Naruto Uzumaki had never been more awake. Not when Pain leveled Konoha. Not when Sasuke tried to kill him. Not even when Jiraiya died. This? This was different. This was wrong.
The Library had changed.
He could feel it. The walls breathed. The scrolls stared. And the floor—it throbbed. Like it wanted to speak. Or scream. And the Slab he didn't know where it was now.
Naruto stepped forward slowly, and the torchlight behind him flickered with a low hiss, like someone exhaled near his ear.
"Tch... the hell is this?"
The spiral pattern began appearing again. Etched deep into every stone he passed, twisting, swirling, coiling like a noose around the neck of his sanity. It wasn't art. It was command.
OBEY.
One word.
Scratched a hundred fucking times across the halls.
Another wall: TRUTH IS A DISEASE.
Naruto's fists clenched.
"You're not scaring me, you freak piece of shit building."
The air got colder.
Something brushed his shoulder. No one there. He spun, kunai drawn.
"Come out! Come out right now, or I swear I—"
Whispers. Dry, like paper burning.
He watches.
The Spiral remembers.
Naruto's breath shook. Not from fear. From fury. This whole place was a lie. And now it was trying to mess with his mind?
"I'm Naruto FUCKING Uzumaki. You think some haunted walls and shitty drawings are gonna stop me? FUCK YOU."
He kicked one of the spiral-marked walls.
Bad move.
The impact sent a crack through the ground beneath him, and he dropped fast.
Down a chute. Through old stone. Into a pit.
Naruto groaned and stood, dusting himself off. His hand landed on something rough.
Stone.
No.
Not stone.
Skin.
Dry. Flaky. Dead.
He pulled his hand back. In the dim glow, he saw the chamber he'd fallen into. Hundreds of mummified shinobi. All curled into fetal positions. Spirals carved into their faces.
His heart pounded.
He didn't scream. He didn't panic.
But he sure as hell didn't stand still either.
He ran.
Fast.
Found a tunnel, curved and narrow, and followed it with only instinct guiding him.
The walls pulsed. Almost in rhythm with his heartbeat. And then—
He stopped.
A massive spiral on the ground.
The words: The Spiral is not a symbol. It is a DOOR.
Naruto fell to his knees. Not from pain. But from weight. Like the chakra in the air grew denser, thicker. Like gravity was being manipulated.
He touched the spiral.
And it touched him back.
Memories not his own surged into his skull.
People burning. Children screaming. A man with eyes made of ink screaming "Close it! CLOSE THE CHANNEL!"
Naruto yanked his hand away.
Blood leaked from his nose.
His vision blurred. His mouth moved but no words came out.
Then it did.
The whisper.
The voice.
Not from outside.
From INSIDE his head.
"The Spiral remembers what you forgot, boy."
He clutched his head.
"GET OUT! GET THE FUCK OUT!"
"You opened the Library.
But you can't close the truth."
He screamed and fell backward, the spiral glowing red now. The bodies around him began to twitch. One turned its head.
"Open the Channel..."
Naruto screamed again, staggering back, throwing a Rasengan into the spiral.
It didn't break.
It laughed.
He bolted from the chamber, panting, shaking, swearing every second.
"This isn't a fucking library anymore. This is a goddamn nightmare."
He didn't see the shadows moving behind the walls.
He didn't hear the footsteps.
But the Spiral did.
It remembered his name.