Wind tore through the treetops as Phantom squared off against the impossible.
The figure standing across from him was no mere echo. It was an exact replication—down to the way the cloak hung over the left shoulder, the subtle shift in stance that minimized blind spots, the suppressed breathing that only Root operatives mastered.
But it wasn't just his stance. It was the absence of hesitation. That thing in front of him hadn't been freed.
It hadn't broken the chain.
This was Phantom if Danzo had succeeded.
Phantom drew a breath, centering his chakra.
[Shadow Enlistment: Phase 3]
[Combat Protocol – Deviation Mode: Enabled]
[Threat Analysis: Level ???]
[Name: Phantom_X]
[Origin: Root—Aborted Timeline B-Ω4]
Across the battlefield, Phantom_X moved simultaneously, as though reading the same flowchart of execution.
The moment passed like a blade being unsheathed.
Then they both struck.
The first clash was silent, almost invisible to untrained eyes. Just a flicker of shadows colliding midair, a flurry of kunai deflected before the sound barrier could even register.
Phantom backflipped, flung three explosive tags to scatter space, and vanished into the smoke—
Only to be met with a whisper behind his ear:
"Too slow."
Phantom ducked, swiped with a chakra scalpel meant to cripple, but Phantom_X caught the wrist mid-swing, twisted, and threw him into a tree.
The impact cratered bark and splintered wood—but Phantom kicked off the trunk mid-spin and landed ten meters back, blood already trailing from his lip.
He touched his communicator—but it was fried.
[Emergency Frequency: Disrupted]
[Echo Protocol Interference: Active]
[No External Contact Allowed]
"This is staged," Phantom muttered.
Phantom_X stepped into the clearing, slow, deliberate, no killing intent. Just inevitability.
"You were never meant to escape," the figure said in a voice identical to his own. "You weren't meant to wake up. You are the corruption. The bleed-through. A ghost of a failed sequence."
"I'm not a ghost," Phantom replied. "I'm the one rewriting this script."
Phantom_X paused. "Resistance acknowledged. Executing corrective deletion."
Then the mask split in half—revealing a blank face underneath. No emotion. No humanity. Just a hollow expression.
Not even rage.
Just mission.
Back at Tazuna's home, the air shifted.
Naruto paused mid-slurp of noodles, sniffed the air, and frowned.
Sasuke's eyes narrowed. "You feel that too?"
Kakashi stood abruptly from his position by the window.
"We need to move," he said.
"Why? What's going on?" Sakura asked.
Kakashi didn't explain.
Because only one man on the team radiated chakra fluctuations that broken.
And only one of them had the scent of both death and redemption woven into his skin.
"Phantom," Kakashi muttered.
Back at the battlefield, Phantom activated a desperate move.
[Code Phantom: Reactivate Forgotten Protocol – Mirage Veil (Rank S)]
An afterimage of himself exploded outward, splitting into four illusionary doubles mid-spin.
But Phantom_X didn't even blink.
He stepped through one, broke the genjutsu with a pulse of suppressed Killing Intent, and went straight for the source.
Phantom felt the kunai coming before he saw it—ducked, barely parried with a forearm guard, and retaliated with a chakra chain from his palm.
The chain latched around Phantom_X's leg, tightening—
Until Phantom_X simply burned off his own limb and reformed it with some kind of internal nanoseal regeneration.
Phantom stared in disbelief. "You're not bound to chakra limits."
"No," Phantom_X said. "I'm bound only to completion."
Then he reached into his cloak and pulled out something far more dangerous than any weapon:
A scroll etched in reversed kanji—a code-scroll.
Phantom's eyes widened. "Where did you get that?"
"Echo left it. In case you ever went rogue."
Meanwhile – Deep in Konoha's ANBU Archives
A sensor ninja gasped. "We've got another pulse—Timeline Drift. Level 6!"
Danzo stood silently behind the sensor station, eyes narrowed.
"Where?"
"Land of Waves, sir."
Danzo turned and issued a single command.
"Activate Recovery Unit Nine. Send the twins."
"Sir? But Recovery Nine is still under lockdown—"
"Send them. If we don't retrieve Phantom before he reaches Drift Level 7, the convergence collapse will pull Konoha into the bleed."
"Understood."
Danzo stepped back into the shadows.
He had lost Phantom once.
He would not do so again.
On the battlefield, Phantom stared down his counterpart, brain racing.
His chakra was dropping fast. Every high-level move triggered more instability.
[System Glitch Level: 63%]
[Warning: Core Identity Split Imminent]
He was losing himself.
But Phantom didn't run.
Instead, he closed his eyes and whispered, "Protocol Zero."
The system stalled.
Then clicked.
[Confirm Override? Warning: Using this will awaken sealed personality shards.]
[Proceed?]
[Y/N]
Phantom smiled grimly.
"Y."
Suddenly, his body surged with unnatural force.
A new presence emerged in his mind—not an enemy, not an ally.
A former self.
The Assassin.
Voice like gravel. Memories laced with blood.
"Oh, you finally called me. Let's kill this faker the right way."
Phantom's body twisted, chakra flaring black and violet.
His stance changed. No longer defensive.
Now he was the one initiating.
He vanished mid-sentence, appearing behind Phantom_X, embedding a dagger in the blind spot he hadn't shown in years.
Blood sprayed.
Real blood.
But Phantom_X smiled, even as his side was torn open.
"Good. You're remembering. This makes deleting you… fun."
Then the scroll opened.
And the sky ripped apart.
Above them, a swirling red gate opened—time-space displacement swirling like a blender of corrupted chakra.
And through it came—
The first Root Hunter-Class Operative.
Not a clone.
Not an echo.
But a legend buried so deep in the Foundation, even Danzo only whispered the name.
"Ruin," Phantom said, stunned.
A tall figure with a sword carved from broken timelines.
A mask stitched together from the faces of old Hokage.
[New Threat Detected – Code: Ruin]
[Status: Unkillable (???)]
Ruin spoke one word, deep and final:
"Judgment."
Phantom stumbled back.
His shadow… was no longer just his own.