{support me by checking my main novels...}
Naruto didn't move.
Himawari's Byakugan flared, veins bulging around her eyes, scanning every movement in his muscles. Her blade pulsed with black essence—a weapon forged in this realm, bonded to her very soul. She looked different. Not just older. Not just stronger. She looked like someone who had survived too much.
And she was ready to kill him.
"Himawari, it's me," he said softly, lifting both hands. "I don't know how I got here. I don't even know what this place is—"
"I know exactly what it is," she cut in. "And I know what kind of monsters it creates."
She took a step forward. Her foot crunched down on ash, and the shadows around her stirred like wolves at her heel.
Naruto swallowed. "I'm not one of them."
"You bear a Shadow Mark. More than one, from the looks of it."
She gestured at his arm. Black spirals and runic lines glowed faintly across his forearm and neck.
"You're Echo-bound. You're not just infected—you're linked."
"I didn't choose it!" Naruto snapped. "Some masked freak stabbed me with shadow energy and vanished. I didn't even know what a Nightmare was until a few hours ago!"
"And yet you survived," she said bitterly. "Do you know how many shinobi didn't?"
Her blade lifted, point angled at his heart.
"Then if you're still Naruto—prove it."
Naruto tensed. "You want me to fight you?"
"No," she said. "I want you to fight the thing inside you."
She snapped her fingers.
Behind her, the ash exploded.
A Nightmare burst forth—huge, quadrupedal, stitched together from shattered masks and rusted weapons. It howled with a jagged maw of metal and bone. Its essence bled like smoke, darkening the ground with each step.
"I captured this one," Himawari said coldly. "It feeds on guilt. Let's see how much you've got."
The creature lunged.
Naruto ducked, rolled, and sprinted sideways. The monster smashed into the place where he'd been standing, leaving a crater of burning ash. Naruto leapt to the side, clenching his fists. He couldn't mold chakra, couldn't summon a Rasengan, couldn't use Sage Mode.
But he had something else.
The essence inside him pulsed—responding to fear and adrenaline. He reached deep, instinctively calling the same bond he used earlier.
A burst of black threads shot from his hand, connecting to the monster's shadow.
The world slowed.
Naruto's vision dimmed, and a translucent interface flickered across his sight. Not a Sharingan, not a dojutsu. A system—primitive, raw. A gift from the Shadow Realm.
Nightmare-Class: Maskhound (Tier 2)
Affinity: Guilt
Weakness: Light-imbued strikes, purified silver, unstable emotion spikes
[Chain Attempt: 42% Sync]
Proceed?
Naruto blinked. "What the hell is this?"
The words hovered like floating ink in his mind.
He shouted and pulled.
The threads tightened.
The beast roared as its shadow began to stretch unnaturally. But Naruto's connection was unstable. His mark flared—too weak. His arm trembled.
The connection snapped.
The beast surged forward and struck.
Naruto was flung across the ash, landing in a tumble of pain. His ribs screamed. His vision blurred.
Himawari didn't help. She watched with cold precision, arms crossed, as though evaluating a test subject.
The beast charged again.
Naruto rolled, grabbed a chunk of obsidian from the ground, and jammed it into the monster's underbelly as it passed. The shard didn't kill it, but the surprise staggered it. He stood up, panting.
Think. No chakra. Use the bond. Use what this place gives you.
He didn't need to overpower the beast.
He needed to control its shadow.
Naruto closed his eyes, tuning out everything—his pain, Himawari's silence, the howling wind. He felt the pulse of the realm beneath his feet.
It was like an echo. Like a heartbeat not his own.
Shadow, answer me…
This time, when he reached, the threads of darkness came willingly.
They didn't bind.
They bled into him.
New Skill Awakened: Shadow Snare (Rank 1)
Bind a creature's shadow for 3 seconds. Cooldown: 10 sec. Essence Cost: 4 units.**
Naruto's eyes snapped open.
He stretched his fingers.
"Snare."
The beast's shadow snapped upward like chains and froze it mid-lunge.
Three seconds.
That's all he needed.
He charged forward and slammed his fist into its jaw—once, twice. The second hit dislodged part of its cracked face.
Essence burst from the wound like smoke.
Naruto inhaled instinctively.
Essence absorbed: +3
Shadow Core stability increased.
The beast thrashed—free again. But its momentum was gone. Naruto spun behind it, seized its shadow again, and this time dragged it forward.
The monster stumbled—unbalanced.
Naruto jumped and drove his heel into the back of its head.
The creature collapsed.
It shrieked as its shadow unraveled. The last of its body turned to ash and scattered.
Naruto stood, chest heaving, arms trembling.
The wind went still.
Himawari stepped forward.
She sheathed her blade.
"…You passed."
He turned to her, breathless. "That was your test?"
"I needed to know if the thing standing in front of me was still you—or if you'd been consumed."
She approached slowly, her Byakugan fading.
"I've seen dozens of shinobi get marked by the shadows," she said quietly. "Most of them never made it past their first bond. The few who did... turned into monsters."
He held her gaze. "You really thought I'd become one of them?"
"I didn't know what to think anymore."
For a long moment, they just stared at each other.
Then, finally, she stepped closer—and hugged him.
Naruto froze.
It had been years since he'd felt anything so real.
"You're still annoying," she muttered into his chest. "But you're my annoying idiot of a brother."
Naruto smiled faintly. "Glad to know that part's universal."
They sat around a small fire, fueled by ashwood—a rare material in this world that burned with a gray flame. Himawari handed him a canteen filled with dark liquid.
"Don't ask what it is. Just drink."
Naruto took a sip and gagged. "Tastes like burnt ink mixed with tears."
She snorted. "That's about right."
He lowered the canteen. "You said the Otsutsuki destroyed everything. What happened to Mom? Dad? Everyone?"
Her expression darkened.
"We don't know how they returned. The original clan—Kaguya's lineage—they weren't dead. Just… dormant. Some theorize the chakra tree was just a fragment of a much larger root system across realms."
Naruto frowned. "And no one stopped them?"
"We tried," she said. "Everyone did. But the moment they arrived, they collapsed half the planet into pocket voids. Reality fractured. Entire nations vanished overnight."
She paused. "Sasuke-sensei was the last one I saw. He held them off long enough for me and a few others to escape. But in the end… even he fell."
Naruto gritted his teeth. "And Konoha?"
She stared into the fire.
"Gone."
The silence between them was suffocating.
Naruto looked down at his hand—the black marks, the pulsing essence.
"I couldn't save them."
"No," she said. "But maybe you were never meant to."
He looked at her.
"You were brought here for a reason, Naruto. The Echo Void doesn't randomly choose survivors. The fact that you're bonded, that you're resisting the Nightmare taint… it means you might be an Echo Nexus."
He blinked. "English, please."
She sighed. "This world is dying. The Void is spreading. But certain people—like you—act as anchors. Bridges. If we can gather enough Echo Nexuses, we might be able to reopen the path to Earth and seal the Otsutsuki back."
Naruto raised an eyebrow. "Let me guess. You don't know where the others are."
"No. But I know how to find them."
She pulled something from her satchel. A sphere of cracked crystal, glowing faintly with white light.
"The Compass of Dusk," she said. "Made from a fallen star. It reacts to Nexus essence."
The light flickered, pointing west.
"There's one close."
Naruto stood.
"Then what are we waiting for?"
End of Chapter Two