The bell rang.
School was out again.
Sasuke watched Naruto leave the classroom with Shikamaru and Choji. He shot to his feet and followed, only to stop with a frown a short way down the hall.
Naruto had split off, waved to Shikamaru and Choji, then walked side by side with Hyuga Hinata. Before Sasuke could decide whether to tail them, the two had already stepped out of the Academy gates together.
"What is with him"
Questions filled his head. He needed answers from Naruto.
Of the three scrolls Naruto gave him yesterday, only the storage scroll remained. The other two he had burned as instructed. He had not mastered every technique written there, but each one was carved into his memory.
He could not figure Naruto out. From the last two days, Naruto did not seem like someone who revolved around a girl.
Sasuke sighed in silence, watched Naruto's back disappear into the street, then turned toward the grove.
In the grove, Naruto's real body sat motionless on the stone slab. All around him stood dozens of shadow clones. Each held an object in both hands, as if feeling its flow.
"Heh. Father, look how capable our Third Hokage is. He gave the village a clean, official story for the Uchiha incident, found Genweng as the culprit for the explosions, and then hustled out of the village with the three advisors to the Fire Daimyo's capital in the middle of the night."
"See how scared the daimyo was. Last time the village failed to get funds. This time a few words and the money poured out, principal and interest multiplied several times."
Inside the Mirror World, Naruto streamed the newest synced data for Minato and Kurama.
Minato's face burned. He watched the Third arrive at the daimyo's mansion at night with guards and the three advisors, force the doors, and ask for money while the daimyo trembled on his bed.
That was not a request for funding. That was a robbery.
Kurama was delighted. This level of immersive view and sound had never existed in its previous hosts.
"Heh. Naruto, look at that Danzo fellow choke on it." Kurama tapped a claw at the scene. "The moment he brought the money back, the Third stripped his posts and forced Root to disband."
Naruto nodded and pulled up Itachi's latest data. At first it matched what he remembered of the story. Itachi and Hoshigaki Kisame took bounty missions all over.
Then a blast lit the screen and Minato blinked.
"That is Kannabi Bridge." Minato frowned. "This is peacetime. Who would hire Akatsuki to bomb a bridge"
Naruto's thoughts tightened. Kannabi Bridge lay in the Land of Grass, a keystone in the tale. In the war it had been a vital supply artery for Iwagakure. They would not bomb it themselves. In peacetime, only one answer remained. Uchiha Obito, obsessed and ill, had quietly issued the job.
"Hm. This kid has the Three Tails' power, yet one Amaterasu and he faints."
Kurama squinted at the image of Yagura the Fourth Mizukage collapsing under Itachi's black flames.
"Something off" Naruto asked.
"Amaterasu burns hot, yes," Kurama said. "But to a jinchuriki who truly commands a tailed beast, it is nothing. You shed a sliver of chakra and slip its bite."
Naruto ran through the anime in his head. Amaterasu's track record was pitiful. Gamabunta's oil shrugged it off. A non Mangekyo Sasuke survived it. Orochimaru laughed to the end of the tale. Later the Eight Tails, the Fourth Raikage, Danzo, Edo Tensei Nagato, even Edo Madara all weathered it.
Aside from a crow and a batch of White Zetsu plants, the so called ultimate flame had little to show.
Strange too. In Mirror World fights, Itachi opened Susanoo often but never used Amaterasu. Shisui never used Kotoamatsukami either.
Naruto was about to open another panel and dig when Kurama suddenly roared.
"They are after us tailed beasts. They are already arranging to sniff out the others."
Minato's face hardened. The masked man created this organization and started the Nine Tails disaster. Even so, the scope shocked him. They wanted to net every beast.
"I did not expect even Orochimaru to lose to Itachi so quickly."
Minato muttered as the feed ended with Itachi severing Orochimaru's arm. Naruto closed the window and took his father and the enraged fox back to the seal.
"Kurama, can I ask you something"
Kurama inclined its head. "Ask."
Naruto glanced at Minato, then raised a fist.
The fox bumped it. Its crimson slit pupils flew wide.
"Brat, that question crosses a line."
Kurama snorted hard through its nose, pushed its answer through their link, then shut its eyes and lay down.
"Naruto, Kurama seems angry. What did you say"
Minato looked lost. The fox's eyes had been burning a moment ago.
"Nothing."
Naruto smiled faintly and left the seal.
He had asked why, with senses that sharp, Kurama had not fled before the masked man seized him. He had the reason now. To Naruto, the price paid for that reason was too steep.
He eyed the shredded leaves at his feet. Sensing a familiar presence nearing, he dismissed the clones, lifted his palm, and formed a Rasengan.
Drawing on the clones' leaf cutting drill, he fed wind nature into the sphere. A harsh whine rose from his hand.
A dozen breaths. The sphere only screamed. Nothing else changed.
Naruto smirked and let the Rasengan fade. He had planned to discuss it with his father inside the seal, but Sasuke was almost here.
Sasuke arrived and said nothing. He stared at Naruto on the slab, face very dark.
He had figured it out soon after leaving the village center. The Naruto in class today had been a shadow clone.
Naruto's look made it obvious. A look reserved for idiots. Sasuke's face flushed and paled by turns.
"You wasted a precious day."
Color drained from Sasuke's face.
Naruto ignored it. "Did you find what you went to the library for"
Sasuke shook his head, pain shadowing his eyes. He had suspicions, nothing confirmed.
"I told you. You are not calm enough." Naruto stepped down from the slab. "You are lost because everything you believed is shifting at once. So much that you cannot hold it."
"You think you are suffering now. No. If you keep living this passively, worse pains are lined up and waiting their turn."
Sasuke stiffened. The Sharingan flashed to red. "What did you say"
"If you do not grow, you become a slave to pain. You live trapped in yesterday. Even if you learn the truth, you will still be useless."
Sasuke's face twisted. The scarlet eyes bore into Naruto. Naruto did not flinch. He met them head on.
At length Sasuke drew himself in. He shut the eyes down to black and spoke in a low voice. "You are right."
Naruto shook his head lightly. "I understand. Only when a person undergoes a rebirth can they step into a new life."
"When you have endured to the edge, the one who remains is the real you."
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