"I don't have the cursed seal."
Sasuke from the mission scroll world said it calmly.
Naruto laughed.
"That bastard Orochimaru really did want to put that cursed seal thing on Sasuke. But I stopped him successfully! Hahaha."
Sasuke Uchiha glanced at this Naruto, who was clearly different from the Naruto on his side.
The style of his clothes hadn't changed, but they were new and clean, freshly washed. Their heights were almost the same, yet this Naruto was noticeably taller than the one he knew. He also looked more energetic, sturdier somehow. The baby fat on his face had faded, making him look leaner instead.
"You're… Naruto?" Sasuke asked without thinking.
"The real deal," Sasuke replied flatly. "Same model idiot."
"Hey, Sasuke! You've spent way too much time with that Kakashi-sensei from the past. Your mouth's gotten just as sharp as his, dattebayo!" Naruto huffed in dissatisfaction.
Watching the two of them argue, Sasuke Uchiha immediately understood. These really were himself and Naruto from another world.
"Why were you able to awaken the three-tomoe Sharingan?"
"Not long ago," Sasuke answered. "I saw something I shouldn't have. Something disgusting."
As he said it, his expression closely mirrored Sasuke Uchiha's mood from earlier. Darkness, anger, restlessness, and a barely restrained urge to take revenge as soon as possible.
Something he shouldn't have seen? Something disgusting?
Sasuke Uchiha couldn't quite understand.
Just how eye-searing did it have to be to force his other self's Sharingan to awaken three tomoe?
But if the person in front of him was truly himself, then whatever had driven him to this point…
"Was it that man?"
"If you mean Itachi," Sasuke said, "then no. It wasn't him."
"Not Itachi?!"
Sasuke looked toward the battlefield, where Naruto from the other world was fighting Gaara, then spoke to the version of himself who knew nothing.
"You don't know who your real enemy is at all. If the Third Hokage survives this battle, go ask him directly."
"?!?!"
Sasuke Uchiha's pupils shook violently.
Shikamaru Nara was sharp enough to realize this was a conversation he shouldn't be hearing, and he had no interest in getting dragged into trouble.
"Stop," he said, raising a hand. "If we keep listening, it'll only cause problems."
He turned to Shino Aburame. "Shino, let's go somewhere else."
"Yeah. I was thinking the same."
The two of them left this hotbed of trouble and moved far enough away that they couldn't hear the conversation anymore, watching the battle between Naruto Uzumaki and Gaara from their own world instead.
Sakura Haruno stood beside Sasuke Uchiha, completely at a loss.
As a member of Team 7, she knew Sasuke-kun was driven by revenge, but she had never known who his enemy truly was, or what he was seeking revenge for.
She only knew that Sasuke-kun was slowly drifting farther and farther away from her. It was already something no one else in Team 7 could stop.
After hearing the words "you know nothing about your true enemy," Sasuke Uchiha was plunged into overwhelming shock. He suddenly reached out and grabbed his other self by the collar.
"What did you say?! If it's not Itachi, then who is it?! I saw him kill them with my own eyes—"
"Calm down!" Naruto grabbed Sasuke's arm, trying to stop him.
Sasuke himself didn't react much. He understood exactly how the other Sasuke felt. Back when he had learned these things himself, during the early days of Konoha, he had spent several nights unable to sleep.
"I don't yet know how much responsibility Itachi bears for the clan's deaths," he said slowly, looking at his counterpart and giving him time to prepare. "But based on what I know now…"
"What is it?!!"
The cursed seal on Sasuke Uchiha's body hadn't faded yet. His eyes widened, the two-tomoe Sharingan spinning as he stared straight at his other self.
"Itachi Uchiha's current identity is that of a spy dispatched by Konoha."
"!!!!"
Sasuke repeated the words stiffly, almost mechanically.
"Itachi Uchiha is… a spy dispatched by Konoha..."
What did that mean?!
It meant the Third Hokage had always known Itachi's whereabouts.
It meant Itachi had never truly been condemned for the massacre.
Or perhaps it meant that someone else was responsible for the clan's destruction, and Itachi had been forced to shoulder the blame, becoming a missing-nin and double agent to investigate something from the shadows.
As the foolish younger brother who deeply loved his older brother, Sasuke Uchiha naturally let the balance in his heart tilt toward that final possibility.
Kakashi placed a hand on Sasuke's shoulder.
"We'll be leaving this world soon. Whether it's good or bad that you know these things, I can't say. At the very least, Itachi clearly didn't want you to know. He seemed to think you were too easily used by others."
"..."
Both Sasuke Uchiha and the Sasuke who knew more information were pulled back into memories of their childhood.
It was always like this. Never telling him anything. Every single time, it was always, "Next time," or, "Forgive me, Sasuke."
Just how long would it take?
When would Itachi finally acknowledge his existence?
Was it because he wasn't strong enough? Or was it something else?
Sasuke Uchiha wondered silently.
Was it because I'm too weak?
Sasuke thought as well.
Is it because I haven't awakened the Mangekyō yet? Because I can't see the scenery that Itachi, Obito, and Madara can see?
Both Sasukes sank into heavy silence.
"Now that you know this," the Adult Kakashi continued, "you have to pretend you don't. Absolutely no one in this world, aside from me, can be allowed to find out."
"Why?!" Sasuke Uchiha couldn't understand.
"Spy missions are among the most dangerous there are," Kakashi said. "If his identity as a spy is exposed, you know what that means, don't you?"
Sasuke turned to his counterpart in this world.
"Don't put too much faith in Konoha's higher-ups. The only people you can truly trust and rely on are your teammates in Team 7."
Hearing that, Naruto was overjoyed.
He hooked an arm around Sasuke's neck.
"Don't worry! We'll definitely help you figure out a way to restore your clan!"
Watching the way they interacted, Sasuke Uchiha felt the cursed seal on his body quietly recede without him even realizing it.
He turned his gaze back toward the battle between Naruto Uzumaki and Gaara.
Naruto shouted,
"I will never let you hurt my comrades! That's the rule Kakashi-sensei taught us!"
"Comrades?" Gaara scoffed. "Give up on such childish ideas. True strength comes from killing stronger opponents and proving your own value!"
Because of the brief conversation he'd once had with Gaara in Lee's hospital room, Naruto knew that Gaara had grown up under circumstances similar to his own.
The secret hidden inside him, classified as S-rank by the Hokage, had made him a monster in the eyes of others, just like Gaara.
Whenever he saw the loneliness in Gaara's eyes, he couldn't help but think of himself, sitting alone on that swing.
That guy and I are the same.
Both monsters in everyone else's eyes.
Naruto recalled his childhood, when the entire village avoided him.
Aside from himself, the world felt colorless, filled only with looks of hatred.
Hatred toward him.
The demon fox that had once destroyed the village, killed countless people, and taken the life of the most beloved Fourth Hokage.
Ever since Iruka-sensei had acknowledged him.
Ever since he joined Team 7…
He had almost forgotten.
Forgotten how he once hated those who ignored his existence.
Forgotten just how painful and lonely it had all been.
"There's something off about Naruto," Sasuke Uchiha said. "This isn't how he usually fights. I don't know what he's been through, but there's no way he can beat Gaara like this. Kakashi, aren't you going to step in?!"
"Relax. I'll act when it's time," Kakashi replied. "But Naruto's potential is far greater than you imagine."
Sasuke looked at the Sasuke of this world, recalling how he and Sakura had already learned back in the Land of Waves that Naruto was the Nine-Tails' Jinchūriki.
He stared straight at him.
"Hey… you don't still not know, do you?"
"Know what?!" Sasuke Uchiha hated this feeling of being the only one in the dark, especially when the one looking at him like that was a Sasuke who claimed to be from another world.
Naruto let out a quiet sigh.
If the Sasuke from this world didn't know, then it was probably better for him to be the one to say it.
"Even though Gaara and I look like we're completely different types, our identities are almost identical in every way."
Both sons of the Fourth Hokage and the Fourth Kazekage.
Both turned into sacrifices by their own fathers for the sake of their villages.
Both feared, rejected, and ignored by the people around them.
Both so lonely they couldn't understand why they even existed.
Both… in unbearable pain…
Hidden in the distance, Temari and Kankurō froze.
Using the wind, Temari subtly carried their voices toward her. She couldn't hear everything clearly, but she caught enough fragments of their conversation.
And so, when they heard that blond boy claim that his identity was the same as Gaara's, they couldn't help but feel utterly shocked.
The same identity…
And that Konoha jōnin had said only he could defeat Gaara…
What did that even mean?!
"You mean… you and Gaara have the same identity?!"
Sasuke Uchiha looked at the Naruto in front of him, then at the Naruto facing off against Gaara, and finally at Gaara himself, who was almost no longer recognizable as human.
"What does that mean? What do you mean when you say you and Gaara have the same identity?"
A memory suddenly flashed through his mind.
Back in the Land of Waves, after being struck by Haku and falling into a state of suspended death, he had regained consciousness and seen Haku already defeated. He had asked whether Kakashi had been the one to finish him off…
The answer he received was that Naruto had defeated Haku on his own.
Haku, who possessed the Ice Release Kekkei Genkai.
"What exactly is this 'identity' you're talking about?!"
Naruto spoke quietly.
"That identity is something neither you nor Sakura would know about. Back then, the Hokage issued an S-rank order forbidding the entire village from ever mentioning it, let alone telling me about it. If Mizuki hadn't tricked me into stealing the Scroll of Seals, I probably wouldn't have found out so early…"
Mizuki?
Sasuke Uchiha remembered the rumors from before they had officially graduated from the Ninja Academy. That instructor named Mizuki had violated an S-rank prohibition personally issued by the Hokage and was treated as a missing-nin, receiving severe punishment and lifelong imprisonment.
He had never imagined that incident would have anything to do with Naruto's true identity.
Wasn't Naruto Uzumaki just an ordinary dead-last, an orphan left behind after the Third Shinobi World War?
On the battlefield, Naruto, fighting Gaara, was dragged into painful memories by Gaara's lonely gaze and the fact that others called him a monster.
Ever since Mizuki had told him the truth, told him that the Nine-Tails was sealed inside his body…
It felt like the way people looked at him had grown colder, filled with hatred.
He stared at Gaara, wrapped in sand, monstrous in appearance. Beneath that bloodthirsty, crazed look, hidden deep in his eyes, was the same loneliness and pain that Naruto knew all too well.
Without realizing it, his gaze lingered on Gaara, and what surfaced in his mind was the image of himself, standing alone, staring up at the Fourth Hokage's face carved into the Hokage Rock.
But—
"Naruto, long time no see. Want to go eat some ramen? Sensei's treating!"
"You super idiot. If you want to beat me, then train properly!"
"Hey, Naruto! Did Sasuke ever mention me to you?"
"Don't keep eating instant noodles and red bean soup all the time. You'll get malnourished. How about some vegetables once in a while? These are from Sensei for you~"
"But I'm not alone anymore. Sasuke, Sakura, Kakashi-sensei, Iruka-sensei…"
Naruto suddenly spoke to Gaara, calling out those names. Sasuke Uchiha froze.
"They're all proof that I exist!!" Naruto Uzumaki shouted.
"As long as they're alive, I'm not alone!! As long as I can be with them, that's a kind of happiness and joy I've never experienced before!!"
"!!!!"
Everyone watching saw that after Naruto shouted those words, blue chakra erupted around him as he faced Gaara, bursting forth with a completely different presence.
Naruto watched the version of himself in this world fighting Gaara and said calmly,
"Gaara and I are the same. We're both the village's ultimate weapon."
Temari stiffened.
"The village's ultimate weapon?!!"