Treat Her Well This Time

For now, let's call him "Future Naruto."

"Dad..." Future Naruto's voice trembled slightly as he looked at Minato. His clothes were tattered, and he bore several wounds. He looked like a child who had just returned from a brutal battlefield.

"You..." Minato hesitated.

"You're... the future me who gave me those memories, right?" Naruto had made a guess, and his tone was somewhat excited. The person before him—himself—was the one who had changed his fate.

He had never imagined something like this happening today, yet this person had truly appeared before him.

"You are..." Compared to Naruto of the present, the taller Future Naruto was utterly shocked to see his "younger self." His face plainly said, Could someone please tell me what's going on?!

"Heh... so that's how it is." The Nine-Tails chuckled softly behind Naruto and Minato.

"What is it, Kurama? Do you know why he appeared here?" Naruto turned back, looking up at the Nine-Tails as he asked.

Minato stared deeply at his "eldest son" before him... Seeing him so haggard and exhausted in both body and mind made his heart ache uncontrollably.

Future Naruto seemed a little slow on the uptake, only now noticing the enormous Nine-Tails. He said in shock, "Kurama... weren't you extracted by Madara...?"

"Stop being so confused, other Naruto brat! The place you're in now... is five years ago! This portion of your Chakra appeared inside your own six-year-old body eleven years ago!" The Nine-Tails loudly called out to the bewildered Future Naruto.

Future Naruto froze completely.

Naruto walked up to him, raised his right fist, and looked up slightly at his grown-up self with a smile. "If words can't make it clear... then let's bump fists!"

"Heh..." The Nine-Tails chuckled quietly behind him, recalling how this brat had recklessly held out his fist to him back then as well.

"..." Things had already developed beyond Minato's imagination. He no longer knew what to say.

Future Naruto stared blankly at the somewhat childish fist before him. After a moment of silence, he finally raised his own right fist.

Their fists touched lightly.

Everything became clear.

"Brat, have you ever wondered... why I accepted you so quickly back then?" The Nine-Tails lay on the water behind Naruto, his massive nine tails swaying as he spoke indifferently.

"What's there to wonder about?" Naruto narrowed his eyes in confusion.

"When all was said and done, you were still influenced by the memories you received... Did you think I would so easily accept a human's goodwill? I am the Nine-Tails! The Nine-Tails, a mass of hatred! Did you think I would accept you just because of those memories?"

The Nine-Tails scoffed disdainfully. "Did you think that making up some convincing memories... would be enough to subdue me so easily? Then I don't even know how many times I would have been subdued over the years!"

Naruto was left speechless. He turned to look at his future self and muttered softly, "My memories weren't made up..."

"What do you think those memories you received were?"

The Nine-Tails looked down arrogantly at Naruto by his feet, then turned to Future Naruto.

"They were merely a portion of this guy's Chakra! And a Jinchuriki's Chakra is inseparable from a tailed beast's Chakra. Even if the tailed beast is extracted, residual tailed beast Chakra and Jinchuriki Chakra remain mixed together... When I bumped fists with you back then, I absorbed the Chakra belonging to 'me' that was attached to the 'memory Chakra' you received... That was why I truly acknowledged you!"

A tailed beast and Jinchuriki who had shared the same body for years—their lives... or rather, the Jinchuriki's life, depended on the tailed beast.

A tailed beast was like an extremely important organ of the Jinchuriki's body.

That organ provided the Jinchuriki with immense energy. Once it was taken away by an outside force, the Jinchuriki would die.

However, after years upon years of permeation, the tailed beast's Chakra had become inseparably intertwined with the Jinchuriki's Chakra. Like two coins stuck together by time, it was simply impossible to remove every last trace from the Jinchuriki's body.

Of course, under normal circumstances, once a Jinchuriki had a tailed beast extracted, they were as good as dead. No one cared whether scraps of tailed beast Chakra still remained in their corpse.

"Chakra is created by combining Physical Energy extracted from the body's 130 trillion cells with spiritual energy strengthened through cultivation and training..." Minato could not help muttering to himself from the side.

"That's right. Just like your current state... a person's Chakra records everything about them! You retained memories and knew the Flying Thunder God Technique, even though you existed only to replenish the Chakra left behind in the seal, didn't you?" The Nine-Tails gently swayed his tail.

Minato fell silent and turned to look at Future Naruto.

Naruto and the Nine-Tails were also looking at him.

"Ah... I understand my situation a little now." Future Naruto's voice held surprise, sorrow, regret, and relief... He sighed and smiled. "It seems I'm already dead."

A few days earlier.

Outside Konoha's gates, a group was setting out for the Land of Waves.

The middle-aged Tazuna felt an incredible amount of pressure... He had only requested a C-rank mission. Why had so many ninja come along?

There was a masked adult ninja who looked anything but ordinary, plus the five little ninja trailing behind him... Hey, this was only a C-rank mission. Was there really any need for such an enormous lineup?

Did they see through the fact that I falsified the mission details...? Let me make this clear first, I really can't afford any extra payment!

Tazuna thought guiltily.

"Hey, client uncle over there... you seem pretty nervous?" Shikamaru, who had been lazily walking beside Kakashi, keenly noticed the unusual expression on Tazuna's face and teased him in his uniquely sluggish tone.

"Huh? Ahahaha... am I? How could that be!" Tazuna denied it terribly awkwardly.

Kakashi was speechless. With the information given by the Third Hokage, he naturally understood that this client had concealed much about the mission. At the very least, ninja would not appear during a C-rank mission. And this mission... might even involve ninja on Zabuza's level.

He had already told the five genin on the team about this.

Upon learning that they would be facing powerful jonin no weaker than Kakashi—or so Kakashi himself claimed—the genin all reacted differently...

Sasuke: "Hmph. It's a lot of pressure, but only this way can I improve and catch up to Naruto. And..."

Shikamaru: "Ahh, special missions really are troublesome... I might even lose my life there..."

Sakura: "...(trembling inwardly)"

Hinata: "What should I do... I... I... I absolutely can't hold everyone back..."

Rock Lee: "Sakura, don't worry. I'll protect you even if it costs me my life!" He flashed his gleaming teeth and smiled confidently.

Thus, before long, a puddle appeared on the road ahead of the group...

Sasuke and Shikamaru exchanged a glance and gave slight nods.

"Haha... that Sasuke actually obediently trained with you! Haha..."

Future Naruto sat on the water, laughing heartily. In his memories, Sasuke had always been the goal he admired and yearned for, the person he strived to catch up to. Who could have imagined that their positions would now be reversed? From the age of six, Sasuke had been desperately trying to catch up with "his" footsteps.

Naruto laughed too. This future version of himself... felt like a goofy older brother.

"Hm?" After enjoying himself for a while, Future Naruto noticed that his younger self had been staring at him. He touched his cheek in puzzlement. "What is it?"

"Nothing... I just feel really happy..." Naruto sat there, rocking back and forth with innocence written across his face. Whenever he was alone over the years, he had always forced himself to mature and be strong. Yet before his father, Kurama, and "himself," he could not help showing his childlike side.

"Haha... is that so..." Future Naruto smiled.

Minato stood nearby, watching the tall and short pair with a smile.

It really felt... like he had two sons...

"Heh... Fourth Hokage..." The Nine-Tails was also watching the "brothers" as he spoke quietly. "Perhaps this Naruto was drawn out by his attachment to you and Kushina... Naruto also said that the other time he vaguely sensed traces of this Naruto was when Kushina appeared last time..."

"Is that so..." Minato said softly, feeling inexplicably saddened.

When he died in battle, was he unable to let go of the parents he had never truly met?

The three people and one fox talked here for a long time. At last, Minato's figure gradually began to fade.

"Goodbye, Naruto... and Naruto." Minato smiled as his figure slowly turned transparent and disappeared.

"Goodbye, Dad." Naruto spoke quietly, his mood low.

Future Naruto merely smiled faintly. "Being able to see Dad one more time is enough for me... Well then, I should be disappearing soon too... I can sort of feel it."

Naruto was reluctant to part. He turned to look at the Nine-Tails, then looked at his future self.

Was he going to fall into a deep sleep again... just like that "other special Chakra" within Naruto...? The Nine-Tails thought to himself.

Future Naruto's figure grew fainter and fainter. At the very end, as if remembering something, he asked Naruto, "Oh, right..." A nostalgic yet regretful expression appeared on his face. "Maybe it's because I'm already dead, but I unexpectedly came to understand a lot of things... I really regret never giving Hinata an answer. Back then, I thought the 'like' she spoke of meant liking ramen... Haha..."

"This time, please treat her well for me." Future Naruto made the request solemnly.

Tears filled Naruto's eyes as he answered firmly, "Of course I will."

With a smile, he faded away and vanished.

Naruto wiped away his tears. He knew that many roads in the future would have to be walked alone.

The next day, Jiraiya, Tsunade, Shizune, and Naruto set out on the road back to Konoha.