(NEW ICHIRAKU RAMEN) CHAPTER TEN

Naruto stood at one of the highest points in the city, the concrete beneath his feet still holding the warmth of the day as the night air rolled in around him. Below, Kawasaki stretched outward in a sea of light and shadow, cars tracing glowing paths through the streets while silhouettes moved past open apartment windows. Somewhere down there, people laughed and argued, worried over small things, planned for the future, and dreamed without ever realizing how close the unseen dangers truly lurked.

From this height, it was easy to forget a lot of things.

But Naruto, despite the relative brevity of his life, had learned through hard experience that the easy path was rarely the right one.

He folded his arms loosely and let his senses extend outward, not searching for threats—as he would on the battlefield—so much as taking the city in as a whole. The past few days had been… enlightening, in ways he had not entirely expected. Gojo had filled in the gaps, Junpei’s story had added some anecdotal evidence, and Naruto had been left to assemble the picture from those pieces on his own.

This world was dangerous, without question. Cursed spirits born from negative emotions prowled places ordinary people could not see, feeding on their lives while an entire hidden society existed for the sole purpose of managing that threat. There had been bloodshed here, and there would be more in the future. Of that, Naruto had no doubt.

Even so, it was not as dangerous as the world he had come from.

That realization had not arrived all at once, but had settled gradually as the picture became clearer. Shinobi wars had reshaped entire continents, with battles between godlike beings fought openly and without much restraint, leaving devastation that could be seen for miles away. Entire villages had been erased from existence, and children had been trained to kill before they were old enough to understand the value of a single life. 

By comparison, this world hid its horrors behind secrecy and barriers, but the scale was smaller. The wounds, while deep, were not yet fatal, even though many suffered as a result.

It was a contained danger, for now. 

But speaking of said danger, Naruto’s thoughts inevitably returned to the two names that loomed above all others.

Ryomen Sukuna was the first, and in many ways the simpler of the two to understand. The King of Curses represented the purest expression of negativity this system produced, a relic of a brutal age that should have remained buried. Naruto did not underestimate him for a moment. A being like Sukuna could not be reasoned with, negotiated with, or redeemed in any meaningful sense.

Still, Sukuna was not an immediate problem. One of his fingers was already accounted for, and since the sorcerers opposed his return, the remaining were being actively hunted. The task was grim, and Naruto was not entirely reassured by the way the jujutsu world handled it, but it meant that Sukuna’s return was, for now, delayed. As long as those fingers stayed out of the hands of curses and curse users alike, the worst could be postponed.

The second threat was far more complicated.

Gojo Satoru.

Naruto exhaled slowly, eyes narrowing as the man’s image came unbidden to his mind. Gojo was arrogant, insufferably so at times, but Naruto had seen enough to know it was not without substance. His strength was real, overwhelming in a way that defied common sense, especially when compared to the rest of the sorcerers. Curses avoided him instinctively, and the entire balance of power within the jujutsu world had shifted due his presence.

That level of strength was dangerous in this sort of place, even in the hands of someone who meant well.

Naruto believed Gojo was a good person. In his own strange and infuriating way, he cared, and he used his power to protect civilians, to save lives, and to stand between ordinary people and horrors they could never hope to face on their own. But power on that scale did not simply solve problems. It rewrote the rules entirely, encouraging stagnation and dependency whether its wielder intended it or not.

Naruto had seen it before, and had lived it. 

When one person stood so far above everyone else, systems rotted beneath them, growing weaker because they did not have to be strong.

Removing Gojo from the board would not fix that rot. It would only expose how fragile the structure beneath truly was. Worse, Naruto did not yet know how many enemies existed in this world, how deep the corruption ran, or how quickly everything could spiral out of control if he made the wrong move.

For all their strength, he and Hinata were still only two people. Underestimating their future opponents would be a mistake he could not afford, and any solution that relied solely on force would be temporary at best, catastrophic at worst.

So why did he care this much about a world that was not his own?

Naruto turned his head, his gaze drifting toward the distance, and immediately his senses found what they were searching for. Hinata’s chakra reached toward him, calm and familiar, a constant presence that grounded him no matter how far apart they were. And nestled alongside it was something smaller, softer, yet unmistakable.

A new life.

Despite already knowing, his breath still caught, just a little.

Hinata was pregnant.

The knowledge settled over him once more, and with it came a clarity so sharp it cut through every lingering doubt. They had no way home yet, and no guarantee that they would ever find one. So for now, this world was where their child would be born, and where their family would live and grow.

Which meant this world mattered.

Every street below, every unaware civilian, and every flawed institution and hidden danger now formed the environment his family would live in. 

Naruto hardened his expression, determination welling up within him.

He would be damned if he allowed it to remain unsafe.

He had spent his life chasing peace, fighting for it, failing at it, and standing back up to try again. If this world demanded that same stubborn persistence, then he would give it freely.

Naruto remained where he was, watching over the city, his thoughts fixed on the future as the night deepened around him.