The chaos unfolding across the shinobi world had zero effect on the Sky Screen. Its images continued relentlessly.
["I'll use clones!"] The blonde boy formed a hand sign. Instantly, the natural walkways within the cavern were swarmed by a dense horde of shadow clones, all charging headlong towards a monstrous entity writhing with tendrils of dark chakra.
[Sadly, the sheer numbers proved useless against the forest of thrashing black tentacles. They whipped through the clones, obliterating them in moments, before slamming the boy's real body hard into the ground.]
[Dust billowed. The boy pushed himself up, defiance burning in his eyes despite the pain. "I… won't die!" he gritted out.]
Team 7 had ducked into a nearby dango shop, watching the unfolding spectacle from the doorway.
Sakura glanced nervously around, then leaned in, whispering urgently, "Hey… doesn't that guy on the screen look exactly like Naruto?"
Naruto scratched his head, eyes glued skyward. "Huh?! Yeah! Why am I up there?!"
"Calm down, idiot!" Sasuke snapped, though his own curiosity was piqued. "That guy's clearly older than you. It's not possible." He pointed out the age difference coolly.
Listening to his students, Kakashi's mind raced. 'Sasuke's right about the age… but everything else? The hair, the face, the sheer stubbornness… It's Naruto to a tee.'
Across Konoha, others who knew Naruto also noted the uncanny resemblance. Most dismissed it due to the age gap, though a few villagers hostile to Naruto immediately blamed the "Nine-Tails' latest scheme."
Deep within the Shinigami's belly, Minato Namikaze felt a pang of inexplicable connection. The hair, the eyes… a startling suspicion began to form. In the Pure Land, Kushina Uzumaki felt the same powerful pull of familiarity.
[The blonde boy dodged and weaved through the air, kunai flashing as he sliced through tentacles, closing in on the monstrous core. His gaze snagged on a strange, glowing purple eye-shape deep within the molten lava. "An… eye?"]
[The next instant, a sickening, wet rip tore through the air. The boy's eyes flew wide with shock, pupils constricting to pinpricks as he stared at the dark tentacle before him. Warm droplets of crimson blood spattered across his cheek.]
[The scene shifted abruptly. A thick, black tentacle had impaled him clean through the back, lifting his limp body high into the air. He struggled for a few agonizing seconds before his strength failed, arms and legs dangling lifelessly.]
[Below, a girl with long, wheat-colored hair knelt on the rocky ground. Horror and grief contorted her face as she screamed the boy's name.]
["NARUTO!!"]
[The view pulled back rapidly. The rocky outcrops scattered across the lava sea eerily outlined the monstrous creature's form. Two lights – one white, one malevolent purple – burned like eyes in its shadowed sockets.]
"...Naruto?! Even the name is the same?!" Sakura whirled towards Kakashi, her voice trembling, before turning anxious eyes on Naruto himself.
Kakashi's expression was granite. "Don't panic. This could easily be an enemy's illusion." But his visible eye remained fixed on the screen, sharp and wary.
"Dobe…" Sasuke muttered, his brow furrowed as he too stared at Naruto.
Naruto stood frozen, his mind a whirlwind of confusion. He could only gape at the sky, watching the impossible sight of an older, dead version of himself named… Naruto.
Elsewhere, in the Land of Tea, Jiraiya paused his "research" travels. The name echoed strangely. "Naruto? Could that be… Minato's boy?"
In the Pure Land, Kushina's breath hitched. "That boy… Naruto? Is that my Naruto?!"
Minato's hopeful expression vanished, replaced by deep worry. "It is him. But what is this? What does it mean?"
In the Land of Demons, the current Priestess, Shion, tilted her head, puzzled. The brief glimpse of the long-haired girl felt… oddly familiar.
[The scene changed. Under a bleak, overcast sky, a torii gate bearing the Konoha symbol stood sentinel.]
[A coffin, bound with sacred shimenawa rope, was lowered into a deep grave. A pink-haired girl, her grief etched plainly on her face despite her shorter hairstyle, stood silently beside a bushy-browed boy weeping openly and a stoic youth in white robes with pale, pupil-less eyes. Together, they watched the earth slowly cover the coffin. The screen lingered on the freshly carved tombstone:] (Uzumaki Naruto).
"Uzumaki… Naruto?!" Sakura's jaw dropped. The name etched in stone was undeniable proof.
And the pink-haired girl… older, with shorter hair, but wearing the Haruno crest? Sakura saw her own face reflected back every morning. A terrifying conclusion slammed into her mind.
Sasuke reached the same deduction. He swallowed hard, tearing his gaze from the screen to look at Kakashi. "Sensei… is this… footage from the future?"
"What?! What?! Why is my name on that thing?!" Naruto finally found his voice, gesturing wildly at the sky, still processing the shock of seeing his own grave.
Kakashi met Sasuke's gaze, silent for a long moment before shaking his head. "It's a possibility. But leaping to that conclusion now is… premature." The idea of the entire shinobi world witnessing genuine future events was staggering – far more unbelievable than an enemy attack.
Nearby, Team Guy halted their grueling training routine.
Lee shielded his eyes, peering intently. "That's… that's me! And Neji!"
Tenten looked to Neji, alarmed. "What's going on?"
Neji's Byakugan flared to life, veins bulging, but it revealed nothing about the screen's nature. He deactivated it. "We need to find Might Guy-sensei. See if the village has any intel."
Team 10, the Ino-Shika-Cho trio, watched in stunned silence.
"Sakura! That's definitely Sakura! Which means the one who… the one in the coffin… was really Naruto!" Ino Yamanaka gasped, turning to Shikamaru.
"Tch." Shikamaru Nara clicked his tongue, his usual lazy demeanor evaporating. "What a drag. This is going to cause massive problems."
Choji Akimichi simply stopped eating, his expression unusually grave.
Team 8 observed quietly. Shino Aburame remained characteristically silent. Kiba Inuzuka scratched his head, utterly baffled. But Hinata Hyuga's pale lavender eyes were wide with undisguised fear and sorrow. She'd been one of the first to recognize the boy on the screen. "Naruto-kun…" she whispered, her voice barely audible.
In the Hokage's office, Hiruzen Sarutobi arrived at the same unsettling conclusion: future imagery. Like Kakashi, he found the concept almost too fantastical to accept at face value. Yet, the evidence was stark.
Regardless of its origin, the danger was real. He needed containment protocols immediately – starting with a village-wide gag order. The implications of this "future" leaking were too catastrophic to contemplate.