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Naruto left the Academy the same way he always did—quietly.
No one stopped him. No one called after him. A few stares followed his back, cold and sharp like kunai, but he didn't react. He had stopped reacting years ago.
He walked through Konoha as if he didn't belong to it.
And in truth… he didn't.
By the time he reached his apartment, the sun had already begun sinking, painting the streets in warm orange that felt like a mockery. He shut the door behind him and stood still for a moment, listening.
The silence was familiar.
The apartment was small, plain, and empty in the way only loneliness could make a place feel empty.
After a while, he moved into the kitchen and prepared something simple from whatever was left—rice, vegetables that were beginning to lose their freshness, a little dried fish. He ate without hurry, his expression calm, his mind already far away.
He wasn't thinking about the taste.
He was thinking about tonight.
After he finished, he cleaned up, slipped on his usual clothes, and headed out again.
Toward the forest.
As usual.
---
The Forest
The villagers didn't bother hiding their hatred.
Naruto could feel it from every direction—eyes filled with disgust, fear, anger, sometimes all of it mixed together. Their whispers were like insects buzzing just out of reach.
Demon.
Monster.
Nine-Tails…
He ignored it like he ignored everything else.
His footsteps didn't change pace.
The forest welcomed him the way Konoha never had. The air was cooler there, the trees tall enough to block the village's noise, the shadows deep and quiet.
This was the only place he could breathe properly.
As soon as he reached his usual clearing, he began training.
Shuriken first.
His hands moved with practiced rhythm—draw, throw, retrieve. Again and again, until the motion became thoughtless. The shuriken struck bark with dull thuds, sinking deep.
He didn't miss often.
Not anymore.
Then he shifted to ninjutsu.
He performed the hand seals carefully, pulling chakra from his core and shaping it the way the Academy taught.
"Shadow Clone Jutsu."
The chakra surged.
And…
Nothing.
A weak puff of smoke.
A pathetic, incomplete failure.
He stared at it blankly, then tried again.
Failure.
Again.
Failure.
Anyone watching would think the same thing they always did:
Uzumaki Naruto is hopeless.
That was the point.
Naruto continued failing on purpose, keeping his chakra messy, his output uneven, his control "slipping."
Because tonight he planned to disappear.
And if anyone realized he could suddenly perform jutsu cleanly after years of incompetence…
they would ask questions.
They would dig deeper.
They would become careful.
Naruto didn't want careful.
He wanted complacent.
---
Eyes in the Shadows
As he trained, he could feel the ANBU nearby.
Not directly.
Not loudly.
Just… there.
A presence that moved with discipline, always positioned to react if he lost control.
They didn't watch him like someone watched a child.
They watched him like someone watched a bomb.
Every now and then they shifted, checking the surroundings, scanning for threats they didn't trust him to handle.
Naruto's eyes remained on the shuriken buried in the trees.
But his senses were elsewhere.
Tracking them.
Measuring the distance.
Waiting for the smallest opening.
A few shuriken had scattered further than usual—intentionally.
Naruto walked toward them slowly, posture relaxed, as if he was just picking up his tools.
The ANBU's attention drifted for a moment.
A fraction of a second.
It was enough.
Naruto lifted one shuriken into his palm.
And without a single hand sign…
it vanished.
Not dropped.
Not hidden.
Gone.
Sent into his pocket dimension.
Then, with a thought, it returned into his hand as if it had never left.
Naruto repeated it once more. Twice.
Testing the sensation, making sure there was no visible distortion, no chakra flare that could be detected.
Perfect.
His heart remained steady.
His body didn't tense.
He didn't celebrate.
He simply confirmed what he already knew.
This works.
Now for the real test.
He looked around as if searching for the last missing shuriken, stepped into a deeper patch of shadows—
And disappeared.
---
Vanishing
His vision shifted instantly.
The smell of forest and soil vanished.
The noise of the outside world faded into nothing.
He stood in his own dimension.
The air was clean, still. The sky above was pale and unfamiliar, as if someone had painted it with quiet intention. A lake reflected the light like glass, and trees stood tall in clusters.
The space was enormous.
Big enough to live in.
Big enough to train in.
Big enough to disappear forever.
Naruto didn't waste time.
He returned back immediately.
One moment inside.
One moment outside.
He reappeared in the forest without sound, without light, without leaving behind even a ripple.
No one noticed.
Naruto exhaled slowly.
Good.
Then he formed a single clone.
Not a crude Academy clone.
Not a weak imitation.
This one was precise—stable chakra, perfect structure, no wasted energy.
He transformed it.
A masked man.
A black cloak.
Red clouds.
An image so familiar that it could ignite panic in the hearts of those who understood what it meant.
The clone—his illusion given flesh through flawless chakra control—stood in the clearing like a nightmare taking form.
Then Naruto shouted, loud enough to be heard.
"HELP!"
And vanished again.
---
Panic
The ANBU reacted instantly.
Two shadows flashed into motion, converging toward the clearing where Naruto's voice had come from.
They arrived just in time to see it:
A man in a black cloak, red clouds blooming like blood across the fabric.
A mask hiding his face.
A presence that felt wrong.
And then—
he disappeared.
Like smoke swallowed by darkness.
The ANBU landed in the clearing, scanning the area with deadly speed.
But Naruto was gone.
No chakra trail.
No footprints.
No lingering scent.
Nothing.
One of the ANBU cursed under his breath and vanished in a body flicker.
Straight to the Hokage Tower.
The other remained, searching the forest with sharp movements, checking every tree, every shadow, every possible hiding place.
But there was nothing to find.
Naruto Uzumaki had vanished.
The Nine-Tails' jinchūriki was missing.
---
Konoha in High Alert
When Hiruzen Sarutobi heard the report, the atmosphere inside the Hokage Tower changed instantly.
The old man's expression hardened.
Orders were issued in minutes.
The village went into lockdown.
ANBU deployed in squads.
Jōnin mobilized.
Chūnin sent to secure gates and checkpoints.
Clan shinobi pulled from their homes.
Every available unit was commanded to search the village and its surroundings.
Even the Hokage himself moved.
He appeared in the forest clearing where Naruto had vanished, his gaze sweeping over the broken grass and embedded shuriken.
A masked man.
A disappearance.
A jinchūriki taken.
The implications were catastrophic.
If the Nine-Tails fell into enemy hands…
Konoha might not survive the aftermath.
But no matter how hard they searched—
They found nothing.
No trace of Naruto Uzumaki.
No trace of the attacker.
Only questions.
And fear.
---
The Pocket Dimension
While Konoha spiraled into chaos, Naruto sat calmly in his own world.
He stood near the edge of the lake, watching the still water reflect his face. The dimension was strange—alive in structure, but empty in soul.
There were trees.
Land.
Water.
Wind.
But no animals.
No insects buzzing.
No birds calling from branches.
A silent world shaped for one person.
For him.
Naruto inhaled.
The air was steady.
The temperature perfect—neither hot nor cold.
It felt like this place had been built to support him.
To shelter him.
To hide him.
He sat down cross-legged on the grass.
This was only the beginning.
---
The Second Step
Escaping the village had been easy.
Too easy, honestly.
But Naruto had never planned to simply disappear like a coward.
If he was going to leave, he might as well leave behind a fire.
A problem big enough to force Konoha to look elsewhere.
Big enough to make enemies collide.
He had chosen Obito's shadow as his disguise for a reason.
Now, Konoha would hunt the "masked man."
And if Obito was real—and still alive somewhere out there—then sooner or later their paths would cross.
Naruto didn't care who suffered.
Let them tear each other apart.
He simply wanted freedom.
Naruto closed his eyes and entered meditation.
He focused inward, sinking into the ocean of chakra inside his body.
At first there was only his own chakra—massive, deep, endless like a current with no shore.
Then he found it.
Other presences.
Different signatures layered inside him like sealed ghosts.
Four.
One was obvious—thick, violent, burning with hatred.
The Nine-Tails.
Another was faint, almost invisible.
If Naruto hadn't gained these abilities, he never would've sensed it at all.
His consciousness slipped further inward.
Light faded.
The world turned dark.
And then he stood in that familiar place.
A vast sewer-like mindscape, damp and endless, with shallow water beneath his feet and pipes stretching into darkness.
Naruto didn't hesitate.
He walked forward.
And soon the gate appeared.
A massive barred prison door, towering like a wall meant to hold back a god.
Behind it…
a presence so heavy it made the air feel thick.
Two enormous eyes opened in the darkness.
The Nine-Tails.
Kurama.
The beast leaned closer, chains rattling as his tails shifted like mountains moving.
"You brat—" the fox growled, voice reverberating through the space like thunder.
Naruto didn't even look at him.
He turned away.
Kurama froze.
His rage flared instantly.
"HEY!" the fox roared. "YOU DAMN BRAT! WHERE ARE YOU GOING?!"
Naruto kept walking.
Ignoring him completely.
That… that was worse than fear.
Worse than hatred.
It was insult.
Kurama's claws dug into the ground as he snarled, rage boiling.
He had been interfering with Naruto for years—ruining his control, pushing his emotions, weakening the seal slowly.
That had been the plan.
Patient.
Cruel.
Effective.
But yesterday something changed.
Naruto's chakra suddenly resisted.
Even worse… the fox's own chakra stopped obeying him the way it used to.
Like it had been stolen.
Controlled.
Kurama had tried to flood more of his power into Naruto, tried to overwhelm him—
But it didn't work.
It was like throwing water into a bottomless well.
And now…
Now Naruto stood in his domain, calm and unmoved, not even reacting to the monster that had haunted his entire life.
Kurama felt something unfamiliar.
Not fear.
Not caution.
Something close to panic.
---
Naruto walked deeper into the mindscape, toward the faint presence he had sensed earlier.
A remnant.
A chakra imprint.
A safeguard left behind inside the seal.
He found it—hidden behind layers of sealing formula, tucked away like a last resort.
Naruto reached out.
Not with his own chakra.
With Kurama's chakra.
He shaped it perfectly, controlled it like a thread.
And pushed it into the seal.
The barrier responded.
A quiet opening.
A soft shift in reality.
And a figure formed from golden light.
A man with blond hair.
A cloak.
A familiar presence so strong it almost felt like the sun.
Minato Namikaze.
The Fourth Hokage.
His eyes opened.
And for a moment he looked shocked, as if he hadn't expected to wake here so soon.
His gaze flickered toward Naruto, recognition blooming instantly.
"My son—"
Naruto didn't let him finish.
His hand lifted.
A black substance spread from his palm like ink swallowing light.
Gluttony.
It latched onto Minato's chakra imprint and pulled.
Hard.
Minato's expression twisted—not in pain, but in disbelief.
His mouth opened, but no words came out.
He was being erased.
Consumed.
His existence torn apart in seconds.
And then…
nothing.
The golden light vanished.
The chakra remnant was gone.
Completely.
As if it had never existed.
Naruto stood alone, breathing quietly.
He didn't feel joy.
He didn't feel regret.
He only felt relief.
Because if that remnant had spoken…
If it had tried to warn him, stop him, bind him—
Naruto's plan might've failed before it even began.
Naruto closed his eyes.
And used Mind Reading.
Not on a living person…
but on the memories embedded in the chakra he had devoured.
The knowledge poured into him like a flood.
Years of experience.
Jutsu principles.
Battle instincts.
Sealing techniques.
Village security layouts.
Hidden protocols.
Information that only a Hokage would know.
Naruto's breathing slowed.
His mind expanded, reorganizing itself as if it had always been meant to hold this.
When it was over, he opened his eyes.
And for the first time since coming to this world…
Naruto Uzumaki truly understood what Konoha was.
Not a home.
Not a family.
A machine.
A weapon factory.
A village that smiled in sunlight and sharpened blades in shadow.
He stared at the empty horizon of his personal dimension.
Then his lips curved slightly.
"Now…" he whispered, voice calm, cold, certain.
"I have everything I need."