Uzumaki Naruto -v.2- Nzc ★

"Course I did. You're crashing my legacy. That's a declaration of war, y'know."

V-2 descended slowly. Up close, the differences were clearer. Their cloak was patched with fuinjutsu tags. Their right arm was bandaged from elbow to fingertip, glowing faintly blue—synthetic chakra veins.

Naruto's expression softened. He'd heard those words before—from a lonely boy in a mask, from a prisoner inside a seal, from himself, screaming at a village that wouldn't look at him.

"I am V-2," they said. "I was grown from your genetic material recovered after the Fourth War. Enhanced with Uchiha tissue, synthetic chakra, and a failsafe: I cannot feel hatred. Only purpose. And my purpose was to surpass you." Uzumaki Naruto -V.2- NZC

Naruto caught them before they fell. "Hey. Hey! You don't get to do that, you idiot. You just figured out who you are!"

"I'm already pumping chakra into them," Kurama growled in his mind. "They're synthetic. I can stabilize, but not for long. You need a seal."

In the distance, Naruto laughed—loud, bright, unstoppable—and Zero, for the first time, laughed too. "Course I did

Konoha had rebuilt. Skyscrapers of steel and chakra-conductive alloy now rose alongside the old Hokage Monument. Tech-nin—shinobi-engineers—had fused sealing arrays with digital networks. The new generation called it the Shinobi Cloud . Naruto called it a headache.

Naruto tilted his head. "That sounds like a bad pickup line."

Naruto pressed his palm to V-2's chest. A glowing spiral spread across their skin. Up close, the differences were clearer

Not as a copy. Not as a weapon. But as someone who had finally found their own name. END OF PROLOGUE

"Admitting it isn't weakness. Pretending you don't have it—that's weakness."

"Shikamaru, I've been fighting that fight since I was twelve." Naruto cracked his knuckles. "Where do I find V-2?" The trail led to the ruins of Amegakure. Rain still fell there—eternal, artificial, mournful. Naruto came alone, despite Sakura's protests and Sasuke's cold glare (he'd returned, of course, and immediately become insufferable again).

"I'm not letting you die," Naruto said. "That's an order. From your older brother."