On the training ground, Shisui retreated a few steps, cloak still frosted. His expression tightened as he looked at his own tanto.
Very funny. I'm holding a knife while that kid swings a blade three times his size with one hand.
Naruto stood opposite him, Masamune resting on his shoulder, eye faintly gleaming with that unnatural blue confidence.
Naruto stood across from Shisui, Masamune resting on his shoulder, the faint blue confidence in his eye looking nothing like human restraint.
Shisui raised his tanto. "Naruto. Let's cross only blades. No ninjutsu and magic nonsense . Just kenjutsu."
Naruto blinked once. Then a short, sharp laugh left him. "A fuckin' knife . Against my Masamune. You must've eaten a lot of shit, huh."
His face dropped in an instant, expression cooling. "That's ignorance of your firepower. And stupidity."
Iruka snapped from the benches. "Hey! No swearing! This is the Academy!"
Shisui flicked a glance at Itachi.
Itachi's hand moved in a precise, quiet gesture. No. Bad idea. Don't.
Naruto tilted his head, amused. "But I'm entertained. Go ahead. Use ninjutsu. everything. I'll only use this blade."
Shisui narrowed his eyes. "For real? You serious about that drawback, kid?"
Naruto slipped the black cloak off his shoulders. The fabric hit the ground, sinking the dirt beneath it as if he'd dropped a chunk of metal. The gloves followed, heavy enough to crack the soil. His clothing underneath was sharp, clean, almost noble—tailored lines with just enough exposed muscle to show he wasn't hiding behind fabric.
"That line's supposed to be mine," he said, voice smooth. "Mind if I switch to serious mode? Because you might really get crippled. And I'm very good at doing that—absolute Batman-style."
Shisui inhaled, realization tightening his jaw. All this time… me and Itachi were fighting a kid who's physically stronger than both of us, and whose 'ninjutsu' isn't ninjutsu at all.
Itachi stepped forward, ready to reinforce his partner.
Naruto lifted the Masamune and pointed it at him without turning his head. "You enter now, Itachi… and I'll take that as permission to go all out."
His tone dropped to a calm warning. "And trust me. That should be the last thing anyone ever sees."
Naruto shifted his stance slightly, eye narrowing with a blade-fighter's focus. "Oh—yeah. Almost forgot. My sword technique. Zanshin."
He slashed the air once. Three arcs of compressed wind tore forward—silent, instant, lethal.
Trees across the training ground split cleanly, trunks dropping in staggered falls, leaves scattering like fleeing birds.
Naruto lowered the blade. "Now don't tell me I sucker-punched you with magic."
Shisui stared at the devastation, jaw tightening. " And That was just wind pressure… ? Naruto, what kind of insane thing gives a kid a technique on a Kage's level?"
Naruto rested the Masamune on his shoulder, relaxed. "That's your homework, right?"
Itachi looked at the torn treeline, the trunks sliced clean through as if reality itself had been cut. For a moment, even his Sharingan struggled to follow the afterimage trails.
Now I can say it clearly. What Naruto has… is completely unfair.
Itachi exhaled once, steady. "Zanshin technique," he murmured, "is a cheat blade technique
Shisui recalculated instantly. Naruto's sword wasn't just long—its reach, shockwaves, and pressure made ten meters feel like touching distance. Even at full speed, if I'm inside that range, I'm not safe. But it's enough time to finish this and land Kotoamatsukami.
Shisui's eyes shifted, tomoe twisting into his Mangekyō.
Naruto's smile widened. His eye shifted—blue sclera, iris burning with that Cipher-like flame that pulsed like a predator waking. Both lowered their stances and commited .
Shisui vanished in a body flicker, blade streaking toward Naruto's ribs, clean and efficient.
Naruto didn't step back. He raised Masamune with a lazy, almost bored motion—tap—and Shisui's strike ricocheted off the steel like a child hitting a temple bell.
Shisui blurred again, afterimages forming and collapsing as he circled Naruto with a dozen lethal angles.
Naruto turned his wrist an inch.
Tap. Another blow nullified.
Shisui came from above.
Naruto lifted the blade with the precision of someone wiping dust off his shoulder.
Tap.
Shisui slid low to sweep Naruto's legs.
Naruto angled the Masamune down without even bending, stopping the slash with effortless timing.
Tap.
Shisui reappeared behind him, tanto aimed at the spine.
Naruto simply extended Masamune backward like he'd known the attack three minutes before Shisui even decided it.
Tap.
Shock tremored through Shisui's arm. Naruto saw the dip in strength and lifted the Masamune slightly.
"Zanshin."
He slashed the air. Another compressed wind-pressure wave detonated outward, ripping a trench through the ground as it shot toward Shisui. Shisui twisted out of the trajectory by a hair, boots skidding across frozen soil. He didn't waste the opening.
Shisui blurred through hand seals—dozens, maybe hundreds—faster than any normal shinobi should track. It was sloppy, desperate, the way someone rifled through ancient scrolls in the middle of a battlefield, hunting for a technique older than the village itself.
Naruto didn't interrupt. Instead, he planted the Masamune tip into the ground and leaned casually against the blade's edge, as if the weapon wasn't sharp enough to slice mountains. Arrogant. Unmoving. Almost bored.
Shisui's lips twitched in a strained grin. "Thanks for letting me prepare."
Naruto flicked dust off his sleeve. "Just get it done already. I'm leaving soon."
Shisui's final hand seal slowed, each movement deliberate, his stance steady as the last pieces of his technique fell into place. The field was silent except for the faint crackle of chakra gathering in the air.
He tried to lighten the tension. "Naruto… I realize you're a lot like me. Open-minded. And you helped my friend's little brother awaken the Sharingan in the easiest way imaginable."
Sasuke yelled from the benches. "I WAS BLUFFED! I ALMOST HAD A HEART ATTACK!"
Shisui smiled gently and ignored him, gaze fixed on Naruto. "Still… thank you."
Naruto tilted his head. "You're very Mr. Goody Two-Shoes, aren't you."
Shisui slowed his hands further, approaching the final combination. His voice softened into his natural sincerity. "I always believed in self-sacrifice… in a nameless shinobi who guards peace from the shadows. And now that magic is real—and easy—we can finally protect the village the First Hokage dreamed of."
Naruto stayed silent. His mood darkened. For a brief second, his iris flashed red.
Shisui caught it. "I take it… you don't like my words."
Naruto tilted his head slightly. "Even a cockroach understands it, A small sacrifice for the betterment of the whole. That 'nameless shinobi' you talk about… basically a worker on twenty-four hours a day, every day, never off-duty."
Shisui shook his head lightly. "Not literally twenty-four hours… but if possible, yes. With proper shifts, of course."
Naruto's smile thinned. "Then here's my last remark for your 'ideal.' Think very hard about this, Shisui. What if your Uchiha clan needs to be sacrificed? Bad reputation. Rumors. 'Possible rebellion.' All for the sake of Konoha's peace. Still sound noble to you?"
Shisui's hands stopped for a fraction of a second. The last seal hovered just out of reach.
This kid… he's seen further than I have. I thought I was open-minded. But it's like he's already been in that exact situation.
Naruto lowered Masamune a little, eye sharpened. "You have a big flaw in that speech of yours. What you said is 'for Konoha.' Not for anyone else. Understand?"
He lifted the blade again, thoughts drifting to a name far beyond this world.
"I've got an idol, you know. Not from this land. Rimuru Tempest. His kindness helped him… but it didn't protect his comrades when they died." Naruto's voice stayed steady, almost indifferent. "So he got pissed. Became the Demon Lord of Jura Tempest. Wiped out his enemies. Declared himself the greatest Demon Lord of all time. And he fixed every flaw people kept ignoring. Peace—everlasting peace—because there were no enemies left to break it."
Iruka stood from the benches, shaken. "But that means Rimuru is evil. That goes against the Will of Fire. It makes him no different than the enemy."
Naruto tapped Masamune's flat side against his boot, unimpressed. "Tell that to every conflict this world keeps repeating. Every ninja war that starts the same way. Eventually… a reasonable solution has to rise."
His eye flickered once—cold, ancient, uncomfortably practical. "And sometimes the only reasonable one is the one everyone's too scared to use."
Itachi's voice was steady. ". If not the Will of Fire… what do you believe in? The path of a demon lord?"
Naruto tapped Masamune's flat side against his boot, eye narrowed in quiet irritation. "For now? I keep it simple. You help me, I help you. Give and take. Anyone who's my enemy…" He shrugged lightly. "You know the rest."
Shisui exhaled slowly as his final hand seal clicked into place. His expression softened into something solemn. "Maybe the village never said it to you. But hear it from me instead. I'm sorry, Naruto. For the life Konoha forced on you."
Naruto didn't flinch. "Oh, I don't care about that."
His grip tightened slightly on Masamune, the blade humming faintly with blue heat. "I have other business to finish once this match is done."
Shisui lowered his stance, expression tightening. "Then I hope that business… isn't destroying everyone here."
He finished the final hand seal in a smooth, practiced chain. His lungs expanded. Flame crackled at the corners of his mouth.
"Katon: Gōka Mekkyaku."
A sea of fire roared across the training field, drowning the ground in a wave of incandescent heat.
Itachi watched from the benches, eyes narrowing. That's a bit too much, Shisui.
Naruto's interest sharpened. He snapped his fingers once. A transparent barrier shimmered over the students—Shell—locking their section of the field away from the incoming heat.
He smiled lightly. "You just made Madara proud, my friend."
He lifted Masamune and shifted his footing. Octaslash built inside his muscles like coiled lightning.
Naruto first strike came with a faint crack of air. Flash Step Draw Cut sliced through the incoming flames, parting a tunnel of cooled air around him.
Second strike followed without pause. Reverse Horizontal Cut carved open a straight path toward Shisui.
Shisui saw the glint of the blade cutting through his inferno. His heart dropped. This guy doesn't give up. He funneled every drop of chakra into reinforcing his stance—because if the next six hits landed, he wasn't sure he'd stay standing.
Naruto moved without hesitation.
His third strike—Rising Diagonal Uppercut—flared upward, the blade's arc cutting the flames at their source. Shisui's fire thinned instantly, no longer a sea, more like dying embers.
The fourth strike—Descending Overhead Slice—dropped like a guillotine. The remaining flames dispersed in a violent shockwave, scattering into smoke.
Shisui's breath caught. "Oh… fuck."
Naruto didn't slow. Masamune shifted under Weirdmageddon's influence, the edge turning blunt just enough to avoid killing him outright.
Shisui lifted his tanto to block. It shattered on the fifth hit—Rapid Multi-Stab—dozens of impacts cracking the blade to dust.
A single, resigned thought crossed Shisui's mind. From the beginning… I already lost, huh.
Naruto closed the distance and executed Hit Six—Heavy Spinning Slash.
Hit Seven—Aerial Vertical Cleave.
And the finisher—Hit Eight: Cross Cut.
The twin impacts launched Shisui across the training field, crashing him into the dirt hard enough to bounce.
He groaned, breath knocked out, pain flaring through his ribs. Owww… that really hurts. I think I broke a bone.
Naruto lowered Masamune, one eye steady, unimpressed.
Itachi flickered to his side instantly, catching Shisui under the arm before he collapsed completely.
Naruto tapped the blade once and let it collapse back into a cane, the weapon folding like liquid steel.
Shisui managed a faint grin. "The match isn't over until the referee or the opponent says it's over."
His body dissolved in a puff of smoke.
Itachi's smile sharpened as he stepped forward. "Good night, Naruto. Consider this payback for getting sucker-punched by a kid."
The ground bulged under Naruto's feet.
Shisui exploded out of the Doton escape, Mangekyō Sharingan fully unleashed, eyes burning with hypnotic force. He rose directly into Naruto's blind spot, landing in perfect stance, gaze locked firmly onto Naruto's eye.
"Kotoamatsukami."
Naruto smiled with quiet satisfaction. "Yeah. I know. That's what I want."
Then the world clicked.
Tick.
Tick.
TICK—
Time shattered.
A steel chime rang across the frozen field, soft but absolute, like a divine clock striking a forbidden hour. Every student froze in mid-breath. Leaves stopped mid-fall. Even steam halted mid-air, suspended like glass.
Only Naruto moved. Or rather—only Naruto's soul did.
Naruto stood at the center of the frozen instant, eye glowing blue-red while time hung open like a cracked mirror. He looked upward toward the unseen thread tied deep inside his soul — Bernkastel's implanted miracle.