Kinoshita Jiro looked at Naruto lying on the ground, worry on his face. "Kakashi-dono, what happened to Naruto?"
"Nothing serious—just overtrained," Kakashi said evenly. "By the way, Jiro-dono, did you feel that chakra a moment ago?"
Jiro blinked and nodded, puzzled. "I did feel a special chakra. Does this have to do with Nar—"
He stopped, gave a wry smile, and scratched his head. "Matters of the great villages are too complicated. I'm just a wanderer; I don't want to get involved."
Kakashi dipped his head slightly. He was about to say more when his expression shifted; a grave look crossed his face. "Jiro-san, please take Naruto back first."
Without waiting for a reply, he vanished with Shunshin no Jutsu (Body Flicker Technique).
"No surprise. Yuto-sama calculated everything," Jiro murmured, eyes narrowing as he watched Kakashi go.
He reached out and gave Naruto a light push. Naruto's eyes fluttered open. "Jiro-san, what happened to me?" he asked, voice weak.
For some reason, Naruto felt as if he'd lost something important.
"Training can't come at the expense of your body. Look—you pushed yourself to sleep," Jiro said gently.
Remembering he'd only meant to rest a moment and had actually dozed off, Naruto flushed and tried to stand. Before he could straighten, weakness flooded him and he plopped back down.
"Guess I overdid it," he said with a sheepish grin, scratching his head.
"Come on—I'll carry you."
Jiro turned, crouched, and offered his back with a small smile.
Naruto froze for a beat at the sight of that offered back. His nose stung.
Moonlight poured down, starlight pricking the sky, trees casting shallow shadows along the path.
With Naruto on his back, Jiro walked toward Tazuna's house at an easy pace.
"Um... th-thanks, Jiro-san."
"No problem," Jiro replied, unbothered.
"Jiro-san, you seem to know a lot about the Uzumaki clan. Could you tell me more?" Naruto asked in a small voice.
After a while with no answer, disappointment flickered in Naruto's eyes—but not surprise. He'd asked before and been turned down.
"If you want to hear it that much, I'll tell you a story. I know about the Uzumaki because my wife was from that clan..." Jiro said at last, his tone carrying a thin thread of sorrow as he walked.
Elsewhere, Kakashi moved swiftly.
After several hundred meters, he stopped and looked at a masked figure ahead. The animal motif on the mask and the distinctive uniform made his gut tighten. Anbu?
No—close, but not quite.
"Kakashi. State your business," said a stiff, emotionless voice from behind the mask.
That flat tone made Kakashi's senses sharpen. The attire and affect were near-identical to Anbu, except for that deadened voice—Ne (Root).
So the Nine-Tails' chakra leak had drawn Root's attention too.
"What is Root doing here?" Kakashi asked, eyes narrowing though his face stayed calm.
The Root operative said nothing, the gaze behind the mask cold. He formed two quick hand signs, then turned away.
Only when the operative vanished from sight did Kakashi let out a quiet breath. "So it really was Root."
As a former Anbu, he knew those signs well—simple message: "Don't meddle."
Root in the Land of Waves... on an important mission? He pondered, then set it aside. With Root's methods, it likely had nothing to do with him.
He turned and bounded back toward Tazuna's, disappearing in a few leaps.
"My, my. I've opened the way for you, Kinoshita Jiro. The rest is up to you," Yuto said with a soft laugh, standing where Kakashi had just been.
A moment ago, the Root operative had been standing silently at Yuto's side.
…
On the road before Tazuna's home—
"There are many rumors about why the Uzumaki were destroyed. Some say it was because their sealing arts were too powerful and other villages felt threatened.
"Others say the clan had a special constitution that could seal certain 'monsters,' so other villages hunted them down. My wife was one of those who escaped; that's when I met her."
At the word "wife," a warm smile touched Jiro's face, though his voice grew heavier.
On Jiro's back, Naruto trembled faintly at the phrase "seal monsters."
He thought of the times he'd been called a monster, and of what Mizuki had said when Naruto defeated him.
As those memories stirred, the half-torn seal tag Yuto had left seemed to falter in its old function; the Nine-Tails' negativity began to seep in.
But then the scene in Naruto's mind shifted—Iruka's smile, the Third's concern, flashes of camaraderie with friends—one after another rose up in him.
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