andre's hand like a tide drawn back to sea.

Andre spoke first. "Looks like Naruto was killed by that dragon."

Seigmeyer lowered himself to the ground, the weight of his armor settling into the earth.

"Mmm… hrmm… that would explain it," he muttered. Then he chuckled, weary and thoughtful. "He's likely back in that strange world of his. Chasing some new madness. Or licking his wounds."

"He'll be back," Andre said quietly.

Seigmeyer gave a slow nod. "That much is true."

And so the knight of Catarina sat, once again, at the edge of a path he could not take. He watched the trees sway in the mist, and he waited. Waited for a boy to return from the jaws of a dragon.

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In the Valley of Drakes, the air shimmered faintly with static, a warning felt more than heard. The drakes grew restless. Their wings twitched. Their talons scraped stone. One by one, they lifted their snouts to the heavens and stilled, silent beneath the weight of a superior presence.

An Everlasting Dragon had been born.

Across the valley, lightning flickered behind storm clouds, and a roar broke the silence; not of submission, but defiance.

Stormrend Wyvern reared back and bellowed a challenge that shook the high cliffs and echoed down the caverns like thunder given voice. Where his kin bowed their heads to the ancient call, Stormrend rejected it with fury. His wings unfurled wide enough to blot out the sky, his scales bristling like sharpened steel.

He was the king of the skies.

If the everlasting dragon sought his throne, then let it come and take it.

Stormrend wasn't going down without a fight.

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Far below, in the poisoned depths of Blighttown, where light rarely touched and the air clung thick with decay, a flicker stirred beneath the muck and rot.

Hidden away from the world, deep within a ruined alcove, the Mother of Pyromancy opened her eyes.

Quelana of Izalith sat in silence among the filth and the insects, her face unreadable as she felt the eruption of chaos above. The energy bloomed briefly, sharp and chaotic, and then vanished, swallowed by something far older.

The dragon's presence was unmistakable, yet Quelana merely blinked. It was not her concern.

For years she had waited here,

From the top of the old watchtower, Oscar had fired a desperate shot.

The spell hit Havel with the force of a collapsing star. He stumbled, the blast locking his body in place for a second.

That second was enough.

Naruto exploded.

A dome of white expanded outward, erasing everything it touched. The remaining lake vanished. The earth dissolved. Mountainside cracked and collapsed. The sky lit up like dawn, and all was swallowed in blinding light. The Darkroot Basin was gone.

And then it was over.

Ash fell like snow. The smoke coiled in silence. Where once there had been water and stone and forest, now only a giant hole remained. High on the crumbling watchtower, Oscar clung to the stone, his arms trembling.

Oscar did not know. But he waited. And he watched, wondering what it would mean for them now... what it would mean for his partner to walk the world, not as a boy, but as an Everlasting Dragon.

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Author's Note:

Sorry for the late update! My laptop got damaged and it took a bit of time for the repairs to get done—but let's get into it.

Question: Why didn't Dragon Naruto use any ninjutsu?

Answer: Simple. Dragon Naruto was fighting on pure instinct rather than with full consciousness. That raises another question—how could he still use magic, pyromancy, and miracles? The answer is that all of those are tied directly to Naruto's soul. They don't require conscious actions like hand signs to activate. They're more like extensions of his soul's nature.

And yes, Naruto covering his claws in wind chakra? That's not a jutsu. He's instinctively channeling raw wind chakra into his limbs, like a beast sharpening its claws.

Question: What's with those reactions from the world of Lordran?

Answer: I've gotten a lot of comments asking if we'll see reactions from characters like the Nameless King, Gwyn, and others. But I chose to focus on reactions from side characters who will have more meaningful roles in Naruto's future arc. I wanted those reactions to carry narrative weight, not just fanservice.

Now let me ask you something: Reminder, Siegmeyer is level 95.

Question: Why is Great Grey Wolf Sif a boy?

Answer: Because Sif's gender is never confirmed in canon. And no, the argument that "Sif has no balls" in the game doesn't count—you know damn well FromSoft was never going to add visible genitalia to a boss.

So why did I make Sif male?

Because Alvina, who's also a close friend of Artorias, is female. I thought it would be a nice sense of balance. If Alvina's a girl, Sif being a boy fits thematically. Plus, making Sif a male avoids certain... questionable ships involving Naruto and Sif, since Naruto is now technically a non-human. Let's not go there. Gross.

Now then the answer to Naruto vs. Havel is coming in the next chapter, where we'll dive into the aftermath of this battle.

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That's it… for now.

Thank you all for your incredible support. Writing this story has been one hell of a journey, and you make it worth every word.

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[ Personal Note: First off, thanks a ton to all of you for sticking with this story. Seriously, you guys are awesome. Now, if you're interested in supporting me on P@treon, let me just say that over there, I post these massive 5k-word chapters. But heads up, if you're jumping to P@treon, you'll need to start from Chapter 83, since that's where this chapter lines up with the content there.

To everyone here just reading along, please don't forget to leave a comment! Honestly, your comments make my day, and they let me know you're as invested in this story as I am. So yeah, thanks again, and I hope you have an amazing rest of your day!