Now the room is silent. The figure of shadow is no more, but the sense of it clings to his consciousness like the color of some stain in the back of his mind. Everywhere in that ruined space there seems to hang an unexploded menace, as if something else and worse was waiting there in the shadows.
It was Sasuke who finally broke the silence, low and suspicious. "It's not over, is it?
Naruto shook his head numbly, unable to find words. He still heard that voice soft and whispering in his mind: reminding him of every mistake he'd ever made, every person he hadn't saved, every battle he'd lost.
"Why do I think it is still here?" Sakura whispered, her voice full of trembles as she looked around for herself in the dark.
Kakashi, ever the calm one, stepped forward. "The curse didn't just infect your bodies—it's in your minds. You're not fighting a physical enemy anymore. This is something deeper. It feeds on your doubts, your regrets."
Naruto clinched his fists. "I'm not gonna let it take me over. Let's destroy it once and for all.".
But deep inside, he wasn't sure. The curse had already proved it could play with their heads, fear. He could still feel its claws in his mind, clawing his past.
A cold wind blew across the room. The walls groaned in discomfort and shifted again as well, opening Naruto's eyes wide to the dark form beginning to rebuild in the middle of the room.
But this time, it was not only the cursed figure, but. something else.
And then another form steps out of the darkness, but he was not at all the same. He seemed a little taller than the first one and bent like a grotesque, twisted tree, with arms extremely long and eyes that glowed as in some dreadful light. His face, it was like a grotesque mask in broken memories-one worse than the last.
"This is the true form of the curse," Kakashi said, his voice grim. "It's not just one being. It's the manifestation of all the darkness we've ever faced. Every failure, every regret. it's all coming together."
The figure was speaking in a voice that came from everywhere and nowhere, echoing off the walls like a thousand whispers. "You cannot run from yourselves. You will never be free. I am your past, your mistakes. I am your greatest fear.".
The air around Naruto filled with dread, like walls closing in. His mind spun; memories flooded into his head, not just of battles but of every single person he hadn't been able to protect. Naruto remembered them all as the visions of their faces hit him before his knees hit the ground while their cries echoed.
Then, one face was more interesting than all the others.
"Hinata. " he whispered to himself, his aching heart screaming for the girl who had been there for him all the time. The one who loved him without any condition whom he failed at the most crucial time.
Her vacant eyes reflected off the bruises of her body as if she is lost forever when the contorted figure changes into the broken Hinata; her eyes glittered sharper.
You betrayed her, Naruto the curse with poisoned voice said. She is dead because of you, you could not even save her.
"Nooo!" Naruto shrieked, jerking his head away as if trying to shake the vision off. "I did my best! I. I couldn't save her, but I tried! I never gave up!"
But the curse wouldn't let up. It pounded harder, deeper, distorted his mind, overflowed with all of his regrets. He saw the faces of all of the friends he had lost-Jiraiya, Neji, Iruka-and each one stood before him with accusatory eyes.
Suddenly, Sakura's voice cuts through the haze. "Naruto, don't listen to it! It's a lie!
But this time, the voice was too loud. "All are dead, Naruto. All for you. All for every mistake, for every wrong choice. You bear the burden of all their deaths. You can't run from me.".
Then the shuddering body of Naruto. Darkness crept all around, pulling him down into the hole. But amidst this suffocating fear, he felt something else-not small, but undeniable.
A flicker of hope.
He could hear the soothing voice of Hinata, soft and gentle as if she were sitting beside him. "Don't give up, Naruto. Not yet." The heart of Naruto stopped. He can feel her, though all the horrors come along with it. He could still hear her. She's there with him, even now. His body was full of new vigour. "No," he whispered. "I'll not let it win. I won't let my regrets control me.". In a scream, Naruto shot forward, his chakra bursting outward, again coalescing into the Rasengan. This time, though, it wasn't raw power. It was everything he had learned coalescing together, everything he wanted to protect, and everything that he refused to back down for-his friends. He threw it at the Kurama figure; the world around him exploded in a brilliant blast of light.