Naruto still clearly remembered the day he first met Aizen.
That night, he had just endured another miserable day.
Several village children had banded together and beaten him up.
Dragging his battered body back to his tiny shack, Naruto cooked a cup of instant ramen, hastily wiped the blood and dirt from himself, and lay down to sleep.
Even at such a young age, Naruto had already noticed something unusual about himself.
No matter how badly he was injured, the bruises on his body would disappear by the next day, and his strength would fully recover.
That alone proved he wasn't an ordinary child.
Perhaps… just as the villagers said, he really was the Nine-Tails Demon Fox.
With those complicated thoughts swirling in his mind, Naruto gradually fell into a deep sleep.
His consciousness sank.
And then—
He was pulled into a mysterious space.
Drip. Drop.
The sound of water dripping echoed, jolting Naruto awake.
He opened his eyes groggily, only to find himself in a dark, freezing underground chamber.
"Where… is this?" Naruto murmured, confusion filling his face.
He had clearly been asleep just moments ago. Yet now, he was standing in a completely unfamiliar place.
"Is anyone there?" he called out.
His voice echoed hollowly through the darkness.
Guided by the faint light, Naruto stumbled forward. The cold seeped into his bones, and he hugged his arms tightly, fear flickering in his eyes.
Soon, an iron gate appeared before him.
It was covered in countless sealing tags.
And behind the gate—
A figure slowly emerged from the shadows.
A white robe.
Brown, slightly curly hair.
An eternally calm, confident smile.
And behind a pair of glasses, eyes so deep they seemed impossible to read.
Aizen.
Aizen Sōsuke.
A man from another world—the Soul Society. Former Captain of the Fifth Division of the Gotei 13, who would later betray the Soul Society and rule over Hueco Mundo.
Outwardly gentle and refined.
Inwardly cold, ambitious, and ruthless.
He sought only one thing: to transcend the limits of the Shinigami and obtain supreme power.
To him, everyone around him was merely a chess piece, to be used and discarded at will.
After reaching the peak of power, his arrogance only grew, crushing every Shinigami who dared stand in his way.
And yet, in the end, he was defeated by Kurosaki Ichigo, who mastered the ultimate technique—Mugetsu—and was sealed away in the deepest prison, Muken.
That was Aizen's original fate.
But right now, he was still the composed, powerful Captain of the Fifth Division.
Inside the Sealing Space, Aizen looked at the bewildered Naruto and calmly adjusted his glasses, brown eyes glinting faintly.
Even he didn't know when it had started.
Every night, once he fell asleep, his consciousness would be drawn into this dark space.
And every time, a light screen would appear before him—showing fragments of Uzumaki Naruto's life.
Aizen observed everything.
How Naruto was subtly controlled by the village's higher-ups.
How he was bullied and ostracized by villagers who saw him as a demon fox.
How he endured endless cold stares and malice.
With Aizen's intellect, it didn't take long to understand the truth.
Uzumaki Naruto was a terrifying military asset for Konoha's leadership.
To control him, they branded him as the Nine-Tails Demon Fox despised by the entire village—so that they themselves could become the "light" in his darkness.
A crude and low-level form of brainwashing.
Clumsy, even.
Growing up in such an environment, it would be easy for anyone to grow to hate the village—or even lose control entirely.
And yet, unbelievably, Naruto didn't hate Konoha.
He even dreamed of becoming the Hokage.
The Hokage—the leader of a hidden ninja village.
What Aizen knew about the Hokage was only a small glimpse into the vast and unfamiliar Ninja World, and it sparked his curiosity.
Once, he had persecuted the former Fifth Division captain, Shinji Hirako, turning him into a subject for Hollowfication experiments in his pursuit of power beyond Shinigami limits.
Now, he wanted to understand the secrets of the Ninja World through Naruto's eyes.
To seek a power that surpassed even that of the Shinigami.
This world had no Soul Society.
No Shinigami.
No spiritual pressure.
Instead, there were ninja.
And chakra.
Every ninja used chakra to perform various forms of ninjutsu.
Unfortunately, Naruto had never actually seen ninjutsu in action.
Aizen understood why.
Uzumaki Naruto simply wasn't at that level yet.
Or perhaps, once he grew older, he would finally come into contact with those mysterious techniques.
For now, Aizen's curiosity outweighed his ambition.
After all, this was a power system from another world—one that undoubtedly held countless secrets worth exploring.
Naruto, as Aizen's "eyes," needed to grow properly.
And so, Aizen put on the elegant persona he had perfected over the years.
He smiled and spoke gently.
"Uzumaki Naruto… I've finally met you."
"You know me?" Naruto asked, stunned.
"Of course," Aizen replied calmly.
"You like instant ramen. You hate drinking expired milk. You hate the hostile looks people give you… and you want to become the Hokage."
His voice was smooth and magnetic.
"I know you better than you think. I've been watching you for a long time, Naruto."
Those words—watching you—made Naruto's eyes instantly fill with tears.
Aside from the Third Hokage, this was the first person who truly understood him.
No—this Mr. Aizen understood him even better than the Third Hokage ever had.
"Oh, right," Aizen added with a smile.
"My name is Aizen Sōsuke. You can call me Aizen."
That first meeting was simple.
Yet to Naruto, Aizen was like a beam of light piercing his dark world.
With Aizen's guidance, Naruto began reading books and learning how to think independently.
"Sometimes, what your eyes see is not the truth."
"If you're truly the Nine-Tails Demon Fox, why do you have a human body? Why are you so weak that even ordinary children can bully you?"
"Every world has its rules. To live within a world is to be bound by those rules. To you, Konoha is a shelter—but it is also a cage."
"So tell me," Aizen would ask, eyes deep and unreadable,
"Will you obey the rules… or will you step beyond them and become the one who creates them?"
At the time, Naruto didn't understand those words.
But now, he had begun to think.
To look past the surface of things and see their essence.
To understand his position—and choose the most perfect response.
Bit by bit, Naruto shed his childish innocence.
He became refined.
Quiet.
Composed.
As he grew through learning, his curiosity toward Aizen deepened.
He couldn't tell if it was just his imagination—
But he always felt that this gentle, elegant man had another side.
One far more terrifying.
What he saw might not be the real Aizen at all.
"Mr. Aizen… why are you helping me?"
One day, Naruto finally asked the question he had long kept buried.
Aizen had appeared out of nowhere in the Sealing Space, guiding him with such patience and care.
If it were before, Naruto would have cried in gratitude, worshipping him without question.
But now, he had learned to think.
There was no such thing as absolutely selfless help.
Mr. Aizen must want something from him.
Hearing the question, Aizen smiled.
"To be able to ask that… it seems you are no longer the Uzumaki Naruto you once were."
"I come from another world, and my reasons are quite simple."
"First, I want to understand the secrets of ninjutsu through your eyes. One day, it may be useful to me."
"Second, your life is an interesting spice in my otherwise dull existence. I want to see how a Naruto who has stepped beyond this conspiracy will treat Konoha—and how he might overturn this world."
"Third," Aizen said calmly,
"on a personal level, I simply dislike Konoha. Their methods are crude and foolish, so I decided to give you a bit of help."
The memory faded.
Naruto's lips curved into a faint smile.
No matter what Aizen's true intentions were—
One thing was undeniable.
He had been kind to Naruto.
Without him, Naruto might still be blindly yearning to become "Hokage" even now.