Location: Southern California — Stark Estate
Date: April 11th — 1:46 PM
The sky stretched wide above them. Clear. Blue.
And in the near-artificial silence of the coast, one could almost believe the world had paused. Almost.
A shadow moved across the surface of the water — not a plane, not a drone.
But a man.
Suspended in mid-air, legs crossed, hands joined, eyes closed — Naruto was meditating.
Four months.
One hundred and twenty days to rebuild. To train. To survive.
But above all: to prepare.
Since their last operation, since Kurama's return and the spiritual fusion with Natasha, the world was no longer silent.
It breathed. It pulsed. And it watched.
S.H.I.E.L.D., at first distant, had begun weaving its net.
Satellites. Embedded agents. Microphones planted in Stark's walls.
But Tony spotted them all. Disassembled them.
Sometimes sent them back with a frequency-coded message:
"You're spying on me. I know. And screw you."
Naruto said nothing.
He observed. He learned.
But he wasn't alone anymore.
"You don't look very stressed, for a guy being watched by half the government."
The voice came through the intercom of the Mark III suit, hovering nearby on test protocols.
Naruto opened one eye. Just one.
"You don't look very sober, for a billionaire genius."
Tony smiled inside the helmet.
"Touché."
---
Inside the House — 2:02 PM
Natasha sat in the living room. A glass of water in hand. No makeup. No pretense.
She was reading.
A translated version of an old ninjutsu scroll Naruto had passed to her through mental sharing — a scroll reconstructed in her mind, line by line.
And yet… she was the one who understood his teachings best.
Their bond had evolved. Strengthened.
They didn't always need words.
Sometimes a glance was enough.
A pulse through the seal. A shift in breath.
Kurama, for his part, slumbered in Naruto's mind. But he remained alert.
"I feel the storm coming…"
"You mean S.H.I.E.L.D.?"
"No. Worse. The secrets Stark's beginning to uncover."
---
Secondary Testing Chamber — 3:11 PM
Tony had gathered Natasha, Naruto… and a holographic console.
"I cracked a covert communication line between a field agent and Maria Hill."
The display activated.
Synthetic voice. Raw audio file:
"Extended observation phase. Target Uzumaki shows signs of energy instability. Threat level upgraded to Omega."
"Subject Romanoff considered compromised. Risk of emotional fusion."
"Proposal: extraction under sedation. Memory wipe possible."
Silence filled the room.
Tony glanced at Naruto.
He didn't move. Not a flicker of emotion on his face. Not a hint of panic.
But his chakra pulsed. Just a little.
And Natasha stood.
"They want to erase me."
"They won't succeed," Naruto said calmly.
"We're not going to wait for them to try," Tony added.
A beat.
Then he brought up a map.
A network of secondary communications, a hidden base in Washington, relays across Asia — an entire system Maria Hill used to bypass Fury's authority.
And a codename: Project D.I.S.S.E.C.T.