The rain fell over Konoha as if the sky itself were crying for a fate already written. Inside the hospital, the lights flickered, and the air was thick with tension. The firstborn son of the village's hero—the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze—and the Bloody Habanero of Uzushiogakure, Kushina Uzumaki, had just been born.
"Is it… normal that I can't feel his chakra?" Tsunade asked, frowning as she looked at the baby.
Minato swallowed hard. He held the child in his arms, waiting to feel the familiar warmth of chakra. But there was nothing. Only an eerie silence. A void.
"Maybe it's just suppressed," Kushina murmured, sweating and exhausted. "He's only a baby…"
But the looks on their faces said it all. The boy had no chakra. He couldn't feel it, couldn't mold it. It was as if he'd been born broken.
Weeks later, the twins Arashi and Hikari came into the world. Strong. Radiant. Overflowing with chakra. So much so that Kurama was split in two halves and sealed within them.
The village celebrated. The Uzumaki clan called them miracles. The Council hailed them as heirs to the most glorious lineage.
And Naruto… Naruto was forgotten.
Years passed.
On the streets of Konoha, a blond-haired boy with a dirty face walked with his head down, wearing tattered clothes and no shoes. His name was Naruto Namikaze. But no one called him that. To everyone, he was "the weird brother." "The useless one." "The boy without chakra."
"You're still here?!" one shopkeeper shouted when he saw him. "Get lost, monster!"
Naruto flinched. He was hungry. He hadn't eaten since yesterday. At home, food was always for the other two. Always for them. Arashi trained with Minato. Hikari studied seals with Kushina. And him… he was just a shadow.
His parents barely looked at him. They said they loved him, but love didn't fill an empty stomach. Love didn't heal bruises. Not when Arashi "accidentally" broke his things. Not when Hikari pushed him and everyone laughed like it was just a game.
"You're just doing this for attention," Kushina would say when he cried.
"Act like the older brother, Naruto," Minato would scold. "Be strong for them."
But who was strong for him?
One night, Naruto sat beneath an old tree at the edge of the village. His eyes searched the stars for something. Hope. A reason why.
"Why was I born like this?" he whispered. "What did I do wrong?"
The night breeze gave no answer. But someone else did.
"You did nothing wrong, child."
An old man with hair white as the moon appeared from the shadows. His presence was strange, as if time itself bent around him. His golden eyes glowed with wisdom and compassion.
"Who are you?" Naruto asked, too tired to be afraid.
"A traveler. One who has seen many eras… and many injustices. But tonight, I came for you."
The old man sat beside him and placed a hand on his chest.
"There is no chakra here, that's true. But there is something else. Something older. Something greater. A force forgotten by this world."
Naruto looked at him, confused.
"A force?"
"Yes. Ki, mana, magic… even chakra. They are all manifestations of the same energy. But you, Naruto, are an empty vessel. And that makes you perfect. You can master what others can't even perceive."
Naruto frowned in doubt.
"But if I don't have chakra, I can't be a ninja…"
The old man smiled.
"And that is the best thing that could have happened to you."
Elsewhere in the world, far from Konoha, the sage Jiraiya awoke in a cold sweat. The Great Toad of Mount Myōboku had spoken to him in a dream:
"The child born of the Yellow Flash and the Bloody Habanero will conquer Draegor, the Eternal Dragon, and awaken the power that transcends chakra itself. He will decide the fate of the world."
Jiraiya wrote it all down. His mind didn't waver. Minato and Kushina had two powerful children, each carrying half of Kurama. Arashi or Hikari. He would train them. Guide them.
Naruto's name was never even mentioned.
Five years later, the boy was no longer a boy. He was a teenager with sharp eyes and a strong body, forged by discipline, hardship… and energy.
He traveled with the old man—whose name was Shinkō—through sacred mountains, sealed ruins, and forgotten temples. He learned to breathe with the universe, to feel the flow of Ki, to summon raw magic from mana, to absorb chakra without ever having it himself.
And deep within a dormant mountain, sealed for thousands of years, he found Draegor, the Eternal Dragon.
"You have arrived, boy without chakra," the dragon's voice thundered in his mind. "You are the void… and that is why you can contain everything."
Naruto walked toward those golden eyes without fear. He didn't know if he was the chosen one. He didn't know if he was worthy.
"I don't want to be a god," he whispered. "I just want to be… enough."
Draegor roared with a power that split the heavens.
"Then take my flame… and make it yours."
And so, the forgotten son, the boy without chakra, the outcast… became the Heir of Primordial Energy.
Meanwhile, in Konoha, the Genin exams drew near.
Arashi and Hikari were the village's pride. Prodigies without equal. Minato watched them with pride. Kushina smiled with motherly satisfaction. Satsuki Uchiha, brilliant and cruel, ruled the academy with the confidence of someone who knew the world was already hers.
And no one remembered the third child.
No one… until the heavens thundered, and a shadow descended upon Konoha with golden eyes and the soul of a dragon.
The true heir had returned.