Chapter 1: The Hollow Touch
The moon hung over Konoha like a cold, judgmental eye. Twelve-year-old Naruto Uzumaki leaned against a massive oak tree, gasping for breath. The Forbidden Scroll of Seals was heavy against his back, a weight that felt like the expectations of the village he so desperately wanted to love him.
"Hand over the scroll, Naruto!"
Mizuki's voice was slick with malice. He stood on a branch above, his face twisted in a grin that made Naruto's stomach churn. Behind Naruto, Iruka-sensei lay bleeding, a giant shuriken embedded in his back.
"They don't want you, Naruto," Mizuki taunted, his voice dropping to a hiss. "They fear you. Do you know why? Do you know why the village treats you like trash? Because you are the Nine-Tailed Fox!"
The words hit Naruto harder than any physical blow. The whispers, the cold glares from the shopkeepers, the way parents pulled their children away—it all clicked into a terrifying, jagged puzzle.
"Shut up!" Naruto screamed. But inside, something was shifting. The seal on his stomach burned, not with the orange heat of the Fox, but with a strange, void-like cold.
Mizuki lunged, a kunai glinting in the moonlight. "Die, monster!"
Iruka tried to move, but he was too slow. Naruto didn't run. He didn't even use the Shadow Clone jutsu he had just practiced. As Mizuki collided with him, Naruto's hand shot out, palm flat against Mizuki's chest.
"I said... SHUT UP!"
The moment contact was made, the forest went silent.
It didn't feel like a punch. To Naruto, it felt like reaching into a bag of silk and pulling a thread. He felt Mizuki's life force—the blue, swirling rivers of chakra—and instinctively, he tugged.
Mizuki's eyes bugged out. His skin turned a sickly gray, and his veins pulsed purple. A horrific, guttural sound escaped his throat as his very essence was dragged through his pores and into Naruto's palm.
Slurp.
That was the sound of a man's soul being hollowed out.
Mizuki fell to the forest floor like a discarded ragdoll. He wasn't dead, but his eyes were vacant. He stared at the canopy, unable to even twitch a finger. The "spark" that made him a shinobi was gone.
Naruto stood over him, trembling. His right hand glowed with a faint, ghostly light. Suddenly, images flashed through his mind: The hand signs for the Shuriken Shadow Clone. The muscle memory of a mid-level Chunin. The sensation of wind-natured chakra.
"Naruto?" Iruka's voice was a terrified whisper.
Naruto turned. He felt stronger than he ever had, but he also felt "full"—as if he had eaten a meal that didn't belong to him.
"Iruka-sensei," Naruto said, his voice sounding deeper, layered with a faint echo. "I... I think I took something. I think I took all of it."
Iruka looked at the limp form of Mizuki, then at Naruto's hand. He didn't see the Nine-Tails. He saw something much more terrifying: a boy who could unmake a ninja with a single touch.
The Internal Ledger (Naruto's Current Abilities)
Base: Massive Stamina (Uzumaki Bloodline).
Stolen (Mizuki): * Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique.
Basic Tree Walking/Water Walking mastery.
Chunin-level Taijutsu reflexes.