Naruto and Sasuke left the sacred ground of Shikkotsu Forest and rested beside the road home.
Thinking back to half an hour ago, when those little girls had pulled the two great heroes to their feet.
Naruto could not help feeling utterly ashamed.
"We really got taught a lesson."
"We once stood at the very peak of the ninja world. We always felt that no people or things beyond our understanding would ever appear again."
"First, Chen handed us a crushing defeat we had not tasted in ages. Then Hane appeared and woke us up in time. Failure itself isn't frightening. What's frightening is losing our composure and our direction forward."
Sasuke deeply agreed. "Yeah. Now I understand even more deeply what Itachi told me back then."
"Everyone relies on their own knowledge and perceptions, yet they are bound by them, calling them reality. But knowledge and perceptions are terribly ambiguous things. That reality may be nothing more than an illusion reflected in water. People live within their own consciousness."
"We really didn't lose unfairly this time."
The brief exchange with Hane replayed in his mind.
Another kind of hidden concern surfaced in Sasuke's weary eyes.
"But then again."
"Shikotsumyaku, Scorch Release, Ice Release, Lava Release, and Boil Release. Hane used five Kekkei Genkai in her battle with us. Aside from Scorch Release, the other four were all bloodlines recorded in Kirigakure. From the perspective of lineage, they also basically matched her claim that her ancestors had lived in the Land of Water."
"But I find it hard to imagine someone being born with so many Kekkei Genkai, and mastering every single one of them."
"It reminded me of someone."
Sasuke turned to Naruto, who was equally lost in thought.
"You thought of him too, didn't you, Naruto? You knew