Chapter 68 – I'll Carry You
Jirou looked at Naruto lying on the ground, worry on his face. "Kakashi-dono, what happened to Naruto?"
"There's nothing wrong. He just overtrained," Kakashi said calmly.
"By the way, Jirou-dono, did you sense that chakra earlier?"
Kakashi suddenly remembered something and turned his head. Though his words carried a question, his tone held certainty.
Jirou nodded slowly, puzzled. "I did feel a special chakra. Could this be related to Nar—" He stopped midway, giving a bitter smile as he scratched his head. "The great ninja villages are far too complicated. A wandering shinobi like me doesn't want to get involved."
Hearing this, Kakashi nodded lightly and was about to speak when his expression suddenly hardened, a trace of gravity appearing in his eyes. "Jirou-san, please take Naruto back first."
Without waiting for a reply, Kakashi flickered away using the Body Flicker Technique.
"As expected of Lord Yuto… he calculated everything," Jirou murmured, narrowing his eyes slightly as he watched Kakashi leave.
He reached out and gently nudged Naruto, and with that motion, Naruto slowly opened his eyes. "Jirou-san… what happened to me?" Naruto asked, his voice carrying fatigue. For some reason, he faintly felt as if he had lost something extremely important.
"You can't train without caring for your body. Look—you exhausted yourself to sleep," Jirou said softly, his tone gentle.
Naruto remembered intending to lie down for only a moment, yet ended up falling asleep. His face flushed with embarrassment as he tried to stand, but a wave of weakness surged through him and he fell back down. "Looks like I overdid it," Naruto said with an awkward smile.
"Come on—I'll carry you."
Jirou turned his back and crouched, speaking with a light smile.
Naruto froze, staring at Jirou's back. For a moment, an unexpected sting rose in his nose. Moonlight spilled from above, scattered starlight flickering faintly as the trees cast soft silhouettes.
Carrying Naruto, Jirou slowly walked toward Tazuna's house.
"Umm… thank you, Jirou-san," Naruto said quietly, unable to hide his awkwardness.
"It's fine," Jirou replied gently.
"Jirou-san… you seem to know a lot about the Uzumaki clan. Could you tell me more?" Naruto asked in a small voice.
A long silence followed. Jirou still did not answer. Disappointment flickered in Naruto's eyes, though without surprise—this was not the first time he had asked and been refused.
"If you truly want to hear it… then I'll tell you a story. The reason I know the Uzumaki clan is because my wife was one of them," Jirou said softly, his voice tinged with faint sorrow as he continued forward.
Kakashi rushed straight in one direction.
Only after running several hundred meters did he stop, staring at a masked figure in the distance. When he saw the animal design on the mask and the special uniform the person wore, Kakashi was slightly shocked. An Anbu operative?
No—although Anbu looked similar, there were small but distinct differences.
"Hatake Kakashi, what business do you have here?"
A stiff, emotionless voice came from the masked man.
Hearing that lifeless tone, Kakashi's mind sharpened immediately. The outfit resembled Anbu, but the rigid voice… that was unmistakably the trademark of Root operatives.
It seemed Naruto's brief leak of Nine-Tails chakra had caught Root's attention as well.
"Why would Root operatives appear here?" Kakashi asked, his expression unchanged, though his eyes narrowed slightly.
The Root ninja said nothing, silently staring at Kakashi from behind the mask. Then he raised his hand, performed two hand signs, and turned to leave.
Only after the Root ninja completely disappeared from view did Kakashi quietly exhale. "So it really was Root."
As a former Anbu member, Kakashi recognized the meaning of those two gestures. In simple terms: mind your own business.
Root operatives appearing in the Land of Waves—did they have an important mission?
A thoughtful look flashed through Kakashi's eyes, but he dismissed it a moment later. With how Root handled missions, it likely had nothing to do with him.
With that, Kakashi turned and headed toward Tazuna's house. A few leaps later, he was gone.
"Aiya, Jirou… I've created the opportunity for you. The rest depends on your own skill."
Yuto had appeared without anyone noticing at the spot Kakashi had just stood, smiling lightly in the direction Kakashi left.
Beside him, the Root ninja stood silently.
————
On the road not far from Tazuna's house—
"There are many rumors about why the Uzumaki clan was destroyed. Some say it was because they mastered powerful sealing techniques and were viewed as a threat by other villages."
"Others say the Uzumaki clan had a special constitution that allowed them to seal certain monsters, so other ninja villages hunted them. My wife was one of the survivors who fled, and that was when I met her."
When Jirou mentioned the word "wife," a happy smile appeared on his face, but his voice grew increasingly sorrowful.
Carried on Jirou's back, Naruto trembled slightly at the words "able to seal monsters."
For a moment, Naruto recalled all the times he had been called a monster, along with the things Mizuki had told him after their fight.
As those memories returned, the half-torn seal tag Yuto had removed no longer functioned as before. The Nine-Tails' negative emotions began to rise within Naruto.
However, at that moment, the scene in Naruto's mind suddenly shifted—Iruka's smile, the Third Hokage's concern, and moments of friendship with his classmates flickered one after another in his thoughts.
(End of Chapter)
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