Aftermath

Hana Inuzuka stood to one side, rubbing her brow helplessly. "Mother, keep your voice down..."

"Keep it down, my ass!" Tsume Inuzuka slapped her thigh. "For the first time in my life, fighting a war actually feels like something to look forward to!"

Under the veranda at the Nara Clan Compound.

Shikaku Nara sat cross-legged, a long scroll spread before him. Pen in hand, he marked up the Points Redemption Catalog.

Each time he marked an entry, he stopped to think before adding a few notes.

Choza Akimichi sat beside him, crunching potato chips. "Shikaku, you've been revising that all morning. Still not done?"

"What's the rush?" Shikaku didn't look up. "Set the point costs too high, and civilians can't afford anything. Set them too low, and the clans will complain. We can't be careless with this."

He paused, his pen hovering over the words "Civilian Support Fund."

"How we advance the money, how much we advance, when we collect it, whether to charge interest... we have to think through every detail."

"Lord Hokage entrusted us with something this important. We have to make every last coin count."

Choza Akimichi spoke around a mouthful of chips. "All right, all right, whatever you say. I'm leaving the thinking to you anyway."

Notices had also been posted outside the Ninja Academy.

Before the enrollment expansion notice, a little blond boy tilted his head back, reading one word at a time. When he reached "Any orphan without parents who possesses the necessary talent may enroll," he froze.

Naruto Uzumaki stood among the crowd, staring unblinkingly at that line.

Orphans.

He had once thought no one in this world would ever care about him.

But now, someone was telling him that every child without parents in the Land of Fire could attend school