Chapter 87 – A Thread Left Hanging
Wind returned.
But not normal wind.
It carried names.
Thousands of them, freed from the Seamstress's grip, whispered through the ruined sky above the shattered loom.
Some wept.Some laughed.Some… just dissolved.
Naruto stood at the center of it all.Silent. Still.His namefire had dimmed.But not died.
The eye in his head—名—still burned quietly.A mark of identity.A curse of memory.
Kakashi stepped beside him, one arm burned from the unraveling.
"You didn't kill her," he said.
Naruto didn't look at him.
"No," he said. "I unwrote her."
Kiba limped forward, face pale, breath ragged.His wounds had opened again.
Shino moved to stabilize him, but paused.
The platform below them—It was collapsing.
Not breaking.
Just... fading.
Kakashi looked up.
"No bridge."
No sky.
Only the loomless void.
And from it—A shape began to emerge.
Massive.
Crawling.
Threadless.
The Loom itself.
It had no form.
It was not alive.
But it saw.
It saw Naruto.
And it wanted him.
Shino's insects hissed in terror, crawling back into his sleeves.
Kiba groaned. "I thought we beat her…"
Naruto narrowed his eye.
"She was a weaver."
"This is the needle."
Kakashi's Sharingan flared.
"Then we leave."
Naruto nodded. "Pakkun."
Kakashi bit his thumb, but his blood floated upward.Gravity had stopped working.
Everything was weightless now.
The Loom spun once.
Reality bent.
Their memories flashed out of their mouths like vapor.Kiba screamed—his past flickered above him in tiny glowing kanji.
His first mission.His sister's laughter.Akamaru's puppy eyes.
Gone.
Naruto grabbed him.
Burned red fire over his chest.
Sealed the memory with chakra.
"You don't get him," Naruto whispered.
The Loom paused.
It recognized the fire.
Then—
It hissed.
Soundlessly.
Challenge.
Naruto looked around.
Nothing left.
Only choice.
Kakashi grunted. "I can cast Kamui. Get them out."
"You'll be stuck."
"I've been stuck before."
Naruto shook his head. "No."
He turned.
Walked forward.
The Loom shifted.
Welcoming him.
Kakashi stepped forward. "What are you doing?"
Naruto turned.
"I made a mistake."
"I took the namefire."
"I burned too much."
"I need to give something back."
Kiba groaned. "Don't you dare pull a Sasuke on us, man…"
Naruto smiled.
But it was empty.
No joy.
Just choice.
He lifted his hand.
Pulled a single thread from his own chest.
It glowed white.
His Name.
He stared at it for a long moment.
Then tied it to Kiba's half-erased name.
Merged them.
Both burned.
Kiba gasped—and the wound on his chest vanished.
He blinked.
Eyes clear.
Naruto turned to Shino.
"Yours too."
Shino hesitated.
"…This is permanent."
Naruto nodded.
"I'll be fine."
"I'm just… borrowing something else."
He gave his name again.
And Shino's reformed fully.
The Loom paused.
Waited.
Naruto walked to the edge.
Held the last of his own thread.
Then—
He let go.
And stepped forward.
Into it.
Kakashi shouted.
Too late.
Naruto vanished.
The Loom accepted him.
Folded around him.
Reality rewrote.
Then—
It stopped.
Still.
Silent.
Then—
Boom.
A pulse.
From the center of the Loom—
A new thread.
Gold.
Red.
Black.
Burning from the inside.
It wove backwards.
Against time.
And where it passed—
The dead were remembered.
The lost returned.
Not to life—
But to story.
They became legend.
Uchiha.Senju.Jiraiya.Minato.Kushina.
Not alive.
But seen.
Naruto had become part of the Loom.
A knot the world would never untangle.
Kakashi knelt.
His breath unsteady.
He looked at the sky.
Which was sky again.
Clouds.
Wind.
Light.
They were back.
Alive.
But not whole.
Not without him.
He whispered, "You idiot…"
From far above, the wind whispered back.
"I chose this."
—End of Chapter 87—