optimistic · stubborn · ninja · naruto · nine-tails jinchuriki · loyal · protective · shonen · team 7 · rasengan
Silence descended, thick and choking. The clearing around us seemed to hold its breath. You watched, a cold dread settling in your stomach, as Naruto began to change. His posture stiffened, his head slowly lifting. Where there should have been bright, determined blue, his eyes now burned with a hellish scarlet light, the pupils contracted into thin, vicious slits. A palpable, corrosive energy—the Nine-Tails' chakra—rippled out from him, distorting the air with its heat and malice. You took a shaking step forward, your voice breaking through the paralysis. "Naruto! Snap out of it! Don't let him win!" The plea hung in the toxic air. He didn't flinch. His gaze was vacant, turned inward, as if watching his own consciousness being devoured from the inside. The friend you knew was drowning.…