I now wanted to try out that void flame. I now actually have a tab called Call. I opened it to see the option.
Flame of the Call
Small - 100SS/s
Half Capacity -1000SS/s
Max Capacity - 10000SS/s
That was bound to be expensive. Especially since I didn't have enough SS to even trigger the best one. I guess the system did use up its own reserves too the last time. I decided on the small one. I wanted to conserve SS. And I also had to destroy everything else that was restricting me. I made a plan and opened it.
Blue flame emerged in my hand as the SS began plummeting. Flickering and cackling. As if it were also burning the very air itself. I quickly touched all the seals on my body, reducing them to dust. By the end, I had consumed almost 900SS. Curiously, the flame didn't burn me. It didn't even feel warm. And then I waited.
A few hours later, we stopped. An hour later, the door opened. We were in the forest. A Konoha shinobi respectfully greeted me. "Sir, we have prepared the food." I was confused. "I see. I'll get down." I replied.
What's happening? Why are they being so respectful? I mean, these were my prisoner escort, right? Why were they treating me like a full-service escort client? I got down to see the camp being prepped. This was a caravan. Taking back stuff and people to Konoha. There was a fire prepared near my carriage. Meat was roasting on it.
"What exactly happened?" I asked the guy who looked in charge of guarding my carriage. Honestly, there were 5 proper squads just on mine, while the rest of the whole caravan had 5 squads.
The captain looked up. "You don't remember either?"
-----
Apparently, nobody remembered any of my actions in the past 24 hours. These Shinobi only remembered getting orders from Tsunade to escort this carriage to Konoha and not to let anyone interfere. To them, suddenly, I was just here. They noticed my presence a few hours ago when I coughed.
I tracked back all those who were in the caravan that I had met yesterday. Nobody remembered anything about me. In fact, the medic who had identified me during the quest also refused the fact that he had seen me yesterday. He remembered saving the boy, though. Just couldn't remember who brought him to him. But people remembered me working with them yesterday. So the memory distortion started sometime when I was saving the boy.
Even the Fuinjutsu masters I had met yesterday did not remember any hidden vault. They did tell me about a sudden underground chamber with two doors, one melted one intact that had opened out of nowhere. But since the thing on the pedestal was missing. There was a circular of theft going around.
This was crazy. That Oblivion tag was crazy. Should I run when my guards have forgotten that I'm a prisoner? Then I remembered. Range. The system was insistent on it. Does that mean that the Konoha Shinobis back at base were also affected? Doesn't that mean that I got away scot-free?
What kind of broken ability was this? What the hell?
-----
When we got back to the village, an investigation was launched. Apparently, the reports about why I was riding in an Uzumaki containment carriage were now blank. At least I assumed they were. Nobody asked me anything about anything.
But since the carriage was used for both containment and protection, they couldn't tell if I was being contained or escorted. Their bet was escorted as a contained individual would have his chakra sealed and limbs bound. But I had been free. And there had been no chains and seals in the carriage. And the only out-of-the-ordinary fact about me was the rescue of the boy. But nothing related to how I ended up there.
The Yamanaka tried to read memories of a few Jonins at first. They were more resilient to mental damage. But nobody knew how I ended up in that carriage. I also harped on the same song. "I don't know either." The last thing, including me myself remembered of me, was the boy. An Anbu came forward that he had seen me leave the perimeter in a hurry and followed me to the boy. He saw me treat him and carry him back. He wasn't a medic, so he hadn't interfered. But he didn't remember seeing me meet up with the medic.
When the Yamanaka read my memory, the last 24 hours were shown blank. That meant I had used the card at the time when I was coming back, but before I met up with the Shinobis. And the system didn't show up in the ones before. Instead, it consumed all my remaining SS. And did something to the guy.
"I checked his whole life, sir. Except that day. Everything checks out. In fact, he is quite the diligent Shinobi among the ones I have seen. Completely in accordance with the file and data you provided me." Making them all even more confused. They knew by vague deductions that it had something to do with me or a few other shinobis on their radar. But nobody had any idea of exactly what happened and who did it. Honestly, they wouldn't even bother with me if not for the strange situations before and after the 24-hour period.
Hokage kept us under observation for a few days at the hospital. Then sent us back.
I knew that Anbu and Root would still follow us for a while at least. But I didn't really care at this point.
The whole thing was a mindfuck for everyone involved. They tried to check us for Genjutsu and drugs. But in the end, after finding nothing wrong with me or the rest of the Shinobi. We were let go. The minor detail about me slipping out got gobbled up into the ensuing shitstorm.
A few days later. I went on a bandit suppression mission with my team. And the whole thing was forgotten.