They finished carving Kakashi's face three months after he took the hat.
He didn't wear the mask in the stone. The sculptors asked twice. He told them the village deserved to see the face of the man responsible for it.
I remember standing in the street with Naruto while the last of the scaffolding came down, both of us craning our necks like idiots as dust drifted off fresh stone.
"They made him look cooler than he actually is," Naruto said.
"They left out the part where he reads romance novels in public."
Naruto grinned. "When I'm Hokage, they're carving me mid-punch."
"You're going to need a bigger mountain."
Seven years later, the stone looks like it's always been there.
Kakashi runs things differently. No buried reports. No quiet disappearances. When he dismantled Root, he did it publicly. No half measures. No hidden transitions.
The tunnels still exist under Konoha, but they're empty now. Training grounds. Storage. Nothing that breathes.
The village knows who we are now. Sons of the Fourth. No dramatic speech. No grand reveal. Just paperwork unsealed and truth allowed to sit in the open.
Kids chase Naruto down the street asking for stories. Shopkeepers wave him inside. No one pulls their children away anymore.
Fear needs permission to survive. Kakashi stopped giving it any.
Sai walks around without a mask now.
The first time I saw him arguing with a vendor over paint brushes, I almost didn't recognize him.
"You're being overcharged," Sai told the man politely.
"You don't even know how currency works," his brother muttered beside him.
Sai smiled. "I am learning."
They're regular shinobi now. Missions. Team rotations. Sunlight.
Root is gone.
The village feels lighter for it.
The Uchiha compound isn't isolated anymore. It sits closer to the center, woven into the streets like it should've been all along. No symbolic distance. No quiet segregation dressed up as practicality.
Uchiha serve openly in ANBU. Not as a statement. Just as fact.
Some clans aren't thrilled.
The Hyuga compound gates close earlier these days. Meetings run long. The air feels tighter when you walk past.
Hinata doesn't complain, but I see it in her posture when politics comes up. She's on Team 7 now.
Naruto helped with that more than he realizes. She's grown into herself. Still gentle. Still soft spoken. But there's steel under it now. When her Byakugan activates, people listen.
Sasuke's changed too.
The darkness in him isn't the same. It's focused now. Controlled. He still wants justice for what Danzō did to his parents. That hasn't faded. It's just… tempered.
Shisui leads them.
I'm a chūnin now. Technically that means he isn't my jonin anymore. In practice, I still end up on the same training field.
Old habits.
"Again," Shisui said calmly as Naruto hit the dirt for the third time.
"I didn't even see you move," Naruto groaned.
"That's the point."
Sasuke wiped sweat from his jaw. "He shifts his weight before he vanishes. Left foot."
Shisui's eyes flicked toward him. "Good."
Hinata stood across from him, Byakugan active, breathing steady.
"You gather chakra in your shoulders before you strike," she said softly. "It's faint, but it's there."
Shisui's smile widened. "Excellent."
Naruto pushed himself up. "Why does everyone see things I don't."
"Because you're loud," I said from the fence.
He pointed at me. "Fight me."
Shisui glanced over. "Menma. Since you're here."
I dropped down.
I didn't flare chakra. Didn't rush. Just moved.
Shisui met me halfway. Fast. Controlled.
We traded a short burst of strikes. Punches and kicks blocked and dodged by inches. I duck under a hook seeing an opening but when I attack he puffs into smoke.
I turn around knowing that's where he would appear but he tapped my shoulder before I could counter.
"Still hesitating," he murmured.
"I'm calculating."
"You're overcalculating."
We separated.
Naruto crossed his arms. "You're both annoying."
Hinata smiled faintly. Sasuke didn't look away from me.
They're closer to my level now. Sasuke especially. Naruto's raw power keeps climbing. Hinata's precision is terrifying when she commits.
I'm still ahead though not by much.
Shisui watches me the way Kakashi does. Casual on the surface. Calculating underneath.
They know something's off.
Hiruzen knew before he stepped down and became an elder. Itachi definitely knows. His silence is never empty.
I've learned to be careful.
Future knowledge isn't stable anymore. The massacre happened early because I interfered.
Because I pushed.
That ripple didn't stop at the compound.
Danzō hasn't resurfaced. Seven years. No retaliation. No whisper network. No attempt to reclaim influence.
Men like him don't just disappear.
And the Akatsuki should've moved by now.
They haven't struck the Leaf. No jinchūriki hunts near our borders. No overt aggression.
But that doesn't mean they're idle. What if they adjusted.
What if something started years ago and we're already behind.
I changed too much. Intervened too early.
If that ripple reached them—
I don't know what that means. That's what keeps me awake.
"You're doing it again," Naruto said.
We were sitting on the Hokage Monument, legs hanging over the edge.
"Doing what."
"Looking like you're trying to fight something no one else can see."
I stared over the village.
The Uchiha district lights glowed steady near the center. ANBU moved across rooftops without tension in their posture. Civilians walked home without glancing over their shoulders.
It's better. It really is.
"I'm just thinking," I said.
"About bad stuff."
"Usually."
He nudged my shoulder. "You don't have to carry everything, you know."
He doesn't know about timelines. Or altered futures. Or the way knowledge gets less reliable every year that passes. But he knows I'm carrying something.
"I know," I said.
He waited.
I didn't continue.
After a minute he sighed. "Fine. Be dramatic. But if you turn evil, I'm punching you off this mountain."
"That's fair."
"I mean it."
"I know."
He grinned anyway.
Below us, the village moved.
Integrated. Restless. Healing.
Kakashi's stone face watched over all of it.
Everything looks stable. That's what worries me. Storms don't always announce themselves. Sometimes they just change direction.
And I don't know if we're ready for the one that's coming.