Inside the river wall, Naruto held Gaara's corpse in his arms, his eyes blazing with a resolute light.
Starting two years ago, Akatsuki had already sent Uchiha Itachi and Kisame Hoshigaki after him, intending to capture him and extract the Nine-Tails from within him. And now, seeing Gaara's fate, the unyielding conviction deep in Naruto's heart had been completely stirred.
Akatsuki! No matter how many of you there are, I'll definitely defeat you!
Just as Naruto was about to shout a few slogans, he saw Houka walking over with a heavily wrinkled envelope in hand.
"Uncle!"
Naruto set down Gaara's corpse and said excitedly, "Granny Tsunade has restored your status as a Konoha ninja, Uncle. Come back to the village with me. As for everything that happened before, I'll be magnanimous and won't hold it against you."
Houka looked down at him from above. "By 'everything that happened before,' do you mean how you used to paint my courtyard wall with oil every day?"
Like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, Naruto nearly jumped up. "That was because you kicked me out!"
Of course, Naruto now knew that it had happened because Houka and the Third Hokage had disagreed, after which the Third Hokage had ordered Naruto to leave Houka's side. But he still felt unhappy about it.
Houka shrugged without arguing, then handed over the letter in his hand and said calmly, "Your letter."
"Huh? Mine?"
Naruto accepted it with a puzzled expression, looking at Houka in surprise. "Uncle, who sent this to me?"
As far as he remembered, it seemed no one had ever written him a letter before, much less one delivered through his uncle.
"You'll know once you open it." Houka gave a mysterious smile.
Naruto immediately became wary.
Houka had teased him plenty