Pat.reon(up to 10 chapters ahead): patreon.com/Guild_Kevi

...

"Naruto!! No...!" - Minato's scream echoed through the area and reached Naruto's ears, but it was already too late.

A hand brutally pierced his torso, and in the next moments, many wooden spikes pierced his body from the inside, massacring the teenager's body.

Naruto fell lifelessly to the ground, although his body couldn't feel pain, he couldn't move anymore, lost sensation and connection with this surrogate body for his Soul.

He could only watch the departing figure of the man who had finished him. What power... Naruto wasn't even angry, he simply admired the man in his final moments.

"Nii-san!!" - Menma immediately appeared beside his brother and knelt, wanting to help him.

"I'll give you some Chakra soon, hold on a little longer."

Naruto wordlessly looked at Menma, his expression pathetic, looking like he was about to cry. His help was futile; this body was already too destroyed and couldn't accept any additional Chakra to sustain his Soul in this crumbling body.

Himiko along with the rest of the companions quickly arrived to help him. Naruto saw tears streaming down her beautiful face, her lips trembling, wanting to say something but unable to.

Minato placed a hand on her shoulder and gently hugged her, turning her gaze away from him.

Trembling, Menma withdrew his hands from him. His brother's body began to slowly disintegrate as the infinite Chakra was severed due to the destruction of the body. He couldn't infuse any additional Chakra into it to prolong his life. The foreign body used as a substitute to revive Naruto was no longer usable; it couldn't even be regenerated.

Naruto's gaze began to blur, his blue eyes freezing, losing the remnants of life.

"My whole life was so pathetic... what a waste of time..." - Naruto chuckled as he faced death once again.

After these words, the spirit finally left the body. The Soul soared back up to where it belonged.

Deformed and artistically formed with Chakra, the body resembled the previous body of the Soul's owner in appearance. There were few differences in appearance; the lack of vitality caused purely white hair and gray skin with dark cracks all over the body's surface, as well as black eyeballs as a sign of revival.

The forbidden technique of resurrection was interrupted due to abnormal body damage, impossible to regenerate. The body, after the Soul left it, instantly disintegrated and turned into dust from the remnants of the white monster, used as a substitute for resurrection.

Naruto's second death caused a huge drop in morale and mental strength among his companions.

Then came the all-encompassing darkness and void as Naruto's Soul returned to the afterlife.

...

Taking a sharp breath, Naruto suddenly woke up, drenched in cold sweat. It took him a while to shake off what he had seen.

"What the hell was that...?"

Clutching his chest, he felt his heart beating strongly. He felt fear, greater than ever before and since.

The memory of death was traumatic, but what was in the afterlife... darkness and emptiness, void. You see nothing, feel nothing, you are nothing, you are, but you're not there.

Naruto never wanted to feel that again. It was hell...

After a long time, Naruto slowly regained his composure. He looked around and realized he was in his room, on the bed. It was night, and the moon proudly shone in the sky, surrounded by a row of stars.

Naruto felt suffocated; he opened the window wide and leaned his head out from behind the sill, inhaling fresh air into his lungs.

His heart still pounded in his chest, and he couldn't fully rid himself of the feeling of emptiness.

That dream... he had dreamed it many times before, he was sure of it, but only now did he remember it. Truly, Naruto would give anything now to live in ignorance. That would be bliss for him.

"I need to walk it off, or I won't bear this tension in me..." - Naruto jumped out of the window without hesitation and headed in some random direction. He relied on instinct.

The previous day... was full of memory gaps. He could only recall a few minutes of memories. If this continues, he probably won't endure it.

At some point, Naruto began to move away from the populated area of Konoha and headed towards the outskirts of the Village. The terrain began to get steeper as he climbed to the top of a high mountain, reaching above the clouds; it was one of the highest mountains in the Village, even higher than the stone heads of the Four Hokage.

Standing on the steep peak, Naruto sat on the edge of the mountain, allowing his legs to hang in the air. The ground shifted slightly under his weight, but it didn't cause him to fall from the immense height.

The air here was heavier than down below. The cool wind gently blew his thin, night clothes. It was quite cold this night, which was surprising for this time of year.

Looking down at everything from above, Naruto's heart slowly calmed down. He felt carefree being alone here; only now did he realize how suffocating it was for him with all those people when he worked as Minato's assistant or when he was in the Research and Development Department.

Solitude isn't bad. It's an ailment invented by mentally weak people. Solitude is an all-encompassing, cold peace that refreshes your Soul.

"I understand now, so that's how it is..." - Naruto chuckled to himself at some point.

That damned Monk was completely right; Naruto... gave up. How pathetic and humiliating it was.

He was supposed to defy his destiny, overcome it, and triumph. He wanted to recover and experience the world and life, but he gave up, accepting Fate like any other pathetic human being.

In the end, only a fool pushes forward when faced with the impossible, when fully knowing their destiny and knowing that there's no way to win.

Everything hit him so suddenly, which made him give up, overwhelmed by Kushina's illness.

What he had been doing for the past weeks and months was just an escape.

Psychologists once discovered a phenomenon. They say that the reason for not remembering one's childhood years is the inability to cope with what happened then. For our mental health, the brain rejects those memories.

The same thing was happening now with Naruto. If he remembered everything he did recently, he would go crazy at some point. So his brain rejected some memories so he could continue to function.

At first glance, such a good life couldn't have been traumatic, right...? Not for Naruto, that Naruto who was willing to destroy himself for power...!

"What a waste of time..." - Naruto sighed.

He stood up straight and looked down, below himself. If he falls, he'll die. Itachi survived the fall thanks to his raw strength at the age of just six, attempting to cling to the walls with Chakra and a few kunai he stabbed into the rocks to try to stop the fall.

Naruto hadn't trained in a long time; his body was a shadow of what it represented just a year ago. He couldn't use Chakra to stick to the surface, nor did he have any weapons with him.

Can I risk it like this...? Naruto asked himself this question.

He has to take care of his siblings, help Minato at work, and maybe find a way to cure Kushina... Naruto can't risk it; it's completely irresponsible.

Besides, it wouldn't do him any good anyway. What would he achieve with this reckless act?

This thinking, this way of reasoning... it was what held him back.

Kyuubi said to abandon attachments and relationships; they stop you then and you can rise to new heights.

However, Naruto doesn't know if he would fully abandon his family ties. No, actually he wouldn't do that. In Naruto's mind, two extreme thoughts were competing for dominance.

Returning to thoughts of the strange dream, Naruto was certain it was his future. A renewed sense of emptiness briefly permeated his existence, and instinctively, in an act of escape, he stepped forward.

...

Actually, I remember...

Naruto thought as memories of the previous day slowly returned to him. All the memory gaps he had over the past few months were also filled with lost memories.

Breaking through the cloud of clouds, Naruto tried to grab onto protruding rocks. The rapid pace of falling and the sharpness of the rocks caused damage to his hands. His arms dislocated in an instant and were bent from the immense force exerted on them when he tried to grab onto something.

"He.. hahaHAHHA...!!"

A shiver of excitement ran down Naruto's spine as he felt that familiar feeling within him that he hadn't felt in a long time. Yes, this was why he lived, to feel and experience such things!

Even if faced with the impossible, he never wanted to give up again...! He'll be a fool who won't accept the Fate laid out by the Heavens, he rejects it all...!

"I won't abandon anyone, I won't sever my ties; I'll do what I want, that's my will, and I'll stick to it...!"

Naruto is being watched; his future self from the future sees him and begs him not to find himself in that damned situation he saw in the dream again. Naruto can't fail because there won't be a second chance.

...

...

Many days later, several Anbu finally found a trail. The eldest son of the Hokage once again raised his ability to conceal his presence to a new level, causing immense pain to anyone who pursued him. Some treated him as a target and a benchmark of skill, so whenever Naruto disappeared, many people volunteered to search for him.

This time, somewhere on the outskirts of Konoha, Anbu found him in a clearing next to a flowing river.

Practically naked, with the remains of destroyed clothes, Naruto held a huge boulder on his back, probably weighing almost a hundred kilograms, and moved with it, performing various movements.

The area was quite destroyed; the grass was scorched, and the trees were broken. The whole space was Naruto's training ground, and he didn't hold back from destruction to restore his skills to the highest level.

Two Anbu's jaws involuntarily dropped as they watched Naruto easily jump up almost half a meter, with a huge rock on his back. It's not that it was impossible to achieve, but... Naruto was about eleven years old, crippled, and his body was so thin and devoid of muscles that you could see his ribs sticking out.

"This is insane..."

Naruto didn't pay attention to them; he was so focused that he didn't even see the arrival of the two Anbu with his sensory perception. He trained without rest for many days and almost reached the previous form of this body, just a little more. He just needs to destroy this body a bit more to reform it into the highest quality weapon.

At the same time, he was physically breaking down and conducting many processes within his body, honing his skills to shine again. Sensing and controlling the body, or maybe the Control Techniques, Taijutsu, Kenjutsu, Shurikenjutsu, everything must regain sharpness and power. Everything must be restored to its previous state so he can continue to develop.

He can't waste time anymore, never again.

The pleasures of the past few months were a nightmare. His brain rejected them, erasing his memories, giving silent signals for him to shake himself off and get out of depression, because otherwise, it will end for him in a Fate worse than death.