The hallway of the Leaf Village Hospital smelled of disinfectant. White walls, white floor, morning light streaming through the windows. Uzumaki Naruto stood in the hallway holding his discharge belongings—just a change of clothes and a small pouch—and retied his shoelaces. His right arm was already free of the splint. The fracture had healed quickly. (Finally getting out of here.) As he thought that and looked out the window at the hallway, the Leaf Village spread out before him. The Hokage Rock. The roofs of the shopping district. The Academy building. Everything was exactly as it always was. "[serious] Wait, Naruto." A voice called out. He turned around. The Fifth Hokage, Tsunade, stood at the end of the hallway. Her long blonde hair was tied up in two sections, and today instead of her white coat, she wore something closer to the Hokage's formal attire. Her expression wasn't her usual bold one. Fine wrinkles creased her brow, and her eyes were serious. Naruto tensed slightly. "[serious] The state of the seal is as I explained yesterday. The threshold at which the Nine-Tails' chakra leaks when your emotions surge has dropped significantly compared to before. You understand that, right?" "[serious] Yes, I understand." "[serious] Anger, sadness, intense excitement—emotional fluctuations like those become triggers that widen the cracks in the seal. For now, don't let your emotions swing wildly. That's an order." An order. The word rolled through Naruto's ears. Suppress your emotions. Command a shinobi to do that. (Suppress my emotions... that's too harsh for a shinobi.) But he didn't say it aloud. Because Tsunade's eyes were serious. Not joking, not just going through the motions—genuinely worried eyes. "[serious] Understood." "Good." Tsunade glanced at Naruto's forehead protector once, then turned away. As she left, she said quietly: "[gentle] ...Be careful." That voice lingered in the hallway. Naruto adjusted his belongings and headed outside. There was a dull heat deep in his belly. Not the pain of the seal. Just the sensation of something being there. The presence of the Nine-Tails. Since the battle at the Valley of the End, that heat had never disappeared. --- The Leaf Village shopping district was crowded even in the morning. People walking on the stone pavement. Voices selling vegetables, children running around, the smell of grilled fish drifting from somewhere. Everything was nostalgic. Everything was as it always was. But something was different. Naruto noticed it immediately. The stares. An old man passing by glanced at Naruto's face—then quickly looked away. Two women chatting in front of the vegetable shop lowered their voices as soon as Naruto approached. A parent with children who had been walking ahead of Naruto suddenly changed route. (Again.) Naruto kept walking forward. He was used to these stares. He'd been getting used to them for twelve years. But today was different. Heavier than usual. What happened at the Valley of the End had spread through the village. The Nine-Tails' chakra that Naruto had released during that battle was so massive that every chakra-sensing shinobi within a 50km radius could detect it. That information had leaked from somewhere and turned into rumors that "that brat went berserk again." Naruto hadn't directly heard those rumors within the village himself, but these stares told him everything. When the red curtain of Ichiraku Ramen came into view, Naruto's pace quickened slightly. "[excited] Yo, you're discharged!" Teuchi's voice came from the back of the counter. The sturdy shop owner in his sixties, stirring a pot, turned around and smiled with his usual face. Unchanged. Only this face remained unchanged. "[excited] Miso, right?" "[excited] Of course!" He sat down at the counter. Eight seats, a small stall. This morning on a weekday, there were two other customers. One was a middle-aged man Naruto recognized. The man saw Naruto's face. The next moment, he stood up without a word. More than half his ramen was still in the bowl, but he pulled out his wallet, placed money on the counter, and left without saying anything. The curtain swayed with a soft clink. Teuchi turned the pot away and hunched his shoulders slightly. He said nothing, looking uncomfortable. (... Ah, so that's how it is.) Naruto held his chopsticks and stared at the wood grain of the counter. For some reason, it hurt more today than usual. Even though he was used to it. Even though he'd been getting used to it for twelve years. The heat deep in his belly grew slightly stronger. Evidence that his emotions had moved. Teuchi pulled a bowl from under the counter and set it down in front of Naruto with a thud. "I doubled the char siu for you." His voice was small. But it had his usual gruff tone. Naruto looked at the bowl. Four slices of char siu piled high. "[gentle] ...Thanks, old man." A wry smile came out. This person really didn't change. He slurped the ramen. Hot, rich, salty—delicious. At least that much was certain. --- After leaving Ichiraku, Naruto headed to Training Ground Three. Southeast of the village, in the forest section inside the outer wall. Three wooden log posts marked the spot—the place Team Seven had always used. No one was here today. The morning sunlight filtered through the trees, creating spots of light on the ground. Naruto stood in front of the logs. (I just need to move.) If he kept his body moving, he wouldn't have to think about unnecessary things. That man standing up from his seat, the stares of passersby, Tsunade's order to "suppress your emotions"—he could push all of it out of his head if he just kept moving. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" He formed hand seals. He gathered chakra. —Something was wrong. The flow of chakra wouldn't come together. Usually there was a sensation of it gathering smoothly, but today the flow was scattered, the chakra slipping through his hands like water. A vague white haze. Two forms that never took shape, dissolving into the air. (What...?) Again. He formed the seals more carefully, steadied his breathing. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Same result. The white haze wavered and vanished. It was the seal's influence. Since he'd drawn out massive amounts of the Nine-Tails' chakra at the Valley of the End, cracks had formed in the seal. Because of those cracks, his own chakra flow was distorted. He couldn't use shadow clone chakra to make shadow clones—he couldn't create the clones needed to help form the Rasengan. He tried to compress chakra in his right palm. That sensation of rotating it into a sphere. The Rasengan—an A-rank technique developed by the Fourth Hokage. It required shadow clone assistance because it couldn't be formed with one hand alone, but he couldn't even create those clones. The sphere collapsed. Chakra scattered like mist. (Why... this shouldn't be happening...) No matter how many times he tried, it was the same. His chakra wouldn't obey him. Like it wasn't his own body anymore. Frustration piled up. Frustration turned to anger, then to regret. Each time, he felt the heat in his belly rise. Every emotional fluctuation made the seal react. (I know. I need to stay calm. Tsunade told me.) But he couldn't stop it. Something inside his belly throbbed. The next moment, his right arm turned red. Red-black chakra welled up over his skin, covering his entire arm. Hot. Burning hot. Without time to regain control, Naruto's right arm swung horizontally—not something he consciously did. His body moved on its own. A deafening roar. The three wooden log posts and four nearby trees were all mowed down together. The sound of wood snapping, roots being torn from the earth, soil flying up. One section of the training ground was completely destroyed. Naruto stared at his right arm. The red chakra slowly receded. His arm's skin held a heat close to a burn. He was trembling. (Is this... my arm?) Even though he'd done it, it didn't feel like him. Like a monster, he thought. And suddenly he understood the meaning of the looks the village adults had given him for twelve years, which made him even more afraid. Then—there was a presence. Behind the fallen trees. A human presence came from there. Naruto rushed over. It was a girl. A girl around sixteen with white hair cut in a bob. Her clothes were tattered as if she'd been wearing them for days, covered in mud. A small cut on her forehead. Her feet were bare, covered in wounds. Only a silver earring on her right ear remained pristine. The way she carried herself—even sitting slumped down, he could tell—was strangely graceful. Despite being covered in dirt, her posture was perfectly straight. Her eyes met Naruto's. One eye was gold, the other blue—heterochromia. Clear and direct, completely at odds with her battered body. "[serious] ...There's something inside you, isn't there?" Naruto took a step back. "[serious] Something large and hot. Something very... angry." Her voice was quiet. Not frightened. Not making a judgment. Just stating what she saw as if translating it into words. (The Nine-Tails... how does she know? We just met!) Naruto stared intently at the girl's face. She wasn't joking. She wasn't testing him. She truly "felt" it and was speaking from that. (Who is this person?) In that moment, the girl swayed. Her body started to collapse to the side. Naruto instinctively reached out and caught her shoulder. She was light. Impossibly light, as if she hadn't eaten in days. "[scared] Hey, are you okay!?" "[gentle] ...I'm fine. I just can't stand." "What's your name? Where are you from?" The girl paused for a moment. "[serious] My name is Koharu. As for anything else... I don't remember." "You don't remember?" "[sad] When I woke up, I was collapsed in the Leaf Village forest. I have a feeling I was being chased. But by whom, or why—I don't know that either." Naruto looked at the girl—Koharu. (I can't just leave her here.) Before he could think, his body was already moving. "[serious] Come on. I'm taking you to a doctor." --- When he brought her back to the Leaf Village Hospital, Tsunade saw Naruto's face in the hallway and said with an exasperated expression, "How many hours have you been discharged?" But once she examined Koharu in the examination room, her expression immediately became serious. A faint green light of medical chakra flowed along Koharu's body. Tsunade's hand slowly moved from Koharu's abdomen to her chest, then to her head. "[serious] ...Interesting." "[serious] What do you mean interesting?" "[serious] The flow of chakra is completely abnormal. The way the pathways run is... not that of an ordinary human." "[serious] What's the cause of the memory loss?" "[serious] Not external trauma. No signs of jutsu application—at least not on the surface. The cause is unknown." Koharu sat on the examination table, quietly accepting Tsunade's hands. She wasn't frightened. Just observing what was happening to her body with a detached expression. "[serious] Aren't you afraid?" "[gentle] Of what?" "[serious] Of not having your memories." Koharu thought for a moment before answering. "[serious] Rather than afraid, I want to recover them. Not knowing who I am feels strange." Tsunade withdrew her hand. The wrinkles on her brow deepened. "[serious] I can't determine if you're an immediate threat. However, your chakra structure is a mystery. Surveillance will be necessary until we learn more." The examination room fell silent. All three of them understood that Koharu had nowhere to go. Naruto thought for a while. (What should I do? But—I can't just leave her. This feeling is like... like my old self. Alone, with nowhere to belong.) "[serious] There's an empty room next to my apartment. Can she stay there for a while?" Tsunade closed her eyes and let out a long sigh. "[sarcastic] ...You, really." "[serious] Bu