A/N: This story is rated M for mature content not suitable for children.
This chapter was commissioned by Crash.
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Chapter 3: The Dragon-Phoenix Crucible and the Tyrant of Class 1
The heavy wooden door of Room 108 clicked shut, locking out the cool night air of Shrek Academy, but the temperature inside the small dormitory room was rising at a terrifying rate.
Ma Xiaotao collapsed forward, her knees giving out entirely. Naruto caught her smoothly, his arms wrapping around her waist to anchor her against his chest. She was a living volcano. The air around her warped with a violent, shimmering distortion, and the scent of ozone, sulfur, and scorched linen filled the confined space. Steam hissed off her skin where it came into contact with the ambient humidity, and her fingers tore into the fabric of Naruto’s shirt with frantic, spasming desperation.
"It’s burning... it’s tearing me apart..." Xiaotao rasped, her head rolling back as her golden eyes, now completely clouded by a manic, crimson haze, stared blindly at the ceiling. "The forest... it just made it angrier. Naruto... please..."
Across the room, Wang Dong’er, still tightly bound in her male disguise as Wang Dong, backed away until her spine hit the stone wall. Her eyes were wide with a mixture of reflexive terror and sheer bewilderment. She had heard rumors of the Inner Court’s 'Mad Phoenix,' a terrifying genius who suffered from a mutated, corrupted bloodline, but seeing it up close was entirely different. The raw, oppressive heat radiating from Xiaotao was enough to trigger Wang Dong’er's own defensive instincts. The Radiant Butterfly Goddess martial soul fluttered beneath her skin, wanting to manifest its blue-and-gold wings just to push the suffocating heat away.
"Naruto! What is wrong with her?" Wang Dong’er shouted over the low, rhythmic roaring sound that was beginning to echo from Xiaotao’s chest. "She’s going to incinerate the entire building! We need to call the teachers! We need to get the Elder’s Department!"
"The teachers can't do anything but freeze her into a comatose state, Wutong," Naruto said, his voice entirely devoid of panic. It was a cool, steady anchor in the middle of the raging storm. He looked down at the older girl in his arms. "And I don't intend to let anyone else touch what belongs to me."
Naruto didn't hesitate. He guided Xiaotao down to the stone floor, sitting cross-legged directly in front of her. He reached out and grabbed both of her burning hands, locking his fingers with hers. The contact was brutal; a normal Spirit Master’s flesh would have blistered and charred instantly against her skin, but Naruto’s body had been forged by the primal essence of the Dragon God. His skin merely shimmered with a faint, iridescent gold sheen, absorbing the heat and converting it into raw kinetic data.
"Wutong, stand guard at the door," Naruto commanded without looking back. "No one enters this room. If anyone tries, use your soul power to stall them. This is going to get loud."
Wang Dong’er bit her lower lip, her heart hammering violently. She wanted to argue, she wanted to demand how he knew her true identity, but the sheer, commanding authority in Naruto’s voice left no room for defiance. She moved to the door, her back pressed against the wood, her hands glowing with a faint, radiant light as she watched the two figures in the center of the room.
"Look at me, Xiaotao," Naruto murmured, his voice laced with the metaphysical weight of the Dragon God.
Xiaotao’s head snapped toward him, her breathing shallow and ragged. The Evil Fire within her was trying to consume her consciousness, trying to turn her into a mindless beast of destruction. But when her crimson-veiled gaze met Naruto’s eyes, she found herself staring into a boundless, icy abyss. His eyes were no longer blue; they had shifted into a deep, crystalline sapphire, swirling with the absolute majesty of the primordial elements.
"Inhale," Naruto ordered.
As Xiaotao gasped for air, Naruto closed his eyes and sank entirely into his spiritual sea.
Within the vast expanse of Naruto’s internal ocean, the iridescent, gargantuan form of the Dragon God uncoiled from the depths. Its massive, slitted eyes glowed with a kaleidoscopic brilliance. It didn't view Xiaotao’s Evil Fire as a curse or a threat; to the progenitor of all beasts, her mutated phoenix fire was simply a drop of stray, rebellious energy that needed to be brought to heel.
'Open the gates,' Naruto’s mental voice commanded.
Instantly, Naruto opened his spiritual meridians, creating a vacuum between his own soul and Xiaotao’s.
The reaction was instantaneous and violent. The corrupted, magma-like soul power within Xiaotao sensed a path of least resistance and surged forward, devouring Naruto’s meridians like an invasive army. It rushed into his body, trying to burn his spiritual sea to ash.
But the moment the Evil Fire crossed the threshold into Naruto’s domain, the Dragon God opened its massive jaw and let out a silent, tectonic roar.
The element of Absolute Ice, the primordial, ultimate manifestation of frost that existed before the stars were formed, unleashed itself within Naruto’s pathways. It wasn't the superficial, external ice that Ling Luochen used to numb the pain; it was a conceptual, absolute cold that targeted the very core of Xiaotao’s soul power.
Outside, in the real world, a blinding pillar of light erupted from the pair. It wasn't fire, and it wasn't ice. It was a mesmerizing vortex of crimson, gold, and deep arctic blue that spiraled toward the ceiling, completely illuminating the small dormitory room.
Wang Dong’er shielded her eyes with her arm, her breath catching in her throat. She could feel the shockwaves of the elemental clash vibrating through the floorboards. But what shocked her more was the sudden, intense ache in her own chest. The divine seal placed upon her soul by her father, Tang San, began to throb with a dull, defensive panic. It was as if the golden trident within her consciousness recognized that the power Naruto was wielding was entirely outside the divine calculations of the Sea God. It was an anomaly that couldn't be controlled.
"Ah...!"
A sharp, breathless sound escaped Xiaotao’s lips. It wasn't a cry of pain. It was the sound of a person who had been drowning in boiling oil suddenly being dragged into a crisp, pure mountain stream.
Inside her body, the Dragon-Phoenix Crucible was in full effect. Naruto’s absolute ice energy didn't just suppress her fire; it systematically hunted down the "Evil" impurities,the mutated, chaotic elements that caused her madness, and crushed them into nothingness. The dark, soot-like corruption that had plagued her lineage for generations was vaporized by the sheer purity of the Dragon God’s authority.
With the corruption gone, Xiaotao’s core was suddenly empty, starving for fuel.
'Now,' Naruto thought, shifting his focus. 'Take the ultimate step.'
He stopped channeling the ice element and immediately unleashed the Dragon God’s Ultimate Fire.
He funneled a torrent of pure, unadulterated, sovereign flame into Xiaotao’s cleansed meridians. This wasn't an attack; it was a template. He was showing her soul power what true, perfect fire was supposed to look like. Her remaining soul power, now stripped of its toxicity, eagerly latched onto Naruto’s energy, rewriting its own structural geometry to match the sovereign design.
The dark crimson hue of her soul power began to change. It shifted, brightening, shedding its murky undertones until it transformed into a brilliant, crystalline scarlet-gold. It was no longer a destructive, self-consuming wildfire. It was the pure, unyielding majesty of Ultimate Fire.
The sensory overload of her entire spiritual structure being rewritten from the molecular level upward was too much for Xiaotao to bear. Her body trembled violently, her fingers tightening on Naruto’s hands with enough force to crack stone as she experienced the absolute ecstasy of spiritual liberation. The constant, agonizing static that had buzzed in the back of her mind since her childhood was gone, replaced by a deep, resonant harmony.
Slowly, the blinding pillar of light began to recede, drawing back into their bodies like a dying star.
The room fell into a heavy, suffocating silence, broken only by the sound of erratic, breathless pants.
Xiaotao slumped forward, her strength completely spent. Her forehead rested against Naruto’s shoulder, her body limp and entirely relaxed for the first time in her life. The terrifying, oppressive heat was gone, replaced by a warm, comforting radiance that felt like a gentle summer sun. Her skin was smooth, flawless, and glowing with health.
Naruto opened his eyes, the draconic sapphire hue slowly fading back into his natural, confident blue. He looked down at the unconscious Phoenix resting against him. She had fallen into a deep, evolutionary sleep, her body adjusting to the massive power-up she had just received. Her soul power had not only been purified, but the breakthrough to Ultimate Fire had shattered several of her internal bottlenecks, priming her for a massive leap in rank once she awoke.
He easily lifted her up in his arms, walking over to his own bed and laying her down gently beneath the covers. He brushed a stray strand of fiery-red hair away from her face, a possessive, satisfied smile playing on his lips.
"One," he murmured to himself, recognizing her as the first official pillar of the grand family he would build on this continent.
He turned his gaze toward the door.
Wang Dong’er was still standing there, her hands trembling slightly as she dropped her defensive stance. She was staring at Naruto as if he were a ghost, her chest heaving as she tried to process the metaphysical display she had just witnessed.
"What... what did you just do to her?" Wang Dong’er whispered, her voice shaking. "I felt her fire... it changed. It doesn't feel evil anymore. It feels... sacred. Like the light from the stars."
"I fixed her," Naruto said simply, walking over to the room's single desk and sitting down on the wooden chair, propping his feet up comfortably. "I stripped away the trash her ancestors left in her bloodline and gave her what she deserved. Ultimate power."
Wang Dong’er swallowed hard, her mind racing. "Ultimate power... you talk as if you're a god who can just hand out destinies to whoever you please."
"A god?" Naruto let out a soft, mocking laugh, his eyes locking onto hers with an intensity that made her breath hitch. "The gods of this world are nothing but thieves sitting on stolen thrones, Wutong. They manipulate the mortal realm, pacing out rings and limits to keep everyone in a cage. I don't give out destinies. I reclaim them."
He leaned forward, his voice dropping into that dangerous, magnetic register. "And speaking of destinies... how long do you plan on wearing that ridiculous disguise? The boy look doesn't suit you, Tang Wutong."
Wang Dong’er felt a chill run down her spine at the mention of her true name. She took a step back, her hand instinctively rising to cover her chest. "Stop calling me that. My name is Wang Dong. I don't know who this 'Wutong' is, and I don't care about your crazy theories."
"You can deny it all you want," Naruto said, a slow, confident grin spreading across his face. "But your soul doesn't lie. The moment I touched you earlier, our spirits tried to fuse. You felt it. The absolute harmony. You were made to be by my side, Wutong. Your father can place all the seals he wants on your memory and your power, but he can't stop the resonance."
"My... my father?" Wang Dong’er pressed her hands against her head, a sudden, sharp spike of pain lancing through her temples at the mention of the word. A memory, vague and shrouded in golden fog, tried to surface, but the divine seal within her spiritual sea flared up, suppressing it with icy authority. She groaned, stumbling slightly.
Before she could fall, Naruto was there. He appeared in front of her with impossible speed, his warm hand wrapping around her wrist, steadying her.
"Don't force it," Naruto said softly, his tone shifting from predatory to surprisingly gentle, a protective warmth bleeding into his touch. "The seal is too strong right now. If you fight it blindly, it will only hurt you. Trust me, Wutong. I will tear that seal apart when the time is right. But for now... just accept that you're safe here."
Wang Dong’er looked up into his eyes, her vision slightly blurry from the pain. The magnetic pull was overwhelming. Every instinct she had told her to run from this dangerous, unpredictable boy, yet her very soul felt entirely at peace whenever he touched her. It was a terrifying contradiction.
"I hate you," she whispered, though there was no venom in her voice. It sounded more like a plea for clarity.
"I know," Naruto smiled, his thumb gently brushing across the back of her wrist before he let go. "Get some sleep, roomie. We have the freshman trials tomorrow, and I expect my team to look flawless in front of the faculty."
The morning sun rose over Shrek Academy, casting a brilliant gold light across the white stone courtyard. The air was crisp, carrying the scent of dew and the heavy, electric anticipation of hundreds of fresh students preparing for their first official day of classes.
In Room 108, Ma Xiaotao was already gone by the time the morning bell rang. She had slipped out into the dawn shadows, her soul power so perfectly contained and refined that she didn't leave a single trace of heat behind. But on Naruto’s pillow, she had left a small, crimson jade pendant carved in the shape of a soaring phoenix, an token of absolute, unspoken allegiance.
Naruto attached the pendant to his belt alongside the silver hilt of the Seven Kill Sword, looking entirely satisfied.
Beside him, Wang Dong’er was sullenly adjusting her male uniform, her face carefully schooled into a mask of boyish arrogance, though she pointedly avoided looking Naruto in the eye. Every time their shoulders brushed as they gathered their books, she would stiffen, her face flushing a light pink before she quickly hurried ahead.
"Are you going to walk five steps ahead of me the entire semester, Wutong?" Naruto teased as they left the dormitory building.
"I told you, my name is Wang Dong!" she snapped, glare flashing from beneath her blue hair. "And I’m just trying to get to Class 1 before Zhou Yi decides to execute us for being late. Have you heard the rumors about her? They call her the Permafrost Tyrant. She’s expelled more students in her first week than most teachers do in their entire careers."
"Let her try," Naruto said smoothly, his hands tucked casually into his pockets. "A teacher is only a tyrant to those who are too weak to break her rules."
When they entered the classroom of Class 1, the atmosphere was already suffocatingly tense. The room was designed like a small amphitheater, with tiers of wooden desks sloping down toward a central podium. Nearly a hundred students were already seated, sitting rigidly with their hands flat on their desks. The silence was absolute, broken only by the heavy, rhythmic ticking of a clock on the wall.
At the center podium stood Zhou Yi. Up close, her appearance was even more imposing than it had been in the Chancellor’s office. Her grey hair was pulled back into a tight, severe bun, and her face was lined with deep, permanent frown lines. Her eyes, cold and sharp as shards of flint, scanned the room with a look of pure, unadulterated disdain.
Naruto and Wang Dong’er walked down the steps toward the middle row. As they moved, a soft murmur rippled through the classroom. The news of the "Anomaly with the Purple Ring" had already spread through the student grapevine like wildfire. Countless eyes locked onto Naruto, scanning his vibrant red-gold hair and his muscular, confident build with a mixture of jealousy, curiosity, and intimidation.
"Seats," Zhou Yi’s voice rang out. It wasn't loud, but it carried a harsh, grating resonance that made several students reflexively flinch.
Naruto took a seat in the middle row, with Wang Dong’er sitting to his right. A second later, a small, pink-haired girl slid into the seat to his left. It was Xiao Xiao. She offered Naruto a bright, nervous smile, her twin-soul signature humming with a faint, welcoming vibration.
"You really made a scene at the gate yesterday," Xiao Xiao whispered, leaning in slightly. "The whole girls' dorm is talking about you."
"They haven't seen anything yet, Xiao Xiao," Naruto replied with a confident wink that made the young girl’s cheeks color instantly.
Before Xiao Xiao could respond, a heavy book slammed down onto the podium with a sound like a thunderclap.
BANG!
The entire class jolted, every head snapping toward the front of the room. Zhou Yi stood tall, her arms crossed over her chest as she let her Rank 60 Soul Emperor pressure leak out, a heavy, suffocating weight that made it difficult for the younger students to breathe.
"Listen to me carefully," Zhou Yi said, her voice dropping into a dangerous, icy register. "I don't care who your parents are. I don't care what noble clan you come from. I don't care how much money you paid to get into this academy. In my classroom, you are all nothing but trash. Pieces of raw iron waiting to be hammered into shape, or shattered and thrown into the scrap heap."
She stepped out from behind the podium, her heavy boots clicking rhythmically against the stone floor as she walked up the aisle.
"Shrek Academy only accepts monsters. But most of you are just spoiled children who think a yellow soul ring makes you a genius. It doesn't. It makes you a target. In the past five minutes, I have scanned every single one of you. And I can already tell that ninety percent of you lack the mental fortitude to survive my training."
She stopped directly beside a wealthy-looking boy in the front row, whose uniform was adorned with expensive silk trimmings.
"You," Zhou Yi barked. "What is your primary combat strategy when facing a beast-type Spirit Master with higher speed than you?"
The boy swallowed hard, his face turning pale under her intense gaze. "I... I would deploy my defensive soul skill and wait for an opening to counter-attack, Dean..."
"Wrong," Zhou Yi hissed, her face inches from his. "Your defensive skill takes point-three seconds to manifest. A high-speed beast master would have torn your throat out before your soul power even reached your meridians. You’re dead. Get out."
The boy blinked, stunned. "W-What?"
"I said, get out!" Zhou Yi roared, her soul power flaring violently. "You are expelled from Class 1! Pack your bags and leave the academy grounds before noon! Shrek has no room for idiots who rely on theories instead of reality!"
The boy burst into tears, scrambling out of his seat and running from the classroom, the heavy wooden doors slamming shut behind him. The remaining students sat in absolute horror, their faces completely drained of color. One sentence. One wrong answer, and a student from a wealthy clan was instantly ruined.
Zhou Yi turned back to the class, her expression completely indifferent to the boy's misery. "Anyone else want to waste my time? No? Good. Now, everyone out to the training field. One hundred laps around the track. If you collapse, you're expelled. If you finish last, you're expelled. If you use your soul power to cheat without my explicit permission... I will personally shatter your core."
A collective groan of despair echoed through the room, but no one dared to speak aloud. The students began to stand up, their movements sluggish and heavy with dread.
Except for Naruto.
He remained seated, his arms crossed over his chest, his legs propped casually on the edge of the wooden desk. His expression was one of absolute amusement, a mocking smile playing on his lips as he watched Zhou Yi’s display of authority.
Beside him, Wang Dong’er tugged frantically at his sleeve. "Naruto! What are you doing? Stand up! She’s going to expel you!"
"Let her try, Wutong," Naruto said, his voice entirely clear in the quiet room.
Zhou Yi’s sharp ears caught the voice instantly. Her icy gaze snapped across the classroom, locking onto the red-gold-haired boy who was openly defying her command. The atmosphere in the room plummeted to sub-zero temperatures as she marched up the steps, the remaining students freezing in their tracks to watch the impending execution.
She stopped directly in front of Naruto’s desk, her aura flaring with the full force of a Soul Emperor. The wooden desk between them began to crack under the localized gravity of her pressure.
"You," Zhou Yi said, her voice dangerously quiet. "Naruto. The anomaly from the gate. Do you think because the Chancellor took an interest in you, my rules don't apply to you? Do you think your purple ring makes you a king in my classroom?"
Naruto didn't flinch. He didn't blink. He slowly lowered his legs from the desk and stood up, rising to his full height. Even at twelve years old, his presence was so dense, so intensely concentrated, that he didn't look down at the veteran teacher, he met her gaze levelly, his blue eyes flashing with a sudden, sovereign gold brilliance.
"Your rules are fine for the trash, Dean Zhou," Naruto said, his voice smooth and entirely relaxed, yet carrying a terrifying resonance that echoed through the entire amphitheater. "But I’m not iron waiting to be hammered. I’m the crucible."
He reached down to his belt, his hand resting casually on the hilt of the Seven Kill Sword. He didn't draw the blade, but he let the Seven Kill Intent explode from his body in a single, targeted shockwave.
VUUUUM....
The air in the classroom literally groaned. A razor-sharp, silver-violet pressure erupted from Naruto, tearing through Zhou Yi’s Soul Emperor aura like a hot knife through butter. The localized pressure was so intense that the stone floor beneath Naruto’s boots cracked, spiderweb fissures spreading outward toward the desks.
The students in the surrounding rows let out instinctive gasps, several of them falling backward into their seats as the sheer, suffocating weight of Naruto’s killer intent pressed down on their chests. It wasn't just raw power; it was the conceptual authority of a weapon designed solely for slaughter.
Zhou Yi’s eyes widened in genuine, unadulterated shock. She took a half-step back, her defensive soul power flaring instinctively to protect her meridians from the silver intent. Her heart, a veteran of countless battles, hammered against her ribs in a sudden, evolutionary panic.
She wasn't looking at a student. She was looking at a predator that possessed the stomach for gore she had just claimed geniuses lacked.
"You talk about reality, Dean," Naruto said, taking a slow step forward, completely compressing her aura back into her body. "The reality is, one hundred laps around a track won't make these kids monsters. It will just make them tired. If you want to see who survives, don't give them a jog. Give them a fight."
The classroom was dead silent. No one dared to breathe. A twelve-year-old freshman had just countered the pressure of a Soul Emperor and openly challenged her teaching methods, and he was winning the metaphysical clash.
Zhou Yi stared at him, her sharp mind working frantically beneath her mask of iron. She recognized the Seven Kill Sword’s intent now. It was a legendary, extinct tool soul known for its absolute, peerless lethality. Combined with the Dragon God energy she had been briefed on, this boy was an entity that couldn't be broken by traditional means. If she tried to force him, she would only destroy the greatest asset the academy had seen in a century.
A slow, terrifying smirk began to form on Zhou Yi’s face. It wasn't anger; it was the manic satisfaction of a tyrant who had finally found a weapon worthy of her forge.
"Arrogant," she murmured, her soul power slowly receding into her body. "Incredibly arrogant. But... you have the teeth to back up your bark, boy."
She turned her gaze back to the rest of the classroom, her voice returning to its harsh, grating tone. "Did you all see that? That is what a monster looks like. While the rest of you were shaking in your boots, he was preparing to cut my throat. Naruto, Wang Dong, Xiao Xiao, step forward."
The three of them moved to the front of the room, Wang Dong’er and Xiao Xiao still visibly shaken by the brief, terrifying exchange of power.
"From this moment on, the three of you are a team," Zhou Yi announced, her eyes locking onto Naruto. "The freshman trials will begin in three months. If you want to prove your methods are better than mine, Naruto, you will lead this team to an undefeated victory. You will not lose a single match. If you drop even one round... I will personally expel all three of you. Do we have an agreement?"
Naruto looked at Wang Dong’er, whose butterfly wings were still humming with a desperate, defensive resonance, and then at Xiao Xiao, who was looking at him with a mixture of terror and absolute adoration.
He smiled, a brilliant, predatory flash of teeth.
"We won't just win, Dean," Naruto said, his voice echoing with absolute sovereignty. "We’re going to rule this academy. And anyone who stands in our way... will find out exactly how sharp my blade is."
The hunt within Shrek Academy had officially begun, and Naruto had just drawn his first line in the sand.
Chapter End
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A/N: I appreciate your ongoing support! If you're interested in commissioning or updating a story, please use the link provided in the pinned post. Later!