Hello everyone! Welcome back to A Spark of Hope! I hope everyone's still around, and I'm sorry for not being able to post sooner! I have a short break from board exam review, so now I'm able to work on the story a bit more!
Life update: I'm taking the boards in November! I felt not ready for the May exam, so I decided to have a few more months to review! And it's going well so far, since I've done 2 mock structural engineering board exams (since that's my weakest field), and I'm 1/3 through the 3rd one! I hope to do at least 5, if not 6-7 before November so I'm more than ready, and then I'll do 1-2 more of the MST (Math, Statistics, and Transportation) and HG (Hydro and Geotech Engineering) mock board exams to have refreshers hehehe ^_^
Also life update, but I'm sooo into Kep1er and KPOP right now! HIYYIH LOMFL XD
So yeah, this is #InspiredByHiyyih in a way (and so will the rest of the series going forward!). Ohh, and Happy Hiyyih Day tomorrow (or whenever July 27 is for you) ^_^
Anywaaay, I hope you all enjoy!
Chapter 10: Triumphant Homecoming
The Thunder Rail train reached the outskirts of the city of Ame, just as Sarada ended the video call with the Flame of the Rain, her group chat with Team KVEMM.
"They won't make it back to Ame by the time we leave for home," she relayed to the others. "But they really wanted to meet up with us and make up for lost time with Sumire. Especially Mitsuki."
"Even if they could and wanted to, they wouldn't even be allowed to in the first place," Naruto replied. "For Mitsuki's safety and all. We shouldn't risk Lord Orochimaru finding out about Mitsuki being alive and well, you know?"
Sarada nodded. "Yeah, I know. Lady Risha mentioned that as well. Too many news crews and cameras will be on us and Sumire."
The train slowed down as it made its final approach to the Ame Metro Station. It pulled into the glass and steel structure at low speed, and it finally ground to a halt at just before the clock struck 7 pm.
While picking up her bags, Yan took a look outside her window seat. "Ohh," she exclaimed, "Lady Konan's waiting for us outside!"
"She welcomed us too when we got to Ame," Sarada remembered fondly, "back before we climbed Mount Tirad and all."
Meanwhile, Chocho beckoned Sumire up to her feet and guided, or more like pushed, her along the aisle. In doing so, Chocho pushed her right into Boruto and Gengania, who were helping others in their group in getting their bags from the baggage rack. "Sorry about that!" Chocho apologized, then asked Boruto, "Can you get my bag too? Thanks!"
Boruto got Chocho's backpack and handed it to her, but then gently pulled Sumire away from Chocho. "Thanks. But please, try to be more careful with her next time."
"Was she hurt? No she wasn't," Chocho countered with her trademark sass. "No harm, no foul."
"Quite the exchange," Gengania couldn't help but quip with a chuckle.
The other passengers from Konoha passed by them, got their bags from them, and disembarked the train. They were to head for Michishirube, the Beacon Tower of the Amekage, for their meeting with Lord Sixth Amekage. Yahikonan had pleaded for the chance to see Sumire for himself and thank her in person for what she did, even though Naruto had already warned him in their online conversation during the train ride that Sumire had lost all her memory of the past.
As they walked onto the platform, Lady Konan greeted the members of the group one by one. At last, when Boruto and Sarada came out with Sumire in tow, Konan wordlessly ran up to the purple haired girl, the one she had brought in and sheltered during those cold, rainy nights all those years ago, and she enveloped her in a warm, motherly, emotional embrace. "I heard you may not remember much," she sighed. "But for a time, I was a mother figure for you. I took care of you when your dad left you out in the cold night rains here… I'm just so happy you're back with us, somehow…"
"I'm…" Sumire swallowed, her voice unsure and quivering. " I'm sorry… I don't recall… I'm trying my hardest to remember everyone and everything, but it's making my head hurt…" Shaking her head, she continued, "Something must be so wrong with me, that I can't remember the people I hold dear…"
"Nooo, no no no, please…" Konan hushed her gently and lifted her chin up so that their eyes met. "Please don't think of yourself that way. You'll remember everything in due time. I just know it. For now, we'll just have to fill you in on what you've missed."
Whilst embracing Sumire, the former Lady Fourth Amekage turned to Naruto, Sasuke, and the rest of the entourage that had gotten off the metro train. "My son is waiting back at Michishirube Tower. Shall we?"
Naruto nodded, and so Konan took the lead through the huge metro station, but not before asking her personal guard of four jonin to keep watch and take care of the mini-Nues at the train station. Naruto also requested that Konohamaru and Tenten help them keep watch, so that none of the mini-Nues bound for Konoha would wander off or go missing.
Surprisingly, tonight there were no splashing raindrops on the outside of the insulated glass walls of the station, and no pitter-patter on the roof.
It was a rare reprieve from the rain of Ame.
"I hope you guys had a nice rest on the train," Konan told Naruto.
"We did, thank you." He then informed Konan, "By the way, we got to speak with Lady Risha and Team KVEMM. There was apparently a standoff, but nobody got too hurt, and they completed their mission and got the payment. They're going to have dinner with some of Eleanor's friends there before they return."
"I'm glad they're safe and having fun too," Konan said. "They've been training hard lately for the Chunin Exams in a few months."
"As they should," Naruto nodded with a smile. "I'm sure they'll do well. How's the stadium renovation for the exams going?"
"If the current pace continues, most of the work should be done in four or five weeks. More than enough leeway time, in case some delays happen." She sighed in contentment. "The first Chunin Exams to be held in Ame… The world has really changed, thanks to you and the rest of your generation."
"And you all paved the way for us, you know?" Naruto gave a compliment of his own. "We only stand on the shoulders of giants, on the shoulders of your generation. Just as my children and their generation will stand on ours."
"Truly, the responsibility of every generation," Konan summarized poignantly, "to build upon and improve the world compared to how the previous generations left it to them."
The party of over twenty made it to the exit of the station, and as the first members of the group passed the automatic sliding glass doors at the entrance, they witnessed a growing crowd of thousands, one that had gathered and waited with baited breath and eager anticipation.
The news had indeed spread as wildfire would within a dry wood, and now all of Ame knew about the sudden, unexpected, mysterious, miraculous, inexplicable, and currently unexplainable resurrection of Sumire Kakei.
Walking behind Boruto and Sarada towards the rear of the party, Sumire innocently stepped out from the metro station into the bright night lights of Ame. The moment the throngs of people saw her, the entire city erupted in a frenzied celebration. The shockwave caused by the sudden screaming and cheering and shouting and jumping was enough to trigger car alarms hundreds of meters away, and the burst of energy from the hyped crowd shook the earth and air alike. Men and women alike chanted the name of Mount Tirad's heroine at the top of their lungs, while many others blew celebratory horns normally reserved for New Year's festivities, and still others tossed fresh flower petals that shimmered in the rare unspoiled moonlight of the Ame night.
Sumire, as anyone could predict, was taken aback at the sudden attention and affection from tens of thousands of strangers. She gripped the hands of Wasabi and Namida, who were on opposite sides of her. "This is making me nervous," she admitted. "I… I don't know what to do or say…"
Namida smiled and encouraged her, "Don't worry, all you need to do is smile and wave to the crowd. They adore you for what you did. You saved this city from an invasion, after all. They're showing you their gratitude."
"Ohh… Okay, I'll do that." Thus, Sumire put on a wide smile and waved both of her hands to the multitudes lining the streets. It only led to an increase in both the volume and the pitch of the cheering citizens of Ame.
The dozens of police shinobi who formed the perimeter lining the street now struggled to keep formation in holding the crowd back. It didn't take long for some to rush through gaps in the human barricade and make a beeline for Sumire. That in itself gave Boruto and Sarada terrible flashbacks to the time when Gadon led an angry mob to assault Sumire at her apartment on her birthday, due to their suspicions of her as a traitor after her identity and past had been leaked to Konoha.
However, this couldn't have been any more different from that past incident, since now these citizens of Ame rushed towards her in admiration and awe. From the sidewalks, more people climbed onto the tops of parked cars and trucks, light poles or trees, all to gain a better glimpse of her. Some, especially the children, took turns hugging her tightly while she walked by, while others restrained themselves to merely touching her hands or her lilac clothes to prove to themselves that she was real. And several onlookers even proclaimed Sumire Kakei as a new chosen one, a spirit, a goddess, or an angel sent back from the heavens, and they encouraged people to touch her, believing that doing so would give them blessings for better lives. Their reasoning was that history was repeating itself once again, as she came to the city during an uncharacteristic and uncommon hours-long respite from the rains, similar to how Nagato and Konan came to save Ame from the dictator Hanzo over 35 years ago, and similar to how Pugad Lawin and Celica Croa and the rest of the revolutionaries declared Ame's independence from the Land of Fire over 87 years ago.
In the midst of all of this clamor and cheer, Sumire was dumbfounded, lost and unsure as to how to even begin to digest everything that was happening around her. But Boruto and her other newly-reconnected friends advised her to interact with the crowd, to soak it all in, and to make friends with the children. Following their suggestions, she slowed her pace, stopping from time to time, and she listened to the city of Ame that was throwing praise and adoration her way.
*******XXXXXXX*******
In the Chamber of the Amekage, on the Tenth Floor of Michishirube, the Beacon Tower of Ame, the Lord Sixth Amekage Yahikonan, his wife Kana, and their two children Laphi and Nora were tidying up the office room for their guests. Only hours ago, the twins were watching Namida Izuno's live stream, and they bore witness to the events that somehow led to the return of Sumire Kakei, who in the city of Ame and the rest of the Land of Rain was famous and revered as the Heroine of Mount Tirad.
They quickly showed it to their parents, who initially dismissed it as a hoax or a well-edited movie of sorts, although the two children pointed out that the channel they were watching on was legitimate and reliable, and that it wouldn't make any sense for them or for Namida herself to fake this, because it would reflect negatively on them.
And then, within the next few minutes, the Lord Amekage got innumerable calls, messages, and tags on social media from all around the Land of Rain, most of which were asking him for confirmation about Sumire's supposed return, or if he had seen it happen on the live stream. Even news channels on television and online were talking about it as if it were some indisputable fact, albeit an unexplainable one at that. The citizens of Ame were taking to the streets, as they already knew the Lord Hokage and his entire party were going to make a stopover at Ame before going on ahead back home to Konoha, and this meant that they would be able to see Sumire with their very own eyes, if she really had returned to the living.
At long last, less than an hour ago, the first family of the Land of Rain finally got on the line with Naruto while he was on the RainWays train, and he confirmed everything. Excited, the family began to clean up the room and prepare themselves to meet with them within an hour or so.
Suddenly, heavy knocks sounded on the dark wooden doors. Nora, with her short pink hair fixed in a pretty bob cut, excitedly ran towards the door and opened it, only to openly sigh in disappointment when she saw who it was.
"You don't sound thrilled to see me," the stern voice of an older man ripped into the room. "How rude."
"We were expecting more important people," she replied bluntly and sassily, but opened the door for her elder to pass by. "Lord Hokage and Sumire Kakei, as a matter of fact."
"Well if I get what I deserve, and quickly at that, I wouldn't need to be here for too long." The old man entered the Chamber, hung his hat on the coat rack by the door, and walked towards the desk where Yahikonan was sitting down.
"Sir Matsumae Shiribeshi," Yahikonan greeted the new arrival.
"Lord Sixth Yahikonan," Matsumae replied with a voice that was deep and subdued, albeit noticeably grumpy.
"What brings you here?"
"What else?" The head of the Shiribeshi Company sat down. "Your decisions and your actions have had disastrous effects on my businesses. You applied trade embargoes against the Land of Frost and the Land of Change. You and your friends in the legislature made all these 'green' laws that are burdening my factories and my properties with more requirements and higher costs. And you simply let these stupid union strikes happen against me, when the workers demand too high a minimum wage. My company's earnings are way down this quarter because of those strikes and those trade embargoes and those green laws of yours, I'll have you know. And you still want us to pay our workers higher wages? You'll be the end of me and my company. I suggest you rethink your actions. I suggest you either relax these restrictions, or junk them entirely. I suggest you think of what will actually benefit this country."
Yahikonan waited for him to finish, and once Matsumae took time to catch his breath and composure, Yahikonan gave a deep sigh and rubbed his eyes. "These trade restrictions are there for a reason," he began. "They are specifically for at-risk areas and for unfriendly nations sanctioned by the Shinobi Union, as you would know if you've read the laws that we and the Shinobi Union made. It is not my fault that you chose them as key trading partners and customers. Now, these environmental laws, the ones that you're speaking so negatively of? They are meant to ensure that your factories emit as least pollution as they possibly can, which itself means that they should ensure that your factories are running at an acceptable level of efficiency. More efficiency would be beneficial to you in terms of resources and capital, would it not?"
"Not if the specifications your laws require are too high and too costly, in and of themselves, as they are."
Yahikonan refused to budge. "I highly disagree, but that might just be due to our differing priorities. You with your money, and me with my people."
"That is not at all the case-"
"And with these strikes," Yahikonan calmly carried on. "The worker movements are not breaking any laws. And the studies they've sent to me and verified by professors at Ame Academy, such as my mother, the Lady Fourth Amekage, more or less prove that they are right, that the wages you give them are starvation wages. In other words, not nearly enough to support themselves and their families. And then there's your own actions, Sir Shiribeshi. A while ago, I received a report accusing you of instigating violence against a worker's union in Yaman. The Miike Struggle, the union of workers, drivers, and miners operating your mines."
"I refute any and all connections to the violence. I did not violate or break any law, and if some violence did take place at the union's meeting, then it is regrettable and disappointing. But I neither ordered or encouraged anything related to that." He gently shook his head. "May I ask for your source on the matter? I may be able to disprove it rather easily."
Yahikonan crossed his arms, his eyebrow raised. "Your daughter, and her team. And Lady Fifth, Risha Brunel. Not to mention the union leaders."
Matsumae Shiribeshi rolled his eyes and scoffed. "Hmph, then it is most likely that they themselves precipitated the brawl. I know my daughter and those friends of hers in Team KVEMM, or whatever stupid and nonsensical acronym they go by nowadays. They are naive and not worthy of trust. Even if they were under the watch of Lady Fifth."
At that point, Kana, Yahikonan's wife who was listening, made her disapproval known. "You would speak of your own daughter that way…"
"If she keeps going down this path against me," the father of Eleanor Shiribeshi said, "the same one her brother took before he left to join the army, then I'm afraid she may not be my daughter for long."
"Her sister Elena," Yahikonan made sure to point out the keywords with more emphasis, "chose her path in the Shinobi Union army. I think she made the right decision for herself, getting as much distance from you as she could. And I have full confidence that Eleanor will choose the right path too, whatever it may be."
Matsumae's eyes stared holes into Yahikonan. "And you will pay for turning my family against me."
"You did that yourself, with your arrogance, your greed, and your lust for power and control."
At the side of the room, the pale-blond Laphi silently slid his hands into his pockets, reaching for his sharp paper shuriken, while Nora had her fingertips on the handle of the gray hammer slung across her back. Both of them were on edge, and even though Kana whispered to them to stand down, Nora asked Matsumae with neither fear nor hesitation, "Is that a threat I heard?"
"No, it's a promise." Matsumae stood up and looked at the young teenager. "As my family motto goes, 'The bill comes due, always.' And your father will pay for it when it comes."
More knocks on the door interrupted the tension. Collecting himself once again with a deep breath and a clean exhale, the head of the Shiribeshi Clan turned his back on Yahikonan and his family. He walked to the dark wooden doors and opened it, revealing Konan, Naruto, and the rest of the party who had just arrived from Mount Tirad and Spur.
Without even turning back towards the Lord Sixth Amekage, he asked aloud in a sarcastic tone, "We're all friends here, am I right?"
"If everyone here follows the laws I make, laws for the good of the people and the nation, then yes, we're all friends here."
"Then I assure you that we have no quarrel at all. Have a good night, Lord Sixth. And to you, Lady Fourth, and you Lord Seventh Hokage, and the rest of you, heroes and heroines of Mount Tirad."
With that, he left the room. Meanwhile, Konan led the group into the Chamber. Upon seeing Sumire, Yahikonan, who had not seen her in three years, felt compelled to show her his gratitude and respect. And so, the Sixth Amekage knelt on the floor and then fully prostrated himself in front of her. On the other hand, his twin children, Presea Nora and Laphicet, both of whom had not yet gotten to meet Sumire, introduced themselves with handshakes and a pair of embraces. Kana asked her and the rest of the new arrivals how they were and how their trip went, before giving them various snacks and fruit juices as refreshments.
Once Yahikonan got back to his feet, he turned towards Naruto and Sasuke. "But how did this happen?"
Naruto shook his head. "We don't know."
"There's a whole lot of things we don't know much about," Sai added. "We don't know how she came back, we don't know why it happened when it did and not in any of the previous times we went to Mount Tirad commemorations, and we don't know how to get her memory back, or if it's actually possible."
"As for how she returned," Sasuke speculated, "I would think that she was never truly dead to begin with. "Sumire and Nue might be intrinsically tied together through the Gozu Tennou, their lives and chakras hopelessly intertwined. Sumire may have destroyed herself three years ago, but her life force is bound to the Nue, and the Nue survived. Sumire's spirit endured."
Denki replied, "Perhaps there's something to that, but I'm not sure if that's necessarily the entire picture." He turned to his friends. "You guys remember seeing orbs of warm light flowing out from us towards the place where Sumire ended up, right?"
Sarada, Wasabi, Namida, Boruto, and much of the group of friends nodded along.
"Now," the young professor continued, "do you remember something like that happening three years ago, but in reverse? That night when she sacrificed herself to give us the best chance to escape down Mount Tirad?"
A short few seconds of silence followed, only broken when Boruto spoke. "I remember… Trails of light coming from Sumire towards us. This was after she triggered the rockslide, and when we climbed back up to try to save her. The trail touched me. I remember it felt warm and gentle."
"I also remember feeling that," Sarada added. "It was more like an orb from what I can recall, but it felt exactly like that. Light, airy, soft…"
Wasabi confirmed it. "Yeah, it felt just like how she was to us in life."
"I don't recall this," Namida admitted, "because I was in an induced coma at the time. But I do have a memory of something. I thought it was my imagination or a lucid dream or an effect of the anesthetics. Sumire was in it. She was reassuring me that everything was going to be alright, and that she was always going to be there for me and Wasabi, no matter what."
Denki listened to her closely and gave a nod. "And earlier today, you had a large amount of chakra that came out of you and went towards Sumire, right?"
Namida nodded back. "I was really shocked. Like, ever since, I thought I had a feeling that part of her was inside me and I was taking care of it, but I didn't know it was that much."
"I think that it's because you were close to the scene when it happened," Denki suggested. He then cleared his voice and took a deep breath. "My working theory right now," he proposed as simply as he could, "is that in a last-ditch effort to keep herself alive, even if in a much-reduced capacity, she dissociated herself, distributing her chakra amongst us, her friends. She bound her life essence to both Nue and to all of us. Those closer in proximity to her when she did so, they ended up getting proportionally more of her chakra, while those already further down the mountain path at the time got proportionally less and less."
Sumire grimaced and shook her head. Seeing this, Wasabi held her hand and gripped it in reassurance. She whispered to Wasabi, "I really can't remember any of this. It makes my head hurt."
"I promise," Wasabi whispered back, "we'll try everything we can to help you remember. But even if you can't get your memories back, at least we can make more memories together and make up for the lost time. So don't you worry about it, got it?"
Sumire smiled and leaned her head on Wasabi's shoulder. "Thanks."
"While we don't yet know for sure," Denki continued his attempt at rationalizing what happened, "I think she could have decided to do this in the hope that one day, we, or whoever ended up carrying her disparate essences, would wind up once again in close enough proximity, or have enough of her chakra within a small enough area, that would be enough to reconstitute her. In more exact terms used by the Gozu Tennou file, her energy density had to be high enough for her chakra to, quite literally, pull herself back together."
"So this is something similar to what happened with my mother?" Yahikonan asked while glancing at his mother Konan. "But how would she be able to do this?"
Sasuke crossed his arms and asked Denki, "Did you see something in the manuscript related to this?"
"Sort of. The manuscript for the Gozu Tennou that Tanuki Shigaraki wrote contained a lot of addendums towards the end. There were sections about Dissociation and Reconstitution, in particular. But they're really not well-explained in the manuscript. Tanuki didn't even mention if they were actually implemented in the final version of the Gozu Tennou. It was more like he wrote it down on a whim. Still, I was very curious about it, and I was very excited that everyone would be physically close-by with each other again, something we hadn't seen since three years ago. But since Mitsuki wasn't allowed to join us, I'd already shifted my focus solely on searching for Nue. Maybe Nue would give us more insights into how the Gozu Tennou actually works in real life."
He snickered. "Ironically, Nue's return directly led to Sumire's return. And if my theory is even partly correct, then it turns out that Nue holds a sizeable portion of Sumire's life essence, and combined with the fragments of Sumire that we each carry inside us, it was enough to trigger the Reconstitution, just as it was written in the manuscript."
"But if Sumire tried to… uhh," Chocho tried to find the right words, "tried to divide herself amongst all of us, what happened to the parts of her in those who died on the way down Mount Tirad?"
"Yeah, that's a good question." Shikadai agreed with his teammate. "You're saying that all of us, even those much further down Spur Trail when Sumire gave herself up, had some amount of her chakra inside us. If Udon-sensei, Metal, and Renga each had part of her life essence, are those parts of Sumire lost forever?"
"Not quite," Denki explained enthusiastically, adjusting his glasses in the process. "There's another addendum, one that was thankfully more fully fleshed out. It's called the "Jump" mechanism, akin to 'jumping ship'. Simply put, if Sumire's chakra and life essence senses that its host's death is imminent, whether it be from mortal wounds, or by unsurvivable events, or in general by any situation where intervention attempts by her life essence would be futile or insufficient to save the host, its primal instinct would be to attempt to 'jump' from one person to another, or from one living being to another, although person-to-person is much preferred. In any case, I would assume that Sumire's life essence, sensing Metal's impending death and having no way to prevent it, jumped from Metal to myself, Iwabe, Sarada, or Mitsuki. We were all there when Renga died, so it could have jumped to any of us. I just don't know about Udon-sensei, since he was pretty far out in front of us… Perhaps Iwabe?"
Denki took a few seconds to read the room and see if everyone was still following him. A few short seconds of silence followed, and he took it as his cue to continue. "If you remember when she was still fighting to fulfill her father's mission for her, this mechanism was meant to aid that. She infected several people with her life essence, or her negative chakra as we sometimes call it, in order to control them and influence their goals and thinking processes to her benefit. If the infected host was killed, then it would subsequently jump towards someone else nearby, infecting them in the process. Thankfully, it didn't have to come to that since nobody was killed."
"I do have a few questions about this," Sarada said while gripping Sumire's hand tightly. "Firstly, Mitsuki told Yan and I that the part of Sumire that he carries managed to disrupt his self-destruct trigger, the one that Lord Orochimaru activated. Mitsuki said that he would be dead if it wasn't for her. And this is not to wish harm on him or anything like that, but if Mitsuki was in such mortal danger, why didn't Sumire's chakra jump?"
Shikadai suggested, "Maybe because there was nobody nearby? He did run all the way into the middle of a huge forest so that he wouldn't lead to anyone else dying in the explosion."
"But by Denki's earlier definition," Yan replied, "the chakra could have jumped into other living beings, like a flock of birds or trees or something."
Denki clarified further, "Yes, it very well could have jumped into other living creatures nearby. But, if Sumire's life essence judges that it can still save its host, or if it can prevent death until proper help arrives, then it would attempt to do so. This is mainly because it may take more energy to jump into another organism than to stay and aid the host depending on distance, but it could also depend on how much of Sumire's chakra the host has, or perhaps even the sentimentality of her chakra towards its hosts."
Himawari added, "I think the last one you mentioned, Denki, makes a whole lot of sense. I remember so vividly what I saw when my big bro… cut himself…" She sighed and shuddered at the memory. "There was that… that figure of light that looked like her beside him, and it was like her hand was trying to stem the bleeding in his wrist."
While Boruto looked away, Wasabi told Himawai, "I remember you telling us that back then. We reassured you that you weren't going crazy."
"And recently," Hinata revealed, "I got to sense her chakra flowing inside my son. There's a whole lot of her chakra in him."
Denki let them finish before turning to Sarada and Yan. "Did you have more questions? Feel free to go on, maybe others are wondering about the same things."
Yan cleared her throat and raised another point of interest. "Mitsuki still had a part of Sumire inside him, that I think we can all agree on. But the thing is, Sarada and I hung out with Mitsuki, Kirakira, Velvet, Eleanor, and Magilou just last night. Is it possible then that, by your theory, the part of Sumire that Mitsuki held jumped onto us, maybe to reunite with another part of itself in Sarada? You implied that Sumire's special chakra has some form of consciousness, after all."
For once, Denki didn't answer immediately. After taking a few seconds of stroking his slightly stubbled chin and collecting his thoughts for his answer, he replied, "I'm not particularly sure of that, honestly. But I lean towards 'probably not'. There was no reason for it to do so at that time. There was no threat, no absolutely pressing reason to expend its own energy or the energy of its host. And going further, I suspect the reason she split herself into many parts was so that no one person would have to bear too much added burden. For as long as she was split into disparate parts through dissociation, those life essences of hers would need continued sustenance from the host to survive, and to be able to provide aid and support back to the host. The last thing she would want is for her entire being to end up in one person. Not only does that decrease the overall chance of survival, but that person would have to supply energy needs for two in order to fully accommodate it. Dissociating amongst more people, in our case over twenty, seems to be the preferred arrangement. It gives her an overall higher chance of survival due to the spread. And it also ensures that even though some of us hold more of her than others, nobody suffers too great an added load to sustain her."
Yan summarized, "So you're saying that Sumire's special chakra would prefer not to reunite immediately with its other parts because of energy constraints, and that it would prefer to wait until it senses that there's enough of her life essence within a given space. Did I get it right?"
"You more or less got it," Denki smiled. "Though in more exact terms… by 'enough', what I mean is over the 'minimum allowable energy density' limit for Reconstitution. I forgot to mention that minimum limit. Again, the writings of a madman… The manuscript says it's somewhere around 90 to 95 percent of her life essence. It doesn't need to be all of it; it just needs to be enough to get it going again. We got enough when Nue arrived and came closer to all of us, but I highly suspect that we're still missing that last big part of Sumire. It might very well be the part that is responsible for her memory. And I think we all know where it is. Or rather, with whom."
Denki then pivoted towards Naruto and Yahikonan, who were both intently listening to him. "She has to meet up with Mitsuki. It doesn't need to be tonight or this week or this month, because of all the attention surrounding Sumire. I understand that keeping Mitsuki hidden from his father is super important, I really do. But if Mitsuki is holding the last remaining part of Sumire, it could be the key to returning her memory to her and bringing her back to full strength and ability.
While the Sixth Amekage Yahikonan took his time in going through the possibilities, the Seventh Hokage asked Denki, "How sure are you that Sumire meeting with Mitsuki would return her memories and full strength?"
"Well, seeing as how the dissociation and reconstitution mechanisms seemed to work as Tanuki wrote them, I'd say that it's definitely worth a shot. Again, it doesn't need to be ASAP. We can do it a month or two from now, when not as much attention follows Sumire everywhere she goes."
The room fell into silence as they waited for Yahikonan's word. "Truly, this is a once-in-a-lifetime event…" He spoke to himself in a whisper-like voice that was still audible in the silence. He thought long and hard while rapping his fingers on the wooden table. His eyes wandered, from person to person and from one far corner to the next. "And I'm sure Team KVEMM would love to take a weekend off, sightsee, shop, relax, hang out with close friends… Hmm…"
At last, he began to nod gently. "Very well… I'll allow Team KVEMM to go to Konoha soon." He glanced towards Denki to acknowledge his suggestion. "As you said, only once the buzz around Sumire and her miracle return dies down a bit, so it can be a more discreet meetup." He turned back to the rest of the assembled group. "Mitsuki, Kirakira, Velvet, Eleanor, and Magilou, all of them must go together. And their unit will be accompanied by Lady Fifth Risha Brunel, for good measure. All six of them have wanted to go and visit Konoha for a while now."
*******XXXXXXX*******
The atmosphere of Konoha's nighttime was far more frenetic than usual. Outside the train station, crowds of thousands of people waited, not just for the return of their Hokage, but to see for themselves if the reports and pictures of Sumire Kakei they saw online and on television news networks were correct. The air was rife with anticipation and wonder on the part of the crowds who were readying themselves to hail their once-fallen heroine with flowers and appreciation.
But there was also a very palpable tension, due to those in another crowd nearby who were planning to do the exact opposite. This other side, notably smaller than the other, attempted to sow doubt, anger, and fear into the hearts and minds of whoever was within shouting range. They let out a myriad of arguments, which ranged from "This is fake news," to "Nobody comes back to life," and to "She was a Root member, she attacked Konoha, she cannot be trusted."
Thus, as the minutes ticked down until the much-awaited train arrived at Konoha, the confrontation brewed between the two opposing sides. Shoving matches and standoffs took place where the two sides came into contact. There were stones thrown into crowds and a couple of incidents of direct fighting with heavy wooden sticks. In an effort to prevent further escalations in violence, the former Lady Fifth Hokage Tsunade, Lady Fourth Tsuchikage-in-exile Kurotsuchi, her jonin personal guard, and Konoha Police converged on the train station to calm things down before the arrival of the Thunder Rail train.
Unfortunately for them, the train rolled into Konoha Metro Station shortly afterwards. Naruto, Hinata, Sasuke, Sakura, Boruto, Sarada, Wasabi, Namida, and the rest of the thirty-plus member party disembarked, happy and excited to be finally back home after their eventful weekend trip, only to be met with the sight and sound of Lady Tsunade and Lady Kurotsuchi screaming orders and the shinobi police creating a tenuous line of separation between the two impromptu rallies.
Naruto and Sasuke rushed outside the station towards Tsunade and Kurotsuchi, both of whom were just outside the doors of the station's entrance. Naruto asked, "What's going on here? What happened?"
"Camp of the Saints," Kurotsuchi sighed heavily.
Tsunade added, "We were enjoying our sauna time and listening to the news when we got the call about the unrest."
Sarada, who along with everyone else walked towards the station's exitway, shook her head in dismay once she saw and heard the commotion. "The religious nuts, really? What the fuck do they want now?"
Members of the Camp of the Saints were attempting to block the road towards the Hokage Mansion, although the Shinobi Police managed to create a path by forcing them closer to the sidewalk. From where she stood, Sarada estimated that there were over a hundred members of the Camp of the Saints in front of them. It was a far cry from their supposed tens of thousands of believers and active members, Sarada noted to herself, but it was still an annoyance to them nonetheless.
But then, she saw some familiar faces in that hostile crowd. She easily recognized Jiggy, Jack, and their posse. She remembered them from the brawl she had with them in that dark alleyway only a few weeks ago, a fight they forced due to their utter disrespect towards the then-late Sumire and towards Lord Seventh Naruto. And she couldn't help but notice their attempts to stare holes in her with angry eyes. She replied by raising her eyebrow, crossing her arms, and smirking back at them, and she chuckled upon seeing them get even angrier and balling their fists in response.
After adjusting her glasses some more and focusing her eyes on them, she also saw that they were wearing black-and-white patches on their chests with the letters FF. She recalled that they did speak highly of Gadon's organization right before she had the brawl with them. "So they joined the Fascist Fist after all," she shook her head and rolled her eyes. "Idiots."
"You, Hokage," shouted an elderly clergyman around ten meters away from Naruto and the others. He then added while pointing to Namida, "And you, gay influencer! We see through your lies! You dare spread fake videos of your beloved traitor, all to distract us from your war and the problems the country is facing? You think of us as that stupid, not just to buy into your story that Sumire Shigaraki was a good person, but that she resurrected from the dead? Not only is that impossible, it is also blasphemous!"
The members of the Camp of the Saints echoed their priest's words. "BLASPHEMY! BLASPHEMY!"
While Naruto patiently let the old man and his followers speak their minds, Sarada covered her bowed face in disbelief and second-hand embarrassment. She glanced behind her and beckoned for Sumire to stay where she was and to not listen to the rantings of the religious.
"You think we're lying," Naruto asked them in response. "You think we're mocking your beliefs by telling the truth? We can prove it to you right now, you know?"
"It is blasphemy according to our beliefs! Nobody but the chosen ones, the ones who become the gods of our universe, can triumph over death and return to life everlasting! There is no way that Sumire Shigaraki is a chosen one! There is no way she is really alive! We demand you admit your lies, and tell Konoha the truth-"
It was at that moment that Sumire, who was surrounded by her friends and as such had been hidden from view of the Camp of the Saints, stepped forward. She calmly walked into the open, past Naruto, Tsunade, Kurotsuchi, and Sarada, much to the delight and fanfare of the crowd of supporters, and much to the shock and uncertainty of the clergyman and his members. Sarada and Boruto tried to pull her back behind them for her own safety, but she gave them a reassuring look. She held out her hand towards those who doubted her return, her open palm upwards facing the obscured night sky.
"If it would help you to know for yourselves that I'm real, you can touch my hands." She further explained, "Many people in Ame did it and believed. So it may be of help to you as well."
"That's fake," Jiggy rather confidently said, so much so that Sarada couldn't contain her snickers. "I'm sure of it. It's probably just a shadow clone of the Hokage in disguise. Someone just needs to strike it, not even that hard, so it'll dissipate."
His friend Jack thus walked towards Sumire. "We can test that theory."
Sumire kept her hand outstretched and unmoving, but because of Jack's clear intentions, she was on alert, her eyes following his every move. Jack wound up his right hand behind him and then took a swing at Sumire.
Out of pure instinct, she grabbed his incoming wrist with her outstretched hand and violently pulled him towards her. While he lurched towards her, she pivoted herself to the side, with the point of her hip jutting out to him at the same time. The sudden impact of Jack's groin with Sumire's incoming side sent waves of paralyzing pain all over his body, and Sumire followed through, sending him flying all the way over her hip and back, sending him crashing down shoulder first onto the unforgiving concrete pavement with her instinctual hip toss.
With his friend Jack writing in pain and agony before them, Jiggy became mortified. "She's… she's fucking real?"
Sarada couldn't help but laugh at him. "You said a few weeks ago that she was in hell? How wrong could you possibly be?"
"Let's get the fuck out of here!" One of Jiggy's friends yelled. "She's a demon! Run!" They dispersed quickly afterwards, much to the cheers of the opposing crowds that held Sumire in high regard, although Jiggy and a few other friends had to carry the injured Jack away. They cautiously did so, as Sumire stood right next to them, unmoving and undaunted, her eyes focused on them, her breathing slow and calm.
"Goodbye," Sumire said to them, an eerie calmness in her voice.
"Demon…" Jiggy uttered in disbelief to her as they left.
Sarada and her friends shared a laugh while looking on at the fleeing crew, the same one that Sarada had beaten up by herself only a few weeks ago. But as they turned to pat Sumire on the back, they saw her looking at the palms of her hands. She looked more confused than anything else. "I'm… a demon?"
Sarada vigorously shook her head. "NO! No, no you're not!"
Sumire tilted her head. "Why? What is it? Is it bad?"
There was a long awkward pause, as Sarada, Boruto, Wasabi, and some others shared unsure glances with each other. "Uhhh…"
Thinking quickly, Denki replied to Sumire, "Of course not! A demon?! Demons are so… sooo badass! They are so cool!"
"Ohh!" Sumire was innocently relieved. She then added, "Then I want to be a demon!"
Sarada exclaimed, "NO YOU DON'T!"
"You want to be called a demon?" Boruto asked her in confusion.
Sumire pointed to Denki. "He says it's cool."
"Hmmm," Denki thought even further, "how does 'Demon Queen' sound to you?"
Her eyes shined, and she grabbed Denki's arms. "I love it! Can I be called that from now on?"
"Alright, if you say so-"
"Uhh, Denki?" A mildly annoyed Sarada pulled him aside and away from Sumire. "What are you doing?"
While making sure that Sumire wasn't listening, Denki whispered to Sarada and those around her, "Look, if those crazy people are going to call her that when they see her on the streets from now on, and we know they're not going to stop, let's give it a positive spin. That way, she's not going to associate it with negative connotations. And hopefully, she'll be more lenient or accepting with herself. After all, if she embraces the reputation, even unknowingly, their verbal attacks won't mean shit to her, right?"
"…I guess you have a point," Sarada relented.
Namida chuckled. "You really big-brained it there, Denki."
Meanwhile, Gengania huffed in relief. "That's certainly not what I was expecting," she whispered to Yan, who was beside her. "I was worried there was going to be an emotional breakdown."
"Interesting…" Yan observed. "So she still has her muscle memory and involuntary reflexes. It's just her actual memories and some of her stock knowledge that are missing now."
"That's what Denki suspects is still with Mitsuki. I sure hope we can test if that's true as soon as possible…"
"Same. I hope Mitsuki can come over and visit real soon. But I do worry… I'm sure that Lord Orochimaru has spies in this country too. That might be a problem if they're going here…"
As the Shinobi Police of Konoha finally got a reprieve as they now only had to focus on keeping the more behaved crowd under their control, Boruto and Himawari walked up to Naruto. "Dad," Boruto asked, "would it be alright with you if Sumire stayed with us first?"
"I was thinking the same thing," Himawari said. "She'll be safer with us, and we'll all be there with her if she needs our guidance."
"You know what? You're right," Naruto gave them the thumbs up. "She can stay in the guest bedroom. She could also sleep over with Sarada, Yan, Chocho, Wasabi, and Namida from time to time, if you can schedule and organize them."
I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! Leave likes/kudos and comments/reviews if you like, and you can say what parts you liked there, such as the heroine's welcome for Sumire, Denki's working theory about why this is all happening, the new characters introduced in this chapter, etc! ^_^
Good news! I'll upload Chapter 11: "The Haze of War" sometime next week, and Chapter 12: "The Battlefield Run" the week after! Chapter 13 is unsure, since I'll work on it after finishing Chapter 12, and I don't know if I'll have a lot of consistent free time to work on it.
In any case, this chapter 10 is the close of this first arc of the second book, and Chapter 11 is the start of another, definitely more action-packed arc, that will probably close at around Chapter 15 or 16! I hope you're all excited for it! ^_^
Lastly, stan Kep1er for clear skin, and stan Huening Bahiyyih (aka Hiyyih) for better life~~~ ^_^