Chapter 1: Awakening in Darkness

Everything was black.

There was no light, no sound, no movement—only endless silence stretching on for eternity. It was suffocating, yet there was no air to breathe. There was no body to feel, no mouth to scream, only an existence trapped within the void.

Then, suddenly—agony.

A rush of sensation, a jolt so intense it was as if the universe itself had torn open. A mind that had been nothing but distant consciousness was suddenly forced into awareness. Memories, overwhelming and vast, crashed down like a tidal wave.

Betrayal.

Her sons—Hagoromo and Hamura—standing against her, sealing her away in the very moon they created. The weight of two thousand years in absolute stillness, unable to move, to scream, to even think. The crushing loneliness of a prison without walls, where she existed only as an awareness in endless darkness.

And now—freedom.

Eyes opened, taking in a world once again. For a brief moment, there was only instinct, the pure reaction of someone who had suffered beyond understanding.

"No."

That single word was a whisper against the void, a thought so quiet yet so absolute. But it was not Kaguya who thought it. It was someone else.

Realization hit like a lightning strike. This was not just Kaguya awakening. Someone—I—had been reborn in her body.

Panic, confusion, fear—emotions surged in conflict with the vast, alien memories of the ancient goddess. But they were mine. I was Kaguya now.

But I was also someone else.

My heart—if I even had one anymore—raced. The weight of this reality settled in. I know how this goes. This was Naruto. This was the moment Kaguya was released, meant to be sealed again by Naruto and Sasuke.

I was Kaguya, and they were my enemies.

But more than that—

I had been alone for two thousand years.

And I would not be sealed again.