Chapter 80 – Roots of the Loom
The silence afterward felt worse.
It wasn't peace.
It was pressure.
Like the world was holding its breath, waiting for the next scream.
Kiba knelt beside the puppet boy, checking his pulse again. "Still alive," he muttered. "Barely."
Naruto didn't move. Eyes locked on the twisted trees ahead.
He could feel it.
Something remained.
Not the monster. Not its whispers.
But a presence.
The kind that stays after something wrong leaves the room.
Kakashi stood over the unconscious woman—once a terror, now just… pale, breathing, and still.
"She's human now," he said softly.
Naruto looked at her. "Was she ever?"
Kakashi hesitated.
Then nodded. "Once."
Shino's insects buzzed near the bark of a thick tree. Then recoiled—violently.
He frowned.
"They don't like this place," he said.
"It's not the forest anymore."
Naruto walked up and placed his palm against a tree trunk.
It felt like flesh.
Warm.
Beating.
His fingers clenched.
"This place is part of it."
"The Loom."
Kiba stood. "Then we burn it down."
"No," Kakashi said quickly. "This forest is tied to something bigger."
He pointed upward.
The cracks in the sky had not vanished. If anything—they'd spread.
Like fractures in a mirror.
Naruto stared into them.
In the space between, he saw flashes.
Images.
A village burning.
A child crying.
A spinning wheel dripping blood.
Then—
A tower.
In the middle of a black sea.
Built entirely from thread.
The image vanished.
Naruto gasped and stepped back.
Kakashi caught his shoulder. "What did you see?"
Naruto swallowed. "A tower."
Kiba looked around. "There's no tower here."
"No," Naruto said. "But I think we're being called to it."
"The Loom wants us there."
Kakashi went silent.
His Sharingan narrowed.
"I've read about it."
Naruto looked up sharply. "What?"
"In the Uzumaki archives," Kakashi said. "There were stories. Old ones. Buried under seals. About something ancient."
"They called it the Weeping Loom."
"A place where chakra was spun."
"Not from nature."
"From memory."
Naruto froze.
Shino spoke up.
"If that's true… then this creature, the one we saw—it's not weaving jutsu."
"It's weaving history."
Naruto's heart pounded.
That meant—this wasn't just a battle.
This was a rewrite.
"Where is it?" Naruto asked.
Kakashi looked grim.
"Nobody knew. But there was a phrase."
He closed his eye.
And recited slowly.
"Where roots twist deeper than time,Where screams are soaked into the soil,The Loom turns.And the world forgets what it never knew."
A chill crawled across Naruto's back.
He looked down at his own hands. The red chakra from before was fading. But it had changed something.
He could feel it.
Like strings brushing against his skin even when the wind was still.
Suddenly—
The puppet boy gasped.
His eyes opened wide.
Black blood poured from his mouth.
He sat up.
Grabbed Naruto's wrist.
"It's waking up." he whispered.
"And it remembers you."
Then he passed out again.
Naruto stared at the boy.
Kakashi's voice came low. "Whatever we thought this was… it's bigger."
"Much bigger."
Naruto nodded.
"We need answers."
"And I know where to get them."
Everyone turned.
Naruto's eyes narrowed.
"I'm going to Mount Myōboku."
Kiba blinked. "The toads?"
"They've seen time," Naruto said. "Maybe they've seen the Loom too."
Kakashi looked toward the horizon.
The sky rippled again.
A soft moan came from deep under the ground.
Shino whispered, "The roots are moving."
Naruto turned.
His cloak fluttered in the wind.
"Let's move."
"We find the Loom before it finishes its next weave."
Kakashi gave the unconscious woman one last glance. Then turned away.
No more questions.
Only answers ahead.
Only danger.
Only the path forward—
Into a war that hadn't been written yet.
But one that had already started.
—End of Chapter 80—