When Naruto stepped through the E-Gate the world folded.
Sound vanished first, then color, until only a thread of red light guided him forward.His sandals touched down on something wet—stone slick with salt. The air smelled of iron and deep sea.
Behind him, ten figures appeared in sequence: the first wave of Uzumaki trainees.They were young—barely genin or freshly-awakened sealers—but every pair of eyes burned with the same spiral-shaped resolve.
"Stay close," Naruto said. "The Gates create their own world. You can't rely on normal chakra flow here."
One by one, they nodded.When the last echo of the Gate closed behind them, a new sound filled the cavern.
A heartbeat.
It came from the walls.
Pulsing coral veins lit up around them, bathing the chamber in turquoise light.Water dripped in steady rhythm. Far below, something shifted—long, serpentine, whispering through the tide.
"Sense the rhythm," Naruto murmured. "That's the dungeon's pulse.Move against it, and it will notice you."
A student—Rika, a fiery red-haired kunoichi barely fifteen—couldn't help herself. She flared her chakra to activate a detection seal.
The cavern screamed.
From the black pool ahead, three glowing shapes shot upward: Tide-Serpents.Their scales flashed like liquid glass; mouths opened with rings of crystal fangs.
Naruto's eyes hardened.
"Formation!"
The trainees scattered exactly as they had drilled—two sealers front, two rear, four defenders forming a spiral ring around them.They slammed chakra-tags into the wet floor.
The serpents struck. Water exploded. Fangs clashed against invisible barriers as the seals flared to life.
"Remember the grounding seal!" shouted an older genin, Hiro."Their camo breaks when they touch solid chakra!"
Naruto watched silently, arms crossed.He would not interfere unless death came.
Rika crouched low, forming hand signs."Seal Art: Spiral Anchor!"
The tide around the serpent rippled, turning to chains of light that wrapped around its midsection. The creature shrieked, thrashing, electricity flashing along its body.
"Now!" Naruto ordered.
Three kunai streaked through the air, carrying explosive tags that burst in perfect sequence. The serpent convulsed—and dissolved into mist.
The cavern pulsed again. Two more serpents burst from the walls, circling, learning.
Naruto raised a hand.
"Let me show you something."
He formed a single sign, palm open. A construct of chakra—an enormous translucent hand—rose from the water and gripped both beasts mid-lunge.The hand tightened. The water boiled, then fell silent.
When the mist cleared, the trainees stood trembling but alive.
"That," Naruto said quietly, "is how chakra can become form. What you felt—fear—that's what makes your seals real.Remember it."
They advanced deeper, through tunnels of coral that pulsed with blue light.Whispers echoed—words half-formed in the hum of the water.One student paused. "Sensei… are they speaking?"
Naruto nodded once."The dungeon copies what you fear most. If you hear voices, ignore them. Fear gives shape to the gate's monsters."
The passage opened into a wide, dome-shaped cavern. The floor was mirror-smooth water.In the center, a statue of a spiral rune floated just above the surface—heart of the gate.
Naruto stepped forward, hand extended to examine the rune.
The water erupted.
A massive Coral Sentinel tore itself from the ground, a living crustacean fortress covered in runes.Its mandibles rotated with grinding shrieks, sending shards of pink coral flying.
"Back! Form the seal ring!"
The trainees moved without hesitation now, slamming tags into the water around the creature.Each tag lit up in a different hue—red for binding, green for reflection, blue for absorption.Streams of chakra connected them into a glowing spiral around the beast.
The Sentinel roared, striking the ground. A shockwave shattered half the tags.
Naruto appeared above it in an instant.He slammed his palm onto its shell—Five Spiral Seal: Convergence!
Crimson chains burst outward, piercing the creature's runes and locking them in place.It screamed, thrashing, until the entire shell began to glow from inside.
"Everyone—release chakra into the seals!" he shouted.
Ten hands pressed to the ground. Ten streams of chakra surged into the pattern.
The cavern filled with light so bright it turned the sea white.
When it faded, the Coral Sentinel stood frozen—translucent, hollow.Inside its chest floated a single crystal, spinning slowly.
Naruto walked up and retrieved it, holding it aloft.
"This is a Coral Rune Shard," he said. "Your first proof of victory.Every Gate will offer something like this—relics of growth, pieces of power. Collect them. Learn from them. Don't worship them."
The trainees stared in awe.They had faced monsters born from chakra and survived.
As they stepped back through the Gate, the world unfolded again—light, sound, color returning in waves.
They emerged into the dawn of Uzushiogakure.The five Gates still pulsed on the horizon like distant suns.
Naruto turned to his exhausted team.Their uniforms were torn, faces streaked with sweat, but their eyes burned with pride.
"This is the beginning," he told them."You've learned what fear feels like when it doesn't kill you.From now on, every Uzumaki will pass through these shadows—and come out stronger."
Rika bowed, clutching the rune shard.
"What's next, Lord Naruto?"
He smiled faintly.
"Next time… Gate D. The Hollowed Fen. And this time, I won't lead. You will."
The trainees exchanged uneasy glances—but every one of them nodded.
Far above the training field, on a tower of black stone, Ashborn watched beside Kushina's spectral form.
"He's learning quickly," the monarch rumbled.
Kushina's smile was proud, maternal, tinged with sadness.
"He's teaching them to live. That's something even gods forgot."
Ashborn's eyes glowed faintly.
"And he's becoming what I was meant to be."
Below them, Naruto stood with his people as the dawn painted the new Uzumaki village gold.The first gate had been conquered.The next waited, deeper, darker, whispering promises of power and purpose.
The age of the Uzumaki had truly begun.
When the first expedition returned, they came out stumbling.
Their uniforms clung to sweat and seawater.Their chakra signatures flickered like dying candles.Some collapsed the moment the Gate sealed behind them.
Naruto stood before them, arms crossed, his expression unreadable.
The crowd that had gathered around the gate—families, young shinobi, artisans—cheered at first.But the sound died when they saw the team's faces: pale, trembling, hollow-eyed.
Rika, still clutching her coral shard, knelt and bowed her head.
"We… we did it, Lord Naruto. The boss fell. The Gate is clear."
Naruto walked toward them slowly, stopping before the group. He looked at each of them—the burns, the cracked fingers, the chakra-depleted eyes.
"You won," he said softly. "But if that had been a C-class Gate, half of you would be dead."
The air grew still. Even the waves seemed to hush.
"You were brave," he continued, "but bravery without control is suicide.Power without a body that can sustain it is just a candle waiting to burn out."
He knelt, placing a hand over the wet ground. A crimson seal bloomed under his palm.
"So from today forward," he said, "the Gates are closed.You will train until you can open them without fear."
What followed in the next months reshaped the island.
The roar of the sea was replaced by the clash of steel, the rhythm of footsteps, the hiss of chakra through seals.
Naruto divided his shadows into squads—each a master of an ancient art resurrected from his memories and Ashborn's archives.
Squad One: The Sword Masters.They taught Kenjutsu, Bōjutsu, and Kata Combat.Blades of chakra danced in the mist as children no older than twelve sparred with fluid precision, their movements echoing centuries of discipline.
Squad Two: The Sealwrights.Kushina's shadow led them.She carved knowledge directly into scrolls of light, teaching Fūinjutsu, barrier control, and chakra conversion.Under her, the children learned to write seals not with ink—but with intent.
"A seal isn't drawn," she told them. "It's sung through chakra. Make it part of your heartbeat."
Squad Three: The Body and Spirit.Naruto's medical clones and sages from the allied lands focused on conditioning.They built training towers where chakra currents ran through the stone itself.Every push-up, every stance, was resistance against the energy of the island.
The Uzumaki became iron and lightning wrapped in flesh.
Squad Four: The Strategists.Led by Minato's shadow.They taught tactics, formations, and the art of reading chakra on the battlefield.Students learned to predict the enemy's next ten moves before drawing a kunai.
Squad Five: The Shadow Combat Corps.Ashborn's direct teachings.Here, the chosen few learned how to fight with the dark itself—how to bend light, merge with shadows, and move unseen between breaths.These were Naruto's elites: The Silent Nine, his first generation of true shadow warriors.
Time blurred.Days turned into weeks; weeks into seasons.
The Uzumaki village became alive with motion and sound.Children ran across rooftops, balancing chakra threads.Adults sparred at the training grounds, their bodies glowing with energy.The once quiet island now pulsed with life.
Naruto walked among them every morning—observing, correcting, rarely speaking.
When a student failed to mold chakra properly, he would simply touch their shoulder, transfer a fraction of his energy, and whisper,
"Try again. Feel it, don't force it."
Every night, his shadows gathered reports from across the island.They shared data: stamina, seal accuracy, reaction time.The results were astonishing.
Within three months, every trained genin-level shinobi could clear the E-Class Gate alone.Within six months, they could challenge D-Class.By year's end, the adults—former wanderers, smiths, and refugees—had advanced to clear B-Class Gates in full teams.
Naruto stood at the balcony of the Crimson Palace and watched the torches of the training grounds below.
Kushina appeared beside him, smiling softly.
"You're turning them into something the world's never seen."
He nodded. "I'm not training soldiers, Mother. I'm building protectors."
Ashborn's shadow materialized, folding his arms.
"And protectors must know war before they can prevent it."
Naruto's gaze hardened. "They will. The Gates are waiting."
At dawn on the first anniversary of the Gates, the bells of Uzushiogakure rang out across the sea.
Ten thousand voices chanted in unison, chakra spirals glowing around the island like constellations.
Naruto stood before the gathered masses—men, women, and children, all bearing the spiral crest on their uniforms.
"A year ago," he began, "we could barely survive the weakest Gate.Today, you stand ready to face monsters that would have once crushed nations."
The crowd roared.
"You have proven that power can grow without hatred. That strength can serve peace.And now, I say this: No Uzumaki will ever be hunted again.The shadows that tried to erase us now guard us."
He raised his hand.Behind him, the five Gates flared—red, blue, green, silver, and black—piercing the morning sky.
The ground trembled under the combined will of thousands of Uzumaki.Even the ocean seemed to bow.
Ashborn's voice echoed in the wind, proud and ancient.
"The King of Shadows has forged his army."
Naruto turned toward the sea.
"No," he said quietly. "I've forged our family."
Far beyond the horizon, spy toads from Konoha, hawks from Suna, and chakra sensors from Kumo reported what they saw:
A shining city of seals.Gates of living light.And a clan once destroyed now standing stronger than all five nations combined.
The Five Kage watched their reports in silence.Fear mixed with awe.
Tsunade looked down at the scroll from her own agents, a small, wistful smile touching her lips.
"He's done it," she whispered. "He rebuilt the world… and didn't need a village to do it."