Chihare nodded. “At Director Furieh’s request, I carried out an analysis of this new substance called ‘ultra particles.’ As a result, I found that the ultra particles have the effect of amplifying chakra.”
“They amplify chakra?” Shikamaru said. “Then if someone who’s no longer making chakra touches it …”
“My hypothesis is that the chakra flowing through the body’s chakra channels will increase dramatically. If the Lord Seventh’s illness is a type of poor functioning of the chakra channels due to taking a Biju into the body, then touching the ultra particles might improve the flow of the chakra channels. However.” Chihare faltered and her expression grew dark. “The ultra particles likely belong to the institute, so they can’t be readily moved. They’re top secret. I shouldn’t even be here leaking this information to you. If the Hokage were to negotiate directly, they might cede them to you, but this being Director Furieh, regular methods are—”
“Oh!” Naruto interjected. “No, we sent the particles to them for analysis.”
Chihare raised her lowered eyes. “What?”
“It was our friends who found the ultra particles,” he explained. “We handed them over to the institute and asked them to analyze them, but at some point, we’ll get them back.”
Chihare was silent for a full ten seconds, and then she said, deflated, “What? That’s great.”
“Thanks,” Naruto said, smiling. Chihare had broken the rules to come here, not knowing that Naruto and his office were the owners of the ultra particles. For him.
“The fact that you analyzed the ultra particles,” Shikamaru said with a probing glance. “Does that mean you were able to remove the wards on the vessel?”
“Wards?” she asked in reply. “By the time I got them, it was just the particles.”
So had the institute removed the wards plastered all over the bamboo vessel?
“Where are the ultra particles now?” Shikamaru asked. “Do you still have them?”
“No.” Chihare shook her head. “I handed them over to a messenger from the institute this morning. I think Director Furieh should have them now. They’re quite unstable, so I’m sure he’ll be doing a bit more detailed analysis in order to learn the best way to handle them.”
“They’re that unstable?” Shikamaru said, and Chihare nodded.
“They’re extremely susceptible to water. A drop of water causes them to disintegrate. And they significantly amplify chakra, so for someone with a great deal of chakra, they’re essentially poisonous. Touching them would double the amount of chakra in the body in an instant, and the keirakukei network would be destroyed.”
Shikamaru thought for a moment. If there was a possibility that touching the ultra particles would cure Naruto’s illness, then it was best to try it sooner rather than later.
“We need to come up with a reason to get the ultra particles back from the institute right away. I’ll try getting in touch with Shizune,” he said, and no sooner had he left the room than he hurried back and poked his face in. “Naruto. I forgot to tell you. Those proposals I gave you before, go over them by tomorrow.”
He left the Hokage’s office for real this time.
He’s such a busy person.
Chihare looked around the Hokage’s office once more.
The room was filled with papers. The rubber seal with “Seventh Hokage” carved into it sitting on one edge of the desk was already worn down, despite the fact that it hadn’t been that many years since Naruto took office. In the garbage can were empty energy drink cans and several red pens that had run dry.
When she thought about the fact that this was the office of the Hokage, the leader of the village of Konohagakure, she felt sad somehow.
“Thanks, Chihare.” Unaware of her sympathizing with the state of his office, Naruto flashed a grin at her. “You telling me right away about the ultra particles and potential cure has seriously taken a load off my mind. Believe it.”
“I’m the one who should be thanking you,” Chihare said, and just as she’d feared, Naruto’s face went blank.
The clear blue eyes of the hero who’d secretly safeguarded the lives of so many people. He really didn’t understand that the reason the scientists of the Five Great Nations were able to pour themselves into their research was because he had ended the Great Ninja Wars.
Chihare was going to be twenty-five that year. She had been alive at the time of Pain’s attack and the Fourth Great Ninja War, and she had been very much self-aware, but she remembered hardly anything from those events. She felt like she had a hazy memory of her parents evacuating and taking her off somewhere. But no, maybe that had been just a regular trip? That was about the extent of it. As an adult, she had seen TV shows and magazine special issues looking back on this time period, and that was when she first learned how serious the situation had been.
She’d been kept safe. She hadn’t known.
While the Five Great Nations fought and the shinobi protected the villages with their lives, Chihare had been at home, disassembling light bulbs and reading science books, and doing whatever she pleased. She hadn’t even imagined in her wildest dreams that she was alive because someone was out there fighting for her. She was sure most children of her generation had the same perception.
“I don’t know very much about the shinobi,” she started slowly. “But I know that there are two human beings among them who are head and shoulders above all others at present. You’re one of them, and the other is Uchiha Sasuke. The fact that you both desired peace is a major reason why the Five Great Nations were able to stop fighting. Because there isn’t a shinobi who could beat the two of you in a real fight. The Sixth Hokage focused his efforts on developing the economy instead of the military and worked for the stability of the Five Great Nations, but he could only do that because he had you backing him up. By skillfully maneuvering and making good use of your strength as a deterrent to war, Hatake Kakashi built the peace we have now.”