As Choji's words fell, the Hokage's Office plunged into deathly silence, so quiet you could hear a pin drop.
Shikamaru's eyes widened as he stared blankly at Choji. Kakashi was stunned, but his gaze wasn't empty, and his gaze was not on Choji.
It was fixed… on the door.
There comes a moment in everyone's life when, a moment that feels predestined, as if what's about to happen has already been experienced before.
It's that sudden realization, that eerie sense of deja vu. 'Hasn't this happened somewhere before? It feels familiar… yes, I've definitely seen this before.'
It was impossible to tell reality from fantasy, as if you had traveled back from the future with your memories. There's an inexplicable premonition, a vague certainty about what's coming next.
There are many explanations for this phenomenon, some might dismiss it as mere illusion… not true deja vu, just some normal physiological response.
And once you grow up, this won't bother you anymore. That surreal feeling will fade away.
That was Kakashi's state right now. He was in a daze, staring at the door. Someone was standing behind it, and in the next second, they would push it open.
In his mind, he could only recall a vague silhouette, a woman, identical to the one in his dreams. He couldn't see her face clearly, but he felt she was very familiar, standing in the warm light.
He hadn't heard a single word Choji said, as his entire focus was on the office door. He had a premonition that something was going to happen in the next moment.
Just like a Pandora's box, you will know what is hidden inside only when you open it. The moment you do, you might regret it. You might feel a profound sense of loss.
But no matter what, once it opens, the gears of fate begin to turn.
The door creaked open again, and a nimble figure stepped in timidly. There was no knocking, no greeting, it was as if someone had pushed her inside.
With a bang, Kakashi shot up from his seat. The force was so sudden that his fingers left dents in the desk.
The Hokage's desk wasn't like the White House's legendary Resolute Desk, which was passed down through generations, outlasting its users. The Hokage's workload was immense, and the Hokage's Office's furniture wear-and-tear was a constant budget item.
The Godaime Hokage alone had smashed seven or eight desks in her tenure.
Kakashi, who is usually calm and composed, rarely lost his composure. But at this moment, his breathing was a little ragged, and his eye was fixed on the newcomer.
Rin stood there, a little confused. She still couldn't fully understand the concept of twenty years later. A blonde guy just told her that she was not dead, but just taken a long nap.
The village was still the same, but the Nohara Clan had vanished in the wars. The era she was familiar with was already very far away, and the friends, family, and enemies she once knew were all buried in the distant past.
The Konoha's Hokage is no longer the Sandaime, but had become the Rokudaime Hokage, her old teammate, the perpetually lazy Kakashi.
Nohara Rin's mind short-circuited at the concept of Hokage was. She was only a Chunin when she died, and she didn't think too much at that time. She just didn't want to implicate the village and died on her own initiative.
Kakashi's Chidori was extremely powerful, and the pain of death had lasted only a few seconds. The last thing she remembered was the horror and despair in Kakashi's eyes.
That should've been the end of her story, and never in her wildest dreams did she imagine there would be a sequel, that she would wake up two decades later.
No one could accept that twenty years had passed since they opened their eyes. Rin preferred to believe that she had died and come back to life.
As for why she was resurrected, who cares? It was better to live a miserable life than to die.
If Naruto knew what she was thinking, he would definitely cry. 'Damn, if I'd known you wouldn't overthink it, I wouldn't have bothered making up that whole backstory!'
Rin was wearing the clothes of a Konoha's Chunin. She looked to be in her early twenties, and compared with Kakashi, who now resembled a middle-aged slacker, she is still a young girl.
Her large brown eyes, short chestnut hair, and flawless face has an awkward smile. When her gaze landed on Kakashi, there was a flicker of surprise on her face.
In her impression, Kakashi was always cool and sharp, so she wondered who was this decadent and lazy old man in front of her who looked similar to Kakashi?
"…Rin?" Kakashi opened his mouth and froze in his place.
He was not absent-minded, but waiting for the hallucination to pass. He had seen similar hallucinations countless times before. His father, who'd taken his own life, suddenly walking through the door, smiling warmly and telling him to bring in the laundry.
Then, in the next second, the house would be empty again.
Or the time he was washing his hands, and the water turned thick and slippery. When he looked down, the water had turned into blood, and Rin's lifeless body was sitting on the sink, her stomach torn open, with the crimson blood pouring out.
At this moment, time stretched endlessly, as though a century had passed in that single moment.
"Kakashi." Rin responded.
'Is this not a hallucination?' Kakashi suddenly woke up, and his eye gradually brightened as he looked at Rin. For the first time in years, he didn't know what to do.
Shikamaru and Choji, the two spectators who didn't know the truth, stood frozen, their jaws almost dropped to the ground.
At this time, Choji was screaming internally, 'Damn it, Uzumaki Naruto, you really deserve to die!'
'You tricked me again!'
'This wasn't some arranged marriage… These two obviously knew each other. It's obvious there was history between them! Oh my god! I also said all that cringey crap! Kill me now!'
Naruto was pressed against the door, straining his ears to catch the sounds inside the office.
At this time, he was also a little surprised. 'Why was their reunion after life and death so underwhelming?'
'Shouldn't there be some grand declaration, like 'If the mountains crumble, I'd never part from you'? At the very least, shouldn't they be emotional? A comrade from the past, dead and then alive again… wasn't that worth trembling over?'
'Why was there nothing but silence after they called each other's names? Even if they weren't going to cry, shouldn't they at least make some noise? What was with this awkward quiet?'
Driven by curiosity, Naruto nearly clawed at the door to peek inside.
After a while, voices finally came from the office again, but this time, it was his unlucky friends' voice.
Shikamaru and Chōji, sensing the tension, quickly excused themselves and fled under the pretense of needing the bathroom.
The two of them pushed the door open and left anxiously. But when they turned around, they saw Naruto pressed against the wall, eavesdropping on the conversation inside. They were speechless when they saw this.
"What are you doing?" Shikamaru asked.
"Shh!" Naruto turned around and made a shushing gesture to Shikamaru, then put his ear close to the wall again.
Seeing this, Choji was speechless, but then he mimicked Naruto's actions, pressing his ear against the wall as well. Shikamaru covered his face in exasperation, and soon, all three of them were crouched against the wall, listening intently.
Shikamaru thought that since he couldn't take the two clowns away, he might as well figure out what was happening first. And sure enough, they really heard something.