The smell of ink and old parchment filled the air as Phantom stood beneath Konoha's archives, deeper than any student—or even most jonin—were ever allowed to go.
The seal Kakashi had given him now shimmered faintly across his forearm, masking his chakra signature. He moved silently between shadow-wrapped shelves lined with scrolls older than the Hidden Leaf itself.
His fingers hovered over a specific drawer, marked by a single symbol—根 (Root).
[System Scan Active…]
[Encrypted File Detected: Phantom/Shadow Origin | Class-Z Clearance]
[Initiating Forced Decryption...]
[Warning: External Seal Detected – Threat Level: Lethal]
[Override Code Accepted: "Reaper-Class – Echo Identity Confirmed."]
The drawer hissed open.
A single scroll, blackened around the edges, unrolled itself as if drawn by invisible hands.
TOP SECRETPROJECT PHANTOM – TIME FRACTURE INITIATIVE
Operative Name: [REDACTED]
Status: Timeline Exception
Role: Execution Unit – Future Assassination Subprogram
Authorization: Danzo Shimura | Sub-Level ROOT-IX
Summary:
Subject created via Reaper-class accelerated imprinting. Objectives classified under Operation Black Veil. Upon failure, subject was marked for Oblivion Protocol—full erasure from memory and history.
Outcome: Subject survived obliteration via Code Phantom subroutine. Memory instability and timeline reversion occurred. Subject is now a living contradiction.
Phantom's hands trembled. The truth… it was worse than he imagined.
He wasn't just forgotten.
He was engineered to disappear.
A failsafe.
A built-in ghost.
And the Protocol didn't erase him from just people's minds—it scrubbed him from time itself.
That's why no one remembered him.
Not even the system could recognize its original directives. They were fragmented. Hidden behind broken code and restructured karma.
Suddenly, the torches flickered.
And he wasn't alone anymore.
A slow clap echoed from behind him.
"Well done," came a familiar voice.
Phantom turned. Danzo Shimura stepped from the shadows, flanked by two Ghost Division operatives. His right eye gleamed with Sharingan hatred, and his bandaged arm twitched beneath his robe.
"You really are persistent," Danzo said. "Even without a name."
Phantom didn't move. "You built me. Then you deleted me."
"I built a weapon. You failed your purpose. I corrected the error."
"You didn't correct anything," Phantom hissed. "You buried your mistakes."
Danzo raised his chin slightly. "And yet here you are. Digging them back up."
The Ghost Division agents moved fast—chakra blades drawn, movements silent as death.
Phantom barely dodged the first strike, rolling between the aisles as scrolls exploded into confetti around him. He activated a hand sign mid-air:
[Technique: Shadow Warp – Rank A]
[Effect: Phase through solid matter for 3 seconds]
He blinked through a shelf and landed behind the nearest operative, snapping his wrist and stealing his chakra blade in one clean move.
The second operative launched a barrage of senbon—each laced with paralysis seals.
Phantom deflected them with a spin, tossing the blade into the darkness behind the attacker—only for it to land a clean hit in his thigh.
One down.
Danzo watched with eerie calm. "You're still sloppy. Still uncertain. Just like back then."
Back then.
The words clawed at Phantom's skull. Flashes of cold corridors. Of Root initiations. Of missions against shinobi children not old enough to fight back.
Of Kari's blood.
"You don't get to talk about then."
Phantom activated his system:
[Code Phantom: Reactivate Forgotten Protocols]
[Unlocked: Root Reaper Subclass – Ghost Execution Tree Accessed]
[New Skill: Silence Fang – A blade technique that severs chakra links]
[New Passive: Echo Drift – Immune to memory-type genjutsu for 3 seconds post-kill]
Phantom moved like water.
In seconds, he was in front of Danzo.
But the old war hawk didn't flinch. His Sharingan activated—and Phantom felt a flicker in his mind.
Genjutsu.
For a breath, he was back in the Root initiation room, kneeling before Danzo, blade to his own throat.
"You will obey."
"You will forget."
"You are nothing."
But this time… Phantom's memory fought back.
The illusion shattered.
And Danzo's expression finally cracked.
"You've grown dangerous," he said quietly.
"I've grown free."
Phantom's palm slammed into Danzo's chest—activating a mark etched in chakra that had lain dormant since Phantom's first life.
Danzo gasped as his Sharingan eye began to bleed.
"You placed a brand on me," Phantom whispered. "But I turned it into a leash. And now you're the one bound."
Danzo vanished in a burst of leaves—a shadow clone.
The real one was long gone.
But Phantom didn't care.
He had what he needed.
He stood in the ruined archive chamber, breathing heavily, scroll clutched in hand.
Then he turned… and saw someone watching him from the entrance.
Naruto.
Eyes wide. Shocked.
"Who… are you?"
Phantom didn't answer.
Not with words.
He turned and vanished into the shadows, leaving only the scent of old blood and chakra scorched into stone.
But for Naruto… the image of the masked boy standing over Root secrets would haunt him long after.
[System Alert: Mission Update – Timeline Fragment Recovered: "Danzo's Ghost Division"]
[Status: Compromised]
[Memory Leak Detected – Civilian Witness (Uzumaki Naruto)]
[Auto-Protocol Suggestion: Initiate Fade Route or Confrontation Arc]
[Awaiting User Input…]