Level 24 – Private Infirmary, Stark Tower – 04:12 AM
The light was dim. The air smelled of metal and sterility.
Naruto lay on a medical table.
The light fabric she had given him covered his torso down to the waist. His eyes were open… but he wasn't looking at anything.
Not yet.
He was listening.
To the woman's breath in the room.
Her movements. Her silences.
Everything about her was precise. Cautious. Controlled.
But not hostile.
Never hostile.
He sensed… a wariness full of kindness. That strange blend he had never known, not even in Konoha.
Natasha was cleaning his forearms. Slowly.
Not out of medical need. He had no visible wounds.
But she wanted to… observe.
His scars. His heart rate. The density of his skin.
He was… more than human.
She already knew that.
But what unsettled her was the absence of threat in his eyes.
She had seen gods, monsters, machines. All of them carried something aggressive, even in calm.
But him…
He had the eyes of someone who had just lost an entire world.
— "You brought me here…"
Naruto's voice was hoarse, but clear.
Natasha froze.
She answered without turning around:
— "It was either that, or let you freeze on the roof."
— "You could've called for backup."
She turned.
Their eyes met.
She saw in his gaze… the expectation of an honest answer.
Not hostility. But a sincere tension.
So she answered:
— "I didn't. Because you didn't give me a reason to be afraid."
He nodded slowly.
— "You're not afraid of me. Not yet."
— "I don't think I should be afraid of someone who apologizes… just by breathing."
A silence.
Naruto lowered his eyes.
Then, like a whisper:
— "I've been alone my whole life. Even back there. But this world… I don't know it."
She frowned.
— "Back there?"
He inhaled.
A deep breath. Laden with a thousand years.
— "Before I got here, I was somewhere else. Another world. Another life. My name was already Naruto… but I was just an abandoned child."
She stepped closer, crouched to his level.
— "And when did you start remembering?"
He closed his eyes.
— "This morning. When I graduated. When I opened my eyes in that classroom… and everything came back."
She didn't speak.
But she understood.
— "You mean… this world isn't yours?"
— "I don't know anymore. Maybe it's become mine."
He looked at his hands.
— "My system decided to transfer me. I don't know why. But I think… it was a second chance."
She frowned.
— "System?"
He nodded.
— "Something inside me. A voice. A force. A tool… or a guide. I've had it since I was a baby. It makes me stronger. Every second. But I never understood it."
She stayed quiet for a long moment.
Then:
— "And now? Do you still feel it?"
— "Yes. It's here. Watching me. Weighing me. But it doesn't speak anymore. As if it's waiting."
— "Waiting for what?"
Naruto looked at her.
— "You."
She leaned back slightly, unsettled.
— "Me?"
He didn't respond immediately.
But she saw his gaze shift. As if he was struggling to put into words what he felt.
— "When I arrived here… I was falling. Not physically. But in my mind. My heart. My soul."
He looked up at her.
— "And you were there. Just there. Before I even understood what was happening to me."
She felt something strange: her own breath aligning with his.
A shiver. A call.
— "Do you believe in destiny?" she asked.
— "I believe in signs. And in the peace I feel now."
The security panel buzzed.
A discreet signal. A call from Maria Hill. Requesting a report.
Natasha stood, wordless.
She stared at the screen.
Then… erased it.
Naruto watched her.
— "You're not telling them?"
She sighed.
— "Not yet."
— "Why?"
She turned to him.
— "Because I think if I call them… they'll want to lock you up. Cut you off. Dissect you."
A silence.
— "And you?"
— "Me, I want to understand why… when I looked into your eyes, I felt like I remembered something I've never lived."
She approached, handed him a water bottle.
He drank slowly, then thanked her with a glance.
— "I'm not a threat, Natasha. Not to you."
She answered without hesitation:
— "I know."
— "And if I become one?"
She paused.
Then crouched again at his level.
— "Then I'll do what I've always done: I'll speak before I shoot."
He smiled. Slightly.
— "You're different."
— "Not as much as you."
She gently placed a hand on his wrist.
And there — a faint vibration. A quiver.
The Seishin no Musubi… had begun to anchor.