Watching Naruto vanish into thin air, Sasuke was beyond frustrated.
For weeks his shadow clone had tailed Naruto's clone every day, hoping to piece together Naruto's mysteries. He had even felt proud of how quietly he was doing it.
Only for Naruto to call him out to his face today — and to reveal that someone else had been tailing Sasuke's clone as well.
Naruto's words echoed in his head. The Third Hokage was probably already on his way to Naruto's house.
School had just let out for lunch. Sasuke calculated the time and Naruto's usual routes home, formed seals, changed his appearance with a Transformation, and sprinted off.
Alongside training these past months, Sasuke often sent clones to dig into Konoha's workings. The deeper he looked, the less sense the village made. Even just combing the history left him staring at contradictions and holes.
Right now one fact felt certain. If the Third discovered a Sasuke clone had followed Naruto all the way home, things would get ugly fast.
Ever since he learned outsiders could transplant Sharingan, he had watched the village elite with ice in his stomach. So much time had passed and not one high-ranking official had told him where his clan's bodies had gone.
The thought gave him chills. He clung to Naruto's warning — unless forced, never reveal that he had awakened his eyes.
Sasuke ran to a junction where several roads split. He chose a narrow lane that cut away from the village center and kept going until he had to stop to catch his breath. The place was too quiet. Bare road. No buildings. It felt wrong.
He did not wait long. A shock of bright blond hair came into view.
Sasuke stepped forward. When he brushed shoulders with Naruto's clone, the clone's mouth tugged in a mocking smile.
"Damn it."
Shame flashed through Sasuke's eyes, but he kept moving. After a while he returned to the crossroads — and there came his own clone, strolling right toward him.
He raised a hand to signal it, then froze. A pink figure had appeared not far behind the clone.
Sasuke's face darkened. His clone was careless to a ridiculous degree. Haruno Sakura, a girl, had followed him all this way and he had not even noticed.
Too weak. That was the truth.
Thinking of the clone's smirk, Sasuke swore to himself there would not be a next time.
He stepped out, flashed a hand sign to the clone, then turned down another branch road without a word.
The clone's eyes sharpened. It followed at once.
Naruto had just set lunch on the table when the Third Hokage arrived right on schedule. Today was the day Naruto received his monthly stipend.
"Naruto, this is your allowance for the month. Don't waste it."
Smiling, the Third placed an envelope on the table.
"Thank you, Lord Hokage."
Naruto thanked him and slid the envelope into the drawer beneath the table.
"Hm." After a thoughtful pause, the Third spoke again. "Naruto, do you want to know the truth about your birth?"
Naruto's heart clenched, though his face twisted with practiced pain. "When you taught me to read, you told me already. Long ago the village was attacked by the Nine Tails. My parents died in that disaster like so many others."
The Third's eyes glinted. That was exactly what he had told Naruto. He pressed on. "Do you not wish to know who your parents were, what kind of people they were?"
Naruto lowered his head. Only after a long silence did he answer. "What would it change if I knew? It will not bring them back."
The Third nodded heavily, then softened his tone. "Do not be sad. Remember, everyone in the village is your family."
Naruto looked up with hopeful eyes. "Thank you, Lord Hokage. I will remember."
A gentle smile warmed the Third's face. "Eat up. Iruka says you have been doing well lately, but you must work even harder."
Mount Myoboku.
While the Third delivered Naruto's stipend, Fukasaku bounded into the great hall where the Great Toad Sage slept. He slapped the floor beside the dais.
Poof.
A puff of smoke and Jiraiya stood there.
Fukasaku hopped onto the stone platform next to the Great Toad Sage and shouted, "Elder, I've summoned Jiraiya."
The Great Toad Sage opened his eyes a crack. "Ah, Jiraiya has arrived?"
"Yes." Jiraiya stepped to the base of the dais, face set. "Great Toad Sage, is there a new prophecy?"
The lids lifted a fraction more. "Jiraiya, shrine maiden Miroku has already told you the prophecy about yourself. Why still go to the Land of Rain?"
Jiraiya's expression dimmed. "I know. But I want to see it with my own eyes. I want to know what my students went through and why they became what they are."
The sage's eyelids drooped. He said nothing. After a while, his slow voice filled the hall. "The seals you reinforced around the Dragon Vein have been damaged again by a man called Hundred-Foot. If you do not stop him, the future of the shinobi world will slide into ruin."
Jiraiya frowned. Back in Loulan he had found that same Hundred-Foot probing the seals. The man kept to the shadows and hid behind puppets, never showing his true body. With the alliance between Sunagakure and Konoha, Jiraiya could not act openly. Loulan was already a ruin claimed by the Land of Wind, which meant he had even more reason to stay anonymous.
"I will go and restore the seals at once."
"Wait."
Hands halfway to the release of the reverse summoning, Jiraiya straightened. "Great Toad Sage, your orders?"
The old sage opened his eyes again. "You must not set foot in the Land of Rain for the rest of your life. The answers you seek about your three students can be found in Konoha. Before that, stop Hundred-Foot from destroying the Dragon Vein's seals."
"What!"
Jiraiya's pupils shrank. Between his teacher's orders and Miroku's prophecy, he had spent over three months chasing information on Akatsuki. To hear now that the answers lay back in Konoha — a heavy foreboding settled in his chest.
Konoha. Naruto's home.
Naruto's true body sat bare-chested on a stool. A shadow clone stood before him, spread its hand, and lit each finger with a different nature of chakra — wind, fire, water, earth, lightning.
"Five Elements Unsealing. Open."
Poof.
The clone vanished.
Kurama's voice echoed at once inside the seal. "Sealing and unsealing over and over. What a hassle."
Naruto smiled. "It cannot be helped. Everything is for the future. You saw how the Third deliberately tested me today. He wants to see whether I still cling to the truth of my past."
"Hmph." Kurama flicked a tail. "Humans are such complicated creatures."
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