Naruto's roar rang out sharply across the deathly silent battlefield.
Everyone's eyes turned toward him, including Uchiha Kai, who stood above them all.
Kai's gaze slowly lowered and settled on the blond-haired boy. There was no anger in his eyes, only the curiosity of a scholar observing an experimental subject.
"Trampling lives?"
Kai repeated the words, then laughed softly.
"Uzumaki Naruto, you seem to have misunderstood something. I am not trampling lives. I am correcting them. From the moment you were born, you lives were filled with flaws, like a program full of broken code. And I am here to repair it."
He took one step forward.
His movement was slow, yet in an instant, he appeared directly in front of Naruto.
Kakashi and Sasuke were both startled and tried to react, only to find their bodies as heavy as lead, unable to move.
Kai extended a finger and gently touched Naruto's forehead.
"Don't be nervous. I won't kill you. At least, not right now."
His voice seemed to carry a strange magic, causing Naruto's tense body to relax against his will.
"Don't you believe in understanding? Then I'll let you properly understand what I mean by peace, and what I mean by flaws."
The instant his fingertip touched Naruto's forehead, the world before Naruto's eyes changed completely.
The desert, the corpses, his comrades…
Everything vanished.
He found himself standing before Ichiraku Ramen. Warm sunlight fell across his body, and the air was filled with the fragrance of pork-bone broth.
"Naruto, what are you spacing out for? Your noodles are getting cold!"
A voice so familiar it nearly stopped his heart rang out beside him.
Naruto suddenly turned his head and saw a man sitting there, with long white hair and a bright, hearty smile on his face.
"P-Pervy Sage?"
Naruto's voice trembled.
His eyes instantly turned wet.
Jiraiya laughed loudly and tapped Naruto's bowl with his chopsticks.
"What Pervy Sage? Show some respect, kid. Hurry up and eat. This one's on me."
"This… is this a genjutsu?"
Naruto murmured. He pinched his own thigh hard.
The clear pain told him that everything felt incredibly real.
"Genjutsu? What nonsense are you talking about?"
Teuchi poked his head out from behind the counter and laughed.
"Naruto, you're acting strange today."
Naruto stared at the living Jiraiya in front of him.
He looked at the peaceful Konoha around him, at the villagers passing through the streets, all smiling kindly at him.
His heart was being torn apart by overwhelming happiness and equally overwhelming fear.
"This is the peace I spoke of."
Kai's voice sounded inside his mind, cold and clear.
"No war. No death. Everyone you cherish is alive and well. Your dream has also been fulfilled. Look. You are already the Hokage."
Naruto lowered his head.
Only then did he realize he was wearing the Hokage's robe.
His hand brushed over the words "Seventh Hokage" on the fabric, and for a moment, he fell into a daze.
"This… this can't be real."
"Why can't it be?"
Kai's voice asked.
"As long as I desire it, this is reality. In this world, the Uchiha Clan was never massacred. Itachi and Sasuke live as loving brothers. Nagato never experienced pain. Yahiko and Konan are still alive. Obito never met Madara, and he lives happily together with Rin…"
"All tragedies have been corrected. Everyone has obtained happiness."
"Is this not what you have always pursued?"
Naruto's heart shook violently.
Yes.
This was exactly the world he had dreamed of.
No pain.
No separation.
Everyone wore happy smiles.
He saw Sasuke and Sakura walking over from afar with their child, and Sasuke's face held a gentleness Naruto had never seen before.
He saw Neji and Hinata training together, the atmosphere between them harmonious and warm.
It was too beautiful.
So beautiful that he almost wanted to drown in it and never wake up.
"So, what is your answer?"
Kai's voice sounded again.
"Will you choose this perfect world, or return to that reality filled with pain and death?"
Naruto looked at Jiraiya's concerned gaze.
He looked at the happy smiles of his friends.
Then he closed his eyes in pain.
"…It's fake."
He forced the words out through clenched teeth.
"Oh?"
"Even… even if this place is beautiful, it's still fake!"
Naruto suddenly opened his eyes.
Determination burned in his golden pupils.
"The pain we went through, the tears we shed, the comrades we lost… all of that is part of our lives!"
"If those things are erased, then we are no longer ourselves!"
"A happiness without choice, without struggle, handed down by someone else… I don't want it!"
"What a foolish and stubborn answer."
Kai's voice carried a trace of disappointment.
The next second, the perfect world shattered like a mirror.
Jiraiya's body dissolved into points of light.
The warm sunlight became the blazing desert sun.
The happy smiles changed back into the grim expressions of his comrades.
Naruto still stood in the same place, with the cold sensation of Kai's fingertip lingering on his forehead.
"Do you see?"
Kai withdrew his hand and looked around at everyone.
"This is humanity's flaw."
"You could embrace perfection, yet insist on choosing pain."
"You could reach heaven in a single step, yet insist on praising meaningless struggle."
His gaze swept toward Obito.
Obito's body was trembling.
Through some unknown method, he had also "seen" everything Naruto had experienced.
That world with Rin.
The dream he had spent his entire life chasing.
In this man's hands, it was nothing more than a toy that could be created and destroyed at will.
That was more cruel than killing him outright.
"What a magnificent moment of art, hm!"
Deidara's face revealed a sick, intoxicated expression.
"To create the most beautiful thing before someone's eyes, then destroy it in an instant! That blooming despair is the true peak of art!"
"Hey, Sasori-danna, did you see that? This is way better than your eternal art!"
Sasori did not answer.
The remains of Hiruko were scattered across the ground, and with only his core left, he felt fear for the first time.
A power capable of toying with the human heart in the palm of one's hand had already surpassed ninjutsu.
"Big bro, this guy is too ridiculous, yo."
Killer B supported the battered A, his expression uglier than ever.
"We're completely outmatched, yo."
A gritted his teeth and said nothing.
The pride of the Raikage had been crushed to dust.
The other side had never treated him as a true opponent.
Only as an insect that could be swatted away at any moment.
"Sasuke."
Kai suddenly spoke.
"Yes, Divine Lord."
Sasuke dropped to one knee, his head lowered, making his expression unreadable.
"Did you see that?"
"This is the 'will' they protect."
"Laughable. And pitiful."
Kai's tone was flat, but Sasuke's heart sank.
Of course Sasuke had seen it.
In his eyes, Naruto's choice was utterly foolish.
And yet, deep within his heart, there was a faint stirring he did not even want to acknowledge.
Between the version of himself who had abandoned everything for false happiness, and the Naruto before him who rejected happiness for the sake of so-called "reality"…
Which one of them was truly more ridiculous?
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