That night, Naruto sat alone on top of Minato's statue, looking up at the night sky.
Kurama was lying down in the mindscape, sleeping, as if he didn't care at all that Naruto looked like this because of him.
After unloading everything on Madara earlier that day, Kurama was feeling great. As for everyone else, he couldn't care less. And Naruto? Kurama believed with how fast this guy bounces back, there was no need to interfere, so he just let him sit there alone.
Sasuke went off to train alone—the stuff Madara said to him earlier clearly left a mark.
As for Madara, Hashirama had dragged him off somewhere to talk.
It suddenly felt like everything had lost its meaning.
Naruto let out a long sigh.
As he sat there in silence, Kakashi appeared behind the Hokage Monument in a flash, quietly looking at Naruto's back. "Naruto."
He didn't dare stand directly on top of his old teacher's head—not even just the statue.
Naruto turned around as soon as he heard the voice. "Kakashi-sensei?"
"Yeah." Kakashi nodded. "Sasuke already told me everything."
Naruto looked a bit down. "So… you came to talk me through it?"
At this hour, he couldn't think of any other reason.
Then he saw Kakashi shake his head without hesitation. "Nope. I'm just here to tell you that Tsunade-sama has called for a Five Kage Summit. And because of the report you filed, she wants you to come with her to meet the Tsuchikage."
Naruto was speechless.
Kakashi looked a bit amused. "You really thought you still had time to sit around moping?"
"Why not?" Naruto shot back, not convinced.
Kakashi shook his head again. "Well, the truth is, none of us were worried after hearing Sasuke's report. We all knew it wouldn't take long for you to bounce back."
"Whether as a ninja or as Uzumaki Naruto, you're someone who always surprises people." Kakashi shrugged. "Anyway, we're more concerned about the Five Kage Summit next week."
Naruto might sulk for a day at most. They weren't leaving until the day after tomorrow—plenty of time.
"What the heck…" Naruto muttered, annoyed. "You guys are making me feel like I don't matter at all."
"Is that so?" Kakashi chuckled softly, then shook his head. "Alright then, I'll just tell you the next bit of news."
Seeing the confused look on Naruto's face, Kakashi gave him a knowing glance. "Lady Kushina already took Hinata to pick out a wedding dress. Word is—"
—once the dress shop finishes rebuilding, the dress will be delivered to Hinata."
"There were a lot of choices, since the Hyuga clan is pretty loaded."
Naruto: "…"
Uh… how am I even supposed to respond to that…
With that, Kakashi waved at Naruto. "Okay, I've said what I needed to say, I'll be off now."
Just as Kakashi was about to teleport away, Naruto quickly called out, "Wait, Kakashi-sensei!"
Kakashi paused mid-move and turned his head. "Hm?"
Naruto stood up from the Hokage Rock and scratched the back of his head. "I just had a question I wanted to ask you."
"If it's about war, hate, or peace, don't bother. Even if I knew the answer, I wouldn't be able to explain it," Kakashi cut him off right away.
But honestly, those kinds of questions don't really have one clear answer—everyone has their own take.
Naruto sighed. "Alright, then I'll ask something else."
Kakashi turned fully toward Naruto and nodded to show he was listening.
Naruto didn't waste time. "It's about ninjutsu. I want to learn how to use wind-style chakra and add it to my Rasengan. Kurama says it'll boost the power a lot, but I barely know anything about chakra nature." (Note)
"Chakra nature, huh…" Kakashi rubbed his chin. "Right, you've already mastered chakra shape transformation. Next should be nature transformation, but since you're already so strong, I guess we kinda overlooked it."
Come to think of it, after Naruto learned Rasengan, he pretty much went straight into fighting the Otsutsuki. He never really learned about chakra nature, so aside from Rasengan, Rinnegan techniques, and sealing jutsu, he doesn't really use any other jutsu.
"But how do you even know your chakra nature is wind?" Kakashi tilted his head. "Did you test it yourself?"
"Nope, but Kurama said so," Naruto replied confidently.
"Well then." Kakashi rubbed his forehead. "I don't know much about wind-style chakra myself. Among all the jonin in Konoha, not many have studied wind nature. I suggest you ask Asuma. He might be the only elite jonin who trained in it."
"Asuma?" Naruto searched his memory, but for a moment he couldn't recall who that was.
"Thirty-five million," Kurama said with his eyes open.
Naruto snapped his fingers, right hand hitting his left. "Oh right! Now I remember!"
He wasn't that familiar with the name, after all—
Asuma didn't really have much to do with him. Most of the time, Naruto only heard that name from Shikamaru.
"I knew it! I was wondering why I didn't recognize the name Asuma-sensei. It's all your fault, Kurama—you gave everyone weird nicknames, so I totally forgot his real name," Naruto grumbled at Kurama.
Kurama: ???
"How is that my problem?" Kurama said with a dark face. "And the fact that you thought of Asuma just from hearing thirty-five million... I don't even need to explain what kind of person you are."
Naruto didn't care. In his mind, it was all Kurama's fault anyway.
He ignored Kurama's complaints and turned to Kakashi. "Got it, Kakashi-sensei. Thanks."
Kakashi didn't say anything. He just shrugged and walked away from the Hokage Rock.
Right now, the village was still in recovery. He had a lot to do.
Kurama looked in the direction Kakashi left. "Hey, why did you suddenly decide to train your chakra nature? I told you about this like, what, 800 years ago? And you never cared. So what changed?"
"I want to get stronger," Naruto said as he sat back down on the Hokage Rock, eyes looking through the night.
But this time, he wasn't looking at the sky—he was looking at the silent village of Konoha below.
The village was ruined. The buildings were all gone. Everything was dark. You could barely spot even two lights. The few lit places were where the big clans or ninja families lived. Most civilians were already asleep by now.
Naruto hugged his knees, resting his chin on them. "Kurama, is it really impossible to get rid of hatred?"
"Did I ever say that?" Kurama yawned, lying in Naruto's inner world. "What I said was, it's hard to get rid of hatred. I never said it's impossible."
"What's the difference?" Naruto pouted.
Kurama opened his eyes and looked out through Naruto's. "There is a difference. The reason hatred is hard to erase isn't just because it sticks around. It's because the people who are hated don't think they did anything wrong."
"When killing stops being seen as normal, when death stops being the only way to have peace—that's when hatred will shift."
"What's harder than getting rid of hate… is understanding."
"Naruto, don't waste your time trying to erase hatred. That's not how this works."
——
PS: Chakra Nature: Many people call it chakra attributes—Wind, Fire, Water, Earth, Lightning, Yin, and Yang. Maybe it's a translation thing, but I'm more used to the term 'chakra nature.'
Just explaining because some folks were confused about what this even means.
---
You can read 10 Chapters ahead on my
pat reon.com/GMadman