Naruto's Dream

Zero's figure melted into the shadows like a ghost, moving swiftly along the edge of the battlefield as he set Explosive Tags and tripwires. Every foothold was incomparably precise, forming an invisible warning net.

Haku knelt on one knee, his hands flashing as icy Senbon pierced the acupoints at Naruto's neck and chest. With exquisite medical ninjutsu, he guided the neurotoxin that had invaded Naruto's body slowly out. His movements were focused and reverent, as though he were restoring a sacred work of art.

Sakura held the unconscious Sasuke in her arms, her body still trembling uncontrollably. She stared blankly at the bizarre scene before her.

Of these two people who had suddenly appeared, one wore a blank mask and carried the air of a pure assassin; the other had delicate features, yet his methods were cold and efficient.

Who were they?

Why did they obey Naruto's orders?

"Who...?" Sakura's lips trembled before she finally forced out a few dry words. "Who exactly are you?"

Haku did not turn around. All his attention was focused on Naruto.

"By the Commissar's order, eliminate threats." Zero appeared like a specter atop a nearby tree trunk, his voice like two stones grinding together. "Mission complete. Threat has retreated."

Commissar?

That word again.

Sakura's mind was a mess. She had already grown used to associating Naruto with iron-blooded severity and authority, rather than the prank-loving dead last.

Haku finally completed the preliminary treatment. He let out a soft breath before turning his gaze toward Sakura and Sasuke Uchiha in her arms, the Curse Mark on his neck faintly visible.

"The Commissar's order is to 'retrieve the soldier.'" Haku's voice was soft, yet it carried an undeniable force of execution. "We must take him with us."

"No!" Sakura instinctively hugged Sasuke tighter. "Sasuke is badly hurt. I don't know where you're taking him!"

"We will not harm him." Haku rose to his feet. His tone remained gentle, but Sakura could sense the chill beneath that gentleness. "But you must understand: he has already been 'contaminated.' If he is not brought under control, he will soon become something like a monster. Perhaps something worse."

Contamination? Purification?

Those words struck Sakura's understanding like heavy hammers.

She looked at the ominous black markings on Sasuke's neck, and a chill rose from the depths of her heart. She could not refute him, because her deepest fear was telling her that this delicate-looking boy might be right.

At that moment, Naruto's eyelid twitched.

His consciousness had not returned.

It was sinking, passing through darkness, passing through Chaos, falling into a deeper sea of memories that had nothing to do with the Nine-Tails.

This was not a battlefield. There was no bloodshed or roaring.

This was Konoha's library, so quiet that only the sound of turning pages could be heard.

Not long after returning from that universe of steel and flame, Naruto sat at the most secluded wooden table. He still wore that faded orange jacket, but his posture was as straight and rigid as a statue.

Before him were not scrolls about the "Will of Fire" or ninjutsu.

They were ancient texts such as Ninja Creation Myths, Legends of the Sage of Six Paths, Origins of Kekkei Genkai, and Ancient War Records... books that most ninja regarded as bedtime stories or historical dust.

There was no youthful curiosity in his ice-blue eyes, only an almost inorganic analysis and deconstruction.

Seemingly unrelated fragments of information were forcibly seized, dismantled, and reorganized page by page.

"God Tree..."

"Rabbit Goddess..."

"Chakra Fruit..."

"Sage of Six Paths..."

"Indra and Asura..."

In the worldview reshaped by the "Imperial Truth," all of it was rapidly translated into another language—cold, cruel, yet incomparably real.

This was not mythology.

This was a report so clear it sent chills down one's spine: an "extraterrestrial biological invasion and energy contamination report."

[Invading species: Otsutsuki Clan.]

[Method of invasion: deployment of a planet-scale parasitic unit codenamed 'God Tree,' which absorbs the life energy of the planet.]

[Converted product: a high-density energy aggregate codenamed 'Chakra Fruit.']

[Contamination source: 'Chakra,' a form of bioenergy capable of mental interference and genetic modification. It alters the evolutionary path of native lifeforms at the Root, making them more aggressive and facilitating the selection of stronger 'nutrients.']

[Advance unit: Kaguya Otsutsuki. Mission: guard the 'nursery' and ensure the 'fruit' matures.]

[Unexpected development: the advance unit betrayed her clan, privately consumed the 'fruit,' and bred with native lifeforms, producing mixed-blood descendants and causing the large-scale spread of the 'contamination source' among the native intelligent species.]

The so-called history of ninja, the so-called Kekkei Genkai, were nothing more than the various mutations produced after native lifeforms had been contaminated by alien genes.

And the Nine-Tails within him was the largest fragment left after that massive contamination source had been forcibly divided.

Naruto's fingertip lightly traced the portrait of the "Sage of Six Paths" on the page.

Another, grander and far more tragic history surfaced uncontrollably in his mind.

It was the bloody tragedy remembered by every human in the Warhammer 40K universe—the Horus Heresy.

The Emperor's most trusted Warmaster, the most glorious Primarch, the brightest morning star of the Imperium of Man: Horus Lupercal.

He heard the whispers of the Chaos God of the Warp.

He believed those lies about a "tyrant father" and a "hypocritical Imperium."

Then he raised the banner of rebellion, leading nine Space Marine Legions as he set the entire galaxy ablaze.

The Emperor's strongest children slaughtered one another.

The Imperium of Man fell apart, plunging into ten thousand years of endless darkness and war.

Naruto slowly closed his eyes.

"The strongest child betrayed the Emperor after being corrupted by the Chaos God of another dimension..."

His gaze fell back onto the scroll before him.

"The Sage of Six Paths' two most outstanding sons, Indra and Asura, began a struggle that lasted for a thousand years over power and ideology..."

The shocking similarities made his entire body turn cold.

The Otsutsuki Clan, an extraterrestrial race, sowed Chakra, a contamination source; Indra and Asura fought one another, brothers turned against brothers after contamination; and the cycle called "hatred" continued to this day.

This was not a coincidence.

It was an inevitable tragedy, destined to unfold under the laws of the universe.

An even more terrifying thought stabbed into the core of his mind like the sharpest ice pick.

Since the Otsutsuki Clan were the sowers, the "farmers"...

Then sooner or later, the farmers would return to inspect their "fields" and Harvest their "crops."

This world, his home, Konoha...

In the eyes of those lofty alien races, it was not a civilization worthy of respect at all.

It was merely a captive nursery.

A colony awaiting Harvest.

A farm that could be utterly erased at any moment by a higher level of violence...

"...Farmers."

An extremely soft murmur, almost too quiet to hear, escaped Naruto's pale lips.

Haku, who had been about to lift him onto his back, suddenly froze.

Lowering his head, he saw Naruto's eyeballs moving violently beneath his tightly shut eyelids.

For the first time, that face always covered by cold determination revealed a trace of...

Fear.