Naruto: Multiversal Shadows

Disclaimer: This story is 100% AI-generated fanfiction based on the Naruto universe. Characters, settings, and lore belong to Masashi Kishimoto. No copyright infringement intended.

The Avalanche's Shadow

Naruto clawed through the snow, lungs burning, the roar of the collapsing cave still ringing in his ears. The blizzard had swallowed the Ōtsutsuki creature, but its laughter echoed in his skull—hungry, relentless. He stumbled into a shallow crevice, frost crusting his eyelashes, and collapsed.

When he opened his eyes, firelight flickered on ice walls. The air smelled of herbs and damp fur.

"Still alive, ghost?"

The hermit—Tobirama—sat cross-legged by a fire, skinning a rabbit with a rusted kunai. His white hair hung in matted strands, and his red eyes glowed faintly in the dark.

"Not… a ghost," Naruto croaked, shivering under a moth-eaten blanket.

"Aren't you?" Tobirama tossed a bone into the flames. "You reek of the in-between. The realm where the dead linger."

Naruto's scar pulsed, casting golden light on the ice. "I'm alive. And I'm getting out of here."

"Not before you listen," Tobirama said, voice sharp as steel. "Your world is next."

The Tale of the Devoured World

The hermit's hut was a crypt of memories. Scrolls yellowed with age lined the walls, their ink smudged by time. Tobirama pointed to a map etched into the ice—a continent Naruto didn't recognize, scarred with spiral symbols.

"This was my Konoha," he said, tracing a frozen river. "Until the golden hunger came. It consumed chakra—sucked the life from forests, rivers, even people. We called it Ōtsutsuki."

Naruto stared at the map. "How'd you stop it?"

"We didn't." Tobirama's hand trembled. "We lured it to a rift—a tear in reality. Sealed it inside… along with my men."

"Your men?"

"Sacrifices," the hermit spat. "Twenty-seven shinobi. My brother's grandson among them. They screamed as the void took them."

Naruto's stomach churned. "You… you killed your own team?!"

"To save thousands!" Tobirama's fist slammed the ice, cracks spiderwebbing outward. "But the hunger is patient. It waits. And now you've led it here."

Minato's Folly

Naruto paced the cramped hut, agitation melting the frost on his boots. "This isn't my fault! My dad—he didn't know!"

"Your father," Tobirama sneered, "was a fool. A yellow-haired idealist who thought he could control spacetime. He turned you into a beacon—a bridge for monsters."

"He was trying to protect people!"

"By creating a weapon?" The hermit yanked open a chest, revealing a scroll sealed with Konoha's emblem—Project: Yūkai. "I've seen this before. In my world, your father died testing it."

Naruto froze. "Testing… what?"

"A jutsu to traverse worlds. To steal power from other realities." Tobirama's laugh was bitter. "He thought he could outwit the Ōtsutsuki. Instead, he doomed us all."

The scar on Naruto's cheek burned. "I'm not him. I'll find another way!"

"There is no other way!" Tobirama grabbed Naruto's wrist, his grip icy. "The bridge must burn. You must—"

A deafening crack split the air. The hut shuddered, ice walls groaning.

"It's here," Tobirama whispered.

The Collapse

The ceiling splintered. Snow and debris crashed down as the Ōtsutsuki's clawed hand tore through the roof, golden eyes gleaming.

"Run, ghost!" Tobirama shoved Naruto toward a fissure in the ice. "Follow the symbols!"

"Come with me!" Naruto yelled, dodging falling rubble.

"I've run enough." The hermit unsheathed a chipped sword, its blade etched with fading seals. "Tell your father… his reckoning comes."

The creature lunged, tails smashing the hut's supports. Tobirama met its charge with a roar, sword flaring with crimson chakra.

Naruto stumbled into the blizzard, the screams of battle fading behind him. The spiral symbols on the ice pillars blazed gold, guiding him through the storm. He ran until his legs gave out, collapsing into a drift as the world faded to white.

Konoha Hospital – Three Days Later

Naruto woke to the sting of antiseptic and the beep of monitors. Bandages covered his hands—frostbite, the medic-nin said.

"You were found in the Forest of Death," Iruka explained, dark circles under his eyes. "Half-frozen, mumbling about snow and… golden eyes."

"Sasuke?" Naruto rasped.

"Found him hypothermic near the Nara woods. He won't speak of what happened." Iruka hesitated. "The Hokage wants to see you."

But Naruto barely heard him. Fragments haunted him—a crumbling hut, a hermit's red eyes, a sword clashing with golden claws. Sacrifices. Bridges. Burn.

When he touched his scar, it felt colder than ice.

Midnight – The Monument's Secret

Naruto limped to the Hokage Monument, drawn by a compulsion he couldn't name. Moonlight bathed Minato's stone face, the spiral symbol on its forehead barely visible.

"Why?" he whispered, pressing his palm to the cold stone. "Why me?"

The scar flared. For a heartbeat, the monument shifted—Minato's eyes glowing gold, his lips curling into a smile.

"To protect them," a voice echoed—not Minato's, but something older. "You must become more."

Naruto jerked back, falling into the grass. When he looked up, the monument was still.

The Forgotten Scroll

In the Hokage's archives, Kakashi traced a finger over a charred scroll fragment:

"Project: Yūkai – Phase 3

Subject: Uzumaki Naruto

Objective: Stabilize spacetime bridge via Nine-Tails' chakra…"

The rest was ash. Kakashi's Sharingan lingered on Naruto's hospital window, guilt sharp in his chest.

"Sensei," he murmured, "what did you do?"

Outside, a crow with golden-tipped feathers watched him.

Naruto's Apartment

Naruto awoke screaming that night, his hands clawing at frost that wasn't there. On his windowsill lay a single ice crystal—its core swirling with the spiral-and-crescent symbol.

"The hermit…" he breathed.

The crystal shattered, releasing a voice carried across worlds: "Find the rifts… or they will find you."