Secure Apartment – 11:41 PM
Naruto sat up. Slowly. He crossed his legs, facing her.
"Kurama just spoke," he said softly.
She raised an eyebrow.
"What did he say?"
Naruto straightened. Slowly. He sat facing her, legs crossed.
"That I need to tell you. The real beginning. Not the one you saw here. The one before. The one… I left behind."
She sat up as well. Her gaze was direct. Ready to receive.
Naruto closed his eyes.
And began to speak.
"I was born an orphan. In a hidden village called Konoha. A real place. Solid. Made of walls, rooftops, voices, glances… and of forgetting, too. I wasn't a hero there. I was a vessel. The demon kid. The one people avoided in the streets, the one they whispered insults about."
He paused. Natasha waited. Not a word. Not a question.
"But that world… it's also where I found my first reasons to love. My first friendships. My first determination. And Hinata…"
He closed his eyes, just for a second.
"She always looked at me like no one else ever did. She never asked me to be a hero. She loved the broken boy I was. And she died saving me. That day, everything collapsed."
He placed a hand over his chest.
"I kept going, Natasha. I fought, united nations, saved my world. But in the end… I was left alone. Completely alone."
She moved closer. Her hand touched his.
"And it was when I received my diploma… in that classroom… that everything came back. All the memories. All the lives. The past I had forgotten. And the system."
He looked up at her.
"The system said that world was finished. A closed loop. And it gave me a choice: disappear with it, or cross over. It didn't say where I'd end up. It just said I'd have another chance. Another war. Another story."
He took a breath.
"I landed on the roof of that tower. Naked. Empty. Without purpose. Until you."
Silence fell again.
Then Naruto continued.
"That second Konoha… it's more than a memory. It's a part of me. A place, a people, a life I never wanted to abandon. I left promises there. Children to protect. Parents I never truly knew. Brothers-in-arms… who might still be out there somewhere. Or in another fragment of time."
He turned his eyes to Natasha.
"I don't want to go back alone. Not if I can build something here. Not if… you, Tony, and maybe others, can understand what I am. Not a hero. Not a monster. Just a man who wants to believe that two worlds can come together."
Natasha took a deep breath.
Then she said, slowly:
"Then we'll go back. One day. Together."
And in that promise, Naruto felt the seal tremble. Softly. Like a heart at peace.