Konoha --- Naruto's Apartment Rooftop
The sun was going down.
Naruto was sitting on the edge of his roof with his legs hanging over.
Not because he was upset.
Not because he was brooding.
Just because it was evening and the view was good from up here and sometimes after a long day he needed to be somewhere that wasn't anywhere in particular.
He'd been here for twenty minutes.
He was thinking about the secondary Rasengan.
About Sasuke's comment --- the inward rotation, if applied to lightning-nature --- and the shape of what that could eventually become.
About Tobirama's message: your father never achieved that.
He was thinking about his father.
About an hour that had ended.
He was thinking about the moon.
It was visible now in the early evening sky, sitting pale above the rooftops.
Still doing the thing.
The faint shudder at the edges that he'd noticed yesterday and hadn't stopped noticing since.
He heard footsteps on the stairs.
Not the ANBU-quiet footsteps of someone trying not to be heard.
Regular footsteps.
The kind someone makes when they're not hiding the fact that they're coming.
Bai Yan appeared through the rooftop access door.
He had two cups of something.
He walked over and sat beside Naruto on the edge.
Offered one cup.
Naruto took it.
Smelled it.
"What is this?"
"Miso soup. You didn't eat dinner."
"I was going to---"
"You were going to sit up here until you fell asleep," Bai Yan said. Not critically. Just factually.
Naruto thought about this.
"...Yeah, probably," he admitted.
He drank the soup.
They sat in silence for a moment.
Below them, Konoha was doing its evening things.
People walking home.
Lights coming on in windows.
The smell of cooking from three directions.
"Bai Yan-san," Naruto said.
"Mm."
"You've been making a face since yesterday."
Bai Yan looked at him sideways.
"What face."
"The one where you know something and you're deciding when to say it." Naruto looked at the moon. "I've been watching you make that face at me for eight years. I know what it looks like."
Bai Yan was quiet.
"You noticed," he said.
"Obviously." Naruto wrapped both hands around the cup. "Is it about the moon?"
"Partly."
"And the weeks thing the Sage mentioned."
"Yes."
Naruto turned to look at him.
Directly.
The way he looked at things he was taking seriously.
"Tell me," he said.
So Bai Yan told him.
Not everything.
Not the full depth of what the Observer's Anchor had shown him, or the details of the Sage's private message, or the calculations about exactly how much time was left.
But the shape of it.
The truth of it.
The seal was weakening faster than the Sage had expected.
The scroll's rewards had accelerated the resonance.
Toneri had written a letter.
There was a failsafe in the Moon Temple that needed an anchor.
The anchor was someone with the right bloodline and sufficient will.
He said that last part carefully.
Not it's you.
Just laid it out and let Naruto arrive at it himself.
Naruto listened.
All of it.
He didn't interrupt.
He didn't ask questions mid-sentence.
He just listened with the specific focus he had when something mattered.
When Bai Yan finished, there was a moment of quiet.
The moon sat in the sky.
Still shuddering.
"Weeks," Naruto said.
"Roughly. Maybe less."
"And the anchor---"
"Someone with Uzumaki bloodline and---"
"It's me," Naruto said.
Not a question.
Not panicked.
Not even particularly surprised.
Just stated.
"It's most likely you," Bai Yan said. "There are other candidates theoretically, but---"
"It's me." Naruto looked at the moon. "That's fine."
Bai Yan watched him.
At the twelve-year-old sitting on a rooftop with a cup of miso soup absorbing the information that he was probably the anchor point for a re-sealing array against a resurrecting god.
Naruto was quiet for a moment longer.
Then: "Do I have to do it alone?"
The question came out very simply.
Not fearfully.
Not with bravado.
Just asked.
The way you ask something when the answer actually matters.
"No," Bai Yan said.
Just that.
No qualifications.
No.
Naruto looked at him.
"Toneri is offering the Temple's support," Bai Yan said. "Kakashi and Hiruzen are already in contact with him. The Sage knows. Everyone who needs to know is beginning to know." He paused. "And you have---"
"I have everyone from yesterday," Naruto said.
"Yes."
Naruto nodded.
He looked at the cup in his hands.
At the steam from the miso.
At the city below.
"Sasuke will be annoyed I found out before he did," he said.
"You can tell him tomorrow."
"He'll say he already figured it out."
"He probably has."
Naruto almost smiled.
"Yeah. Probably."
He reached into his pocket.
Pulled out the Kurama Resonance Token.
Turned it once in his fingers.
He held it.
The warmth from the Nine-Tails' side of it was faint but present.
It always was now.
Had been since the seal activated.
He'd been noticing it more since this morning.
He sat with it in his palm.
"Bai Yan-san," he said.
"Mm."
"You've known about all of this since before I was born."
"A version of it."
"You knew it was going to happen."
"I knew a version that was going to happen," Bai Yan said carefully. "The scroll changed things. This version is different."
Naruto thought about this.
"Is it worse?"
"In some ways." A pause. "In other ways, considerably better."
Naruto looked at the moon again.
"What's better?"
Bai Yan thought about everyone who had been made stronger by the scroll's rewards.
About Gaara talking to Shukaku.
About Tobirama with an Ability Sealing Card.
About Jiraiya's Sage Imprint passing to Naruto.
About Mei Terumi with twelve talismans and the specific joy of immortality.
About everyone who'd sat at Ichiraku last night and been present with each other.
About Naruto meeting Minato.
"You're more prepared than you were supposed to be," he said. "In the original version of events, you were going to face all of this much more alone than you are now."
Naruto absorbed this.
"...The scroll," he said slowly. "That's what it was for."
"I think so."
"It was never just rankings."
"No."
Naruto closed his hand around the Resonance Token.
Held it.
Felt the warmth.
He felt, through it --- faint, like sound through water --- something from the Nine-Tails' side.
Not words.
Not communication.
Just presence.
A large, powerful thing being aware of him.
Aware and not moving away.
He held it tighter.
"Nine-Tails," he said. Very quietly. Not to anyone in the room.
The warmth in the token shifted very slightly.
Something adjusting.
Something that had spent twelve years clenched tight, loosening one thread at a time.
He breathed out.
"Okay," he said.
He put the token back in his pocket.
He drank the rest of his miso soup.
"Thanks," he said to Bai Yan.
"For the soup or the information?"
"Both." He looked at him. "For not waiting until it was too late to tell me."
Bai Yan looked at him.
At the boy who had asked do I have to do it alone and accepted no as a complete answer and then immediately started thinking about what came next.
"There's one more thing," Bai Yan said.
"What."
"I have summons."
Naruto looked at him.
"The Four Divine Beasts," Bai Yan said. Not casually.
Not showing off.
Just stating. "Azure Dragon. White Tiger. Vermilion Bird. Black Tortoise." A pause. "Also all nine Tailed Beasts have recognized me as their master. Long story."
Naruto stared at him.
"...You---"
"Yes."
"ALL NINE TAILED BEASTS---"
"Yes."
"AND THE FOUR DIVINE BEASTS---"
"Yes."
"AND YOU'VE BEEN RUNNING A RAMEN SHOP."
"The ramen is genuinely good, Naruto."
Naruto stared at him for a long time.
Several expressions crossed his face in quick succession.
Then he said: "Is the ramen actually good because of your powers or is it just good?"
Bai Yan blinked.
He had not expected that question.
"...It's just good," he said. "I've been practicing for seven years."
Naruto nodded seriously.
"Okay," he said. "That's actually more impressive."
Bai Yan looked at him.
The twelve-year-old anchor for an anti-Kaguya sealing array was eating miso soup and complimenting his cooking.
"Go to bed, Naruto," he said.
"I'm going," Naruto said. He stood up. Stretched. "Bai Yan-san."
"Mm."
"I'm glad you're here." He said it like he said most important things --- simply, directly, without making it a moment. "Like. Actually here. Not just watching."
Bai Yan looked at the moon.
At the city.
At the boy heading for the rooftop door.
"Me too," he said.
Naruto went inside.
The door closed.
Bai Yan sat on the roof with his cup and the moon and the evening.
[Nine-Tails Kurama: He held the token.]
[Bai Yan: I noticed.]
[Nine-Tails Kurama: I felt it.]
[Bai Yan: I know.]
A long pause.
[Nine-Tails Kurama: ...Don't tell anyone.]
[Bai Yan: Of course.]
[Nine-Tails Kurama: Shukaku especially.]
[Bai Yan: Naturally.]
[Nine-Tails Kurama: ...He's going to be fine.]
[Bai Yan: Yes.]
[Nine-Tails Kurama: I'm not saying that because I care. I'm stating an assessment.]
[Bai Yan: I understand completely.]
[Nine-Tails Kurama: Good.]
The token in Naruto's pocket, three floors below, was still warm.
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