Half a Letter from His Mother

By the time Water Release put out the fire in the supply warehouse, the last trace of dusk had vanished from the sky.

Wet smoke seeped between the rafters. Charred archive papers clung to the floor, squelching underfoot.

Naruto stood in the middle of the warehouse, holding a small, smoke-blackened iron box.

The box was small.

Two letters inside were mostly intact. Only half of a third remained. A little charm woven from yellow hair had curled in the heat, but it had not broken.

Naruto rubbed the ash off the charm with his thumb.

It was rough.

It was no ninja tool. It held no powerful seal.

It was simply something a mother had left her child in the final moments of her life.

The Third Hokage stood at the warehouse entrance and did not go in right away.

He saw the half sheet of paper and the words written on it.

If Naruto ever asks about us, please tell him he is not the Demon Fox.

The words felt nailed to his chest.

He could explain, of course.

After the Nine-Tails' Attack, the village had been in turmoil. Kumogakure had been watching for an opening, Minato's enemies had yet to be dealt with, and Naruto's identity could not be exposed.

But those explanations sounded hollow now.

Because Naruto had not begun asking today.

Every time someone had called him the Demon Fox over the past six years, he had been asking that question.

No one had answered.

Naruto put the half-letter back in the box and picked up the first complete one.

The envelope read:

"For Naruto, once he can read."

The handwriting was sharp yet gentle. It was Minato Namikaze's.

Naruto opened it.

No one outside the warehouse spoke.

He did not read it aloud. He read it to himself.

Minato had written about many little things.

He worried that Naruto might be a picky eater, that he might dislike his yellow hair, that he might be sad growing up without his parents. He said he was no good father, having to leave just after they had met. The final paragraph was written with heavier strokes, as though he had paused for a long time before writing it.

"If Lord Third gives you this letter, it means you're old enough to know the truth."

"Please don't hate the village. And don't hate us."

"But if someone hurts you in the village's name, remember this: the Hokage protects everyone in the village, not the power of a select few."

Naruto's finger stopped on that last line.

The Hokage protected everyone.

Not the power of a select few.

He folded the letter.

The second was from Kushina.

Her handwriting was larger than Minato's, and she had pressed harder with the pen.

She had not written about grand ideals.

She worried that no one would give Naruto warmer clothes in winter, that he would kick off his blanket at night, that no one would stand up for him when he was bullied.

Near the end, a spot on the paper had blurred.

Like a teardrop.

"Naruto, eat properly and make friends. But don't let people walk all over you just to make friends."

"If someone bullies you, hit back."

"Your mom had a bad temper too. But I want you to know that being kind doesn't mean letting people bully you."

Naruto stared at the letter for a long time.

The Nine-Tails said nothing inside the Sealing Space.

It had once hated Kushina more than anyone.

That red-haired woman had kept it pinned down with Adamantine Sealing Chains for years.

But now, even it could not mock her letter.

It knew that on the night it was torn from her, Kushina could have died much sooner. Instead, she had held on until the end and sealed it back inside her child, all so he could live.

Naruto tucked the letters and charm inside his clothes.

When he looked up, the gold in his eyes had settled into something like magma beneath a volcano.

"Who took these letters?"

The injured clerk from the Advisors' Office was helped to the warehouse entrance.

Her face was deathly pale and her arm was still bleeding, but she gritted her teeth and spoke.

"Lord Mitokado Homura took them once. Lady Utatane Koharu reviewed them too. Lord Third..."

She stopped.

Naruto looked at her.

"Say it."

The clerk lowered her head.

"Lord Third personally sealed them away six years ago."

Every eye turned to Hiruzen Sarutobi.

The Third Hokage did not deny it.

"I sealed them away."

Naruto walked up to him.

There was a great difference in their height.

But no one thought Naruto looked small just then.

"When was I supposed to be able to read?"

The Third Hokage's lips moved.

Naruto was six. He could already read simple words.

Yet the record for the letters stated: To be handed over upon reaching adulthood, subject to circumstances.

Upon reaching adulthood.

Subject to circumstances.

Naruto gave a short laugh.

"You were going to wait until I was eighteen to tell me I wasn't the Demon Fox?"

The Third Hokage's voice was hoarse. "I was afraid that if you learned who you were too soon, you'd act rashly. That hatred would take hold of you."

Naruto looked at him.

"So you let hatred raise me first?"

The Third Hokage's fingers trembled.

There was no answer to that.

From the direction of the Hokage Building, Uchiha Tekka returned with a group escorting the Administrative Ninja who had set the fire.

The man's legs had been broken, and the poison capsule had been dug out of his mouth.

Tekka handed Naruto a secret order they had found on him.

"An emergency destruction order from the Advisors' Office."

Naruto took it.

The order did not explicitly mention destroying the letters. It merely said to "remove anything detrimental to the village's stability."

Utatane Koharu's seal was stamped at the bottom.

When Utatane Koharu was brought outside the warehouse, she looked even worse than Mitokado Homura.

She forced herself to speak in a shrill voice. "I did it for the village's stability! If these things came to light too soon, the Jinchūriki could lose control and the villagers would panic!"

Naruto asked, "So you burned my mother's letters?"

Utatane Koharu clenched her teeth.

"Kushina is dead. Things left by the dead shouldn't cloud the judgment of the living!"

The moment those words left her mouth, the Third Hokage closed his eyes.

Mitokado Homura went rigid too.

Naruto did not fly into a rage.

He walked over and placed a hand on Utatane Koharu's shoulder.

His Chakra did not erupt. It simply bore down on her.

Utatane Koharu's knees slowly bent.

She tried to hold herself up, but her body could not withstand the Nine-Tails Chakra.

Crack.

Her knees struck the ground.

Naruto placed the half-burned letter in front of her.

"Apologize."

Utatane Koharu's face flushed scarlet.

She was a Hokage Advisor, a member of the Konoha High Command. How could she bow her head to a six-year-old child?

Naruto pressed harder.

The ground cracked.

A sickening sound came from Utatane Koharu's shoulder bone.

"I won't say it again."

Pain drained the color from her face. Cold sweat beaded across her forehead.

At last, she lowered her head and forced out the words to the half-letter.

"I'm... sorry."

Naruto let go.

Utatane Koharu collapsed, gasping on the ground.

Naruto put the letter away and turned toward the Hokage Building.

"The inheritance vault."

"Open it now."

This time, the Third Hokage did not try to stop him.

He knew he could not.

But just as everyone prepared to return to the Hokage Building, barking sounded in the distance.

A ninja from the Inuzuka Clan rushed to the street corner. The Ninja Dog at his side carried half a bloodstained strip of cloth in its mouth.

"Lord Third! Naruto!"

"A group of Root remnants took sealed Scrolls and fled toward the village outskirts. They're headed for the Forest of Death!"