Konoha, Homecoming

Tsunade treated Naruto differently from the Third Hokage. She would not keep watching him every moment, much less spy on his private life with the Telescope Technique.

"Let the Chunin Ninja Exams start already."

Naruto muttered to himself.

As dusk drew near, the gates of Konoha finally came into view.

Konoha Gate

Two middle-aged ninja stood guard at the entrance, one on each side.

Naruto remembered them: Izumo Kamizuki and Kotetsu Hagane.

Konoha's legendary gatekeeper Chunin. They might merely look like a pair of guards, but if a fight broke out, neither of them was to be underestimated.

His gaze passed through the gate and into the village.

In the distance, the red roof of the Hokage Building stood out beneath the setting sun. Directly above it, the Kage Rock carved into the entire mountainside was plainly visible.

Four faces overlooked the whole village, gilded by the sunset in a golden-red glow.

Naruto withdrew his gaze after a single glance, not lingering for even a second.

Kakashi led the three of them to the mission registration office to complete the handover procedures: signing the forms, submitting the mission confirmation, and collecting their payment.

Although the Land of Waves mission had been upgraded from C-rank to A-rank midway through, Tazuna could not afford the higher commission, so Konoha followed convention and settled it as a C-rank mission.

Kakashi weighed the money pouch in his hand, then turned to face the three of them.

"Well, congratulations on completing your protection mission in the Land of Waves."

Kakashi's eye curved into a crescent, his voice still lazy. "As a reward, you get two days off. Go home and get some proper rest."

"Awesome!"

At that, Sakura was the first to jump up. She clasped her hands together, and all the exhaustion on her face vanished.

"I'm going home to take a nice hot bath, then sleep until I wake up naturally! The baths in the Land of Waves were all cold these past few days. I feel like my hair is about to turn into grass!"

She spun excitedly on the spot, her long pink hair sweeping through the air in an arc.

Then her movements gradually slowed.

Because she realized she was the only one happy.

Kakashi leaned against a lamppost with one hand in his pocket. His forehead protector covered his left eye, concealing his expression.

Sasuke stood off to the side with his head lowered and both hands in his shorts pockets. He showed no reaction to the two-day break, as though he were thinking about something else.

As for Naruto, his eyes were fixed on the ground in the distance, his brows slightly furrowed. His mind was clearly somewhere else entirely.

The smile on Sakura's face gradually froze.

She looked at Kakashi, then Sasuke, and finally Naruto.

Kakashi and Sasuke were one thing. One had always been expressionless, while the other had always been the aloof type.

But shouldn't Naruto have been cheering happily with her?

Didn't he used to love days off the most?

Every time Kakashi announced a break, he would jump up and shout, "Awesome, I'm going for ramen!" Then he would come over and ask her, "Sakura-chan, want to come with me?"

But now, Naruto did not even glance at her. It was as if everything she had just said had been nothing but air.

Sakura turned away and folded her arms across her chest.

Hmph, ignoring me, are you?

Then I'm ignoring you too.

I hate Naruto now. Absolutely, Zetsu Zetsu Zetsu will not speak to him first.

Without showing it, Kakashi took in all three students' reactions.

As their Jōnin instructor, it was his responsibility to observe each student's condition.

Sasuke had become quieter than B before after returning from the Land of Waves, but it was a different kind of silence. Before, it had been the silence of cold arrogance. Now, it was more like the silence of someone rethinking things after being deeply affected by something.

Naruto's change was even more obvious. He had gone from noisy and boisterous to calm and steady, as though he were a completely different person. Yet after facing Zabuza and Haku in a battle of life and death, that change only showed that he was truly growing.

Sakura, on the other hand, had barely changed. That was not her fault. She had hardly participated directly in the main battles of the Land of Waves mission, so naturally she had not gained that kind of realization that came from walking the line between life and death.

"Well!"

Kakashi clapped his hands, drawing the three of them back. "That's it, then. Dismissed."

The moment he finished speaking, he vanished from the spot with the Body Flicker Technique, leaving behind only a leaf drifting slowly to the ground.

After Kakashi disappeared, Sasuke turned and looked at Naruto.

He clearly wanted to say something. His lips moved, but in the end, he said nothing.

Then he simply turned away, hands in his pockets, and walked alone down Konoha's main street without even saying goodbye.

Watching Sasuke leave, Sakura's expression immediately fell.

She had wanted to use their break to ask Sasuke to the newly opened dessert shop, but he had not even given her a chance to say a word.

Sakura stood there in disappointment, then instinctively turned toward Naruto.

Only to find that Naruto had left too.

He had gone in the opposite direction from Sasuke, neither fast nor slow. Beneath the setting sun, his blond hair gradually became a small point of light as he walked farther and farther away.

"That's so rude, Naruto!"

Sakura could not help blurting out.

Her voice drifted through the air, but Naruto did not even pause. She did not know whether he truly had not heard her, or whether he had heard and simply could not be bothered to respond.

Naruto kept walking, soon turning around a street corner and vanishing into the shadows cast by the buildings.

Sakura remained where she was. After taking one final look in the direction Naruto had disappeared, she snorted heavily and stomped her feet twice before fixing her hair, putting on a ladylike expression, and heading toward home.

Naruto followed the route he remembered.

The owner of a dango shop was closing up. She looked up and saw Naruto passing by, automatically offering him a polite smile. Then she recognized him, and the smile on her face instantly stiffened before she lowered her head and continued tidying up.

Naruto paid it no mind. His attention remained focused only on the road beneath his feet.

After walking for about fifteen minutes, he turned into an old apartment district.

A yellow, three-story apartment building appeared before him. Large patches of yellow paint had peeled and curled away from its walls, lifting in the evening breeze. Half the corridor lights did not work, and several cardboard boxes of unknown age were piled up at the bend on the second floor.

Naruto stood beneath the building and looked up once, then leaped up to the second floor in a few bounds and walked along the corridor to the door at the very end.

He took a key from his ninja tool pouch and inserted it into the lock. The door let out a harsh creak.

The door swung wide open, revealing complete darkness inside.

Naruto felt along the wall for the switch and pressed it. A bare incandescent bulb lit up on the ceiling, illuminating the entire room.

Then Naruto saw a bachelor apartment that could only be described as a disaster zone.

Several empty cup noodle containers lay scattered across the living room table, some still holding dried, congealed remnants of broth.

Empty milk cartons had been piled into a small mountain.