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Naruto: End of the Shinobi World

Chapter 288: Baiting? · Oct 25, 2026

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Chapter List (423)

Page number / 9

251 Chapter 251: Three Against One 2026-10-25
252 Chapter 252: I’m Destroying the World. Why Do You Still Trust Me? 2026-10-25
253 Chapter 253: Extreme Regeneration 2026-10-25
254 Chapter 254: The Sealed Monster 2026-10-25
255 Chapter 255: Are You Brain-Dead? 2026-10-25
256 Chapter 256: Tsunade? 2026-10-25
257 Chapter 257: More Than Likely, Still a Sacrificial Pawn 2026-10-25
258 Chapter 258: Your Vision Is Too Small 2026-10-25
259 Chapter 259: Chakra Is the True Invader 2026-10-25
260 Chapter 260: Shaping the Heart in Reverse 2026-10-25
261 Chapter 261: How Did He Live for Over a Thousand Years? 2026-10-25
262 Chapter 262: Chaos in the Shinobi World Benefits Him 2026-10-25
263 Chapter 263: The Destruction of a Thousand-Year Civilization 2026-10-25
264 Chapter 264: The Sage of Six Paths Is Dumbfounded 2026-10-25
265 Chapter 265: Naruto, You Wouldn’t Want That Either… 2026-10-25
266 Chapter 266: Karin Appears Again 2026-10-25
267 Chapter 267: Sasuke, You Idiot 2026-10-25
268 Chapter 268: Twisting the Knife 2026-10-25
269 Chapter 269: And Why Should He Care If the World Drowns? 2026-10-25
270 Chapter 270: Come Out—And Destroy This World for Me 2026-10-25
271 Chapter 271: A Yellow Dog 2026-10-25
272 Chapter 272: Prosperous Wealth ( Wangcai)? 2026-10-25
273 Chapter 273: Did She Just Get Buffed Again? 2026-10-25
274 Chapter 274: Sage Art? Devoured. 2026-10-25
275 Chapter 275: Susanoo? Devoured. 2026-10-25
276 Chapter 276: The Meteor? Shattered. 2026-10-25
277 Chapter 277: Sakura Returns 2026-10-25
278 Chapter 278: Karin’s Fury 2026-10-25
279 Chapter 279: We Need to Leave — Now 2026-10-25
280 Chapter 280: A Red Stone? 2026-10-25
281 Chapter 281: Why Can’t We Be the Invaders? 2026-10-25
282 Chapter 282: All of Them Are Invaders 2026-10-25
283 Chapter 283: Does It Even Matter? 2026-10-25
284 Chapter 284: Other Worlds 2026-10-25
285 Chapter 285: Better to Do Nothing at All 2026-10-25
286 Chapter 286: Orochimaru Is Thrilled 2026-10-25
287 Chapter 287: Fish Ponds and Fish 2026-10-25
288 Chapter 288: Baiting? 2026-10-25
289 Chapter 289: The Toy Kingdom 2026-10-25
290 Chapter 290: Karin’s Ambush 2026-10-25
291 Chapter 291: In the End, It Still Comes Down to Orochimaru 2026-10-25
292 Chapter 292: Creating a Monster? 2026-10-25
293 Chapter 293: When the Time Comes, Who Will Be the Pond Owner? 2026-10-25
294 Chapter 294: Has Neji Been Turned into a Toy? 2026-10-25
295 Chapter 295: Does the Entire Uchiha Clan Deserve to Die? 2026-10-25
296 Chapter 296: Three Trash? Who Else? 2026-10-25
297 Chapter 297: You Can Only Take Me With You 2026-10-25
298 Chapter 298: The Hyūga Clan… Has Geniuses? 2026-10-25
299 Chapter 299: Creating an Uchiha Light 2026-10-25
300 Chapter 300: Even Danzō Can’t Take the Blame for This One 2026-10-25

Divine Knights — Sakura Haruno

Yet Sakura’s answer once again caught them off guard.

A complicated expression crossed her face—uncertainty, contemplation… and a faint trace of coldness.

”That… might not necessarily be the case.”

Her gaze drifted toward the distant sky, as though trying to glimpse the unseen ”pond owner.”

”Is it possible,” she said more quietly, her tone suggestive, ”that these ’inflows’ aren’t random? That they aren’t simple invasions and integrations?”

She turned back to the three of them.

”What if… some existence is Baiting the waters?”

”Baiting?!”

The fishing term, placed in this context, sent an icy chill through Naruto, Sasuke, and Neji.

Baiting—scattering bait to gather fish.

And then… hauling them up all at once.

”Those fish who are drawn in,” Sakura continued evenly, her voice like a dull blade cutting slowly, ”who eat the ’bait’—who gain foreign power and grow stronger because of it…”

”Is it possible that, at some chosen moment—when some higher being has need of them—they simply become the catch?”

The implication was darker than anything before.

This was no longer accidental invasion.

It was cultivation.

Raising.

Harvesting.

The three of them went pale.

Their breathing faltered.

Then suddenly—

Sakura burst into light laughter.

”Relax. I’m joking.”

She waved her hand casually.

”Just something I said off the top of my head. Don’t take it seriously.”

But the image had already lodged itself in their minds like a venomous hook.

Across the shinobi world, silence gave way to chaos—half hysterical, half bitterly sarcastic.

”So invasion just means one pond’s water and fish spilled into another?”

”So we’ve fought and died all these years… just fish thrashing around in muddy water?”

”This is too much…”

”Alive, we have to worry about stronger fish eating us… and unseen fishermen eyeing us…”

”Dead, our souls might not even belong to us…”

”Is there any justice in this world?!”

”Baiting… I’ve really learned something today.”

One fisherman stared at his rough hands and let out a broken laugh.

”When I sit by the river scattering bait to lure fish… I’m no different from those possible ’pond owners’ chumming our world.”

His laughter grew unstable.

”It’s too dark! I refuse to believe it! The shinobi world can’t be this twisted!”

But colder voices followed.

”What’s there not to accept?”

”To the chickens and ducks you raise… to the fish in your own pond… aren’t you their god?”

”When you decide their life or death… when you eat them… do you stop to ask if they accept it?”

The analogy was too blunt.

Too cruel.

People thought of the meat on their tables.

Of grilled fish.

Of livestock bred for slaughter.

A wave of nausea rose.

”Exactly,” another voice added coldly. ”If I want to beat you, what does it have to do with you?”

”Does a stronger being need a reason to dominate a weaker one? To care about its feelings?”

”Would a pond owner care about the opinion of a particularly lively fish?”

These weren’t external revelations.

They were truths derived from the simplest survival logic.

Some collapsed into nihilism.

Some shrank in fear, hoping not to attract the attention of an unseen hook.

Some raged like trapped beasts.

And some—

Like Orochimaru—

Burned with a completely different fire.

Fear remained.

But it fed curiosity.

Ambition.

Why shouldn’t I become the fisherman?

The ”fish pond” theory did more than inspire despair.

It stirred something deep within human nature.

They had once been hunters.

Shinobi.

Nobles.

Ambitious schemers.

Now they were forced to consider—

They might have always been fish.

And the most terrifying realization wasn’t that they were fish.

It was wondering whether invisible hooks and nets truly hung above the surface—

And whether their frantic swimming led to freedom…

Or straight into a carefully laid trap.

Within the Heavenly Curtain

Sakura seemed unwilling to pursue the topic further.

She brushed imaginary dust from her clothes.

”Alright. Your chakra and stamina look mostly recovered. I should be going.”

”That dog— Wangcai—gives me a strange feeling. I need to report back to my master.”

Naruto, Sasuke, and Neji did indeed feel somewhat restored.

Hearing her farewell, their emotions were complicated.

In the end, all they could say was:

”Take care. We hope… we’ll meet again.”

”Oh—right.”

Sakura had just turned when she paused, as if remembering something.

She patted her forehead and turned back.

Reaching into her clothing, she pulled out three palm-sized toy figurines.

”Almost forgot these.”

She handed one each to Naruto, Sasuke, and Neji.

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