The Bell in the Hospital

The corridors of Konoha Hospital reeked of antiseptic.

Too many people had been injured the night before, and the wards were nearly full. The remaining Root members were confined to a separate treatment area in the east wing, guarded by both the Konoha Military Police Force and ANBU. Sarutobi, guards from the Advisor Residence, and wounded members of the Kumogakure Delegation had been separated into different areas. Low groans of pain and the footsteps of shinobi filled the air.

Utatane Koharu was in a private room on the third floor.

Naruto had injured her shoulder when he pinned her down, and her knee had been damaged too. Medical ninja had treated her, but no one hovered around her with the deference they once had.

With the Advisor system suspended, she was just an old woman awaiting investigation.

When Naruto arrived at the hospital, the guards at the entrance immediately stepped aside.

No one dared stop him anymore.

Kakashi and Jiraiya followed behind him, both looking grim.

The missing Safety Bell from Minato's Old Residence had recorded six years of Naruto being watched, bullied, and approached by Root. If it became public, it would be more compelling than the ANBU records.

Because it wasn't text.

It was footage.

Whoever stole it last night hadn't done so to keep it as a souvenir.

At the end of the third-floor corridor, a Konoha Military Police Force shinobi guarding the room saw Naruto and spoke at once. "Utatane Koharu has been in her room the whole time. She hasn't left."

Naruto asked, "Who went in?"

"A medical ninja twice, ANBU once to verify her status, and a logistics clerk who delivered medicine."

Kakashi frowned. "A logistics clerk?"

The guard's expression changed.

"They had a pass."

Naruto asked no more questions. He pushed open the door.

Utatane Koharu sat propped against the headboard, her face pale. She turned at the sound of the door.

When she saw Naruto, fear flashed in her eyes, then curdled into disgust.

"What do you want now?"

Naruto walked in.

"Someone took something from my parents' old home last night."

Utatane Koharu froze.

"I don't know anything about it."

Naruto looked at her.

"You people love saying that."

Utatane Koharu gritted her teeth.

"I've been in the hospital the whole time. The Konoha Military Police Force has been watching me."

Naruto went to the bedside. Nine-Tails Chakra spread across the floor, sweeping through the room like an invisible net.

Under the bed, behind the cabinet, across the medicine tray and the windowsill.

Nothing.

But a faint black trace clung to the edge of the curtain.

It carried the same presence as the mark on the wooden post at Minato's Old Residence.

Naruto raised a hand and pressed it against the curtain.

Golden Sealing Jutsu forced out a wisp of black smoke.

Utatane Koharu's expression changed when she saw it.

"What is that?"

She didn't seem to be pretending.

Naruto turned to her.

"What did the person who delivered the medicine look like?"

Utatane Koharu frowned as she tried to remember.

"Head down, wearing a mask. Very thin."

Kakashi immediately checked the register by the door.

"The name is Kinoshita Shinji. Pharmaceutical logistics."

Jiraiya's face darkened.

"Find him."

Two Konoha Military Police Force shinobi left at once.

Naruto stayed by the window.

The Nine-Tails murmured inside him, "Kid, I hear a bell."

Naruto closed his eyes.

The hospital was full of sounds.

Footsteps, groans, clattering instruments, medical ninja talking.

Deep beneath that noise came the faintest ring.

Ding.

It seemed to come from inside the wall.

Naruto opened his eyes and looked toward the room next door.

It was a medical equipment storeroom.

He pushed the door open and went in.

Bandages, medicine, Chakra tubes, and wheeled stretchers filled the room. In one corner sat a discarded medicine chest, with a piece of black cloth pressed against its bottom.

Naruto lifted the cloth.

A tiny bell lay beneath it.

Its body was silver, with a Flying Thunder God Formula and Uzumaki sealing patterns carved around the rim. Several cracks ran across its surface, as though someone had tried to pry it open.

Kakashi stepped inside. The moment he saw the bell, his breath caught.

"That's the Safety Bell?"

Naruto picked it up.

It rang softly in his palm.

The next instant, several images appeared on the storeroom wall.

In the first, four-year-old Naruto stood in the rain clutching a bag of moldy bread, while an ANBU operative crouched on a roof behind him, recording everything.

In the second, a villager smashed a carton of milk at his feet and called him a Demon Fox.

In the third, a Root shinobi stood outside his window at night, using sealing needles to test the Nine-Tails' reaction inside him.

In the fourth, the Third Hokage came to his room, patted his head, and said, "Naruto, be strong."

Naruto's cheeks were gaunt with hunger in the image, but his eyes brightened a little.

Kakashi turned his face away.

Jiraiya stood in the doorway, his fists clenched until his knuckles turned white.

These weren't words on a Scroll.

They were images of things that had happened.

Utatane Koharu was brought to the storeroom entrance. When she saw the images on the wall, she, too, was speechless.

Naruto didn't look at any of them.

The Safety Bell kept ringing.

A fifth image appeared.

A masked figure stood outside Naruto's old apartment, holding a copy of the Growth Intervention Contingency Plan. He looked up toward the Safety Bell's hiding place, and the bell recorded his voice.

"The thing Minato left behind is still recording, just as I thought."

"Wait a little longer. Once Naruto depends completely on the Hokage, destroy it."

The voice was muffled.

But when the Third Hokage arrived at the doorway, his expression changed sharply.

He recognized it.

It was Sarutobi Muneyoshi's voice.

The bell had not stopped ringing.

The sixth image was even shorter.

Last night, someone had taken the Safety Bell from Minato's Old Residence and brought it to the hospital. The clerk delivering medicine hid the bell in the storeroom, but instead of leaving, he spoke to a black shadow outside the window.

The shadow's voice sounded as though it rose from the mud.

"Utatane Koharu is no longer useful."

"Give me the bell."

The clerk asked quietly, "What about Naruto?"

The shadow answered:

"Let him keep investigating."

"The deeper he digs, the more chaotic Konoha becomes."

"The Uchiha, the Sarutobi, the Hyuga, Kumogakure, the daimyo—we can use them all."

At that point, the cracks in the bell spread.

One last thread of sound escaped from it.

"When he loses all faith in Konoha, the Nine-Tails will truly awaken."

The bell shattered.

Only the sharp smell of antiseptic remained in the storeroom.

Naruto held the fragments, the gold in his eyes deepening.

The Third Hokage stood in the doorway, his voice hoarse.

"This goes beyond Mitokado Homura and Danzo's scheme."

Naruto looked out the window.

Below the hospital, a logistics clerk had just burst through a side door and was fleeing toward the Morgue.

Naruto closed his hand around the bell fragments.

"Take him alive."