The sky above Konoha churned with overcast clouds, casting a dim, silvery haze over the village. The air felt heavier, as if the world itself sensed that something… wrong had rooted itself beneath the surface.
Ardyn stood alone at the edge of Training Ground 14.
A testing site far from the central village—conveniently isolated, and conveniently offered to him by Tsunade for "independent chakra development." A polite exile. A controlled space for observation.
Exactly what he wanted.
His fingertips grazed the grass as he knelt. Energy pulsed beneath the surface of his skin—like molten shadow slithering beneath flesh. Every day, his connection to the Void grew stronger. Every hour, his influence spread further across this version of the Shinobi World.
[SYSTEM LOG: KONOHA NETWORK INFILTRATION – 19% COMPLETE]
[ACCESSING: ROOT TERMINAL SHADOW NODE… SUCCESSFUL]
Images flickered in his mind.
Surveillance footage. Secret meetings. Chakra blueprints.
A recent one—Danzo speaking with an ANBU agent in a dim corridor.
"The boy is a variable," Danzo hissed. "One I intend to own… or erase."
Ardyn smiled.
Try.
He rose to his feet, eyes darkening as faint ripples of void energy wrapped around him.
Today, he was expecting a visitor.
And not a friendly one.
Uchiha Itachi moved like a whisper between branches.
Crows scattered in his wake, silent in their flight. His presence was barely a flicker of chakra, a smear of shadow against the forest canopy.
But even for one like him—trained in deception, in annihilation—something felt off.
He landed silently on a branch overlooking the training ground.
And saw him.
The boy Danzo had warned of.
Standing motionless. Waiting.
Itachi's Sharingan activated.
And he paused.
No chakra flow. No muscle tension. No fear. It's as if… he's expecting me.
He stepped forward.
"You aren't from this world," Itachi said, voice low.
Ardyn turned slowly. "Neither are you… at heart."
Itachi narrowed his gaze. "You wear a child's face. But you're not a child."
"Correct."
"You don't belong here."
"Also correct."
A pause stretched between them like taut wire.
"I should destroy you now," Itachi said coldly.
"You could try," Ardyn replied, eyes flickering void-black for a moment. "But your mission is observation, not interference. Your orders were to verify the anomaly, not to engage."
Itachi said nothing, but the slight widening of his eyes gave away the truth.
Ardyn took a step closer.
"You've been watching me for two days now. Calculating. Measuring. And yet… what truly bothers you is this:"
He raised a hand—and the air twisted. Reality bent, ever so slightly.
"You don't see fate when you look at me. Your Sharingan shows you paths, timelines, probabilities… but with me, there's only static."
The crows nearby exploded into flight all at once.
Itachi clenched his fists.
"You know things that should be impossible. Names. Faces. Events yet to unfold."
"Akatsuki. Orochimaru. The Fourth Great War. The Ten-Tails. Kaguya. I could name them all." Ardyn smiled faintly. "But why spoil the surprise?"
For the first time in years, Itachi felt a chill crawl down his spine.
"Are you the harbinger of ruin?" he asked quietly.
Ardyn's eyes gleamed.
"No."
He paused.
"I'm the reset button."
[SYSTEM UPDATE: UCHIHA ITACHI – STATUS: NEUTRALIZED VIA MENTAL DETERRENCE]
[DANGER LEVEL: MODERATE – POSSIBLE SHIFT TO HOSTILE IN FUTURE TIMELINE SPLITS]
After Itachi vanished into the trees, Ardyn sat beneath the training ground's central tree, the same one Naruto used to train at years ago. He traced lines in the dirt, each one representing a branching path of destiny.
He could feel it now—the timelines intersecting.
This world was more fragile than it appeared.
Its fate was tied to broken souls… and unstable gods.
He would break it further.
Back in Konoha – Inside the Hokage's Office
Tsunade's fist slammed into the table, cracking it.
"You let Itachi enter Konoha without authorization?!"
Shizune flinched. "We only knew after he left. Surveillance picked him up near the training ground. No signs of hostility."
"No signs—? He's a wanted rogue ninja!"
"But…" Shizune hesitated. "There was no confrontation. He simply… observed the boy."
Tsunade went still.
"The Void child…"
"They didn't fight. Just talked."
Tsunade looked out the window, the Hokage Monument looming in the gray distance. Her voice dropped to a whisper.
"Then that boy… may be even more dangerous than I thought."
Elsewhere – ROOT Headquarters
Danzo stood in front of a screen of flickering seals. The surveillance feed replayed Ardyn's interaction with Itachi again and again.
No battle.
Just words.
And yet… Itachi retreated.
"He must be harvested," Danzo muttered.
He turned to the masked ANBU behind him.
"Activate Subject: X-42."
The ANBU flinched. "But sir… X-42 is unstable—"
"Exactly. I want to see if the boy bleeds."
In the Void Realm – System Overlay Activated
Ardyn sat in the dark of his mental domain, the world around him a swirling storm of code and black tendrils.
And then… a presence arrived.
Alien. Fractured.
Not chakra.
Not void.
Something worse.
Dimensional Threat Detected.
A new alert flashed across his mental HUD:
[WARNING: EXPERIMENTAL ENTITY – ROOT SUBJECT X-42 INCOMING]
Threat Level: UNKNOWN
Status: Engineered Aberration
Power Signature: ANTI-VOID COMPATIBLE
Ardyn narrowed his eyes.
Finally… something interesting.
He stood, cloak rippling, and whispered to the system:
"Open the battlefield."
[CHAPTER END | NEXT: Subject X-42 – The Weapon That Shouldn't Exist]