"He's back!"
"Naruto's back!"
"Welcome back, Naruto!"
A ripple of excitement swept through the crowd gathered to welcome Naruto's triumphant return as the weary, yellow‑haired boy appeared at the village gates. His surprise swiftly gave way to alarm as countless faces he had never seen before surged towards him, each desperate to get their hands on the hero who had saved them, or at the very least to catch a glimpse of him.
"Hngh," Sasuke grunted, as Sakura removed her glowing hands from his bruised side. "Sounds like that idiot made it back after all."
Sasuke was beginning to understand how the Uchiha must have felt, returning from war expecting to be hailed as heroes, only to find their deeds had been quietly swept under the rug by the higher-ups. He and Sakura had fought every bit as hard as Naruto, yet they were all but ignored…
The villagers had hoisted Naruto onto their shoulders, cheering as they tossed him high into the air, crowd‑surfing him towards the vast crater where Sakura and the other medics were tending to the wounded— those hurt severely enough to need care, but not enough to have died and subsequently been revived.
"Sakura‑chan! Sasuke!" Naruto shouted gleefully, spotting them as the villagers sent him skywards for what must have been the tenth time. "Come on over, you helped save the village too, ya know!"
In no time, she and Sasuke found themselves hoisted onto the villagers' shoulders, sent to join Naruto on his crowd‑surfing journey despite their half‑hearted protests as Naruto laughed happily.
"Oi!" Sakura yelped. "Mind where you're putting your hands!"
"I suppose this sort of treatment isn't so bad," Sasuke mumbled. "Once in a while."
At last, the villagers' arms began to tire, and the three were allowed back onto solid ground. They had reached the very heart of the blast, where the Hokage Residence had once stood, and where a brand‑new wooden building had just sprung up.
"Well done, Naruto!" Jiraiya called as he stepped out of the building, a wide grin on his face. "You finally mastered the Nine-Tails' power and defeated Pain! I can't tell you just how proud I am of you!"
"Aww, you're gonna make me blush, Pervy Sage," Naruto said bashfully.
Jiraiya turned to Sakura and Sasuke.
"From what I've heard, you've done an extraordinary job as well," he said. "Tsunade would have been proud of you, Sakura… and your parents of you too, Sasuke."
Naruto suddenly made a face as though a light bulb had just lit up over his head.
"I saw my dad earlier!" he blurted out. "Where is he? I wanna see him!"
Jiraiya grimaced.
"About that," he said. "You'll see him… just not right now."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Naruto asked, frowning. "When, exactly?"
A tall figure walked out of the building and stood beside Jiraiya, grinning at them eerily. Naruto and Sakura immediately recoiled as he stepped out of the shadows, and even a blind Sasuke dropped into a fighting stance on sensing his unsettling chakra.
"In due course, Naruto-kun," Orochimaru said smoothly. "At the appropriate juncture. In the fullness of time. When the moment is ripe. When the necessary procedures have been completed. Nothing precipitate, of course…"
"You!" Naruto snarled. "You're the one who summoned my dad, right? Let my dad go, or I'll punch you again! I don't care if you're Pervy Sage's old friend, you're just a perverted freak—"
Jiraiya stepped hastily between them, raising a hand to stop Naruto lunging at Orochimaru.
"The general public doesn't yet know about the four Hokage's revival... or at least, most of them don't," he explained. "The Edo Tensei is a kinjutsu that desecrates the souls of the dead. It would be disastrous for morale if the people learned we'd been disrespecting our heroes' souls and making them fight our battles for us… I'm sure the rumours will spread soon enough, since some people are bound to have seen the Hokage jumping around during the battle to protect the village, but for now, it's been decided to keep the situation under wraps."
Orochimaru snorted.
"More like it wouldn't do for people to know death has just become far less permanent, eh, Jiraiya?" he said snidely. "I've mastered the Edo Tensei, which drags the dead back into undeath… and I've a pair of Rinnegan of my own, which can supposedly restore both dead and undead to full life… I assume that's what Pain used to revive everyone?"
Technically, Orochimaru no longer possessed Ōtsutsuki Urashiki's Rinnegan. He had graciously returned them to the village in exchange for a clean slate— not that it was much of a loss, since he could not make them revert from their Byakugan form anyway. Since even the purest Byakugan the world had ever seen held no special use for him, it had not pained him greatly to let them go… especially as he would likely be assigned to study them, once all was said and done!
"Sorry, Naruto," Jiraiya said apologetically. "But you'll see your father soon, I promise. Minato himself said it was for the best."
"Speaking of which," Orochimaru said. "What happened to the Pain master, Naruto-kun?"
Naruto shook his head.
"Nagato died reviving everyone," he explained. "This paper lady Konan took the body away… she said you used to know them, Pervy Sage? They called you sensei."
Jiraiya seemed to age a hundred years in the span of a second.
"Yeah, it's all true, I'll tell you all about it later," he said mournfully. "But for now, more pressing matters await us."
He looked at Sakura and Sasuke in turn.
"The Fourth Shinobi World War has already begun, and Tsunade is dead," he said grimly. "We need to elect a Sixth Hokage to lead the village as soon as possible— so, Sakura‑chan, Sasuke‑kun… come in. All the Jōnin are to attend the Jōnin Council to vote on the matter."
Jiraiya ushered them in, but as Naruto went to step inside, he held him back. Sakura glanced back over her shoulder. Naruto managed a weak smile for her, but she could see the loneliness in his eyes.
"Can't Naruto come in too?" Sakura asked sadly. "Without him, there wouldn't be any Jōnin left to hold council… and how are we going to elect Naruto to be our new Hokage if he isn't even there?"
"It's okay, Sakura-chan," Naruto said. "I'll go help out around the village. Lots of rebuilding to do, ya know!"