When Kakashi and the others returned to Konoha, it was just the early morning of a rest day. White steam rose from the windows of every household, and villagers could be seen yawning and greeting each other as they went out to shop.
The team disbanded, and Minato went to the Hokage Building alone to report on the mission. After coming out of the building, he went straight to Sister Kushina's house.
He wanted to give Kushina a surprise and be the first person to say good morning to her today.
But when he knocked on Kushina's door, he saw that her eyes were red and swollen, as if she hadn't slept all night. When she looked at him, there was a glint of tears in her eyes.
Minato's heart tightened, and he quickly entered the house, locked the door, grabbed Kushina's arm to comfort her slightly, and asked in a deep voice, "What happened?"
"Minato..."
Kushina's lips trembled a few times. Even if her reason had long been able to calmly accept the death of those around her, her emotions would still be saddened by it for a long time.
What's more, that was a child that she and her sister Kana had cared about for so long.
"Naraku... is dead..."
Minato's eyes widened slightly, his breathing faltered for a moment, and he paused for several seconds before asking, "...Is this news confirmed?"
"Senior Dai went on a mission with Naraku, and he reported it personally."
Another red-haired figure walked out of the room, a little thinner than Kushina, holding a damaged forehead protector in her hands in front of her chest.
Kana's voice was hoarse from crying, her tone soft but stiff.
"Senior Minato, Kakashi, he's back, right?"
"Kana, why don't we wait until tomorrow to talk about it?"
Sister Kushina forced a smile, trying to stop her seemingly uneasy sister.
"Don't worry, Sister Kushina, I won't quarrel with Kakashi."
Kana shook her head, lowered her head to look at the Konoha symbol on the forehead protector, and her long hair fell down, obscuring her expression.
This was Naraku's relic that she had retrieved from the Hokage Building.
Might Duy searched near that cliff for two days and only recovered this forehead protector, which was hanging on the edge of the rubble, and almost burst into tears when he handed it to her.
"Naraku definitely doesn't want me to blame Kakashi."
"If that child sees it in heaven, he Might blame himself for it."
"He's just such a silly boy..."
As she spoke, Kana choked up again, and the nearly exhausted tears welled up in her eyes once more, falling down her cheeks.
She could no longer suppress her sobs, and poured out her regret and self-blame as she teetered on the verge of collapse.
"I just especially regret... I regret that I saw something was wrong at the time, but I didn't dare to ask anything."
"If I had been more direct, like Sister Kushina said, would they have been able to reconcile sooner?"
"That way, Naraku wouldn't... have felt like he was all alone when he died..."
...After leaving the team, Kakashi went straight to the Hospital.
He was always a little uneasy when talking to his father, and the uneasy and irritable emotions made it impossible for him to concentrate, so he could only end the visit in a hurry.
Originally, he thought about resting at home today, but when he walked out of the Hospital, he saw a familiar person standing by the roadside, holding something in her hand, just quietly watching him.
"Kana?"
He strode over, and the more he saw the tired and sad look on her face, the more he felt a few ominous premonitions in his heart, wrapped around his internal organs and deeply embedded in his flesh and blood.
He vaguely realized something, but forcibly pulled his thoughts away from this aspect, forcing himself not to think too much.
"What... what's wrong?"
He didn't even realize that his voice trembled and paused when he spoke.
"Kakashi," Kana said in a hoarse voice, with traces of redness from crying still on the corners of her eyes and face, "Naraku is dead."
Kakashi seemed to hear a thunderclap splitting the sky, and his face suddenly turned pale.
A strong wave of dizziness struck, separating him from the world. He could only hear the gurgling flow of blood in his ears and his own rapid and heavy breathing.
"What... what?"
He took a step forward, his legs so weak that he almost couldn't stand still. The hands on Kana's shoulders couldn't exert any strength, and the trembling became more and more intense.
"You said... what happened to Naraku...?"
Kakashi held on to the last glimmer of hope, suspecting that he had misheard some part of it.
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