Naruto slapped the Omnitrix symbol. Light flashed, bones expanded, and he gasped as his normal twelve-year-old body returned. The loss of Gray Matter's intelligence felt like going blind—but at least his thoughts were his own again.
"Okay," he panted, slumping against the desk. Sunlight warmed his face as he tried to process everything. "What do I know?"
He closed his eyes, sorting through the memory fragments. His previous life, watching Naruto as anime. This life, living it as reality. And now, Gray Matter's analytical perspective on both.
"This world... it's like the show I watched, but not identical. The Omnitrix proves that." He touched the device on his wrist, noting how it had seamlessly integrated with his orange jacket. "Which means I can't rely on future knowledge. Everything I think I know about what's coming... could be wrong."
The implications were terrifying. Sasuke's defection. Akatsuki's plans. The Fourth Shinobi War. All of it might unfold completely differently now.
But there was opportunity in that chaos.
"The Omnitrix gives me options the original Naruto never had. Aliens with powers that don't rely on chakra. Knowledge that comes from completely different paradigms." He flexed his fingers, remembering the sensation of Gray Matter's enhanced intelligence. "I just need to be careful not to lose myself in the process."
A darker thought crept in. And I need to figure out why someone—probably my father—wanted me to have this power. What did he know that made him think I'd need it?
---
Naruto stared at his reflection in the window, the morning light making his whisker marks more prominent. Even in the brightness of day, he could feel the darkness coiled within him—the Nine-Tails sealed in his gut.
"The fox..." he whispered.
Gray Matter's memories provided context his normal mind never could have grasped. Genetic templates. DNA scanning. Biological separation and reconstruction.
"What if... what if I could isolate it? The Kyūbi's chakra signature is woven into my DNA, but the Omnitrix works with genetic material. If I could map my original genetic code versus the modified version..."
His heart raced with possibility and terror. The Nine-Tails wasn't just a power source—it was a sentient being of immense malevolence. But Gray Matter's clinical analysis suggested it might be treatable as simply another biological puzzle to solve.
"Separate the fox's influence from my body. Store its pattern in the Omnitrix database. Maybe even..." He paused, the idea almost too radical to voice. "Maybe even access its power as a transformation, but under my control instead of its."
The plan was elegant in its simplicity and horrifying in its implications. Success would free him from the demon's influence while potentially granting him its abilities. Failure... failure might kill him or worse, give the Kyūbi direct access to alien technology.
"I need more practice first. Need to understand the Omnitrix's limits." He glanced at the device, noting how naturally it had bonded to his physiology. "And I need to figure out if this thing has any kind of... consciousness. Any agenda of its own."
---
Naruto sat cross-legged by his window, watching the village come alive with morning activity. People heading to work, children playing in the streets—all of them unaware of what had transpired in this small apartment. The stolen Forbidden Scroll lay carefully hidden beneath loose floorboards. The Omnitrix had dimmed to a soft orange glow, apparently in some kind of standby mode.
Three sets of memories swirled in his head like competing currents: Hiroshi Tanaka, the anime fan from Earth. Naruto Uzumaki, the lonely jinchūriki. And fragments of Gray Matter's vast knowledge base.
"So I'm a reincarnated fan with memories of a show that might not even be accurate anymore, living in the body of a demon container, with access to alien technology that could reshape this entire world." He laughed, but there was no humor in it. "Great. Just... fantastic."
The weight of it all should have crushed him. Instead, he felt oddly calm. Maybe it was residual Galvan logic, or maybe it was just Naruto's natural resilience, but he could handle this.
I have to handle this.
"First priority: master the Omnitrix without losing myself. Second: gather intelligence on how this world differs from what I remember. Third..." He touched his whisker marks thoughtfully. "Figure out what my father knew, and why he thought I'd need this power."
The device pulsed softly, as if acknowledging his resolve.
"And if that doesn't work out," he added with his first genuine smile since the transformation, "I'll just wing it. Wouldn't be the first time."
Outside his window, Konoha bustled with morning energy, the village unaware that one of its most unpredictable residents had just become infinitely more dangerous—and infinitely more valuable.
---