The pain was no longer external; it was internal, structural, and complete. Every nerve ending sang with agony, a symphony composed of broken bones, shredded chakra pathways, and the gaping, spiritual void where Kurama used to reside. The silence in the ruined cottage was thick, broken only by the trickle of his own cooling blood.
Naruto's eyes—the dull, silver hue reflecting the ancestral connection—were wide, fixed on the smear of red where Rin and Hana had stood. There was no grief, only a terrible, crystalline clarity. Grief was a luxury for the living and the innocent. He was neither.
"You should be dead."
The voice was a dry, rustling sound, like ancient scrolls being unrolled too quickly. It wasn't in his ears; it was in the back of his mind, a thousand voices speaking as one, the Uzumaki Collective Consciousness.
"The extraction of a Tailed Beast requires the sacrifice of the Jinchūriki's life force. You survived only because your body, though depleted, is the most pure vessel of Uzumaki vitality to surface in centuries. The seals are waking."
Naruto tried to move. A blinding bolt of pain shot through his arm.
"Rest. Your revenge requires patience. The Akatsuki left you for a corpse. Be one until you are strong enough to be a ghost."
He lay there for three days, utterly motionless. His body, powered by the incredible, stubborn regenerative abilities of the Uzumaki clan, fought the impossible. He didn't eat or drink, sustained only by the slow, painful surge of his own pure life force.
During those days, the voices were relentless tutors. The Chakra Kekkai no Me (Chakra Barrier Eye) didn't just connect him to the dead; it connected him to their knowledge. He experienced a thousand lifetimes in fast-forward: the history of Uzushiogakure, the intricate artistry of their Fūinjutsu, and the devastating secrets they had hidden before their destruction.
The knowledge was less a lesson and more a forced assimilation. He learned the complex seals of Sōzō no Fūin (Creation's Seal), understanding how to absorb and neutralize kinetic energy at a molecular level. He learned the psychological devastation of the Jagan no Jutsu (Evil Eye Technique), a genjutsu powered by pure, concentrated malice.
The sheer volume of forbidden lore was a psychic tidal wave. His mind, once simple and straightforward, was now a dizzying library of complex geometric formulas and devastating tactical applications.
On the fourth morning, Naruto finally stood. He felt no pain, but immense weakness. His body was a cage of lean muscle, his skin pale, his face gaunt. He moved like a puppet whose strings were too tight.
He looked at the wreckage of the home, the graves he had mentally dug for Rin and Hana. He would not mourn now. Mourning would be the last thing he did after Konoha was reduced to ash.
His eyes fell on a simple, bloodstained knife Rin had used for farm work. He picked it up and walked to the nearest tree.
"You must first master the control that the Nine-Tails stole from you," advised the Collective. "We will start with the first essential step: the absolute sealing of your own heart."
He focused his chakra, now clear, cold, and utterly controlled. He began the intricate hand signs for a basic Self-Inhibiting Seal, a jutsu meant to restrict a lesser ninja's chakra flow, but which he adapted with the Collective's guidance.
He pressed his fingers against his sternum. Fūin Jutsu: Kokoro no Heisa (Sealing Technique: Heart's Closure).
The silver light of his eyes pulsed. The seal was designed not to stop his heart, but to shut down his emotions. He forced every feeling—grief, fear, joy, and his childish longing for acceptance—into a sealed pocket of his soul. When the jutsu was complete, a faint, iridescent ripple crossed his skin.
He tested it. He walked back to the two stains on the floor, the remnants of his only family. He felt nothing. No surge of rage, no wave of despair. Just cold, clinical observation.
"Good. Control is power. Now, we hunt."
His first target was intelligence, and the easiest target for intelligence was a fool.
Naruto began to track Akatsuki's movement patterns, a secondary ability granted by the Chakra Kekkai no Me—it could faintly detect any chakra signature that had been involved in an Uzumaki's death, allowing him to track residual energy.
His trail led him to a small border town where a minor Akatsuki collector, a man tasked with securing bounties to fund Pain's operations, was known to operate. Naruto waited for three days, hidden in the ruins of an abandoned warehouse, surviving on purified rainwater and minimal calories.
On the fourth night, the collector, a heavy-set Shinobi named Gakure with a reputation for brutality, walked straight into the ambush.
Gakure wasn't a powerhouse, just a thug. But he was well-armed. He lunged with a Katon (Fire Release) jutsu.
Naruto didn't dodge. He stood still.
As the fireball hurtled towards him, Naruto activated his first true Forbidden Uzumaki jutsu, the Sōzō no Fūin (Creation's Seal).
The jutsu was instantaneous. A shimmering, near-invisible barrier of seals erupted around him. When the fireball hit, instead of explosion and heat, there was silence. The energy of the fire was instantly absorbed, converted, and neutralized into pure, inert chakra, causing the attack to simply vanish inches from his face.
Gakure froze, confusion giving way to fear. "What… what kind of jutsu was that?"
"The end of your existence," Naruto replied, his voice flat, devoid of the familiar energy.
Naruto didn't use Ninjutsu. He didn't have the reserves yet. He used Taijutsu, but with the speed and precision drilled into him by the Collective. He moved in a terrifying, serpentine blur.
Gakure tried to raise his guard, but Naruto was already inside his range. He used a move learned from the Collective—a blindingly fast strike that used minimal chakra output to achieve maximal physical damage.
Naruto's open palm struck Gakure's temple with impossible force. The impact wasn't just physical; it carried a momentary, hyper-condensed sealing tag.
Gakure fell, convulsing. He wasn't dead, but his chakra network was sealed and locked, leaving him paralyzed and conscious—the perfect subject.
Naruto crouched beside the trembling man.
"You served Pain," Naruto stated, the observation colder than a winter wind. "Tell me where I can find the ones who stole what belonged to me."
Gakure spat blood. "Go to hell, demon. I'll never—"
Naruto activated the terrifying Jagan no Jutsu (Evil Eye Technique). His silver eyes flashed, no longer merely reflective, but actively projecting.
The technique required no complex hand signs, only a direct focus fueled by the Collective's ancient malice. It wasn't just a Genjutsu; it was a psychic projection of the victim's worst fears, made hyper-realistic and inescapable.
Gakure's eyes rolled back. He saw himself trapped in a loop of his cruelest murders, forced to endure the agony of his victims in infinite detail. His body thrashed uselessly on the ground, muffled, agonizing screams escaping his sealed throat.
After a minute of this tailored torture, Naruto broke the jutsu.
Gakure was broken. Sweating, crying, and desperate. He gasped out everything: the location of the Akatsuki's next meeting, the current movements of Itachi and Kisame, and the specific route the Tailed Beasts were being transported.
Naruto listened, committing every detail to the Collective's shared memory. When the man finished, he was sobbing, begging for death.
"You will get your wish," Naruto said.
He sealed Gakure's mouth with a quick, silent gesture, ensuring no last cry could escape, and then, without ceremony or emotion, Naruto snapped his neck.
The silence returned, but this time, it was the heavy, satisfying silence of a mission accomplished. Naruto had his first piece of Akatsuki intelligence, and his first taste of revenge. It was the purest form of satisfaction he had ever known.
"The path is clear," whispered the Collective, approvingly. "Your revenge will be their slow, agonizing unraveling."
Naruto rose, leaving the corpse for the scavengers. He had a map now, and a purpose. The first target: the duo operating on the outskirts of the Land of Water. Itachi and Kisame.