Time stood still.
His hand remained clenched around Danzo's collar, but the moment of fury had passed. The grip loosened—not from weakness, but from clarity. Strangling the truth out of a ghost like Danzo wouldn't work. Danzo was the kind of man who kept answers behind locked vaults and silent corpses.
The masked teen dropped him.
Danzo adjusted his robes with infuriating calm, as if the entire confrontation had been an arranged performance. "You're still holding back," he said, brushing nonexistent dust from his shoulder. "You haven't accepted what you are yet."
The teen remained silent, calculating. Every word Danzo spoke felt laced with intent, like the bait of a shinobi trap. He couldn't trust it—but he couldn't afford to ignore it either.
"You're no student. You're not even a regular ANBU," Danzo continued, circling the teen now like a vulture orbiting a dying flame. "You are what Root was never meant to release."
There it was again—that cryptic certainty. Not who are you, but what. The distinction gnawed at him.
[System Notification]
Shadow Enlistment Protocol Reactivation: Tier II – In Progress...
Hidden Protocol Unlocked: [Trigger Code - 09: SEVERANCE]
The interface blinked before his eyes—an invisible screen only he could see. Another code. Another piece of the puzzle. And another shiver across the back of his skull, like a wire had snapped loose in his brain and the past was leaking through.
He staggered. The world tilted sideways. Not physically—but the timeline again. Something shifted.
Twelve Years AgoVoices echoed in the sterile training chamber.
"He's stable... for now."
Danzo's younger self stood at the monitor. "Is the protocol active?"
A masked ANBU nodded. "Yes, sir. Code Phantom accepted the fragment."
Through a pane of glass, a child no older than five stood in the center of the room—eyes glazed, chakra flaring violently around him in spikes of raw, unshaped fury. He wasn't crying. He wasn't afraid. He was waiting.
Waiting to be used.
Present Day – KonohaHe clenched his jaw. "What did you do to me?"
Danzo didn't blink. "I activated you. Same as any tool."
The teen moved before Danzo could finish the sentence. His fist collided with the elder's jaw—not hard enough to break anything, but hard enough to demand silence. The guard at the door stirred, but Danzo held up a hand.
"No," he said simply. "Let him."
The teen breathed heavily. His mind was chaos, but his voice was steady. "You erased me from the timeline. You buried protocols inside my brain like landmines. And now you want to use me again?"
Danzo's expression finally shifted—just slightly. "You're not ready."
"I'm done waiting to be ready."
Later That Night – Academy GroundsHe walked the rooftop in silence.
No footsteps. No chakra. Just thought.
The encounter with Danzo had shifted the gameboard. He wasn't just a weapon. He was the weapon—one they couldn't control anymore. That meant every decision moving forward would change more than just his path. It would alter the balance in Konoha's underworld.
He was tipping the scale.
Below him, in the courtyard, Naruto was doing hand seals with his usual exaggerated energy. Mizuki barked instructions, but the blonde barely listened.
He almost smiled behind the mask.
He's the one I was supposed to kill.
The memory came unbidden—cleaner than any before. A knife. A breathless moment. A child who wouldn't stop smiling even as the blade hovered over his heart.
And then—everything changed.
Naruto looked up suddenly, his eyes locking with the dark silhouette on the rooftop. The teen didn't move.
"Yo!" Naruto called, waving like they were already friends. "You're the new guy, right?"
That grin.
The one he'd seen through a crosshair before time itself rewrote his orders.
Meanwhile – ROOT HQDanzo stood alone in the chamber beneath the chamber.
Two cloaked Root operatives flanked him as he approached the sealed databank.
"He's triggered Phase Two," he muttered. "Faster than expected."
A holographic projection lit up—an encrypted memory shard marked: [PHANTOM ARCHIVE_Ω].
"Initiate surveillance on Uchiha Sasuke. The anomaly is gravitating toward him."
"And if the anomaly resists?"
Danzo's gaze darkened.
"Then we proceed with the Severance Directive."
Three Days Later – Training GroundsSasuke was the first to say it.
"You've been watching me."
The teen didn't deny it. They stood across from one another on the training field, sparring partners in name only. Everyone else had left. Only shadows remained.
"You move like you're from ANBU," Sasuke continued, voice sharp. "But you act like someone trying not to kill."
The teen remained silent.
"You're hiding something. I don't care who you are, but if you're a threat—"
"I'm not here to hurt you."
"Good," Sasuke said flatly, activating his Sharingan. "Because I am."
He moved. Fast.
But the teen moved faster.
A flicker of shadow, a twist of the foot, and Sasuke's kunai hit only air. The masked figure countered with a silent, fluid strike—one that stopped just a centimeter from Sasuke's throat.
Neither of them moved.
"You should be dead," Sasuke said finally, eyes narrowing.
The teen stepped back.
"So should you."
System Notification[Trigger Code - 09: SEVERANCE]
Protocol Countdown: 72 Hours
Objective: Isolate from key timeline influencers
Failure to comply will result in involuntary shutdown and memory purge.
He stared at the interface.
"Severance…?"
Something inside him clenched.
He looked at the training field—at Sasuke, now walking away with fists balled. At Naruto, still practicing despite bruises and bandages.
And he realized what the system had just asked him to do:
Sever every tie.
Go invisible.
Abandon the bonds.
Or be erased again.
Again.
He looked up at the stars. And for the first time since waking up in this timeline, he was afraid.
Not of death.
But of vanishing.