Chapter 546: Divine Eyes
Once the reality of the situation had finally been laid in front of both of them, young Naruto's face went through something complicated.
It was hard to describe. Something felt like it was lodged in his throat -- wanting to laugh, not daring to laugh, trying to hold it down and failing to hold it down, until the whole effort produced a completely contorted expression.
Because -- the other world's Sasuke was a girl?!
That Sasuke? The proud one who was always making that face, who called him an idiot in that cold flat voice?
Honestly, under normal circumstances, being exactly who he was, young Naruto should have immediately started laughing. Should have pointed at Sasuke and mocked him endlessly and thoroughly enjoyed watching that usually untouchable person actually squirm with embarrassment.
Just imagining the scene was satisfying.
But -- his emotional intelligence got there a step ahead.
Because he suddenly realized: if he laughed at Sasuke for this, he would be doing something very rude to the Satsuki from another world who was standing right in front of him.
That beautiful older girl was standing there watching them with those calm dark eyes. If he laughed at her because of her gender -- wasn't that the same as saying "your existence as a woman is funny"?
Wasn't that mocking her for simply being herself?
Young Naruto was loud and thoughtless in many ways, but he did have this much sense.
So he drove the laughter down by force, held it back until the corners of his mouth were twitching and his face had gone thoroughly red.
For young Sasuke, whose nerves were already stripped raw, the sight of Naruto visibly suppressing a laugh was more than enough to tip him over.
"I -- I refuse to accept this --!"
Young Sasuke could only salvage the last fragment of his dignity this way.
"There is no possible version of me that would end up like this in another world!"
He pointed at Satsuki, hand trembling slightly. "If you were really my counterpart -- how could something like gender change?!"
Satsuki, who had only shown herself reluctantly after being called out in the first place, heard this and felt her brow pull together.
She hadn't particularly wanted to come. She had only wanted to travel with Naruto, to find the real "Naruko" they had been looking for. This detour had already gone further than she'd planned.
And now this other-world version of herself was questioning her gender?
In Satsuki's understanding, she was a woman. That was simply the reality. The fact of her life from its beginning. She had never thought there was anything to explain about it, anything strange about it.
And now this parallel self of hers was treating her existence as some kind of aberration?
Her displeasure was legible on her face.
"Think whatever you want."
Satsuki's voice was a few degrees colder than before. "But from my perspective, your gender is the unusual one. If that's your only concern, I'll be leaving with Naruto."
She had no interest in standing here and arguing about gender with a younger version of herself.
"Wh -- but --"
Young Sasuke went incoherent.
This conversation-ending, walk-away-if-you-disagree style was completely outside his frame of reference. He was someone who ran cold, not someone who dealt with people who were colder than him.
He stood there with his mouth open and no words available.
"But why..." he finally managed.
His gaze shifted sideways to adult Naruto.
"This dead last didn't change in the other world?!"
Adult Naruto blinked. Why had this suddenly become about him?
"If anyone should have changed..." young Sasuke's thoughts had come loose from their moorings, and he was no longer entirely sure what he was saying.
"Shouldn't it have been this dead last?!"
He pointed at adult Naruto, voice carrying a thoroughly unreasonable indignation. "He's the only one who would ever develop ridiculous techniques like that!"
Adult Naruto could not formulate a response.
Nearby, young Naruto, completely unburdened by any sense of self-preservation, spoke up. For someone who would one day develop Harem Technique, he engaged with this subject without a trace of awkwardness.
"Hm? Sasuke, you thought about that?"
The grin on his face was exactly the kind that asks to be punched. He had no idea he was adding fuel to a fire.
"But even if I were a girl, I definitely wouldn't be the type to fall for you the moment I met you, like those other girls."
He said it with complete sincerity. In his head, this was a statement of fact.
What it landed as, in young Sasuke's ears, was something else entirely.
Young Sasuke's face went red all the way to the roots.
He turned, grabbed young Naruto by the collar, and hauled him forward until they were face to face.
"You absolute moron! Keep talking like that and you'll regret it!"
It was good, in its way.
Young Naruto's thoughtless teasing, young Sasuke's furious comeback, the two of them tangled together and arguing like they always did -- this stupid, pointless, completely darkness-and-revenge-free bickering gave young Sasuke's almost-crushed heart a momentary place to breathe.
The dark thoughts, the confusion, the not knowing where to go -- the shame covered all of it. Just for a moment.
Adult Naruto watched the two of them grapple and couldn't quite stop the corner of his mouth from lifting.
But the chaos had gone on long enough. Some things still needed to be addressed.
"Satsuki."
He turned to her. "Would you show them some proof? It won't take long."
"Proof?"
Satsuki considered it, then nodded.
"All right. What specifically should I do?"
She agreed without any hesitation, and there was even a hint of something eager in it.
"Something like this," adult Naruto said, giving it a moment's thought.
"Actually -- let me and both of them see Satsuki's Susanoo. The one from those eyes. I haven't seen it myself yet."
Satsuki gave an immediate nod.
A proud expression rose to that cool face.
For the Uchiha, demonstrating power was something to be relished in its own right. And this was a demonstration for another version of herself, no less.
"All right, you two."
Adult Naruto turned and called toward the two teenagers who were still in the middle of their quarrel.
"Look this way."
His voice cut through clearly.
"Sasuke -- you want strength, don't you? Then see how strong your future self can be."
Young Sasuke's grip on young Naruto's collar loosened.
He turned his head slowly.
And then -- he felt it.
A wave of Yin Release chakra erupted from Satsuki's body, so vast it had no easy description. It surged like a tide. Like a depth that went all the way down. It spread in every direction, flooding the gorge, filling the Valley of the End until young Sasuke felt like an ant standing at the foot of something immeasurable.
His pupils contracted sharply.
He saw those eyes.
Those eyes were no longer the dark color they had been a moment ago.
The left had become a deep and vivid purple -- six black tomoe rotating slowly within it. The right kept its crimson foundation, but the pupil had transformed into the same rippling pattern.
It was the Sharingan. That much was undeniable.
But --
Why did it look like that?
Young Sasuke's mind went blank. He had never seen or heard of a Sharingan that looked anything like this.
He didn't know -- he couldn't know -- that what he was looking at was the apex of the Sharingan's evolution. The eye that had only ever existed in Kaguya Otsutsuki's possession. The eye called the eye of a god. The eye of the moon.
And it was in front of him right now.
Power demanded a target.
The Susanoo hadn't appeared yet. But Satsuki chose to begin with something. She extended one hand, a single slender finger aimed at the sky.
The light in those mismatched eyes began to gather.
"Planetary Devastation."