Bang!
The explosion sent a massive mushroom cloud billowing up, blotting out the entire sky.
Everywhere they looked, all they could see was gray.
"Watch out!"
Clang! Screeech!
The piercing clash of kunai rang out around them, blades grinding against one another with a sound that made their hearts tremble.
Everyone shot backward, retreating out of the smoke.
Standing atop the small mountain peak, they watched a blond man in a black robe gradually emerge in the valley below.
"Naruto, come back with us! There's still time!"
Sasuke Uchiha jostled the sword at his waist, his expression as cold as ever. Around him stood all their companions from their days at the Ninja Academy.
"Come back?"
Naruto sneered, chakra dancing over his body like an electric current.
It was incomparably fierce.
As though it might tear them all apart at any moment.
"Sai, send word to the village. I'm afraid we can't handle Naruto on our own."
"Right!"
Sai answered and unfurled a scroll. With a few strokes of his brush, the secret message became an ink-black bird that flapped its wings, emerged from the scroll, and flew straight toward Konoha.
Naruto saw it, but did not stop it.
His eyes were now blood-red, no longer resembling human eyes. Instead, a pair of slit pupils glared fiercely at his former companions.
"Naruto, come back. We'll plead with Lord Liumu on your behalf."
"Plead?" Naruto sneered, his body trembling violently. Red chakra kept pouring out around him as he said with a savage smile, "No need. I've already severed every connection to my past."
"Do you really think you can stop me?"
Everyone frowned deeply.
At the front of the group, Sasuke asked Sakura behind him, "Has Captain Yamato still not woken up?"
Sakura shook her head.
Half a year earlier.