Location: Secured Sector — Abandoned Secondary Base, Utah
May 18th to May 23rd
---
Day 1 – Silent Extraction
The Utah desert stood still. The wind swept across red rock formations, brushed against scattered cacti, and eroded the ruins of a Cold War-era bunker. This forgotten sanctuary — off the grid and buried under sand and memory — was the location Coulson had directed them to.
Naruto, Natasha, and Tony Stark arrived within the hour of the encrypted call.
The place was stark. Cold. But safe.
"No thermal footprint, no radio relays. A blind spot on the map," Natasha murmured as she scanned the perimeter.
"Perfect," Naruto replied. "We need silence to prepare for war."
Tony, trailing behind, snapped open his toolkit.
"We also need a damn coffee machine."
---
Day 2 – First Plans, First Doubts
They secured the bunker. Scanned every corner. Reinforced every entrance. Tony installed a backup miniature arc reactor to power internal systems.
Around a shaky old table, they laid out their first tactical review.
"Hill has three listening antennas along the East Coast," Natasha said. "Two are mobile. One fixed at Quantico."
"She's monitoring commercial satellite flows in case of abnormal energy readings," Tony added.
"And Coulson confirmed that the Numina Protocols are designed for containment — not direct attack, but total isolation," Natasha continued. "They want to cut Naruto off from all information networks."
Naruto leaned forward.
"Then we create a distraction. Asymmetrical. Strategic. The goal isn't to destroy her. It's to prove I'm unmanageable."
Tony snapped his fingers.
"So we undermine her authority, not her infrastructure. Force her to justify our actions as legitimate… in front of the World Council."
"And make sure someone, somewhere, records everything."
---
Day 3 – Training and Tactical Fusion
The third morning broke in tense silence.
In a cleared underground chamber, Naruto trained Natasha in advanced chakra control via the Seishin no Musubi — the Soul Link that bound them. It had evolved, now resonating with a semi-autonomous dual pattern.
"Feel it like a tide. Not a force — a resonance," Naruto instructed.
"Feels like I have two hearts beating inside me," she replied.
"That's normal. One of them is mine."
She offered a brief smile.
Meanwhile, Tony accessed S.H.I.E.L.D.'s internal network through a black-market interface. Using the limited access Coulson had given, he created a digital phantom of Naruto — a virtual clone, untraceable.
"If Hill thinks she's tracking you," he said, "she'll fall for the bait. What I'm feeding her isn't data. It's a ghost. She'll burn her entire sensor grid chasing a mirage."
Naruto glanced at him with subtle appreciation.
"You know, I'm starting to understand your jokes."
Tony raised an eyebrow.
"Seriously?"
"No. But I laugh anyway."
---
Day 4 – Secret Rituals and Hard Choices
In a chamber carved directly from the rock, Naruto meditated for hours. Kurama remained silent, but fully present. The chakra around him pulsed gently, like cosmic breath.
During that meditation, Naruto made two critical decisions:
1. He etched a Recall Seal into the bunker — a fūinjutsu emergency marker only he could activate for extraction.
2. He crafted a mental shielding technique, a defensive jutsu capable of hiding Natasha or Tony from any sensory detection — even supernatural or psychic.
"You don't want to arm them," Kurama rumbled in his thoughts.
"No," Naruto answered. "I want to protect them."
That evening, Natasha sat beside him.
"You going to tell me what you just did?"
He smiled softly.
"Not yet. But when you need it… you'll know."
---
Day 5 – The Silence Before the Storm
The fifth day dawned under a flawless blue sky. The once-empty bunker was now a functioning forward base.
Tony had deployed three stealth drones around the perimeter. Natasha had triple-checked every evacuation protocol. Naruto, meanwhile, wrote a coded declaration addressed to Coulson — a manifesto justifying their actions, should they fail.
"If we fall," he said, "at least the world will know we tried to choose another path."
That night, they sat down for a meal together. Dry bread, ration packs, reheated tea. But the tension between them was no longer fear.
It was clarity.
Natasha broke the silence.
"She's coming."
"She's already en route," Naruto replied.
"Are you ready?"
"I've been ready since the day I chose to stop running."