"Naruto-kun? You should be resting. It's not dawn yet."
Shizune's soft voice slid into the stillness of the luxurious room. She found him sitting by the window, a silhouette cut against the indigo sky, watching the moon fade away.
Naruto was startled but recovered instantly, turning with a smile that didn't reach his eyes.
"Just getting a head start! I can't let the sun beat me to training, Shizune!"
She approached, her face reflecting a concern that went beyond fatigue.
"It's more than that, isn't it? You've been... different since we arrived. Distant."
Naruto looked away, back to the window. His cheerful facade crumbled for an instant.
"I'm just thinking about my team. The exams are a big deal."
Shizune nodded, though she knew he was only skimming the surface of a much deeper truth. She didn't press him.
"Try to get some more sleep. You'll need all your energy."
When she left, closing the door with a soft click, the solitude returned. Naruto rested his forehead against the cold glass of the window.
Today.
The word echoed in his mind, soundless but with the force of a war drum. He checked the makeshift calendar he had carved with a kunai on a piece of wood. There was no mistake.
Today they enter the forest. Today it all begins.
The faces of Sakura and Hinata in the cave appeared in his mind with painful clarity. He saw their eyes, filled with a confidence he had given them, a faith that now felt like a burden on his shoulders. Guilt gripped him, a pang in his stomach for not being there, for leaving them alone at the gates of that hell.
He suppressed the feeling with a cold, forced determination.
I trust them. They're the strongest. But trust won't stop a snake like Orochimaru.
He rose from the floor. His movements were slow, deliberate, devoid of his usual explosive energy. He walked over to the full-length mirror that adorned the wall, a luxury he would have never imagined in his Konoha apartment.
A deep, visceral fear swirled inside him; a terror not of dying, but of what he was about to do to himself.
Alright, this is the day of the Forest of Death. Everything has to go according to plan. Sakura-chan, Hinata-chan… I've given you the tools to survive. Now everything depends on you... and on what I do now.
He turned away from the mirror. The decision was made. There was no turning back.
*****
The inn's backyard was bathed in the orange light of the rising sun when Tsunade and Shizune found him. He was already there, in the center, rubber ball in hand.
He was failing. Over and over. But his failures were different from the day before. There was no more chaos, no more comical splashes. Every attempt was an exercise in brutal concentration, every failure a precise adjustment in his control.
The ball vibrated in his palm, the chakra spinning more steadily, but it always fizzled out at the last second.
"Naruto, please, stop for a moment."
Shizune's voice was gentle. She offered him a rice ball on a tray, steam rising in the cool air.
Naruto accepted it with a mechanical movement of his arm. He ate without his usual enthusiasm, his eyes never leaving the center of his right hand, as if he could see the swirl of chakra that refused to obey him. His mind was hundreds of miles away, in a dark forest full of traps.
"Are you pushing yourself too hard?" Shizune asked quietly. "Even Lady Tsunade rests... sometimes."
"There's no time! I have to get this today! By the way, what's Granny Tsunade up to? Still hungover from last night?"
"What's wrong with you, brat? Run out of your stupid morning energy?"
Tsunade's voice was harsh, raspy from the previous night's alcohol. She appeared in the doorway, her sake bottle in hand, watching him with an intensity that betrayed her apparent disinterest. She could feel the shift in the atmosphere, the tension radiating from the boy.
Naruto forced a smile, a pale imitation of his usual cheerfulness.
"Not at all, Granny Tsunade! I'm just concentrating! Today's the day I master this jutsu!"
"Hmph. You'd better. My patience has a limit."
Tsunade sat on the porch step, drinking straight from the bottle. Her cynicism was a suit of armor, but her hawk-like eyes didn't miss a single detail. The kid wasn't playing around. There was a controlled desperation in his movements, an urgency that didn't fit with simple training.
She noticed that, from time to time, he would glance at the sky, at the sun, as if he were calculating the time.
What are you plotting, brat?
The training resumed. Naruto summoned a clone. The rubber ball vibrated with increasing intensity in his hands. Several times he was on the verge of popping it, the rubber stretching to its limit, but the energy would dissipate at the last moment.
"You've almost got it, Naruto! A little more control!" Shizune encouraged him, with Tonton grunting by her side.
Tsunade snorted.
"Control... This brat has about as much control as Jiraiya has decency. He's pure destructive force with no direction. He's wasting chakra like he's getting paid for it."
"Hey, I heard that!" Naruto yelled without turning around. "And my control is great! It's... passionate control!"
"Passionately useless," she retorted, taking another swig. "You know what your problem is, brat? You think more is better. More chakra, more power, more shouting. You're predictable. An open book written in crayon."
The words were a sting, but Naruto didn't let himself be provoked. He just gritted his teeth and tried again, sweat mixing with the splashes of water on his forehead.
The sun climbed higher in the sky, marking the passage from dawn to midday.
Naruto stopped.
He dropped the rubber ball, which rolled to a stop in a dry puddle. He looked up at the sun, now at its highest point.
He calculated the time in Konoha.
They're already inside. It's already begun.
He squeezed his eyes shut. The images of the future, of the tragedy he had sworn to prevent, assaulted him with the violence of a torture session.
Sasuke's scream, a heart-wrenching sound of pure agony as the black curse mark spread across his skin like poisonous ink. Sakura's face, pale and contorted in terror, her green eyes wide before a horror she couldn't fight. And Orochimaru's face, that serpentine smile, that promise of power and corruption.
It's not enough. My training isn't enough. The power I gave them... it won't be enough against him.
They need more. They need my strength. Now.
He opened his eyes. The doubt and fear were gone. In their place was a terrifying calm, a steel resolve forged in the fire of desperation.
He turned to his clone.
"Hey, me."
His voice was low, devoid of all emotion. The clone, who had been about to crack a joke, fell silent instantly. It sensed the gravity; the perfect connection between original and copy transmitted the intent without another word.
"Yeah, boss?"
"This time... no holding back. Everything. Understood?"
The clone looked at him. In that moment of connection, it understood the plan, understood the sacrifice. A grim smile, a grimace of pain and determination, formed on its face.
"Understood."
The change was instantaneous and brutal.
Shizune, who was about to offer him water, felt the surge of chakra and instinctively took a step back.
Tsunade shot to her feet, the sake forgotten, her eyes as an expert medic and legendary warrior wide open. The energy pouring from Naruto and his clone was no longer for training. It was a weapon about to detonate.
They repeated the process with the rubber ball. But this time was different.
The clone didn't just provide a flow of chakra; it pumped a massive, wild, and almost suicidal amount of energy into Naruto's hand.
The original Naruto didn't try to control it delicately. He didn't seek balance. Instead, he forced the rotation to its absolute maximum, channeling all his frustration, his fear for his friends, and his desperate will to protect them into that single, trembling point.
The energy became visible.
The air around Naruto's hand distorted, shimmering like the air over hot asphalt. The rubber ball didn't just tremble: it deformed. Its surface cracked, the rubber groaning under an impossible pressure.
It wasn't a Rasengan. It was a whirlwind of pure, chaotic power, a manifestation of raw will.
"Naruto, stop!" Shizune screamed, terrified. "That's too much chakra! It's going to explode!"
"YOU IDIOT! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! YOU'RE TRYING TO KILL YOURSELF!" Tsunade roared, running toward him.
But it was too late.
The explosion wasn't a "pop."
It was a dull, brutal detonation. The ball didn't burst; it disintegrated. The unstable chakra energy, without a container, didn't dissipate.
It imploded.
For a split second, light and sound seemed to be sucked into Naruto's hand. Then, the energy erupted outward, a blue and red shockwave that completely enveloped his right arm.
The sound was muffled, wet, and nauseating. The sound of flesh tearing, of tendons snapping, of bones fracturing under an unnatural force.
A choked scream escaped Naruto's throat, a sound that was cut short by pure agony.
The light of the blast blinded everything for an instant. The smell of burnt air and blood filled the atmosphere.
Naruto was thrown backward like a rag doll. His body hit the wooden wall of the inn with a dull thud and he fell to the ground, limp.
The clone vanished with a final look of pained accomplishment.
His right arm was destroyed.
It wasn't a simple injury. The sleeve of his jacket had been torn away, revealing a mass of burned and bloodied flesh. The bones of his forearm and hand were shattered, splintered, some protruding from the skin at impossible angles. He was bleeding profusely, staining the wooden floor with a thick, dark red.
It was an injury that would permanently disable any other shinobi. It was an injury designed to kill.
"NARUTO!!"
Shizune's scream tore through the silence. She ran to him, her medical-nin instincts kicking in, her hands already glowing with a pale green chakra.
Tsunade was frozen for a second. A second that lasted an eternity.
The absolute shock at the stupidity and brutality of the act left her breathless. She saw the shattered arm, the blood, the unconscious boy... and for an instant, she didn't see Naruto. She saw Nawaki. She saw Dan. She saw everyone she had lost, everyone who had thrown themselves headfirst toward death for a stupid dream.
But in the darkness of Naruto's mind, as pain threatened to consume him and his consciousness faded into a black abyss, a light appeared.
A blue text, bright and serene.
[WARNING: Severe injury detected in host.]
[Development Skill "Will of a Hero" has been activated at maximum output.]
[Critical stat bonus transferred to active believers: Sakura Haruno and Hinata Hyuga.]
Just before completely losing consciousness, as the world dissolved into a dull hum, a smile of both pain and absolute triumph formed on his bloodied lips.
I... did it... Now... it's all up to you... girls...
Tsunade's shock transformed. The paralysis shattered, replaced by a volcanic fury. But it wasn't the fury of contempt. It was the fury of a doctor watching a patient try to kill himself. The fury of a mentor watching a boy with the same self-destructive spirit as her lost loved ones.
"GET OUT OF THE WAY!"
She pushed Shizune aside with a force that made her stumble.
"His pulse is fading!" Shizune cried, panic in her voice. "The chakra burn is severe, it's cauterizing the wounds but destroying the tissue! I don't know if I can—!"
"You can't!" Tsunade roared. "This isn't a simple wound, it's cellular self-destruction! His own chakra is eating him alive! Get me water, clean cloths, and every medical scroll I packed! NOW!"
Tsunade dropped to her knees beside Naruto. Her hands were covered in an intense, potent green chakra, a light that seemed to have a life of its own.
It wasn't the gentle, restorative healing Shizune knew. It was an emergency intervention, a force of nature fighting death with a fury to match its own.
"You stupid, reckless brat..." she muttered through clenched teeth as her hands hovered over the destroyed arm, not yet touching it, analyzing the damage with a blood-chilling speed. "Just like Nawaki! Just like Dan! Do you think throwing your lives away like this is heroic?!"
Her diagnosis was instant and terrifying.
"The fox's chakra..." she whispered, a mixture of horror and understanding in her voice. "It's trying to heal him, but it's so violent it's tearing him apart from the inside! I'm not just healing a wound; I'm fighting a Bijuu for his life!"
Her hands descended. The green light intensified, enveloping the ruined flesh in an embrace of pure power.
"You're not dying on my watch, you idiotic brat! I refuse to bury another dreamer!"
The battle for Naruto Uzumaki's life had just begun. Hundreds of miles away, in a dark forest, two kunoichi were about to feel a power they didn't understand, a gift born from the pain of their absent captain.