"Nawaki…" Orochimaru murmured softly, speaking the name long buried beneath the dust of time.
That bright smile.
That youthful energy.
The boy who had died meaninglessly on the battlefield.
It was witnessing Nawaki's futile death—feeling firsthand the fragility and brevity of life—that had driven Orochimaru onto the path of pursuing immortality and probing the essence of existence.
And now, after so many years, he heard that name again… in this way.
Orochimaru's gaze sharpened, dangerous excitement rekindling within his golden eyes.
Nawaki's corpse?
A newly born consciousness?
A different form of life?
The secrets behind this were deeper—and far more interesting—than he had imagined.
"Heh heh heh…" His low laughter echoed through the base. "Sensei… Danzō… and Nawaki… how very intriguing…"
Inside the Projection
Naruto's silence was more terrifying than any roar.
When Shu's body finally disintegrated completely, Sasuke and Neji tensed to their limits.
Then Naruto did something unexpected.
He sat down cross-legged on the ground.
Casually.
As if declaring he posed no immediate threat.
"Sasuke. Neji."
His voice was calm—almost inviting.
"Become my right and left hands."
"—What?!"
Shock. Absurdity. Then fury.
"Are you insane?!" Sasuke's voice cracked with humiliation and rage.
Submit to the man who had killed Tsunade and plunged the world into catastrophe?
That was worse than death.
You cut off my arm—and now you want me to be your arm?
Neji said nothing, but his usually composed eyes burned with cold fire.
A member of the Hyūga Branch House, branded with the Caged Bird Seal since birth—yet he had never truly surrendered to fate.
Serve a butcher who trampled everything?
Impossible.
Naruto seemed unsurprised.
"You don't stand a chance," he said evenly. "From the beginning, this fight was already decided."
Not taunting.
Just stating what he believed to be fact.
And rationally—
They knew he was right.
The gap in condition.
The gulf in power.
Naruto's bottomless calculation.
Hope was razor-thin.
"I don't understand," Naruto continued, eyes drifting between them as if studying flawed masterpieces.
"Sasuke. Your clan was pushed to annihilation by Konoha's higher-ups. Your parents. Your people. All gone in that so-called 'night of rebellion.'"
"What did Konoha give you afterward? Surveillance? Suspicion? A hollow 'hero's orphan' label?"
"Why cling to something so rotten?"
Each word stabbed directly into Sasuke's deepest wound.
Sasuke trembled—not from fear, but from the reopened scar.
He wanted to argue.
To say revenge was over.
To say it was Itachi's burden.
But even he couldn't untangle his feelings toward Konoha.
Hatred.
Resentment.
And something else—
A warped sense of belonging he refused to acknowledge.
Or perhaps he simply didn't want the Uchiha tragedy to repeat itself elsewhere.
Naruto's gaze shifted.
"Neji. Hyūga Branch House. Branded from birth. Your life and eyes never truly yours."
"Your father, Hizashi Hyūga—sacrificed to preserve the Main House's dignity."
"Raised on fate. Ordered around like a servant."
"You like being a slave?"
"Like protecting the clan that treated you and your father as expendable pieces?"
Neji's face turned pale.
The words struck home.
Even though awakening the Tenseigan had nullified—or at least altered—the Caged Bird Seal, the humiliation carved into his soul remained.
He touched his transformed eyes briefly.
They held power enough to change the Hyūga.
Maybe even the world.
But the scar beneath that power had never vanished.
Silence.
Heavy.
Sasuke spoke first.
"This… has nothing to do with stopping you."
His reasoning might have been tangled.
Contradictory.
But stopping Naruto had become instinct.
Beyond clan.
Beyond revenge.
Neji inhaled slowly.
The confusion in his eyes steadied into resolve.
"I will change it. The Hyūga. The injustice. With my own strength."
It was his answer.
To fate.
To Naruto's philosophy of annihilation.
Naruto laughed softly.
"Change? Stop me?"
He shook his head and looked at Sasuke.
"Admit it. You were never my equal. And now?"
"You've lost an arm. Your dōjutsu is drained. Your chakra's nearly gone."
"What exactly are you stopping me with? That messy resolve you can't even explain to yourself?"
Then he turned to Neji.
His voice sharpened.
"Remember this."
"The Hokage's son becomes Hokage."
His eyes seemed to pierce through Neji—past him, to Hizashi's silhouette kneeling in sacrifice.
"And a sacrificial pawn's son…"
"…is likely to be a sacrificial pawn too."
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