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3rd POV:
The air in the forest was thick and quiet, the kind of silence that hummed just under the surface. Naruto crouched by a flat rock, scraping faint lines into the dirt as chakra pulsed through his fingertips.
Hiruzen's message was tucked in the folds of his jacket. It had arrived with a hawk and a single line written in Hiruzen's own careful hand:
> Your request is approved. Two years. Be ready when you return.
Naruto exhaled slowly. He hadn't expected it to actually go through. Part of him had assumed the Hokage would call it too risky, too unpredictable. But the village had let him go. That said something.
"I guess this is it," he muttered, glancing over his shoulder.
A few feet away, Bura leaned against the trunk of a tree, her arms crossed and eyes glowing faintly with mischief. The way her form flickered in and out of clarity still unsettled him some days, like she existed more in instinct than flesh.
"You look like someone who just got dumped by reality," she teased, tilting her head. "You're really going through with this whole reclusive mountain hermit arc?"
Naruto scoffed, straightening. "It's not like I'm running. I just need space. To train. Figure stuff out. You said it yourself, I'm not ready."
"I did," Bura nodded, eyes narrowing. "Didn't expect you to actually listen."
He smirked, hands in his pockets now. "Shocking, I know."
They stood in silence for a moment, wind rustling the trees. Then, her voice dropped, softer than before.
"You're going to change."
Naruto turned to her. "I already am."
Bura stepped forward. There was something unreadable in her eyes now, something old. "Yeah. That's what scares me."
And before he could reply — before he could even process the weight behind her words — she leaned forward and kissed him.
It wasn't long, or perfect, or clean. It was raw. Barely there. But it stunned him into stillness.
When she pulled back, her expression was unreadable. "That's not permission to get soft," she whispered, before fading away into his chakra like smoke in the air.
Naruto stood frozen in the stillness that followed, his lips tingling and heart beating out a rhythm he couldn't name.
---
Two days before that, he'd stood before Hiruzen's desk.
"I want to go," Naruto had said plainly.
"Where?"
"Anywhere. Secluded. Away. I don't want missions or chūnin exams or council eyes for now. I need time. Two years. I want to come back with no doubts left about who I am."
Hiruzen had gone quiet, tapping the edge of his pipe.
"You've grown, Naruto," he'd finally said. "But you'll be out of reach. That's dangerous."
"I'm more dangerous to Konoha if I don't do this," Naruto had answered, voice even.
Iruka had been in the room too, watching silently. His shoulders were tight, jaw clenched.
"You've already passed what most kids your age can handle," Iruka had muttered. "But I'm still worried."
"You should be," Naruto said. "But not for me. Worry for the ones who stay behind."
---
The memory lingered as he packed his few belongings — scrolls, notes, a chakra-insulated prototype for his console project. His tools. Everything else was unnecessary.
He didn't say goodbye to anyone.
He didn't want a crowd.
---
Hinata had watched him go from afar.
Even now, years later, she remembered the way he'd walked — like he was leaving the village behind but not out of hate. More like… duty. And that, somehow, made it worse.
She didn't speak to him before he left. Couldn't find the words. She just kept watching.
So instead, she focused on training.
She honed her gentle fist until her hands blistered. She ran laps around the village until her legs screamed. She stood before a mirror each morning and repeated affirmations until her voice stopped shaking.
And it worked.
Bit by bit, Hinata changed.
She learned to hide her blushes behind calm smiles. Learned to challenge Kiba during spars without hesitation. She even started trading silent stares with Sasuke from across the training fields — a quiet competition neither of them acknowledged aloud.
But she never forgot him.
She didn't plan to.
---
Sasuke had changed, too.
But not for Naruto — not entirely. She had felt it, the slow-burning need to not be left behind. Not by her clan. Not by fate. And definitely not by him.
So she trained harder.
She stopped waiting for someone to guide her and instead learned how to guide herself. She memorized scrolls, practiced techniques until her chakra coils screamed, and let herself embrace a colder, quieter kind of discipline.
If Naruto had stayed, maybe she wouldn't have changed this much. Maybe she'd still be half-reliant on someone else for validation. But he'd vanished, and with him, the illusion that someone else would save her.
When she looked in the mirror now, she saw a girl who chose her own path.
She wasn't waiting anymore.
---
Two years passed.
And in that time, Naruto became something else.
He didn't just train — he evolved.
His body lengthened with growth, but didn't bulk out in the way most expected. He remained lean, fast, deceptively powerful. His long hair, once pale blonde, now shimmered with faint red streaks when caught in sunlight — a quiet echo of his Uzumaki bloodline rising to the surface.
He wore lighter gear, his custom-made jacket designed for movement, laced with storage seals and tech-infused panels of chakra-resistant cloth. On his wrist sat the latest iteration of the console he'd been tinkering with — small, portable, linked to a network only he and Bura could access.
But that wasn't the most striking change.
It was his eyes.
His dojutsu had developed into something completely foreign to even the most ancient texts. Black sclera, crimson-burning pupils laced with golden threading, ever-shifting like flame trapped in a whirlpool.
Kurama had once muttered, "It's unsettling," from inside.
Bura had said, "Looks hot."
Naruto just called it his edge.
It let him see chakra movement in real time, overlay terrain with predictive flow, and pierce illusions with ease. But it also took from him — drained his stamina fast, pushed his body hard, and often whispered things at the edge of his perception he couldn't understand.
Still, he kept using it.
Kept trusting it.
Kept pushing past the limits.
---
Now, standing outside the gates of Konoha again, the breeze tugging at his jacket, he looked… calm.
The guards didn't recognize him at first.
One squinted. "Name?"
Naruto smiled faintly. "Uzumaki Naruto. Reporting back from seclusion."
The guards exchanged glances.
No fanfare. No dramatic welcome.
Just the same gates he'd left behind, and a whisper of chakra behind him — Bura, fading into silence as she muttered:
"Show them what you've become, Naruto."
He stepped forward, no hesitation in his stride, and crossed back into the village.
---
Author's Note
Naruto's back, but he's not the same loudmouth kid anymore. We're done with the filler arcs — the storm's coming. Keep your eyes on Sasuke and Hinata too — their paths aren't gonna be what you expect. And Bura? Oh, she's just getting started 😏
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