Now that everything had been decided, the group started to stand, and Naruto stopped them.
“Guys. So, like.”
“What, loser?” Sasuke glared at him. “You’re not actually hesitating about us helping you again, are you?”
“No. I’m okay with that.” From where he sat cross-legged, Naruto put his hands on his knees and lowered his head. “Thanks. I’m super counting on all of you.”
Kakashi and Sakura patted his shoulders from either side.
“The Hokage can’t go bowing his head to just anyone.” Shikamaru smiled wryly, and Naruto grinned with him.
He wasn’t bowing to just anyone. He was bowing to them.
Chihare’s observation records were impeccable, and Sakura and Shikamaru both gave them their seal of approval. There was no doubt that this star of hers was the Sage of Six Paths’ satellite.
With everything sorted and settled, it was finally time to carry out the mission. They had to get moving as soon as possible to get ready.
It would be suspicious to have a group like them seen moving together as one, so the party left the shop one by one at carefully timed intervals. Naruto to the Hokage’s office to get a jump on his normal work in preparation for tomorrow night. Shikamaru to make arrangements to “handle that.” Kakashi to scout his “partner.” Sakura with Chihare to practice riding the bike. And Sasuke—he had nothing in particular to do, so he decided to go home right away and conserve his strength.
“Sasuke.”
He’d slipped through the back door and gone out into the alley, when a voice called out to him.
It was Hinata.
This wasn’t the sort of place she would have just happened to be passing by. She couldn’t have ambushed Sasuke here unless she knew that he and the others were meeting in the hidden room of Tami’s sweet shop.
“What is it?” he asked.
“Thanks for all the things you do for Naruto.”
Has she realized it then?
Sasuke hid his consternation and kept his face expressionless as he peered at her. Naruto was keeping his illness a secret from his family. If she’d long ago picked up on it and said nothing because she respected Naruto’s feelings, she was one incredible wife.
“I’ve done nothing you should thank me for. I’m only doing what I want to do,” Sasuke said coolly and walked past her.
Hinata lobbed something. “Here!”
Once he caught it, he realized it was a headband with the mark of Konoha.
“Better to have something to protect your forehead,” she told him.
Sasuke stared at Hinata, a strange feeling coming over him.
He’d never been good with her. She was always so timid and had no confidence in herself despite being a hard worker. She made it seem like she had no opinions of her own, always watching other people’s faces, looking for the right thing to say or do. He used to get annoyed whenever he saw her.
But during the time he’d been away from the village, Hinata had changed. Her core strength locked away inside of her reserved nature began to reveal itself. With that secret strength, she sometimes watched over Naruto, sometimes supported him—and before he knew it, she had married him.
“I’m not officially a Konoha shinobi. I can’t wear—”
“Make sure to give it back,” Hinata interrupted Sasuke as he was about to return the headband to her and turned sharp eyes on him. “I can’t let my husband be responsible for your life too.”
He really was uncomfortable with this woman.
The training ground, wrapped in the hazy red light of the setting sun.
At the request of Kakashi, Yamato dropped his duties monitoring Orochimaru in order to be Kakashi’s partner and learn about the absurd mission to send a pillar 660,000 feet up into the air. He stood there with a look on his face like he’d been forced to eat a live caterpillar.
“And you’re doing this tomorrow? You’re as reckless as ever, hm, Kakashi?”
“Aah, I’m just glad I have such an excellent comrade here with me,” Kakashi said. “That height, even I’ll run out of chakra by the time it’s halfway up.”
“And there you go again. I’m getting on in years myself though, so I can’t be swayed by flattery,” Yamato retorted sharply, but his face relaxed into a smile. No matter how many years passed, he would always be happy to receive compliments from the older man he had long looked up to.
Kakashi might have teased him with flattery, but it was a simple fact that he relied on Yamato. He was the rare man who could quietly handle a difficult and dull job that never garnered him any true glory. Yamato’s powerful abilities and his humble steadfastness had saved Kakashi any number of times.
“About 310,000 feet is the most I can do with my Wood Style and still produce something strong enough to handle the system bike riding up it,” Yamato told him. “Even if I scrimp on the strength by half and combine with your Earth Style, Kakashi, I have my doubts about whether or not we could make it all the way to 660,000 feet.”
“The issue isn’t just the amount of chakra, hm?” Kakashi mused.
They wouldn’t get anywhere unless they gave it a try.
The two shinobi stood facing each other in the center of the training ground.
They considered a variety of ways to link Earth and Wood Styles but decided in the end on Yamato first producing a support pillar of wood which would be coated by Kakashi’s Earth Style. It was a combined ninjutsu that required fine chakra control and a precise combination.
“Oh, I’ll just throw it out, so you match me, okay?” Kakashi said lightly.
“What?! … I understand.”
“No, no, kidding. We’ll work together.”
Yamato realized Kakashi was teasing him and frowned, looking not entirely displeased.
They made eye contact again and then both of them slapped a hand against the ground at the same time.
Bang!
Earth Style and Wood Style. Their two different chakras raced into the earth together.
Dwoom!
The thick trunk of a tree rose up first, a millisecond faster. Earth Style crackled as it covered the tree stretching up straight toward the heavens.
But the earth wrapping around the tree was shooting up a tiny bit faster than the tree was growing. Once the pillar reached a height of 32,000 feet, the earth wall surpassed the tree trunk, lost its supporting pillar, and crumbled back down.
“Aaah …”
It was already broken.
Yamato shrugged, eyes turned upward chasing after the tip of the extending pillar.
Well, the first attempt was always like this. Perfectly matching different ninjutsu normally required years of practice. Trying to complete this task in the span of a single night, no matter how skilled the two shinobi, was the absurdity Yamato was talking about.
“You’re worried. I am too,” Kakashi said in a light tone, perhaps guessing at Yamato’s anxiety.
“There’s nothing to do but try, right?” Yamato gave voice to the words he expected from Kakashi next. “It’s for Naruto, after all.”
After returning to the Hokage’s office, Naruto checked the documents piled on his desk and split them up into separate piles. Papers he’d stamped his seal onto, papers that couldn’t be processed for one reason or another, and papers he would talk with Shikamaru about before deciding anything. He wanted the first stack to grow, but unfortunately, the three mountains remained basically equal.
He lifted his gaze abruptly and met his own eyes in the window of his office. The glass, covered in a protective film, reflected the inside of the room less than it showed the outside, so he couldn’t really see the scene on the other side.
I wish I could go outside.
Naruto looked over the mountains of documents in the glass and sighed deeply. He wanted to see the lights of the village. He wanted to sit on the rocky face of the Fourth Hokage in the middle of the seven faces and look down on the village. But he couldn’t. He had to finish tomorrow’s work tonight.
Tomorrow.
Tomorrow night, his friends would bring him to the spot where the satellite would come.
Maybe someone like you who grew up loved by the people around you can’t understand that.
Chihare’s words came back to life in his ears. He had denied them, but it was true that he was blessed. With friends. And talent.
Naruto stood and picked up the framed picture decorating his shelf. He took the back off and pulled out the other photo tucked away behind the photo of the four members of Team Kakashi.
In the faded sepia world, Minato and Kushina were walking alongside each other.
The photo had apparently been taken without their knowledge; neither of them had their eyes turned toward the camera. Kushina was talking happily, walking slightly ahead of Minato, red hair swinging, and Minato was smiling as he looked at her back.
Tsunade had given him this photo a long time ago. She’d found it among Jiraiya’s things, but she didn’t know who had taken it.
Standing there, Naruto stared at the faces of his parents, who were younger than he was now.
He had been bullied in the village and gained the power of Nine Tails’ chakra because Minato had sealed the Nine Tails, Kurama, inside of him. Because of that, Naruto got to meet Kurama.
So then what if Kurama had never been inside of me?
“. . .”
He tightened his grip on the photo in his hand, and wrinkles popped up around his mother’s face in profile.
He’d thought about this over and over since he learned that he might lose his chakra. Who exactly would he be with no chakra?
What if his father hadn’t sealed Nine Tails inside of him? What if Naruto had never had Nine Tails’ chakra? Would he still have been able to help his friends and fight his enemies? If he didn’t have Nine Tails inside of him, he might not have become Hokage.
No, you’re wrong, a low voice replied inside of his head. Even if I wasn’t here, you would have become Hokage. With your ninja path, never twisting your own words, and your impossible stubbornness, you would have pulled your comrades forward and saved your enemies. And the people would have accepted you and selected you as Hokage. It’s me telling you this, so you know it’s not wrong.
“You’re awake then?” Naruto said. “You’ve been doing nothing but sleeping lately.”
Kurama sniffed indignantly. You think these silly thoughts woke me? I will sleep again now.
Naruto knew himself that it was silly. If he didn’t have Kurama, his parents would have lived, and he would never have been bullied in the first place. The Great Ninja War might not even have happened, and this would be a completely different world. There was no point in even thinking about it.
There was no point, but …
“Hey, Kurama?” Naruto said, but either Kurama really had gone back to sleep or he was awake and ignoring Naruto. Either way, Naruto got no reply.
He thought about it over and over and over. What exactly would be left for him once Nine Tails’ chakra was gone?