[The sun rose over the Land of Demons, casting long shadows from a cliff overlooking a serene temple. On that cliff stood four figures, their silhouettes sharp against the dawn sky.]
["Must we linger, brother?" one of them, a man named Yitai, urged impatiently.]
["Patience," rasped Setsuna, the leader. Three grotesque, snake-like tendrils extended from his back, their tips writhing before plunging into the bodies of his three companions. The men convulsed as dark chakra flooded their systems.]
[Unlike their previous enhancement, this one was transformative. Their skin crawled with jagged, black markings, and their eyes glowed with a feral, violet light. They had become something more, and less, than human.]
[Setsuna retracted the tendrils. "The chakra signatures are aligned. The plan is unchanged." He surveyed the temple below. "Let us begin."]
["Finally!"] Yitai hissed.
["Do not be careless," Setsuna warned. "The target is our only concern." With that, the four of them launched themselves from the cliff, not as stealthy assassins, but as a wave of unstoppable force.]
The barrage buzzed with analysis of the new dark ninjutsu.
[So the tentacles can grant different chakra properties. The last enhancement was pure power; this one seems to be a full-body transformation.]
[A jutsu that can make any shinobi a master of all five natures? That's revolutionary!]
[Don't be so sure. Power that isn't earned through sweat and blood is unreliable. It will fail when it matters most.]
[It is called Dark Medical Ninjutsu. There's got to be a horrific price to pay. And besides, I wouldn't let that creepy tentacle thing touch me for all the power in the world!]
[Spoken like a true coward. Unlike those of us from the Aburame Clan—HEY! I see what you did there! That's slander against Konoha!]
[In the temple, a young woman with lavender hair lay sleeping. Suddenly, the tinkling of a small bell by her bedside filled the air, and her eyes shot open. The pupils, once normal, now swirled with a beautiful, dream-like purple pattern. Cold sweat beaded on her brow as a vision, not her own, seared itself into her mind: the image of a blond boy in an orange jacket being impaled by a monster.]
['What was that...?']
[Before she could process the horrifying vision, the sounds of battle erupted from outside her chambers—steel clashing and men screaming.]
[A senior attendant, a man named Zuho, rushed through the halls with a squad of guards. He spotted another guard, Suzuki, running in the opposite direction, toward the fighting.]
["Suzuki, wait!"] Zuho cried out. ["We must protect Lady Shion!"]
[Suzuki didn't slow down. "Lady Shion has already seen it! It doesn't matter! To die in service to the priestess is a guard's greatest honor!"]
His words were a bombshell, and the barrage exploded with a single, unifying idea.
[Prediction!]
[Wait, so that priestess, Shion, can see the future?!]
[Then the first scene we all saw, with Naruto's death, that was her vision?]
[Hold on... if she can predict death, does that mean Naruto can still be saved?!]
[The accuracy of the priestess's predictions is said to be absolute...]
[!!!!]
[So this whole sky screen thing isn't some new technology... it's just broadcasting the visions of the priestess from the Land of Demons!]
[That's impossible. A local prophecy wouldn't be this detailed. And no small country has the power to create a phenomenon that the five great nations can't even touch. This is something else.]
In the Konoha meeting room, the air crackled with tension. "Prediction..." Sakura whispered, looking at Kakashi. "Sensei, is it true? Are her visions really inescapable?"
Kakashi frowned, his mind racing. "I'm not familiar with the specifics of her abilities. I'll have to ask Lord Hokage to pull the intelligence files from the last war. For now, we wait and watch."
Naruto, who had been silent, clenched his fists. "I don't care," he said, his voice low but firm. "Future pictures, prophecies... it's all garbage. I decide my own path. And I'm not dying until I become Hokage!"
A rare, genuine smile touched Kakashi's eye as he ruffled Naruto's hair. "That's the spirit, Naruto. Your future is your own."
In Mount Myoboku, Jiraiya considered the Great Toad Sage's prophecies. They were powerful, but often vague and symbolic. Nothing like the stark clarity of what the sky screen displayed.
[On screen, the four assassins tore through the temple guards like paper. Zuho and his men arrived at the priestess's chambers just as the four killers smashed through the ceiling.]
[The battle was over in seconds. Only Zuho and Suzuki were left standing before Shion's bed.]
[Setsuna dispatched them with contemptuous ease, then turned his glowing eyes to the priestess. "There she is."]
[Kunai flew through the air, aimed straight for Shion's heart. "LADY SHION!"] Zuho screamed, helpless on the floor.
[But Suzuki, with his last ounce of strength, threw himself in front of her, his body absorbing the deadly projectiles. "Zuho..." he choked out, blood bubbling on his lips. "Lady Shion... is in your hands...!"]
[Throughout all of this—the fighting, the sacrifice—Shion's expression never changed. She knelt on her bed, her patterned eyes lifeless, staring through her would-be assassins as if they weren't even there.]
["Now," Setsuna snarled, ignoring her strange demeanor as he and his men closed in. "Your life is ours."]
["Not so fast!"] A loud, confident voice boomed from the doorway. ["We won't let you lay a finger on her!"]
[The four assassins spun around to see a flash of orange and yellow. The future Naruto vaulted over their heads with incredible speed, landing perfectly between them and the priestess—only to have his foot catch on a bamboo curtain, sending him sprawling to the floor with a loud, undignified thud.]
[...He was cool for like, three seconds.]
[So much for the dramatic entrance.]
[Is this really Jiraiya's student? I'm starting to think the only thing he learned was how to peep at bathhouses.]
"That's just rude!" Jiraiya huffed from his seat. "It's called artistic research!"
In Konoha, Naruto's face was bright red. "It's not my fault! The enemy... uh... must have distracted me! Yeah, that's it!"
(To be continued...)