Tami laughed and turned her gaze toward the shop. “They’re all here. You’re the last to arrive.”
“Got it.” Naruto opened the door with familiar ease. The showcase at the front of the shop was modern glass paneling, but one step inside revealed a wooden house in the old style. An account book and abacus stood on the shelf of the narrow reception area. A mosquito coil smoldered in one corner of the room, and the thin stream of smoke slipped up and escaped outside through gaps in the transom.
Naruto took off his shoes and stepped up into the room. He pulled the hair ornament used as a bookmark out of the account book and inserted one of the dangling cherry branch decorations into a small hole in the wall.
Vwwm.
A motor hummed, and a lock snapped open.
The wall appeared to be made of a reddish-brown wood, but now it was suddenly transparent like a sheet of acrylic.
This was a Kengakuin research institute invention that used liquid crystal to transform a transparent material into a pattern using the application of a current. The device could perfectly reproduce any kind of material right down to the texture, so it was handy for hiding large objects and entrances to rooms.
Naruto pushed on the wall, and it turned like a revolving door, allowing him inside.
Up ahead was a hidden room.
When Pain attacked Konohagakure, the shop owner Tami hadn’t been able to flee in time, and Sakura had rescued her. She had been very devoted to Sakura and their relationship ever since. That same devotion led to the hidden room at Tami Sweets as the venue for this meeting of Naruto and his friends.
Tami likely hadn’t the slightest idea that the Seventh Hokage was facing a real crisis. She knew that Naruto and his friends were famous and figured they were looking for a private place to hang out together away from prying eyes.
Naruto made his way up the narrow staircase, and when he pushed open the sliding door at the end of a short hallway, a lantern’s light flickered across the bare beams of the small attic room.
Kakashi, Sasuke, Sakura, and Shikamaru were all sitting around a small fire.
Naruto reached behind himself to pull the door shut and sat down cross-legged on the tatami mats. Sweets and tea were set out on top of a round lacquered tray, perhaps a thoughtful gesture from Tami.
“How are you feeling?” The first to open her mouth was Sakura, as she turned concerned eyes on him.
“Mm. Well, about the same,” he said.
“Meaning it’s not any better, hm? How many episodes have you had since we got back from the Land of Kizahashi?” she asked.
“. . .”
“Be honest.”
Sensing the sharp edge in Sakura’s voice, Naruto replied reluctantly, “Two. One big, one little.”
“I see.” Sakura’s voice was cool. He could tell she was trying not to let on how serious she felt it was.
The intense pain in his chest, the trouble breathing—the first two attacks had been when he kneaded his chakra, but ever since the third one, they’d been happening out of the blue when he was doing nothing at all. And they were increasing in frequency. The cause was unknown. Sakura had examined him, but she hadn’t found anything out of the ordinary. She’d also been unable to find any bacterial or viral infection, so there was no treatment for him. All she could do was tell him not to use chakra.
The only insight they had about his affliction was that the Sage of Six Paths had it too. According to Nine Tails, the Sage of Six Paths had also suffered from the exact same symptoms that now troubled Naruto.
This was back when the old Sage had just let Ten Tails into his body. He’d had episodes of pain and apparently recovered when he was staying in the remote Land of Redaku in the west. They just didn’t know how he’d gotten better.
“Maybe you should talk to Hinata about your symptoms,” Sakura suggested.
Naruto shook his head. He didn’t want to worry his family unnecessarily.
“Let’s get right to it. I’ve got a progress report,” Shikamaru calmly interjected. “We’ve gone through all the libraries in the land, looking for anything on the Land of Redaku, but to be honest, we’ve got nothing. The very existence of the Land of Redaku is treated like a legend in most books, and I can’t find anything with any details. About the only one that looks to be of any help at all is this.”
Shikamaru tossed a bundle of papers onto the tatami. A copy of the book in question.
“Unfortunately, it’s written in an ancient language, so we won’t be reading it anytime soon. But I managed to pick out the proper nouns and can confirm that there’s stuff about when the Sage of Six Paths was in the Land of Redaku. That’s about all I can get from it. I’ve asked the institute to decipher it, but I expect it’ll take them some time.”
The Kengakuin research institute was the international agency built with the consensus of the Five Great Nations after the Great Ninja War. Unlike the village’s scientific team, the agency did not belong to any nation in particular. Its purpose was to forward the development of science, culture, and education. Its head office was currently located in the Land of Kizahashi.
“Not great, hm?” Kakashi said and continued without urgency as he poured tea into cups. “You’re not the only one with nothing. I sent a hawk to the king of the Land of Redaku and asked about the Sage of Six Paths’ stay there. But I got no reply. Maybe something happened.”