"You—!"
Sasuke trembled with rage. Chakra surged violently through his remaining arm as he prepared to charge forward, but Neji seized him and held him back.
Naruto paid it no mind. His finger shifted toward Neji.
"And what a diligent little sacrificial pawn you are."
His words grew even more merciless.
"You saw through the Caged Bird Seal. You gained power capable of breaking fate. And yet you still think about 'reforming' this cannibalistic system."
"Still thinking about serving the very clan and structure that branded you and pushed your father to his death?"
"You dream of becoming a 'hero' who changes the rules? Can you change your birth? Can you erase the fact that your father died as a substitute sacrifice?"
It hit too precisely.
"Then stop talking and fight!" Sasuke roared, struggling against Neji's restraint.
Naruto folded his arms leisurely.
"See? You're angry again."
"That just proves I'm right. I've torn open your self-deception."
"Enough!" Neji snapped.
Naruto shrugged.
"Relax. I won't push further. I'd hate to shatter what little pride you have left."
His tone shifted again—calm, terrifyingly composed.
"Let's talk about 'vision.'"
He looked across the ravaged land, as if seeing through history itself—the rivers of blood, the mountains of corpses since the birth of the shinobi system.
"You keep asking why I drag in the 'innocent.'"
"Fine. I'll tell you."
His voice carried through the crater—and through the projection—to every silent listener.
"I will destroy the shinobi system at any cost."
The world held its breath.
At last—the core motive.
Even Sasuke and Neji forced themselves to listen.
Naruto spoke slowly.
"There's one thing I didn't lie about."
"There really are invaders in this world."
Sasuke and Neji's hearts skipped.
Shu's shadow returned.
"Invaders?"
Naruto didn't give them time to process.
Instead, he asked:
"What is chakra?"
The question was absurdly basic.
Naruto answered it himself.
"It's the fusion of physical energy and spiritual energy in specific proportions."
"Through chakra, we perform ninjutsu. Strengthen our bodies. Cast genjutsu."
He paused.
"And sometimes… understand one another."
"That's what I used to believe. That chakra was the bridge between hearts."
He laughed softly.
"That was the foundation of my nindō."
Sasuke scoffed. "Don't tell me you're about to claim chakra itself is the invader. That's ridiculous."
Naruto looked at him calmly.
"Why can't it be?"
Silence.
The words struck harder than any thunderclap.
Chakra… an invader?
The reaction across the shinobi world was explosive.
"Impossible!"
"Chakra is drawn from our own bodies!"
"It's our power!"
"No chakra means no shinobi!"
"This is madness!"
Leaders, shinobi, civilians—everyone rejected the notion instinctively.
To deny chakra was to deny the foundation of their civilization.
It was worse than any foreign threat.
It was uprooting existence itself.
Inside the projection, Sasuke and Neji stood frozen.
Naruto continued.
"Tell me something. Before chakra existed—what was this world?"
He didn't wait.
"It was a world of ordinary humans."
"Wars were fought with steel. Power came from muscle and strategy."
"No bloodline supremacy. No children weaponized because of Kekkei Genkai."
He lifted his gaze.
"Then chakra appeared."
"Brought by an outsider."
The name hung unspoken—but everyone knew.
Ōtsutsuki Kaguya.
"The origin of chakra was not humanity," Naruto said quietly.
"It was an alien power imposed upon this world."
A ripple of shock spread through the shinobi world.
Kaguya.
The progenitor of chakra.
Not human.
An Ōtsutsuki.
Naruto's voice hardened.
"Chakra changed everything. It amplified conflict. Concentrated power into clans. Created hierarchies based on blood."
"It turned children into soldiers."
"It created Jinchūriki."
He tapped his own chest.
"It created me."
"The shinobi system is just the structure built around that foreign power."
"You call it civilization."
"I call it infection."
The air felt heavy.
Neji's mind reeled.
If chakra's origin was alien—
If it reshaped society—
Then…
Sasuke's jaw tightened.
"You're saying humanity was corrupted the moment chakra entered the world?"
Naruto's expression didn't waver.
"Yes."
"Chakra is not humanity's evolution."
"It's contamination."
"If you remove chakra—"
"No more Kekkei Genkai hierarchy."
"No more weaponized children."
"No more villages built on contract killing."
"The entire foundation collapses."
"And without that foundation…"
"No more Uchiha massacres."
"No more Branch House sacrifices."
He looked at them both.
"I'm not destroying the world."
"I'm curing it."
The crater fell silent again.
This time, not from outrage—
But from something more dangerous.
Doubt.
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