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Naruto burst through the door of his apartment, nearly taking it off its hinges.
He didn't stop to kick off his sandals. His eyes swept the apartment in one quick scan and he was already moving, muscle memory carrying him through the chaos he knew better than anywhere else in the world.
The entryway was its usual disaster.
Boxes stacked crookedly against the wall, bottles he kept meaning to throw out, shoes kicked in every direction. He stepped over all of it without looking down and hit the storage cabinet first.
Top shelf. Left side. Behind the instant ramen he'd been saving.
His hands closed around the first pouch and he shook it, listening for the familiar rattle of shuriken before holding it out in front of him. It shimmered and vanished.
[ Shuriken Pouch x1 has been added to Inventory ]
Second pouch behind it, full set of kunai. He'd counted them yesterday out of habit.
[ Kunai Pouch x1 has been added to Inventory ]
He moved to the desk next.
It was buried, as always, under open books and empty cups and papers covered in half finished notes on his assignments from the Academy. He shoved most of it aside and yanked open the bottom drawer. Explosive tags, bundled in groups of five the way he'd seen it done in a book he'd borrowed from the Academy library and never returned. He grabbed all four bundles, held them out, watched them shimmer away one after another.
[ Explosive Tags x25 has been added to Inventory ]
Smoke bombs were in the kitchen.
He ducked around the corner and pulled open the cabinet above the stove, the one that was supposed to hold cooking supplies but mostly held things he didn't know where else to put. Eight smoke bombs wrapped in a cloth he'd torn off an old shirt. He took all of them. The paint bombs were underneath, four of them, red and blue, left over from a prank he'd been planning before everything went sideways.
[ Smoke Bombs x8 has been added to Inventory ]
[ Paint Bombs x4 has been added to Inventory ]
Medicinal kit was under the bed.
He dropped to one knee and reached into the dark, fingers finding the worn strap immediately. He dragged it out and flipped it open on the mattress, checking by habit. Bandages. Antiseptic. Soldier pills, only two left. He needed to get more. Needle and thread still sealed. He snapped it shut and held it out.
[ Medical Kit x1 has been added to Inventory ]
The cloak was the last thing from inside.
It was hanging on the back of the bedroom door where he always left it, treated with a chakra reactive dye that responded to the transformation jutsu and helped the illusion hold against trained eyes.
Then he stepped out onto the balcony.
It was the one part of the apartment that wasn't a disaster.
He'd started it small, just a few pots he'd found abandoned outside the building, soil he'd carried up four flights of stairs in a bucket. But it had grown over the years into something he didn't have a word for. Rows of mismatched containers lined the railing, clay pots, old cans, and one cracked bowl he'd wired back together rather than throw away. Every one of them had something growing in it.
Yarrow first. He pulled a generous handful of the dried flower heads, the ones he'd hung upside down last month specifically for this. Good for bleeding. He'd learned that the hard way after a prank went wrong three years ago and he'd spent a night figuring out how to stop a cut on his arm from soaking through everything he pressed against it.
[ Dried Yarrow has been added to Inventory ]
Ginger root next, two thick pieces he'd been drying on the balcony ledge. Good for pain, nausea, and the kind of deep bone ache that came after the body had taken more than it was meant to.
[ Dried Ginger Root x2 has been added to Inventory ]
He went back down the row and stripped every medicinal herb bare.
Oscar was worth more than a careful harvest.
He stood at the railing for a moment, hands loose at his sides, looking out over the village. Rooftops and lamplight and the distant shape of the Hokage Monument carved into the mountainside. Four faces looking out over everything they'd built and everyone they'd left behind.
He turned away from the balcony and went back inside.
The jacket was draped over the back of his desk chair where Iruka had left it after his last birthday, still folded the way it had been when it came out of the wrapping. Navy blue, slightly too big for him, which Iruka had said was intentional because you'll grow into it. Naruto had worn it exactly twice since then.
He picked it up and held it for a moment.
Then he started lining the inside with explosive tags.
It took him four minutes and every tag he had left.
The plan had come to him while he was stripping the balcony, the way his best ideas usually did, arriving fully formed and slightly unhinged. He would wear this suicide jacket and make shadow clones. Each one wearing exactly what he wore, jacket included, identical down to the last detail the way only shadow clones could manage. And then he would send them running straight at the demon.
In the half second before the demon figured out what it was holding.
Boom.
Kamikaze Shadow Clone Jutsu. Naruto pressed his lips together very hard and failed to stop the grin.
It was certainly a plan.
[ Explosive Tag Jacket x1 has been added to Inventory ]
Sorry, Iruka sensei. You'll have to get me a new one for my birthday.
Naruto smiled at the thought and grabbed the cup noodles.
You are going to enjoy these, sensei.
He stood in the middle of the apartment and realized, for the first time since he'd burst through the door, that he had absolutely no idea how to get back to the asylum.
He looked at the ceiling.
Then, because nothing else came to mind, so he raised his fist into the air and announced to the world, "Send me back to the Northern Undead Asylum."
Silence.
Somewhere outside, a crow cawed in the distance.
"Shut up," Naruto told it.
He turned back to the room, cup noodle still in hand, heat crawling up his neck so fast he was surprised smoke wasn't coming off his ears. His hand tightened around the cup out of pure frustration and it shimmered away before he'd even decided to store it.
Oscar's words came to his head.
The Darksign does not simply mark you. It defines what you are in this world. Death triggers it. It returns you to the last bonfire you rested at.
Do I need the Darksign to go back?
As if on cue, a system window blinked open in front of him.
[ Item: Darksign ]
[ Description: The Darksign signifies an accursed Undead. Those branded with it are reborn after death, but will one day lose their mind and go Hollow. Death triggers the Darksign, which returns its bearer to the last bonfire rested at, but at the cost of all humanity and souls. ]
Do I have to die to use this?
The thought sat in his chest with a particular kind of weight. He could do it again if he had to. But before he'd finished the thought, a second window opened beneath the first.
[ Do you wish to use item: Darksign? ]
[ Yes / No ]
Naruto let out a breath that was almost a laugh and pressed Yes.
The back of his neck erupted.
The burn drove him to one knee before he could brace for it, a searing heat that moved outward from his spine in waves, each one worse than the last. He grabbed the edge of the desk with one hand and held on as the sigils spread across the floor beneath him, yellow light carving itself into two concentric circles, symbols forming in the space between them.
The light built until he couldn't see the room anymore.
Until he couldn't see anything.
But even through the pain, through the white consuming everything, one thought cut clean and clear.
Don't worry, sensei. He felt himself coming apart at the edges, the apartment dissolving, Konoha dissolving, and everything falling away into the light. Your squire is coming. We're going to kick that demon's ass. And then we're eating ramen, dattebayo.
The light took him.
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Author's Note I hope you guys enjoyed what I've set up so far.
Now let's get into a short Q and A section where I answer some questions I think you might have, clear up a bit of Dark Souls lore, and explain some of my creative decisions.
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Q. How do Naruto's stats work?
A question I got last chapter and one worth addressing properly.
Think of Naruto's stats as his baseline. Strip away every drop of chakra he has, with no Kyuubi influence. What remains is the person underneath.
That is what his stats represent.
This is why his numbers aren't extraordinary at first glance. Some of you wanted to see a Vitality of 30 or higher, which makes sense on paper. He's an Uzumaki. They're legendary for their life force and endurance. But those numbers reflect Naruto without chakra, and an Uzumaki without chakra wouldn't have huge vitality or endurance.
Don't worry though. I have something specific planned for the Uzumaki clan that will affect his stats down the line. That's all I'll say about that for now.
As for augmentation, yes, Naruto can absolutely enhance his stats through chakra. A Strength stat of 12 already lets him hit hard enough to fracture bone. Layer chakra reinforcement over that and the math changes considerably. The same logic applies to Endurance, Dexterity, Resistance, and similar physical stats.
However, not everything can be pushed higher with chakra. Intelligence and Faith are internal.
The short version. Stats are the foundation. Chakra and jutsu are what you build on top of it.
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That's It… For Now.
I want to thank you all for taking the time to read, comment, and follow along with this story. Your feedback means more than you know, and it helps push me to make each chapter bigger, sharper, and more true to the worlds of Naruto and Dark Souls.
Until next time,
Praise the Sun.
\-Adam-/