In a waiting area paneled in red granite, the two leaf genin waited in subdued silence for their audience with the Tsuchikage. Catullus, for his part, rested against the back of his chair, arms crossed firmly, with an expression of martial disinterest upon his face.
All around them, in the scores of other seating areas beside them, waited a population of important-looking people -- generals, businessmen, agents and other factors of the Tsuchikage, whose need to see the ninja lord seemed a lot more important than the two visitors from the Country of Fire.
Tomoki let out a seeping breath as he looked up again at the monumentally-sized paintings that hung across from them: depictions of victorious Earth Country armies crushing hapless barbarian hordes. It was a recurrent theme that, now that the genin was aware of it, he found throughout – a clear expression of their host nation's oppressive philosophy.
Let's just forget it, the leaf-ninja thought sourly as he sulked. His experiences in the Hidden Stone Village thus far weighed on him, and made him wish he'd stayed back in green Konoha. A 'B'-rank mission…he recalled with a wince, And I just had to go. What was I thinking?! His brow lifted in thought. You know what you were thinking – The Hokage himself asked you to do something, and you wanted to please him…and maybe prove something to yourself. Huh, just take a look where it's gotten you.
The hopeful idea that their meeting the Tsuchikage might be put off faded almost instantly in his mind. Empress Desdemona had put on the agenda, therefore Catullus would probably kill him if he tried to get out of it. What did Acacia call this place, the ninja thought back, oh, yeah, the reptile house. She was right about that. Now I get to meet the constrictor-in-chief, the king of all the other snakes. He chuckled to himself. I'm sure that'll go well.
Tomoki turned his head toward Naruto to share his observations, amazed at his fellow genin's patience that he'd been quiet all this time, but found that his companion had wisely fallen fast asleep.
Hours passed as people came and went, each time facing thorough and intimate searches by the ninja lord's guards, before being allowed past the double doors that opened into his chamber.
Bored almost to the point of unconsciousness, Tomoki was sprawled limply in his seat when a strange sound tickled his ears. A man walked by just then, a figure in rags with his hands shackled and thick, iron rings secured around his ankles and neck. From these attachments, chains dangled, jingling dissonantly as he went. The boy blinked his eyes and looked up in time to see the bedraggled figure give him the faintest nod of recognition, followed by a conspiratorial wink.
As the genin's stupefied face looked after him, he saw that his slack-skinned cheek was branded. "Manciple," muttered Tomoki to himself.
"Huh?" muttered Naruto, who awakened dazedly and rubbed his eyes.
Tomoki stirred and shook the circulation back into his limbs. "Catullus?" he began slowly.
"What?" the ninja growled in a tone that suggested he speak no further.
"Who is that man?"
Catullus dipped his head toward where the strange figure was being searched and asked about his business by the Tsuchikage's guards who, to Tomoki's amazement, found nothing at all wrong with his disheveled appearance. "How should I know," he replied in a bellicose tone. "Lord Tsuchikage's got a lot on his hands -- we're at war, there's a whole village to run and a huge country to look after. He sees a lot of people. I'm not going to know them all."
"Well, sure, I didn't expect you too, but still…"
"Just shut up, will you?!"
Tomoki fell quiet, but sat up in his seat and tapped his fingers on the armrest. His eyes widened as he watched the stranger exchange bows with the guards, then walk straight into the ninja-lord's office. He stared hard and started to squirm with discomfort.
"Stop that," hissed Catullus. "You're driving me nuts."
Naruto, noticing, looked back and forth. "Tomoki," he said into his ear. "What is it?"
"There's something really wrong here," his friend replied, and with that rose to his feet and headed toward the Tsuchikage's door.
The stone-ninja guards, upon seeing another ninja from a foreign land – one clearly identified as such by the insignia emblazoned as big as life upon his headband, agitated and plainly armed, moved forcefully to intercept him.
Catullus got to him first, seized him by the collar and raised his fist to the boy's face. "You impatient little --," he fell instantly silent, compelled by the significant look in the leaf-ninja's eyes. He turned at once toward the door. "Check inside," he commanded urgently then, seeing the guard's hesitation, went to the door himself, turned the handles and pushed them in.
The scene inside made even the strongest of them pale and cringe. Lit only by a few sparking sconces, the stately chambers of the Tsuchikage had become a grisly abattoir where blood ran in glistening rivers over the stone floors and clotted in thick pools on fine rugs. The floor and furnishings were littered with broken glass, severed limbs and stray organs. In the middle of the room floated a swirling nebula which held in its arms a few pitiable souls, including one in the robes and broad, conical hat of the Tsuchikage. This indistinct form, this monster…could be nothing other than the guei – the evil spirit Uiko had spoken of with such horror.
If Catullus had his faults, cowardice was not one of them. With a terrible shout, he charged at once to his lord's aid as did the rest of the guards who were braced by his example. For Tomoki, time seemed to slow in the guei's presence. He caught his breath then threw himself at Naruto, hoping upon hope to bring him down, but it was too late. The genin sprang to join the fight and Tomoki's grasp brushed by the blue hem of his orange jacket.
"Naruto, stop!" he cried.
The spirit's spectral cloud whirled and lashed out with tendrils of angry energy that slashed the Tsuchikage's contingent of guards apart with angry sprays of gore. Only Catullus, more nimble than the rest, made it to his lord's side and tried to free him. Energy crackled from his hands – the effect of some powerful jutsu. The tendril that held his master shriveled then dissipated like a mist before the wind, and Naruto took hold of him before he could hit the ground.
The guei's tendrils snapped toward the fleeing Naruto and caught him around the waist and legs, but he was able to heave the body of the ninja lord back into Catullus' arms an instant before he was jerked back. Tomoki rushed forward, extending his chakra into his whirling blades, and the tendrils parted before them like cobwebs.
Shaken and paralyzed by the guei's touch, Naruto fell to the ground, while Tomoki stood before him and faced the monster that drew back and struck out with all its swirling arms. None touched him. They stopped, quivering, only a few scant feet from where he stood.
The spirit's arms reeled in toward its ghostly middle, whose preternatural energy intensified, then pulsed. A shockwave filled the dim room, crushing crimson-splattered furniture and scattering dismembered limbs. It lifted Tomoki up, spun and crashed him against the ceiling, while Naruto was thrown back and pinned high against the wall.
The genin let go of his weapons, which stuck there against the plaster and wood beams, and forced his hands together to make hand signs. "Hup…," he began sharply as he forced the intonation to vibrate properly though his organs. "Hum…hee…ha," he continued and gathered his chakra, culminating in a sound the air could not carry and setting loose the disruptive energies of his spirit-cannon jutsu.
The guei's unearthly glow and form dispersed, revealing the man Tomoki had seen before in shackles and chains who reeled as if from a heavy blow. Released from its force, the ninja plummeted toward the floor, hands clasping around the handles of his swords as he fell. Landing in a crouch, he sprang at the man and lashed out as he passed. A sharp ring sounded, with a note like a bell in perfect tune, and the boy's feet landed softly on the blood-smeared carpet followed by the two halves of the strange figure's iron collar that he'd cut cleanly at an acute angle.
Tomoki turned back and was not really surprised to see the man still standing, despite the thin gap that separated his head from his neck. "That was a cruel cut, my brother," the figure stated sadly. "Are you surprised?" he asked. "You shouldn't be. I'm already dead, after all."
The genin shook his head and wobbled slightly, drained from the efforts of his jutsu. "I thought the blow might dispel whatever holds you here…and directs your purpose," he explained, at which the shackled man shrugged. "And please, don't call me 'brother'."
The man frowned. "I didn't mean to offend," he ventured stiffly.
"Well, you did," Tomoki insisted as he began, nonchalantly, to pace. "I had a brother, and he's --."
"Dead," the stranger finished, turning to follow him. "Yes, I know. But we are brothers, you and I, Tomoki…in spirit if not flesh."
"Hardly," countered the boy. "But, I guess, if you're going to call me by name, would you at least tell me yours?"
The man's eyes widened strangely as he thought. "Oh," he concluded after a moment, "it doesn't matter any more. I used to have one, but it didn't matter much even then. Manciple is my name now…Slave if you'd rather. It amounts to the same thing."
Tomoki arrived by Naruto's side, eyeing Slave cautiously as the genin pushed his way to his feet. "Hey!" Naruto rasped at this unworldly adversary then swallowed hard. "What is all this? Why'd you kill all these people?"
With a vacant countenance, the lone figure stared at him. "I was their slave at one time," Slave explained and tapped himself lightly on his scarred cheek, "me and countless like me."
"So…what?" asked the ninja, who grit his teeth, "it's revenge, is that it?"
"In part," the guei affirmed, "but mostly I want what I've suffered to affect them, to matter to them in some way." His eyes lifted toward Tomoki. "You understand, don't you?"
The boy flinched, then all three turned toward the door where Catullus stood with fists balled at his sides and his face seething with rage. "The Tsuchikage is dead," cried Catullus furiously who pointed at Manciple. "I don't care if you're man or spirit; either way, I will destroy you!"
The ghost smiled grimly, curtsied, then sprang over the bodies and left through one of the chamber's other doors with the stone-village Chunin in desperate pursuit. Naruto glanced for a moment at the devastation the evil spirit had wrought, pressed his lips together, and rushed after them.
Through the twisting halls of Castle Omphalos the spirit called Manciple lead them, always a step faster than the enraged Catullus.
"Wait" cried Tomoki uselessly. "You can't catch him; he's a ghost!"
The chase lead to a heavy oak door that was padlocked shut. The spirit passed through effortlessly, while Catullus, on his heels, landed in a stance, twisted at the waist and struck the door simultaneously with both fists – one high and one low. The door shattered into splinters before his onslaught, and he sped down into the darkness with Naruto not too far behind him.
Tomoki stopped at the threshold and shouted after them, "How come you've got to be so stupid?!" Grumbling and patting his pockets, he found a flare, pulled its metal ring and brought a bright, white, magnesium flame to life with a burst of acrid smoke. Beyond the doorway was a stair that plunged at a perilous angle. Tomoki scowled and followed it down into a once-elegant hall, which was now murky and slippery with mud; its grand spaces interrupted by buttresses and supports for other constructions, and criss-crossed by drainage and sewer pipes.
With his flare casting fierce, sharp shadows, he followed the sounds of arguing voices down another hallway that had windows before, but was now shut out completely from the light by what was undoubtedly an interior wall for the latest layered incarnation of Castle Omphalos. The hallway jogged around a series of columns, and the boy picked his way though ruins where the plaster had rotted away from moisture and neglect, revealing stark skeletons of lathe. Amidst these abandoned chambers, mold and minerals bloomed in patches. Water sweated from the walls and collected in puddles on the floor. Tomoki narrowed his eyes and could feel the vibration of the waterfalls he'd seen from outside the castle, the ones that raged though its stone heart.
It was here that he caught up at last with Naruto and Catullus, who exchanged heated words. The flare's piercing light made their shadows jump, and Naruto's orange jacket and pants seem even more vivid.
"Get that light out of my face," the stone-ninja spat caustically.
"Shut up," demanded Tomoki who cursed the both of them. "Yeah, that's right! I can't believe anyone's stupid enough to go down into dangerous catacombs with no light and no equipment after a real live ghost!"
Naruto startled then made a face. "Hey, did you just say --?"
"I said, shut up!" Tomoki shouted his frustration, and his voice echoed eerily along with the whisper of the distant, rushing water. "Did you ever think he was leading you?! I mean, did it ever cross your minds?!"
The pair looked back at him awkwardly then Catullus answered, "He killed the Tsuchikage," he muttered by way of explanation.
"And that alone should tell you how dangerous he is, besides," the leaf-ninja continued, "from what Uiko told us about the Shan, I gather that death is only a temporary setback so maybe you shouldn't take it so hard."
Catullus glared at him emphatically. "No one killed by the guei has ever come back, not even with the Shan's kekkei-genkai. That's why everyone's running scared. That's why we're trying to wipe out the remaining clans who've cursed us with these guei." He gulped as tears welled in his eyes. "Now the great master of our land is no more…the ninja lord who, over four-hundred years –. They didn't even kill him alone in the dark of night, but in bright, broad daylight in his own chamber!"
"Hold on!" Naruto blurted and grabbed Catullus by the shoulder. "'These?'," he pointed out. "There's more than just one?"
The stone-ninja fell silent and nodded.
"Catullus," Tomoki began urgently, "how many of them are there?"
"Seven," he answered reluctantly.
"What, seven!?" shouted Naruto. "Are you kidding?!"
Tomoki frowned direly. "How many have they killed?"
"Five just here in the castle…dozens in the city."
"And we have so many more to go!" crooned the voice of Manciple at which all three ninja spun toward the gaunt, branded face that looked in from the shadows of Tomoki's flare. Reflexively, the ninja leveled his light at the ghost who retreated before it.
"Catullus," said Tomoki, and the stone-ninja understood his meaning.
His fingers wove together as he intoned: "ninja art: earth-lightning jutsu." That very moment, bolts of blue and white erupted from the floor and coruscated through his clawed hands. He reached out and cast the lightning, which bowed in an arc around the dank chamber and filled it with light.
Tomoki tossed up his flare then put his fingers together in a series of intricate patterns. The glowing, chemical flame flared into a blazing sphere, which, added to Catullus' lightning, made the room burn brighter than if it was lit by the sun.
Manciple, the guei, staggered away and fell to his knees, but when the three ninjas approached him he looked up with a smile on his face. "Sorry," he offered emptily. "Not all nightmares vanish with the light." With that, he clutched at the floor, which trembled at his touch. A wall cracked then caved in before a river of mud that circled protectively around him. From it, appendages arose that coiled and struck like headless serpents.
"We're not beaten yet!" shouted Catullus who turned and found, to his dismay, that Tomoki and Naruto had fled. His stern face whitened with shock. "Hey!?" he yelled at their retreating backs, pumping elbows and the soles of their feet.
The taller of the two gestured toward a pool of black shadow into which Naruto jumped without hesitation, and the bright orange-clad boy vanished entirely. Tomoki followed quickly after him. Catullus' eyes widened with panic as the residual light in the chamber began to sputter out and he leaped madly into the darkness barely an instant before the leaf-ninja's shadow-gate jutsu closed forever.
"So what now?" asked Naruto morosely, who sat on the footboard of his bed in the sleeping porch of the quarters Empress Desdemona had given them. A breeze moved through the room, passing gently through the latticework screens. Beyond them a dark, night sky loomed thick with battlements of clouds that shut out the moon and stars.
Tomoki sat on a couch in the open living area and looked back at him gravely. "We're out of here," he said plainly.
Naruto blinked, then his brow narrowed. "Out?" he wondered.
"Back home," his friend clarified tiredly, "back to the Hidden Leaf Village…the sooner the better."
The blonde's expression pinched. "It doesn't seem right, Tomoki. I mean, we went through so much just to get here."
The boy nodded, accepting his friend's reservations. "Whatever's going on," he explained, "these people have brought on themselves. I'm not saying that they 'deserve' it…but I am saying that this place is messed up, and we can't fix it." Tomoki's leaden eyelids fell shut. "Catullus was right about that last part anyway. Manciple killed their Tsuchikage like it was nothing, and there're six more at least."
"At least?" Naruto queried curiously at his remark.
"Seven's an unstable number," said Tomoki dismissively, then realized how he sounded. "Sorry, I shouldn't act like such a know-it-all. I didn't learn much about the supernatural beyond what I thought I'd need to beat Xiaomei."
Silence fell as Naruto considered. At last, the blond genin hung his head. "Maybe you're right," he admitted with a sigh.
Tomoki looked up at him and smiled sadly. For him to agree with what amounted to a strategic retreat, however reasoned, was a real change. "I know it seems like we should do something, Naruto," he allowed. "But really, all the Hokage asked me to do was get information about my captors…period. That was it. I'd say we've gotten it, without a doubt."
The orange-clad ninja wiped a spot of residual grime from his face with a sleeve. "I guess so."
Tomoki smiled at the surprise. It was nice not to have to argue with Naruto sometimes. "Right," he said, rose to his feet and went to a corner of the room that was deepest in shadow. He looked again at his friend and began to make his hand signs for the shadow-gate jutsu.
A knock interrupted him and both boys' heads turned. Tomoki frowned as he thought about it for a moment then paced toward the door and opened it.
The sight of their visitor made him fall back in shock, and a bland smile came over the Hokage's face at his reaction. "Good evening, Tomoki, Naruto," he greeted them. "May I come in?"
"Hey! This is a surprise!" piped Naruto who jumped toward him. "Come on in, old man!"
The lord of the leaf-ninjas entered and took the room in with a slow look around. "I must say, you've done well making it this far," he offered with a tone of satisfaction.
Tomoki, wide-eyed and rubbing his temple, stared at him – at his familiar lined and age-spotted face and clever eyes; the way his pipe hung unlit in his mouth. "H…how did you get all the way out here?" he asked in a cracking voice.
The Hokage turned toward him obligingly and laughed. "My boy, do you really think that you have a means of traveling great distances that I do not?" He smiled then and wagged his finger at him. "Your shadow-gate is impressive, Tomoki, but I have my techniques too."
Chastened, the boy sputtered mutely, then managed: "sure…of course."
"Hee-hee," laughed Naruto who came forward and threw his arms around the old ninja's waist. "I'm kinda glad to see you. This place is creepy! I…I didn't know how good things were in Konoha until I came here!"
The old man straightened tensely. "Easy, Naruto, easy!" he admonished in a good-natured voice as he patted the boy's thicket of yellow hair. "I'm not as compressible as I used to be."
Naruto released his hold then explained, "Hey, in another minute we'd have missed you. We were just about to go back!"
"Ah, yes?" the Hokage began and his face turned serious with thought. "It's good that I came when I did then, for I must urge you to stay."
"Huh?" replied Naruto. "But we've learned all kinds of stuff about the Hidden Stone Village – probably more than you really want to know!"
The man frowned. "There's more here, I'm afraid. There is a storm developing that threatens to destroy not only the Country of Earth, but possibly all the rest as well."
"A…a storm?" asked Naruto. "What do you mean; what are you talking about?"
"It's a simple matter – an age old story of power-hungry men losing control of what they've created. Both of you know of forbidden jutsus; you've heard of and have even seen them. What is at work right now is one of them, one of the most appalling ever created – a jutsu developed not to destroy enemies, but entire civilizations!"
"Wait," interrupted Tomoki with a tremulous voice. He felt ill suddenly and swayed from the pressure he felt, not upon his skin but in his mind. "Lord Hokage…the Tsuchikage's been killed, murdered; Castle Omphalos is locked down; how could you find us without being caught?"
Naruto charged up and shoved him. "Tom-tom! Give it a rest!" he shouted. "He's a big-shot ninja even if he's super-old, so of course he can sneak in. What are you trying to do!?"
The genin shivered suddenly, retreating from his friend's rebuke, but then his eyes fell on their visitor's shadow and it was not the shape of a man. Its black profiles belonged to a bigger animal by far: four slender legs, flowing manes and a singular pointed horn. Tomoki stepped past the puzzled Naruto and drew before the Hokage. He didn't stop until their noses almost touched, and he looked into the stranger's eyes which turned, under his gaze into tunnels infinitely-deep.
The genin gaped, recoiled from the sight and fell backwards to the floor. Reaching up, he pointed at the man with a quaking hand. "You…," he forced himself to state, "are not the Hokage."
Naruto glared at him. "What are you talking about, Tomoki?" he cried.
The Hokage looked down at Tomoki and gave him a lopsided smile. "You really have become very perceptive in a very short time," he offered impassively.
Naruto spun toward him, alarmed at his admission. "What?! You really aren't the Hokage!" he growled. "Who are you then?! You'd better start explaining!"
"If you knew," he intoned, still focused on Tomoki, "you would not be so eager to look into my eyes."
"Hey!" cried Naruto. "I asked you a question!"
The visitor scowled at him. "I didn't come all this way to answer your questions, only to make it clear to you what's at stake here. The guei will not stop at the borders of Earth country, but will go forth until their fearsome energies are expended."
"Is that it?" barked the genin defiantly. "Is that all you're going to say?"
"It is enough. There are rules to follow and a balance to maintain. The only reason I can reveal anything to you at all is because my counterpart has --," he stopped suddenly and fell silent.
"Has…what?" asked Tomoki in a whisper.
The stranger turned toward him hesitantly. "…cheated," he finished his thought, then spat out a breath. "To stand here, exposed to your scrutiny is a humiliation. It is more than I can bear. I've said all I have to, and now I will go."
"What!" shouted Naruto who barred his way. "Just like that? You turn yourself into the Hokage to fool us and tell us some story, and you're just going to walk away?"
"That's it," the man affirmed. "What I've told you was the truth. Thousands…hundreds of thousands will die if you do nothing, here and everywhere across the globe. Even if you act, there is no guarantee against that eventuality. Either way, I cannot force you. The choice is yours."
"Enough of this," the boy erupted, "you liar! How do we know you're not just some stone-ninja trying to mess with us? Huh? Is that you, Catullus? Is this another test, Acacia, Sebellius?!"
"Naruto, let him go," said Tomoki from where he sat. Their eyes met, and he begged, "Please."
The genin looked at him, clearly dissatisfied, but stepped aside and let the imposter pass toward the door.
"Wait!" cried Tomoki suddenly in a trembling voice. "D…did the Hokage, the real Hokage, send me here…or was that you too?"
The figure stopped and turned toward him. "If I told you, you might not believe it," he answered in the Hokage's voice and familiar inflection. "Some things in this existence you must discover for yourself…for them to have any meaning." Without a word further, he slipped out into the hall and shut the door behind him quietly.
Tomoki's distraught face fell into his hands.
"Ok, Tomoki," said Naruto with a dangerously insistent air. "Who was that?"
The genin shook his head unsurely and said nothing.
"Don't give me that crap!" the blond genin barked, then said in a softer, entreating tone: "how come I always have to beat it out of you?"
"Because you'll think I'm crazy."
The genin grimaced. "I already think you're crazy."
Tomoki coughed as he chuckled. "Sure, I must have forgot," he acknowledged, then tried a couple of times to say it before he actually did, "I think it was a qi-lin."
"A what?"
"A servant in the court of…," he trailed off, unable for a moment to speak, "heaven."
"You're right…you are crazy."
"Told 'ya."
"All right, all right," Naruto gushed, at the brink of exasperation. "What do we do now, I mean, do you believe all that stuff he was saying?"
"It doesn't matter," Tomoki explained with a shrug. "And he…it, whatever it was, knew it."
"Now what are you talking about?!"
"I think he knew, before he came in that I'd see him for what he was. And he knew that as long as there was a chance that what he said was true, that I'd stay to find out." He looked up at Naruto, distraught, then rubbed his cheek. "I've been right about…um, nothing, for a long time. But I'm pretty sure I'm right about that." The blond ninja looked at him then started to pace in barely-contained frustration.
"I'm sorry Naruto," Tomoki continued with a sniffle, "but this whole mission is a fraud. The Hokage didn't send me…and neither of us is supposed to be here.
"I'm betting that you didn't figure on getting involved with anything like we've seen so far, and it sure doesn't look like it's going to get any better. Meanwhile Neji's back in Konoha, undoubtedly training as hard as he can so he can tear you apart at the next stage of the chunin exams. So, if you want, Naruto, I'll take you back." Naruto's eyes widened angrily into sapphire flames, and his chest swelled with an ominous, preparatory breath. "Wait! Please, Naruto," Tomoki prevailed and threw up his hands in a gesture of surrender. "'Yes or no', will be fine!"
The yellow-haired ninja glared at him with muted intensity, then folded his arms and looked away angrily. "No," he stated.
From where he sat on the floor, Tomoki nodded slowly. "It's ok with me, Naruto," he muttered. "I didn't want you to go this time anyway." He puffed out a breath and let his head fall back against his shoulders. "You know, ever since the day you helped me against Xiaomei, all I've wanted to do was pay you back. I've tried, but it just never worked out." Against a whispering wind, his quiet voice struggled. "Maybe I've missed my chance -- all those years at the academy, all those times when you struggled and I just ignored you when I could have helped. I didn't mean to, I was just so…preoccupied with my own struggles that I didn't see yours – pretty selfish, huh?
"Now look what I've done," he said to the ceiling. "I've brought you here – this…this kingdom peopled by madmen and ghosts, whose leaders have never feared death before, or faced the consequences of the wars they started. Some friend I am." His unremarkable brown eyes flickered toward Naruto, and he snickered sardonically. "All Neji wants to do is beat you up or tap you out!"
Tomoki pulled his knees into his chest and rested his arms on them. "This is selfish of me too, letting you stay, just because I think things seem better when you're around; that things work out better like you're some kind of orange good luck charm or something. I don't know. But I really am glad you want to stay, Naruto, thanks. You're a good friend; a lot better than I deserve."
With that, the boy pushed himself up and walked to the latticed window where he looked down at the lights of the Village Hidden among the Stones. "I tell ya, Naruto," he reported. "I don't know if I can stand another day like today. It's almost too much, you know?" Tomoki took a deep breath of the cool, night air. "Well," he advised sagely, "since we're bound and determined to stay, we'd better get some sleep. If we're going to tilt at windmills, harpoon us a white whale, or…get in a fight with eight, really pissed-off ghosts, then it'll go better for us well-rested."
Tomoki turned toward Naruto who sat with his back turned toward him. "Naruto?" he asked after him. "Are you ok?"
The genin turned his head slightly as his shoulders started to tremble. "No one…," he rasped, and Tomoki could hear the tears in his voice, "no one's ever said anything like that to me before."
The boy looked at him uncertainly for a moment, recalling that it was undoubtedly true. How could it be otherwise for the boy who carried with him the Nine-Tailed Fox, and bore its terrible legacy? Tomoki canted his head then smiled. "I guess it's about time then."