The forest outside Konoha was quiet that morning. Mist still clung to the ground, turning the air cool and heavy. Ryo followed Naruto through the dirt path that led deeper into the woods, the Hokage's white cloak swaying lightly with each step.
Neither of them spoke much at first. Only the crunch of their sandals on damp soil broke the silence. Ryo's chest still ached from his last battle, but the pain was bearable now.
After nearly twenty minutes, the trees opened into a clearing. A narrow waterfall spilled into a small lake, clear enough to reflect the rising sun. The sound of rushing water echoed through the space, steady and calm.
"This is where I trained to control my chakra when I was your age," Naruto said, stopping near the edge of the water. He glanced over his shoulder, smiling faintly. "It's a good place to find yourself."
Ryo stared at the lake. The surface rippled gently, and for a moment he could almost see his reflection splitting in two, his real self and something darker beneath it.
"So what do I do first?" he asked.
Naruto folded his arms. "Simple. You sit. You breathe. You stop thinking about what's supposed to happen and just feel what is happening."
"That's… vague," Ryo muttered.
Naruto laughed softly. "Yeah, Jiraiya said the same thing to me. Guess it's my turn to sound like an old man."
He crouched beside Ryo and drew a rough seal in the dirt using a stick. "Sit inside this circle. I'll lend you a bit of chakra to help you focus. Once it starts flowing, don't fight it, just follow where it leads."
Ryo nodded, took a deep breath, and stepped inside the seal. As he sat cross-legged, Naruto placed a hand on his back. Warm chakra surged through him, gentle but strong, like a current pulling him into deep water.
At first, everything felt normal. Then, slowly, the world around him began to dim. The sound of the waterfall faded. The ground beneath him vanished.
When Ryo opened his eyes again, he wasn't in the forest anymore.
He stood in a vast, empty space, an endless floor of shallow water reflecting a dark sky. The air buzzed faintly, thick with unseen energy.
"…This isn't real," he whispered.
"Oh, it's real enough," said a voice behind him.
Ryo spun around. Naruto was there, but not exactly. His form flickered slightly, like a projection made of chakra. And behind him, looming in the distance, stood a massive iron gate.
Ryo's breath caught. The seal on it was broken in parts, but faint light pulsed behind the bars.
"That's…"
"Kurama's old cage," Naruto said quietly, walking toward it. His expression was calm but distant. "This is my mindscape. Or what's left of it."
Ryo followed slowly. "So if this is your subconscious… why am I here too?"
Naruto stopped and turned toward him. "Because when I sent my chakra into you, it resonated with something inside you. It pulled both our consciousnesses into this space."
Ryo frowned. "You make it sound like whatever's in me… responded."
Naruto nodded once. "Exactly."
Before Ryo could speak again, the water around them rippled violently. The air thickened, humming with pressure. The iron bars groaned as a low growl echoed from behind them.
Then a familiar, deep voice filled the space.
"Still dragging people into your head, huh, Naruto?"
Ryo froze. That voice, he had heard it countless times through the anime and manga, but hearing it in person made his whole body tense.
Naruto grinned faintly. "Yeah, well, it's been a while, Kurama."
A massive shadow moved behind the gate, two glowing eyes opening slowly. The fox's presence filled the entire space even before his form became clear. His tails swayed lazily, yet the sheer weight of his chakra made Ryo's knees tremble.
"So you're the brat's new toy?" Kurama rumbled, his gaze locking onto Ryo.
"I, uh… toy? I don't think"
Kurama's eyes narrowed. "Quiet. You smell strange. Not human… not entirely."
Ryo swallowed hard. "You can smell that?"
Naruto chuckled lightly. "He's not wrong. Your chakra feels different from anyone I've met."
Kurama's tail flicked. "There's something else hiding in him. I can feel it. Not a beast… something older."
Ryo took a step back, his pulse racing. "Older?"
The fox leaned closer to the bars, his massive eyes glowing brighter. "You don't even know what you're carrying, do you, boy?"
Naruto raised a hand slightly. "Easy, Kurama. Don't scare him."
Kurama snorted. "You humans and your fragile hearts. Fine."
His gaze softened, slightly. "Listen, boy. Whatever sleeps inside you, it's not ordinary chakra. It's a fragment… of something that shouldn't exist in this world."
Ryo's throat went dry. "What does that mean?"
Kurama stared for a long moment, then said, "It means your story didn't start the day you arrived here. It started long before that. You just forgot."
The words hit harder than any punch.
Ryo shook his head. "That's impossible. I'm from another world. I know my life."
Kurama's laugh was low, almost mocking. "Then explain why your soul burns like a shinobi's. Why your chakra doesn't belong to that weak, peaceful world you came from."
Ryo couldn't answer. His heartbeat roared in his ears.
Naruto looked between them, his expression tight. "Kurama, do you know what he is?"
Kurama's tails flicked again. "Not yet. But whatever it is, it's dangerous. Not to us… but to him."
The fox's tone shifted, almost like a warning. "Tell him this, Naruto. Power that crosses worlds never comes without a price."
Then the space began to tremble. The water beneath their feet rippled violently, and the iron gate glowed with blinding light.
Naruto turned quickly toward Ryo. "Something's pulling you back, Ryo, stay calm!"
"I, I can't"
The light swallowed him whole before he could finish.
---
Ryo gasped and shot up, finding himself once again by the waterfall. Naruto was beside him, breathing heavily, beads of sweat on his forehead.
"You saw it too, didn't you?" Ryo asked, his voice shaky.
Naruto nodded slowly. "Yeah… and Kurama had a message for you."
Ryo looked up, waiting.
Naruto's tone grew quiet. "He said… remember who you were before you dreamed of this world."
The forest wind blew through the clearing. For a long moment, neither of them spoke.
Ryo clenched his fist, feeling the faint pulse of the mark under his skin.
"Then I guess it's time I find out who I really am."
---
The sun had climbed higher now, casting warm light through the forest canopy. Mist drifted above the small lake where Naruto and Ryo stood, the quiet rhythm of falling water filling the air.
Naruto wiped the sweat from his forehead and took a deep breath. "Alright, kid. We take it slow this time. I'll teach you how to balance that energy flow before it eats you alive."
Ryo nodded, still shaken from what he'd just seen inside Naruto's subconscious. His hands trembled slightly, but he forced them to stay steady. "I'm ready."
"Good." Naruto crouched down and placed a hand on Ryo's stomach. "The mark, your energy, it reacts to your emotions. If you lose control, it spreads. So don't focus on powering up. Focus on keeping your heart calm. Clear."
Ryo exhaled and sat cross-legged on the grass. He closed his eyes and tried to focus on his breathing.
In… out.
In… out.
At first, nothing happened. Then, slowly, the warmth returned, chakra stirring deep inside him, rising like a tide.
Naruto's voice stayed calm. "Good. Keep it steady."
The mark on Ryo's wrist flickered faintly, glowing through the bandages. It pulsed in sync with his heartbeat. But as the seconds passed, the rhythm began to change.
The glow spread upward, crawling under his skin like living fire.
Ryo winced. "It's, harder to control this time"
Naruto's hand gripped his shoulder. "Stay with me, Ryo. Don't fight it. Flow with it."
But the pulse grew stronger, wilder. His vision blurred. The forest around him started to twist and fade again, colors bleeding into one another.
"Ryo!" Naruto's voice echoed as the ground fell away.
And then, silence.
He stood once more in that strange, water-covered world. But it wasn't Naruto's mindscape this time. This was different. The air was cold, sharp. The reflection of the water didn't show the sky, it showed him.
His reflection stared back, but it didn't move the same way. The other Ryo tilted his head, eyes glowing faintly red, with the same shifting black mark crawling up his neck.
"So… you finally made it here," the reflection said. Its voice sounded like his own, but deeper, distorted.
Ryo's chest tightened. "Who are you?"
The reflection smiled faintly. "The better question is, who are you?"
"I don't have time for riddles," Ryo snapped. "Kurama said something's inside me. Is that you?"
The reflection's grin widened. "Maybe. Or maybe I'm what's left of you before you became someone else."
"What the hell does that mean?"
The water around them rippled violently as the other Ryo stepped closer. The mark on his arm glowed brighter, matching Ryo's pulse.
"You think you came here by accident?" it said. "You think pressing a button on your laptop is enough to rewrite fate? No. Something chose you. Something reached across worlds to pull you in."
Ryo's heart pounded. "Then tell me why. Why me?"
The reflection paused for a long moment. "Because you asked for it. You wanted to be the main character."
Ryo froze. His own words came back to him, the night he clicked the button.
'Sure, why not. Maybe I'll wake up in Konoha or something.'
He clenched his fists. "That was just a joke. I didn't mean"
"Intent doesn't matter," the reflection interrupted. "Desire does."
The air around them grew heavy, trembling with power. "You wanted to live in this world, to have meaning, to be seen. That wish had a price."
"What price?"
The reflection leaned closer, their faces only inches apart. "Your past."
Ryo's eyes widened. "My… past?"
"You gave it away to step into this story," the reflection whispered. "And now, piece by piece, it's trying to return."
Before Ryo could react, the reflection's hand shot forward, pressing against his chest.
A searing pain tore through him, and his mark blazed bright red. The reflection's voice echoed in his mind, cold and sharp.
"When you remember me… when you remember us… the real story begins."
Ryo screamed as the world shattered like glass.
---
He woke up gasping, drenched in sweat. The forest was spinning, and Naruto was right beside him, gripping his shoulder tightly.
"Ryo! Stay with me!"
Ryo coughed, clutching his chest. "I, I saw him…"
Naruto frowned. "Who?"
"Myself. But not me. He said… he said I gave up my past to come here."
Naruto stayed silent for a long moment, then exhaled slowly. "So it's true. The mark isn't just power, it's a bridge."
"Bridge?" Ryo repeated weakly.
"Between what you were, and what you're becoming." Naruto stood, helping him up. "Whatever's sleeping inside you, it's starting to wake up."
Ryo looked down at his trembling hands. The glow was gone now, but the faint outline of the mark remained, quiet, waiting.
Naruto placed a hand on his shoulder again, his voice firm. "You're not alone in this. We'll figure it out, together."
Ryo nodded slightly, still shaken but grateful.
As they turned to leave, he glanced one last time at the waterfall. For a split second, his reflection on the water smiled, on its own.
---