The walls of Naruto's apartment breathed.
Not literally—yet the peeling wallpaper seemed to ripple whenever he turned his back. Shadows stretched too long across the floorboards, pooling around his feet like spilled ink. For three nights now, he'd dreamt of that impossible castle on cliffs, of a sword that could split the horizon.
Tonight, he didn't sleep.
Naruto sat facing the moonlit window, his newly acquired wakizashi across his lap. The cheap steel gleamed dully, a poor imitation of the blade in his dreams. His fingers traced the edge, pressing just hard enough to draw beads of blood.
"Pathetic."
The voice wasn't his. It rumbled through his bones like distant thunder.
Outside, a crow landed on the windowsill—its left eye gleaming an unnatural red.
---
Academy Classroom - Next Morning
"Special kunai drills today," Iruka announced, his bandaged arm stiff as he wrote on the chalkboard. "Pair up and—"
The words died in his throat.
Naruto wasn't at his usual back corner desk. Instead, the boy stood before the weapon rack, staring at the practice swords with that unsettling focus.
"Naruto." Iruka kept his voice carefully neutral. "Take your seat."
For a heartbeat, nothing happened. Then slowly—too slowly—Naruto turned.
The morning light caught his eyes wrong.
Where blue irises should have been, thin amber slits stared back.
Half the class recoiled. Shikamaru Nara's chess piece slipped from suddenly numb fingers. Hinata Hyuga's Byakugan activated on instinct.
Iruka's hand drifted toward his kunai pouch. "Naruto...?"
The moment broke. Naruto blinked, his eyes normal again. He shuffled to his seat without a word.
No one mentioned the deep claw marks suddenly gouged into the weapon rack's wooden frame.
---
Hokage Tower - Emergency Meeting
"His chakra signature fluctuates unpredictably," Inoichi Yamanaka reported, sweat beading on his brow. "I attempted a standard mindwalk and... something *pushed back*."
Hiruzen's pipe hovered forgotten. "The Kyuubi?"
"No." Inoichi's hands trembled. "This was different. Older. Like trying to read a stone monument that's been weathered by centuries of storms." He met the Hokage's gaze. "There's something inside that boy that doesn't belong to this world."
Anko Mitarashi leaned forward, her serpentine smile gone. "Let me take him to Torture and Interrogation. We'll carve out whatever's—"
"Absolutely not." Hiruzen's fist hit the desk hard enough to crack the wood. "We don't even know what we're dealing with. For now, ANBU surveillance doubles. No direct contact unless he exhibits overt hostility."
As the meeting adjourned, the Third Hokage stared at the latest surveillance photo—Naruto's shadow cast against the Academy wall, far taller and broader than it should be, with what looked like the outline of a massive sword.
---
Uchiha Compound - Midnight
Itachi found his little brother in the training yard at 2:17 AM, practicing sword forms that made no sense.
"Sasuke."
The younger Uchiha whirled, practice blade raised in a guard position no Konoha style taught. His pupils were dilated, his breathing ragged.
"I saw him again," Sasuke whispered. "The man with the yellow eyes. He was standing behind Naruto today. Just... watching."
Itachi's sharingan spun to life. "Show me."
When their foreheads touched, Itachi saw:
_A moon split vertically by a single cut.
A castle of bleached bones.
And towering above it all, a silhouette with gleaming eyes—
—holding a blade blacker than the void between stars._
Itachi broke the connection with a gasp. His mangekyou spun wildly, reacting to something even it couldn't comprehend.
"Don't look at him anymore," Itachi ordered, voice uncharacteristically strained. "Don't even think his name."
---
Training Ground 44 - Edge of the Forest
Naruto stood knee-deep in the Naka River, his wakizashi flashing under the moonlight. Each cut sent water arcing in perfect sheets that hung suspended for a heartbeat too long.
On the bank, his shadow stretched up the trees—wrong, all wrong. Too tall. Too broad. Wielding a sword that didn't exist.
The river's current shifted around him, forming unnatural whirlpools. Fish floated belly-up, their gills cut by water turned briefly sharp as glass.
"Good."
The voice vibrated through his bones again.
Naruto didn't notice his own lips moving in response:
"Show me more."
Above him, storm clouds twisted into the shape of a grinning skull.
---
To Be Continued...