Reverse Scale

The courtyard was a mess, with a large hole smashed in the wall by the Anbu. Haku and Karin ran out of the kitchen after hearing the noise. Haku held a porcelain bowl with his unfinished midnight snack in his hand, his eyes fixed on the Anbu scattered on the ground, his expression calm to the point of indifference; Karin clutched her apron, her eyes wide open, realizing for the first time that this position next to Naruto meant more than just tenderness.

Naruto instantly suppressed his bloodthirsty aura towards the enemy, gently patted the heads of the two exquisite girls, and a playful smile curved his lips, "Don't be afraid, those rats scurrying through the sewers are too annoying and noisy. I'll go blow up their holes and come right back for a midnight snack."

After calming the two down, Naruto pushed open the door and stepped out, the night wind ruffling his blond hair. His eyes instantly turned silver-white, and his Pure Byakugan was unleashed at full power! His last remaining sensory trump card from the sealing period was pushed to its limit, ignoring the physical barriers and obstacles on the ground. The Chakra remnants in the underground pipes were like countless candles lit in the dark before the Perfect Byakugan. He completed precise three-dimensional positioning within three seconds.

Three blocks away, the Anbu Special Surveillance Squad "Tobi" and "Saru" sensed Naruto's Chakra Byakugan suddenly activate at full power. Just as "Saru's" fingers touched the coded talisman, "Tobi" pressed him down. After a five-second silence, "Tobi" tucked the talisman into his sleeve and whispered, "It's windy, I didn't see anything."

The scene cuts to a top-secret base located deep underground at the Root.

Shimura Danzō upright in a large armchair, his one eye slightly closed, awaiting news of the Anbu's capture of Naruto. He hadn't attended the funeral; instead, he was in a secret room playing with the intelligence handed to him by his trusted confidant, codenamed "Kuma."

Suddenly, the highest-level alert barrier flashed a blinding red light, and a piercing alarm ripped through the deathly silence below! Danzo's hair stood on end, the teacup slipped from his fingers and shattered, a suffocating feeling as if the world was collapsing gripped his throat. He heard "Kuma" speak for the first time in a trembling voice:

"My lord, there's something above our heads..."

Before he could finish speaking, the floor began to shake violently.

Above the base, Naruto leaped into the night sky. His Perfect Uzumaki Sage Body's blood and qi surged like a raging sea, and beneath his muscle fibers seemed to lie an ancient Tyrannosaurus Rex. Even the surrounding night rain was instantly evaporated by his terrifying body temperature.

"Eight Gates, Sixth Gate, Gate of View, Open."

There was no exclamation mark; the more understated it was, the more chilling it became. A blue-white aura, several times more violent than before, shot into the sky, illuminating the pitch-black night sky of Hidden Leaf. The violent shockwave uprooted giant trees dozens of meters away. Anbu sentry posts in the next four blocks simultaneously sensed the explosive surge of Chakra, but no one dared to move.

Naruto, suspended in mid-air, rapidly swung his hands, his fists breaking the sound barrier and generating intense heat through friction with the air.

"Monster Strength - Morning Peacock - Concentrated Detonation!"

Hundreds upon hundreds of fire meteors, each imbued with the chakra of the supreme Yang and strength of the Chakra, did not scatter over a wide area. Instead, Naruto, with his abnormal control, forcibly combined them together, transforming them into an incredibly thick pillar of destructive fire that struck the ground directly above the Root Base like divine punishment!

With a deafening roar, the earth trembled violently. The Root's proud ten-layered high-density Chakra defense barrier was as fragile as paper before the pillar of light containing Yang Release, and it was pierced through layer by layer and instantly vaporized in less than a second.

The devastating pillar of fire blasted through tens of meters of rock, precisely pouring into the Danzo was located. The intense heat and shockwave instantly incinerated the experimental equipment and scrolls inside, and several loyal Root who had served their master were vaporized before they could even scream.

Faced with an inescapable dead end, Danzo's eyes widened in fury. He had no choice but to forcibly release the seal on his right arm and use Hashirama Cells to activate Wood Release: Violent Spear Tree in an attempt to block it. However, the intense Yang flames instantly ignited the Wood Release, and he was blasted away by the aftershock, crashing into the depths of the ruins, spitting out blood and half of his body charred black.

But the force was precisely timed; the main structure collapsed, but the person didn't die. He deliberately left the person alive.

The towering pillar of fire and the intense shock awakened the entire Hidden Leaf. The heads of the various clans, who had just finished the Third Hokage's funeral and were on edge, rushed to the rooftops, staring in horror at the direction of the Root Base. High-ranking advisors Utatane Koharu and Mitokado Homura were so frightened that they fell off their beds. The whole village was plunged into an uproar of extreme panic.

Amidst the thick smoke and rubble, Danzo down by "Kuma's" shield, his neck drenched in cold sweat. Above the ruins, Naruto, hands in his pockets, descended slowly like an arrogant demon god. He looked down at Danzo, who was writhing in pain amidst the rubble, a mocking smirk playing on his lips.

"What? The old dog, holed up in its shell, doesn't even have the strength to come out and greet its master?"

Danzo his bleeding right arm tightly, his one eye filled with fear and resentment. He hoarsely invoked the banner of morality in an attempt to survive, angrily denouncing Naruto for destroying the foundation of Hidden Leaf and knowing he would be condemned by the entire Shinobi World.

"Don't use your disgusting words to offend my ears." Naruto interrupted directly, his Pure Byakugan slightly rotating, and the absolute pressure of his bloodline pressed down on Danzo like a solid mountain, forcing him to kneel heavily on the gravel uncontrollably.

"I'm the rule. If anyone dares to lay a finger on me again, next time it won't be this lousy hole that gets smashed, it'll be your head. Get out."

Seeing Danzo's mental defenses completely crumble, lying on the ground trembling like a rag Danzo, Naruto didn't even bother to finish him off. As he turned to leave, an extremely relaxed voice came from above, as if it were just stating the obvious:

"Danzo, you owe me an apology. No rush, I'm not short of one night."

The footsteps faded into the distance. Danzo had experienced war, coups, and assassinations in his entire life, had never been treated in such a tone before—not out of hatred, not out of a declaration of war, but simply as a notification. He realized that Naruto hadn't considered him a threat at all; he had just casually blown up an eyesore like an anthill.

As Naruto landed and passed through an alley, he was blocked by Sasuke. The kid was waiting there, arms crossed, Sharingan gleaming, his face twisted with resentment and morbid excitement. "Big brother, the Sixth Gate... when are you going to—"

Naruto flicked his forehead. "Stay put."

Sasuke froze for two seconds, then completely abandoned his Uchiha arrogance and followed.

Back at the Uzumaki New Residence, Haku had already served a steaming late-night snack, Karin obediently handed him a hot towel. The bloody storm outside seemed to have no connection with this little world. After creating an extremely bloody massacre, Naruto calmly enjoyed the ultimate tenderness brought by his exclusive bond, and the night passed without incident.

The timeline abruptly shifts back to reality—a torrential rainy night at the border post station of the Land of Fire.

Naruto stood with one hand in his pocket, seemingly floating in mid-air. Looking down at Itachi Uchiha, who was being strangled by the Great Evolution Divine Soul Art and whose right eye was bleeding tears, he let out a chilling sneer.

"In Hidden Leaf, I crushed even Danzo's lair with a Danzo. What are you, a stray dog who plays with Genjutsu, that you dare to glare at me?"

Itachi didn't take the mental torture. He spoke, not mentioning fighting, but asking only one question, "Sasuke, what do you plan to do with him?"

It wasn't a question, nor a threat, but a confirmation. The tone was so calm, as if speaking to an equal, that in itself was the greatest form of acknowledgment.

Naruto was silent for three seconds—this was the first time in the entire conversation that he paused for more than a second.

"He's my underling, it's none of your business."

Then Naruto added, lowering his voice slightly, his tone less sarcastic and more like a statement of fact. "But your younger brother has taken the blame for a lot of things for you."

Itachi's face didn't change, but his fingers tightened slightly—the only outward expression of emotion he showed throughout the entire scene.

Before turning around, Itachi paused for a step, and with his back to Naruto, uttered his last words.

"That child's mother, and another layer of the Nine-Tails Seal..."

He didn't finish his sentence, but simply threw it down like a pebble into water, and then walked into the rain. Kisame followed closely behind and disappeared.

Kabuto Yakushi crawled out of the rubble, adjusted his glasses, a corner of his shirt was scorched, and stared at Naruto's back for a long time without moving. He replayed every frame of what had just happened in his mind, and finally wrote three words in his notebook—then crossed them out, and rewrote four words: Untouchable.

He updated Naruto's rating for the first time, changing it from "top-tier vessel" to a new label he hadn't reported to anyone.

Kakashi stepped out of the inn, stood beside Naruto, glanced at the ruins and the corpses of the Hidden Sound, opened a book as if reading, and asked softly, "Itachi contacted you because of Sasuke?"

Naruto didn't answer, only saying three words: "Are you gone?"

Kakashi closed the book. "I'm leaving."

The two walked back to the inn in silence, neither of them speaking again. At that moment, Kakashi truly realized that Naruto was not just a "powerful Genin," but someone who was already playing against the top players in the Shinobi World.

In the inn room, Naruto leaned back against the window, and a new notification popped up in his mind:

[Unknown Variable - Itachi Uchiha - Increased Correlation]

There was no explanation, no follow-up, just this one line of text, and then it disappeared.

Before dawn, Jiraiya the next room. Naruto drew back the curtains and looked at the gray morning light along the border of the Land of Fire. What kept replaying in his mind was not the half-sentence Itachi had said, but the place where that sentence ended abruptly—that deliberately cut-off spot, which was more painful than the end of the sentence.

He put his hands back in his pockets, closed his eyes, and tried to stop thinking. But he couldn't sleep.