Putting the Other Earring On

Gold. Well, MAYBE gold.

Naruto wasn't exactly a goldsmith so he couldn't tell. Nor did he have much experience with gold. The earring in his hand appeared to be made of gold, though, even if the design... was quite lackluster.

Did the other one look like this as well?

He'd take it off but, for all he knew, it was the only thing stopping his father from suddenly coming across the realization that Naruto was a suspect for the space-time breech from earlier.

Also... it may have been the only thing stopping a man from claiming Naruto assaulted him and a woman from claiming something worse.

So, yeah, taking it off may not be a good idea right now.

He looked at the other earring in his hand, looking and it for anything that showed it as something besides some ordinary earring. He tried to sense it for something extraordinary with his not-so-impressive sensing skills and felt nothing. He raised it high to the sun, the ball of fire making it difficult to see the object he held high.

How little did he know that the object in his hand was far more powerful than the sun behind it in his line of sight.

He searched it for seals of any kind and found nothing.

How did it work!?

Perhaps... Perhaps this one did nothing? Perhaps the one on his ear was the one of value?

"So the first one makes it normal for me to punch people and put my hands in people's mouths..." Well, odds were that it didn't do THAT specifically but saying that out loud without people reacting to his absurd statement felt nice.

After coming across nothing odd on the earring except for the "N" on it that he jokingly thought stood for "Naruto", he steeled himself for putting it on.

Well, more like he steeled himself for putting a hole in his ear without a professional's help. Again.

Hopefully he didn't get some sort of infection that could go beyond his advanced healing ability... Would be just his luck to get some sort of infection 2.0 from something from a space-time crack that opened up in front of him.

He knew what the right thing to do was, he should have given the earrings to his father immediately. For all he knew, the earrings made their wielder evil or insane. Or put them under an illusion where they thought the earrings had power.

"It's not that."

And there was that! How was he supposed to trust the random voice in his head when it appeared AFTER the earrings were in close proximity of him?

He SHOULD have given the earrings to his father, the Hokage, when they appeared in front of him. Even if it WOULD have gotten him in trouble.

But... His hand rose up to caress the earring on his ear.

He had tasted power for the first time in his life and he found that he didn't feel like letting go.

Power corrupts, they said, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Well, Naruto was corrupted BY THEM way before he even got the power of the one earring he got—and god he hoped the second one also had something—so he was a lost cause once he tasted power.

The ability to be ignored by people wasn't something civilians would consider power.

Ninjas, though? It was invincibility. Assassinations would be so EASY.

But Naruto wasn't thinking in such ethical ways, though. Well... however ethical ninjas murdering people was.

Naruto was thinking about his own personal gains and goals here.

His own goals being to punch his brother in the face a few thousand times.

God would it feel satisfying.

But... how satisfying would it feel if his brother wouldn't react?

Was there a point to it without being able to gloat about it without him reacting?

Naruto was sure the first few punches would feel good regardless. Maybe even the first hundred.

After that, it just wouldn't feel worth it.

But he couldn't just take off the first earring to do it now, could he?

His gaze moved to the second earring again. Maybe that could rectify that problem?

Or was this like one of the stories the civilians liked to tell? A person got power but it wasn't enough and, in trying to seek more power, they lost the power they originally had. Would the second earring somehow permanently cancel the first one? Permanently?

It didn't sound too farfetched.

Was more farfetched to believe something could give as much power as the first earring anyway.

He hadn't tested it out but he could feel something growing more and more aggravated in his head.

A sign of earring-induced insanity? Maybe.

But... if Naruto finally got some happiness at the cost of insanity this far into life, he viewed it as worth it.

A growl was heard in his head.

Whelps, time to quicken the pace and put on the earring, he supposed.

Closing his eyes, he got the arm with the earring to his other ear.

With but the barest of grimaces, it was done.

He didn't know it then, but he had all of the universe under his influence in that moment. All of this reality was his to influence.