Noir's POV
A week had passed since Team 8 completed Kurenai-sensei's teamwork trial. Not with brawn, but with planning. Strategy. Trust. It left a mark on me—something subtle, yet oddly grounding.
Life was starting to stretch. Not speed by, not drag, just... stretch. Long mornings in training fields. Evenings spent watching the wind stir the trees around the village. Time ticked here, but not with urgency. Like it was biding its breath.
Kurenai-sensei hadn't assigned us any missions yet, citing that we "weren't ready." It was odd, but I could tell she meant it in a different way. There was something in her eyes when she looked at us—as if she were waiting for something else to happen.
It didn't take long for that something to show up.
---
(Small Time Skip - Three Weeks Later)
Third-person POV
Konoha's skies were dull this morning. A thin fog had crept in over the mountains, veiling the Hokage monument in pale mist. The village stirred anyway. Genin teams jogged through streets. Chuunin instructors shouted from rooftops. Life thrived.
But change brewed in silence.
A report had reached Hiruzen Sarutobi's desk. One involving Danzo's private forces and recent sightings near the Uchiha compound. A name was circled in red ink at the bottom of the page: Noir Kurozome.
---
Noir's POV
My chakra had grown. Not explosively, not dramatically—but certainly.
Less fatigue. More duration. Smoother flow.
I could maintain my dojutsu now for longer than a few minutes. The Kuraseigan no longer clawed at my brain every time it activated. It flickered to life more easily, its shift from amethyst to the shimmering, ever-shifting "infinity" hue happening in a blink.
Still unstable. But improving.
Even its abilities were starting to take shape. My spatial box was stable now. Objects placed inside it remained untouched by time. Cooked food. Weapons. Notes. Even heat and moisture held their state. It was... eerie, but practical. The kind of tool you didn't tell anyone about.
Not even your sensei.
---
"Noir, focus!"
Kiba's voice dragged me back to the training field. He lunged at me, fist outstretched. I tilted, pivoted, and tapped his shoulder.
He went sprawling.
Hinata winced. "H-he's still too fast."
"I'm not fast," I said. "You're all predictable."
Kurenai-sensei, watching from under a tree, raised an eyebrow but said nothing.
---
That night, I returned to my apartment. The stars were clear for once.
I remembered.
Back home, I watched Jujutsu Kaisen, Naruto, and all those worlds as fiction. Now I lived here. The faces were real. The pain, even more so.
I remembered Gojo's infinity. Obito's Kamui.
I tried replicating them once. Twice. Three times. Failed. Chakra control was tricky. Chakra intent even trickier.
But that's when I found my own answer.
I stood and activated the Kuraseigan. The air rippled slightly. I reached out with my hand and twisted space. Not a portal. Not an escape.
A storage.
A void.
The air snapped, then shimmered. A kunai I had sealed inside days ago hovered before me. Still warm.
I smiled.
This was my path.
---
I didn't stop there.
I began experimenting more. Testing boundaries.
One night, I imagined a point across the room. I infused chakra into my palm and activated my dojutsu. My body tensed.
And in a shimmer of warped air—I vanished.
I reappeared ten feet away, disoriented but intact.
My first successful short-range teleport.
The recoil was painful. My stomach churned. But I laughed quietly.
I could do this.
---
Third-person POV
Elsewhere in the village, a pale-eyed elder closed his scroll.
"So, the boy shows promise," Danzo said, voice like old bark. "Keep watching him. If his abilities are tied to time-space, he may be useful. Or dangerous."
Two Root operatives vanished into the shadows.
---
Noir's POV
Graduation had come and gone. So had the Uchiha Massacre.
It had happened like a storm.
Silent. Violent. Irrevocable.
I didn't interfere.
I watched from a rooftop, hidden. The Kuraseigan let me see through layers of space. I watched Itachi, cloaked in blood, walking slowly through the firelit streets of his clan. Sasuke's scream echoed even across districts.
It was... surreal.
I remembered Itachi's fate. His motives. The lies. The pain.
But witnessing it in person?
Something cold lodged inside my chest.
---
I remember Sasuke not showing up to the Academy for three days.
Iruka put us through sparring matches again. I didn't fight him.
He fought Naruto. He fought Kiba.
But he looked at me.
Like I was a wall to climb.
I understood that look.
I used to look at characters in fiction that way. Now I was on the receiving end.
Karma, maybe.
---
Hinata's POV
Noir never spoke much.
But when he did, I listened.
He didn't look at people like others did. Like they were distractions or assets. He saw through them. Into them. Sometimes... it scared me.
But I wanted to understand him.
Just a little.
---
Third-person POV
At the end of the week, Kurenai-sensei gathered Team 8 under the training field tree.
"You three have grown more than I expected. Starting next week, you'll begin light mission rotation."
Kiba cheered. Hinata blushed.
Noir merely nodded.
"Until then," she added, "enjoy your weekend. You deserve it."
Noir lingered after the others left.
The wind picked up. And from the corner of his vision, the cloaked figure returned.
His own face. Older. Cold. More... tired.
"You're adapting faster than I did," the figure said. "But you still don't understand what you are."
Noir frowned. "What am I?"
The man smiled faintly.
"Not yet... but soon, even your enemies will wonder the same. Just be careful, Noir. The truth bends space more than chakra ever could."
The figure vanished like mist.
Noir stood in silence.
His reflection in the blade of his kunai didn't smile back.
---
[End of Chapter 17]