Konoha, Night of October 31st
The wind was bitterly cold.
The streets of the Uchiha district were drowned in an almost surreal darkness.
There were no screams. No cries for help.
Only silence — unnatural, as if the village itself were holding its breath.
Then the blood was spilled.
And the red moon bore witness to the fall of the clan.
---
Naruto opened his eyes in his room.
He was seated cross-legged on the floor, deep in meditation. All around him, the walls were covered with intricate symbols, drawn in ink that shimmered black and silver. His eyes already glowed with an unnatural light — the Shinkugan had long since awakened.
> In the Dimension of Infinity, time didn't flow like it did here. One hour in the real world... had given him a hundred hours of training.
He wasn't like the other children.
He never had been.
And he would never pretend to be.
---
That night, he felt a tear in the fabric of the world — a silent scream from the far side of the village.
Not a cry of physical pain… but a howl from the soul, as if fate itself had just shattered.
He opened his eyes and murmured, calm and almost cold:
> "Tonight… the blood of the Uchiha will be spilled."
He didn't hesitate.
He didn't tremble.
He simply placed his hand on a seal and, in a breath…
…the world shifted.
---
— Passage into the Dimension of Infinity —
A circle of light opened around him.
The sky bent. The walls vanished.
And the boy disappeared from Konoha.
When he reappeared… he stood at the edge of the Uchiha district — but not entirely in the same world.
He walked between dimensions, between seconds, through a space no one could perceive — a corridor between life and death.
And there, he saw Itachi Uchiha, slicing the throat of a Jōnin.
Silent. Determined. Unshakable.
But Naruto felt neither anger nor hatred.
He knew Itachi's role. He understood.
And it was precisely because he understood that he could not let the tragedy unfold.
> "You were forced to choose, Itachi.
But I… have the power to reject the game."
---
He saw the path Itachi was taking — toward the main house.
Toward Mikoto.
Toward Izumi.
Naruto intervened without a sound.
Time shattered around him.
Nothing existed anymore but movement.
He teleported into the shadows, at the exact instant Itachi slid open the door. He saw Mikoto stand, tall and proud despite the sorrow. He saw Izumi, frozen in fear.
And then—
> He unleashed the Shinkugan.
---
— The Gaze That Defies Fate —
A silver circle appeared beneath Itachi's feet.
He froze — as if locked in the very substance of time.
His Sharingan spun in the void, struggling to comprehend what he was seeing.
Naruto stood before him.
Still.
Immovable.
A halo of ancient energy glowing behind his back.
> "It is not your role to kill them.
Not tonight.
Not while I stand here."
Itachi tried to speak, but his chakra scattered — disoriented by the power of the Shinkugan.
This eye did not alter perception like the Mangekyō… it rewrote the flow of reality.
---
Mikoto stepped forward.
She didn't yet understand, but she had seen the motion — felt the air shift.
This boy… this young boy with silver-blond hair and star-born eyes — had just saved her life.
She reached out a hand.
"Who… are you?"
Naruto closed his eyes briefly.
Then replied:
> "A fragment of what the world refuses to see."
He turned, placed one finger to the ground.
A summoning seal bloomed beneath him.
And in a soft burst of blue light, a creature emerged from the void:
A small dragon, with moonlight scales and violet eyes.
It gently pressed its head to Naruto's neck and spoke in a clear, serene voice:
> "We heard you, Master of Infinity."
---
— Retreat into the Forbidden Dimension —
Naruto took Mikoto and Izumi by the hand.
"This world can no longer protect you.
If you stay, you will die."
A circle of light opened beneath their feet.
And in a flash —
all three vanished from Itachi's vision,
as if fate itself had erased a line from its own script.
Silence.
A silence so pure, so deep, it seemed to have frozen time itself.
Mikoto slowly opened her eyes. Her fingers brushed against a soft, strange surface… grass of a silvery green, crystalline, glowing beneath a light without a sun. Everything around her felt unreal: the sky above was streaked with rings of light and shifting constellations. The air itself shimmered with a silent, almost sacred magic.
Beside her, a motionless body.
Izumi.
Mikoto leaned toward her, her own heart still pounding wildly. She had no memory of what came next—only the sensation of a hand, a breath… a gaze.
Then everything had shifted.
She thought she had died.
And yet, here she was.
A soft sound drew her attention. She turned around.
There, standing beneath a colossal tree with golden roots and leaves made of light, was a boy.
A young man.
His hair was medium-length, a pale blond tinged with silver, slightly tousled. His black outfit clung to his silent movements. But what struck her most… were his eyes.
Two swirling rings of silver light, distant glimmers dancing within them.
The Shinkugan.
A dōjutsu unlike anything known in the shinobi world.
And yet… she recognized him.
---
"Naruto…?"
He turned slowly toward her. A breath of wind seemed to pause between them.
"You remember me."
His voice was calm, deep, more composed than she remembered.
Mikoto placed a hand over her heart.
"I remember… your gaze. A silent child, often sitting alone in the Academy's courtyard. I used to watch you sometimes, not understanding why you gave me this feeling… of such deep solitude."
Naruto stepped closer.
"That solitude stayed with me for a long time. But it also allowed me to discover things… the world prefers to ignore."
---
Something stirred on his shoulder.
A small creature curled in bluish light: a dragon. Miniature, but alive.
Its scales shimmered like liquid stars.
Mikoto instinctively recoiled for a moment.
But she felt no threat.
It was… something else. Something forgotten.
"What… is that?" she asked, her voice trembling.
Naruto hesitated.
Then softly replied:
> "A dragon."
Mikoto blinked.
"But… dragons don't exist. Not in our world."
Naruto nodded.
> "No. No one knows they exist. And no one must know.
They come from a place even sages fear to imagine."
---
Izumi whimpered softly. Her eyes opened.
Panic returned instantly to her face. She sat up, gasping.
"Fugaku-sama…! He—"
Naruto knelt beside her.
"He fell. I know."
She froze upon seeing his face. His gaze, his hair…
"You're… Naruto?"
"Yes."
Izumi looked at him as if he were from another planet.
"But… you summoned a… a dragon?!"
He gently shook his head.
"What you see here doesn't exist in the world you know.
This dimension has no name among humans."
He looked around.
"I call it the Dimension of Infinity."
---
Mikoto took a slow breath. All of it was too much… too unreal. And yet, nothing here was a lie. She felt truth vibrating in the air, in the light, in the very ground.
"Why… us?" she finally asked.
Naruto closed his eyes.
Then he spoke:
> "Because I couldn't ignore your deaths.
Because I saw you fall on the night the stars went silent.
Because you didn't deserve to die for the choices of a clan… nor for the orders of a village."
Izumi clenched her teeth. Her hands trembled.
"It was Itachi… he—"
Naruto placed a gentle hand on her shoulder.
"He loved you. He protected you the only way he could.
But the burden was too heavy.
It wasn't yours to carry."
---
A long silence followed.
Then Mikoto, eyes shimmering, stepped slowly toward him.
"This world… Are you alone here?"
Naruto shrugged lightly.
"Not exactly. But those who accompany me cannot be seen or understood unless I allow it.
They exist… beyond human perception."
She understood.
> He was speaking of the fairies, the spirits, the dragons…
Things no one knew existed. Not even the oldest grimoires mentioned them.
He had uncovered a facet of the world hidden even from the eyes of the gods.
And now… he held the power to choose who would see it, and who would remain blind.
---
Naruto stepped back slightly. He raised a hand.
The light around them shifted. A translucent spirit appeared briefly: a feminine silhouette with wings of light, who bowed before him before vanishing.
Mikoto said nothing.
Izumi, still trembling, looked around with eyes wide in astonishment.
Naruto then spoke, his tone grave:
> "What you've seen here… must remain secret.
This world is not ready. It won't understand.
It will destroy what it cannot accept."
Mikoto nodded.
She stepped closer to him. And, without a word, placed a hand on his cheek.
"Thank you, Naruto."
Then she embraced him.
A mother's gesture. A gesture of humanity.
And Naruto, who had walked alone in the shadows for years, felt a warmth he had never known.