Chapter Five
The moment Naruto identified the source of the voice, he lifted his gaze toward the landing on the second floor. There, he saw a woman wearing robes different from those of the monk who had greeted him—suggesting a higher rank. However, none of that was what truly caught his attention. What stopped him cold was the golden amulet hanging from her neck, radiating the same power he had felt from outside: an intense, ancient force that he could only compare to Milim's.
The woman noticed his stare immediately—or rather, the exact place where he was looking.
"This is a powerful artifact," she said, taking the amulet between her fingers, causing it to emit a faint greenish glow. "Through it, we became aware of your arrival, and it also allows us to observe possible future paths. That is what has enabled us to fulfill our purpose: protecting this world from transdimensional intruders with varying intentions."
The subject was far too broad to explain at that moment.
Naruto hadn't expected such an answer. He had only followed the trail because it was the first sign of magic he had found in this world. He hadn't imagined that something with that level of power could exist in a place he had considered completely ordinary just minutes earlier. Still, a persistent sensation at the back of his mind told him that all of this felt familiar for some reason.
"Fascinating. You said a great deal without actually saying anything," Naruto remarked, genuinely impressed. It was more than Coulson had managed with all his clumsy attempts at extracting information.
That caught her off guard. She hadn't expected him to react with such ease. She was far too accustomed to seeing people grow awed, tense, or break under her presence, so Naruto's calm demeanor left her momentarily still. It didn't match what she usually encountered, and the contrast struck her as strange.
"You've spared me a rather long speech, Naruto Udgard," she said at last, regaining her composure. It was unusual for her to be able to speak without having to steer the conversation from the very beginning, and discovering that was—somewhat—more pleasant than she would have cared to admit.
"Let me guess," Naruto replied, in the same dry tone as always. "It was going to be something about how you already know my life because we've spoken across multiple timelines, followed by how my power and yours are similar yet different, and then the usual collection of explanations typical of interdimensional travel stories."
He hadn't said much, but what he had said made the point clear. With her earlier words, she had confirmed that she had repeated this conversation hundreds—perhaps thousands—of times across different timelines. For Naruto, catching her off guard, even briefly, counted as a small victory. It wasn't easy to surprise a clairvoyant; dealing with people who knew too much was usually more irritating than helpful.
"You're quite interesting," the woman said with a serene smile. Naruto's sharp, dry humor felt unexpectedly comfortable to her. And with what she knew of the future, she was certain they would end up becoming good friends. She had no intention of telling him that, of course. There was no desire to inflate an ego he already carried quite naturally.
"Be that as it may, follow me, Master Udgard. Let's have some tea. I have some of your favorite cookies," she added, inviting him upstairs. She knew the conversation ahead would be complicated—but he had made it clear that he didn't need grand speeches, which would save her a considerable amount of time.
Naruto shrugged slightly before following her. It wasn't as though any of this bothered him. In fact, it was a welcome change after his little spy game with Coulson and his organization—a game that, to be honest, had already begun to bore him.
So much so that, once he was done here, he planned to begin a bit of culinary tourism. He had always heard that Mexican food was a world of flavors, and ever since Coulson had treated him to that burrito—just a few hours earlier—his curiosity had been fully awakened. Charlie wouldn't be able to come get him for a few months, so he intended to use that time to travel through Aztec lands and sample everything the country had to offer. He might even visit other countries if time allowed.
"Oh, you will be taking a trip—but not right now," the Ancient One said in a tone calm enough to be unsettling.
That was enough to make Naruto pause mid-step. It was obvious: she was seizing the opportunity to even the score after he had caught her off guard a few minutes earlier. It didn't truly bother him, but he understood the intent behind her words perfectly.
"After all, you still need to return to your hotel. If I'm not mistaken, certain forces give us roughly an hour before you must be back," she added, as if she were mentioning a mere formality.
Naruto narrowed his eyes for a moment.
"You're being petty now, aren't you?" he asked, not bothering to hide the tone.
He didn't wait for her answer before moving again. He took the rest of the stairs in a single bound, choosing to place himself at her level. If he was going to have a serious conversation, he wasn't going to do it from a lower position; clarity came more easily when he could read someone's expression directly.
The Ancient One watched him reach the top step. A faint—almost imperceptible—smile crossed her face.
"A little," she admitted.
"At least you're honest," Naruto said dryly. "How do I get back before I'm detected? I wasn't exactly subtle when I left," he added, calmer now. He admitted to himself that the comment had been deserved; surprising a clairvoyant was rarely a good idea.
"Time is more flexible than you think. It's willing to bend its rules a little for the right cause," she replied, making it clear that she was aware of the object he carried hidden in his pocket.
Naruto stopped again, turning his head slightly toward her, one eyebrow raised.
"Time travel?" he asked, frowning. "I was hoping that, given what you said earlier, you'd be a bit stricter about that—knowing what it can cause."
"A very good friend will tell me in a few years that rules are meant to be interpreted… and that they're worth breaking for the right cause," she answered calmly, leaving very little room for interpretation. It was obvious that a future version of Naruto had been the one to tell her that.
All he could do was sigh. He hoped it wasn't something that happened often. His head was already beginning to ache.
"So… we become friends how, exactly?" Naruto asked, this time with genuine curiosity. He couldn't see how that would happen if he didn't plan to stay in this world for long.
The question made her frown slightly. It was a small gesture, but it made it clear that the answer wasn't a simple one.
"It's a complicated answer. With who you are and what you know, you understand that there are things one isn't ready for immediately. It takes time to truly comprehend them. And that process is often affected when you feel that your childhood was wasted… or taken from you."
The statement made sense, and the tone was straightforward, but he didn't like what lay beneath it. Naruto frowned ever so slightly.
"Go on," he said, more firmly than he had intended. He didn't like where her implication seemed to be heading.
"You're not ready to understand it yet, but you will be soon," she replied.
The comment stirred a faint irritation in Naruto, though he didn't show it. He had dealt with enough clairvoyants to know they enjoyed provoking emotional reactions, so he kept his composure. He simply made a brief gesture for her to continue.
She studied him for a moment, her brow faintly furrowed. She had clearly expected to knock him off balance a little. Then she shrugged, accepting that one couldn't always win.
"As I was saying… you're not ready to understand, but you listen, and that means you're willing to. You'll be ready by the time you leave this place," she concluded calmly.
At that, Naruto raised an eyebrow.
"So soon?" he asked, before glancing at the tea in front of him. He lifted the cup and took a sip. It wasn't to his taste, but he hadn't expected to find the quality he was used to in a world that wasn't his own—in more than one sense.
She gave him a small smile.
"You are more than you believe yourself to be. You know it, but no one has ever challenged your understanding of what you know, nor forced your being to break past its own limits. I know this because I've seen it, and I know what you can become… but that is precisely the heart of the matter before us."
"Sounds nice," Naruto commented dryly, once again mildly irritated by grand words that conveyed nothing concrete.
"I'll be direct. At some point in the near future, you will meet someone in this world. Someone you will trust more than anyone and anything you've trusted before. Someone who is more like you than you realize. But for that to happen, you need to stop playing games with those you already know and open up a bit about who you are. Of course—not without proposing a way to keep your secrets as secrets. I'm aware it sounds like I'm speaking in riddles without need, but you yourself have spent time reflecting on a certain prophecy tied to you, and you realized that if you had been given direct answers, you would have acted differently. Isn't that right?"
"I'm not sure who Potter is," the Ancient One remarked before shaking her head. "It's simpler than that. I've seen a thousand futures, and in all of them, you never act the same way. If I told you how I want you to act, you'd be nothing more than a drone. You're a person who lives and feels for yourself. I can only tell you certain things and hope you react in the best possible way. That's what makes you you… and it's also the reason why even the Devil's daughter is so utterly taken with you."
The declaration clarified some things—and opened far more questions.
"Did I tell you about Charlie?" Naruto asked, noticeably calmer now. Part of him wondered how much trust he had earned for her to mention something as personal as one of the women who had captured his heart.
"In some worlds, yes. In others, she came with you when you called. Every timeline is different, and that's what makes them so vast and powerful. But that's not what matters right now… What does matter is that by the time you finish the journey you're about to begin, what your heart desires most will be able to become reality."
Naruto arched an eyebrow. He had never spoken of that dream to anyone, because it was one that could not be. Circumstances made it impossible.
"Father wouldn't—" he began. He wanted to clarify that his position and the expectations placed upon him prevented him from pursuing a childish dream, that he had accepted that, that clinging to such a hope could be more harmful than helpful.
"Your father loves you more than he loves the magical world. If you are happy wherever you are, he will be happy," she replied solemnly before he could finish.
He had to close his eyes and let out a deep breath.
His dream was simple—almost foolish: not having to hide from non-magicals; letting his children see the world beyond the walls of the magical realm without fear. He had given up on that long ago, but if there was one thing he wasn't, it was a coward. And if, in this world, there existed the possibility of building a home, then… it was worth trying.
"What do I have to do?" he asked in a barely audible whisper.
For him, all of this was new, and he knew it would be a challenge. But as she herself had said, no one had ever forced him to go beyond his understanding of magic—or of his own power. Besides, how difficult could it be? It wasn't as if this world had some kind of existential monster… or seven magical stones capable of rewriting reality, right?
"That thought is going to bite you in the ass," the Ancient One remarked. She added nothing more.
After that, they sat in silence for a couple of minutes. Naruto pondered what kind of situation in this world could make her comment come back to truly bite him, while she seemed content watching him drift through his thoughts. She only hoped the mad titan wouldn't be as great a threat as he had been in several futures. Her reasoning was circular and, honestly, foolish—if not entirely wrong in all the ways that mattered.
A little later, they began speaking of lighter topics. Naruto mentioned his friends back home: Natsu, Gray, even the loud, scatterbrained Asta. He had no particular reason to do so, but between the discomfort of silence and talking about mundane things with someone who, by her own admission, would earn his trust in a few years, he chose the latter.
They sat quietly for a few minutes, then drifted into lighter conversation. Somehow, they ended up talking about some of the pranks Harry had played on George—small moments meant to brighten dark days. And somehow, the sense that more dark days were coming made him think of those small rays of light. How much he missed his friends, comrades, family.
At some point, she interrupted him and returned to the subject of his duty in this world. She expressed her trust in him—redundant as it sounded—and told him that if he ever doubted his path or simply needed someone to talk to, he should never hesitate to seek her out. The doors of the sanctuary they were in were always open to those willing to listen and learn.
"What's your name?" Naruto asked. In his culture, that was the first true gesture of respect toward a person. Names held immense power, and asking for someone's name was an unmistakable sign that he was beginning to see them as an equal.
Genuinely surprised once again, she could only offer him a small smile.
"It's the first time you've asked me that—even across several years."
Naruto mentally marked another point. It wasn't common to surprise a clairvoyant twice in the same day.
"Well?" he pressed.
"My students call me the Ancient One, but since you've taken the first step toward trust, I'll tell you my true name. My name is Yao, Master Udgard," she replied with an honest, tranquil smile.
"Why do you call me Master?" Naruto asked. It didn't surprise him that she was called the Ancient One, nor did he need an explanation for the youthful appearance of someone ancient; his own father looked no older than twenty despite being over thirty millennia old.
"You are wise despite being so young, and you have mastered aspects of your power that almost no one in your world has managed to understand. And if I am not mistaken, you have passed part of that knowledge on to others. Here, we call someone who does all that a master," Yao replied with another smile. She knew what he thought about his own age, and she was also aware that, despite her more than five hundred years, compared to the lifespan of her people, she was practically a child.
Soon, the same green glimmer he had seen earlier flared once more from the pendant Yao wore around her neck.
"It seems the time has come for us to part. Your journey is about to begin. I'm certain we'll meet again—though I regret that I won't be able to taste your people's wine," she said with a smile.
At that, Naruto could only roll his eyes. Elar Hilion was the finest wine in the world, strictly reserved for elven palates… and for their spouses, if they weren't elves. No one, in more than thirty millennia, had tasted it outside of those exceptions, and he wasn't about to break that tradition with a complete stranger just because he liked her a little. That would be tantamount to abandoning his own culture and its most sacred traditions.
Or, as Juvia used to say: "Just because your race is a bunch of arrogant, elitist idiots who keep the best stuff for themselves… doesn't make it sacred."
Still, there was something he could give her. The runoff extracted every few decades from the vats where the true wine continued to age for millennia. Even that byproduct was remarkably good and was one of his family's primary sources of income… as well as yet another reason people kept calling them elitist idiots.
With that in mind, he stood and walked over to a jug filled with water. With a touch of his finger, the liquid turned a very dark black, almost as if it were absorbing the light around it. A moment later, the jug began to cool gradually until condensation formed along its surface. In his culture, wine was drunk cold.
Honestly, he had always wanted to punch the idiots who drank it at room temperature—or worse, warm.
"If what you've told me is true, then someday we'll share Elar Hilion as brothers. Until that day comes, this should be more than adequate. Just be careful—it's a rather strong drink… and definitely not meant for beginners," he said, holding the jug out to her.
Yao couldn't help but marvel at the casual display of his magic—so different from her own. Still, curiosity about the wine won out. She took a small nearby cup and poured herself a bit. To be honest, she wasn't entirely sure why Naruto described elven wines as the greatest thing since sliced bread.
(The question of what the hell "sliced bread" was could wait for another time.)
To her, it tasted like a perfectly normal wine. Perhaps a bit sweeter, with a faint smoky note, but nothing she hadn't tasted before. Even so, she wasn't about to be rude and thanked him for the gesture. Surely her students would enjoy having something different from time to time.
Little did she know that she had just irrevocably ruined her palate for any other wine for the rest of her existence.
"When you arrive, you'll have some time to calm yourself and think of what to say. Good luck!" With that, Yao gave him a light pat on the shoulder before stepping back a couple of paces. She expected to see something she had already witnessed several times.
Naruto, for his part, let out a deep sigh. Then he reached into his pocket and pulled out what could only be described as a golden chain with an hourglass-shaped pendant. He had taken it years ago, when he caught the catastrophe girl using a forbidden artifact to attend classes. He had kept it during one of his early adolescent bouts of rebellion.
He had never used it, but the thrill of holding something forbidden had been enough to make him keep it during his youth… and shame, once he was an adult, had prevented him from getting rid of it ever since.
"For the cause," he murmured.
With a single twist of the dial, everything around him began to rewind—an unnatural motion marking one of the gravest violations possible against the laws of time: forcing it to run backward.
Once time resumed its normal flow, he simply returned to the hotel, synchronizing his arrival with the departure of his past self. The resulting thunderous sound was enough to set off S.H.I.E.L.D.'s alarms.
With nothing much to do until someone came to investigate what had happened, he dropped onto the couch. Only a few minutes passed before a light knock echoed at the door.
They'd arrived faster than he expected, but he supposed they had agents stationed in the building.
"Coming," he said as he stood and walked toward the entrance.
He opened the door just enough to see who was on the other side.
"Can I help you, gentlemen?" he asked the pair of agents standing in the hallway.
They looked like perfectly ordinary agents, dressed similarly to Coulson. "We thought we heard some noises coming from your room. Did you happen to hear a gunshot?" one of them asked.
They're just as bad at this as Coulson, Naruto thought. Honestly, it was the most obvious question—and for that very reason, the last one they should have asked the subject they were trying to interrogate… or monitor. Whatever happened to the old, reliable method of making the target feel safe and at ease? They just didn't make interrogators like they used to.
"I have no idea what you're talking about," he said, wearing his best I'm not even going to play along anymore expression. This had stopped being entertaining.
The agents glanced at each other for a second; this wasn't the same irreverent, mocking man Agent Coulson had described. "Would you mind if we came in to check the rooms? It's standard protocol—you understand."
"You really need better training, you know," Naruto remarked as he stepped aside. The whole situation was ridiculous; they weren't even trying to maintain the appearance of subtlety.
Still, the two agents ignored his comment and carefully inspected the small living area. Finding nothing out of the ordinary, they moved on to the remaining rooms. However, once they finished, they didn't leave.
Naruto didn't mind. He had too much on his mind—far more than he would have expected when the day began.
The two men simply stood there, watching him, unable to understand what was going through his head or what had caused such a clear change in his demeanor in just a few hours. Whatever it was, it was making them nervous. A heavy silence settled over the room—the kind that made anyone feel as though they were trapped in a space with a sleeping beast, waiting for the right moment to strike.
Fortunately, at that exact moment, Coulson stepped into the room, breaking the tension that had been dominating the air.
"Good to see you, I suppose," Naruto said as he rose to his feet and walked toward the agent he had spent the most time with since his arrival. The simple gesture was enough to completely shatter the tension, prompting both agents to almost flee without looking back.
That made Coulson glance between the two retreating men and Naruto, who was now watching him with an expression utterly unlike any he had seen before—a far more serious, solemn gaze.
"There's a lot we need to talk about, Coulson," Naruto said as he headed toward the elevator. There truly was far too much to say… and he wasn't sure how much time he had left to say it.
End of Chapter