The wind was soft. Too soft.
Naruto opened his eyes again.
The night sky of Konoha stretched out above him—peaceful, silent. He had returned. He could feel it. The texture of the air, the weight of the world, the smells… He was no longer in the Infinite Dimension. He was back in the real world.
But something had changed.
No. Everything had changed.
He sat up slowly. The alley where he had collapsed earlier now seemed duller, darker. Every detail, every crack in the wall, every grain of dust seemed slower, as if time here was heavier than elsewhere.
He looked at himself.
His clothes were still torn. But his body… it radiated. His skin, smooth and firm, seemed to absorb the moonlight. His hair—once a simple blond—was now long, silvery with golden highlights, falling softly to the nape of his neck. It shimmered slightly, as if it were alive.
He raised his hands. They were finer, steadier, more… precise. And deep within, a calm power flowed. Not chakra. No. Something else. A living energy—vast, stable, infinite.
A whisper echoed in his mind:
> "The Flow belongs to you. You are the origin and the catalyst. You are the bearer of the Void."
Naruto closed his eyes.
His eyelids trembled. When he opened them, they were no longer blue. Two golden spirals shimmered in his gaze—like moving galaxies, inscribed with shifting seals, ancient symbols and threads of light.
The Shinkugan.
But something inside him… understood.
He could control it.
He closed his eyes again. His breathing slowed. The energy in his pupils folded in on itself, like a star dimming its light. When he opened them again… they were blue once more—but not like before. Deeper. Clearer. With a faint silver gleam in the iris.
He could now activate or deactivate his eyes at will.
And in this world… he chose not to reveal himself yet.
---
He stepped out of the alley.
He walked through the quiet streets, without direction. The ground was cold beneath his bare feet, but he felt nothing. No discomfort. He was beyond that now.
The people he passed—a few hurried adults, a low-ranking shinobi returning from a mission, two tired children—looked at him without understanding. Their eyes lingered on him… then moved on. For a moment, they seemed to search for a word. A thought. A reaction.
But found nothing.
Only that strange, persistent feeling that something was off.
---
Naruto stopped at the edge of a rooftop.
He gazed at Konoha from above. The lights of homes, the distant laughter, the footsteps on stone streets… it all seemed at once familiar and foreign.
He placed a hand on his chest.
He felt the Infinite Energy beating softly, like a second heart. Alive. Calm. Unending.
> "I'm not… alone anymore."
He raised his hand. His Shinkugan activated for just a moment—a single pulse.
And in that brief instant, he saw the chakra lines across the entire village, thoughts scattered like fragments, emotions woven between people: fear, joy, loneliness, hatred, hope.
He closed his eyes again. And deactivated the power.
---
Far away, in a nameless realm, a stone throne floated in the void. Around it, spheres of energy orbited like dead moons. And upon this throne, Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki, the Sage of Six Paths, slowly opened his eyes.
His gaze pierced the heavens.
"He's returned… changed."
He reached out and brushed the fabric of reality. A rift opened: soft, pure light emerged briefly—then closed again.
He couldn't see Naruto clearly.
But he could feel the Infinite Energy.
And that was enough.
"He is no longer part of the cycle."
A shadow appeared beside him—a memory of his brother Hamura, an ancient projection.
"You found him?" the spectral voice asked.
Hagoromo remained silent.
"No. He found me."
---
Back in Konoha, Naruto looked up at the stars.
He could feel that ancient consciousness watching him, somewhere. He didn't know who.
Not yet.
But he wasn't afraid.
He closed his eyes.
His mind touched the gates of his Infinite Dimension.
There, time did not flow the same.
There, he could grow, explore, prepare.
He smiled for the first time.
> "This world isn't ready. But I… I will be."
And he vanished in a silent gust of wind.