The Academy training grounds smelled of freshly turned earth and iron. Twenty children stood paired for sparring, their wooden practice weapons trembling in nervous hands. All except one.
Naruto Uzumaki stood motionless, his chipped bokken resting against his shoulder. Across from him, Kiba Inuzuka shifted uneasily, Akamaru whining at his feet.
"Alright, begin!" Iruka's voice cracked through the air.
Kiba lunged first—fast for his age, teeth bared in a feral grin. His wooden kunai stabbed toward Naruto's ribs in a move that had won him three previous matches.
Then everything went wrong.
Naruto's sword moved.
Not in the wild swings of a child, but in a single vertical arc so fast it whistled. Wood met wood with a *crack* that echoed across the field.
Kiba's weapon shattered.
The boy barely had time to gasp before Naruto's follow-up strike—a horizontal slash aimed straight for his throat.
Iruka moved on instinct, his body slamming between them just in time. The bokken's tip grazed the teacher's forearm instead, tearing through fabric and skin.
A line of red appeared on Iruka's arm.
Silence swallowed the training ground.
Naruto stood frozen, his blade still extended. His normally sharp blue eyes had gone... wrong. The pupils thin and vertical. Not like the Kyuubi's, but like a bird of prey spotting movement.
Iruka's blood dripped onto the dirt between them.
---
Infirmary - Ten Minutes Later
The medic-nin's hands glowed green over Iruka's wound. "This is... unusual."
Mizuki leaned closer. "What?"
"The cut." The medic traced the injury with a trembling finger. "It's too clean. A wooden practice sword shouldn't be able to make an incision this precise. It's almost like..."
"Like what?"
"Like the edge was sharper than steel."
Across the room, Naruto sat perfectly still under ANBU guard, staring at his hands. They'd taken his bokken away. It didn't matter. He could still feel the phantom weight of a black blade in his grip.
---
Hokage Tower - That Evening
Hiruzen Sarutobi examined the broken practice sword on his desk. The grain of the wood had splintered in impossible patterns—as if the blade had been subjected to forces far beyond a child's strength.
"And the sensei's wound?"
"Almost surgical in precision," the ANBU reported. "The medics confirmed—no chakra was used. Just... the cut."
The Third Hokage stroked his beard. "Has the boy said anything?"
"Only one thing, Hokage-sama. When they took the sword away, he whispered..." The ANBU hesitated. "'It's not sharp enough yet.'"
Outside, storm clouds gathered over Konoha.
---
Uchiha Compound - Night
Sasuke Uchiha woke screaming.
Itachi was at his side in an instant, sharingan spinning. "Little brother?"
"The dream..." Sasuke gasped, clutching his sheets. "There was a man... with yellow eyes... and a black sword..."
Itachi's grip tightened. "What sword?"
Sasuke's voice dropped to a terrified whisper.
"The one that cut the moon in half."
---
Naruto's Apartment - Same Night
The boy sat cross-legged on his bed, staring at the wall where no shadows should have been moving.
Yet they did.
Darkness pooled and twisted like ink in water, forming shapes of towering cliffs and a castle of bones. A silhouette stood at the center—tall, impossibly broad-shouldered, with gleaming golden eyes.
Naruto's lips moved without sound:
"Teach me."
The shadow raised an arm. A blade longer than a man formed from swirling darkness.
When Naruto's hand mimicked the grip, his fingers bled anew.
---
To Be Continued...