Chapter 3:Shattered Illusions
The world was a maelstrom of gray rock, whipping rain, and the oppressive weight of a genjutsu. Team 3/Guy was losing.
Neji Hyuga stood rigid, his Byakugan active, but the world seen through his all-seeing eyes was a lie. He saw Lee, his fist wrapped in bandages, charging him with the ferocity of a wild animal. He saw Tenten, her face a mask of cold intent, kunai flashing from a scroll. The real Team Oboro were phantoms, their chakra signatures cleverly masked within the illusion of Demonic Illusion: False Surroundings. Neji knew it was a trick, his mind screaming at him to find the casters, but his body was locked in a cycle of desperate parries against his own comrades, his Gentle Fist strikes pulling back at the last possible second. Every block, every evasion, was a drain on his focus.
Rock Lee was a blur of green, his breath ragged, his movements losing their razor-sharp edge. He was fighting ghosts. Mubi's Mist Servant Technique had spawned dozens of slow, spectral figures that multiplied with every kick and punch. They did no damage, but they were everywhere, forcing him to expend precious stamina on phantoms. Worse, the Sly Mind Affect Technique had turned the battlefield into a disorienting treadmill. He'd been running for what felt like miles, only to find himself back at the same jagged spire of rock, his muscles screaming in protest.
Tenten was the lynchpin, desperately trying to provide cover. She spun, scrolls unfurling, a whirlwind of steel filling the air. But her targets were smoke and mirrors. Oboro's Haze Clones flickered and vanished, while the real shinobi moved like fish beneath the earth, emerging only to harry her, forcing her to waste her arsenal. A crossbow bolt from Mubi would whistle past her ear from one direction, a kunai from Oboro from another. She was being bled dry, a pincushion of feints and distractions.
"Their chakra is faint, but it's everywhere!" Neji gritted out, deflecting an illusory punch from Lee. "They are toying with us!"
"I cannot maintain this pace for long!" Lee panted, landing a kick that passed through a Mist Servant, the phantom splitting into two more. "My flames of youth are being smothered by this accursed mist!"
Suddenly, the sky above them split with a sound that was not thunder. A streak of orange and black plummeted from the storm clouds, impacting the stone clearing with the force of a meteor. The ground cracked, fissures spiderwebbing outwards as rock and water blasted into the air.
In the center of the crater stood Naruto Uzumaki.
He looked… normal. The horrific tattoos, the extra eyes, the monstrous claws—all gone. He wore his tattered orange jacket, his hair was blond, and his eyes were a familiar, vibrant blue. He blinked, shaking rain from his face, and looked at the chaotic scene before him.
"Yo," he said, his voice flat, devoid of its usual boisterous energy.
The sheer normalcy of his appearance was more jarring than the demonic form. Team Guy stared, stunned. Oboro, hidden deep within the earth, felt a spike of triumphant glee. That idiot brat! Lucky! He's all alone!
The genjutsu surrounding Neji wavered for a second as Oboro's focus shifted. "Uzumaki ! It's a genjutsu!" Neji yelled, trying to warn him. "Don't trust what you—"
Naruto didn't even look at Neji. His blue eyes, cold and empty, scanned the clearing, then settled on a patch of seemingly empty ground to his left. He didn't activate a jutsu. He didn't form a hand sign. He just… stared.
Underground, Oboro felt a pressure he had never known. It wasn't chakra, it wasn't killing intent. It was an ancient, absolute weight, the gaze of a predator that saw not just his body, but the very essence of his soul. His chakra flow sputtered, his concentration shattered.
On the surface, the world snapped back into focus. The illusory Lee and Tenten vanished from Neji's vision. The Mist Servants plaguing Lee dissipated into wisps of vapor. The Haze Clones flickered and died. In an instant, Team Oboro's entire web of deception was torn apart by a single, silent glare.
"Impossible!" Mubi hissed from his hiding spot.
"He broke the genjutsu without even trying!" Kagari whispered in disbelief.
Oboro, his pride stung, decided to reclaim the advantage. "He's just one kid! Finish him!"
The ambush was perfectly timed. From the earth to Naruto's right, Mubi emerged silently, his crossbow leveled, a poisoned arrow already loosed. From above, Kagari's Black Rain Technique formed a dark, oily cloud, preparing to douse Naruto in flammable liquid. And from directly behind, Oboro shot out of the ground, kunai aimed for the base of Naruto's skull.
It was a flawless three-pronged assault. It should have been an instant kill.
Naruto didn't move.
The arrow flew true, aimed for his temple. At the last possible millisecond, Naruto tilted his head just enough for the bolt to graze his cheek. A thin red line appeared, welled with blood, and then sealed itself shut in the blink of an eye. Mubi's eyes widened in horror.
Naruto glanced up at the oil cloud forming overhead. He raised a single finger. An invisible force shot upwards, and the cloud was simply… gone. Not dispersed by wind, not burned away. It ceased to exist. Kagari felt the chakra in his jutsu get annihilated.
Oboro's kunai was an inch from Naruto's neck. In a movement too fast to track, Naruto's hand shot back, catching Oboro's wrist. The sound of bones crunching echoed louder than the thunder. Oboro screamed, his arm bent at an impossible angle.
Naruto's face was inches from his. The blue eyes held no anger, no panic, only a chilling, predatory calm. "My turn," Naruto whispered.
He touched two fingers to Oboro's chest. There was no explosion, no grand jutsu. Just a soft pop. For a second, nothing happened. Oboro stared in confusion, then looked down. A thin, glowing red line appeared on his jumpsuit, running from his right shoulder to his left hip. His eyes widened in dawning terror as his upper torso slid sideways, separating from his lower half with a wet, tearing sound. Organs, glistening in the rain, spilled onto the shattered rock.
Team Guy watched, frozen in absolute horror.
"Oboro!" Mubi shrieked, his methodical patience vaporized by terror. He dove back into the earth, trying to escape.
Naruto stomped his foot. Not a chakra-infused stomp, just a stomp. But the ground for twenty feet around him buckled. The earth where Mubi was hiding erupted upwards in a geyser of rock and mud, throwing Mubi's mangled, broken body into the air before it crashed back down, lifeless.
Kagari was the last one left. He scrambled backward, his face a mask of pure terror. "Monster! You're a monster!" he screamed, hurling a volley of kunai with explosive tags attached.
Naruto walked forward, into the hail of steel. He didn't dodge. He didn't block. The kunai struck his jacket, some digging into his arms and chest. The tags detonated, engulfing him in a series of explosions that threw shrapnel and smoke everywhere.
When the smoke cleared, Naruto stood in the same spot, his jacket shredded further, his skin blackened and bleeding from a dozen wounds. Then, before their very eyes, the wounds knitted themselves shut. The blackened skin flaked away to reveal perfect, unblemished flesh beneath. He hadn't even flinched.
He was now standing directly in front of the trembling Kagari.
"Was that all?" Naruto asked, his voice laced with a profound, terrifying disappointment.
Kagari couldn't even scream. Naruto placed a hand on his forehead, and with another soft pop, Kagari's head exploded in a shower of gore.
The rain began to wash the blood from the rocks. The silence was absolute, broken only by the storm and the ragged breathing of Team Guy. Naruto stood over the remains of Team Oboro, his expression placid. He casually wiped a speck of Oboro's blood from his cheek with the back of his hand, as if brushing away a piece of lint.
Neji Hyuga, the prodigy who believed in fate, who believed his eyes could see the truth of all things, stared at the scene. His Byakugan had seen no build-up of chakra, no hand signs, no jutsu activations he could comprehend. He had seen a failure, a dead-last, become a god of death. His entire understanding of the world had been fractured.
Lee, whose entire life was dedicated to the ideal that hard work could overcome any genius, trembled. The power he had just witnessed was not born of effort. It was absolute, primal, and utterly unattainable. It was a force that made his Eight Gates feel like a child's game.
Naruto turned, his calm blue eyes meeting theirs. For a moment, they saw the boy they knew. Then, that cold emptiness returned.
"Just passing through," he said.
He turned and leaped away, disappearing into the storm-wracked cliffs, leaving Team Guy standing alone in a blood-soaked clearing, their minds reeling from the storm that had just been unleashed.