Night had slowly fallen over Brooklyn, drowning the rooftops in a muffled silence.
Inside their apartment, the air was warm. Comforting. A dim light flickered in the corner of the room, casting the overlapping shadows of two silhouettes asleep under a shared blanket.
Naruto opened his eyes first.
He hadn't really slept.
He never truly did, not since he had left Konoha. But this night, he hadn't stayed awake out of caution.
He had stayed awake... for her.
Natasha was sleeping soundly, her breathing steady, her brow relaxed. A strand of red hair had fallen over her closed eyelids.
Naruto watched her quietly.
Each day spent by her side had been a harder battle than any shinobi mission.
Not against her.
Against himself.
He didn't fully understand everything he was feeling yet.
But he knew it was real.
And that it hurt. Softly. Pointlessly.
Like a root growing through stone.
She woke up half an hour later.
Her eyes opened slowly, as if she were leaving a dream she hadn't wanted to exit.
— "Watching me again?" she whispered.
Naruto smiled.
— "You sleep weird."
— "I'm a spy."
— "And I'm a ninja."
They shared a knowing look.
Then she sat up.
Naruto noticed the faint tension in her abdomen.
A stiff movement. A discreet sigh.
He frowned.
— "Are you in pain?"
She looked away.
— "It's nothing. An old ache. Forget it."
He stayed silent for a moment.
Then said:
— "Can I help you?"
She stared at him.
For a long time.
— "You really want to know?"
Naruto nodded.
So she spoke.
— "I can't have children, Naruto. The program they trained me in… they took that from me. Surgically. Not just to stop me from being a mother. But to take the choice away."
A suffocating silence followed.
Naruto didn't look away.
He wasn't judging. He didn't understand everything, but he heard her.
She continued:
— "It's not motherhood that I miss. It's the right to choose. To have that power within me. Even if I never used it."
Naruto stayed silent.
Then slowly lowered his eyes to his hand.
Palm open. Just for a moment.
And from his flesh, a translucent green sprout emerged. Alive. Vibrant. Filled with vital chakra.
He murmured, almost to himself:
— "Maybe I can give it back to you."
She stared, frozen.
— "What?"
— "My power… it doesn't just control nature. It heals. It rebuilds. It can regrow a scorched forest… So why not repair what they took from you?"
She remained still. Breath caught.
— "You think…"
He looked up at her.
— "I'm not promising anything. But if you want… I'll try."
And in that suspended moment, something shifted.
Not just gratitude. Not just tenderness.
Raw trust.
An open wound. A hand extended.
And Natasha… took it
It was raining.
Not outside — but in the heart of the room.
In the air. In the silence. In the restrained breaths.
Natasha sat on the bed, her back straight, fists clenched on her thighs.
Naruto knelt in front of her.
Between them, not a word.
But centuries of pain.
—
— "Are you sure you want to do this?" she whispered.
Naruto looked up.
— "Only if you do."
She remained silent.
Then slowly nodded.
He didn't ask anything else.
No questions.
He unfolded his jacket. Removed his forehead protector.
And simply placed his palm over the lower part of her stomach, through the fabric.
The green chakra awakened — soft, pulsing, silent.
And the past… rose up.
Red Room. 1992.
Natasha was 10 years old.
She hadn't cried in a long time.
She had learned to keep her eyes open even when she was hit. To smile when tested. To kill when ordered.
And one day, they strapped her to a table.
— "Why?" she asked, unflinching.
A nameless doctor smiled.
— "Because women get pregnant. And we don't have the luxury of letting our soldiers form attachments."
The scalpel didn't tremble.
Neither did she.
But when she woke up… the emptiness was there.
She hadn't fully understood what they had taken from her.
Not at first.
It was only years later, in the dark times, that she began to feel the absence. That silence in her body. That impossibility.
And she had learned to never think about it.
Until now.
— "Do you feel anything?" Naruto asked gently.
The chakra slid beneath her skin, painless.
Just a strange warmth, deep inside.
— "Like a light. Very far away," she murmured.
— "That's you."
She frowned.
— "What?"
— "It's not me repairing you. It's your body. I'm just… reminding it of something it was forbidden to believe was possible."
A silence.
A single tear slipped down her cheek without her noticing.
She didn't brush it away.
— "I remember everything," she said softly.
— "You don't have to tell me."
— "I want someone to know. Just once."
Naruto didn't respond.
He listened.
—
— "I was trained to kill. To seduce. To betray. I've worn dozens of faces. But never my own."
— "Your real one?"
— "I don't know what that is. Maybe the one you see now. Tired. Fragile."
— "It's beautiful," Naruto murmured.
She gave a small laugh.
— "You don't have to flatter me."
— "I'm not flattering. I see."
He continued, gently.
His chakra flowed like an ancient balm. The Mokuton pulsed faintly beneath his skin, resonating with his emotions.
[Latent Ability Activated: Targeted Cellular Stimulation – Soft Internal Plant Grafting.]
Naruto felt something.
Not growth.
But an awakening.
A forgotten organ. A bodily memory erased.
And yet…
present.
He looked up.
— "Your body remembers."
She stared at him.
— "And it can… repair itself?"
— "It already is."
Minutes passed in silence.
Naruto slowly withdrew his hand. He was pale. Drained.
But satisfied.
— "I'll need to do it again. Several times. Slowly."
— "And if it works?" she whispered.
He placed a hand on her cheek.
— "Then the choice you thought you lost… will be yours again."
She closed her eyes.
And for the first time in twenty years…
she felt like she existed.
Not as a weapon.
Not as a spy.
But as a woman.
.
— Point of view: Natasha Romanoff —
Brooklyn, 24 hours earlier. 1:32 a.m.
Location: New York, Stark Tower
Date: Three days before Tony Stark's military demonstration in Afghanistan
In the upper floors of Stark Tower, the world still shimmered with arrogance.
Tony Stark ruled over steel and innovation like a modern-day prince. Scientists bustled through corridors. Journalists loitered by the entrance. And the military quietly prepared—contracts, cases, weapons.
But at the very top… someone was watching.
Natasha Romanoff.
Officially: temporary security advisor.
Unofficially: SHIELD observer, assigned to monitor the growing concerns around Stark Industries.
But that night, Tony Stark wasn't the one troubling her.
A breach.
An electromagnetic pulse.
An unidentified energy signature, appearing on the rooftop without warning, without logic.
And a boy.
When she reached the rooftop, it wasn't a mutant. Nor an alien. Nor a weapon.
It was a young man. Barefoot. Eyes sharp as razors.
And something in the air around him…
made the entire tower hum.
This boy — Naruto Uzumaki, as he introduced himself — didn't belong to this world.
And yet, he understood its pain better than most.
He had arrived with a quiet fury, a sharpened body, and systems embedded into his very soul.
And that night, without realizing it…
Natasha Romanoff had lowered her guard.
Just a little.
In the days that followed — before Tony Stark's departure for his military showcase — Natasha discreetly took Naruto under her wing.
She placed him in a secure safehouse in Brooklyn. Away from SHIELD's radar. Away from Stark's curiosity.
Naruto had no interest in suits of armor. But he looked at Stark Tower like it was a symbol.
A rich man. Surrounded. Respected. Loved.
And yet… just as hollow as him.
Two months passed in the shadows of the technological world.
While Tony played with weapons and celebrity, Natasha and Naruto lived together in calculated silence.
Global tensions rose. Weapons traded hands. The foundation of coming chaos grew closer.
And the two of them…
They were learning how to exist.
Naruto's chakra — foreign to this universe — began to subtly disrupt the technological fabric of the Marvel world.
Certain systems reacted to his presence.
And one night, while he was healing Natasha, his power synchronized with human biological frequencies.
---
[Ability Unlocked: Restorative Cellular Stimulation (Deep Organic Level)]
[Intervention Scope: Damaged tissues, atrophied DNA, suppressed or inactive organs.]
---
And for the first time, Natasha felt…
her body respond.