"Who are you?"
Hearing Nono speak those exact words felt like returning to that tragic day.
Kabuto stared blankly at Nono as warm tears streamed down his cheeks.
He didn't know how to tell her, deeply afraid of facing this adoptive mother he revered above all else. There was so much he desperately wanted to say, but the normally eloquent Kabuto froze up entirely. The words caught thickly in his throat, unable to come out.
"Why are you crying again? You should be someone I know. Who are you?"
Nono watched Kabuto weeping for no apparent reason, feeling a sudden, intense impulse to reach out and wipe away his tears. Her chest ached heavily, as if she had forgotten something deeply important, but no matter how hard she tried to recall, there was absolutely no memory of this young man's face in her mind.
'Who was he?'
According to what Rin told Obito later in the canon Naruto storyline, "I've been watching you from the Pure Land", we can infer that souls residing in the Pure Land can observe things happening in the living world. However, not 'everyone' in the Pure Land possesses this ability. For instance, during Fourth Great Ninja War, those ninja armies reanimated by Kabuto's Impure World Reincarnation, like Madara, couldn't see what was happening in the living world before their summons.
Nono belonged to the latter group, she couldn't see what was happening in the living world either.
"I really don't like people speaking in circles."
Naruto finally spoke up, smoothly interrupting the increasingly awkward and heavy atmosphere.
"Rather than him trying to tell you who he is, why don't you just see for yourself?"
Naruto walked gently up to Nono and tapped her lightly between the eyebrows. In a flash, Kabuto's memories flooded directly into Nono's mind.
This was one of the Subsidiary Abilities of Ki, it allowed the user to project someone's memories into another person's mind, but it could only be used once per target. Aside from being highly useful for quick explanations, this specific skill didn't have much practical combat purpose.
Nono stood completely frozen in place. Through the memory transfer, she saw how Kabuto had resolutely chosen to follow Danzo to become a Root spy, sacrificing everything all for the sake of protecting the orphanage.
She saw his non-stop, grueling missions over five long years, traveling endlessly between the Five Great Nations, all so she and everyone else back home could live better lives. Several times during those brutal missions, he had nearly lost his life.
She saw ten-year-old Kabuto leaving the orphanage, saying in his innocent, childish voice: "It's nine o'clock, time for bed."
This young boy had always been protecting her and the orphanage in his own quiet, desperate way.
Nono looked on verge of crying, if she could she would've just like Kabuto's. A thousand words welled up in her throat, but only one sentence made it past her trembling lips. "I'm sorry, Kabuto. These past years, you've suffered so much."
Nono attempted a gentle, comforting smile, but the rigid nature of the Impure World Reincarnation body made her expression somewhat stiff.
But Kabuto didn't care in the slightest. He could no longer hold back his overwhelming emotions and threw himself into her arms without reservation.
"Matron."
Naruto could hear Kabuto's muffled sobs. After all, the young spy had waited far, far too long for this single moment.
Naruto stood quietly by the incubation tank, not disturbing the two of them as they reunited.
After a long while, their racing hearts finally settled down.
"It's all my fault. I'm so sorry I didn't recognize you." Nono gently stroked Kabuto's hair, just as lovingly as she had stroked that little boy's head back then.
Given their current physical ages, she wasn't actually much older than Kabuto now (Nono had died at around 31, and Kabuto was currently 21).
"It doesn't matter. That's no longer important." Kabuto gently wiped the tears from his eyes and looked seriously at Nono. "Matron, I have a way to resurrect you."
"There's no need." To his utter surprise, Nono gave a gentle but firm refusal. "Whether I'm resurrected or not isn't important. Just being able to see you again is more than enough."
"But-" Kabuto tried desperately to persuade her further.
"I'm already dead. The dead should stay peacefully in the Pure Land." Nono was quite accepting of her fate.
Although she could accept it gracefully, Naruto didn't want her to be so accepting, so he spoke up again.
"Don't you want to go see the other children at the orphanage?"
"Do you really want to meet them in this half-dead state?"
"Don't you want to continue caring for those innocent, pitiful children harmed by the wars?"
"Do you want to see Kabuto's relentless efforts go to waste? Kabuto made significant, painful sacrifices to find a way to resurrect you."
Nono hesitated, her resolve wavering. If you asked her whether she wanted to see the orphanage children again, her honest answer would definitely be yes. Apart from Kabuto, what she couldn't let go of most were those vulnerable children at the orphanage. And not just the orphanage children, if her medical abilities allowed, she wanted to care for even more people out there.
Nono herself was an extremely kind person, a soul completely incompatible with the dark nature of Root, which annihilated all human emotions. It was truly unbelievable why someone as compassionate as her would have ever joined Root back then. (In the beginning Root was special branch of Anbu and it was voluntary to join it.)
Seeing her waver, Kabuto first shot Naruto a deeply grateful look, then hurried forward to continue persuading her himself.
Under Kabuto's emotional pleading, Nono ultimately agreed.
'If you refuse to be resurrected, things will get really troublesome for me later,' Naruto thought practically.
Naruto wasn't orchestrating this entirely for Kabuto's sake, he had his own selfish motives at play here. If this unique resurrection method could be proven viable and safe, Naruto also had someone he desperately wanted to resurrect, his father, Minato Namikaze. Previously, Minato had only been active in the ninja world as unique Shadow Clone, Naruto wanted him truly, permanently resurrected as well.
"Well then, Kabuto, let's begin," Naruto said calmly as he flipped the main switch for the incubation tank at the center of the laboratory.
Kabuto carefully lifted the cloned body out of the fluid.
The resurrection ritual officially began.
In truth, the actual logic behind this so-called resurrection ritual was quite simple. The key lay in merging these two forbidden ninjutsu: Living Corpse Reincarnation and Impure World Reincarnation.
The Living Corpse Reincarnation technique allows a shinobi to transfer their soul into another person's body, granting eternal life through continuous body replacement. In Orochimaru's own words, it's possessing someone else's body and transforming it into a vessel that can house one's soul. The higher the compatibility between the new body and the soul, the longer the vessel can be successfully used. The core mechanic lies in the "soul replacement."
Meanwhile, the Impure World Reincarnation ninjutsu's defining characteristic is summoning the souls of deceased spirits from the Pure Land back to the present world.
So what would happen if a soul summoned through Impure World Reincarnation used Living Corpse Reincarnation on a physical body?
Living Corpse Reincarnation isn't guaranteed to succeed unless the user's spirit is sufficiently powerful. During the casting process, the user faces severe rejection from the target's original soul. The stronger the rejection, the lower the success rate. For instance, Orochimaru was once killed by Sasuke's will and subsequently sealed away by Itachi.
If these aforementioned problems were entirely resolved, would that mean a one hundred percent success rate for the reincarnation?
What if the target of the Living Corpse Reincarnation was a fresh body without consciousness, completely without a soul?
What if the target of the Living Corpse Reincarnation was a perfect clone created directly from the original body owner's cells?
A cloned body would allow the soul and flesh compatibility to easily exceed ninety percent, and a soulless shell could also easily complete the reincarnation ritual without any spiritual resistance.
Impure World Reincarnation combined with Living Corpse Reincarnation and cellular clones.
In a sense, it was a highly effective, degraded version of true resurrection magic.
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