The Uchiha's Calamity

"...Naruto, even though I'm your father's younger brother, I don't know who your father is! I was kidnapped by traffickers before I was old enough to remember anything, then abandoned, then lost my memory in an accident. I wandered for over twenty years... Now that I've finally returned to my homeland, they told me who I am, but I can't remember any of it myself. All I know is that I still have a relative—you!"

Naruto listened, utterly dumbfounded. Even the Root sensory Ninja watching from the shadows was stunned, as were the Nine-Tails and Minato inside Naruto's inner world.

This guy could spin enough yarn to sew wedding dresses for a grandmother's daughter, granddaughter, and great-granddaughter—what a fucking storyteller!

"Terai had this kind of talent?" His companions watching nearby exchanged looks. For the first time, they wondered whether serving as a Root Ninja had been a waste of his talents.

Terai rattled on, spouting nonsense for nearly ten minutes without giving Naruto a single chance to get a word in.

When Naruto finally found an opening, he hurriedly said, "Uncle, how about we talk another time? I'm supposed to meet someone..."

There was no way Terai would let him leave. He hastily tried to stop him. "Naruto, you can't go! I haven't told you about my adoptive mother yet!"

Naruto's head was ready to burst. He could only make an excuse. "I'm just going to the bathroom. I'll be right back."

Even Terai couldn't reasonably refuse that excuse, but he still wasn't ready to give up.

Yet just as he was trying to keep Naruto there, even considering inventing some Konoha customs and traditions to prove that an uncle and nephew could go to the bathroom together, Naruto darted off and vanished.

"Follow him... Wait, he's back." His Root companions were about to move when they spotted Naruto returning, tugging up his pants and scratching his head.

"You went to the bathroom that fast?"

Terai was a little bewildered too, but Naruto coming back was naturally the best outcome. Just then, however, the sensory Ninja watching from the shadows suddenly appeared and cried in a low voice, "Something's wrong! That's a Shadow Clone!"

Ignoring the Hokage's earlier order strictly forbidding Root from contacting the Nine-Tails' jinchūriki, he rushed out of hiding and shouted at Terai, who was still chatting merrily with the Shadow Clone.

Naruto, who had already slipped off to the side, noticed that his Shadow Clone had been exposed and muttered, "So it really was a scam. Good thing I'm smart. Some uncle! You might fool a five-year-old, but I'm not falling for that!"

"I'm done playing with you! Izumi said she wanted me to teach her how to barbecue today. I can't keep her waiting!"

With that, Naruto casually dispelled his Shadow Clone, then activated Flying Thunder God and vanished.

"Damn it!"

"That brat..."

Terai and the other Root Ninjas arrived almost immediately afterward. Unable to find any trace of Naruto by any means, their expressions turned ugly.

"Hurry and inform Lord Danzo. Let's hope the Nine-Tails hasn't gone to the Uchiha."

Meanwhile, inside Naruto's inner world, Minato's expression suddenly grew grave. "Could this be the moment?"

The Nine-Tails looked at Minato's expression thoughtfully. Just as it was about to speak, it suddenly detected an extremely familiar, utterly unconcealed malice!

"It's him?!"

The instant Naruto arrived with Flying Thunder God, a shuriken suddenly cut through the air toward his face. Startled, he hurriedly covered his head and ducked.

"Surrender and... Naruto-kun? Why are you here?"

The cold voice abruptly shifted into a startled cry. Uchiha Izumi stared in surprise at Naruto Uzumaki, who had suddenly appeared beside her.

She wore a practical Ninja outfit, the distinctive forehead protector of a Konoha Ninja covering her fair forehead. Gone was her usual gentle demeanor; in its place was the look of an icy beauty. The scarlet Sharingan unique to the Uchiha Clan added an eerie allure.

But as Naruto stood up, he had no time to admire Izumi's unusual attire. The instant he arrived and dodged the shuriken, he felt a powerful surge of malice and killing intent pouring from the building behind him!

He had no idea that the brightly lit building was the headquarters of the Konoha Military Police Force. He only felt as though a savage beast capable of destroying the world was rampaging inside. He could sense many people's terror and fear, but those emotions were being swallowed one by one by a killing intent so pure it defied description.

Naruto instinctively turned to look up at the building behind him. Light shone through its windows, yet they weren't bright, as though something was blocking the light.

It was blood!

It was blood!

The vivid red stabbed at Naruto's eyes.

"Izumi... Izumi, what's in there? I can feel the people in that building disappearing one after another... Something's coming!"

Naruto felt his whole body tremble. He swallowed involuntarily as a chill crawled up his spine.

She used the Body Flicker Technique to move in front of Naruto, shielding him behind her, and said urgently, "Get out of here! It's dangerous!"

Naruto's words kept intensifying the tension in Uchiha Izumi's heart. She had some idea that this child could sense nearby malice, and his instinctive remarks meant that, inside the building, things had probably already...

Uchiha Izumi dared not let her guard down. Keeping one hand out to shield Naruto, she pushed her Three-Tomoe Sharingan to its limit, its powerful ability to track movement focused firmly on the Military Police Force's entrance.

Here he comes!

"Hmm?" The instant the masked Obito stepped through the doorway, three shuriken sliced through the air toward him.

The timing, speed, and precise angles were flawless, but...

The shuriken passed through Obito's body without resistance and embedded themselves in the building's wall.

Obito turned his head unhurriedly, studying Uchiha Izumi with the single Sharingan behind his mask. "Nice eyes. What are you shielding?"

Her answer was another three blindingly fast shuriken, but they passed straight through him again, accomplishing nothing.

"How is that possible?" Uchiha Izumi was shocked, but before she could react again, Obito's ghostlike figure was already before her. Both his hands, trailing chains, passed straight through her body and bound her completely!

The tremendous force of his speed sent Izumi crashing to the ground with a cry of pain. The chakra-controlled chains held her fast.

"Nothing here?" Having moved behind Izumi, Obito paid no attention to her feeble struggles. Instead, he surveyed the empty surroundings in puzzlement.

Just now, there had clearly been a strange yet familiar fluctuation of chakra.

Behind his mask, Obito frowned.

Naruto-kun... Did he escape? Thank goodness. Bound in chains on the ground, Izumi felt a flicker of relief. But as she watched the Masked Man turn toward her and draw a blade out of thin air, fear filled her heart once more.

Facing death, she displayed not the resolve of a Ninja of the Uchiha Clan, but the genuine terror of a thirteen-year-old girl.

In her despair, tears streamed down her face as she instinctively whispered, "Save me, Itachi..."

Your Itachi can't save you.

Obito thought mockingly, but at that very instant, a sound suddenly rang out behind him—

The roar of a water dragon!

"Sage Art: Water Release: Heavenly Light Triple-Roar Whirlwind Scattering-Blossom Frozen Water Dragon Bullet, Type Zero!"