Naruto: Chronicles of the Lost Library

The walls felt tighter.

Naruto's boots dragged through the dust, blood from his last fight still sticking to his leg. The torchlight behind him was gone. He didn't give a damn. Darkness made more fucking sense anyway.

He reached the bottom of a spiral staircase that led nowhere. A dead wall. Big ugly slab with a half-burnt seal and a bunch of claw marks like someone had tried to scratch their way out.

He stared at it. Then punched it. Hard.

"Open, you useless stone bastard. You made me crawl all this way — now give me something."

Silence.

Then, a quiet hiss.

A small slit opened up in the wall. Just wide enough for one scroll.

He snatched it.

No name. No symbols. No fancy seals. Just old-ass paper that smelled like ash and regret.

He opened it.

And Kazuki's voice spilled out like smoke from a burning throat.

"If you made it this far, you're dumber than I thought. Congrats. You followed the flame straight into its guts."

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Tch. Same old cryptic horse shit."

But Kazuki's voice shifted — not dramatic, just pissed off and tired of this cursed place.

"I should've torched the whole fucking thing. But I didn't. I wanted answers. Truth. Some crap that made sense. But the Library doesn't give truth. Just noise. You think you're chosen? You're not. Just the next dumbass in the list of suckers."

Naruto clenched his jaw. "I'm not like you."

Kazuki kept talking like he was in the damn room.

"You think this'll save your friends? Save your village? It won't. The flame doesn't light your way. It burns it. And once it's done fucking you over, it moves on."

The scroll cracked straight down the middle.

It burned itself.

Poof. Gone.

Naruto stood there, fingers covered in black ash.

"Fucking coward," he muttered. "If you hated this place so much, why the hell'd you leave this damn trail?"

Then the wall behind him pulsed.

Like it heard him.

A blue chakra line lit up across the stone floor — curved like a scythe, glowing like a big-ass warning.

And then... he felt it.

Chakra. Heavy. Cold.

Not his.

He turned.

And there stood Raian.

Not really him — just a memory. A projection. But this one wasn't flickering or weak. It stood solid. Like it fucking belonged here.

Young. Calm. Calm in that dangerous, asshole way — like someone who already knew how the whole story ended.

Raian smirked.

"You're late."

Naruto snarled. "I've had enough goddamn ghosts."

"I'm not a ghost. I'm your future."

"Yeah? Then fuck the future."

Raian didn't blink. "You're walking the same path I did. Flame by flame. Mistake by mistake. You think you're fixing something. You're not. Just repeating my failures, step by step."

"Funny," Naruto spat, "I don't remember ditching everything and hiding like a little bitch."

Raian stepped closer — no sound, just dread dragging behind him.

"You weren't supposed to be the bearer. That flame wasn't meant for you."

Naruto's fists tightened.

"Who, then? You?"

Raian's smirk dropped.

"No. Someone better. But he broke. Like all the others did. Like you will."

Something inside Naruto snapped. "If you're trying to scare me, try harder. I've fought gods, monsters, freaks with eyes that could melt fucking mountains. You? You're a broken recording. A scared little shit hiding behind chakra echoes."

Raian's eyes narrowed.

"You don't get it. The Library never wanted a hero. It wanted a mouth. A loud one. One that would echo forever. That's what I became."

"I'm not your echo," Naruto growled. "I'm your goddamn problem."

The projection flickered — once — then smirked again.

"No. You're my last mistake."

And then he vanished.

Just like that.

Gone.

Naruto stood there, heart pounding like a pissed-off drum in his chest.

Then the wall — the one he punched earlier — cracked down the center. The slab split open with a groan like it hated itself.

Behind it?

A chamber. Burned black. Trashed. Like someone fought a whole war and didn't bother cleaning up.

Ash everywhere. Blood too. Dried, old. Rotten.

In the center, another scroll. Sitting on a stone pedestal like it was mocking him.

He didn't move.

Didn't breathe.

His hand twitched. His chest felt like it was gonna break open and scream.

Kazuki. Raian. The Library. This whole rotten, cursed-ass maze.

He was done being their goddamn pawn.

He walked in.

Grabbed the scroll.

Opened it.

Blank.

Nothing but a tiny, nearly invisible line at the bottom:

"The next one writes it."

Naruto stared.

Then he smiled.

The wrong kind of smile.

"Fine. You want me to write the next chapter?"

He yanked out a kunai.

Carved into the stone pedestal:

I'm not your mistake. I'm your fucking end.

Then he walked out.

No ghosts.

No echo.

But the flame behind him?

It burned brighter.