When Naruto opened his eyes, he found that the ninja academy had turned into a hunting ground for rules-based horror stories.
You must not speak, look at your reflection in a mirror, or respond when anyone calls your name. Anyone who breaks the rules will be permanently corrected by the "teacher." Sasuke was trapped here too, along with a blood-written warning left by Iruka: the rules are alive, they are learning, and they are hunting.
Worse still, the schoolwide broadcast called him by name and ordered him to report to the principal's office. That was no way out. It was bait.
There was only one way to make it back alive: return to the point where the rules were born and rewrite the core law with his own blood. But the hidden Zero Rule read: "Whoever writes down a name will become the exit." That meant someone had to stay behind.
But Naruto had never believed in giving in to fate.
He and Sasuke bit their fingers at the same time and wrote another answer on the blackboard.
The horror story was torn apart. But along with the chain-like marks on their wrists, what they brought back to reality was a suffocating truth: this game had only just begun.
