Chapter 3: Ghosts of the Future
POV: Kole
The village hummed with electricity, the kind of charged anticipation that preceded either celebration or disaster. Kole felt it in the way civilians clustered at street corners, voices dropping to whispers when shinobi passed. In the sudden appearance of chunin patrols where there had been none yesterday. In the way shop owners kept glancing toward the Hokage Tower, as if expecting smoke signals or emergency summons.
"Did you hear? Naruto's back."
"The demon brat? About time."
"Shh! He's not supposed to be called that anymore."
Kole's hands tightened around his cup of tea as fragments of conversation drifted up from the street below. He'd chosen this rooftop teahouse specifically for its view of Training Ground 3—the same wasteland he'd half-destroyed yesterday, now restored by a team of earth-release specialists who'd looked deeply unimpressed with civilian handywork.
But training ground repairs weren't what had drawn him here. According to his stolen knowledge, today was the day. Team Kakashi's reunion. The bell test that would prove how much they'd all grown, and how little time they had left before everything went to hell.
A flash of orange caught his eye.
There—sprinting across the village rooftops with the graceless enthusiasm of a hyperactive missile—Naruto Uzumaki. Even from this distance, Kole could see the changes. Taller. Broader shoulders. The orange jumpsuit was the same, but the way he moved had evolved from clumsy determination to something approaching actual skill.
Two and a half years of training with Jiraiya. The thought came with a spike of vertigo. In his old world, that had been pages in a manga, episodes of an anime. Here, it was real time. Real growth. Real preparation for horrors that hadn't happened yet.
Sakura appeared next, landing on the training ground with cat-like precision. Pink hair tied back in a practical knot, red outfit hugging a frame that had gained both muscle and confidence. She moved like someone who'd learned to trust her own strength, and Kole remembered reading about her training under Tsunade. Medical ninjutsu. Monstrous physical power. The determination to never be left behind again.
Then Kakashi materialized in that casual way of his—not arriving so much as simply becoming present, like he'd been there all along and everyone else had just noticed. Silver hair catching sunlight, visible eye curved in what might have been amusement or assessment.
The bell test began.
Kole leaned forward, tea cooling in his hands as he watched Team 7 dance through their reunion. It should have felt familiar—he'd seen this scene before, in panels and animation. But reality was different. Messier. More human.
Naruto's enthusiasm was infectious even from a distance, his voice carrying across the training ground as he shouted challenges and encouragement in equal measure. Sakura's responses were sharp, precise, laced with the kind of comfortable irritation that spoke of years spent managing a hyperactive teammate. And Kakashi... Kakashi watched them both with something that might have been pride, if you knew how to read the subtle signs.
They were real. Not characters in a story, but people with their own dreams and fears and terrible, approaching futures.
"Tomorrow, Naruto leaves for Wind Country. In four days, Gaara starts screaming."
The thought hit him like ice water. These people—these children—were about to walk into hell, and he was sitting on a rooftop drinking tea because he didn't know how to stop it.
His throat constricted. The bell test continued below, all three participants moving with deadly precision through a choreographed dance of cooperation and competition. They'd grown strong. Strong enough to face most threats.
Not strong enough for what was coming.
I have to try.
The decision formed before conscious thought, driven by desperation and the crushing weight of foreknowledge. Kole abandoned his tea and took to the rooftops, using his improved civilian parkour to shadow Team 7's path. He didn't have a plan beyond getting close enough to shout a warning. Maybe the gibberish curse would fail. Maybe he could force out enough coherent words to make a difference.
Maybe he could save them from walking blind into nightmare.
By the time he reached ground level, the bell test had ended. Team 7 stood in a loose circle, breathing hard but smiling. The bells hung from Kakashi's fingers like silver promises—symbols of unity regained and bonds reforged.
Kole lingered at the training ground's edge, searching for courage he wasn't sure he possessed. How did you approach legendary shinobi as a complete stranger? How did you convince them to listen when you had no authority, no credentials, no reason for them to trust you?
The answer, as it turned out, was simple: you followed them to ramen.
Ichiraku Ramen was exactly as Kole had imagined—a narrow stall with hanging curtains and the warm, rich scent of pork broth that made his stomach growl despite his anxiety. Naruto had claimed the center stool like it was a throne, already three bowls deep in what looked like a personal challenge against physics.
"I'm telling you, Sakura-chan, the new Rasengan is incredible! I can make it bigger, or change the rotation, or—"
"Naruto, you're spraying food everywhere."
"Sorry! But wait until you see it in action! The training with Pervy Sage was brutal, but—"
Kole stepped up to the stall before he could lose his nerve. "Excuse me."
Naruto paused mid-sentence, cheeks bulging with noodles, and turned to look at him. Blue eyes blinked once, twice, taking in Kole's civilian clothes and uncertain expression.
"Hey! You don't know me, but—"
The words twisted in his throat like living snakes, consonants scrambling and meaning dissolving into chaos. What emerged was: "DANCING LOBSTERS IN TUTUS!"
Silence fell over the ramen stall. Even Teuchi paused in his cooking to stare.
Naruto swallowed his noodles with an audible gulp. "Uh... what?"
Kole tried again, fighting the curse with sheer determination. "The Akatsuki—they're going to—"
"PURPLE MONKEY DISHWASHER APOCALYPSE!"
More silence. Sakura's eyebrow twitched.
"Are you... okay?" she asked, in the tone of someone addressing a potentially unstable individual.
No. Kole was definitely not okay. He was trapped in a body that wasn't his, in a world where children fought gods, with powers he barely understood and knowledge he couldn't share. He was the opposite of okay.
But Naruto was grinning now, the kind of infectious smile that could probably power a small village. "You're the weirdest guy in the village! I like you already!"
Before Kole could process this declaration, a strong hand gripped his shoulder and guided him to an empty stool. "Anyone who can make Naruto pause mid-meal deserves at least one bowl," Naruto continued cheerfully. "What's your name?"
"Kole," he managed, grateful that personal introductions didn't trigger the curse.
"I'm Naruto Uzumaki, future Hokage! This is Sakura, the strongest kunoichi in the village, and that's Kakashi-sensei, who's always late but somehow still the coolest ninja ever."
"Naruto..." Kakashi's voice carried a note of long-suffering patience.
"What? It's true!"
Teuchi set a bowl of miso ramen in front of Kole without being asked. The old chef had kind eyes and hands that moved with the practiced efficiency of someone who'd been feeding hungry shinobi for decades.
"So what brings you to our little celebration?" Sakura asked. Her tone was friendly but alert—the voice of someone trained to spot potential threats.
Kole picked up his chopsticks, buying time while his mind raced. He couldn't warn them directly. But maybe... maybe he could plant seeds. Make them think. Encourage the kind of caution that might save their lives.
"Just wanted to say be careful out there," he said finally. "I hear there are dangerous people moving around lately. People with... unusual abilities."
"There are always dangerous people," Kakashi said mildly. "It's an occupational hazard."
"Yeah!" Naruto slurped his noodles enthusiastically. "But we're way stronger now! Right, Sakura-chan?"
"Much stronger," she agreed, but Kole caught the flicker of something in her green eyes. Not quite worry, but awareness. Good. She was already thinking like a medic—always calculating risks, always preparing for the worst.
"I know what's coming, and I can't stop it." The thought pressed against his skull like a migraine. "I can only watch while you walk into hell."
But maybe that was enough. Maybe just caring about their survival was something. Maybe being one more person in the world who wanted them to come home alive would tip some cosmic scale in their favor.
"Where are you heading next?" Kole asked, already knowing the answer.
"Wind Country," Naruto said around a mouthful of noodles. "Gonna help out some friends!"
Gaara. The word hung unspoken in the air, heavy with implications that only Kole could see. By the time Team 7 reached Sunagakure, it would be too late. The Kazekage would already be gone, stolen away by monsters wearing red clouds.
Kole's hands tightened around his chopsticks. "Just... be extra careful, okay? Sometimes the most dangerous enemies are the ones you don't see coming."
Naruto's grin dimmed slightly. "You sound like you know something."
I know everything. I know you're going to face Itachi and barely escape. I know Gaara will die and be brought back. I know this is just the beginning of a war that will reshape the world.
"BANANA SPLIT PHILOSOPHY!" Kole said instead.
The curse slammed down like a steel wall, cutting off any attempt at coherent warning. Naruto blinked, then burst into laughter.
"Okay, now I'm convinced you're the strangest person in Konoha! Banana split philosophy—I love it!"
Despite everything, Kole found himself smiling. There was something irresistible about Naruto's enthusiasm, his ability to find joy even in the ridiculous. It was a kind of strength that couldn't be taught or learned—only experienced.
"Thanks for the ramen," Kole said, leaving payment on the counter. "And Naruto?"
"Yeah?"
"Good luck. With everything."
The words carried more weight than they should have. Naruto seemed to sense it, his expression growing momentarily serious.
"Thanks, Kole. Maybe we'll see you around when we get back."
If you get back. But Kole just nodded and walked away, leaving Team 7 to their celebration.
The mysterious box was waiting when he returned to his apartment, lid cracked open just enough to reveal a crimson glow from within. Kole approached it like he might approach a live explosive, heart hammering against his ribs.
Inside, nestled in black silk, lay a fragment of red stone that pulsed with its own inner light. The moment his eyes fixed on it, knowledge flooded his mind—not gentle understanding, but raw information forced directly into his consciousness.
Philosopher's Stone. Fragment. Incomplete.
The thing that broke equivalent exchange. The alchemist's ultimate sin and greatest achievement, created through the sacrifice of human lives and the perversion of natural law. In his old world, it had been fiction. Here, it was impossibly real, radiating power that made his teeth ache.
A note lay beneath the stone fragment, written in the same elegant script:
"Three miracles. Use them wisely."
Three miracles. Three chances to break the rules of equivalent exchange, to perform the impossible without paying the price. Kole lifted the fragment with shaking hands, feeling its weight—not just physical, but moral. This wasn't just power. It was temptation. The ability to save lives at the cost of his own principles.
"The Entity expects me to break the rules."
The realization settled over him like a shroud. He'd been given alchemy, flame, and whatever his third power was supposed to be. But this... this was different. This was the Entity offering him a way to cheat, to ignore the consequences of his actions. Three get-out-of-jail-free cards for a world where death was permanent and pain was real.
But why? What did the Entity want in return?
Outside his window, Konoha settled into evening routine. Somewhere in the distance, Team 7 was probably still celebrating their reunion, unaware that tomorrow would begin their longest nightmare. And here he sat, holding a fragment of crystallized sin, knowing that three people were going to die and he had the power to save them.
The weight of three future deaths pressed against his shoulders like a physical thing. Gaara's screams as Shukaku was torn from his body. Chiyo's sacrifice to bring him back. The countless casualties of a war that was still years away.
Kole pocketed the fragment, feeling it burn against his chest like a tiny star. Tomorrow, Team Kakashi would leave for Wind Country. Tomorrow, the real story would begin.
And he would be ready. Not to change everything—he wasn't that arrogant. But to save who he could, when he could, with whatever tools the Entity had given him.
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