Chapter 58

Leaving the meeting, Naruto met up with his teammates and found out about their decision. It was within his expectations since he wasn't all knowing and couldn't really teach them about various things to the level that specialists could.

He had planned to guide them for awhile and then have them apprentice under powerful people. But, the kids were in a hurry and thought for themselves without waiting for his commands. He could understand their impatience and feelings of loss so he didn't stop them and encouraged them. He had lived a decade watching his friends lose their shine in the old world, so he wouldn't allow the same mistakes.

Henry's path was extremely necessary for the team and Naruto had high expectations for him. If the young man persisted and worked with zeal, he would be able to boost the team's power. It was a fact that the development team was the backbone of humanity with the creation of the digital cards, support programs and modifications.

Naruto expected a lot from Henry because of his personality and talent. With his help, Naruto expected to gain powerful cards and support programs in the future. There were also the modifications for the evolutions. Till now Naruto had been doing it alone with his knowledge, but Henry was much more suited to thinking about such things. Once the young man was ready, Naruto would be able to further modify his digimon and fully utilize his resources.

Moving on to Rika, Naruto believed in her and knew she was exceptional. The girl had yet to realize her talent because she was comparing to him. In the field of Fuinjutsu, Naruto was an expert by his world's standards. However, it was gained through a decade of experience and even then he was considered mid level in the current world. Rika hadn't known about his age before and even now she hadn't connected those dots together. In this field, Naruto hadn't really inherited his parent's talent. He was exceptional at ninjutsu, taijutsu and leadership but fuinjutsu, illusions, programming and other things like that were not his specialties. Regardless, he did keep himself informed to better understand because of his role as leader.

As such, Naruto gave her a call and informed Rika to focus on fuinjutsu since it was her talent. She would have found out after some time, but Naruto didn't want her to waste time. It was the right course for the young woman because her partner specialized in this field. Though, it was a truly harsh task to surpass the limitations of your evolution. Sakuyamon was powerful but still below the level of Royal Knights and Naruto's goal was beyond those levels now. Naruto considered it and conveyed that sentiment without pointing out the range that he aimed for now.

There was no doubt that Naruto could reach the level of the Royal Knights with his progress. It was especially true because Naruto had been close to the level of most of them at his peak, Large Planet Level plus. They were stronger and more skilled than him while also possessing terrifying techniques that his past wouldn't have really given them a challenge. However that was the past, and now Naruto had further enhanced his skills and learnt new techniques.

Getting back to Rika, Naruto wanted her to surpass his level and achieve her potential. With the help of fuinjutsu, the team would be further enhanced and it would help in multiple ways since this mystical art was legendary and without limits. With Sakuyamon's abilities, Rika would learn beyond him easily and support him confidently in battle. Naruto even planned to have Rika meet Sanzomon for help since she was one of the best in the field, even surpassing Sakuyamon.

Finally there was Takato, and his path was a surprise. The young man was a talented fighter so it was not a surprise that his digimon could reach Royal Knight Status. However, Naruto had trouble finding a path for him that could really allow him to shine above others. It was not easy to find what a person was suited to most of the time, so Naruto didn't make a judgment on his decision. The choice of becoming an artifact creator was unexpected but it was a powerful field.

The Sun Set that Naruto got was part of the field and it was more powerful than him. Even in the world, it was easy to see how useful such people could be to the ninja. Kisame was extremely powerful with his sword and many other warriors also utilized such items. It was an appropriate way to boost the power of warriors and it could also for unique evolutions.

It was a difficult field and Naruto couldn't tell how far Takato could go, but he decided to believe in his young friend.

With the serious talks out of the way, Naruto spent the day with the boys before watching them leave. It was the first time after so long that he was actually alone. However, that didn't last long as other members of his team finally arrived.

Juri with her Elecmon, Kazu Shioda with his Kokuwamon and Kenta with his Penguinmon finally arrived after finishing their one month with the digimon. These three weren't exceptional like the other three, but they were also good seeds. Regardless, he would have taught them things and allowed them to join his team since every warrior was necessary for humanity.

Naruto wasn't picky like the other groups where they shunned the weaker looking tamers because of the work required bringing them to an appropriate level. It was a task that Naruto was used to and he was capable of teaching multiple people at a time, plus he was extremely patient and understanding.

Nonetheless, the trio had the potential to have extremely strong mega digimon. Kazu's digimon could become Hi-Andromon, Kenta's could become Marine-Angemon and Juri could have a SaberLeomon. That was the potential of their digimon but since the trio desired to follow their friends on their journey and properly support them, they yearned to surpass these levels and evolve to the next rank.

That would mean BanchoLeomon, Craniummon (Royal Knight) and Fully Awakened Marine Angemon since Marine Angemon was already a powerful digimon with support skills.

With the arrival of the team mates, Naruto decided to guide them for a week or so before they formed a proper unit that could operate without him. Just like his friends, Naruto also needed to continue his training and couldn't waste time in a weak region.

Over these two weeks, Naruto was also joined by Kari who decided to follow him without joining his group. Unlike Rika, Kari had multiple paths to reaching Naruto's levels. The only difficulty was the present time and not the future.

She possessed the crest of light, so her digimon would be amped by the power of light to a degree that even Naruto would have trouble replicating the power up. Plus, her partner was Ophanimon and it was a transcendent Mega Digimon that could even be further enhanced to Ultra level.

However, it didn't mean that she wasn't working hard. Kari focused on healing for digimon and human, physical and mental. She was also training to fully awaken her crest and that was a difficult task since none of the older holders had done it either.

No one knew what the conditions for the crests decisions were and awakening, so everyone was searching blindly for the solution.

And, the final evolution was not set in stone as many had failed to reach their potential.

With Kari's presence, Naruto thought Rika would be annoyed and call him to check. However, the little girl grew up and acted calmly while focusing on her task. Rika decided to believe in her love and acted confident. She believed that Naruto would definitely choose her or he wouldn't have gotten so close over the month.

Kari wasn't the type to act so physical, so Rika also felt confident that she would keep the lead position. It was unfortunate that Naruto seemed to be leaning towards forming a harem, but Rika was still banking on taking his heart and satisfying his desire for affection.

The battle for Naruto was still going on as the man had yet to choose anyone, even as a trial run. It was not just some simple love story, but even political reasoning was applied. With a powerful candidate, organizations would start to pressurize them in to accepting various women for the sake of the world. Creating powerful children was one of the objectives of the tamers since their survival hinged on them.

People understood and accepted that the current world situation required such sacrifices. And, this method had worked wonders.

Kara was the prime example of the success and even Naruto himself was an example. While Kari was with Naruto, Tai left on a journey to the Dark Zone and left Yamato in charge of the group.

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The Dark Area was a jet-black, abyssal "graveyards of deleted data" full of evil energies, with each Digital World having its own Dark Area. One of the Dark Areas was governed by Plutomon, another was ruled by Helamon etc.

Though each Dark Area was separate, they were all connected to the Cocytus. There was only one Cocytus, with the location shared by every Dark Area, with Cocytus acting as the deepest layer within each Dark Area, connecting them all to each other. GranDracmon, Gulfmon, and the Seven Great Demon Lords have made the Cocytus their bases of operation. The Dark Area itself was a world, a dark universe.

The Dark Area, or more often its guiding ethos, is sometimes known as the "Dark Side", and the cunning and evildoing Digimon who have been lured into joining it are said to have been "won over to" or "tainted by" the Dark Side.

First and foremost, the Dark Area was the place to which Digimon were ultimately transmitted when their life span finished or they were defeated in battle, and was guarded and supervised by Anubismon and Thanatosmon who constantly surveyed the arriving data; if their data is good, it will reset them back to a Digi-Egg, but if they are evil, it imprisons them within the eternal darkness.

However, the chief nobility of the Dark Area, the Seven Great Demon Lords, were able to subvert this process, as their victims' data was instead sent to the heart of the Dark Area to become their flesh and blood. Furthermore, after the ancient failed rebellion of the Demon Lords Digimon against King Drasil, led by Lucemon and Daemon, the evil Digimon were imprisoned in the Dark Area along with many of the other Demon Lord Digimon. A long period of darkness followed this rebellion.

As a result of these two processes, the Dark Area was primarily inhabited by Fallen Digimon and their like, although it also contained Dark-species Digimon who were thought to descend from Vilemon, as well as species that fled the Digital World proper after being driven near to extinction. Due to the violence of the Dark Area, most of the indigenous Digimon have made brutal adaptations in order to stay alive, although some were merely exceedingly mischievous.

At the very heart of the Dark Area was a den of demonic Digimon, led by the nobility of the Dark Area, and also where several of the Seven Great Demon Lords reside or were sealed. Most of the nobility lead legions of the dark army of demons known as the "Nightmare Soldiers". However, the authority of the Seven Great Demon Lords was not absolute throughout the Dark Area, as GranDracmon kept a castle within it since ancient times, and was powerful enough that it need not submit to them.

Despite its purpose as a prison for evil Digimon, the walls were not sound. Conversely, some Digimon were able to cast their victims into the Dark Area through a "Hell Gate" or "Maw" and it was said that those who attempt to reach the Golden Land but fail Yatagarasumon and Golden Crowmon's "Threefold Trails" were dispatched to the Dark Area as well.

Dark Digimon often possessed "Dark Side Power" which could exploit the Dark Area's evil "Dark Energy". High purity Dark Side Power allowed Digimon like LadyDevimon to reverse the phase of the opponent's own power, incinerating their body and soul and removing any barrier to its vitality, while some of the Demon Lords were able to directly channel the Dark Energy in battle.

It was the most intense and battle heavy place in the digital world and even surpassed the difficulty of the net ocean. Most tamers would only remain close to the human base in the dark area which was led by the Spirit of Darkness and close to the gate to the proper digital world. However, Tai decided to venture forth without the intention of coming back without success. He decided to risk his existence for the chance to grow.

He told none of his location except his best friend/brother, Yamato.

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Time passed by normally and Naruto didn't expect anything special to take place over the course of the two weeks. However, he had some visitors from afar.

He was visited by the Bancho Digimon Group because his name had spread across the Digital World because of the Metal Empire. Everyone knew that Naruto was part of the main group that led humanity and was a potential General of the Human Side.

It meant that many people now had their eyes on him and his life would be in constant danger from the assassination attempts once he dared to venture outside of the city.