Evening settled over Konoha, but in "Ichiraku Ramen," the lights burned brightly, as if trying to burn away the shadows left after the Invasion.
Ayame stood in the middle of the empty kitchen. In her hands was a rag with which she scrubbed the same floorboard with manic persistence.
There was nothing there. The wood was clean, scrubbed to whiteness.
But Ayame saw.
She saw a dark, crimson stain spreading across the floor. She saw the Sound shinobi's body falling with a twisted neck. She heard the dry, terrible crunch with which Naruto's Clone broke a man's life to save hers.
Her hands trembled. The rag fell from her weakened fingers.
"I couldn't do anything," she whispered into the silence. "I just stood and watched."
The door creaked.
Ayame flinched, grabbing a heavy ladle from the table. A victim's reflex.
Naruto stood in the doorway.
He was wearing a new Chunin vest that fit his broad shoulders perfectly. His face was calm, but in his eyes froze that same adult, heavy darkness she had seen in the Killer Clone.
"Naruto..." she lowered the ladle, feeling a lump rise in her throat.
Naruto walked inside, sliding the bolt shut.
"I'm leaving, Ayame-nee. Tomorrow. For a month, maybe more."
He approached her, and his gaze fell on the very spot on the floor she had been scrubbing. He understood everything.
"I'll leave a clone," he said quietly. "Or a seal. If anything happens, I'll know. You'll be safe."
"No."
The word sounded sharp, almost rude. Ayame raised her head. Tears stood in her eyes, but there was no plea for salvation in them. There was anger. Anger at her own weakness.
"I don't want a clone. I don't want to hide in the basement while you or Dad die for me."
She took a step toward him.
"I saw you kill them. It was... scary. But it was necessary. I want to be able to do the same. I don't want to tremble anymore, Naruto. Make me strong."
Naruto looked at her for a long time, assessing.
"You're a civilian," he replied harshly. "Your chakra channels aren't adapted. Your body isn't tempered. I don't have years to teach you. The only way to give you power right now is a forced awakening."
"Do it," she didn't look away.
"You don't understand," Naruto stepped toward her, looming over her. "This isn't training. This is torture. I will pour my energy into you. It's not chakra, it's Qi. It's dense as mercury and hot as lava. It will force its way through your unprepared body, burning out meridians. It will break you. It will tear you apart. You will sweat filth and toxins accumulated over years of life. You could die from pain shock."
Ayame paled, but clenched her fists so hard her nails dug into her palms.
"Your clone broke his neck in a second. If he hadn't been there... they would have done things to me worse than death."
She looked straight into his blue eyes.
"Pain doesn't scare me. Helplessness scares me. Do it."
Naruto nodded. Respect flickered in his gaze.
"Fine. Lie on the floor. Right here."
Ayame lay on the wooden boards. Naruto sat beside her.
"Bite on this," he shoved a rolled-up clean towel into her mouth. "So you don't bite off your tongue. And try not to scream."
He placed his palm on her stomach, on the center of her Dantian.
"Beginning."
Qi Control: Seed of Qi.
Naruto didn't hold back. Now wasn't the time for tenderness. He concentrated a "Seed of Qi"—a dense clot of energy—and forcefully pushed it inside her body.
Ayame's eyes flew open in horror.
It wasn't warmth. It was red-hot iron driven into her stomach and twisted.
The energy burst into her dormant system like a battering ram. It tore through blockages in meridians, burned out slag, forced cells to vibrate at a frequency they weren't used to.
"MMMMM!!!!" a muffled scream tore through the towel.
Her body arched. Muscles cramped.
Naruto didn't remove his hand. He held her, controlling the flow, preventing the energy from rupturing her organs but not weakening the pressure.
"Endure!" he barked. "Accept it! Don't fight it, let it into your body!"
The smell in the room changed.
It was the sweet smell of ramen. A different smell appeared—sharp, sour, the nauseating stench of a swamp.
Ayame's skin was covered in perspiration. But it wasn't clear sweat. It was thick, gray-black oily sludge. Toxins. Weakness. Years of inhaling kitchen smoke, stress, fear—all of it came out, displaced by the purity of Qi.
Ayame convulsed for a minute that felt like an eternity.
Then Naruto abruptly removed his hand.
The girl went limp, drawing air in heavily, with a wheeze. The towel fell from her mouth. She was soaked through, covered in a layer of sticky filth, but her eyes...
She opened them. There was no more cloudiness in them. They shone with a feverish but clear brilliance.
She felt it. A hot, pulsating clot of power in her stomach.
The noodle shop curtain opened silently.
A figure in a cloak appeared on the threshold. Hinata Hyuga.
She froze, seeing the scene: Naruto sitting over a sprawled, dirty Ayame. A heavy smell hung in the air.
Hinata activated her Byakugan.
She saw.
Inside Ayame, among the weak channels of an unprepared civilian, burned a small but furious white sun. Just like hers.
"You..." Hinata exhaled, walking inside. "You awakened her Dantian?"
Naruto stood up, wiping his hands.
"She asked. And she endured."
Hinata walked over to Ayame. She didn't shy away from the dirt and smell. She knelt down and helped the girl sit up.
"You're incredible," the Hyuga said quietly. "I went through this as a shinobi. But you..."
Ayame looked at her hands. Under the layer of black film, the skin seemed red and hot. She clenched a fist. The power responded.
"I... I feel it," she rasped. "It's inside."
"Hinata," Naruto's voice became businesslike. "She's one of us now. She has Qi too. But she doesn't know how to control it. She lights up for any sensor like a torch. Teach her."
"Right now?" Hinata was surprised. "She needs rest."
"No time. If she goes outside like this, ANBU or someone else will take her for experiments in an hour. Hide her light."
Hinata nodded. Her face became serious—the face of a mentor.
"Ayame-san, listen to me. Don't try to relax. On the contrary."
Hinata placed her fingers on Ayame's key points.
"Imagine that this sun inside you is a stone. A heavy, cold stone. Contract your stomach muscles. Don't just tense your abs, pull the energy inward. Suck it into yourself, like air when diving."
Ayame, still trembling from pain shock, tried.
"It hurts..."
"It's supposed to hurt," Hinata said harshly. "Squeeze. Hide the light under your skin. Become gray. Become stone. I'm looking at you with the Byakugan. As long as I see light—you are a target."
Ten minutes passed.
Ayame, gritting her teeth, curled into a ball.
"Like that..." Hinata whispered. "The light is dimming. It's going deep. A little more..."
Finally, the radiance inside Ayame collapsed into a tiny, imperceptible point hidden by flesh.
"Excellent," Hinata exhaled, deactivating her Dōjutsu.
Ayame fell onto her back, looking at the ceiling. She was exhausted, dirty, and tormented. But she was smiling. The smile of a predator who had grown her first fangs.
"Thank you," she whispered.
Naruto stood by the exit.
"Wash up, Nee-san. That filth is toxic."
He turned around.
"I'm leaving. Hinata will look after you."
It was cool outside.
Naruto took a deep breath, clearing his lungs of the heavy smell of the "cleansing."
"How touching."
The voice came from the shadows of an alley.
Anko Mitarashi separated herself from the wall. She looked bad—pale, sweaty, clutching her neck. But her eyes burned with a feverish glint.
"Initiating a civilian?" she chuckled, walking closer. "You're a risky guy, Uzumaki. If she had croaked, you would have had to explain yourself to her daddy."
"She didn't croak," Naruto replied calmly. "She's stronger than she looks."
Anko came right up to him. She smelled of medicine and fear, which she tried to hide behind bravado.
"Happy for her. And now, hero..." she grabbed him by the lapels of his vest and pulled him toward her. Her face twisted from pain shooting through her neck. "...spare some time for a woman who really needs your... hands. That bastard did something to the mark, and now it's killing me, Naruto. Make it shut up."
Naruto looked at the pulsating mark on her neck.
"Let's go," he said. "I still have the night before departure."
He offered her his shoulder, and Anko, without arguing, leaned on him.
Ahead was the last night in Konoha before a long journey. And one more soul that needed to be saved from darkness.