Moon Temple --- Morning
Naruto was up before sunrise.
He'd slept soundly --- which had surprised him, on the Moon, in a Temple he'd been in for less than twelve hours.
But the visitor's chamber was warm and the bed was clean and he'd apparently been more tired than he'd realized.
He went to the window.
The Earth was there.
Same as last night.
Same as it had always been from here.
Small.
Blue.
Home.
He looked at it the way he'd learned to look at things during the census.
Not reaching.
Just receiving.
He could see the shape of the continent.
He could find Konoha's direction if he knew where to look.
He found it.
He held it.
He thought about the gate.
About the wood grain.
About his father standing on a street corner counting people.
He thought about what he was going back to.
Not a mission.
Not a ranking.
Not a title.
A shop on a street in a village where the broth was always hot and there was always a seat at the counter.
He held the token.
The warmth from the other side was steady.
Present.
Not louder than usual.
Just there.
We're going home, he thought.
Not to anyone specifically.
Just the thought.
The token stayed warm.
They gathered at the entrance at seven.
Naruto.
Kakashi.
Bai Yan.
And Toneri, who had been in the array chamber since before sunrise running the morning diagnostic.
He met them at the door.
He and Naruto looked at each other.
Brief.
The same as the first time.
Neither of them extending it past what it needed to be.
"The array is ready," Toneri said.
"I know," Naruto said. "I could feel it yesterday."
"When it starts---"
"I'll know," Naruto said. "I'll be here."
Toneri held his gaze.
"You'll feel it from Konoha?"
"The Sage Mode will pick it up. And the Anchor will tell Bai Yan." He paused. "And when it does, I'll be here fast."
"The Dragon---"
"The Dragon is fast," Bai Yan said.
Toneri looked at Bai Yan.
"How fast?"
"Fast enough."
Toneri accepted this.
Because Bai Yan said it the way he said things he'd already verified.
He looked at Naruto.
"The ramen," he said.
Naruto smiled.
"When this is over," he said. "You come to Konoha. We go to Ichiraku. I explain what ramen is." He paused. "It's a good explanation."
Toneri's expression did the thing it had done yesterday.
The thing that was almost a smile.
The thing that was the face of someone receiving something they'd been expecting to want for a long time.
"I'll come," he said.
"Good," Naruto said.
He turned to the Dragon.
He stopped.
He looked back at Toneri.
"Hey."
"Yes?"
"You've been doing this alone for twenty years," Naruto said. "You should know --- what you did here. Maintaining it. Staying." He paused. "That matters. It's going to matter. When the array activates, everything you did to keep it ready is what makes the difference." He looked at the Temple around them. "So thank you. For staying."
Toneri was quiet for a moment.
He thought about twenty years.
About the decision he hadn't made as much as found himself in.
About maintaining it because it needed maintaining and he was the someone who was left.
He thought about what it felt like to have that acknowledged.
"Thank you," he said. "For coming."
Naruto nodded.
He climbed up.
Kakashi followed.
Bai Yan was last.
He looked at Toneri.
"The Earth is louder than you expect," he said. "But you adjust."
Toneri looked at him.
"Is that a warning or a recommendation?"
"Both," Bai Yan said. "Mostly the second."
He climbed up.
The Dragon rose.
Toneri watched them go until they were too small to see.
He stood at the entrance for a moment.
Then he went inside.
He checked the array one more time.
It was ready.
He sat in the main hall and watched the Earth.
He was not alone anymore.
He thought that was the strangest and best thing he'd felt in twenty years.
Azure Dragon --- Transit
Thirty minutes in.
Earth was getting larger.
The continent was visible.
Then the coast.
Then the shape of the shinobi lands.
Naruto was watching from the Dragon's back.
Not lying down this time.
Sitting.
Forward-facing.
Watching the village come back.
He could see Konoha's direction.
He could see, if he knew where to look, the specific point where the gate was.
He held the token.
He was thinking about the array chamber.
About standing in the center point.
About what he'd felt there.
He was thinking about Toneri saying someone had to stay.
He was thinking about being ready being different from prepared.
He was thinking about forty-five seconds in an old-growth stand.
He was thinking about what came next.
He wasn't afraid of it.
That was the thing he'd noticed yesterday in the array chamber.
He wasn't afraid.
He was ready.
Those were different things.
"Naruto."
He turned.
Bai Yan's face had changed.
Not dramatically.
Just --- different quality of attention.
The Observer's Anchor was showing him something.
"What is it?" Naruto said.
Bai Yan was quiet for one second.
"The seal moved," he said.
"Kaguya's seal."
"Yes."
"It fractured?"
"Not fractured." Bai Yan looked at the Earth getting larger. "Shifted. The pressure from inside has changed angle. It was leaning evenly. Now it's---" He paused. "Finding a weak point."
Kakashi was alert.
Already on his feet.
"Timeline?" he said.
"Days," Bai Yan said. "Not weeks. The shift happened overnight."
"While we were at the Temple."
"Yes."
They looked at each other.
Naruto was very still.
He thought about two weeks, maybe less being three weeks ago.
About the window.
About days not weeks.
He thought about the array chamber.
About Toneri and the diagnostic.
About what the array is ready meant.
He felt the token.
The warmth.
He thought about the gate getting larger below them.
"Okay," he said.
He said it the way he'd been saying it for three weeks.
Each time meaning something slightly different.
This time it meant: I know. And I'm ready. And we have what we need.
He sent a message.
Group Chat:
[Naruto Uzumaki @Toneri: The seal moved. Days, not weeks. Be ready.]
[Naruto Uzumaki: We're coming back fast.]
In the Moon Temple, Toneri read the message.
He was already in the array chamber.
He read it.
Put the communicator down.
Ran the fourth diagnostic of the morning.
Everything was ready.
He sent three words back.
[Moon Temple (Toneri): I'm already ready.]
Bai Yan sent his own messages.
[Bai Yan @Kakashi Hatake @Jiraiya @Second Hokage Tobirama Senju: The window is opening. Days. Prepare.]
[Bai Yan @Sasuke Uchiha: The seal shifted overnight. Can you feel the resonance change from there?]
[Uchiha Sasuke: ...]
[Uchiha Sasuke: Yes. Just now. The intention field in the resonance changed direction.]
[Uchiha Sasuke: I wasn't sure what it was until you sent the message.]
[Bai Yan: Trust the perception. If it reads as different, it's different.]
[Uchiha Sasuke: Understood.]
[Uchiha Sasuke: How long?]
[Bai Yan: Days.]
[Uchiha Sasuke: ...]
[Uchiha Sasuke: Naruto.]
[Naruto Uzumaki: I know. I'm coming back now.]
[Uchiha Sasuke: The training ground.]
[Naruto Uzumaki: Yeah.]
[Uchiha Sasuke: I'll be there.]
[Naruto Uzumaki: I know.]
Group Chat --- Wider:
[Jiraiya: Everyone who needs to hear this, hear it now. The window is opening. Days.]
[Second Hokage Tobirama Senju: I'll coordinate with Madara on the Pure Land side.]
[Uchiha Madara: Already working.]
[Fourth Raikage A: Cloud is ready. Standing by.]
[Fifth Mizukage Terumi Mei: Mist is ready.]
[Third Tsuchikage Ōnoki: Stone is ready.]
[Gaara of the Sand: Sand is ready.]
[One-Tail Shukaku: WE ARE ABSOLUTELY READY!! NARUTO!! COME BACK FAST!!]
[Nine-Tails Kurama: ...]
[Nine-Tails Kurama: He's coming back fast.]
[Nine-Tails Kurama: Everyone be quiet and let him focus.]
[One-Tail Shukaku: NINE-TAILS SAID EVERYONE BE QUIET SO NARUTO CAN FOCUS!! HE DOES CARE!!]
[Nine-Tails Kurama: I said QUIET.]
[One-Tail Shukaku: YES BOSS!!]
[Nine-Tails Kurama: ...]
The token in Naruto's pocket was warm.
He felt it.
Through the rushing air of the Dragon's transit.
Through the getting-larger Earth below.
He felt the Nine-Tails' side of it.
Present.
Steady.
The specific warmth of something that had decided to stay.
He held it.
Azure Dragon --- Five Minutes Out
The gate was visible now.
Not imagination.
Not direction.
Visible.
He could see the wood.
The color of it.
The upper hinge.
He couldn't see the grain lines from here.
But he knew them.
He held them in his mind the way his father had held them.
The way he'd memorized them yesterday morning.
The weight of what he was holding was specific and real.
The gate.
The shop behind it.
The counter.
The broth.
The seat that always had room.
He held all of it.
"Naruto," Kakashi said.
"I see it," Naruto said.
"The gate?"
"Yes."
Kakashi looked at it with him.
He thought about Obito's eye.
About the Rival Seal in his chest that had connected him to Guy since the ranking.
About there is not a single shinobi in this village who would betray their comrades.
He thought about that being true.
"Ready?" he said.
Naruto held the gate.
"Yes," he said.
The Dragon descended.
Konoha came up to meet them.
Konoha --- Eastern Gate
They touched down at the field outside the eastern wall.
The Dragon dispersed.
Naruto stood on the ground.
Konoha was in front of him.
The gate was in front of him.
He walked up to it.
He put his hand on the wood.
The grain lines were exactly as he'd memorized.
The darker patch from the old repair.
The upper hinge.
All of it.
He held it for a moment.
He thought: I see it, Dad.
He thought: I'm home.
He stepped through the gate.
Group Chat:
[Fourth Hokage Minato Namikaze: ...]
[Fourth Hokage Minato Namikaze: He touched the gate.]
In the Reaper's Belly, Kushina had both hands over her mouth.
Minato was very still.
He looked at the Partial Barrier Release scroll in his hands.
He'd been waiting for the right moment.
He'd been waiting to be sure.
He looked at Naruto stepping through the gate.
At the way he'd touched the wood.
He looked at Kushina.
She lowered her hands.
She was already nodding.
He unrolled the scroll.
He activated it.
Not yet visible.
Not yet in the world.
But beginning.
The hour had started.
He had something to say.
He was going to say it.
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