Silence. Yamato sighed. “We leave at dawn.” Hachō Village was a ghost draped in fog. Wooden houses clung to cliffsides, connected by rope bridges swaying over a black river. The people moved slowly, their smiles too wide, their eyes vacant. Children played with dolls that had no faces.
The fog congealed into shapes. Not clones— manifestations . Naruto saw Sasuke, but not the Sasuke he knew. This one had bleeding eyes, a shattered Kusanagi blade, and he laughed. “You failed me, Naruto. You were too slow. Too weak. I died because of you.” naruto shippuden episodes
Inside the darkness, he saw every fear he’d ever had: Iruka disowning him, Jiraiya’s body floating in the rain, Hinata dying to protect him, the village spitting on him again. But he didn’t flinch. Silence
Naruto nodded. He entered Sage Mode, feeling the natural energy calm the boiling hatred of Kurama inside him. He ran straight into the Kuroikiba’s core. Wooden houses clung to cliffsides, connected by rope