Lay It All Out

Pressure.

Naruto stared at Aizen in disbelief, but Aizen had already turned his gaze away from him and was smiling as he greeted Hinamori Momo and Ishikawa, who had just come over.

Only now did Naruto truly understand what the name Aizen Sosuke meant.

When Aizen casually spoke his name, a suffocating feeling coiled around Naruto's heart like a python. He felt as if he had fallen into an ice cavern. Cold sweat instantly spread across his back, yet all he could feel was bone-deep chill.

Why... did he know his name?

Could it be that, besides him and possibly Hinata, Aizen had also experienced something like the incident at the movie theater?

"Captain Aizen, I've finished registering the elderly man's information and arranged for someone to visit him every month."

"Mm, well done, Lieutenant Hinamori."

"Menma, what did you talk about with Captain Aizen? Captain Aizen is a really nice person, isn't he?"

Ishikawa patted Naruto's stiff-haired head and reassured him, "There's no need to be so nervous. It'd be great if you passed the assessment, but it's no big deal if you don't. Look at all these people who failed. They're doing just fine. Living in Rukongai isn't so bad, either."

"Mm," Naruto mumbled.

Then he calmed down.

Something strange happened all of a sudden.

The fear, unease, confusion, and surprise he'd felt before seemed to vanish in an instant. His expression barely changed, but his eyes no longer held that clear, foolish look, and he straightened his back a little.

Ishikawa and Hinamori Momo didn't notice the subtle change, but Aizen, whose gaze hadn't been on Naruto, did. His attention returned to Naruto, and their eyes met.

This was the first time the two had made eye contact. They'd spoken for a while earlier, but Naruto had been deliberately avoiding Aizen's gaze, one way or another. This time, though, he didn't look away. He met Aizen's eyes calmly. No longer frightened, his gaze even took on the same curious, searching quality as Aizen's.

It was as if, just as Aizen had been observing him, Naruto had started observing Aizen too.

The drastic change in Naruto's behavior came so quickly that, for the first time, a flicker of surprise showed in Aizen's eyes. Then delight appeared in his warm brown eyes, as though he'd finally come across something interesting after all.

"Wh—" "Captain Aizen."

Naruto actually interrupted Aizen and spoke first:

"How did you know my name was Uzumaki Naruto?"

There was no finesse, no buildup, and no scheming.

Naruto simply asked him outright, like a naive fool, heedless of the usual social dance of probing and testing, the veiled words and verbal sparring people were expected to follow. He swept aside all those unspoken "rules" as if to say, "Who cares about all that? If there's something I don't understand, I'll just ask you. Whether you answer is up to you."

And yet this reckless, seemingly foolish move forced Aizen, who had always controlled the pace, to respond for the first time.

As soon as Naruto finished speaking—or, to be precise, as soon as his mouth formed the first syllable of "Uzumaki"—Ishikawa and Hinamori Momo began looking elsewhere.

Their gazes settled on empty air beside Naruto and Aizen. Once Naruto had finished, they started chatting and laughing with the air again. Hinamori Momo even reacted with a shy, contented expression, as if some invisible person were patting her head...

"Illusion..."

"Looks like Naruto-kun knows about my Zanpakuto, too?"

Aizen smiled. His manner was still gentle, but there was also a hint of ease about him that hadn't been there before, as if he'd shed some kind of disguise.

Naruto didn't answer right away. First, he let out an exaggerated yelp. When nobody nearby paid them any attention, he turned back with a click of his tongue.

"Since Captain Aizen knows so much about me, it'd be unfair if I didn't know a little about you, too," Naruto said calmly. "I just didn't expect you'd already used Illusion."

"Heh..." Aizen's lips curled slightly. "Then when did you get the mistaken impression that I hadn't used Illusion?"

"..."

"Since you can't answer that, let me ask you something instead. How did you learn about me?"

"I asked you that first, didn't I?"

"One answer in exchange for one answer. That's only fair," Aizen said. "I'm also curious about what caused such a sudden change in you, Naruto-kun, but let's take it one question at a time."

"Because I don't think Aizen Sosuke is that shallow."

Naruto didn't answer the first question. Instead, he went on to address the second. "At first, when I heard you say my name, I really couldn't believe it. I was even frightened—and I thought it was ridiculous."

"I was afraid you'd really seen through everything about me. I thought it was ridiculous that I believed I was going toe-to-toe with you, when in reality you'd been playing me in the palm of your hand the whole time... But then I remembered that I'd already made the same mistake—thinking I knew better—several times before."

Memories of mistakenly believing the Nine-Tails was interfering with his chakra, and of thinking he was the only person who'd experienced the movie theater incident, passed through Naruto's mind. He continued:

"Trusting your own judgment without question is arrogance... So I shouldn't be asking myself, 'How do I feel about this?' I should be asking, 'What kind of person are you, and why would you do this?'"

"Would Aizen say my name just to 'toy with me,' thereby telling me that he knows who I am?"

"No. You wouldn't. You may be arrogant, but you wouldn't do something that costs more than it gains. So saying my name must bring you some kind of benefit."

"Then what could you gain by saying my name?" Naruto pointed at himself. "Obviously, my reaction."

"So my reasoning is simple: my reaction is what you stand to gain. You're using it to confirm something... Maybe you're not even completely sure I'm Uzumaki Naruto, so this was a test? Or maybe you're putting me under psychological pressure in advance, laying the groundwork for what you'll do later? I don't know."

"The only thing I know is that I can't keep following your lead. Honestly, this kind of thing was never my strong suit anyway."

"Oh?" Although Naruto hadn't answered his question, Aizen, who'd let him speak without interruption, finally replied. "Then what is your strong suit?"

"That would be my second answer." Naruto smiled. "But I can give it to you early: I'm good at telling the truth. That's not just my own opinion, either. A friend told me so."

—But when I need to lie, I won't hesitate, either.

That was the rest of what Naruto didn't say.

Just as he hadn't revealed the biggest reason for his change in attitude—that he was a Shadow Clone, so it didn't matter if he died, and thus had nothing to be afraid of—he was already laying the groundwork for the image he wanted to project. He had no idea what might happen between him and Aizen later, or whether they'd even end up in conflict, but that didn't stop him from preparing for that moment now.

He was growing at an astonishing pace, and Aizen, standing right before him, had put him under more pressure than anyone he'd encountered since his return. He had also given Naruto the most to learn from.

And Naruto believed that he wasn't the only one preparing for the future. Aizen was doing the same.

Clap.

Clap, clap...

Aizen began to applaud softly. He neither confirmed nor denied Naruto's reasoning, only smiled and said, "Impressive thinking. Much better than a certain someone who does nothing but shout."

"Since we're trading favors, you should answer my question now, too."

Naruto didn't react to Aizen's applause. Instead, he asked another seemingly out-of-the-blue question:

"Do you know that girl?"