Naruto's roar sounded jarringly out of place on the silent battlefield. Everyone's eyes turned to him, including those of Uchiha Jin, high above them.
Jin's gaze slowly lowered, settling on the blond boy. There was no anger in his eyes, only the curiosity of a scholar examining a specimen.
"Trampling on lives?" Jin repeated, then chuckled softly. "Uzumaki Naruto, you seem to have misunderstood something. I'm not trampling on anything. I'm correcting it. You people are full of flaws from the moment you're born, like a program riddled with bugs. And I'm here to fix it."
He took a step forward. His movement was slow, yet in an instant he stood before Naruto. Kakashi and Sasuke both startled and tried to react, only to find their bodies as heavy as lead, unable to move.
Jin extended a finger and gently touched Naruto's forehead.
"Relax. I won't kill you. Not yet, anyway." His voice seemed to carry a spell, and Naruto's tense body relaxed despite himself. "You believe in 'understanding,' don't you? Then I'll let you 'understand' what I mean by peace, and what I mean by flaws."
The moment his fingertip touched Naruto's forehead, the world before him changed.
The desert, the corpses, his comrades... Everything disappeared. He found himself standing in front of the Ichiraku Ramen stand, warm sunlight falling over him as the aroma of pork-bone broth filled the air.
"Naruto, what are you spacing out for? Your ramen's getting cold!"
A voice so familiar it made his heart stop came from beside him. Naruto whipped around and saw the silver-haired man sitting there, a hearty smile on his face.
"J-Jiraiya?" Naruto's voice trembled, and his eyes instantly welled up.
Jiraiya laughed heartily and tapped Naruto's bowl with his chopsticks. "What do you mean, Jiraiya? Show some respect.