The Imperial Steam Pavilion was completely silent, save for the rhythmic splashing of water falling from a bamboo pipe into the stone pool.
Thick, white steam rolled across the surface of the scalding water. The strong smell of natural sulfur hung heavily in the air. The private outdoor bath was enclosed by tall wooden walls, isolating them from the bustling capital of the Hot Water Country.
Three young Konoha shinobi sat submerged up to their collarbones.
Naruto leaned against the smooth river rocks lining the edge of the pool. He rested his arms on the wet stone, letting the intense heat of the thermal vent seep into his tired muscles. He looked exactly like a normal kid taking a bath. His blond hair was plastered flat against his forehead.
Itachi sat on the opposite side of the steaming pool. The nine-year-old Uchiha kept his dark eyes locked entirely on Naruto. Itachi was older, a bit taller, and already bore the heavy, exhausted posture of a veteran soldier. Yet, the memory of the molten glass crater in the forest remained fresh in Itachi's mind. He knew exactly who held the true power in this room.
Kinoe sat a few feet away from Itachi, his pale face was completely devoid of expression. He simply stared at the ripples forming on the surface of the water.
The silence stretched on for ten long minutes. The tension in the humid air was suffocating.
Itachi finally broke. He needed to understand the entity sitting across from him.
"The last time we spoke in private, you did not use your voice," Itachi stated. His tone was calm and carefully measured. "You communicated entirely in sign language. That was when the Third Hokage ordered me to interview you regarding your sudden behavioral changes."
Naruto slowly opened his blue eyes. He looked at Itachi through the thick steam.
"I remember," Naruto replied simply. "You asked me standard psychological evaluation questions. You were trying to determine if the Nine-Tails was leaking chakra into my developing brain and corrupting my personality."
Itachi nodded slowly. The water rippled around his chest as he shifted his weight.
"I concluded you were perfectly sane, just highly guarded," Itachi continued. "I see now my evaluation was severely flawed. I failed to comprehend the scope of what you actually are. You hold a level of destructive power that defies all logic. You slaughtered dozens of men with absolutely zero hesitation. You watched fanatics butcher themselves without batting an eye."
Itachi paused, letting his dark eyes harden.
"I need to know your intentions," Itachi demanded quietly. "How exactly do you view this world, Naruto?"
Kinoe turned his head before Naruto could answer. The brown-haired operative looked directly at the Uchiha prodigy.
"You are overstepping your boundaries, Itachi," Kinoe warned. His voice carried a cold, absolute authority that completely contradicted his young age. "You are speaking to him as if you are an equal. You are not."
Itachi narrowed his eyes at Kinoe. He knew exactly who Kinoe was. Danzo Shimura held absolute control over his Root operatives through intense psychological conditioning and cursed seals. Rootshinobi did not possess personal opinions. They were biological tools designed to protect the shadows of the Leaf Village.
"You are an agent of Root," Itachi countered. "Your loyalty belongs to the village elders. You should be equally concerned about a four-year-old possessing this level of unhinged lethality."
"My loyalty belongs solely to him," Kinoe stated plainly. He did not blink. He stated it as an undeniable fact of nature. "The conditioning of Root is broken. Danzo Shimura is nothing to me. I serve Naruto Uzumaki as my Lord. I will execute anyone who threatens his path."
Itachi felt a cold chill run down his spine despite the boiling water of the bath.
He stared at Kinoe in total disbelief. Root brainwashing was considered completely unbreakable. It was a terrifying testament to Naruto's true capabilities. The blond boy had not just overpowered a seasoned operative. He had completely rewritten Kinoe's core foundation.
Naruto raised a wet hand, silencing Kinoe instantly. The Root operative bowed his head slightly and returned his gaze to the water.
Naruto looked back at Itachi.
"You asked me how I view the world," Naruto said. His voice was completely devoid of childish innocence. It was flat, heavy, and cynical. "I view it exactly as it is. The world is a massive slaughterhouse. The Hidden Villages are nothing more than glorified mercenary bands wearing different colored headbands. The Daimyos pay us to kill each other over land and resources. The system functions entirely on the currency of violence."
Itachi frowned deeply. He hated that description. It attacked the very core of his beliefs.
"That is an overly bleak perspective," Itachi argued. "The villages were founded to end the constant warring of the clans. The system was created to protect the children. It is a framework for lasting peace."
"Peace is an illusion," Naruto countered smoothly. "The peace you speak of is just a temporary ceasefire maintained by whoever holds the sharpest blade. The moment a village shows weakness, the others attack. You saw the Third Shinobi War, Itachi. Did the framework protect those children?"
Itachi clenched his jaw. The memories of the rain-soaked battlefields flashed violently in his mind. He remembered the smell of rotting flesh and the hollow eyes of dying men.
"The system is flawed, but it is necessary," Itachi insisted. His voice grew slightly louder, fueled by a desperate need to defend his ideology. "Without the village, there is only chaos. To maintain the peace, someone has to be willing to make the hard choices. Someone has to step outside the cycle of hatred and bear the burden in the shadows."
Naruto watched the older boy closely. He listened to the fundamental pillars of Itachi's philosophy taking shape.
"You believe peace requires absolute self-sacrifice," Naruto observed.
"I believe true shinobi are those who endure," Itachi corrected him. "They endure the hatred, the pain, and the dishonor to protect the light of the village. If sacrificing my own humanity ensures my little brother gets to grow up in a world without war, then I will gladly throw my life away. The needs of the many will always outweigh the needs of the few."
Naruto rested his chin on his wet arms. He stared at the Uchiha prodigy.
Naruto knew exactly where this flawed, martyrdom-obsessed philosophy would lead. He possessed the memories of the original timeline. He knew the tragic future waiting for the boy sitting across from him.
He saw Itachi standing over the bleeding corpses of his own parents. He saw Itachi forcing his beloved younger brother to watch their family get butchered hundreds of thousands of times through a genjutsu. He saw Itachi joining a terrorist organization, slowly dying of an incurable respiratory disease, and ultimately dying a hated traitor.
Itachi's grand philosophy of self-sacrifice did not bring peace. It brought the Uchiha massacre. It created a deeply traumatized Sasuke who eventually sought to destroy the very village Itachi sacrificed his soul to protect. The logic was completely rotten at its core.
Naruto looked at the dark-haired boy. Itachi was a genius. He possessed one of the sharpest tactical minds in elemental nations. He was a generational talent with unparalleled potential in genjutsu and ninjutsu. Yet, his profound trauma from the Third War had turned him into a naive pacifist desperately looking for a cross to nail himself to.
Danzo and the Third Hokage were going to use that exact desperation to turn Itachi into the perfect, obedient executioner. They were going to exploit his love for his brother to make him slaughter his own bloodline.
Naruto's blue eyes darkened.
He was not going to let Danzo have this weapon. The Uchiha prodigy was far too valuable of an asset to be thrown away on a pointless massacre. Naruto needed strong, capable subordinates to dismantle the corrupt foundations of the shinobi world. Kinoe was an excellent shield, but Itachi possessed the potential to be an absolute, peerless sword.
To claim that sword, Naruto needed to completely break the boy's faith in the Leaf Village. He needed to shatter Itachi's toxic ideology of self-sacrifice and rebuild him from the ground up.
Naruto stood up slowly in the hot water. The steam swirled violently around his small, dripping body.
"You think your willingness to suffer makes you noble, Itachi," Naruto said. The temperature in the enclosed bath seemed to drop instantly. The heavy, oppressive weight of his soul energy began to leak into the humid air.
Itachi stiffened, his muscles tensing in immediate response to the sudden killing intent.
"Your philosophy is not a path to peace," Naruto declared, staring directly into Itachi's dark eyes. "It is a pathetic excuse to avoid fixing a broken system. You are begging to be a martyr because you are too terrified to be a king. I am going to show you exactly what the Will of Fire truly demands of its loyal dogs."