Naruto: The Chosen Undead
Chapter no.170 Dark Souls

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Chapter 170 Chaos meets Calamity!

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[ You have gained ]

[ Black Dragon Scale ]

[ Dusk Crown Ring ]

[ 5000 Souls ]

[ Knight Helm ]

[ Knight Armor ]

[ Knight Gauntlets ]

[ Knight Leggings ]

Naruto blinked at the notification, squinting in disbelief. "Five thousand? That's it?" he muttered, genuinely offended. "All those heads, all that buildup and I don't even get a single level-up? Tch."

Still grumbling, his gaze drifted to the loot pile, and his irritation quickly faded. Nestled in his inventory was a modest armor set: basic knight gear, plain silver trim, durable plating. He picked up the helm, turning it over in his hand with a soft hum of recognition.

"Knight class gear... looks a lot like my Elite set. Just a bit worse all around." He gave a small shrug. "Maybe I'll give this to Tenten. She's probably got a hundred uses for it."

But it wasn't the armor that made his eyes twitch with curiosity, it was the ring. Delicate and gleaming, the band was made of fine gold with a soft green gem nestled at its center. It practically pulsed with quiet power.

[Item: Dusk Crown Ring]

[Description: This magic crown-shaped ring was granted to Princess Dusk of Oolacile upon her birth. The ringstone allows its wearer to cast additional sorceries, but at the cost of one-half of HP.]

Naruto frowned. "Half my HP? That's brutal."

He remembered what Rickert had explained during their training: the number of spells a person could cast was tied to how well their body could handle the energy. Trying to exceed that limit came with nasty side effects.

For pyromancy, it scorched your flesh. For miracles, it dragged your mind into a trance. And for magic? Naruto grimaced. Head-splitting migraines bad enough to kill a cow.

So how exactly did this ring work without killing its wearer?

He slipped it onto his finger and instantly, a surge of chakra drained from him, not painfully, but deeply, like something delicate drinking from a deep well. He could feel it, intuitively: a new path, a new conduit. The ring wasn't just a tool. It was an alternate casting source. A buffer that allowed him to bypass his body's natural limitations, just a little more.

But the HP drain? Naruto wasn't a fan.

"Let's get creative," he murmured.

He summoned a clone, tossed the ring to it, and slid it onto the clone's hand. No HP drain. But the moment the clone formed a Soul Arrow, the count leapt from 30 to 45.

Naruto stared like he'd just discovered fire. "No HP loss for me... more casts for the clone. That's broken."

He grinned, already scheming. "I really should design a system to abuse—no, optimize—this. Shadow clones wearing all the risk-heavy rings while I stay safe."

He turned to Oscar, his grin widening. "Should I make a necklace for you? So you can use magic rings too?"

Oscar tilted his head and chirped with enthusiasm.

Chuckling, Naruto opened his inventory, eyes scanning rapidly. He'd gotten a lot of junk recently. Maybe some of it wasn't junk at all.

[Item: Brigand Armour Set]

[Description: Worn by the brigands who raid mountain hamlets and attack travelers. Hood – Protects against sun, dust, and sand; helps identify friend from foe in chaos. Armor/Gauntlets/Trousers – Cloth and leather with added metal plating. Good balance of mobility and defense.]

Naruto tried not to smile but failed as the brigand armour set was one of the reasons why he had almost chosen the bandit class. His fingers moved fast, equipping the whole set.

Leather creaked. Steel buckles clicked into place. He rolled his shoulders, flexed his arms.

"Who knows what would've happened if this was my starting class, huh?" He struck a pose. "So, how do I look?"

Oscar gave a hop.

Naruto laughed. "I have no clue when I even picked this up."

Still smiling, he dove back into his inventory, ready to see what else he'd missed. Because if there was one thing he was starting to learn about Lordran... treasure hides in the strangest corners. Most of the inventory was the same until he found an item he'd never noticed before.

It wasn't marked as a ring, but it sat within the magic ring section like a secret that had been waiting for him to look.

[Item: Incomplete Cursed Seal]

[Description: A grotesque experimental seal, formed through twisted chakra science and forbidden instinct. In a failed pursuit to merge man and beast, Orochimaru marked Mizuki with this primal seal—an early attempt to steal traits from nature's deadliest creatures. Though incomplete, Mizuki refined the design using scraps of Orochimaru's lost research. All it now requires is a drop of blood from a beast with a trait worth stealing.]

Naruto froze.

"...Guess Mizuki dropped this when I killed him."

He frowned, mind flashing back to that first mission. Mizuki had been a joke. All bluster and ego. But this... this was forbidden stuff.

Naruto sat up straighter. "All it needs... is a drop of blood," he murmured. "From a beast."

That's when his gaze slid to his left. To the inventory icon still pulsing with a faint black glow.

[Item: Black Dragon Scale]

[Description: A jet-black scale torn from the hide of a Calamity Dragon. Said to be the more ferocious breed of the everlasting dragons, the Calamity Dragon is a beast whispered in forgotten tongues—its presence alone enough to scare the Gods. How such a relic came to rest here remains unknown... but its power still lingers, pulsing like a heartbeat in the dark.]

Naruto stared at it, then laughed quietly. "I can't believe I'm thinking about this."

Oscar chirped, tilting his head curiously, eyes flicking between the scale and the seal.

"Yeah, I am thinking of stealing the power of a black dragon using the incomplete cursed seal. That's crazy, right?" Naruto said with a grin creeping across his face. "Insane. Dangerous. Irresponsible. Could totally kill me."

Oscar puffed up like a feathered question mark.

"But also..." Naruto said, holding the scale up to the light. It shimmered in moonlight. ...Possible.

The moment the idea landed in his mind, it stuck.

"My best sword? The drake sword. My best ring? The Bellowing Dragon Crest Ring. Every time I've survived something impossible in this place, it's been with dragon power at my side."

He looked down at the black scale in his hand.

"Maybe... it's time I stop using dragon power," he said. "And start becoming it."

Oscar chirped beside him, half-excited, half-nervous.

The clone frowned. "But how does that cursed seal even work?"

Naruto shook his head. "It just says it steals a trait from a beast. Doesn't explain the 'how.'"

"So what? You grow wings? Scales?"

"Maybe," Naruto said with a shrug. "Or maybe I will gain the dragon's invulnerability."

The clone narrowed its eyes. "We already have so much power. Do we need this? Whatever this is... unknown, cursed, experimental, it could do anything. Change you. Break you."

Naruto looked at his clone. Not annoyed. Not defensive. Just... calm. "That's why I'm not using it yet."

He slipped the seal back into his inventory.

"Maybe after the Wave mission is over, I will look into this more. Refine the curse mark. I am not stupid enough to think that Mizuki has the skills to properly handle fuinjutsu. I'll gain the power of the dragons on my own terms."

Oscar nodded, a low, understanding hum in his throat.

"Now," Naruto clapped his hands, "let's get that door open."

The clone stood, walked to the ancient tower, and inserted the rusted Watchtower Basement Key into the lock. The door clicked but instead of just creaking open, the air hummed.

A translucent seal shimmered over the stone.

CRACK.

The barrier shattered like glass, and a beam of pure white light shot into the sky from the top of the tower, splitting the clouds. "What the hell? Is that some kind of magical flare? Did it alert the captor that the hero was free?"

But then the shaking began.

The entire basin trembled underfoot. Water rippled. Trees bent. And Naruto froze. He couldn't breathe.

It was like gravity itself had doubled. Then tripled. His knees buckled, and he slammed to the ground as a crushing weight pressed on his chest. Oscar chirped in alarm but was quickly forced to the dirt, wings folding in tight.

The door slowly opened, and from the shadows within stepped a giant not just in size, but in presence.

[Name: Havel the Rock]

[HP: 6,500 / 6,500]

The ground cracked beneath each step as he emerged, towering and silent. His armor looked like it had been carved from the mountain itself—rough, jagged, immovable. His helmet was nothing but a stone slab with eye slits, and he carried a slab-like shield as wide as a door. In his other hand, a massive, crude club more like the fossilized tooth of some ancient beast.

Naruto's breath caught. This wasn't just a warrior. This was a wall.

"Havel…" Naruto whispered. "The Rock."

Havel's gaze moved, slow and deliberate... until it landed on Oscar.

Naruto could feel it. Havel's intent. It wasn't just combat. It was execution. And the target wasn't him.

It was Oscar.

The boy's breath hitched. Why?

"I freed you, you bastard… and this is how you repay me?" he snarled, struggling to rise, but it was like trying to move while buried beneath the weight of the entire sky. Every inch of his body screamed in protest, crushed under Havel's monstrous presence.

The titan took a single step forward. The earth quaked.

Oscar remained frozen, trembling in place, his crystals dimming in fear.

Naruto's fingers scraped through the dirt. He gritted his teeth, reached for anything he could use. His hand closed around a familiar shape, Kakashi's summoning kunai. Without hesitation, he stabbed it into the ground and flooded it with chakra.

Please. Please, Kakashi-sensei. I need you. Not for me. For Oscar. Help us. Help... me.

The kunai glowed faintly… then fizzled.

[Item cannot be used.]

The words hit harder than a sword.

"No…!" Naruto roared, and his chakra exploded outward in an unrestrained detonation of pure emotion igniting like fire. The air snapped with force, dust and leaves scattering in every direction. For a heartbeat, the pressure lifted. It was enough. He hurled a thousand shadow clones forward, desperate to buy a second, a breath, anything.

Crack. Splat. Smoke.

A single backhand from Havel scattered the clones like flies, and the giant marched forward.

Naruto stood frozen, his wide eyes numb, throat tight. He saw it now. His nightmare becoming reality. He wasn't fast enough. Wasn't strong enough. Couldn't save the one friend who never left him.

And in that stillness, the truth sank in like a blade through the ribs. Havel wasn't an obstacle. He was a force of nature. A man so powerful he could challenge Stormrend and win. Naruto hadn't even survived Stormrend.

What chance did he have?

The tears came unbidden, hot and silent, carving down his dirt-streaked face. Rage simmered behind his teeth. Rage not at Havel, but at himself. His own uselessness. His weakness.

"I can't…" he whispered, voice breaking. "I can't protect anyone like this…"

His heart pounded. His mind spun.

He remembered Andre's words: "Lordran offers many things. Power. Knowledge. Shortcuts. But that kind of power… it is never free. Don't become the kind of thing you set out to destroy."

But what if the alternative was watching Oscar die?

Naruto made his choice.

With trembling hands, he reached into his inventory. The incomplete cursed seal.

"I promised Gato I'd show him what a true monster looked like," Naruto muttered, his voice hollow. "Guess I wasn't lying after all."

He drew out the black dragon scale. Slowly, deliberately, he pressed it into the center of the seal.

It hissed.

The scale didn't dissolve. It bled.

A single drop of ichor which was thick, oily, black as night... rose from it, trembling in the air before landing in Naruto's palm with a weight that felt cosmic.

Silence.

No roar of awakening. No flood of strength. Just… nothing.

Naruto laughed bitterly, the sound cracking. "Dammit… why did I believe that Mizuki, of all people, would get fuinjutsu right?"

He stood, jaw clenched, lips stained with the black ichor. No cursed power. No miraculous save. No help from gods or sensei.

Only Naruto and his will.

He spat blood onto the dirt.

"Then we do this the hard way," he growled, pulling out the Estus. "Even if I have to destroy myself… if it gives Oscar even a second to escape, I'll fight you with everything I've got."

He looked up.

Havel had stopped, mace raised.

A god of stone.

Naruto raised his fists. "I don't care if you're a god," he whispered. "I'll be your damn reckoning if you scratch even a scale of my friend."

He drank the Estus in one desperate gulp. Golden fire surged through his veins, knitting skin, reweaving muscle, mending fractures. Even the cursed arm reformed, its corrupted sinews smoothing under the balm of sacred flame.

And yet… he staggered.

Something was wrong.

A sound bloomed, quiet at first, but unmistakable.

Thump.

Then again.

Thump.

A heartbeat but not his. No... it was his.

That was the horror.

The rhythm was his own, but it no longer beat for him.

His cursed arm convulsed. The skin rippled like disturbed water, then tore as if rejecting its own shape. Black veins bulged, writhing up his bicep like ink bleeding beneath skin. His fingers cracked backward, joints popping like snapped twigs. Nails split. Bone split. Reality split. His forearm peeled, skin curling away like burned parchment. What emerged beneath was not flesh.

It was obsidian.

No.

It was scale.

Flame crawled up the limb. Not red. Not orange. A jaundiced black flame, flecked with sickly violet, flickering like dying starlight... light too old to belong to any sun.

And then an eye opened in the palm of his hand.

Slitted. Vertical. Unblinking. Reptilian.

But deeper than any lizard's eye had the right to be. It saw through him.

[Cursed Arm is reacting to Dragon Blood.]

[The Witch's Lord Soul is reacting.]

[The Shard of Life has absorbed the blood of the Calamity Dragon.]

Then came the pain.

Not pain of blade, nor brand, nor fire. No. This pain had no name. It was the kind of pain that whispered secrets into marrow. It coiled through time and ancestry. It remembered things Naruto never lived and forced him to feel them as if he had.

He dropped to his knees. Armor instinctively breaking apart, unequipped by the system or perhaps by some ancient will. His breath hitched.

Then stopped.

His lungs refused the air. His chest burned. His spine arched, bones cracking in sequence. Vertebrae unspooled like the teeth of a gear. Underneath his skin, things moved... not organs. Not blood. Not human. His limbs twitched in unnatural rhythm. Not resistance. Reconfiguration. His joints dislocated. Slid. Rehooked. Shifted.

No scream left his lips. It was beyond screams now. Beyond mortal suffering. This was ritual, not agony.

The eye in his palm pulsed... slow and wet, as if it had just awoken from a dream carved in stone and ash. His arm split further, rib-like bones growing from beneath, blooming like obsidian flowers. The flame danced up his shoulder. Violet and gold. Memory and death. Chaos and calamity.

Fangs pushed through his gums. Jagged. Primal. They retracted before he could bite down on his own tongue.

His legs convulsed... not to run.

To pounce.

Then, across his vision, sliding like the shutter of a lens, came a third eyelid.

His heartbeat stuttered. Paused. Resumed. But it was not his heartbeat alone.

Now, something else beat with it. A second heartbeat.

The choice of the world itself. And in that choice, the shape of all things began to shift... quietly, subtly, like the edge of a page turning in a book no one remembered writing.

From beneath his flesh, something eternal stirred.

The chaos of the Witch of Izalith merged now with the blood of the Calamity Dragon.

With chakra fueling this profane union, something impossible opened its eyes.

Ironic, isn't it?

The gods who burned the dragons to ash.

The humans they cursed for walking where gods feared to tread.

The undead they hunted for daring to evolve.

And now… here knelt a boy.

Not born of flame but cradled in it.

Not chosen by gods but rejected by them.

A child from another world. A soul cursed twice. And now… a being death could not claim.

Because death does not come for dragons. It flees them.

And from this place, on this night, something new was born.

Not a weapon.

Not a monster.

Not a demon.

But a Truth in scales and ash.

An Everlasting Dragon. No longer mindless. No longer bound.

This one would walk. This one would speak. This one would choose. And the world, both old and new, would shudder because Chaos and Calamity had met.

And they had given birth to something the gods forgot how to kill.

The First of Three had opened its eyes.

The dragon and it was still hungry.

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Author Note: This chapter was a beast to write. Honestly, I rewrote entire sections multiple times just chasing a single feeling—that it felt right. That it felt earned. So, if you noticed something different in the pacing, the prose, the emotion… I hope the love, the sweat, and the hours I poured into it came through.

Because this chapter mattered. A lot.

Now let's talk about what you're all probably here for:

Q: Everlasting Dragon Naruto

Let's be real. This was the moment many of you saw coming. Or at least felt was coming, even if you couldn't put it into words. And that's because I've been setting it up since Chapter 1.

You've seen the phrase "chaos meets calamity" repeated over and over. That wasn't just poetic dressing. It was foreshadowing in plain sight.

When Naruto told Capra he wouldn't become a demon but a dragon, that was a roadmap.

When he promised Gato he'd show him a true monster, that wasn't just rage. It was prophecy.

When Beatrice recited that cryptic little poem, that was your omen.

And when the narrator said Kakashi would meet Naruto again and he wouldn't be human the next time, that was your final warning.

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Q: How did Naruto become an Everlasting Dragon?

A: Through the union of Chaos and Calamity.

Let's unpack that.

In Dark Souls lore, the Witch of Izalith tried to recreate the First Flame. The result? Demons. Humanoid beings twisted into monsters by the Chaos Flame. You've seen the results. Quelaag. The Fair Lady. The Capra Demon. Corruption wearing flesh.

But Naruto's path split.

Corrupted by Chaos, yes. But instead of falling into demonhood, he transcended. He became a Calamity Dragon, a being born not from pride or sin, but from suffering and refusal to break.

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Q: Where did the Chaos Flame come from?

Naruto's pyromancy flame is more than it seems.

It's not just a spark. It's a fragment of the Witch of Izalith's own Lord Soul. That's why, when he channeled it into chakra paper, it created life. From the beginning, Naruto had a piece of life itself burning in his hands.

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Q: Why Mizuki's cursed seal?

Confession time. This entire fanfic began with a single idea: What if Naruto became an Everlasting Dragon?

Back in the day, there was a Naruto filler arc where Mizuki gets a cursed seal and turns into a weird tiger furry. Kind of goofy. But that concept stuck with me. A cursed mark that mutates the body. In the earliest drafts of this story, I used that idea as the trigger for Naruto's dragon traits.

As the story matured and I read deeper into Dark Souls lore, I knew I needed something more. Something that earned the transformation.

So the lore evolved.

Now, it's not the seal that caused the change. It's the Chaos Flame and Dragon Blood reacting to each other. But I didn't want to erase the cursed seal completely. It was part of the story's DNA. So instead, I repurposed it.

The cursed mark catalyzed the dragon scale, transforming it into a drop of true dragon blood. Not the cause, but the ignition.

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Q: Is Naruto possessed by a dragon or what?

Great question. One I'm sure some of you are wondering after this chapter.

Let's be clear: Naruto is not possessed by a dragon. Naruto is not the host of a dragon.

Naruto is a dragon.

Much like Quelaag, whose body was transformed by chaos into something monstrous, Naruto's body has undergone a similar transformation. Except his path didn't end in demonhood.

It led to something older. Stranger. More permanent.

He is now an Everlasting Dragon. Not by birth. Not by pact. But by corruption. By choice.

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Q: Why now? Isn't this too early for a power-up?

Completely fair concern. But I want to be honest with you. I have a specific story I want to tell. And for that story to work, this had to happen now.

Yes, it's early in the timeline. We're still in the Wave Arc. And yes, Everlasting Dragon Naruto is overpowered.

But that power? It's not a gift. It's a curse he doesn't understand. A form he can't control.

This isn't like the Kyuubi, where he just needs to befriend Kurama to unlock it.

This is a long, grueling journey.

Naruto will have to discover what it means to be an Everlasting Dragon. The metaphysics. The madness. The soul-deep consequences of being something the world was never meant to hold. And that's not even touching on the scales. Yes, he has to find his scales.

This chapter wasn't the end of an arc. It was the beginning of something larger, darker, and stranger.

And now the only question that matters is this.

Can the Shinobi world survive what crawled out of Lordran?

Also, before anyone asks: Yes, Naruto can revert to human form. He just has to kill himself to do it.

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Q: Who is Havel the Rock?

Let's talk lore.

Havel the Rock was a legendary warrior who fought under Gwyn. He hunted dragons to the point where his armor is made from their actual scales, and his weapon is literally the tooth of a dragon.

In Dark Souls 1, the version of Havel we fight isn't all that powerful in gameplay. But in the lore, Havel is a monster. The kind of being who almost overthrew the gods. There's even a popular theory among lore nerds that the Havel trapped in the watchtower is a fake. But this is my story. So I put the real Havel in.

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Next Chapter Preview Two knights. One battlefield.

Havel the Rock — the knight who carved dragons into armor vs Naruto — the knight who became one. It's going to be brutal. It's going to be personal. It's going to matter. Because Naruto has shifted the balance of the world.

Thank you for reading. Let me know what you thought about the twist, the transformation, or anything else in the chapter.

I'm open to questions, ideas, and wild theories. Hit me with them.

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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.

As always, thanks for reading.

— Adam

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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 82, 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!