Part I: The Academy and the Fox
The first day of the Academy began, as most legends do, with absolute chaos.
Wooden practice shuriken flew. Chalk dust clouded the air. A teacher's patience was dying by the minute.
And in the middle of it all, one blond boy stood on a desk, grinning like he owned the world.
"Everyone's gonna remember the name Uzumaki Naruto! Believe it!"
"Sit down!" Iruka roared, already rubbing his temple.
Across the room, Ishi was quietly tying his blindfold tighter. He'd felt Naruto's chakra from the moment he walked in — wild, boiling, alive. It was unlike anything he'd sensed before. Every pulse of it made the air jitter, as if reality were holding its breath around him.
Naruto noticed him almost immediately, of course.The boy had radar for anyone different.
"Hey, hey! Blindfold guy!" he called, scrambling over desks until he was standing right in front of Ishi. "What's with that? You hiding super cool powers or something?"
Ishi tilted his head, amused. "Only when provoked by excessive decibels."
Naruto blinked. "Huh?"
"It means you're loud."
"Oh. Heh." Naruto grinned wider. "Then you do have powers!"
"Depends. Does sarcasm count?"
The class snickered. Even Iruka cracked a reluctant smile. Naruto pouted but didn't leave — he was hooked.
That was the beginning of it. Naruto followed Ishi everywhere after that — like a hyperactive shadow orbiting a calm moon. During lunch, he'd bring him on the roof to "see the village" (Ishi pretended). During shuriken practice, he'd brag endlessly until he hit a tree instead of the target — again.
At first, Ishi tolerated it out of boredom. But slowly, he found himself… entertained.
Naruto's laughter was bright in a way Ishi hadn't heard since his old life — unfiltered, stupid, real. When Naruto ranted about becoming Hokage, Ishi would smirk and respond with theatrical approval:
"Ambitious. Delusional. Ten out of ten."
Part II: The Uchiha's Shadow
Not everyone was so taken.
Sasuke Uchiha watched the two of them from the far side of the field, his expression unreadable. There was something about Ishi that disturbed him — not just the blindfold, but the feeling he gave off. Whenever Sasuke looked at him for too long, his Sharingan training sense tingled — like his own chakra was holding its breath.
After class one day, he finally approached.
"You fight too clean," Sasuke said simply. "Even blindfolded."
"I take that as a compliment."
"It wasn't one. You don't move like a kid."
Ishi tilted his head. "And you don't scowl like one, so I guess we're both miscast."
Sasuke's eyes narrowed, but there was curiosity behind the glare. "What are you hiding?"
"Wouldn't you like to know, pretty boy."
That threw him off. "Wh—?"
"Relax, it's a joke." Ishi smiled faintly. "Mostly."
Sasuke walked away, unsettled — but also intrigued.He didn't know yet that this "weird blindfolded kid" would become a mirror he couldn't stop staring into.
Part III: Dreams of Threads
That night, Ishi dreamed — and for the first time, it wasn't of his old life.
He was floating in darkness stitched with lines of light. Thousands of them, intersecting like a web. Some threads glowed warmly; others frayed and burned. He could hear whispers — voices of people he hadn't met yet. Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, Kakashi. Their fates shimmered like reflections on broken glass.
Then one line pulsed bright crimson.
When he touched it, the vision split.
He saw Naruto standing on a battlefield, older, cloaked in fire-like chakra — alone, screaming someone's name. Then the image twisted — the same Naruto, lifeless, the sky above him fractured like glass.
Two outcomes. Both possible. Both near.
"I can't unsee it," Ishi whispered in the dream. His eyes bled light.
"Then don't," a voice answered — the same one from the void."You are the loom, not the thread."
He woke with a gasp.
The blindfold was still on, but the room shimmered faintly — furniture outlined by threads of light only he could see. For a moment, he thought he saw someone sitting at the edge of his bed — a tall figure in a cloak of golden strands — but when he blinked, it was gone.
He exhaled shakily. "This world has terrible sleep hygiene."
Part IV: The Fox's Truth (Foreshadowing)
A week later, Iruka asked Ishi to help clean the classroom after hours. Naruto had scribbled on the chalkboard again ("HOKAGE MATERIAL!!" in bright orange paint), and Iruka needed all the help he could get.
When Naruto showed up to apologize — kind of — Ishi stayed quiet, listening as Iruka scolded him. But when Naruto's voice broke — when he whispered that everyone in the village hated him for no reason — Ishi's posture softened.
He could feel it then. The enormous, sleeping chakra sealed inside the boy.It wasn't human. It thrummed like a living sun chained in darkness.
So that was the truth of Naruto Uzumaki.
When Iruka left, Ishi approached. "You carry a lot for someone your size."
Naruto blinked. "Huh? What do you mean?"
"Nothing. Just… don't let their blindness make you doubt your own sight."
"I thought you're the blind one."
"Exactly."
Naruto frowned, trying to parse that. Then he grinned, the sadness forgotten. "You're weird, y'know that?"
Ishi smiled faintly. "Takes one to know one."
Part V: Reflection
That night, he sat again by the window, listening to the rain. The village lights below looked like little constellations through his cloth. He wondered if any of them could see what he did — the subtle golden web that connected them all.
He spoke softly, to no one in particular.
"See what the gods blinded. Blind what the gods made to see."
His hand touched the blindfold. Somewhere in the distance, a fox stirred in its cage, and the web quivered.
End of Chapter 3 – Masks and Mirrors