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Chapter 221 Different Labels, Same Cage
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In front of Naruto's apartment building, a rough semicircle of stone barricades had been erected. It wasn't elegant, but it was effective enough to keep people from rushing the entrance. A handful of genin stood watch behind it, clearly out of their depth, while a tired-looking chūnin paced back and forth, barking orders and trying to maintain some semblance of order.
It wasn't working.
"Is it really him?"
"I heard he's back. The Fourth Hokage's son, living right here."
"Does he look like Lord Minato? He has to, right?"
"I just want to say I saw him once. That's all."
"Imagine growing up as the Fourth's kid… must be incredible."
"Come on, let him show himself! We waited all day!"
"I brought my kids. They should see the Yellow Flash's legacy."
"Legacy, yeah… that's what matters. Not like we'll ever talk to him."
"Do you think he's as strong as his father already?"
"Doesn't matter. Just knowing he exists is enough."
"Minato's son… like he's some kind of living monument."
"Stars don't belong to themselves," another voice muttered, half-joking, half-serious. "They belong to the crowd."
And mixed in between the noise, quieter voices lingered.
"I hope he's doing okay."
"I wonder if he even wants this."
But those were drowned out quickly, buried beneath curiosity, spectacle, and the hunger to witness a name rather than a person. The voices overlapped into a noisy, restless mass. Civilians pressed forward, some craning their necks, others standing on crates or railings. A few off-duty shinobi watched with thinly veiled curiosity, pretending they weren't interested while very obviously being interested.
The chūnin sighed. "Back up! I said back up! This isn't a festival!"
A genin leaned toward another, whispering loudly, "Do you think he'll come out?"
"No way. If I were him, I'd just disappear," the other replied.
Naruto watched the whole scene from a nearby rooftop, crouched beside the edge with Oscar curled around his neck. The night air was quiet up here compared to the chaos below.
"…Yeah," Naruto muttered. "Disappear sounds about right."
He rested his chin on his palm, red hair catching the moonlight as he stared down at the crowd. His expression wasn't angry. It wasn't happy either. It was something muddled in between.
"So this is what it's like," he murmured. "Not 'that demon brat' anymore. Just… the Fourth's kid."
Oscar yawned, a low chirp slipping out as he stretched one limb.
"Don't get me wrong," Naruto continued quietly, more to himself than to Oscar. "It's kinda nice not being hated. But this?" He gestured vaguely at the crowd. "This feels… loud and performative."
He watched a civilian woman clutch a letter to her chest like it was something precious. A man argued with a genin, insisting he needed to meet with the 4th's son. Someone else shouted that they wanted Naruto to hear their story, their thanks, and their apology.
"I don't think I wanna deal or be seen by these people tonight."
Oscar responded by falling asleep.
Naruto snorted softly. "Yeah. Same."
He lifted his sorcerer's catalyst as pale sparkles of light flared briefly around him and Oscar before fading entirely. Their forms blurred, bent, and vanished from sight.
Invisible, Naruto rose to his feet and hopped lightly from the rooftop. He landed soundlessly near his apartment, slipping past the barricades with ease. The genin guarding the area shivered slightly as a breeze passed them, one of them glancing around nervously.
"Did you feel that?"
"Feel what?"
Naruto reached his front door and paused.
There were a lot of letters.
Stacks of envelopes, some neat and some hastily scribbled. Small wrapped boxes. A basket of fruit. A crudely carved wooden charm. A bouquet of flowers that had definitely seen better days.
Naruto stared at the pile.
"…Hn."
He unlocked the door and stepped inside, closing it quietly behind him. The apartment was dark and still, the familiar emptiness greeting him like an old friend. Even with the door shut, the muffled noise from outside bled through the walls. Oscar stirred slightly as Naruto placed him on a pillow from the couch. He leaned his back against the armrest and slid down to sit for a moment.
"All my life," Naruto murmured, eyes fixed on the cracked ceiling above him, "I just wanted people to look at me and not see something else first. Just… Naruto. A kid from the village. Someone who's allowed to exist without having to prove it every single day."
He let out a slow breath. "But it looks like that was never really the deal, huh? First I was the demon brat. Now I'm the Fourth Hokage's son. Different labels yet the same cage."
Oscar nudged the back of hyis head with a gentle little boop.
Naruto smiled faintly and scratched the lizard's head. "Hey. It's fine." The words were soft, but steady. "Let 'em see whatever they want. A monster. A legend. A legacy. It doesn't really matter. Because the people who actually know me? They don't need a title. To them, I'm just Naruto. And that's enough."
He stood and brought his hands together, forming a seal. Shadow clones popped into existence around the room, stretching, yawning, and taking in the mess. "You guys grab everything and dump it into the inventory. We're crashing somewhere quiet tonight. And no snooping."
"Yes, boss."
Another tilted his head. "You know we're literally you, right?"
"Still. No snooping."
The clones got to work, furniture and belongings vanishing in faint shimmers as they were stored away. Naruto himself headed for the bedroom, intent on grabbing another pillow. Oscar liked being sandwiched between them, and it helped block out noise.
He lifted the pillow and froze.
A red envelope laid on his bed.
Naruto's stomach sank.
A letter from Shimura Danzō.
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It was close to eleven at night when Sasuke finished brushing his teeth.
His house was quiet, the kind of quiet that pressed in on your ears if you weren't used to it. Sasuke rinsed his mouth, set the cup down, and turned toward the hallway.
BANG. BANG. BANG.
The front door rattled.
"Sasuke!"
He froze for half a second, then scowled. He knew that annoying voice.
Sasuke walked to the door and yanked it open. Naruto stood there, eyes a little dull with exhaustion, holding two pillows stacked together like a sandwich. Oscar was wedged between them, tail flicking lazily.
"Yo."
"…Why are you at my house?"
Naruto shifted his weight. "So, funny story. There's like… a lot of people in front of my apartment."
"Define 'a lot.'"
"Enough that I decided not to open the door," Naruto said. "They're yelling stuff about the Fourth Hokage and asking to see his son and..." he waved a hand vaguely, "...ya know. That."
Sasuke's expression tightened. "So they're not there for you."
Naruto snorted. "Oh no. Definitely not. They want the idea of me. Not the actual me." He bounced the pillows slightly as Oscar let out a tiny chirp. "So, I figured I'd crash somewhere no one goes. And this place is basically abandoned."
Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "That's your reasoning?"
"Also you're my friend," Naruto added quickly.
There was a beat of silence.
"What about Sakura?"
"She lives in the middle of the civilian district," Naruto replied. "Which is where half the crowd probably came from."
"And Kakashi."
"Not home. Plus… the Uchiha compound is far away from the rest of Konoha," Naruto said, then added a joke, "It's almost like no one wanted you guys too close to the village or something."
Sasuke glanced past Naruto at the empty compound, frowning slightly. He'd never really thought about why one of Konoha's founding clans had been placed so far from the village proper.
"But it works for tonight. So, can I stay at your place?"
"There are empty houses everywhere in the compound."
"No water. No electricity. And what if they're haunted?"
Sasuke gave him a flat look. "Ghosts don't exist."
"Yes they do," Naruto said immediately. "I've fought them in lordran."
"…Of course you have."
Naruto nodded like that settled it.
Sasuke rubbed his temple, then stepped aside.
"Dude, you're the best."
Naruto slipped off his sandals at the entrance without being told, lining them up neatly before stepping inside. He glanced around as they walked, taking in the long wooden hallways, the polished floors that creaked softly underfoot, and the paper sliding doors lining the walls. There was very little furniture, just low tables, folded cushions, and shelves that had clearly been cleaned but rarely used.
"Your place is huge," Naruto said.
"It used to be full," Sasuke replied.
Naruto didn't respond right away.
They passed a room that looked like it had been hit head-on by a fireball.
"That was Itachi's room," Sasuke said before Naruto could ask. He didn't stop walking. "I did it. After I finally accepted that the Uchiha massacre wasn't some nightmare I'd wake up from."
"…I'm sorry," Naruto said, then paused, choosing his words carefully. "But why stay here? Wouldn't it be easier to live somewhere else?"
"The Yamanaka medic and the third hokage said the same thing that leaving would help."
Sasuke looked back at the ruined room, jaw tight.
"But if I leave, then what? I forget it happened? I wake up here every day because I don't want to forget. This place reminds me why I train. Why I get stronger. If I ever stop remembering, then… it really would all be meaningless."
Naruto understood that feeling more than he wanted to admit.
As they moved on, Naruto's gaze caught on a framed photo resting on a shelf. Sasuke, younger, standing stiffly between his parents. One side of the picture, where itachi would be, was torn clean away.
"So, you think my mom and yours ever knew each other?"
"Maybe."
"Kinda makes you wonder how our lives would've turned out if… you know. If none of the bad stuff happened."
Sasuke broke the silence first. "You'd probably still be an idiot," he said flatly.
"Wow. Thanks. And you'd still be a jerk."
"Correct."
That earned a small smile from Naruto anyway.
Sasuke slid open a door and flicked on the light to an empty clean room. "You can sleep here."
Naruto snapped his fingers and, with a soft shimmer, a bed materialized out of thin air and settled neatly into place.
"…You know, normal people carry futons."
Naruto gently placed the sleeping Oscar on the bed. "Yeah, but normal people don't have an inventory."
"Show-off."
"Jealous."
Sasuke turned to leave. "Good night."
"Night, teme."
Sasuke closed the door then opened it again.
"…If things were different," he said, not quite looking at Naruto, "we probably would've known each other back then. Our parents ran in the same circles. You'd probably be blonde gremlin. I'd still hate crowds. But… maybe we would've rivals."
Naruto blinked, surprised, then smiled. "Yeah. I think that would've been cool."
"Don't read into it."
"I won't."
A beat.
"Also," Sasuke added, "go wash up. I know you don't shower before bed. You smell like sweat and… something else."
Naruto gasped. "Excuse you. This is the smell of the great Naruto Uzumaki."
"You smell like shit."
A pillow flew.
Sasuke caught it with one hand, unimpressed. "Good night, idiot." He shut the door for real this time.
"I don't stink," Naruto muttered, rolling onto his side and pulling Oscar closer. The little creature chirped sleepily and settled in.
For a brief moment, his thoughts brushed against the red letter tucked away in his inventory.
Tomorrow's problem except Danzo had made sure it wouldn't stay that simple. Along with the letter, there had been two attachments.
The first was a photograph.
Kushina Uzumaki stood dressed in a traditional white wedding kimono. Her long red hair was pulled back neatly, a pale flower tucked near her temple. She wore a smile that wasn't quite polished, soft and slightly crooked, as if she were holding back a laugh she didn't trust herself to let out.
There was a brightness in her eyes that made the expression feel earned rather than posed. The kind of look that said she was still a little stunned it was real, still grounding herself in the moment.
Naruto had his mother's wedding photo but not his father's.
He remembered that the previous letter had promised more about his mother, but this didn't feel like that. It felt like a cruel joke dressed up as sentiment, or worse, bait carefully chosen to make him take the hook.
On the back of the photo, etched carefully into the paper, was a storage seal.
He activated it.
A small puff of smoke curled into the air, revealing a tightly rolled jutsu scroll.
Naruto stared at it for a long moment.
Clearly, whatever Danzo wanted would make more sense if he actually read the letter. But the day had already wrung him dry.
Not tonight.
He slid the scroll back into storage, hesitating only a second longer. A faint sense of unease tugged at him, the feeling that he had forgot something important.
Then he shrugged it off.
If it mattered that much, it would still be there tomorrow.
Naruto turned onto his side, pulling Oscar closer. The little crystal lizard shifted and let out a series of soft, rhythmic chirps, oddly soothing in the quiet room. And with that gentle sound as white noise, Naruto Uzumaki finally let himself fall asleep.
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Meanwhile, Jiraiya slipped into Naruto's apartment through the window with the practiced ease of a man who had broken into far too many places in his life. He landed silently, straightened, and flicked on the light.
Silence.
The apartment was empty.
Every piece of furniture was gone. Naruto's garden was gone. The freaking toilet was missing. Jiraya stepped into the kitchen and the sink was missing. There was a clean, rectangular hole where it used to be, pipes capped off like someone had politely said goodbye before leaving.
Jiraiya stared at it for a long, quiet moment. "…Why would you rip out the sink and take it with you?"
Elsewhere in the village, Naruto sneezed in his sleep, rolled over, and pulled Oscar closer like a pillow. "Someone must be talkin' about me," he mumbled, and went right back to dreaming about being a ramen dragon.
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Author's Note:
And with that, the chapter is finished. Let's get into everyone's favorite section… the Q&A. Woooh.
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1. Is the inventory infinite storage?
Honestly, this is a tricky question.
Canonically, the inventory is linked to an item called the Bottomless Box.
Description: A peculiar bottomless wooden box. Its origins are unknown. Some deride it as a symbol of unbridled avarice. Any number of items can be deposited into the box, and items can be managed while resting at a Bonfire.
As the name and description imply, the Bottomless Box can hold an unlimited number of items. Those items can be retrieved from any Bonfire.
Functionally, it works like Stockpile Thomas from Demon's Souls. However, unlike Stockpile Thomas, it doesn't separate every weapon or item type into different NPC menus. Instead, it uses tabs for consumables, upgrade materials, weapons, armor, ammunition, and rings.
That said, there are limitations.
The Bottomless Box cannot store souls, and it can only be accessed while resting at a Bonfire. This means its primary purpose is inventory management rather than being an all-purpose pocket dimension you can abuse mid-combat.
So whether you interpret the inventory as a literal infinite pocket dimension or a Bonfire-linked storage system is kind of up to you.
One thing I forgot to clarify earlier: most Dark Souls characters like Andre, Siegmeyer, and others are implied to use the Bottomless Box as their form of inventory management. Naruto is different because he accesses the same functionality through the system itself.
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2. Why did Danzō give Naruto a jutsu scroll?
This plot point took place before the Wave arc, so if you don't remember it, here's a quick refresher.
Danzō made Naruto a deal. If Naruto kept their interactions a secret, Danzō would give him a photograph of his mother. On top of that, I planned for Danzō to give Naruto a Wind Style ninjutsu as a way to test his character.
Now for a question for you guys.
What new Wind Style jutsu would you like to see DS1 Naruto use?
So far, he has:
Wind Style: Vacuum Blade
Wind Style: Wind Bullets
Wind Style: Wind Cloak / Fist of the Peregrine (Shisui's Wind Cloak that reduces air resistance)
That's it for now. If you have any canon Wind Style jutsu you'd like to see adapted, or even fan-made ideas, feel free to drop them below. I might add one in the future. Who knows?
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That's it… for now.
As always, I want to thank you all for taking the time to read, comment, and follow along with this story. Your feedback means more than you know, and it helps push me to make each chapter bigger, sharper, and more true to the worlds of Naruto and Dark Souls.
Until next time, Praise the Sun.
Adam
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[ Personal Note: First off, thanks a ton to all of you for sticking with this story. Seriously, you guys are awesome. Now, if you're interested in supporting me on P@treon, let me just say that over there, I post these massive 15k-word chapters. But heads up, if you're jumping to P@treon, you'll need to start from Chapter 98, since that's where this chapter lines up with the content there.
To everyone here just reading along, please don't forget to leave a comment! Honestly, your comments make my day, and they let me know you're as invested in this story as I am. So yeah, thanks again, and I hope you have an amazing rest of your day!