The golden mist had faded, leaving only the hushed silence of an eternal dimension.
Above them, the stars danced slowly across an endless sky.
Mikoto sat by the edge of a small crystal-clear lake. Izumi, slightly behind, watched the ripples stirred by the light of constellations on the water — mesmerized, lost in thought. Naruto stood a few steps away, arms crossed, his gaze locked on the horizon of a reality that belonged to no one.
And yet, he was the one who had shaped it.
"Naruto," Mikoto whispered, her voice soft but firm. "Why us?"
He closed his eyes.
A gentle breeze brushed through his silvery blond hair.
Then he spoke:
> "Because no one else would have."
Silence followed.
He slowly turned toward them.
> "Because on that cursed night, when the stars went out over the Uchiha clan, no one raised a hand. Not to protect. Not to save. Only to obey."
His eyes gleamed briefly with an inner light.
> "And I… I refused."
Izumi looked up.
"You knew about the massacre?"
He nodded slowly.
> "I knew. And I saw. My Shinkugan allows me to perceive the lines of fate, the heartbeat of the world, the muffled cries no one else hears.
I saw death approaching your homes. I felt your fear, your pain. And… I acted."
He stepped closer.
> "I couldn't stand by while a brother murdered the woman he loved. While a mother died alone in the shadow of a conspiracy."
Mikoto lowered her gaze. She was trembling.
But not from fear.
From gratitude.
And pain.
Naruto continued, his voice almost detached:
> "I've been alone my entire life. Rejected. Cast aside. But that solitude taught me to listen to what others choose to ignore.
To see the invisible scars on the hearts of others."
> "The shinobi world is built on silence. On sacrifice. They bury the dead beneath polished lies.
But I was never made from that kind of silence."
---
Izumi stepped forward too.
"You've… changed. You're not the same child from the Academy."
A faint smile crossed his lips.
> "I'm still me. But… I grew up in a place where time flows differently.
One hour here equals hundreds there. The Dimension of Infinity gave me knowledge. Power.
But most of all… it gave me freedom."
He turned his eyes to Mikoto.
> "The freedom to do what is right. Not what the rules demand."
Mikoto stood slowly.
She walked toward him, this time not as a broken mother, but as a proud woman. She placed a hand on his shoulder.
"And you saved us… asking for nothing in return."
He met her gaze.
> "I have nothing to ask. You were alive. You loved. You were mothers, daughters, women.
You were souls about to be erased without mercy.
I reject that kind of justice."
---
Izumi let out a sob.
"He… he looked at me before striking down Fugaku-sama.
He looked at me, Naruto! And then he turned away…"
Naruto gently knelt before her.
> "Because he loved you. And because he wanted to spare you the truth.
But that weight… it was never yours to carry. It should've been his alone."
He extended his hand. A small spirit formed beside him, made of soft light and rose-colored mist.
It had no fixed shape — just a soothing warmth.
Izumi stared at it with tearful eyes.
"What is that…?"
> "A guardian spirit. It doesn't speak. But it watches over.
It will protect you here, for as long as you need to heal."
Izumi placed a trembling hand on the spirit's shimmering form.
"Thank you… Naruto."
---
He rose to his feet.
"I'll leave you here for now. This dimension slows everything.
You have time to rebuild yourselves. No one will find you.
No one can enter here unless I allow it."
Mikoto nodded slowly.
"And after that?"
> "Then… I'll return your freedom. In a safe place.
But for now… rest. This war was never yours to fight."
Mikoto offered a trembling smile.
"You are far more than a shinobi, Naruto."
He lowered his eyes slightly.
"I'm just someone who chose not to look away."
The moon bathed the village in a pale, silent, almost unreal light.
Perched atop the roof of the old watchtower, Naruto and Sakura were wrapped in a rare calm.
This forgotten place, untouched by faces or voices, felt as though it belonged to another world.
Sakura gazed at the stars, her back against a beam, knees drawn up to her chest.
Naruto sat beside her, his eyes fixed on a point lost in the darkness of the sky.
They didn't speak. But the silence between them wasn't cold — it was dense, heavy, almost sacred.
She inhaled slowly.
"Tell me, Naruto… why did you do all this?"
He barely turned his head toward her but didn't answer right away.
"Saving Mikoto and Izumi… that went beyond simple duty, didn't it?"
His eyelids lowered, as though searching for the words in a distant memory.
When he finally spoke, his voice was soft. Low. Grounded.
> "Because deep down… I saw myself in them."
She said nothing, listening.
> "I grew up in a void. Not just without family… without warmth.
No voice ever called my name. I was there, but like a ghost no one wanted to see."
> "Mikoto and Izumi… they were human.
Full of love. Full of light.
And someone tried to erase them.
As if they had never mattered."
> "I acted… because I refuse that fate.
Because I know what it means to be abandoned without reason."
Sakura felt a tightness rise in her throat. He spoke without filters, without masks.
> "I didn't want another scream left hanging in the void.
I wanted someone — finally — to hear it."
She moved a little closer, trying to catch his gaze.
"And you? Did anyone ever hear yours?"
Naruto finally turned his eyes to her.
The golden glow of the Shinkugan in his pupils reflected the moonlight.
> "You."
That one word echoed louder than anything else.
He continued, more quietly:
> "You saw me… when no one else did.
You listened… even when I didn't speak."
Sakura gently placed her hand over his.
"You'll never be alone again."
Naruto turned his gaze away slightly, as if the promise was too big, too beautiful to believe.
But he didn't pull his hand back.
She continued, her voice trembling:
"I want to understand everything you carry inside you…
even the things you never say to anyone."
He closed his eyes for a long moment.
Then slowly, he opened two fingers and reached toward her forehead.
> "I'll show you a fragment.
A memory.
A spark from the place where I became who I am."
The moment his fingers touched her forehead, a soft light flooded through her.
She saw — no, she felt — endless plains, rivers of pure energy, beings made of crystal, of ether, of song.
And at the heart of this infinite world: a child, alone, sitting with eyes lifted to the stars, waiting for something — or someone.
She opened her eyes, breathless, tears on her lashes.
"It was… heartbreakingly beautiful."
Naruto whispered:
> "That's where I learned to survive.
And to wait."
She looked at him, filled with a new certainty.
"You don't have to wait anymore."
Sakura leaned in slowly.
Their foreheads touched in a quiet, wordless gesture.
They stayed that way, breaths mingling, connected by a thread older than time.
In a world still unaware of fairies, spirits, and dragons…
something even rarer had been born: a naked truth, a love that asked for neither promises nor proof.
Only presence.
And constancy.