Day four in the Forest of Death began like the previous three—methodical progress through hostile territory, punctuated by brief encounters with enemy teams.
Team Seven had acquired their second scroll on day two—an Earth scroll taken from a Kusagakure team that had made the mistake of setting an ambush in Naruto's path. The logical course would have been to proceed directly to the tower and complete the examination ahead of schedule.
Naruto had chosen otherwise.
"We continue patrolling," he had said when Sakura suggested they finish early. "Eliminating additional competition reduces variables in subsequent phases. The tower will remain accessible."
So they patrolled. And they eliminated.
By the morning of day four, Team Seven had personally removed seven additional teams from the examination—taking their scrolls (which they didn't need), scattering their members (who fled in terror), and systematically reducing the field of competitors.
Naruto kept count without any particular investment in the numbers.
Fourteen enemy genin defeated. Zero significant injuries sustained. Efficiency rating: optimal.
The forest's wildlife continued to avoid them entirely. Word had apparently spread through whatever communication network giant predators used—the blond human was not to be approached under any circumstances.
Sakura and Satsuki flanked him as always, their transformed figures moving through the undergrowth with practiced grace. Both had grown stronger during their time in the forest—real combat experience accelerating their development in ways training couldn't replicate.
Satsuki's Sharingan now sported a second tomoe in each eye. Sakura's chakra control had refined to the point where she could shatter boulders with a single finger.
Neither improvement would matter against what was coming.
Naruto sensed it first.
The same slithering chakra signature from the previous day—serpentine, ancient, carrying malevolence that pressed against his awareness like oil on water. It approached from the northeast, making no attempt at concealment.
"He's back," Naruto said flatly.
Sakura and Satsuki tensed immediately, weapons appearing in their hands.
"Orochimaru?" Sakura's voice was tight. "Again?"
"Yes. Same signature. No attempt at stealth." Naruto's empty eyes tracked the approaching presence. "He's testing something. Evaluating my response to repeated confrontation."
"What do we do?"
Naruto considered the question.
Yesterday, he had allowed Orochimaru to retreat. The calculation had been simple—combat against a Sannin carried significant risk, and the potential gains (eliminating a future threat) did not clearly outweigh the potential costs (injury, chakra exhaustion, mission failure).
But that calculation had assumed Orochimaru would accept the stalemate and withdraw permanently.
He hadn't.
His return suggested either confidence in victory or a compulsion that overrode tactical logic. Either way, allowing another retreat would simply delay the inevitable confrontation.
The math had changed.
"Fall back to the treeline," Naruto instructed. "Maintain observation distance. Do not intervene unless I signal."
"But—"
"This is not a request."
Sakura and Satsuki exchanged glances but complied, retreating to positions that offered both cover and sight lines to the clearing.
Naruto stood alone, waiting.
He didn't have to wait long.
Orochimaru emerged from the shadows with theatrical grace, his pale form seeming to coalesce from the darkness itself. His golden eyes fixed on Naruto with predatory interest, his too-long tongue flickering across thin lips.
"We meet again, Naruto-kun. I hope you've reconsidered my offer."
"I haven't."
"Pity." The Snake Sannin began circling, his movements serpentine and unsettling. "I've been thinking about you since our last encounter. About that emptiness you carry. It's quite remarkable, really—most who experience what you have either break completely or find some desperate purpose to cling to. You've done neither."
"Your psychological analysis is irrelevant to the current situation."
"Is it? I find it fascinating." Orochimaru's smile widened. "You have no fear of me. No anger. No desperation. Just... nothing. A void where a person should be."
"Your fascination is also irrelevant."
"Perhaps. But here's what I'm wondering—" The Sannin stopped circling, facing Naruto directly. "If you truly feel nothing, why did you refuse my offer? Why fight at all? Why not simply... let things happen?"
"Because existing is the default state. Allowing myself to be captured or killed requires a decision I don't care enough to make. Resistance is automatic."
"Automatic." Orochimaru's eyes gleamed. "Like a machine. How perfect."
"Your continued presence suggests you intend to test that resistance again."
"Indeed I do. You see, yesterday I was... probing. Evaluating. I wanted to see how you'd react to a direct threat, how you'd calculate the odds, what decisions you'd make." His tongue flickered again. "Today, I'm not probing."
Killing intent erupted from the Sannin like a physical force.
The weight of it would have paralyzed most ninja—jonin included. It was the distilled essence of thousands of deaths, decades of cruelty, the accumulated malevolence of one of the most dangerous criminals in history.
Naruto observed it without reaction.
"Your killing intent is noted," he said. "It has no effect on me."
"I noticed." Orochimaru's smile had become fixed, a mask concealing something less certain. "Most fascinating. Even Itachi flinched when I—"
"Itachi Uchiha experiences emotions. He simply suppresses them effectively. I have no emotions to suppress. Your technique targets a vulnerability I don't possess."
"Then perhaps I should try something more... direct."
Orochimaru moved.
His speed was everything the legends claimed—faster than most eyes could track, faster than most ninja could react to. He crossed the distance between them in a fraction of a second, his arm extending into a blade of compressed chakra aimed directly at Naruto's heart.
Naruto wasn't there.
He had moved the instant Orochimaru's muscles tensed, reading the attack before it launched, positioning himself three meters to the left of his original location.
Orochimaru's blade struck empty air.
"Impressive reflexes," the Sannin acknowledged, already pivoting for another attack. "Let's see how long you can maintain them."
What followed was a blur of violence.
Orochimaru attacked with everything short of his most forbidden techniques—sword strikes, snake summons, wind jutsu, earth manipulation. Each assault was executed with the precision of decades of combat experience, the creativity of a genius intellect, the ruthlessness of a monster who had long since abandoned any pretense of humanity.
Naruto avoided all of it.
Not blocked. Not countered. Avoided.
He moved through Orochimaru's assault like water flowing around stones, never where the attacks expected him to be, always positioned for optimal evasion. His expression never changed. His breathing never quickened. He simply... wasn't hit.
"You're holding back," Orochimaru observed, genuine curiosity breaking through his predatory demeanor. "You could counterattack. Why don't you?"
"I'm evaluating your capabilities. Gathering data."
"Data? You're treating this like a training exercise?"
"All combat is a training exercise. The only variable is the consequence of failure."
Something flickered in Orochimaru's golden eyes. Not quite concern—not yet. But the first hint that this confrontation wasn't proceeding as expected.
"Very well. If you want to see my capabilities..."
He formed seals faster than should have been possible.
"Summoning Technique: Triple Rashōmon!"
Three massive gates erupted from the ground—the legendary Rashōmon, defensive barriers said to be capable of stopping any attack. They formed a wall between Orochimaru and Naruto, their demonic faces leering with carved menace.
"Let's see how you handle—"
Naruto was already moving.
Not toward the gates. Around them.
His speed had increased dramatically—no longer merely fast, but approaching instantaneous. He circled the Rashōmon barriers before they fully materialized, appearing behind Orochimaru with a Rasendori already screaming in his palm.
Orochimaru substituted at the last possible moment, his body dissolving into snakes as the hybrid technique tore through the space he had occupied. The serpents scattered in all directions, reforming into the Sannin's shape twenty meters away.
"That technique," Orochimaru breathed. "The Rasengan and Chidori, combined. I've never seen—"
"You've never seen many things. Your knowledge, while extensive, is not comprehensive."
"Clearly." The Sannin's composure was cracking now, genuine wariness replacing his earlier amusement. "You've been hiding your true capabilities. Playing weak."
"I've been conserving resources for situations that warranted their expenditure. This situation now warrants it."
Naruto's stance shifted.
Something in the air changed.
"First Gate: Gate of Opening—release."
Green chakra began emanating from his body, his muscles visibly swelling as the brain's limiters were forcibly removed.
Orochimaru's eyes widened. "The Eight Gates? You know the—"
"Second Gate: Gate of Healing—release."
The chakra intensified, Naruto's skin flushing as his body's energy production multiplied exponentially.
"Third Gate: Gate of Life—release."
The ground beneath Naruto's feet cracked. The air around him began to distort from the sheer pressure of his chakra output.
Orochimaru took an involuntary step backward.
"Fourth Gate: Gate of Pain—release."
Naruto's skin had gone red now, blood vessels visible beneath the surface, his entire body radiating power that pressed against Orochimaru's senses like a physical weight.
"Fifth Gate: Gate of Limit—release."
The trees around them began to sway, pushed by the wind generated from Naruto's chakra alone. Small stones lifted from the ground, orbiting him like satellites.
"Sixth Gate: Gate of View—release."
Green lightning crackled across Naruto's form. His eyes, usually so empty, now blazed with power that had nothing to do with emotion—pure, overwhelming force given human shape.
"Seventh Gate: Gate of Wonder—release."
The pressure became visible—a blue aura of vaporized sweat that cloaked Naruto's body, his chakra output now exceeding what most ninja could produce in their entire lifetimes.
Orochimaru's composure shattered.
This wasn't possible. The Eight Gates were a suicide technique—each gate opened brought the user closer to death, and opening seven should have left the boy barely capable of standing, let alone fighting.
But Naruto stood perfectly still, his body wreathed in catastrophic power, his expression—
His expression was bored.
Not strained. Not agonized. Not even focused.
Bored.
As if opening seven of the Eight Gates was merely tedious.
"Eighth Gate: Gate of Death—"
"WAIT!"
The word tore from Orochimaru's throat before he could stop it.
Naruto paused, his hand positioned over his heart where the final gate resided.
"You object?"
"The Eighth Gate kills the user! You would die just to—"
"I'm aware of the consequences. They're acceptable."
"Acceptable?!" For the first time in decades—since Itachi had looked at him with those cold Mangekyo eyes and promised death if he ever approached Sasuke—Orochimaru felt genuine fear. "You would kill yourself just to eliminate me?"
"Your survival is not a priority. Neither is mine. If opening the Eighth Gate guarantees your destruction, the exchange is favorable."
"That's insane!"
"Sanity requires emotional investment in self-preservation. I have none." Naruto's blazing eyes fixed on Orochimaru with absolute emptiness—power beyond measure, directed by a mind that simply didn't care whether it lived or died. "You wanted to understand my void. This is it. This is what true emptiness looks like."
His hand pressed against his chest.
"Shall I continue?"
Orochimaru ran.
There was no other word for it. One of the legendary Sannin, a ninja who had terrorized the elemental nations for decades, turned and fled from a twelve-year-old boy with the desperate speed of prey escaping a predator.
He didn't look back.
He didn't make threats or promises of return.
He simply ran, his serpentine form dissolving into the shadows of the Forest of Death, putting as much distance as possible between himself and the monster he had awakened.
Behind him, Naruto slowly released the Gates.
The power drained from his body in stages, each gate closing with a sensation that would have been agonizing to anyone capable of feeling pain. His skin returned to its normal color. His muscles contracted to their regular size. The pressure that had bent reality around him faded to nothing.
He stood alone in the clearing, surrounded by the destruction his chakra had caused—shattered trees, cracked earth, small fires where the heat of his aura had ignited dry leaves.
"Naruto-kun!"
Sakura and Satsuki burst from the treeline, rushing to his side with matching expressions of desperate concern.
"Are you okay? The Gates—seven Gates—that should have—"
"I'm fine."
"But the damage to your body—"
"Regenerating. The healing factor compensates for Gate-induced trauma more effectively than anticipated." Naruto's voice was flat, unchanged despite what had just occurred. "Orochimaru has withdrawn. His fear response suggests he won't attempt another direct confrontation during this examination."
"Fear response?" Satsuki stared at him. "Orochimaru was... afraid? Of you?"
"Yes. His physiological indicators were consistent with acute terror. Heart rate elevation, pupil dilation, involuntary retreat, abandonment of tactical positioning." Naruto began walking toward the tower. "It appears that even legendary criminals have survival instincts."
"You almost opened the Eighth Gate," Sakura said quietly. "You were going to kill yourself to kill him."
"If necessary."
"But... why? We could have retreated. Found another way. You didn't have to—"
"His continued pursuit suggested retreat was not a permanent solution. Decisive action was required to alter his behavioral patterns." Naruto's pace didn't slow. "The threat of mutual destruction was sufficient to achieve that goal without actual implementation."
"You were bluffing?"
"No. I was fully prepared to open the Eighth Gate. The bluff was in suggesting it would only 'probably' kill him. In actuality, at that power level, his destruction would have been certain."
Sakura and Satsuki exchanged horrified glances.
"You would have died," Sakura whispered. "You would have died, and you don't even care."
"Correct. My survival is not a priority. It simply happens to be convenient." Naruto glanced back at them, his empty eyes revealing nothing. "Your distress is noted but irrelevant. We should continue to the tower."
He resumed walking.
The two girls followed, their devotion unshaken but their understanding of him fundamentally altered.
They had known he was empty. Known he felt nothing. Known his emotional capacity had been destroyed by the village's abuse.
But knowing and seeing were different things.
Seeing him stand ready to die without a flicker of hesitation or regret—seeing him treat his own existence as a variable to be discarded if the math favored it—
That was something else entirely.
In the canopy above, Anko had witnessed everything.
She had watched Orochimaru arrive, her former master, the monster who had ruined her life. Had watched him face her... face Naruto with all his terrible power and cruel intelligence.
And she had watched Naruto break him.
Not through superior technique or clever tactics. Through something far more terrifying.
Through absolute indifference to his own survival.
Orochimaru dealt in fear. In desire. In the desperate clinging to life that drove most humans. He manipulated those weaknesses, exploited them, turned them into chains that bound his victims.
Naruto had no weaknesses to exploit.
No fear to manipulate.
No desire to corrupt.
Just emptiness. Void. A willingness to die that came not from courage or sacrifice, but from simple... indifference.
Anko had never seen her former master flee from anything.
Until today.
Her hands were shaking. Her heart was pounding. The maternal instincts that had consumed her since her transformation warred with something else now—awe, perhaps. Or terror. Or desire so intense it made her previous feelings seem like pale shadows.
He's not human, she thought. Not anymore. The village destroyed whatever humanity he had, and what's left is...
She couldn't finish the thought.
But as she followed Team Seven toward the tower, still hidden, still watching, she knew one thing with absolute certainty.
She was never leaving his side again.
Whatever he was—human or void or something in between—he was hers.
And nothing in this world or any other would take him away from her.
The tower appeared through the trees an hour later.
Team Seven had made excellent time, their path unimpeded by enemy teams or wildlife. Word had apparently spread through the forest—about the genin who had made Orochimaru flee. No one wanted to test their luck against that.
They entered the tower and opened their scrolls, completing the second phase of the examination with time to spare.
Anko materialized from the shadows the moment they crossed the threshold.
"Naruto-kun!"
She was on him instantly, pulling him into an embrace that buried his face between her massive breasts. Her arms wrapped around him with desperate strength, her body trembling with emotions she didn't try to hide.
"I saw everything. I followed you—I know I shouldn't have—but I saw what happened. What you did. What you were willing to do."
Her voice cracked.
"You were going to die. You were going to open that final gate and die, and you didn't even care."
"Correct."
"Don't—" She pulled back just enough to look at his face, tears streaming down her cheeks. "Don't say it like that. Don't act like your life doesn't matter."
"My life has no inherent value to me. I've explained this."
"But it has value to us!" Anko's voice rose, anguish breaking through. "To me, to these girls, to everyone who—who loves you! Doesn't that mean anything?"
Naruto observed her distress with clinical detachment.
"It means that my death would cause you emotional suffering. This is noted as a factor in future calculations. But it does not change my personal investment in survival, which remains nonexistent."
"How can you say that? How can you—"
"Because it's the truth. I don't experience the desire to live. I don't fear death. These are facts of my existence, not choices I'm making." His empty eyes met her tear-filled ones. "Your caring will not change this. Nothing will change this. I am what the village made me."
Anko's face crumpled.
She pulled him back into her embrace, holding him tighter than before, her sobs muffled against his hair.
"Then I'll care enough for both of us," she whispered. "I'll value your life even if you can't. I'll protect you from yourself. I'll—"
"That is acceptable."
The words were flat, emotionless, carrying no comfort.
But Anko clung to them anyway.
It was all she had.
The other teams began arriving over the next day—battered, exhausted, many missing members to the forest's challenges. Twenty-one teams had entered. Seven emerged with both scrolls.
Among them: Team Seven, Team Eight (Hinata, Kiba, Shino), Team Ten (Ino, Shikamaru, Choji), Team Guy (Tenten, Neji, Lee), and the Sand siblings.
Also among them: the devoted.
Ino, Hinata, Tenten, and Temari converged on Naruto the moment they entered the tower, their relief at his survival almost overwhelming in its intensity. They joined Sakura, Satsuki, and Anko in forming a protective circle around him—seven transformed women, their impossible figures drawing stares from every direction, their devotion radiating like heat from a fire.
"We heard rumors in the forest," Ino said, her voice tight. "That you faced Orochimaru. That you made him run."
"The rumors are accurate."
"They also said you almost died. That you were willing to—"
"Also accurate."
Ino's expression twisted with the same anguish Anko had displayed. "Naruto-kun, you can't just—"
"We've discussed this. My perspective on my own survival is unlikely to change."
"Then we'll change it for you." Hinata's soft voice carried unusual steel. "We'll give you reasons to live. Reasons to care. We'll keep trying until something gets through."
"Your determination is noted."
"It's more than noted. It's a promise." Tenten's eyes burned with fierce resolve. "We're not giving up on you. Ever. No matter how empty you think you are, we'll fill that void. With love, with purpose, with whatever it takes."
Naruto observed the seven women surrounding him—their transformed bodies, their devoted expressions, their absolute commitment to a cause he couldn't understand.
He felt nothing about their declarations.
But he noted them.
And somewhere in the vast emptiness inside him, in that hollow space where emotions used to live, the faintest flicker of... something... acknowledged their presence.
Not feeling.
Not quite.
But the ghost of what feeling might become, if given enough time and enough love to nurture it.
The preliminary matches would begin soon.
And whatever challenges they brought, Naruto would face them with seven devoted guardians at his back.
Empty.
Powerful.
But perhaps—just perhaps—not entirely alone.