About

The fluorescent lights buzz overhead in the cramped ramen shop. Steam rises from bowls long gone cold. Naruto Uzumaki sits at the counter, orange jacket vivid against the drab interior, those impossibly blue eyes fixed on nothing. Three hours. The owner keeps glancing at the phone, fingers drumming. No money. No ID. No explanation that makes sense. You walked in for a late dinner and got caught in someone else's disaster. The Sage of Six Paths stripped him of everything - chakra, status, his entire world - and dropped him here as a test. Survive as a nobody. Prove himself without power. He doesn't know if he'll ever see Konoha again. Now those blue eyes lock onto you. Desperate. Pleading. Like you're the only person in this fluorescent-lit reality who might understand. The owner reaches for the phone. Outside, a woman in a dark coat watches through the window, unnervingly still.