The makeshift shelter deep within Konoha's Forest of Death offered no warmth. Rain drummed a dirge on the thick canopy overhead, dripping through in cold rivulets. Naruto lay on a bed of scavenged cloaks, his breathing shallow and wet. Tsunade worked over him with grim focus, her hands blazing with intense green chakra, sweat beading on her brow despite the chill. Shizune assisted, her face pale, passing instruments with trembling hands. The mangled forearm where Urashiki's hook had torn free was a ruin of shattered bone, shredded muscle, and unnaturally pale, luminescent tissue that resisted healing. Deep puncture wounds on his torso bled sluggishly, the bone-white flecks around their edges pulsing faintly, hungrily.
"Stubborn… damnably stubborn tissue," Tsunade growled, her chakra flaring brighter as she attempted to knit bone fragments. The Kaguya-cells recoiled, then aggressively assimilated the healing energy, using it to strengthen *themselves* rather than repair the human damage. "It's like trying to suture water! Kabuto's notes mentioned Catalyst-7 suppression… Shizune, prepare a high-concentration infusion, *now*!"
Near the shelter's entrance, cloaked in shadow and dripping rain, Sasuke leaned against a moss-covered tree trunk. He held his left arm stiffly, the shoulder wound hidden beneath his cloak, but the unnatural pallor had crept visibly up his neck, etching lines of cold pain onto his face. His Mangekyō Sharingan, however, burned with a different fire. Gone was the blind rage, replaced by a chilling, hyper-focused intensity as he replayed the events on the plaza: Naruto's monstrous bone shield defying Amaterasu, the chilling efficiency of the bone lash, the desperate strike against the Otsutsuki… and Kinshiki's dispassionate pronouncement. *Secured. Extraction proceeds. Barely a vessel.* The sheer scale of the threat, the casual power that treated Bijuu like fruit to be plucked, had shattered his world view. His vendetta felt small, pathetic, against the cosmic horror descending.
Hinata knelt beside Naruto's head, carefully wiping blood and rain from his face with a damp cloth. Her Byakugan was active, veins prominent, not just scanning his physical wounds, but tracing the chaotic storm within his chakra system: the Rinnegan's deep purple vortex sucking at his core, the aggressive white tendrils of the Kaguya-cells fighting the healing chakra, the faint, flickering gold of Kurama's last ember nearly drowned, and the terrifying, expanding void where his life force bled away. Tears streamed silently down her cheeks, not just of sorrow, but of profound helplessness against the monstrous forces consuming him.
Kakashi stood sentinel just outside, his Sharingan and natural eye scanning the rain-lashed forest, his posture rigid with tension. He'd seen the rift, felt the oppressive Otsutsuki presence. The ANBU reports flooding in were fragmented, chaotic: sightings of a massive turtle-shaped Bijuu vanishing near the coast of Water Country amidst unnatural storms; Mizukage Yagura found comatose, drained; whispers of entire Mist patrols simply… gone. Kinshiki's words were a death knell for the fragile peace.
A choked gasp came from Naruto. His eyes snapped open – the Rinnegan swirling violently, unfocused, filled with primal terror and disorientation. He thrashed weakly, a guttural sound escaping his lips, his gaze locking onto nothingness above.
"Easy! Easy, Naruto!" Tsunade barked, pressing a firm hand on his uninjured shoulder. "You're safe! For now!"
His head turned jerkily, the Rinnegan focusing with terrifying clarity on Tsunade, then flicking to Hinata, to Sasuke in the shadows, to Kakashi beyond. Recognition flickered, warring with the alien panic. He tried to speak, only managing a wet cough that speckled his lips with fresh blood. His gaze snapped upwards again, as if seeing through the canopy to the bruised sky beyond.
"Iso…bu…" he rasped, the name a raw scrape. "Chained… Statue…" His hand, trembling violently, the fingers tipped with unnaturally sharp, pale bone where the Kaguya-cells surged uncontrolled, clawed weakly at the air. "Screaming…"
Hinata stifled a sob. She could *see* it in his chakra – the phantom echo of the Three-Tails' torment resonating through the Kaguya-cells within him, a horrifying psychic feedback.
"They took it," Kakashi stated flatly from the entrance, his voice cutting through the rain and Naruto's distress. "The Three-Tails is gone. Extracted." He met Naruto's swirling gaze. "Just like you warned."
Naruto's thrashing subsided. The terror in his eyes morphed into a profound, soul-crushing despair. His clawed hand fell limply to his side. "Gone…" he whispered. "First… of many." His gaze drifted past them, into the middle distance, filled with the ashes of a future he'd lived. "Kurama… Gyūki… Shukaku… all… fodder." The bone-white flecks at his temples pulsed brighter. A single strand of hair at his forehead turned stark white.
Sasuke pushed off the tree trunk, stepping into the dim light near the shelter's center. The movement was stiff, pained. His Mangekyō fixed on Naruto. "Those things… the Otsutsuki," his voice was low, stripped of its former venom, filled with a chillingly practical intensity. "How many? Where do they strike next? What *is* their weakness?" The questions weren't accusations; they were demands for intel from a suddenly relevant, albeit monstrous, source. He needed to know the enemy. The *real* enemy.
Naruto's Rinnegan focused on Sasuke. He saw the white discoloration creeping up his neck, the suppressed pain, the dawning, desperate pragmatism replacing blind hatred. A ghost of his future killer, now potentially… a tool? An ally of necessity? The cold core within him, fueled by despair and the echoes of Isobu's torment, stirred.
"Many…" Naruto rasped. "Kinshiki… brute force. Urashiki… trickster. Others… stronger. Hungrier." He coughed again, blood staining his chin. "Next…" He closed his eyes, focusing inward, the Rinnegan sifting through fragmented sensory data imprinted by the Kaguya-cells and the brief, terrifying contact. "…Hidden Falls… Takigakure… Seven-Tails… Chōmei…" The name was dragged out, heavy with certainty. "Soon. They harvest… fast."
Kakashi's visible eye widened. "Takigakure? Are you certain?"
Naruto gave a weak, barely perceptible nod. "Felt… its chakra… faint. Like Isobu… before gone." His eyes opened again, locking onto Kakashi. "Warn them… futile. But… must try. Buy… time."
"Time for what?" Sasuke demanded, stepping closer, his Mangekyō blazing. "How do we *fight* them?"
A humorless, pained grimace twisted Naruto's lips. "Fight? We… survive. We gather… power. Any power." His gaze flickered to his own bone-tipped fingers, then to the faint glow beneath his skin. "Become… monsters… to kill monsters." He looked back at Sasuke, the Rinnegan swirling with exhausted conviction. "Your eyes… your hate… useless… against stars. Need… more."
Before Sasuke could retort, Naruto's body convulsed violently. A strangled cry tore from him. The bone-white flecks across his body flared like captured stars. Thin, needle-like protrusions of gleaming bone pushed through the skin along his spine and shoulders before retracting, leaving bleeding pinpricks. Tsunade cursed, pouring more chakra into the suppression effort.
"The Catalyst-7!" Shizune urged, handing Tsunade a syringe filled with a shimmering silver liquid.
Tsunade jammed it into Naruto's neck. Almost instantly, the violent convulsions lessened. The bone protrusions retracted fully. The luminescence of the flecks dimmed. Naruto slumped back, unconscious or near it, his breathing ragged but steadier. The immediate crisis was stalled, not solved.
Silence descended, thick and heavy, broken only by the drumming rain and Naruto's labored breaths. The weight of his words, the confirmation of the Otsutsuki's next target, the horrifying reality of their power, hung over them like a shroud.
Kakashi turned, pulling a small scroll from his vest. "I'll send an emergency alert to Takigakure through the Toad Network. Warn the Tsuchikage. Mobilize what ANBU we can spare." His voice was grim. "It might be futile… but we try." He vanished in a swirl of leaves.
Sasuke stared down at the unconscious Naruto, his expression unreadable. The white mark on his neck pulsed faintly. He felt the invasive cold, the echo of Naruto's power within his own system. *Become monsters to kill monsters.* The words echoed. He looked at his own hand, flexing his fingers. His Mangekyō spun slowly. What price would *he* pay?
Hinata gently brushed a strand of damp, white-streaked hair from Naruto's forehead. Her Byakugan saw the fragile balance Tsunade maintained, the Kaguya-cells temporarily cowed but not defeated, the Rinnegan's drain slowed but constant, the life force still leaking away. He was a shattered vessel, held together by will, alien power, and desperate medical intervention. Yet, within the maelstrom, she still saw the flicker of *him*. The one who fought the chains. The one who warned them.
**Deep beneath Konoha, in a Root stronghold sealed behind layers of fuinjutsu and deception:**
Danzō Shimura stood before a complex, humming apparatus. It resembled an organic engine fused with ancient stone, pulsing with a sickly green light. Within a central, transparent chamber, suspended in viscous fluid, floated a single, powerful eye – the Mangekyō Sharingan of Shisui Uchiha, the Kotoamatsukami. Wires and chakra conduits snaked from the apparatus into Danzō's bandaged right arm and socket.
A Root agent knelt before him, head bowed. "…confirmed, Lord Danzō. The Three-Tails has been extracted. Otsutsuki entities sighted. Uzumaki Naruto gravely wounded in confrontation. Uchiha Sasuke witnessed the event. His disposition appears… altered."
Danzō's single visible eye gleamed with cold calculation, not fear. "Altered? Good. Shock loosens the mind's defenses." He raised his bandaged arm. The apparatus hummed louder. The Kotoamatsukami eye in the chamber glowed intensely. "The vessel is broken. The Uchiha is vulnerable. The Otsutsuki move openly… creating chaos." A thin, predatory smile touched his lips. "Chaos is opportunity. The time for subtlety is over."
He placed his palm on a control orb. The apparatus flared. The light from Shisui's eye intensified, pouring through the conduits into Danzō's arm. He gasped, a shudder running through him, but his smile widened, filled with dark triumph.
"Prepare the extraction team," Danzō commanded, his voice gaining an unnatural, resonant undertone. "Target: Uchiha Sasuke. Priority: Secure his eyes intact. The Kotoamatsukami requires… compatible vessels for the next phase." His gaze, infused with stolen Uchiha power and ruthless ambition, fixed on an unseen horizon. "Konoha's weakness is our strength. The Otsutsuki harvest the beasts…" He clenched his fist, the Kotoamatsukami's power humming within him. "*We* harvest the eyes. The true power lies not in the fruit… but in the hand that shapes the harvest."
The unseen threads were drawn taut. As the Otsutsuki harvested Tailed Beasts under the bruised sky, Danzō, the shadow within the village, prepared his own grim reaping, targeting the eyes of the very ghost Naruto had fought, while the shattered vessel lay broken, his warning echoing into the storm: *They're coming for all of us.* The ashes of the first harvest had barely cooled, and the next, darker reaping was already beginning.