When they reached the entrance of the guesthouse, Minato Namikaze suddenly told Sasuke and Naruto to wait for him for a moment.
Watching his dad disappear with a Body Flicker, Naruto was a little stunned. He had been planning to quietly ask him later, when no one else was around, whether he could buy one of those ice pops meant to be shared.
Sasuke stood beside him, just as confused.
But Minato returned quickly. Known as the Yellow Flash, he had moved so fast that even in the summer heat, the ice pop in his hand still gave off a faint chill.
Naruto blinked in surprise.
Thinking it over, Sasuke felt it made sense. That man was the future Fourth Hokage. How could someone that strong not have overheard their conversation?
Snap—
Minato broke the ice pop cleanly in half.
Naruto took one half, staring at it in a daze.
The other half was handed to Sasuke.
Sasuke froze, not quite sure whether he should take it or refuse. In the end, he accepted it awkwardly.
"Um… shouldn't this be something a father and son share?" he asked.
Minato smiled and gave a playful wink. "Brothers can share too. Eat it before it melts."
Brothers…
Sasuke and Naruto both looked at each other, each holding half an ice pop.
Somehow, they both seemed to understand what Dad… what Minato-sama meant. Even after he left, Naruto would still have Sasuke. The two of them could support each other as brothers.
Minato rested a hand on each of their shoulders. "Sasuke-kun is two months older than Naruto. As the older brother, take good care of your little brother, okay?"
Older brother?!
Sasuke Uchiha, who had always lived as the younger one, felt his whole body go numb. He had never once imagined himself taking on the role of an older brother.
Maybe it was Indra's chakra acting up, but the word "brother" felt like a weak point shared by him and Madara Uchiha. Just touching it made him soften instantly.
Naruto, on the other hand, seemed perfectly fine. He just bit into his ice pop and let out a small "hmph." Sasuke, however, was anything but fine. His mind was filled with Minato's words: take good care of your little brother.
Even after they went back inside the guesthouse, he was still thinking about what it meant to be a good older brother. His thoughts drifted to how kind Itachi had been to him when they were young, and how everything changed after Shisui appeared.
...
Late that night, Jiraiya invited Tsunade to drink with him.
Seeing the kids still doing special training at night, Tsunade couldn't help but look at them with the eyes of an elder watching the younger generation.
Especially that blond kid, Minato Namikaze's son, the jinchūriki of the Nine-Tails. The things he said overlapped all too closely with the words once spoken by Nawaki and Dan.
"Hmph!" Naruto still hadn't forgotten the grudge from the forehead flick. He bared his teeth at her. "Just you wait! I'll master the Rasengan by tomorrow and cure your hemophobia!"
"Huh?!" Tsunade froze, turning to Jiraiya in confusion.
Naruto ignored them and kept spinning his chakra ball.
After some thought, Jiraiya only told her about Naruto's A-rank mission.
—A-rank mission: Cure Tsunade's hemophobia.
Remembering how her hemophobia came to be, sorrow filled Tsunade's eyes.
"No one can cure this illness."
Unless… Nawaki and Dan could appear before her again…
Dan Katō.
Jiraiya repeated the name silently in his heart.
That was the unfillable void in Tsunade's soul.
"I don't know what happened," Naruto said after another failure, wiping the sweat from his face. His bright blue eyes were locked firmly on Tsunade. "But I'll definitely complete my mission! And I'll stop Orochimaru!"
"Why—"
"If you're asking why, I already answered you last time. Because…"
"…becoming Hokage is my dream!!"
Dan! Nawaki!!
Tsunade's hand instinctively closed around the necklace at her throat. In that moment, their figures appeared before her once more.
"If…" Tsunade's voice caught. "If you really can cure my hemophobia…"
She lifted the necklace for Naruto to see. "Then this will be my wager to you."
"Tsunade-sama!" Shizune cried out, eyes wide.
"Tsunade!" Jiraiya's expression turned serious.
Minato Namikaze and the others didn't understand the meaning of that necklace, but seeing the reactions of Shizune and Jiraiya, they knew it was anything but ordinary.
Tsunade didn't give anyone a chance to stop her. She grabbed two flasks of sake, told everyone not to follow, and said she needed some time alone.
"Jiraiya-sensei, that necklace is…?" someone asked.
"A precious gem given to her by the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju."
"Old man Hashirama?!" Naruto and Obito immediately thought of that long-haired, hopelessly airheaded man who was constantly beaten into silence by his younger brother and Uncle Madara working together.
Jiraiya couldn't help but sigh. "That thing is a curse Tsunade can never give away."
The word "curse" stunned everyone into silence.
Tsunade's attendant, Shizune, bowed apologetically to the group. "Please don't blame Tsunade-sama. She… she's suffered far too much."
Suffered?
"Tsunade wasn't always like this," Jiraiya said softly, recalling the past. That beautiful figure. How he had once wished he could stand beside her, not behind her. But when a silver-blue-haired man appeared at her side, he stepped back without hesitation.
Seeing Jiraiya drift deeper into his memories, Shizune reluctantly continued.
"Tsunade-sama has given that necklace away twice before…"
…
"Happy twelfth birthday, Nawaki!"
"I'm already a young ninja. I don't need birthday presents!"
"Don't say that. You're still a kid. Hurry up and open it, you'll definitely like it!"
"Sis… could this be…?"
"It's the Hokage ornament worn by the First Hokage, our grandfather. Do you like it?"
"I love it! I love it the most! Sis!"
"You've always wanted it, right? Take good care of it."
"Not just this. This village is Grandpa's treasure too! I'll protect it! And then…"
"One day, I'll inherit the title of Hokage!"
"Because becoming Hokage is my dream!"
…
Naruto's eyes widened. "That old woman's little brother…?"
Sakura followed up, "He had the same dream as Naruto and Obito? Becoming Hokage?"
Young Kakashi frowned slightly. "What matters is that Tsunade-sama back then clearly supported her brother's dream."
Rin glanced at Naruto and Obito, already guessing what had happened to Tsunade-sama's younger brother. The outcome was probably exactly what she feared.
Shizune's eyes were full of grief as she continued.
"Take off your forehead protector. I'll give you magic that will help your dream come true."
That was Tsunade's gentle kiss on her brother's forehead.
Naruto subconsciously rubbed his own forehead, the same one that old lady had flicked hard enough to send him flying. He couldn't reconcile that violent image with such tenderness, until Jiraiya continued with the rest of the story.
…
Rain poured down in sheets. The temporary morgue in the village was crude and hastily built. Standing at the entrance were Orochimaru and Jiraiya, back during the Second Shinobi World War.
"Nawaki!!"
"You shouldn't look at the body, Tsunade."
"What does it matter? She wouldn't recognize him anyway. War turns ninja into this. There were no medics on the battlefield. How pitiful… the very day after he received that gift."
…
Naruto, Obito, Sasuke, and Kakashi all froze.
Rin and Sakura, who had already guessed where the story was heading, looked slightly better, though their expressions had darkened long before the end.
"So…" Naruto said hoarsely, "that wasn't when that old lady got hemophobia?"
"No," Minato Namikaze said calmly. "That incident likely only strengthened Tsunade-sama's resolve to become a better battlefield medical ninja."
Sakura nodded. "Because of what Orochimaru said."
"About Tsunade-sama's brother dying on the battlefield due to the lack of medical treatment."
Rin, who had trained toward becoming a medical ninja since childhood, understood this all too well. When someone was injured during a mission and couldn't receive immediate treatment, wounds would fester, inflammation would set in, high fevers and pain would relentlessly wear down both mind and body until a medical ninja arrived.
She hadn't realized that this was the reason Tsunade-sama devoted herself so deeply to medical ninjutsu.
Naruto clenched his fists. "Then who's the one who caused Grandma's hemophobia?!"
"It was my uncle, Dan Katō," Shizune said softly. "He was also Tsunade-sama's lover. After that, Tsunade-sama became an outstanding medical ninja. During the long Second Shinobi World War, she proposed expanding medical ninja training in meetings with the Third Hokage and the advisors, hoping every team could be assigned a medical ninja."
Young Kakashi and young Obito both turned to look at Rin.
Obito immediately raised his hand. "Exactly! That's how it should've been!" he said proudly. "So many times, Rin saved both my life and dumb Kakashi's!"
Shizune lowered her head. "But at the time, the Third Hokage and the advisors did not approve Tsunade-sama's proposal."
"Because the endless fighting had already drained Konoha's manpower and resources," Minato Namikaze said. He could easily imagine the situation. In a war among the Five Great Shinobi Nations, every decision had to account for countless possible outcomes before being made.
"That's right," Jiraiya said quietly. "Back then, the only one who supported Tsunade was Dan Katō."
His eyes were filled with sorrow. No one understood better than he did how Tsunade had put that necklace back on, stood before Nawaki's grave, and cried. Carrying Nawaki's will, she resolved to protect Konoha no matter the cost.
…
"I also agreed with you. Ninja shouldn't die for nothing. We have to learn from this."
"Th-that… thank you for speaking up for me earlier."
Even back then, Tsunade had her gentle moments.
"Let's go back together. I know this road well. I used to pick up my younger sister from the Ninja Academy all the time."
"Used to?"
"Because we're in the middle of a war. A year ago, Konoha was attacked by other villages. My sister left during that time."
…
Among the six kids from the two teams, most were only children. Only Sasuke had siblings, but as the younger brother, he had never experienced what it meant to be an older one.
So he didn't know what it felt like to lose a younger brother or sister.
"Then what happened? What about that guy named Dan Katō?" Naruto asked.
"He also went to the front lines…" Jiraiya said. With just that one sentence, the rest was almost self-explanatory.
"Before he went to the front lines…" Jiraiya recalled—
…
"Tomorrow, we'll be heading to the battlefield." Tsunade was unusually quiet.
"Yeah," Dan Katō said calmly. "We live in a ninja world where death is always close. That's why I want to stake my life to put an end to this chaos. I love this village and the comrades who live in it, so I want to protect them. Ever since my sister passed away, this belief has been the only thing keeping me going. Becoming Hokage… that's my dream."
After he finished speaking, the young Tsunade kissed her lover's forehead and once again gave him the necklace.
This time…
It wasn't just Rin and Sakura.
Even the boys present had already guessed the outcome.
…
"Hang on! Dan!!"
"Tsunade… I… I can't… die yet…"
"I won't let you die! Don't talk, just hold on!"
With his internal organs destroyed, even Tsunade, one of the Sannin, was powerless.
"I still have… so much… to do… I can't die…"
"The bleeding… it's stopped…"
Tsunade wanted to say those words, but she broke down crying instead, because Dan Katō's blood simply wouldn't stop flowing.
…
By this point, Shizune's voice was so full of grief that she couldn't continue.
Only Jiraiya could finish the story.
"Dan Katō… died."
"Because this is war," he said quietly. "Ninjas are people who live alongside death, and in war, that's even more true."
Jiraiya continued, "That's exactly why, compared to inheriting the Hokage title, there are things I find even more important. The Great Toad Sage once made a prophecy. My disciple could either destroy the world… or save it. I once believed Nagato was the Child of Prophecy. Now I hear that Pain, who looks like Yahiko but possesses Nagato's eyes, is the public leader of Akatsuki. I have to see it for myself."
The Child of Prophecy…
"Speaking of that, Jiraiya-sensei," Minato Namikaze said, "would you consider becoming Naruto's teacher? I believe Naruto is the Child of Prophecy you've been searching for."
Jiraiya shook his head. "I haven't seen the Great Toad Sage in a long time. With the appearance of those mission scrolls, it's possible the prophecy itself has already changed."
"Could it be that becoming Minato-sensei's student can save or destroy the world too?" the sharp-tongued young Kakashi Hatake muttered. "After all, isn't the mastermind behind Akatsuki just some super idiot with a Wisdom score of two who's ridiculously easy to manipulate?"
Obito snapped back, "Stop bringing that up! I'm not that bastard!"
On that side, young Obito and young Kakashi immediately slipped back into their usual bickering.
Nearby, Naruto Uzumaki lowered his head, thinking of the old man of the Six Paths he had met before, and the grown-up version of himself.
"That's right!"
He suddenly spoke up, drawing everyone's attention.
"The old man of the Six Paths said I'm the one he's been waiting for! The one Kurama and Isobu have been waiting for too! And in the future, I'll become the Seventh Hokage!"
Naruto clenched his fists, his eyes blazing.
"So before I become Hokage, I absolutely won't die!"
"And that cursed necklace around that old lady's neck…"
"I'm taking it for sure!!"