Amber stood behind the folding table, ladling hot chili into a paper bowl with practiced ease. Her white apron was stained but clean in all the right places, tied tight over a red flannel and jeans. Her hair was pulled back in a loose bun, a few strands falling over her forehead as she smiled at the man in front of her.
"Morning, Mr. Talbot. Extra crackers today?"
The older man grinned, missing two teeth. "You always remember."
Amber winked and dropped a second pack into his bowl before handing it off.
Eve, standing beside her, blinked. She looked down at her own serving station. It was a tray of cornbread, bottled water, some fruit. Same apron. Same gloves. But every person who came through the line, Amber greeted by name.
"Mrs. Gellar, good to see you! How's your ankle?"
"Hey Aaron, save me a seat, yeah?"
"Erika! That coat looks good on you."
Eve leaned in, lowering her voice between servings. "How do you remember all these people?"
Amber scooped another ladle of chili without missing a beat. "What do you mean?"
"I mean I can barely remember anything from math class and you know everyone here by name. And like… stuff about them. That's wild."
Amber shrugged, brushing a loose curl behind her ear.
"Make the world you want to live in, right?"
Eve stared at her for a moment. Then she smiled.
"…Right."
Glass crunched under Naruto's feet.
He stepped through the hole torn in the penthouse wall, wind gusting around him from the shattered windows. Smoke and plaster dust filled the air. Across the room, the rubble shifted.
Battle Beast rose.
His white fur was streaked with blood, muscles flexing as he pulled himself upright. Shoulders hunched. Eyes golden. The kind of calm that came from endless war.
"I did," he said again, voice steady, answering a question Naruto had asked minutes ago. Or maybe just now. Time didn't matter anymore.
Naruto didn't blink.
His eyes had already shifted red and slitted. The skin around them darkened, shadows of rage barely kept at bay. The air around him shimmered faintly, warping from heat and pressure as natural energy flooded every cell in his body. It was visible, heavy, and dense.
He moved.
A blur of motion then the table behind Battle Beast exploded. Naruto's fist connected with the side of his face, sending the beast crashing through the wall and into the elevator shaft.
The building trembled.
Naruto was already on him before the impact ended. He grabbed the lion-man mid-fall, yanked him by the mane, and hurled him through the window of the building next door. Battle Beast flew like a meteor, smashing through desks, support beams, steel.
They hit the street seconds later.
Battle Beast landed in a heap, cratering the asphalt. Cars veered off. Civilians screamed and scattered. Streetlights burst.
Naruto dropped after him, boots slamming into the ground so hard it cracked in every direction. A fire hydrant burst behind him, geysering into the sky.
Battle Beast rolled and sprang back to his feet, mace swinging high. Naruto raised his forearms and blocked the full weight of the blow. The force sent him skidding backward, boots carving two clean trenches through the pavement.
Then he stopped.
Battle Beast charged again, this time leading with a punch. Naruto ducked under it, closed the distance, and drove a knee straight into the brute's gut. Battle Beast grunted. Naruto followed up with a headbutt. Their skulls clashed. The sound of bone striking bone echoed down the block.
Battle Beast stumbled and Naruto didn't let him breathe.
He hammered a fist into his jaw. Then another into his ribs. The third cracked one of them. Battle Beast reeled, swung a counter-blow, but Naruto pivoted and smashed his heel into the beast's chest, launching him through the side of a delivery truck.
The vehicle folded in half.
Naruto exhaled, slow and shallow.
The edges of his vision buzzed. The natural energy inside him was working overtime. It made him faster and stronger, almost untouchable. But it was burning through him like fire does wood.
Battle Beast roared and lunged again.
They met in the center of the intersection. Fists collided. A thunderclap shook the city. The shockwave sent mailboxes spinning down the block, blowing out windows three stories up.
They kept trading blows. Across rooftops. Through walls. Through traffic and smoke and sirens. Battle Beast grabbed Naruto and slammed him through a subway entrance. They tumbled down the stairs, fists still swinging, the fight devolving into a brutal, close-quarters brawl.
They burst out the other side of the station bloodied, panting and crashed through a glass wall into a shopping plaza.
Naruto ducked a swing, grabbed Battle Beast by the throat, and leapt.
They rocketed upward. Past rooftops. Past birds. Through low clouds and into the cold.
The higher they climbed, the harder it was to breathe. Not for Naruto. But Battle Beast began to thrash harder, his movements less precise. His lungs burned. There was no air left to scream.
Naruto kept going. Up through the upper atmosphere, where sound fell away.
The stars opened up above them.
Battle Beast clawed at him, kicking and thrashing.
Naruto held him by the back of the neck.
"You can't fight here," he whispered. His voice didn't carry. Just breath. A thought, maybe.
Battle Beast swung once more, slow now, almost tired.
Naruto let go.
The beast began to drift.
There was no ground, no weight. No gravity to anchor him. He twisted, trying to orient himself. Every motion sent him spinning.
He couldn't fly.
Couldn't punch anything.
His breath had already run out. His muscles, once coiled with power, began to stiffen. Ice crawled across his limbs. His fur began to frost.
He turned slowly, just barely able to glimpse Naruto floating above, swaying like a broken ember in the wind.
Naruto's eyes were half-lidded. His chest rose and fell too slowly now. Natural energy still pulsed faintly through him, but his limbs trembled.
He couldn't keep it up.
His fingers twitched. His foot slipped in the weightless drift. His body tilted.
And then he fell.
Down toward Earth.
A blur of gold and red, burning as it re-entered the atmosphere like a dying star.
Battle Beast watched him go.
Drifting and semi-frozen.
A god of war abandoned by gravity.
His lips curled into a snarl, teeth chattering.
He couldn't speak. But if he could, the words would be the same as every time he lost.
"…Damn you."
And he floated. Further and further into the dark.
Naruto fell.
There was no sound.
No rush of wind yet. No sonic boom. Just the endless pull of gravity, slow at first, like being drawn by an invisible string. His limbs dangled in the vacuum, fingers twitching slightly. His eyes remained open, half-lidded, their crimson glow already starting to fade.
The stars above blinked smaller.
His body drifted through the black for what felt like forever.
Then the atmosphere caught him.
A flicker of resistance. A whisper of heat.
His descent accelerated and space blurred into the stratosphere.
FWOOOM.
The wind found him.
It howled across his body, tearing at what was left of his suit. The yellow and black material flapped and shredded along the edges, curling like burnt paper. His skin began to glow orange from friction. Sparks crawled across his chest and arms. His hair whipped wildly, trailing behind him like a golden comet tail.
But he didn't move despite being still awake.
Barely.
He could feel the burning, but not the pain. His senses were numb. Natural energy had nearly emptied from his veins, drained beyond what his body was ready for. Muscles that had bent steel now refused to tighten. Joints screamed with weightless fatigue.
He blinked once.
Clouds rushed past him, white and blurred, shredded by his fall.
He wasn't flying.
He wasn't landing.
He was crashing.
The sky above him was a smear of stars and dark. The world below spun in slow spirals, like it was unsure whether to catch him or let him break.
The first boom hit.
A sonic crack.
Then another.
His speed tore through layers of pressure, dragging thunder in his wake.
Far below, the city glowed like golden grids of streetlights, scattered fires from the earlier battle, sirens flashing like beacons. Helicopters hovered near the ruined blocks, news crews trying to get a glimpse. People pointed upward.
A streak of gold and smoke was falling from the heavens.
Someone screamed.
Naruto's body finally angled downward. Instinct, maybe. Or the last of the Old Power still flickering in his muscles.
His arms came in close. Legs straightened slightly. Just enough to control the fall.
Just enough to survive it.
He passed under the cloud cover, plunging through a flock of birds that scattered in wild arcs, the turbulence sending them tumbling. One of them clipped his shoulder and spiraled away. He didn't feel it.
His heart pounded once.
Then again.
But slower.
The sky turned from deep blue to city orange. His descent carved a heat trail across the skyline. Windows shook. Distant car alarms wailed. People on rooftops ducked as the glowing figure roared overhead like a meteor.
Naruto could see buildings now.
The jagged angles of metal and glass.
He was heading straight for them.
He was too fast, too low and his arms refused to move.
He had no more strength left to stop himself.
Natural energy, once roaring through him like a storm, had finally burned itself out.
He exhaled once.
And the world reached up to meet him.
BOOM.
The impact shattered the rooftop of an abandoned parking structure. Concrete erupted like a landmine, chunks flying in every direction. Dust engulfed the floor below. A car flipped onto its side from the shockwave. Alarms blared.
The building groaned under the force, then stilled.
Silence returned.
And Naruto lay in the crater sprawled out.
Steam hissed from his shoulders and back. A few flames licked at the frayed edges of his uniform. His chest barely rose.
His face was bruised, scraped raw from the descent. One eyelid twitched, then opened just enough to see the fractured sky above painted in orange haze, broken by smoke and distant floodlights.
He didn't speak or move.
His fingers flexed once in the rubble, twitching like they weren't sure they were still attached to him.
Then stillness.
The only sound was the slow, ragged rhythm of his breath, and the soft crackle of broken stone cooling around him.
He wasn't dead but he wasn't okay.
Natural energy was gone. His body was scorched. Every nerve felt like it had been pulled apart and re-threaded.
But he was alive just barely.
And above him, high above him, Battle Beast was no longer visible.
Naruto's eyes finally closed as darkness welcomed him, slow and heavy.
Amber stood by the sink, rinsing out the last of the serving trays as the community hall emptied around them. Her voice was quiet, almost lost beneath the sound of running water.
"I thought Mark would be here tonight... I really did."
Eve paused beside the table, pulling off her gloves slowly. Her phone buzzed in her apron pocket. She glanced at the screen.
Then again.
Her smile faded.
She answered without a word, listening. The voice on the other end was fast, clipped. Urgent. And when Eve hung up, her face had gone pale.
"I'm sorry, Amber… I have to go," she said, already untangling her apron ties.
Amber turned, eyebrows pinching in worry. "What's wrong? Was that Mark?" Her voice cracked, just a little.
Eve looked at her for a beat, the air between them suddenly thick. The kind of silence that only came when you didn't want to say the truth out loud.
"I know it's hard to love someone when they don't seem to love you back," she said gently. "But Mark loves you. He'd really be here if he could."
Amber stood still, blinking fast, trying not to let the tears show.
Then Eve was gone out the side door, into the cold, white apron fluttering behind her.
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