The names continued climbing.
8th through 4th appeared in steady succession---
Hinata Hyūga, Shikamaru Nara, Neji Hyūga, Killer Bee, Sasuke Uchiha---
Each announcement detonating in the arena like a separate explosion.
Hinata went from pale to scarlet in under a second.
Shikamaru sighed deeply and said "what a drag" while trying to suppress a smile.
Neji received his ranking with rigid stillness that fooled absolutely nobody.
Bee immediately began composing a rap about it.
And when Sasuke Uchiha appeared in 4th place with the evaluation "Sharingan genius; will one day rival the founders of the great clans"---
"HA."
That was Naruto.
Sasuke turned, very slowly.
"What."
"Fourth place."
"I know."
"That means you're below three other people."
"I know that too."
"That means I---"
"If you finish that sentence I will end you right here in front of everyone."
Naruto grinned so wide it looked painful.
He didn't finish the sentence.
He didn't have to.
His face said everything.
Sasuke made a sound in the back of his throat that could charitably be described as I am enduring you.
Group Chat:
[Uchiha Itachi @Sasuke Uchiha: Fourth place, little brother. You've grown.]
Sasuke's eyes went very still when he saw that message.
He stared at it for several seconds.
Then, quietly:
[Sasuke Uchiha @Uchiha Itachi: ...Brother.]
[Uchiha Itachi: Keep getting stronger. I'll be watching.]
He didn't respond after that.
Sasuke folded his arms and looked away from the scroll.
His expression was unreadable.
Sakura, watching him, felt something twist in her chest.
Itachi-san...
3rd Place: Might Guy --- Hidden Leaf Village
[The single greatest practitioner of physical ninjutsu in shinobi history. His ceiling was reached only once---and it nearly broke the world. There is no more honest ninja alive.][Reward: Eternal Gates Mantle --- A chakra cloak that permanently distributes the cellular load of the 8th Gate across the body over time, allowing prolonged survival post-activation.]
Guy-sensei, who had not fully recovered from celebrating Lee, received his own ranking and promptly fainted.
Lee caught him.
"GUY-SENSEI!! GUY-SENSEI!!"
"Ahhh..."
"GUY-SENSEI!! PLEASE BE OKAY!!"
Guy opened one eye.
"Lee... did the scroll really say...?"
"Yes, Sensei! It called you the greatest practitioner of physical ninjutsu in all of history!!"
Guy closed his eye again.
"...Lee."
"Yes, Sensei?!"
"I need a moment."
"Of course, Sensei."
"I'm going to cry."
"Yes, Sensei. Me too."
They cried.
Together.
Loudly.
Without any shame whatsoever.
The entire arena watched.
Kakashi, who was three rows away, had his book out.
He was not reading it.
But it provided useful cover for the fact that his visible eye was suspiciously wet at the corner.
He would deny this under any circumstances.
Group Chat:
[Fourth Raikage A @Might Guy: You. Eternal Gates Mantle. Want to spar sometime?]
[Might Guy: I accept ANY challenge in the name of YOUTH!!]
[Fourth Raikage A: Good. My Lightning Armor vs your Gates. Name the time.]
[Might Guy: I'll be there!! The power of YOUTH will---]
[Second Hokage Tobirama Senju: Is anyone going to ask about 2nd and 1st place?]
Everyone went quiet.
Right.
They'd gotten completely swept up in the individual announcements.
The list had reached 3rd place.
Which meant---
The scroll paused.
It had been moving quickly through the lower rankings.
Efficient.
Methodical.
Now it slowed.
The golden text at the top of the section flared brighter than it had for anyone else.
2nd Place.
The entire arena leaned forward as one.
[2nd Place: Uchiha Sasuke --- Hidden Leaf Village]
"WAIT---"
Naruto's head snapped to the scroll.
"It already put Sasuke at fourth!!"
Shikamaru grabbed his arm.
"That was the overall Future Pillar Ranking. This is a different sub-tier. Read it."
Naruto squinted.
[Revised sub-ranking: Future Combat Power, post-Shippuden.][Uchiha Sasuke: Final wielder of the Six Paths Chakra. Possessor of the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan and the Rinnegan. The only living counterpart to the future Seventh Hokage. Destined rival. The other half of the next era's foundation.][Reward: Six Paths Chakra Seed --- A condensed fragment of the Sage of Six Paths' power. When cultivated, blooms into the early precursor of Six Paths chakra control.]
Sasuke read it.
Then read it again.
Destined rival.
The other half of the next era's foundation.
He didn't look at Naruto.
But his jaw tightened in the way it did when something meant more to him than he was willing to say.
Group Chat:
[Uchiha Madara: ...Six Paths chakra. The brat will carry Six Paths chakra in the future?]
[Sage of Six Paths: Yes.]
A ripple moved through the entire chat.
The Sage of Six Paths almost never spoke directly.
[Uchiha Madara: Old man.]
[Sage of Six Paths: Madara.]
[Uchiha Madara: Are you interfering with my plans?]
[Sage of Six Paths: No. I'm watching, same as everyone else.]
[Uchiha Madara: ...Then what does it mean---"destined rival"? Rival to whom?]
[Sage of Six Paths: You already know.]
[Uchiha Madara: ...]
Pure Land
Madara stood very still.
He already knew.
He'd known since the first time the scroll had shown that boy's face---
grinning, half-crying, shouting at the sky like the world owed him something and he was going to collect.
That boy.
Asura's reincarnation.
The Yellow Flash's son.
Raised alone.
Still laughing.
He pressed his lips together.
The plan didn't change.
The Fourth Great Ninja War was still necessary.
True peace required his method.
He believed that completely.
But.
...That boy is going to be a problem.
Chūnin Exam Arena
The scroll's next line was already forming.
Not 1st place yet.
A new line appeared first---a preamble, golden and warm, unlike the clean white text of the other entries:
[Before the first place is announced---a note from the scroll.]
[This ranking does not measure who is strongest today. It measures who carries the most weight of tomorrow. It measures the gap between what someone is and what they will become. And it measures something harder to quantify:]
[The reason why.]
Then---
[1st Place.]
The text appeared one word at a time.
Slower than any other entry.
Like even the scroll was giving the moment room to breathe.
[Uzumaki Naruto.]
[Hidden Leaf Village.]
[Jinchūriki of the Nine-Tails. Son of the Fourth Hokage and the Red Hot-Blooded Habanero. Orphan. Outcast. Knucklehead.]
[The ninja who was abandoned by his village and decided to protect it anyway.]
[Who was hated by the very people he would one day die for.]
[Who never, in twelve years of loneliness, stopped believing in himself.]
[Not because he was special.]
[Because he decided to be.]
The arena was completely silent.
Not the excited silence from before.
Not the shocked silence from the parentage reveal.
Something quieter than either of those.
The kind of silence that happens when a room full of people all feel the same thing at the same time and none of them know how to say it yet.
Naruto was staring at the scroll.
His mouth was open slightly.
He'd read it twice.
The ninja who was abandoned by his village and decided to protect it anyway.
He thought about every door in the village that had been closed to him.
Every shop that pretended not to see him.
Every birthday he'd eaten alone at Ichiraku because Teuchi was the only adult in the village who smiled at him like he was just a kid and not a thing to be afraid of.
He thought about graduating dead last.
About Iruka-sensei taking him out for ramen and meaning it.
About the old man Third standing at his window watching him from above, every night, making sure someone in the world knew he existed.
He thought about all of it.
And felt something in his chest that didn't have a name.
Bigger than happy.
Bigger than sad.
Something in between that humans don't have a word for yet.
"Naruto."
That was Sakura.
Her voice was strange.
Thick.
He turned.
She was looking at him with an expression he'd never seen on her face before.
Like she was seeing him for the first time.
Or maybe seeing him properly for the first time.
"Sakura-chan?"
She opened her mouth.
Closed it.
Looked away.
"Nothing," she said.
But her voice was rough at the edges.
Group Chat:
[First Hokage Hashirama Senju: ...]
[First Hokage Hashirama Senju: I want to say something but I keep starting and stopping because nothing I say is big enough for this.]
[Uzumaki Mito: Then don't say anything, husband. Just feel it.]
[First Hokage Hashirama Senju: ...Yeah. Okay.]
[Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi: Naruto...]
[Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi: I'm sorry it took a scroll to say what I should have said to your face, years ago.]
[Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi: You were never a burden. Not once. Not for a single day.]
In the arena, Naruto had read that message.
He pressed his knuckles against his mouth for a second.
Then he exhaled.
Long and slow.
And he grinned.
That Naruto grin.
The one that looked like sunlight had found a way into a human face.
"Old man Third," he said out loud, to no one in particular, to the message on the screen, to the sky above the arena.
"I never thought you were a bad person either."
Several people in the crowd who had no personal stake in any of this had to look away.
Konoha --- Ichiraku Ramen
Teuchi read the scroll's evaluation from outside his shop.
The ninja who was abandoned by his village and decided to protect it anyway.
He set down the ladle.
Put both hands flat on the counter.
Breathed out through his nose.
"...That's my kid," he said, to the empty shop.
Nobody heard him.
He didn't mind.
Reward:
[Uzumaki Naruto --- 1st Place, Future Pillar Ranking.][Reward: Nine-Tails Partial Harmony Seal --- Reduces the internal barrier between jinchūriki and Nine-Tails. Enables early access to the initial stage of Nine-Tails Chakra Mode. Activates only when the user genuinely acts to protect another.]
Group Chat:
[Nine-Tails Kurama: ...]
[One-Tail Shukaku: Nine-Tails. Your jinchūriki just got first place.]
[Nine-Tails Kurama: I know.]
[One-Tail Shukaku: And the reward is literally a seal that makes you two work better together.]
[Nine-Tails Kurama: I know.]
[One-Tail Shukaku: So you're going to have to cooperate with the loud blond kid.]
[Nine-Tails Kurama: ...I know.]
[One-Tail Shukaku: How do you feel about that?]
A long pause.
[Nine-Tails Kurama: Shut up, Shukaku.]
[One-Tail Shukaku: Heh.]
Inside Naruto---
In the dark cage where the Nine-Tails had lived for twelve years---
The great fox sat alone.
The seal reward hadn't activated yet.
It would only activate when Naruto acted to protect someone.
Knowing that boy---
It would activate soon.
The Nine-Tails looked at the bars between them.
Thought about twelve years of watching through borrowed eyes.
A child crying on a rooftop at three in the morning and then climbing down and going to school and pretending he was fine.
...Troublesome brat.
He would not be cooperating.
He would not be working together.
He was the Nine-Tails and he answered to no one.
He said nothing for a long time.
Then, very quietly, to no one:
...Don't embarrass me.
Chūnin Exam Arena
The golden beam dropped from the scroll.
It fell toward Konoha like a shooting star in reverse---
arcing down, slow and warm, into the arena.
It landed on Naruto's chest.
He flinched---
not from pain.
From warmth.
Like something that had been cold for a very long time had just been touched by sunlight.
He pressed his hand over the spot.
Felt something settle inside him that he didn't have words for.
Felt something in the cage shift, very slightly, that wasn't quite anger anymore.
He stood up straight.
The arena was still quiet.
All eyes on him.
He was twelve years old.
He was standing in the middle of the biggest ninja gathering in years.
The whole world was watching.
He looked up at the scroll.
At his own name, still glowing at the top of the list.
And he did the only thing Naruto Uzumaki knew how to do when the world was watching and there was nothing left to hide behind.
He grinned.
"Yosh!!"
He pumped his fist at the sky.
"I'M GOING TO BE HOKAGE!! DATTEBAYO!!"
The entire arena burst.
Not politely.
Not the careful applause of a formal gathering.
Loud.
Genuine.
The kind that happens when a room full of people have all been holding something in and someone gives them permission to let it out.
Even from the Hidden Cloud section, there was noise.
Raikage A said nothing.
But he did stop scowling.
Ōnoki adjusted his robes and cleared his throat and looked at the sky and said absolutely nothing.
In the Pure Land---
Kushina was no longer trying not to cry.
She wasn't crying either, exactly.
She was doing that thing people do when they're so overwhelmed it's come out the other side---
Laughing.
And crying.
At the same time.
"That's our son," she managed.
Minato put his arm around her.
"That's our son."
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