Chapter 4: The Island of the Invisible
In which questions are asked, suspicions are raised, and storms whisper secrets of a greater game.
The sky was a deep, cloudless blue, stretched wide above the dunes like an endless canvas. Below, the wind howled through the sand as if mourning something ancient and invisible. Above it all, Naruto and Peter soared—one cloaked in flowing orange, the other crouched low on the flying chakra platform, arms folded against the cutting wind.
They had been flying in silence for several long minutes now.
Peter cast a sideways glance at his strange new companion. Naruto stood tall at the front of the platform, unmoving, his golden cloak flickering gently behind him, his face stoic and unreadable. His posture was perfect—too perfect. Rigid, composed to the point of fracture.
He was quiet in a way Peter recognized all too well.
I've seen that look before, Peter thought, narrowing his eyes behind the lenses of his mask. That stillness. That weight.
It was the same kind of silence he had worn after Gwen died. When every breath hurt, but you kept breathing because stopping felt like betrayal. When the world wanted you to move on and you wanted to scream at it to stop spinning.
Peter didn't know what—or who—Naruto had lost. But the ache was written in the way he didn't blink. The way he didn't breathe.
And Naruto wasn't just anyone.
He was powerful—unbelievably powerful. Peter had seen gods. Aliens. Mutants and madmen. But Naruto was something else entirely. Not a weapon, not a soldier. A guardian. A boy who had carried the war of the world on his back—and was still standing.
And grief like that?
It could break people.
Or worse… it could reshape them.
People with power, Peter thought grimly, they don't get to fall apart. Because when they do… they take everything with them.
He remembered the fear he saw in his own eyes after Gwen's death. The temptation to cross the line. To stop holding back. To hurt back.
And now, he was flying beside someone who could destroy mountains with a glance.
I don't know how much more he can take.
Peter didn't speak. Not yet. But his fingers flexed nervously.
He was glad Naruto had let Magneto walk away instead of lashing out. Glad he hadn't chosen fear or anger. But there was a coldness creeping into Naruto's silence. Not the rage of someone who wanted to burn the world—but the kind of emptiness that let you turn your back on it.
That scared Peter more than any supervillain.
He's grieving. But he's holding it all in. And the more you push it down… the more it explodes when it breaks.
For now, Naruto was composed.
But Peter knew the signs.
He'd seen this movie before. And he didn't want a front-row seat to the sequel.
Sentry 2.0.
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The chakra platform glided silently across the wind-carved skies, weaving between scattered clouds and glints of sunlight. The desert had faded behind them, giving way to distant hills, the land slowly healing from unseen scars. But Peter's thoughts lingered on the things that couldn't be undone—scorched valleys, shattered cliffs, craters so massive they looked like open wounds upon the earth.
He turned his head slightly, watching Naruto, who stood tall at the edge of the platform, cloak still fluttering in the wind like a banner of firelight. His silence hadn't changed. His strength hadn't faltered. But Peter had been around grief long enough to know that silence could speak volumes.
He hesitated, then asked gently, "Hey… do you have friends, Naruto? I mean—people close to you. Or are you more of a lone wolf type?"
Naruto glanced over his shoulder, blinking in surprise. "Friends? Of course I have friends." A beat. "Why, did I look like a loner?"
Peter gave a sheepish shrug. "No, no. I just… for a second, you looked kinda lonely. That's all."
Naruto turned back to the horizon. His reply came softly, almost as if he wasn't answering the question so much as brushing it away. "I see… It's probably because the war just ended. Two days ago. We're all still grieving our losses."
Peter winced. The way Naruto said war—not with anger, but with a tired, matter-of-fact heaviness—made his stomach tighten.
He wanted to ask more. About the war. About who was lost. About what exactly had happened here. But when he looked at Naruto's face, he saw it: the discomfort. The weight behind his eyes. And he knew that whatever had happened was still too close to speak about.
So Peter said nothing. He simply nodded.
But his thoughts roamed back—back to the Land of Frost, where they had found the Hulk standing alone in the ruins of what had once been mountains. Back to the craters—enormous, sunken valleys scorched black at the edges, as though entire cities had been reduced to ash in moments.
He had seen battles in his own world. Alien invasions. Civil wars between enhanced beings. But even then, most of that destruction had been contained.
Here?
Here, the devastation had been limitless.
No metal domes. No Stark-tech clean-up crews. No evacuation plans. Just… raw, unleashed force. Superhumans—no, shinobi—fighting a war with power that could reshape the very land beneath their feet.
And what haunted Peter wasn't just the scale of it.
It was that Naruto, the boy beside him, had lived through it.
Had survived it.
And carried it still, behind every step, every breath, every quiet moment where he stared too long at the horizon.
Peter shivered. Not from cold—but from understanding.
Because now he knew what those craters were.
Not landscapes.
But memorials.
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The skies above the Land of Water were a wash of silver and steel, as if the sea itself had crept upward to swallow the heavens. Mist clung to the world like breath on a mirror, curling along the waves and over the jagged rocks of a lone, uninhabited island, forgotten by even the most curious of sailors.
And there, standing at the edge of a moss-covered cliff, was a woman cloaked in blue.
Susan Storm had been alone since the moment she arrived—no Reed, no Johnny, no Ben. Just the wind, the sea, and the growing certainty that this was not Earth.
The island was too quiet. The trees too still. The sky too watchful.
She had explored as much of it as she could, running scans with what little tech remained in her suit. It wasn't much, but it was enough to know one thing for certain.
She was far from home.
And she wasn't alone for much longer.
A soft whoosh sliced through the mist as Naruto descended, golden cloak flowing behind him like a comet's tail. Peter landed beside him with a practiced flip, boots skimming the damp grass.
Susan turned quickly, her hand half-raised in instinctive defense—until she saw Peter.
"Spider-Man?" she asked, incredulous, hope flickering in her eyes.
"Hi, Sue," Peter said with a tight smile, pulling off his mask. "Glad you're still in one piece."
She let out a breath, visibly relieved. "At least one familiar face. I was starting to think I'd gone mad."
Naruto took a slow step forward, his expression calm but keenly alert. Even cloaked in a serene demeanor, he was quietly measuring her—just as he had with Hulk and Magneto. This woman, he could sense, was powerful. Her chakra-less body shimmered faintly with invisible energy, like a mirror with its own mind.
"Are you alone?" Naruto asked, his voice even, golden eyes locking onto hers.
"Yes," Susan replied, glancing between the two of them. "I woke up here alone. No sign of the others. No contact. No signals. I've searched every inch of this island."
Naruto nodded slightly. "Just like the others…"
Peter stepped forward, scratching the back of his neck. "Sue, this is Naruto. He's the, uh… protector of this world."
Susan raised a brow. "Protector?"
"Think Superman and Doctor Strange mashed into one," Peter added. "But with more ninja."
Susan gave Naruto a long, assessing look, then nodded politely. "Then I suppose you already know… we're not from here."
Naruto nodded. "We've gathered as much. That makes five of you so far."
"I assume you're here to figure out why we're here," she said, folding her arms.
"We were hoping you'd tell us," Peter replied, voice hopeful.
But Susan shook her head. "I know no more than you. One moment I was with my team, and the next… I was here. No transition. No warning."
She turned, staring out at the ocean.
"I've fought Immortals before," she said quietly. "But this Beyonder… he doesn't play by the rules. I've always suspected he's less interested in winning… and more interested in watching."
Peter frowned. "Watching what?"
Susan glanced back, her eyes sharp. "Us. Struggling. Deciding. Choosing."
Then she glanced at Naruto.
"This world," she continued. "This place of super-humans and monsters… it's too convenient. Too curated. If Beyonder brought us here, it wasn't by accident. It's a setup. A proving ground."
Her words fell like stones into the silence.
Naruto remained still, but inside, his thoughts stirred like storm clouds over still water. A quiet theory unfurled in his mind—dark, dreadful, and far too plausible.
Kaguya is gone… but not the Otsutsuki.
Their twisted legacy stretched across worlds, through dimensions, devouring and testing entire civilizations. And Naruto remembered well: she had spoken of others—stronger, crueler, waiting beyond the veil of time and space.
What if the Beyonder knows them? What if this is not a test of this world's strength… but a preparation?
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Peter tilted his head. "Like some cosmic lab rat experiment?"
"Not just that," Susan replied, turning to him. "The Beyonder is curious—not cruel, but insatiably inquisitive. He doesn't want answers. He wants experiences. He wants stories."
Naruto was quiet, watching her intently.
Susan continued. "He's testing our limits by putting us in an unfamiliar world. A world of monsters and warriors. If he wants us here, then he wants to see how we respond to something we can't control. And judging by what I've seen so far…"
Her voice trailed off as she thought of the scorched craters, the desolate battlefields, and the subtle tension behind Naruto's eyes.
"…this world isn't going to make things easy."
Naruto nodded slightly, then stepped forward, the sand beneath his feet stirring as his chakra rippled faintly across the air.
"You said your team has three more," he said calmly. "But I can only sense two more individuals that don't belong here. That's all."
Susan's heart clenched. "Only two?"
Naruto nodded. "I've spread my chakra across the globe. My clones have checked every corner. If your teammates were here, I would have found them by now."
Susan exhaled slowly, the calm mask slipping for a moment as concern flickered across her face.
"Reed…" she murmured, the edge of worry unmistakable in her voice. "If he were here, he'd have built a communicator or traced an energy signature by now. And Johnny—if that boy was alone for more than an hour, he'd probably try to charm a local sea monster."
Peter smiled faintly at the attempt at humor, but Naruto's expression remained unreadable.
"It's possible," Naruto said, "that they haven't arrived yet. Or that the Beyonder is releasing you one by one. Testing you… individually."
"Like stages," Peter muttered.
Naruto turned his gaze inland, chakra still gently pulsing around him like sunlight. "Of the two signatures I detected—one has a powerful life force. Ancient. Steady. They are somewhere deep in the Valley of Kings, near the edge of the Desert Nation. The other is in a jungle further west. Female. Mid-level superhuman power. She feels… unsettled."
"Any guesses?" Peter asked.
Susan bit her lip. "Could be a lot of people. There's no telling who he chose. But if I know the Beyonder, he's hand-picked us for a reason."
She turned to Naruto, her blue eyes searching.
"Can you take us to them?"
Naruto nodded.
But before they could lift off, he paused.
"I understand your worry," he said quietly, looking directly at her. "But I've learned something over the years. When people are separated by forces beyond their control… they always find a way back to each other. It's not always easy. But it happens."
Susan gave him a long look—one of both gratitude and guarded hope.
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A.N. Naruto is serious here because he hasn't time to grieve yet. Once some time has passed the story will become more light hearted and not so depressing.