The Year of the Gods' Silence

Uchiha Mikoto returned to the Capital of the Land of Fire with Sasuke and Karin on the twelfth day after they had set out.

Autumn rain pattered down, splashing against the bluestone pavement. The capital's streets were a little quieter than when they had left—or rather, not quieter, but desolate.

Several shops along the roadside had been sealed. The white paper on their doors was soaked through, the writing blurred beyond recognition. A beggar huddled beneath the eaves, clutching a filthy bundle and weakly calling, "Spare some change." No one stopped to look at him.

The three entered the noble estate through a side gate, crossed several covered walkways, and arrived at the courtyard where Naro lived.

Naro was sitting beneath the covered walkway, drinking tea.

He wore a gray kimono, his hair casually tied back. With a white porcelain teacup in his hand, he looked like some idle young gentleman, not someone capable of stirring up the Ninja World. Shisui sat kneeling behind him, his expression calm and his hands resting on his knees, like a statue.

"You're back?" Naro set down his teacup and glanced at Mikoto.

Mikoto walked over and knelt on one knee beneath the walkway, lowering her head.

"My lord, the mission failed. The Seven-Tails Jinchuriki wasn't in Takigakure. They had moved her ahead of time. I failed to bring her back. Please punish me."

Sasuke and Karin stood behind Mikoto and lowered their heads as well. Sasuke clenched his fists tightly. He felt responsible, too. If he'd done better in Takigakure, perhaps he could have found a clue to the Jinchuriki's whereabouts, and perhaps they wouldn't have returned empty-handed.

Naro looked at Mikoto, fell silent for two seconds, then smiled.

"Get up. I already knew Takigakure had moved the Jinchuriki." He picked up his teacup and took a sip. "This wasn't your fault."

Mikoto raised her head, stunned. "My lord... you already knew?"

"I heard it from someone else. Besides, Takigakure may be a small village, but they aren't fools." Naro didn't blame Mikoto at all. "When the news I put out about the path to godhood spread across the Ninja World, they would have guessed that their Tailed Beast would be targeted. With a village that big, and such an obvious target, how could they not prepare in advance?"

Mikoto fell silent. She'd thought she had misjudged the situation, but it turned out her lord had never expected her to bring the Jinchuriki back in the first place.

"Still, you did well this time." Naro looked at Sasuke and Karin, his gaze sweeping over them. "Sasuke, how well did your genjutsu and Fire Release work together?"

Sasuke looked up, surprised that Naro had asked him. He thought for a moment, then said, "Genjutsu to control the field, Fire Release to attack, then kunai to finish things off... Mother taught me. It worked well."

"What about you, Karin?"

Karin took half a step forward, excitement in her emerald-green eyes. "Taijutsu worked better than ninjutsu. It was faster in a fight. I used Medical Ninjutsu, too, though no one was seriously injured. I just practiced controlling the chakra for the Mystical Palm Technique."

"Mm." Naro nodded. "Mikoto taught you well."

Mikoto lowered her head. "It was my lord who gave them the opportunity."

"Opportunities are something you earn for yourself." Naro stood and walked from beneath the covered walkway into the courtyard. Raindrops fell on his shoulders, soaking the gray kimono and leaving a dark patch, but he paid no attention. The autumn rain was light, fine as hair. It fell on the osmanthus tree and knocked a few golden petals loose.

"Did you notice that the Ninja World is unsettled while you were away?" he asked.

Sasuke thought for a moment. "We encountered a lot of people on the road. Rogue ninja, bandits, spies from other villages... There were more than before."

"There were several groups of people lurking outside Takigakure, waiting to swoop in after the others finished fighting and pick up the scraps," Karin added.

Naro nodded in agreement. "That's the way of the Ninja World. You were gone for only a dozen days. What you saw was just the tip of the iceberg."

"For more than fifty years, the Ninja World has spent half its time at war. Big battles and small ones never stop. Today, one village fights another; tomorrow, it's a different pair. The common people die, while the nobles and the leaders of the shinobi villages profit."

He turned and looked at them. "That's why you need to grow stronger as soon as possible."

Mikoto understood what Naro meant. He hadn't sent Sasuke and Karin out to capture a Jinchuriki. He'd sent them to get used to the cruelty of the Ninja World. Now they'd returned and adapted, so the next step was about to begin.

"My lord, what do you have planned?"

Naro didn't answer directly. He went back beneath the walkway and picked up two scrolls from beside the cushion. They were small, about the width of a palm and a foot long, tied with red cords and bearing Sealing Tags. The patterns on the tags were strange, unlike any sealing formula commonly used in the Ninja World. They seemed more like... something far more ancient.

He placed the scrolls on the wooden floor beneath the walkway. They landed with a dull thud. The sound wasn't loud, but it was heavy, as if he had set down not two small scrolls but two mountains.

"I've prepared two gifts for you."

Mikoto stared at the scrolls, her pupils shrinking sharply.

Their aura made her uneasy. It wasn't chakra, nor Natural Energy, but something more primal and violent, like a wild beast locked in a cage. Even through the seals, she could sense its danger.

"What are..." Mikoto's voice tightened.

Naro reached out and tore the Sealing Tag off the first scroll. In an instant, a violent aura burst out of it.

Blue light shone from the scroll, cold as the layer of ice that formed on a river in the depths of winter. Something struggled and writhed within the light, like a fish caught in a net, trying to break free.

Then a huge figure appeared in the courtyard—a monstrous cat wreathed in blue flames.

It was larger than a fully grown bison, its body covered in blue-black fur. It had two tails, held high, their tips flickering with ghostly blue flames. Its eyes were amber, its pupils narrowed to slits. It looked like a cat, but far fiercer and more dangerous than any ordinary one.

Two-Tails Matatabi.

Mikoto instinctively took a step back. She recognized the Tailed Beast. The Two-Tails was astonishingly fast and powerful in Taijutsu, and could attack with blue flames.

Sasuke's Sharingan opened at once, three tomoe slowly spinning in his blood-red eyes. He leaned forward slightly, his right hand on the kunai at his waist, ready for a possible attack.

Karin formed Hand Seals with both hands and crouched slightly, ready to fight as well.

But Naro simply stood there, calmly looking at the enormous monstrous cat.

"Quiet," he said. His tone wasn't harsh, as though he were speaking to a house cat that wouldn't behave.

Matatabi lowered its head and fixed its amber eyes on Naro. A low rumble rose from its throat, sounding like both a warning and a question.

The tension in the courtyard reached its peak. Raindrops hit Matatabi's blue flames with a hissing sound, and white steam rose into the air.

It stared at Naro for several breaths. Then it sat down, as though some force had pressed it down and compelled it to submit.

Mikoto's breath caught. This was a Tailed Beast, one that the villages struggled with all their might just to control. In front of her lord, it was like a real cat.

Naro reached out and tapped Matatabi lightly on the forehead, almost as if petting it. Matatabi gave a soft snort, then turned into a flash of blue light and shrank back into the scroll.

Naro put the Sealing Tag back in place, then picked up the second scroll.

Mikoto's heart tightened again.

Naro tore off the Sealing Tag. This time, white light appeared—white steam poured from the scroll and spread throughout the courtyard.

The sound of hoofbeats came from within the mist. Not a single horse's, but the thunder of countless horses charging. The ground trembled slightly. Sasuke felt the flagstones beneath his feet shudder, as if something enormous were about to burst out from underground.

A huge figure emerged from the white mist.

It was a white stallion, even larger than Matatabi. Its body was covered in white fur, while its mane and tail were pale gold, shimmering in the rain. Its eyes were red—not the red of the Sharingan, but the red of flames, like two burning coals.

Five-Tails Kokuō.

Its hooves struck the ground, each step leaving behind a smoking hoofprint. Steam blew from its nostrils, forming clouds of white mist in the air. Its aura was steady and weighty, like a mountain that could move.

Sasuke's Sharingan spun faster. He could feel the terrifying power inside the Tailed Beast—it was even heavier and more oppressive than that of the cat he'd just seen.

Karin stared at the Five-Tails, her body taut as a bowstring.

The Five-Tails lowered its head, its red eyes sweeping over the people in the courtyard. Its gaze paused on Mikoto, then Sasuke, then Karin, before finally settling on Naro.

It stared at Naro for several breaths, then quieted down as well and lowered its head.

Naro patted it on the forehead and returned it to the scroll.

The mist in the courtyard slowly dispersed. Rain fell once more, pattering against the flagstones. The water that the steam had dried up was replaced by rain, as if nothing had happened.

Mikoto stood there, unable to move for a long time.

"My lord... what are..." Her voice trembled. She knew her lord was powerful, but she hadn't imagined he was this powerful. He had sealed two Tailed Beasts in scrolls as casually as if they were pets, and they behaved obediently in front of him.

"Two-Tails Matatabi and Five-Tails Kokuō." Naro picked up the two scrolls and weighed them in his hands. "Gifts for Sasuke and Karin."

Mikoto froze.

Sasuke froze.

Karin froze, too.

For them?

"My lord, are you going to make them Jinchuriki?" Mikoto's voice tightened. She knew what life was like for a Jinchuriki—to be treated like a monster, feared, and used.

She didn't want Sasuke to take that path, carrying the curse of a Tailed Beast from childhood and being treated like a human weapon.

Naro looked at her and smiled. He knew what Mikoto was thinking. No matter what, she was Sasuke's mother. Of course she wouldn't want her child to become a Jinchuriki.

"Not a Jinchuriki. A Jinchuriki has a Tailed Beast sealed inside their body, endures the erosion of its chakra, and is always at risk of losing control. The village and its people treat them as outsiders. They're used as weapons, yet feared and rejected. That isn't the path I want them to take."

He looked at the two scrolls, at the mottled runes on them. "I want them to become Beast Tamers."

"Beast Tamers?" Mikoto had never heard the term. She wasn't alone. Ninety-nine percent of the Ninja World had never heard it, either.

Sasuke and Karin looked just as confused. Beast Tamers? What was a Beast Tamer? Was it like a summoning beast?

"Beast Tamers are different from people with summoning beasts and from Jinchuriki." Naro explained, as if he could read their minds. "A summoning beast is bound to you by contract. You summon them, and they help you fight. They're still independent individuals; you're just working together temporarily."

"Beast Tamers are different. You'll form a deep bond with the Tailed Beasts. It won't be like the relationship between a Jinchuriki and a Tailed Beast, where one is sealed inside the other. It won't be a relationship of using and being used, either. You'll be partners who grow together. The Tailed Beasts will stay by your side and fight, train, and grow alongside you. Your chakra will be shared, and your hearts will be connected."

He paused. "The stronger you are, the stronger they become. The stronger they are, the stronger you become."

Mikoto fell silent for a long time.

Beast Tamers... Not Jinchuriki, not sealing, not suppression. A relationship between equal partners.

She had never imagined that Tailed Beasts could be treated this way. For hundreds of years, the Ninja World had either treated them as weapons or as calamities. No one had ever thought they could befriend them.

"My lord, can this... really be done?" Mikoto's voice was uncertain. "Tailed Beasts are masses of chakra. They have their own consciousness and thoughts. Everyone knows they're evil."

"What makes them evil?"

"They... they..." Naro's question left Mikoto at a loss for words. Yes—what made the Tailed Beasts evil? She began to think about it.

She wanted to say, "Once they're released, they go on killing sprees!" But she could already guess Naro's response. Before Tailed Beasts were captured and sealed, they were little more than legends. There hadn't been any genuine incidents of Tailed Beasts slaughtering clans. It was the shinobi who...

"When the Sage of Six Paths divided them, he wanted them to exist independently. They were living quietly on their own in the Ninja World, but the shinobi had to drag them out and force them to join their wars."

Naro looked at Uchiha Mikoto and fell silent for two seconds.

"Mikoto, the Ninja World is about to undergo a transformation." He didn't continue that discussion, but brought up something else. "I can't fully predict how far-reaching it will be or how deeply it will affect things."

"But there's one thing I'm certain of—strength will be everything in this transformation. Only the strong will survive. Only the strong can protect the people they want to protect. Only the strong can change what they want to change."

He looked at Sasuke.

"Sasuke, do you want revenge?"

"Yes." The tomoe in Sasuke's Sharingan shifted. His voice was quiet but firm, as if the words had been ground out between his teeth.

"Then you need power." Naro pointed to the sealing scroll containing Two-Tails Matatabi. "Power greater than Uchiha Itachi's. Greater than that 'Masked Man's.' Greater than anyone else's. At the rate you're going, even ten or eight years of training might not be enough. But with a Tailed Beast's help, you could cut that time down to a year or two."

Then he looked at Karin. Ever since this red-haired girl had come to live with him, she had been working as hard as she could to prove her worth.

"Karin, do you want the Uzumaki Clan to rise again?"

Karin's eyes grew slightly red. Did he mean rising again like her grandparents, respected and acknowledged by others? Or like her mother, exploited and bullied before finally being thrown into a mass grave? She wanted to say yes, but she was afraid they'd laugh at her for it.

"Yes." She said it anyway. Her voice was softer than Sasuke's, but just as firm.

"Then you need power, too." Naro nodded. "The Uzumaki Clan's Sealing Jutsu is powerful, but Sealing Jutsu alone won't let you protect anyone. You need a stronger body, stronger ninjutsu, and stronger... partners."

He placed the two scrolls in front of Sasuke and Karin.

"I won't make the decision for you. Think it through yourselves. Becoming Beast Tamers means taking on more responsibility and facing greater dangers. Tailed Beasts aren't pets. They have their pride. Winning their recognition won't be easy."

Sasuke stared at the scroll in front of him and reached out, but didn't touch it. He thought of the corpses he'd seen in Takigakure, of the people who had died in battle, and of the Seven-Tails Jinchuriki being hunted by shinobi from every country—a girl who, he'd heard, was about his age.

She must have had such a hard life, being chased, captured, and fought over like an object.

He didn't want to end up like that. He didn't want to be treated as an object. He wanted to be someone who could make his own choices.

"I can do it." Sasuke's voice was calm. "I can become a Beast Tamer."

He reached out and picked up the scroll. It was heavy—far heavier than it looked.

Karin looked at him and reached out, too, picking up the other scroll.

"I can do it, too." Her emerald-green eyes met Naro's without flinching. "I'll get stronger—strong enough that no one can bully me, strong enough that no one can bully the Uzumaki Clan."

The child hugged it to their chest, as if it were a precious treasure.

Mikoto looked at the two children and opened her mouth, wanting to say something. She wanted to tell them, "You're still too young," or "This is too dangerous," or "Let me think about it." But the words caught in her throat. When she saw the Three-Tomoe Sharingan in Sasuke's blood-red eyes, she swallowed them.

Sasuke wasn't an ordinary child. He had been through too much—too much for anyone, let alone a child, to endure. He had watched his own brother slaughter their entire clan. He had seen children younger than himself fall in pools of blood. He had watched the home where he'd lived for six years turn into ruins.

His eyes no longer belonged to a six-year-old. They held hatred, pain, and a resolve far beyond his years.

She thought of Fugaku. She thought of the man who, on the night of the clan's massacre, had used the Dead Demon Consuming Seal to seal Danzo's hands and eyes before he died.

The look in Fugaku's eyes at the end had been much like Sasuke's now. It hadn't been despair or anger, but the calm of someone thinking, "I'm ready."

She thought of Indra, who lived deep in Sasuke's soul. The Sage of Six Paths' eldest son, the progenitor of the Uchiha Clan. Ever since Sasuke's birth, that ancient power had lain dormant in the depths of his soul, waiting for the right moment to awaken.

She could stop Sasuke from becoming a Beast Tamer. But she couldn't stop Indra.

Mikoto took a deep breath and looked at Naro. "My lord, I'll trust you."

"Don't worry. I won't let them get hurt." Naro looked at her and nodded. Then he crouched down and looked at Sasuke and Karin.

"Starting today, you're apprentice Beast Tamers. I'll teach you how to communicate with the Tailed Beasts, how to form a bond with them, and how to fight alongside them. This path won't be easy, but I'll only show you how to get started. What you do after that will be up to you."

Sasuke hugged the scroll a little tighter. His fingers rubbed over it, and he could feel the sleeping power inside. It wasn't violent or frightening, but... silent. Like a sleeping beast waiting for something.

"Lord Naro," Karin looked up, "what do I have to do to earn the Five-Tails' recognition?"

"I'll teach you a technique." Naro stood up and tapped Sasuke and Karin on the forehead. "I've already spoken with Matatabi and Kokuō. They'll form an equal contract with you through the technique. They'll help you, but not much."

"As this goes on, they'll watch you and test you, deciding whether you're worth following. The better your relationship becomes, the more you'll grow together."

Sasuke and Karin nodded thoughtfully. They bowed with the scrolls, then left to study the new technique.

Mikoto watched the two children leave, her heart aching for them. She turned and went to the kitchen to make them something nice for dinner, to reward them for their hard work.

The rain gradually stopped. The clouds parted, and sunlight spilled through the gap, shining over the courtyard and falling on Naro.

His shadow stretched long across the wet flagstones, disappearing into the shade beneath the walkway. Raindrops still hung from the osmanthus tree's branches, glowing like golden beads in the sunlight. Anyone who saw it would have to admire the peaceful beauty of the scene—if only the sinister, black aura around Shisui weren't there...