Hokage's Office --- Konoha
The second message arrived on day twelve.
Not through the chakra-encoded channel.
Not in Ōtsutsuki script.
Plain common script.
Delivered through the same method as the first letter, which Tenzō had described as appeared under the office door overnight, Lord Hokage, no trace of the delivery mechanism.
Hiruzen read it standing at his desk.
Three sentences.
He read them twice.
He sent for Kakashi.
Hokage's Office --- Twenty Minutes Later
Kakashi read the three sentences.
I have been preparing the array. It is ready to activate when needed. But I would like to meet the anchor before then, if that's possible. Not now. When the time is close. I want to see who I'm synchronizing with.
Three sentences.
Except Hiruzen had called it three and it was actually five, which meant Hiruzen had been counting differently.
Kakashi didn't mention this.
He read it again.
"He dropped the Ōtsutsuki script," he said.
"Yes," Hiruzen said.
"And the formal register."
"Yes."
"The last letter was Moon Temple correspondence. This reads like---"
"A person," Hiruzen said. "Yes."
Kakashi set the letter down.
He thought about a man who had been the last caretaker of an ancient temple for his entire life.
Who had written his first letter in careful diplomatic code and his second letter in plain language that said I want to see who I'm synchronizing with.
He thought about what made someone drop the formality.
"He read our reply," Kakashi said. "Specifically Bai Yan's closing line."
"I think so," Hiruzen said.
He will be ready. He's the kind of person who is always ready before he realizes he is.
Kakashi thought about what it would feel like to read that sentence from inside a Moon Temple you'd been maintaining alone for twenty years.
"We need to ask Naruto," Kakashi said.
"Yes."
"And Bai Yan."
"Yes."
"The timing---"
"When the time is close," Hiruzen said. "He said that specifically. He's not asking for now."
Kakashi looked at the letter.
"He's asking for a meeting on the approach," he said. "Not beforehand. Not rushed. When the window is clear."
"Yes."
"That's actually---" He paused. "That's considerate timing, actually."
"He seems to be a considerate person," Hiruzen said. "In his way."
Kakashi picked up the letter.
"I'll talk to them," he said.
Konoha --- Ichiraku Ramen
Bai Yan read the letter at the counter while Ayame served the morning customers.
He read it once.
Set it on the counter.
Looked at it.
He thought about the Observer's Anchor.
About what the blurry forward vision had been showing him lately.
It had been getting clearer.
Not sharp --- never sharp.
But more defined than it had been a week ago.
He could see the general shape of what was coming.
He couldn't see Toneri specifically in it yet.
But he could see an alignment.
A convergence.
People who had been in separate places moving toward the same point.
When the time is close, the letter said.
He thought about what close meant.
About twelve days of training.
About nine threads of natural energy and the rate they were accumulating.
He folded the letter.
"Ayame," he said.
She came out of the back.
He handed her the letter.
She read it.
She looked at him.
"He wants to meet Naruto," she said.
"Before the array activates."
"That's--- that's actually kind, isn't it." She set the letter down. "Wanting to know the person before you're synchronizing with them."
"Yes," Bai Yan said. "It is."
She looked at him.
"What do you think of him? Toneri?"
Bai Yan thought about a man who had maintained an ancient failsafe for twenty years without telling anyone, who had watched a scroll appear above Konoha and written a letter instead of waiting, who had dropped formal register in his second message because honesty was more useful than ceremony.
"I think," Bai Yan said, "that he's someone who chose which side he was on before the fight started. And then prepared accordingly. Without any guarantee that anyone would answer."
Ayame was quiet for a moment.
"Like someone else I know," she said.
Bai Yan looked at her.
"Different situation," he said.
"Same structure," she said. "Choosing and then waiting to see if the choice was worth it."
He looked at the letter.
"His was worth it," he said. "We answered."
"Yes," Ayame said. "And now he wants to meet the person the choice is actually for."
She went back to the customers.
Bai Yan looked at the letter.
He thought about what he'd say to Naruto.
He thought it would probably be very simple.
Konoha --- Old-Growth Training Stand
Naruto was on his eleventh thread.
Jiraiya had gone quiet twenty minutes ago, which meant the thread was holding well enough that disrupting it with commentary would be counterproductive.
He was counting a pair of hawks at the top of the stand.
They'd been there since he arrived.
They were watching him with the specific attention of birds who have decided something is interesting but haven't yet decided if it's interesting enough to leave their current branch.
The natural energy was steady.
Eleven threads moved through him like a river finding its own level.
He felt the chat notification come through the token.
Not words.
Just a shift in the channel that he'd learned to recognize as something wants your attention.
He held the threads.
Kept counting the hawks.
One hawk.
Two.
He'd answer it after.
When the thread finally released --- naturally, not forced --- he opened his eyes and looked at the chat.
Kakashi.
Hiruzen.
Bai Yan.
And a letter from the moon.
He read it.
He read it again.
He looked at the hawks, who had not moved.
"Jiraiya-sensei," he said.
"Mm."
"Someone wants to meet me."
"I saw the message."
"From the Moon Temple."
"Yes."
"Toneri."
"Yes."
Naruto thought about this.
He thought about the failsafe array.
About synchronization.
About what I want to see who I'm synchronizing with meant from inside an ancient temple.
He thought about meeting Minato on the arena floor.
About three feet between them.
About one hour.
He thought about what it felt like to meet someone for the first time when the stakes of the meeting were already decided.
He thought about how Minato had said hi and he'd accepted that as a complete answer because the alternative was to make the hour about the gap instead of the presence.
"Yeah," he said. "Obviously."
Jiraiya looked at him.
"Obviously," he said.
"He wants to know who he's working with before they work together," Naruto said. "That's just---" He paused. "That's just sensible. I'd want the same thing."
"It means going to the moon."
"I know."
"Physically. At some point."
"I know."
"That's not a small trip."
"Jiraiya-sensei." Naruto looked at him. "The man has been maintaining an anti-god failsafe array alone for twenty years and he wrote us a letter asking for a meeting. I think the least I can do is show up."
Jiraiya was quiet.
He thought about a student he'd trained once who had said I'll be there to every single person who needed him and had meant it every single time.
He thought about the apple not falling far.
"Alright," he said.
Naruto pulled out the chat.
Group Chat:
[Naruto Uzumaki @Kakashi Hatake: Tell him yes.]
[Kakashi Hatake: You've read the letter.]
[Naruto Uzumaki: Yes.]
[Kakashi Hatake: And?]
[Naruto Uzumaki: He wants to meet me before the array activates. Yes. Obviously.]
[Kakashi Hatake: "Obviously."]
[Naruto Uzumaki: He's been doing this alone. The least I can do is be a person he knows before we do this together.]
[Kakashi Hatake: ...]
[Kakashi Hatake: I'll draft the reply.]
[Naruto Uzumaki: Tell him---]
[Kakashi Hatake: I'll include what you'd want to say.]
[Naruto Uzumaki: You don't know what I'd want to say.]
[Kakashi Hatake: You'd want to say that you're looking forward to meeting him and that you'll be there when the time is right and that he's not doing this alone anymore.]
A pause.
[Naruto Uzumaki: ...okay you do know.]
[Kakashi Hatake: I've been paying attention.]
Hokage's Office --- Konoha
Kakashi wrote the reply.
He kept it short.
Matching the register Toneri had used.
Plain language.
Direct.
The last line he wrote three times before settling on a version.
It said: He says he's looking forward to meeting you. And that you're not doing this alone anymore.
He looked at it.
He thought about what that sentence meant coming from this specific boy.
Who had grown up alone.
Who had decided to protect the thing that made him feel less alone.
Who had heard you're not doing this alone from Bai Yan and had carried it forward to someone he'd never met.
He sent the letter.
Moon Temple
Toneri received it in the afternoon.
He read it standing at the window that looked down at Earth.
He read it twice.
He read the last line a third time.
He says he's looking forward to meeting you. And that you're not doing this alone anymore.
He stood at the window for a long time.
He thought about twenty years of maintaining something alone.
About the scroll appearing and choosing sides.
About writing a letter and not knowing if anyone would write back.
They had written back.
And the anchor had read it and said obviously like it was the simplest answer in the world.
He thought about the closing line from the first reply.
He will be ready. He's the kind of person who is always ready before he realizes he is.
He thought about what it meant to be met by someone like that.
He put the letter in his pocket.
He went back to the array chamber.
He checked the preparations he'd already made.
Then he made more.
Not because anything was insufficient.
But because you're not doing this alone anymore was a fact now, and facts deserved to be honored with readiness.
He worked through the afternoon.
The array hummed at low frequency around him.
Patient.
Ready.
He thought about meeting someone who said obviously when asked if he'd show up.
He thought about the kind of person that was.
He thought it was going to be a good meeting.
Group Chat:
[Bai Yan: Toneri received the reply.]
[Kakashi Hatake: How do you know?]
[Bai Yan: The array chamber in the Moon Temple just ran a second diagnostic sequence.]
[Kakashi Hatake: ...You can feel the Moon Temple's instruments from here?]
[Bai Yan: The Observer's Anchor has a wide range.]
[Kakashi Hatake: How wide?]
[Bai Yan: Wide enough.]
[Kakashi Hatake: ...]
[Kakashi Hatake: What did the second diagnostic mean?]
[Bai Yan: He's doing more preparation.]
[Kakashi Hatake: More? The array was already ready.]
[Bai Yan: I know.]
[Kakashi Hatake: Then why---]
[Bai Yan: Because someone told him he's not doing it alone anymore,] Bai Yan said. And that changes how you prepare.
Kakashi read that.
He thought about what it felt like to be told you weren't alone after a very long time of operating as if you were.
He thought about Guy, who had declared himself his rival before Kakashi had agreed to the designation and had shown up loud enough that the silence couldn't win.
He understood.
[Kakashi Hatake: ...Fair enough.]
[Bai Yan: The timing for the meeting will become clear in the next week or two.]
[Kakashi Hatake: When Naruto is closer to functional Sage Mode access.]
[Bai Yan: When Naruto is ready to stand in front of someone who's been doing this alone for twenty years and not flinch.]
[Kakashi Hatake: He already is.]
[Bai Yan: I know.]
[Bai Yan: But he'll be more himself in two weeks than he is now.]
[Bai Yan: And Toneri deserves the most himself version.]
Kakashi set down the chat.
He thought about that.
He thought about the scroll's evaluation.
About he's the kind of person who is always ready before he realizes he is.
He thought about two more weeks of census practice and natural energy threads and training with Jiraiya in an old-growth stand.
He thought about the ramen shop at the end of it.
He thought it was probably going to be fine.
He picked up his book.
Read half a page.
Put it down.
More himself in two weeks.
He thought about what that meant for a boy who was already, fundamentally, entirely himself.
He smiled.
He picked up the book again.
This time he actually read it.
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