The Rift Zone was dying.
Cracks split the canyon floor like veins in brittle glass, glowing faintly with the unstable energy of a collapsing dimension. The air shimmered with heat and static, and the sky above was a fractured dome of violet and gold, pulsing with the heartbeat of a world on the edge of erasure.
Naruto didn't care.
He gripped the fragment tight in his clawed hand, its surface humming with power. The key was warm-alive, almost. It pulsed in rhythm with the engine of his vehicle, a hybrid beast of Vandal engineering: the armored shell of Hatch's Scarab fused with the jagged propulsion systems of Sever's ride. Compact. Brutal. Fast.
He dropped into the cockpit, the seat hissing as it adjusted to his frame. The engine roared to life beneath him, snarling like a caged animal. He didn't waste time. The mission was complete. The key was his. All that remained was the escape.
He gunned the throttle.
The vehicle surged forward, tires kicking up molten dust as it tore across the canyon floor. The fragment pulsed in the containment chamber beside him, casting flickering shadows across the cockpit. Naruto's eyes-sharp, amber, unblinking-stayed locked on the path ahead.
He didn't see the ambush until it was too late.
A green blur dropped from the ridge above, landing hard in the center of the canyon. Tires screamed. Dust exploded. And there, framed by the dying light of the Rift, was Stanford Rhodes III.
His vehicle gleamed with polished arrogance-sleek, pristine, and bristling with weaponry. The sonic cannons were already charging, glowing with a sickly blue light.
Naruto's eyes widened. He swerved hard, trying to angle away, but the canyon walls boxed him in. There was no room. No time.
"Don't-!"
The cannons fired.
The blast struck the front of Naruto's vehicle dead-on, right where the engine sat.
The explosion was instant.
Metal shrieked. Fire bloomed. The cockpit filled with smoke and shrapnel. The force of the blast hurled the vehicle backward, flipping it end over end. Naruto's body slammed into the restraints, but the real pain came a second later-when the left side of his face caught the edge of the blast.
It wasn't just heat. It was sound-weaponized, concentrated, and unforgiving.
His fur ignited. Skin blistered. The world became a blur of red and white and agony.
He screamed.
The vehicle crashed into the canyon wall, crumpling like paper. The key fragment was thrown from its chamber, skidding across the ground and coming to rest in the dust, still pulsing.
Naruto lay half-conscious in the wreckage, the left side of his face a raw, seared ruin. He could smell the fur burning. Feel the skin peeling. His vision swam. His claws twitched.
Above him, Stanford's vehicle paused.
Just for a moment.
Naruto saw the silhouette through the smoke. The human didn't even look down. Didn't even know what he'd done.
Then he was gone.
The silence that followed was unbearable.
Naruto didn't pass out. He remembered every second. The pain. The smell. The sound of his own breath, ragged and wet. The way the key fragment pulsed just out of reach, like it was mocking him.
He tried to move. His body screamed in protest. His left eye wouldn't open. His claws dug into the dirt.
He wasn't dead.
But something inside him was.
Not his pride. That had been burned away with the fur.
His purpose.
He wasn't a warrior anymore. He wasn't even a threat.
He was a mistake.
"You'll remember me," he whispered, voice raw and broken. "I'll make sure of it."
The Rift above him cracked open, spilling light across the canyon floor.
And in that light, Naruto swore an oath.
He would rebuild. He would return.
And when he did, Stanford Rhodes III wouldn't just see the scars.
He'd wear them.
---
The smoke hadn't cleared.
The Rift Zone still crackled with residual energy, the air thick with the stench of scorched metal and burning fur. The wreckage of Naruto's vehicle lay twisted against the canyon wall, its front end a smoldering crater. The containment chamber for the key fragment was shattered. The fragment itself-gone.
Tires screeched in the distance.
Four vehicles tore across the canyon floor, engines howling like beasts. Hatch was the first to stop, his Scarab grinding to a halt in a spray of dust. He leapt out before the engine even cooled, sprinting toward the wreckage with a rare urgency in his movements.
"Move!" he barked at no one, claws already digging through the twisted metal.
Sever and Krocomodo pulled up next, flanking the crash site. Kalus arrived last, his vehicle rumbling to a stop with the slow, deliberate menace of a warlord who didn't like being summoned.
Hatch found Naruto half-buried in the wreckage, his body limp, his breathing shallow. The left side of his face was unrecognizable-charred, blistered, and still smoldering. One eye was sealed shut with melted flesh. His fur was gone in patches, revealing raw muscle beneath.
Hatch's expression twisted-not in pity, but in calculation.
"He's alive," he growled, dragging Naruto free with both arms. "Barely."
He dropped to one knee beside him, activating a diagnostic scanner from his gauntlet. The device beeped erratically, struggling to stabilize a readout.
"Vitals are crashing. Neural pathways are spiking. He's in shock. If we don't get him back to Vandal Prime now, he's going to die."
Kalus stepped out of his vehicle, arms crossed, eyes narrowed. He didn't move closer.
"He failed," Kalus said flatly.
"He succeeded," Hatch snapped. "He had the fragment. He was ambushed."
Kalus's gaze didn't waver. "Then he was careless."
Naruto stirred, coughing weakly. Blood dripped from his mouth. His one good eye opened, unfocused, but burning with something deeper than pain.
"Stanford..." he rasped.
Kalus turned away.
"Get him off this rock," he said. "He's no use to me dead."
Hatch hesitated. "And when he's not dead?"
Kalus didn't answer. He climbed back into his vehicle and drove off, the engine growling like a closing door.
Sever watched him go, then looked down at Naruto with a sneer. "Guess you're not the right hand anymore."
Krocomodo chuckled darkly. "More like the left."
Naruto didn't respond. He couldn't. But the words sank in deeper than the blast had.
Right hand-Kalus's most trusted. His blade. His shadow.
Left hand-expendable. Disgraced. A reminder of failure.
As Hatch loaded him into the med-bay of his Scarab, Naruto stared at the ceiling, his vision swimming. The pain was unbearable. But worse than the pain was the silence from Kalus. The look in his eyes.
Not disappointment.
Contempt.
"I'll show you," Naruto whispered, barely audible. "All of you."
The med-bay doors hissed shut.
And the Rift Zone was silent once more.
---
The lights above him were dim, but even that was too much.
Naruto stirred, his body aching in places he didn't know could ache. The air was cold, sterile, humming with the low pulse of Vandal tech. He tried to move, but pain lanced through his side and face like a blade. His breath caught.
His voice came out as a rasp-dry, cracked, barely a whisper.
"Hatch..."
Silence.
Then footsteps-quick, heavy, familiar. The door hissed open, and Hatch stepped into the room, his expression unreadable behind the glow of his visor. He didn't speak right away. Just looked at Naruto, scanning him like a machine might scan a broken weapon.
"You're awake," Hatch said finally.
Naruto swallowed hard. His throat burned. "How... bad?"
Hatch didn't answer immediately. He walked to the side of the bed, tapped a few commands into the console, and let the silence stretch.
"Very bad," he said at last. "The left side of your face is gone. Burned down to the dermal layer. Nerve damage. No fur regrowth. You'll have scarring for the rest of your life."
Naruto didn't flinch. He just stared at the ceiling, his one good eye unblinking.
"And the vehicle?"
"Destroyed. Beyond salvage. The key fragment was lost in the blast. Retrieval teams are still combing the Rift Zone, but..." Hatch shook his head. "Don't count on it."
Naruto's claws twitched against the edge of the bed. "Kalus?"
"He gave the order to bring you back. That's all."
That stung more than the burns.
"He didn't come?"
"He came. He left."
Naruto closed his eye. The silence between them thickened.
"You'll be cleared for active vehicle duty within the week," Hatch added. "Your body's healing faster than expected. But your face..." He hesitated. "There's no fixing that."
Naruto turned his head slightly, wincing at the pull of scorched flesh. "Good."
Hatch blinked. "Good?"
"Let them see it," Naruto said, voice low and gritty. "Let them remember what happens when they forget who they're dealing with."
Hatch studied him for a long moment. "You're not the same."
"No," Naruto said. "I'm not."
He looked down at his hands-scarred, trembling, but still strong.
"I want a new vehicle," he said. "Bigger. Meaner. No Vandal's ever built one like it."
Hatch raised a brow. "You planning to go back into the field already?"
"I'm not going back," Naruto said, his voice like gravel. "I'm going forward."
He turned his head again, forcing himself to look at Hatch.
"And when I do... Stanford Rhodes is going to wish he'd finished the job."
---
Four days after the blast, the med bay doors hissed open for the last time.
Naruto stepped out, wrapped in a dark, sleeveless cloak that hung low over his shoulders. The left side of his face was exposed-no bandages, no mask. Just scorched flesh, twisted and raw, the fur burned away in jagged patches. His eye, though dimmer than before, still burned with purpose.
He didn't speak to anyone. Didn't look back.
He walked straight to the Vandal junkyard.
The place was a graveyard of war machines-twisted metal, shattered cores, rusted plating, and the skeletal remains of vehicles that had once roared across the multiverse. The air smelled of oil, ozone, and old blood.
Naruto moved through the wreckage like a ghost, his claws trailing across broken hulls and scorched tires. He wasn't looking for a vehicle.
He was looking for a foundation.
And then he saw it.
Half-buried beneath a collapsed storage rack was a massive, wrecked Vandal truck-its frame cracked, its engine exposed, its armor scorched. But the bones were strong. The front grill was intact, jagged and wide like a beast's maw. And mounted beneath it, still bolted to the frame, was a matte-black snow plow-bent, but unbroken.
Naruto's breath caught.
"You'll do," he muttered.
He spent the next hour clearing the wreckage, dragging the truck free with a rusted chain and a half-functional loader. The vehicle groaned as it rolled forward, tires flat, engine dead. But it was his now.
He got to work.
---
🛠️ The Build Begins
The first night was spent stripping the interior-ripping out fried circuits, melted seats, and shattered control panels. He scavenged parts from a dozen other wrecks: a reinforced axle from a Vandal scout, a power core from a downed Sark interceptor, and a steering column that still smelled faintly of plasma burns.
The wiring was a nightmare.
He spent hours hunched over the dashboard, claws blackened with grease, trying to reroute power from the core to the ignition. Sparks flew. Twice, he nearly shorted the entire system. Once, the core overloaded and blew out the left-side panel in a burst of smoke and flame.
He didn't flinch.
He just kept working.
By the third night, the engine coughed to life.
It wasn't a roar. Not yet. But it growled-deep and low, like something waking up after a long, violent sleep.
Naruto stood back, breathing hard, his hands trembling from exhaustion. The truck sat before him, still missing armor, still unarmed, but alive. The grill gleamed in the moonlight-jagged, hungry. The snow plow had been reforged and reattached, now reinforced with scavenged plating.
It wasn't ready for war.
But it was ready to move.
He climbed into the cab, slammed the door shut, and gripped the wheel. The seat was too wide. The controls were stiff. The wiring flickered with every turn.
But when he pressed the throttle, the truck surged forward with a snarl.
Naruto smiled-just barely.
> "You're not ready," he said softly, running a claw along the dashboard. "But neither am I."
He drove it out of the junkyard, slow and steady, the snow plow scraping sparks from the ground.
The Black Maw had taken its first breath.
And soon, it would learn to bite.
---
The junkyard was quiet now.
The stars above Vandal Prime flickered through the haze of industrial smoke, casting long shadows over the twisted wreckage. Naruto worked alone, hunched over the front of the truck, welding torch in hand. Sparks danced across his face, illuminating the raw, scorched flesh of his left side in brief, flickering bursts.
The truck was coming together.
The engine purred with a low, guttural growl. The reinforced suspension was holding. The steering was tight. The frame-rebuilt from salvaged armor plating-was solid. The snow plow had been reshaped, sharpened, and mounted beneath the grill like a predator's jaw.
But it still wasn't enough.
Naruto stepped back, claws on his hips, staring at the plow with narrowed eyes. It was fixed in place-good for ramming, but not for control. He needed it to move. To extend. To shove enemy vehicles into walls, off cliffs, into each other.
He needed it to be a weapon, not just a shield.
He dropped to one knee, pried open the mounting assembly, and began rewiring the hydraulic system. The pistons were old, rusted. The actuator was misaligned. He cursed under his breath, sparks flying as he forced the components into place.
"You're going to move," he muttered. "You're going to break things."
The plow groaned as he tested the system. It extended an inch-then jammed. He slammed the housing shut and tried again. Another inch. Another groan.
"Come on... come on..."
Finally, with a hiss of steam and a shriek of metal, the plow extended fully-jutting forward like a spearhead. Naruto grinned, teeth bared.
"There you are."
He stood, wiping grease from his claws, and looked at the truck-his truck. The Black Maw. Still unarmed. Still unfinished. But it was his reflection now. Brutal. Scarred. Hungry.
He walked around to the side, running a hand along the jagged armor.
"You're going to help me tear him down," he said softly. "Piece by piece."
He climbed into the cab, the door creaking shut behind him. The interior was stripped, bare metal and exposed wiring. No comfort. No softness. Just purpose.
He sat in silence for a moment, staring through the cracked windshield.
"Stanford Rhodes," he said, voice low and hoarse. "Golden boy. Hero. Untouchable."
He spat on the floor.
"You didn't even look at me. Didn't even see me. Just another target. Another win."
His claws tightened on the wheel.
"I'll make you see me. I'll make you feel me."
He leaned forward, his voice dropping to a whisper.
"I'll burn your name. I'll scar your face. I'll drag your reputation through the dirt until they look at you and see me."
The engine rumbled beneath him, like it understood.
"You'll be broken. Like I was. Like I am."
He sat back, breathing hard, the heat of the engine warming the cab.
The Black Maw wasn't ready for battle.
But it was ready to hunt.
---
The junkyard had become a forge.
Naruto hadn't left in days. The sun rose and fell behind the smog-choked skyline of Vandal Prime, but he didn't notice. He barely ate. Barely slept. The only thing that mattered was the truck-the beast he was building from the bones of the multiverse.
The Black Maw was no longer just driveable.
It was evolving.
---
He found them buried beneath the wreckage of a downed Vandal dropship-two massive harpoon launchers, still intact, their barbed heads glinting with dried blood and rust. Originally designed to latch onto enemy hulls during boarding raids, Naruto saw something else in them.
He mounted them to the sides of the truck, reinforced the winch systems, and rewired the targeting arrays. The first test launch embedded a harpoon into a steel pillar fifty meters away. The second test reeled it back in with enough force to drag the entire truck forward.
"Perfect," he muttered. "No one runs."
---
The Sark wrecks were harder to scavenge-twisted, alien tech that hissed and sparked when touched. But Naruto was patient. He found what he needed: a damaged overdrive core, still humming with unstable energy.
He tore it out, rewired it with Vandal stabilizers, and mounted it beneath the chassis. The first time he activated it, the truck surged forward so violently it tore a trench through the junkyard floor.
He grinned through the pain in his spine.
"Now I can catch him."
---
The second Sark wreck gave him something even better: a directional EMP emitter, cracked but functional. It had been used to disable BF5 tech mid-flight. Naruto modified it-amplified the range, narrowed the cone, and mounted it behind the grill.
He called it the Null Howl.
When he tested it, every light in the junkyard flickered and died. The air tasted like ozone. The silence afterward was deafening.
"You'll feel that, Stanford. Right before I tear you apart."
---
He found the wrecked BF5 vehicle half-buried in slag. The paint was scorched, the frame twisted-but the sonic cannons were still there. Stanford's tech. The same kind that had burned him.
He ripped them out with his bare hands.
He didn't just mount them-he twisted them. Recalibrated the frequency to destabilize rather than stun. When he fired them into a wall of scrap, the metal rippled like water before exploding outward.
"Let's see how you like the sound of your own screams."
---
The branding rigs were his own creation.
He scavenged heating coils, plasma cutters, and old Vandal insignia stamps. He forged them into claw-like rigs that extended from the front fenders-superheated, glowing red, ready to sear his mark into anything they touched.
He tested them on a rusted BF5 panel.
The metal hissed. The mark was jagged, brutal-three claw slashes intersecting a broken circle.
"You'll wear this, Stanford. On your car. On your face. On your soul."
---
The truck sat in the center of the yard, idling like a beast in its den. The snow plow gleamed. The harpoons clicked into place. The EMP core pulsed. The sonic cannons hummed. The branding rigs glowed faintly in the dark.
It wasn't finished.
But it was ready.
Naruto stood beside it, one hand resting on the grill, his burned face lit by the soft red glow of the rigs.
"You made me this," he whispered. "Now I'll return the favor."
He climbed into the cab.
The Black Maw roared.
And the hunt began.
---
Half a week later, the gates of the Vandal compound groaned open.
The Black Maul rolled out like a storm on wheels-its matte-black armor gleaming under the blood-red sky of Vandal Prime. The snow plow jutted forward like a jaw ready to bite. The harpoons clicked into place. The Null Howl core pulsed beneath the hood. Every wire, every bolt, every weapon had been tested, reinforced, and perfected.
Naruto sat behind the wheel, his burned face half-lit by the glow of the dashboard. The left side of his mouth curled into something that might've once been a smile.
"Let's see if they remember me now."
---
Kalus hadn't spoken much when he gave the order. He didn't need to.
"There's a Battle Key in the Rift Zone designated Double Down. You'll retrieve it. Alone. No excuses."
He hadn't looked Naruto in the eye. Not even once.
But Naruto didn't care. He didn't need Kalus's approval anymore. He had something better.
A purpose.
---
The portal opened with a shriek of light and gravity. The Black Maul surged through, tires slamming onto cracked obsidian ground. The sky above was fractured-two suns, two moons, two of everything. The terrain shimmered with unstable reflections, like the world couldn't decide which version of itself to be.
Naruto drove slowly at first, scanning the horizon. The Battle Key's signal pulsed faintly on his HUD, buried somewhere deep in the mirrored canyon ahead.
Then he saw it.
Another vehicle.
It was... familiar.
Too familiar.
It was his old ride-the hybrid of Hatch's Scarab and Sever's thrusters. Intact. Untouched. And behind the wheel...
Him.
Unscarred. Whole. Fur thick and rust-red. Eyes sharp, but not yet haunted. The other Naruto hadn't seen him yet. He was scanning the terrain, unaware of the monster watching from the shadows.
Naruto's claws tightened on the wheel.
"So this is the Zone's trick," he muttered. "A mirror."
He didn't floor it. Not yet.
He watched.
The other Naruto moved with confidence-efficient, focused. He was here for the same reason. The Key. The mission. The glory.
He didn't know what was coming.
Naruto's voice was low, gravelly, almost reverent.
"You don't know what he did to us yet. You don't know what it's like to be forgotten. To be burned."
The Black Maul growled beneath him.
"But you will."
He activated the harpoons. The targeting system locked in. The Null Howl began to charge.
But he didn't fire.
Not yet.
He wanted to see his own face look back at him-really look. He wanted to see the moment the other him realized what he could become.
What he would become.
"Let's see if you're still proud when you see what's waiting on the other side of the fire."
He revved the engine.
And charged.
---
The Black Maul tore across the mirrored terrain, its tires carving deep scars into the fractured earth. The other Naruto-whole, unburned-was still scanning the horizon, unaware of the storm bearing down on his team.
Naruto didn't aim for himself.
He aimed for the ones who mattered less.
Hatch and Krocomodo.
They were parked near the canyon mouth, running diagnostics on a signal spike. They didn't even see him coming.
The harpoons fired first-barbed chains slamming into Kromkomodo's vehicle and yanking it sideways into a jagged rock wall. The impact crumpled the frame like paper. Before the dust even settled, the Black Maul surged forward, snow plow lowered.
Hatch barely had time to shout before the plow slammed into his side, flipping his vehicle end over end. It landed in a heap, smoke pouring from the engine.
Naruto didn't stop.
He circled once, slow and deliberate, the branding rigs glowing red-hot. He dragged them across the wreckage, leaving his mark-three jagged claw slashes intersecting a broken circle.
"Let them see it," he muttered. "Let them know."
He didn't touch his double. Didn't even speak to him. Just let the other Naruto watch from a distance, frozen in disbelief.
And then he was gone.
---
Hours passed.
Naruto drove in silence, the Black Maul humming beneath him like a beast at rest. The Battle Key was secured in the rear chamber, but he didn't care. Not yet.
He was listening.
The BF5 radio frequencies were encrypted, but not to him. Not anymore. He'd scavenged enough tech, cracked enough systems. He knew their voices.
And then-he heard them.
"Vert, I've got a lock on the Key-wait, something's wrong with the terrain. It's... shifting."
"Stanford, pull back. That's not just a reflection. That's-"
Naruto's eye twitched.
"Them," he growled. "Facing themselves."
He triangulated the signal instantly. The mirrored canyons distorted the source, but he knew how to read the echoes. He slammed the throttle, the overdrive core kicking in with a roar.
The Black Maul surged forward, tearing through the terrain like a predator on the scent.
"You're close," he whispered. "So close."
He wasn't going to interfere.
Not yet.
He wanted to see them first. See their faces. See his face.
And then he'd decide who got to walk away.
---
The mirrored canyons echoed with the chaos of battle-BF5 locked in combat with their doubles, the terrain fracturing under the weight of their struggle. But none of them noticed the storm approaching.
Not until it was too late.
From the far ridge, the Black Maul launched into the fray like a missile of matte-black fury. Its engine howled. Its tires tore the ground apart. And its driver-scarred, silent, seething-had only one name in mind.
Stanford Rhodes III.
But first, a message.
Naruto spotted her-Agura, in a sleek green scout vehicle, scanning the terrain. She was mid-transmission, warning the team:
"The Battle Key is moving-fast. It's headed straight for-"
She never finished.
The Black Maul slammed into her side with the force of a meteor, flipping her vehicle onto its side in a shower of sparks and glass. Naruto rolled down his window, the wind whipping through the cab, his burned face lit by the glow of his dashboard.
He saw Stanford's car across the canyon.
And he screamed.
"HEY RHODES! REMEMBER ME?!"
Stanford froze.
"I'M GONNA BREAK YOU DOWN-LIKE YOU DID ME!"
Naruto slammed the branding rigs into Agura's overturned vehicle, searing his mark into the metal. Then he peeled off, tires screaming, and locked onto Stanford's position.
The chase was on.
Stanford gunned it, but Naruto was already behind him. The Black Maul's sonic reverb cannons fired-distorted, weaponized echoes that rattled Stanford's frame and nerves alike.
Naruto honked the horn.
It didn't sound like a machine.
It sounded like a person screaming.
Stanford swerved, panicked, but Naruto was relentless. He extended the branding rigs again and slammed them into Stanford's trunk, leaving a glowing, clawed insignia scorched into the paint.
"You'll wear it," Naruto growled. "You'll wear me."
Then he saw Vert.
Vert's vehicle came in fast, trying to flank him. Naruto didn't hesitate. He turned the wheel hard and the two vehicles collided head-on, metal shrieking, sparks flying.
Naruto fired the harpoons-barbed chains latching onto Vert's frame. He reeled him in like prey, then activated the Null Howl.
The EMP blast surged through Vert's systems, lights flickering, engine stalling.
Naruto didn't stop.
He drove straight over the car, crushing the hood beneath the Black Maul's weight, and roared away into the canyon.
But then-
A massive blue truck slammed into him from the side, harpoons locking onto his rear axle. It was a new player-unknown, unmarked, but clearly BF5 tech. Reinforced. Heavy.
They tried to drag him back.
Naruto let them.
Just long enough.
Then he fired the EMP again.
The blue truck's systems died instantly, its lights flickering out as it skidded to a halt.
Naruto reversed, tore free of the harpoons, and gunned it toward the nearest rift gate. The Black Maul howled as it tore through the portal, vanishing in a flash of light.
---
The portal closed behind him.
Naruto sat in silence, the engine cooling, the branding rigs still glowing faintly red.
He looked down at his hands-steady, scarred, satisfied.
"They'll remember me now."
He stepped out of the cab, the wind of Vandal Prime whipping across the landing platform.
"And next time..."
He looked back at the Black Maul.
"I'll finish it."