Two days later, Noah Vale finally surfaced.
The "battle," if it could still be called that, had ended.
He stood there, staring at the aftermath with a hand in his hair, trying to piece together exactly how things had escalated so far.
It had started with two people.
Somewhere along the way, it had turned into four.
All unconscious.
Noah exhaled slowly.
"…Okay. Maybe pulling in reinforcements mid-fight using the Space Stone was a little excessive."
A beat.
"Still worth it."
Then something clicked.
"The chatroom…"
He hadn't checked it in two days.
Noah pulled up the Interdimensional Chatroom interface and scrolled through the backlog.
The new member had settled in quickly.
Too quickly.
The guy was active, polite… and painfully deferential. Every message came wrapped in cautious phrasing, always leaning toward agreement, always trying to stay on everyone's good side.
Noah squinted at the screen.
"…That's not a hero. That's a middle-aged office worker."
He kept reading.
Name: Bloom Gavin
Location: Gotham City
Noah leaned back slightly.
"Of course it's Gotham."
That explained everything.
Inside the chatroom, Bloom was doing his best to fit in.
Careful responses. Respectful tone. Just enough enthusiasm to stay visible, not enough to annoy anyone.
He knew this game.
He'd played it for years.
Except this time, the people he was trying to impress weren't bosses.
They were something else entirely.
And unlike bosses—
These people actually could change his life.
DeepBlue: @Ordinary Citizen of Gotham — you need money?
Bloom froze.
The admin had spoken.
To him.
He stared at the message, rereading it several times as if it might disappear.
Carefully, he began typing.
Then stopped.
Deleted.
Typed again.
Ordinary Citizen of Gotham: I currently work for a subsidiary of Wayne Enterprises. My wife stays home with our three children. Our income is enough to maintain a modest lifestyle—
Noah cut him off immediately.
DeepBlue: I didn't ask for your life story. I asked if you need money.
A pause.
Then—
DeepBlue: If you do, I'll send you some gold.
Bloom stared at the screen.
His heartbeat picked up.
Ordinary Citizen of Gotham: I… I couldn't accept something like that without earning it.
Noah's reply came instantly.
DeepBlue: Seriously? You're in this chatroom now. That already puts you in a different league.
DeepBlue: If you're still scraping by like nothing changed, what does that say about me?
DeepBlue: One question. Do you want it or not?
DeepBlue: Say yes, and I'll drop off a case. Pre-cut. No hassle.
Bloom didn't hesitate this time.
Ordinary Citizen of Gotham: Yes.
Three seconds later—
He wasn't alone anymore.
A man stood in his living room.
Calm. Composed. Completely out of place.
Noah set a metal case down on the table.
"Next time," he said, "if you need something, just say it. That's what the chatroom is for."
Before Bloom could even respond—
Noah was gone.
Silence filled the room.
Bloom stared at the case.
Then at the empty space where Noah had been.
Slowly, almost carefully, he knelt down and opened it.
Gold.
Solid.
Heavy.
Real.
For a moment, he just stared.
Then, finally—
He smiled.
Not the polite, practiced kind.
Something genuine.
"Okay…" he muttered. "This changes things."
Back in another world—
Noah reappeared in the Hidden Leaf Village.
It looked completely different now. Rebuilt. Alive again.
"Still keeping those prisoners?" he asked casually.
Sasuke nodded. "They're secure. Just like you ordered. But… if your information is right, they'll be recalled soon."
"No problem."
Noah raised a hand.
A red eye rested in his palm.
Sasuke's gaze sharpened instantly.
"…Mangekyō Sharingan. Whose is that?"
Noah smirked slightly. "Danzo's. Took it before he could complain."
Sasuke didn't respond to that.
He was already thinking ahead.
"You're planning to use it on them."
"Exactly," Noah said. "One of them goes back. With a little… suggestion embedded."
A controlled thought.
A planted directive.
A door into something bigger.
"The main system they serve," Noah added, "I want a look inside."
Sasuke exhaled slowly, then nodded. "I'll help."
After a brief pause, Noah glanced at him.
"What about Itachi?"
Sasuke's expression shifted, just slightly.
"I found him," he said. "He didn't resist."
A beat.
"I'm waiting. Until everyone we lost is brought back."
"Fair enough," Noah said. "Your call."
They stepped outside together.
The village reacted immediately.
People greeted them cautiously, respectfully.
Some nervous.
Some curious.
Noah acknowledged a few of them.
Mostly the ones worth acknowledging.
Inside the newly rebuilt Hokage office, Sasuke found Kakashi.
"I need you for something," Sasuke said, holding out the eye.
Kakashi blinked.
Then stared.
"…That's another Mangekyō."
He sighed under his mask.
"I'm going to run out of chakra at this rate."