Hanabi stared at the glowing screen, her finger hovering over the icon in Pakura's computer.
"This is the one, right? Valley of the End?"
"That's the one," Pakura confirmed from her spot on the couch, peering over a bowl of popcorn. "Go on, click it. But first, you need to make an account. Pick a cool name—something that doesn't scream 'hello, I am a noob'."
"Right. A nickname."
Hanabi's expression turned serious, as if she were receiving a critical mission briefing. She began to type, each keystroke a deliberate, careful act. The clack… clack… clack of the keyboard was painfully slow.
Having grown up in the traditional Hyūga Clan, she'd never really used a computer before.
Pakura didn't tease her, though. She just scooted closer. "No rush. The 'I' key is right there. Yeah, that one."
After a few minutes of focused effort, the registration screen vanished. The room plunged into darkness as a cinematic trailer (intro) exploded onto the screen.
Hanabi's eyes went wide.
She watched, captivated, as Uchiha Madara and Hashirama Senju clashed on screen. A giant, blue Susanoo wrestled with a colossal wooden golem. The ground shattered. Mountains trembled. It was insane.
Whoosh. BOOM.
The trailer ended with the game's title slashing across the screen.
"Whoa," Hanabi breathed, her heart thumping with excitement. "That was… way better than any movie."
She clicked [Start Game].
A prompt popped up: "Please enter your nickname."
After a moment's thought, she typed: [MidnightHanabi]
"Please select your hero:"
[1. Uchiha Madara (Jungler)]
[2. Tsunade (Top Lane)]
[3. Fourth Kazekage Rasa (Marksman)]
She didn't understand what "Jungler" or "Top Lane" meant, but she knew Tsunade. The Fifth Hokage was a legend. Without hesitation, she selected option 2.
"Selection complete. Welcome to the battle!"
The screen cleared, revealing a busy menu cluttered with a dozen different buttons and modes.
Hanabi blinked, feeling suddenly lost. She glanced at Pakura. "Okay. Now what?"
"Pick your poison," Pakura said, gesturing with a piece of popcorn.
"Co-op vs. AI is you and real people against computer bots. It's good for practice. Normal Match is just… everyone for themselves. And Ranked—" she dropped her voice to a mock-serious tone, "—that's the big leagues. Where egos go to die."
"That's where the ranks are? Like… Gold?" Hanabi asked, remembering Naruto's bragging.
"Yep. The ladder goes: Iron, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, Master, and then the big one, Challenger. Gold is basically the 'okay, you're not totally awful' tier."
Hanabi looked confused.
"But Naruto acted like it's a huge deal."
"Oh, it is! This game is brutal. Getting to Gold on your own is seriously impressive." Pakura grinned. "Which is why Naruto didn't get there on his own. He had a… skilled friend… log in for him."
Hanabi frowned. "That seems like cheating."
"It totally is," Pakura agreed, ruffling Hanabi's hair. "But you're not a cheater, are you, Hanabi-chan? You're going to earn it."
"I'm not a child," Hanabi muttered, though a small smile touched her lips.
She turned back to the screen, a fresh determination in her eyes, and clicked on Co-op vs. AI.
---
Meanwhile, in the Land of Wind…
Miles upon miles of nothing but sand stretched to the horizon. Yuto hovered in the air, his feet resting on nothing at all, staring down at a particularly unremarkable dune known as the Buried Earth Hill.
"See anything?" Kushina's voice echoed from the spirit pearl.
"Nope," Yuto thought back, his face neutral. "Just a pile of sand. Looks like every other pile of sand out here."
"So we're on a wild goose chase?" she pressed. "Maybe this Mōryō isn't the mastermind we thought?"
Yuto didn't answer aloud. Instead, he simply whispered a name. "Kaguya."
On cue, a figure melted from the shadows at his feet. Ōtsutsuki Kaguya, ancient and impossibly calm, stood beside him.
"Husband."
"Let's see what's under the hood," Yuto said.
With a simple nod, Kaguya faced the center of the dune. She lifted her hand, palm open.
The air itself warped. A pinprick of darkness appeared in the center of the mound, sucking in the light and sound around it. The sand below didn't just shift—it bent.
Then, with a sound like the world cracking in half, the space over the Hill shattered.
BOOOOM.
A geyser of oily black chakra erupted, staining the sky for miles. The ground shook violently.
"Well, there it is," Yuto said, sounding almost bored. "Knew it. It's a beacon."
The vile energy was a homing signal, a way for the otherworldly Mōryō to latch onto their world.
Kaguya didn't need instructions. She simply closed her outstretched hand into a fist.
The terrifying black geyser didn't fade or dissipate. It just… stopped existing.
One moment it was there, defiling the sky; the next, it was gone. Silence returned to the desert once again.
"Thank you, Kaguya," Yuto said.
"It was simple," she replied, a ghost of a smile on her lips before she melted back into his shadow.
The reaction from his other passengers was immediate.
"WHOAH. Hold on. Did she just— Is she LIVING in your shadow now?!" Kushina's voice was a psychic screech.
"How would that even work?" Mikoto's voice joined in, a mix of curiosity and deep concern. "More importantly, if she's in there… does that mean she can… see… everything? You know. At home?"
"Ack! Don't say that!" Kushina yelped.
Yuto sighed.
"She's not living in there. She uses my shadow as an anchor point to teleport. That's all."
"That's… ridiculously overpowered jutsu" Kushina muttered, impressed despite herself.
"It's not a jutsu. Not really. It's something else. Deeper. The kind of thing you'd call… divine," Yuto explained.
"So she's a god now?"
"Close. Not quite. She's peeking over the fence into godhood, but she hasn't stepped inside yet. When she does, even moving a world will be as easy as blinking."
"What about you?" Kushina asked. "You can do that shadow thing. Are you peeking too?"
Yuto let out a dry laugh.
"Me? I'm still trying to figure out the user manual for this cursed body of mine. 'God' is a strong word."
"Yuto-kun, that was a dangerously edgy thing to say," Mikoto deadpanned.
"Yeah, yeah, mister 'woe is me'," Kushina joined in, lightening the mood. "But seriously, why'd we just blow up our only clue? Couldn't we have used it to find them?"
"It was a one-way nail," Yuto said, shaking his head. "They hammered it into our world to find us. We can't crawl back through the hole. Leaving it there was just asking for more trouble. We can't babysit a sand dune forever."
"Okay, fair. So what's the plan for finding Hanabi's original world?"
"We wait," Yuto said, his gaze turning east, back toward home. "When Kaguya fully understands the 'map,' she'll be able to find that universe through Hanabi's body."
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