Konoha --- Team 7's Training Ground
Naruto walked through the gate.
He walked through the village.
Past the morning market.
Past the academy.
Past the ramen shop where the lights were on inside and Ayame was starting the lunch prep.
He turned toward the training ground.
Sasuke was already there.
He was sitting against the split post with his eyes closed and the Sharingan's background perception running.
Reading the intention field of the resonance the way he'd been reading it since the seal shifted.
He heard Naruto arrive.
He opened his eyes.
He looked at Naruto.
Then past him.
At the space just behind.
Something was different about the air around Naruto.
Not a technique.
Not chakra.
Something else.
Sasuke stood up.
He picked up his bag.
"I'll be at the market," he said.
"You don't have to---"
"I need food anyway," Sasuke said.
He walked past Naruto.
He didn't look at the space behind Naruto again.
He'd seen what was there.
It wasn't his to look at.
He left.
Kakashi had stopped at the gate.
He'd understood without being told.
He leaned against the wall and opened his book and watched the morning and gave the training ground what it needed.
Bai Yan had gone straight to the shop.
He needed to start the broth.
He also understood.
The training ground was empty.
Just Naruto.
And the light that had been building since Minato activated the scroll.
It arrived the way it had arrived the first time --- soft, like early morning committing to being day.
Minato stepped through.
Same coat.
Same face.
Same expression that was too full to say one thing cleanly.
He looked at his son.
Naruto looked at him.
"Hi," Naruto said.
"Hi," Minato said.
They looked at each other for a moment.
"The gate," Minato said.
"I memorized it," Naruto said. "This morning. Before we left for the Moon."
"I know. I saw."
"Is that what you held? When you---"
"Yes."
Naruto nodded.
He looked at the split post.
At the training ground.
At the evidence of twenty days of work.
"The seal moved," he said.
"I know."
"Days."
"I know."
"Are you---" He stopped.
Minato waited.
"Are you worried?" Naruto said.
Minato thought about this honestly.
"No," he said. "Not the way I was before." He looked at the training ground. "Before, I was worried because you were twelve years old and alone and I couldn't see what you were becoming." He paused. "Now I can see it."
"And?"
"And I'm not worried."
Naruto held his gaze.
"What are you?" he said.
Minato thought about the right word.
"Ready," he said. "For whatever you do next."
Naruto was quiet.
He thought about the array chamber.
About the center point.
About standing there and feeling ready instead of just prepared.
"Dad," he said.
"Mm."
"You said something at the arena. The first time." He paused. "You said you were proud of me. More than the scroll could show."
"Yes."
"I've been---" He stopped. "I've been carrying that. Since then." He looked at the post. "I didn't know what to do with it at first. It was too large."
"And now?"
"Now I'm using it," Naruto said simply. "Like fuel." He paused. "Is that alright?"
Minato looked at him.
At the twelve-year-old who had spent twenty days training and meeting Toneri and memorizing gates and was now asking permission to use his father's pride as fuel.
"Yes," he said. "That's exactly right."
Naruto exhaled.
Not relieved exactly.
More like something settling into place.
They stood in the training ground.
Not doing anything.
Just present.
The way they'd been the first time.
Three feet between them.
"I have fifty-one minutes," Minato said.
"Okay."
"Is there anything---"
"Tell me more about you," Naruto said. "The non-Hokage things. Same as last time."
Minato almost smiled.
"Alright," he said.
He sat down.
Cross-legged.
The same way.
Naruto sat across from him.
"I was terrible at cooking," Minato said.
"Mom mentioned."
"She mentioned it? I didn't even---"
"She mentioned it in the context of saying you were perfect except for cooking."
"I'm not---"
"She said perfect."
"She was being generous."
"I think she was being accurate," Naruto said. "From what I can tell."
Minato looked at him.
"You're kind," he said.
"I'm honest," Naruto said. "You sealed the Nine-Tails into me while you were dying. And you believed I'd figure it out. And I did." He paused. "Someone who does that isn't not-perfect."
Minato was very quiet.
"Naruto," he said.
"Mm."
"I'm going to say the thing I came to say."
"Okay."
Minato looked at the training ground.
At the split post.
At the twenty days of evidence in the dug-up earth and the fractured wood and the footprints of every session.
"I came to the arena the first time because I wanted you to know I loved you," he said. "And I wanted you to know I believed in you. And I wanted---" He paused. "I wanted to be your father. For one hour. In front of you."
"You were," Naruto said.
"Yes." He looked at him. "This time I came because there's something I should have said at the arena and didn't."
Naruto waited.
"When this is over," Minato said, "whatever it looks like when it's done --- I want you to know that you don't owe it to me. Or to your mother. Or to the village." He paused. "What you're about to do. You're not doing it because we died. You're not doing it to honor us. You're not doing it to prove anything to anyone."
He held Naruto's gaze.
"You're doing it because it's yours to do," he said. "Because you decided. Because that's who you are." He paused. "That's the part I didn't say at the arena. That the choice belongs to you completely. Not to us. Not to our deaths. Not to the village's expectations." He paused. "You."
Naruto was very still.
He thought about twelve years of carrying things that other people had put down.
He thought about the village that abandoned him and the decision to protect it anyway.
He thought about the ramen shop.
About choosing.
"I know," he said.
"Do you?"
"I do now," Naruto said. "I've been --- figuring it out. During the training. What it's actually for." He looked at the post. "It's mine. The choice." He paused. "That's the only way it works, right? If I'm doing it because I was asked to, the anchor doesn't hold."
Minato looked at him.
"Yes," he said. "That's exactly right."
"The array chamber told me," Naruto said. "When I stood in the center. I could feel it. That it needed to be chosen. Not assigned."
"Yes."
"And I chose it."
"I know."
"A long time ago, actually," Naruto said. "I just didn't know that's what I was choosing." He looked at the gate direction. "When did you choose it? Your---your final decision."
Minato thought about it.
"Not the night of the Nine-Tails attack," he said. "Earlier. When you were born. When I held you the first time." He paused. "I understood then what I was willing to do. I just didn't know yet what it would look like."
Naruto held that.
He thought about his father holding a newborn and understanding.
Not deciding.
Understanding.
"Yeah," he said. "I know that feeling."
Minato smiled.
The real one.
The one that was too full to be one expression.
"You look like your mother when you say things like that," he said.
"You said before I look like you."
"You look like both of us," Minato said. "Depending on the moment."
Naruto thought about this.
"What moment is now?" he said.
Minato looked at him.
"Your mother," he said. "Definitely. The specific face she makes when she's figured something out before she says it."
Naruto almost smiled.
"She has that face?"
"All the time. She just talks so fast you don't notice she already knew."
"That's---" Naruto started laughing. "That's exactly how it feels from the inside."
Minato was laughing too.
Quiet.
Real.
They sat in the training ground.
Not three feet of impossible distance.
Just distance.
The kind that existed between people who were present with each other.
They talked for forty more minutes.
Not about the mission.
About cooking and reading and the specific difficulty of learning to be still.
About street corners and census counts.
About what it felt like to be fast in a world that expected you to slow down.
About a woman who said dattebane and a boy who said dattebayo and a pattern that ran through both of them.
At the end of the hour, the light started thinning.
Naruto felt it before he saw it.
He looked at his father.
"Dad."
"I know."
"The thing you said. About it belonging to me."
"Yes."
"Thank you."
"You don't need to---"
"I know," Naruto said. "I'm saying it anyway."
Minato looked at him.
"Naruto."
"Mm."
"Whatever comes after --- I'm going to be watching."
"I know."
"I'll be watching every bit of it."
"Good," Naruto said. "Make sure you watch the ramen shop part. Bai Yan makes really good broth."
Minato laughed.
One last time.
Full and real and surprised by it.
"I'll watch," he said.
The light faded.
Not slowly.
Then all at once.
Naruto sat in the training ground alone.
In the place where his father had been.
He sat there for a moment.
He held the token.
He held the gate in his mind.
He held the ramen shop.
He held all of it.
Then he stood up.
He looked at the split post.
"Okay," he said.
To the training ground.
To the choice that was his.
To whatever came next.
"Let's do this."
He walked toward the gate.
Where Kakashi was still leaning against the wall.
Where Sasuke would be coming back from the market.
Where the world was ready and waiting.
◇ BONUS & SUPPORT ◇
◇ 1 bonus chapter for every 10 reviews — drop a comment!
◇ 1 bonus chapter for every 100 Power Stones.
◇ Read 70 chapters ahead on P@treon → patreon.com/Sagamaster789