Location: Zone 09 — S.H.I.E.L.D. Underground Laboratory, Nevada
Date: May 17 — 02:39 AM
The desert slept, silent. But beneath the dunes swept by wind, a secret bunker pulsed like a living entity. Screens, analysis systems, thermally insulated servers. A cold hive.
Naruto crouched behind a ventilation valve and raised two fingers.
Two discrete chakra pulses.
In response, a shape slid through the darkness — Natasha. Without a sound, she positioned herself at the maintenance hatch. She scanned the thermal sensors, pinpointed their source, and disabled them in precisely four seconds.
Above them, piloting a high-altitude drone remotely, Tony's voice crackled through the secure earpiece:
"All quiet for now. No patrols for the next thirty seconds. You're clear."
Naruto nodded.
They slipped inside.
Objective: a sealed chamber — Encrypted Archives of Project Omega-Kai.
According to Tony, it held sensitive data: residual analysis on Naruto after his arrival in this universe. But also deleted video sequences, attempts to replicate his chakra, and — most critically — simulations of the Seishin no Musubi.
Naruto clenched his jaw.
They neared the room. Natasha pulled out a sequence injector and placed it against the main panel.
"Give me forty seconds," she whispered.
But she only got ten.
A strange hum activated.
The system… wasn't resisting.
It was cooperating.
Naruto felt something was off.
"Too easy," he said.
Natasha frowned. She was about to respond when—
Click.
A sharp, detached sound. Like a mechanical sigh.
The wall behind them slid open… and an observation chamber lit up.
A blinding light.
And at the center: a perfect clone of Natasha, in a stasis tank. Nude. Hooked to sensory cables. Her face frozen in a dreamless sleep.
Naruto stepped back.
Natasha said nothing.
But her fist clenched tight.
Tony shouted into the comms:
"They played you! System's a trap! The lab's a decoy, I've been rerouted — the signals aren't natural!"
And suddenly, the ceiling opened.
Drones dropped down. Fast. But not to shoot.
To scan.
One laser grazed Naruto — and instantly, his chakra flared. Kurama roared in his mind.
"They want your imprint. They want to analyze the bond. Break everything, now!"
Naruto lunged forward. His hand extended.
"Fūton — Kamikaze!"
A spiraling gust blasted into the walls.
Natasha flung two shuriken and disabled the remaining sensors.
But just then, she heard… a voice.
Her own.
"Subject 004–Variant Romanoff: partial fusion confirmed. Identity degradation risk at 12.7%. Separation recommended. Emotional reboot in progress."
She froze.
Naruto turned.
"Natasha?"
She shook her head.
But her eyes remained locked on… herself. In that tank. Like a frozen reflection of a past trying to reclaim its place.
They escaped the lab, destroying everything in their path.
But the impact lingered.
A doubt. A crack.
In what they thought they knew about themselves…
And in what S.H.I.E.L.D. truly knew about them.