They clashed again. This time, Naruto didn't hold back.
He moved sharper. Angrier. But still, Dark Naruto was faster. Every motion was instinct. Not thought or strategy. Just raw will and power.
And in every blow he threw, Naruto could feel it in his bones.
The heat.
The fear.
The love.
The need to protect. Warped and twisted, but still there..
This thing, this twisted version of him, still cared.
He just didn't know how to show it. Go figure.
Naruto ducked under a spinning kick, pivoted, and drove a fist into Dark Naruto's ribs. The first clean hit he had landed yet.
Water exploded across the stone floor of the sewer, echoing through the massive chamber like thunder. Naruto's fist struck air then a blur and then pain, as Dark Naruto's palm slammed into his chest and hurled him back into a rusted pipe with a loud CLANG.
Naruto rolled and caught himself, bare feet skidding on wet stone. He spat out blood, wiped his mouth, and stared through the steam rising off the water.
Dark Naruto stood across the chamber, half-shrouded in shadows, eyes glowing faintly like dying embers.
Every movement he made was natural. Effortless. There was no wasted tension or hesitation in his movement.. Like he'd been fighting since the day he was born. Which ironically was not very long ago.
Naruto charged again. Faster this time. The water rippled behind him as he closed the distance, chakra flooding his limbs, strengthening muscle and bone. He swung a wide hook that Dark Naruto ducked under.
Then something impossible happened.
Another him stepped out of Dark Naruto's shadow and caught Naruto's leg mid-kick.
Then a third appeared, slamming a fist into Naruto's back.
Naruto hit the water face-first, groaning.
He scrambled up, soaking wet, blinking through the blood and confusion.
There were three of them now.
"You… copied yourself?" he said, heart thudding. "That's.. how are you doing that?!"
Dark Naruto didn't answer. He stood in the middle, flanked by his clones. Silent and eerily calm.
The clone on the left moved first. Naruto tried to counter, but the one on the right feinted and kicked his ankle out from under him.
Naruto fell again, hit hard, rolled, and flung his palm out toward the middle one in panic, but he vanished in a puff of white smoke.
The other two backed away and disappeared into the mist.
Naruto stayed kneeling in the shallow water, panting, stunned.
"That… wasn't a trick. That wasn't some illusion or seal. That was real. He hit me. He hit me."
His head snapped toward the shadows.
"That was chakra. That was chakra shaped into a person."
Dark Naruto walked forward, slow and steady, boots splashing through the inch-deep water.
"You're shocked," he said flatly.
"Of course I'm shocked!" Naruto shouted. "You just made two living copies of yourself like it was nothing! That's not chakra reinforcement, that's.. that's something else!"
Dark Naruto tilted his head, like Naruto was a child that had just learned the sky was blue.
"You think chakra's just power to throw around," he said. "Something to kick and punch with. You honestly never wondered what else it could be?"
Naruto scowled. "You're saying I should've figured that out on my own?"
Dark Naruto scoffed, "I'm saying you chose not to."
Another clone appeared at his side with a flicker of shadow. No hesitation. No effort.
"Instinct," he said. "That's the difference. You force chakra to work. I let it move."
Naruto stood slowly. "You talk like this is easy."
"It is," Dark Naruto said. "It was always there. You just never pushed yourself. You were satisfied being half of what you could be. You let fear place limits on your potential.. "
He took another step.
"You're pathetic."
Naruto flinched like he'd been struck again.
Dark Naruto opened his palm.
A swirling orb of chakra began to form in the center, spinning in a perfect spiral, sucking in the air around it, trembling with force. There was no buildup. No windup. No incantation or prep.
Just chakra. Shaped like nothing Naruto had ever seen.
Naruto's voice came out quiet, nearly a whisper.
"What is that?"
Dark Naruto looked at him like he couldn't believe the question was real.
"You don't even know the name. Of course you don't."
He stepped back and lunged towards Naruto with the rotating ball of chakra.
Naruto dodged as the sphere just barely missed, and the wall behind him cracked, stone and rust peeling away in a perfect spiral crater.
The sewer rumbled.
Naruto rolled to his feet, breathing hard, soaking wet, arms bruised and stinging. But none of that registered.
His mind was still locked on what he saw.
"You shaped it," he said aloud. "You didn't use a seal. You didn't use a hand sign. You just willed it into being."
Dark Naruto said nothing. Another clone appeared behind him. Then another.
All of them had that spinning balls of chakra in their palms.
The clones moved.
Naruto didn't run this time.
He blocked, barely. He ducked under a clone's strike, leapt off the wall, and landed a kick in another's chest, but it popped like smoke and scattered in the air.
The second hit him across the ribs with that spinning ball of chakra. Pain exploded through his side. The air left his lungs.
When he opened his eyes again, he was face down in the shallow water.
His arms shook. His body ached. He could barely breathe.
Still he pushed himself to his knees, trembling.
Dripping water echoed across the sewer as silence stretched between them.
Dark Naruto stood where he always had, not even winded. Eyes dim and steady. Another clone shimmered into existence beside him.
Naruto's mouth opened, but no sound came out.
He wanted to say something. A threat. A challenge. Anything.
But nothing came. Because he knew he had nothing left.
Dark Naruto stepped forward slow and measured.
"You finally understand," he said, voice low. "You never stood a chance."
Naruto forced himself to his feet. Legs shaking. Hands curled into fists, even if they had nothing left to give. He lunged forward one last time out of pure desperation, and a lack of reason and Dark Naruto caught his punch like it was a mere leaf in the wind.
He pulled Naruto close.
"I'm not your enemy," he whispered.
Then he slammed his forehead into Naruto's.
The world cracked.
A final clone moved behind Naruto and drove the spinning chakra sphere straight into his spine.
Naruto's scream was silent as his body crumpled into the sewer water.
He twitched once.
And didn't dare to rise.
The water stilled. Dark mist swirled around his limp form. His breaths were shallow. Eyes half-lidded. The cold stone pressed against his cheek, and for the first time since entering this mindscape
He felt small.
Dark Naruto crouched next to him.
"I tried to warn you," he said softly, brushing aside strands of soaked blond hair. "You never listened."
Naruto's lips moved. A hoarse whisper.
"…why?"
Dark Naruto tilted his head.
"Because they'll need someone stronger. Someone who's not afraid to be hated. To be feared. To kill those who need to be killed."
He looked off into the dark where the subconscious flickers of people Naruto loved shimmered like ghosts behind the walls. Kamala. Kate. Mother Jean. America. Everyone he'd tried to protect. Everyone he'd let down.
"You couldn't save them. Not like this."
Naruto's chest trembled. His fingers twitched. He wanted to deny it. To scream back in defiance.
But he couldn't move or speak.
The truth weighed down upon him like a mountain and crushed him underfoot.
"You were always holding back," Dark Naruto said. "Because you thought being gentle made you better. Because you were afraid of what you could really become. But power isn't afraid. It acts. It answers. It wins."
Naruto closed his eyes.
"Kurama.."
"Kurama can't save you now. I'm the King now."
And in the dark behind his eyelids, he saw it: his friends. In danger. Reaching for him. Calling his name.
And his body, this broken, trembling body refused to rise.
Dark Naruto stood.
"Dont worry.. I'll carry the burden," he said quietly. "You couldn't. But I will."
He turned, walking toward the edge of the mindscape where the bars of the great gate loomed in the distance. The shadows shifted behind them. The walls pulsed like a heart.
"You'll rest," he said, not looking back. "Slip away. Dream your small dreams and what-if's. I'll make sure they survive."
Naruto watched his silhouette vanish into the black, swallowed by fog.
His fingers curled weakly into the water.
A final whisper escaped his lips.
"I'm… sorry."
Then the lights in the sewer dimmed.
And Naruto slipped under the surface.
Into quiet.
Into darkness.
Into despair.
A tear choked out of his form, "I'm sorr-"
Naruto blinked.
Then blinked again.
He was lying on soft white sand under a vast sky painted in galaxies, where the clouds shimmered like jellyfish and the sun pulsed with the rhythm of a heartbeat. Waves lapped gently against a shoreline that stretched into eternity.
He sat up slowly, squinting against the impossible light.
And there she was.
She was already waiting. Reclined on a chair that looked carved from moonlight, as if the stars themselves had dragged it to shore for her comfort.
Skin pale, like marble kissed by galaxies. Hair black and green, tangled moss spilling into ink, alive with shifting hues whenever the light caught it. Her bikini shimmered like the night sky—constellations blooming and fading across the fabric as if they had somewhere better to be.
And her eyes…
Her eyes were alive.
Stars winked in her irises.
Galaxies spun in their depths.
Worlds were born and burned out in the corners of her gaze.
She sipped from a coconut through a bendy straw, reclining like she'd been waiting centuries for this moment.
"Welcome, Naruto… to the Land of Couldn't-Be-Shouldn't-Be."
Naruto froze mid-step. "…Is that supposed to be a riddle? And how do you know my name, lady?"
Her laughter rang out bright and brittle, like crystal chimes caught in a cosmic breeze. "No. It's a place. Obviously. And I know your name because I've been expecting you."
Naruto frowned. "…Okay, hold up. Who are you?"
She leaned forward, brushing sand and stardust from her thighs, and smiled like someone explaining the obvious to a child. "I am the Never Queen, the embodiment of all possibility. And this.." she swept her hand toward the horizon, where waves broke not in foam but in flickering images of lives unlived "is my home. Every moment that might exist begins here. Then it drifts outward, into your worlds, where you mortals decide which possibilities survive."
Naruto stared at the impossible ocean, then back at her.
"…Still sounds like a riddle," he muttered.
Unbothered, she grinned wider.
He rubbed his temples. "…So am I dreaming, or is this actually real?"
"What is real, Naruto? The things you touch? But touch is only nerves firing in your brain. The things you see? Illusions painted by light. Dreams feel real while you're in them. Memories can lie to you and still guide your whole life. So tell me.." she leaned closer, her eyes spilling galaxies— "what's the difference?"
Naruto blinked. "…That… sounds like another riddle."
"Not a riddle," she said cheerfully, sipping her coconut. "A reminder. Reality is just the possibility you happen to be standing in right now. Nothing more. Nothing less."
"But you came her for a reason, and not a philosophy lesson." she said.
Naruto exhaled, scratching his cheek. "…Right. Uh. So my evil twin or evil me? Split off and went full supervillain. He's stronger. Faster. Using chakra in ways I didn't even know was possible. I fought him. Lost. Hard. Now he's in control of my body and I'm pretty sure he's about to wreck, well… everything-everything."
The Never Queen tilted her head, eyes narrowing with amused curiosity. "Ah. A fracture of self. A shadow-dominance event. Quite common among pivotal souls."
Naruto squinted. "…You're just making up words again."
She giggled, like a secret slipping through. "Basically, you're both Anakin and Darth Vader."
Naruto's face lit with relief. "Yes! Exactly! Like Star Wars!"
Her brow creased. "Star… Wars?"
Naruto blinked at her. "…You don't know Star Wars?"
She blinked twice, then smirked. "Of course I know Star Wars. George Lucas is one of humanity's greatest dream-weavers. Between you and me…" She leaned closer, stage-whispering, "I once thought about becoming one of his dreams. Making Luke Skywalker a literal god. But then I decided, eh, not yet."
Naruto just stared. "…You're insane."
Her smile stretched wider, galaxies unfolding in her eyes. "Naturally."
She rose then, her shadow stretching impossibly long, filled with flickering versions of herself and all shimmering with possibility.
"If you want to take control again, you must embrace yourself," she said. "Not only the noble parts. Not only the brave. The whole of you. Even the shadows. Especially the shadows. Your darker half is not an enemy. It is a mirror."
Naruto stared at his hands. "…But I've been scared of that part for so long…"
"Then maybe it's time to stop running."
The wind shifted. Sand rose around him, spiraling like golden chakra, whispering futures against his skin. Naruto clenched his fist.
His eyes lit with sudden fire. He slapped his palm against his other hand.
"I got it!"
He spun toward her. "Never Queen? Never Lady? Whatever, thanks for!"
FWUMP.
The ground vanished. Naruto rocketed skyward like a comet, swallowed by a swirling golden storm.
"YOU'RE WELCOOOOOME!" she called after him, sipping from her coconut with a grin.
Dark Naruto walked alone.
The shallow water licked at his ankles, rippling outward in slow, endless circles. Behind him, the silence was complete. No more clashes. No more defiance. Naruto's true body had vanished beneath the black surface limp and breathless, claimed by the dark.
Victory was his.
And yet, Dark Naruto did not celebrate. He only walked forward, each step dissolving into echoes that the vast sewer swallowed whole.
Then a tremor.
The air thickened, heavy as wet stone pressing down on his chest. The water behind him stirred. One bubble. Two.
Then the surface began to boil.
Dark Naruto froze, unease prickling at the edge of his calm. A low rumble bled through the deep, as if the abyss itself was waking.
And then,
CRACK!
Like a thunderbolt, Naruto burst from the depths in a flash of golden light. Fist first, rising like vengeance from the abyss.
His knuckles collided with Dark Naruto's jaw with the force of a hammer.
The impact ripped the stillness in half.
Dark Naruto was lifted clean off the ground, body rag dolling midair before slamming into the water ten feet back, skidding across it like a skipped stone before sinking.
Naruto dropped into a crouch where he landed, steam curling off his skin. His breath came heavy, and labored but steady. His eyes were fierce.
He stood and raised a hand, shaking it out with a wince.
"Surprised?" he muttered through a tired grin. "You shouldn't be. I'm an idiot, remember? I never know when to quit."
The water rippled as Dark Naruto slowly rose from the surface. His lip was split. His nose bled. His eyes no longer calm but wide and shaken.
"You.. how?"
Naruto rolled his shoulder, still panting. "Let's just say… I had a little help. From someone who believes in all the things that could be."
Dark Naruto's face contorted. "This shouldn't be possible. You were finished. Broken."
"I was," Naruto said. "But I got back up again."
Dark Naruto lunged again, screaming in anger.
But the moment his foot left the water
CHAINS.
Golden, glowing, and ancient. They erupted from below like serpents, wrapping around his legs midair and slamming him down hard against the stone.
Dark Naruto gasped.
More chains burst forth, coiling around his arms, chest, shoulders, snapping tight with a sound like seals locking into place. The air shimmered as chakra flared. Naruto's chakra, but colder.
"W-What is this?!" Dark Naruto hissed, struggling. "You can't do this! You didn't even know how to use chakra like this before!"
Naruto took a step forward.
Then another.
The water parted before him as if drawn to his will.
"I didn't," he admitted. "I spent my whole life being afraid of what I didn't understand. Hiding from myself. Limiting myself."
He stopped just in front of his chained reflection.
"But you showed me what I could be if I stopped running."
Dark Naruto bared his teeth. "Then why chain me? If I'm your strength, your instinct, if I'm what makes you strong then why bury me again?!"
"Because you don't care who gets hurt," Naruto said quietly. "You only know how to fight. But I'm not just a fighter. I have people I care about. A world worth protecting. You only care about power."
Dark Naruto growled, twisting violently in his restraints. "You think you can protect them without me?! Without this?!"
"I know I can," Naruto said. "Because they believe in me. And now… I finally believe in myself."
The chains tightened, golden seals burning along their length. Dark Naruto gasped, body thrashing as the mindscape itself began to quake. The air filled with the sound of wailing wind, his wailing.
"You'll regret this!" he howled. "You'll need me again! You'll come crawling back, begging for my strength! You'll break again, and I'll be the only one left!"
Naruto turned away, his eyes calm, his voice steady.
"If I fall again… I'll stand back up. With the help of my friends.."
Dark Naruto thrashed one last time, eyes wild with fury, then let out a roar as the chains dragged him down slowly and deliberately back into the black abyss.
Back into the dark.
His screams echoed. Then warped. Then faded beneath the surface.
And for the first time since this began..
The water was still.
The sky rippled overhead like bruised glass. All around the summit of Tiboro's tower, the warped desert expanded in every direction, sands cracked into glassy plates, dunes rising like petrified waves.
And in the center of it all floated Naruto.
His silver hair shimmered under the dead sun. His body hung slack in midair, arms outstretched, head tilted back. Behind him, two vast wings of black chakra twitched, skeletal and scorched, radiating heat like smoldering coal.
His mouth moved soundlessly, as if caught mid-dream. Beneath him, the cracked stone pulsed with the echo of Dark Naruto's final scream.
Then
The wings spasmed as fractures spiderwebbed across them.
CRACK.
The black chakra exploded outward in a jagged burst of smoke and ash. The wings shattered.
The air trembled.
Naruto's silver hair rippled, then dulled. The strands lost their glow, fading to pale white… then blonde, swept away on the wind like dying embers.
His eyes opened.
Sapphire blue and human.
Then his body gave out.
He fell towards the ground.
"Naruto!" Kamala shouted, sprinting forward, sand kicking up in her wake.
America moved faster, her boots carving through the sand-slick stone. She caught him out of the air, bridal-style, just before he hit the ground.
"Gotcha, blondie," she muttered, adjusting his weight as he slumped in her arms, completely unconscious.
Kate stumbled up behind them, bruised and dirt-covered, bow in one hand. "Is that really him? The real him?"
Kamala knelt beside Naruto and touched his face. "It's him. It's really him. I can feel it."
The ground beneath them rumbled.
Then cracked.
A jagged vein of red light split through the Earth, glowing like magma, pulsing with instability. Across the battlefield, the statues of Tiboro's victims, those silent, sorrowful human-shaped stones began to shiver.
Then splinter.
Cracks ran down their faces. Fingers broke off. One of them screamed without sound as it shattered into dust.
Kate spun toward the nearest wall of the arena. "That's not normal."
Kamala stood up slowly. "Please tell me that's not what I think it is…"
"No, it is," America said sharply. She slung Naruto onto her back in a fireman's carry and narrowed her eyes at the horizon, where the dunes had started to tilt. The sky flexed like liquid heat. "The dimension's going critical."
"What does that even mean?" Kate asked, knocking an arrow with a shaky hand.
"It means whatever was keeping the stability of this dimension in place is no longer working." America snapped. "Probably it's Nexus being, so now the whole pocket realm is collapsing in on itself. Fast."
A gust of burning wind tore through the tower ruins. The sky overhead turned dark red, then purple, then peeled away like drying paint, revealing nothing but a black abyss beyond.
The girls steadied themselves as the ground beneath them lurched.
Kamala looked back toward the portal they had entered from, now faded away.. "The portal's closed!"
"No problemo," America said confidently. "I make my own doors."
She stepped forward and punched the air.
CRACK.
Space itself shattered. A massive star-shaped portal bloomed into existence midair, light spilling through the cracks in reality. Through it, they could see the skies of Earth.
"Let's move!" America barked. "This place has maybe twenty seconds before it folds in on itself and throws us into a Cosmic Blender."
Kamala grabbed Kate's hand. "C'mon!"
They jumped through together.
Behind them, the last of the statues shattered. The tower's remaining spires began to buckle, pulled sideways into a vortex forming at the center of the arena. Sand didn't fall anymore, it rose, spiraling upward into the screaming sky.
America looked back once. At the broken ground. At the fading sun. At the world dying around her.
Then she ran and leapt, Naruto slung over her shoulder like dead weight.
They disappeared through the portal
just as the final floor of Tiboro's tower crumbled, disintegrated, and was swallowed whole by its own collapsing magic.
The portal sealed shut behind them, starlight vanishing like the last blink of a dream.
And the prison dimension was no more.
___
The Ancient One designated Tiboro as the Nexus Being of the dimension, so his death was the only way for them to escape. :pepega:
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