The forest was unnaturally quiet that night.
No crickets. No rustling leaves. Only the low hum of distant thunder and the crunch of boots on damp earth.
Uzumaki Haruto, fifteen years old and barely a genin for six months, adjusted the strap of his backpack. His red hair—rare even among the scattered remnants of the Uzumaki—was tied back in a messy ponytail, strands sticking to his sweat-damp forehead. He glanced sideways at his teammates.
There were four of them on this C-rank escort mission that had somehow turned A-rank overnight.
Captain Mizuki—an older jonin with sharp eyes and a permanent scowl—led the way. Behind him walked Hana, the kunoichi Haruto had known since the academy. She had been his first crush, the girl who once shared her bento when he had none. Now she avoided his gaze, her fingers twitching near her kunai pouch.
Then there was Kenta, the burly taijutsu specialist who always laughed too loud at Hana's jokes, and old man Elder Toru—a council advisor who had insisted on joining "to oversee the sealing."
The mission briefing had been simple: escort a sealed scroll containing a fragment of a rogue tailed beast's chakra to a secure outpost near the border. But two hours ago, Akatsuki remnants had ambushed them. The fight had been brutal. Haruto had taken a poisoned senbon to the shoulder protecting Hana. He still felt the burn spreading.
"We're almost at the ritual site," Captain Mizuki said without turning. "Elder Toru will perform the transfer seal. Everyone stay sharp."
Haruto nodded, forcing a grin. "Got it, Captain. Just another day saving the world, right?"
No one laughed.
They reached a small clearing ringed by ancient stone pillars—remnants of some forgotten Uzumaki sealing array. Moonlight filtered through the canopy, casting long shadows that seemed to writhe on their own.
Elder Toru stepped forward, unfolding a large scroll. Black ink symbols glowed faintly under chakra infusion. "The fragment is unstable. If we don't bind it properly here, it could erupt and draw every missing-nin within a hundred miles."
Haruto felt a prickle at the back of his neck. Something was wrong. The air tasted metallic, like blood and ozone.
"Haruto," Elder Toru said calmly. "Step into the center circle."
He blinked. "Me? But I'm not—"
"It's your bloodline," the elder cut in. "Uzumaki vitality. Your chains can stabilize the seal long enough for the transfer. It's the only way."
Hana finally looked at him. Her eyes were wet, but her voice was steady. "It's just a minor binding, Haruto. You'll be fine. We all trust you."
Trust.
The word hit harder than the senbon earlier.
Haruto swallowed and walked forward. The stone circle was etched with fuinjutsu he recognized—Uzumaki clan patterns, the kind his mother used to draw for him as bedtime stories. He knelt in the center, palms pressed to the cold rock.
Elder Toru began chanting. The scroll unfurled fully, revealing a jagged black seal at its heart. Chakra poured out like ink, coiling toward Haruto.
At first it felt warm. Familiar. Like the rush of his own reserves.
Then it turned cold.
Very cold.
Haruto's eyes widened. "Wait—this isn't—"
Chains erupted from his back instinctively—adamantine sealing chains, the pride of his clan. But they didn't wrap around the fragment. They wrapped around him.
His own chains.
Betrayal crystallized in an instant.
"Hana…?" His voice cracked.
She looked away, tears falling freely now. "I'm sorry. The village… the elders said if we didn't offer a sacrifice, the bijuu fragment would destroy everything. Your life for thousands."
Kenta stepped forward, kunai drawn. "Don't make this harder, kid."
Captain Mizuki placed a hand on Hana's shoulder. "It's for Konoha."
Elder Toru's chant rose. The black seal pulsed, hungry. Haruto felt his chakra draining—not into the fragment, but through it. Into something else. A rift tore open above him—a swirling black vortex, edges crackling with unfamiliar energy. Not ninjutsu. Not genjutsu. Something… other.
"No!" Haruto roared, struggling against his own chains. They tightened like vipers. Blood trickled from his wrists where they bit into skin.
The vortex widened. Wind howled. Shadows inside it moved like living things.
Elder Toru smiled thinly. "The gate has accepted the offering. Your soul will fuel the seal for eternity. Konoha thanks you, Uzumaki Haruto."
The last thing Haruto saw was Hana turning her back, shoulders shaking.
Then darkness swallowed him whole.
He fell.
And fell.
And kept falling.
Until—
A cold, mechanical voice echoed in the void.
[System Awakening]
[Host detected: Uzumaki Haruto]
[Death condition met. Reinitializing as Candidate for Necro-Shadow Protocol.]
[Welcome to the Eternal Gate Realm.]
[Survive. Grow. Return.]
[Or perish forever.]
A blue screen flickered into existence before Haruto's fading consciousness.
[Necro-Shadow System Online]
[Level 1]
[Class: Shadow Initiate]
[First Trial: Survive the First Wave]
Haruto's eyes snapped open—not to the forest, not to betrayal—but to an endless gray wasteland under a blood-red sky.
Monsters howled in the distance.
And for the first time in his life, something inside him didn't feel afraid.
It felt… hungry.