A/N: Five years (two of which were leap years) later, a specific date falls on the same day of the week. This is the last chapter of Year Five! Wow. I've come a long way. When I first started this story, I had no idea whether or not I would be able to stick with it. Now I can confidently claim to be a person capable of dedication, not only to my writing but also to other things. And although I have taken no formal writing classes nor practiced any formal techniques, through sheer practice my writing has improved greatly. Another five years and I'll have achieved something that can be called mastery. Hmm... Seeing it from another angle, I can't believe I've only been writing for five years. It feels like I've spent half my life with this story. Was my life before I began writing really so impoverished?

Anyway. There is story to be told. A full-sized chapter's worth, too, thanks to my last day of work being several days ago. Ah, it is nice to have free time again.

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Konan

While waiting for the work day to pass, Konan researched seals at the library. She found that the size of a seal did not correspond precisely to the amount of material it could contain. Larger seals did tend to hold more, but exactly how much more varied. It was likely that the difference in storage capacity was due to human perception. In other words, she should make a seal that group members believed would hold an appropriate amount.

By holding a poll through the group chat, Konan determined that most members desired a water seal a little more than a meter in diameter. She and Original Nagato looked over the list of likely locations that they had created that morning. Many of those locations had to be crossed out; they were too small. The kitchen had no areas of suitable size at all. A water seal should be located as near to the kitchen as possible, so they investigated the sunroom. The sunroom's open, unadorned walls were perfect. However, with no cabinets or other structures to place basins upon, it would be difficult to operate the seal. They could temporarily drag in a bedside table from an unused room, but Sasori would have to construct something.

Meanwhile, Original Yahiko stayed at the library. He wished to investigate specific details of interest. Translation: read from the ghostly books and chat with librarians, no doubt. Clone Yahiko kept the dolls informed, offering their assistance if needed. Konan thought their powers of levitation would come in very handy when drawing a meter-wide seal on a vertical wall. That led her to wonder how much their magic had in common with sealwork. She sent Original Hidan on a test walk that happened to pass by the library, telling him to have Original Yahiko research this question. There was a very good chance that the shelf of ghostly books would contain a tome with helpful diagrams, so he should seek permission to bring one of them home. Original Hidan made a sarcastic comment about turning the unused rooms into libraries before departing.

That is not a bad idea. Konan discussed the matter with Original Nagato over lunch. "The unused rooms of this base have been left that way because our situation was unstable. Now, however, it is safe to say that our membership will likely stay at its current level. We ought to put those rooms to some use."

"We have no current objectives that require extra space," Original Nagato murmured. "However, in case a need arises, the unused spaces should be cleaned and prepared."

The dolls seemed restless, so they were turned into a work crew. Armed with brooms and brushes that they manifested from thin air, they went from room to room upstairs carrying out Konan's orders to remove dust, disassemble the beds and stack the mattresses and frames against the wall, and generally make the spaces tidy and welcoming. When the dolls came back downstairs, Little One was in the lead. Konan checked and saw that her orders had been carried out to perfection. Clone Yahiko took them outside and read to them from a Borowik adventure as reward.

He also periodically visited Obito to administer soothing chakra, despite his own condition. Zetsu and Kakuzu took turns watching over Obito the rest of the time. They reported that, with the addition of Yahiko's soothing chakra, Obito was feeling much better. Zetsu took him to sit outside on the back porch.

Itachi, as the only group member able to walk freely without raising suspicion, elected to go grocery shopping. Kakuzu lent his truck. Itachi returned in the early afternoon with pasta, tea, vegetables, liver, and a small cake. "To celebrate," he replied when asked about the cake. Celebrate what? "Our continued existence."

Original Hidan returned from his test walk and took the first slice of cake. He reported that the former NPCs had gotten much better about pretending to ignore him. They seemed to have decided to, when in the presence of magic, behave as they used to behave. Konan sent this news on to Soye. Hidan also mentioned, once he finished his cake, that Yahiko had agreed to bring a couple of the ghost books home if he could.

It turned out that he could. Later in the afternoon, Deidara, who had gotten out of work, gave Original Yahiko a ride back to base. They brought two ghostly books and some scrolls with them. Original Yahiko placed the books on the lobby desk as carefully as if they were made of glass. "Some negotiation was required," he said. "The books don't like to leave each other without a strong reason, and comparing their arcane symbols to sealwork wasn't quite strong enough. The librarian said that they would agree to come with me only if the dolls were here."

The dolls, books, new scrolls, and Clone Yahiko's copied healing scrolls were all gathered together in the sunroom. Clone Yahiko, Original Yahiko, Konan, Kakuzu and Itachi supervised. Konan provided paper to copy the books' symbols onto. But first, they let the dolls interact with the books freely. The dolls obviously recognized the books as strange; they tilted their heads and approached slowly. Little One touched a book very quickly and then snatched his hand away, as if the book would bite. The ghostly books did not bite. Warlic opened the heavy, hard-bound cover of one book. That was all it needed - after that, its pages began to turn on their own. He and Solis gathered to watch while Manta and Little One opened the second book. Both books began to glow.

"I think they're talking," Clone Yahiko said in hardly more than a whisper.

Indeed, some sort of communication appeared to be happening. A few arcane symbols at a time drifted up into the air, hovering in place and glowing for several seconds before fading away and being replaced. After several rounds of this, Warlic tried to perform magic. He created a circle ringed with runes in midair, as if he was going to open a portal. This one had no dividing line down the center and the symbols on its edge were the same ones that the books had generated. It did nothing.

After several minutes of this, it became apparent that whatever communication was going on was not going to produce results anytime soon. Itachi got busy looking at the symbols with the Sharingan, then writing them down. Both versions of Yahiko carefully sat across from the dolls so as to not disturb the communication and looked at the pages upside-down. They reported that the pages were flipping too fast to be readable. It was unclear why the pages were flipping at all, then. Itachi speculated that page motion might be a byproduct of magic release, as if magic were wind. Konan and Kakuzu took a moment to wonder how they had gotten to the point where they could accept reasoning like that.

Anyway, spending time with the books revealed that their arcane symbols had a totally different appearance from the symbols used in chakra seals. However, this surface-level difference concealed an underlying similarity. The arcane symbols in the books resembled nothing in the real world. Absolutely nothing. They could not be pictograms, nor even derivations of pictograms. Where the hell did they come from, then?

"They are given meaning by the minds of their wielders," Konan hypothesized.

Itachi peered over the dolls' heads. "That does indeed seem to be the case. These books describe in detail what the symbols are supposed to mean, and the books' descriptions cannot be contradicted by or hybridized with any other source of meaning because there is none. I hypothesize that these symbols were made to be entirely abstract so that they could be given whatever meanings they needed to be given."

Kakuzu crossed his arms. "In other words, they aren't given meaning by the minds of their wielders. It's more accurate to say that they were given meaning long ago by people clever enough to shape the minds of anyone who would wield them in the future. Control the minds, you control the symbols."

Itachi sat back. "That suggests that the concept of psychically-shaped magic is very old in the world that these books come from. They are far more advanced in this art than we. If we are to study sealwork, we must study the books, as they are the closest things we have to masters."

"A pity we have no living masters to teach us," Konan sighed.

Not long after she said that, Clone Nagato came home.

Kakuzu

Clone Nagato asked for a box to carry the ink inside in. Nobody currently present had one. "It's important for the dolls to stay with the books, so why don't we come with you to help carry the ink?" Original Yahiko suggested.

Clone Nagato counted the amount of people present. "At least one person would need to make a second trip."

Itachi's eyes widened. "You cleared out the store's entire supply?"

"No and yes. It's a complicated story. As soon as we get the ink inside, we need to call a meeting."

Nobody complained about having to make a second trip. The ink was all brought inside and carefully placed in a corner of the sunroom. Konan showed the dolls one of the bottles and told them it was a special magic ink good for writing enchantments with. The dolls treated the ink with great reverence. Warlic put the bottle on one of the open books. The book's letters lit up in gold. Nobody knew what that meant.

"It would have been nice to bring a librarian home, too," Clone Yahiko fretted. "I can't get anything other than general feelings from them. Nothing specific."

"We'll worry about that some other time," Kakuzu said. Now that the ink was out of the car, Nagato couldn't stop fidgeting. He also seemed very distracted. Something happened out there. It's time to stop theorizing; there's real business to attend to.

The dolls and books were moved to one side of the room, near the corner where the ink was kept. Konan used the group chat to announce a meeting. Deidara popped in just seconds after she sent this message. "You're finally done with the books? What happened, hm?"

"The meeting is not about the books, though we have learned some things," Konan replied. With her chin, she indicated Clone Nagato, who had stopped pretending to act casual. He paced back and forth across the unoccupied side of the room, obviously lost in thought.

Deidara stepped into the sunroom to make room for Original Nagato. The stoic redhead surveyed the room, taking note of the ink bottles and his pacing clone. Konan told him, "At his request, a meeting is imminent."

"I shall stay, then."

Itachi put his notes and the scrolls in the chair. "Does this meeting concern a celebration-worthy cause?"

Clone Nagato stopped his pacing to consider the question. "...Technically, I suppose it can be called that."

"Let us enjoy cake, then."

It took half an hour for everyone to get home. Kisame and Sasori had both worked overtime, and Clone Hidan had gone out to the far side of town. They weren't expecting a meeting to be called right after work. Kisame sat with a huff. "What do we need a meeting for? I thought we were done with extended sessions of babbling."

"It better be interesting," Original Hidan agreed. He'd stopped grooming his fur for this.

Clone Nagato cleared his throat loudly. In the silence that followed, he said, "A person from a magical universe visited our universe today."

Konan and Kakuzu glanced at each other. She laments the lack of real people to teach us things, and one such person shows up? That can't be coincidence.

"Elaborate," ordered Original Nagato.

Clone Nagato told them all about the strange man with the many-colored robe who didn't understand their currency and thought Nagato was a mage. When he finished, there was a moment of silence. Then Itachi raised a hand. "You say that he could wield magic via command, with no other resources required?"

"Yes. The way that he spoke aloud, as if talking to something outside himself, implied that he didn't have to channel anything out of his body the way we do. He could just use what was in the air around him." Clone Nagato seemed unable to use the word "chakra." After conversing with a man who called it mana, that was not surprising. Kakuzu felt some confusion himself. Wasn't mana supposed to be a different form of magical energy from a different universe? He hadn't thought that it could be just another name for the very same energy. It can't be. The magic in that universe doesn't work like ours - Wait a second! I read one of those ghost books recently! In the final chapter, it said that whether mana was intelligent or not was an open question. If mana has a mind, that mind lies dormant. Not to mention, mana flows into people's bodies through soul strings, from something called the Mana Core. It's not free-floating the way chakra is. The man that Nagato met isn't from the same universe the dolls come from! It's a different universe which happens to use the same name for its magic energy. So now there are three magic systems to keep track of.

"I don't think that's possible in the world the dolls and books come from," Clone Yahiko said. "There's no mention of mana being intelligent in that universe and 'command magic' isn't a thing. Even the characters that can use magic to do anything are always shown with books and other props."

Kakuzu nodded. "The man you met isn't from the same universe as the dolls and books. He belongs to a third magic system."

Itachi murmured, "A third magic system…with similarities to both chakra and traditional mana…but taken in a direction that aligns with our own thoughts…a real living person, an original character, from that universe, whole and intact and not lingering in our universe…"

Kisame winced. "Itachi, you freak me out when you mutter like that."

"Oh, my apologies." Itachi shook off the muttering mood. "I was thinking that this man that Nagato met likely possesses insights into the nature of magic that are relevant to us. If he returns, we should be sure to ask him for information."

"If reality worked according to the usual rules, I wouldn't expect him to," Clone Nagato said. "We were passing strangers who happened to have a friendly interaction. He literally lives a world away, we don't even know each other's names, and there's no reason to think he'll need mana ink again any time soon. Normal probability would dictate that I'll never see him again. But we don't live by normal probability, so…"

Konan took out her phone, but did not use it yet. "Itachi, what is your estimation of his odds of returning according to special probability?"

"Hmm… That is difficult to determine, but… I would say it is within the realm of possibility. I'm sorry; I can't get any more specific than that. His precise odds could be anywhere from unlikely to nearly guaranteed."

Kakuzu narrowed his eyes. "Which part of that spectrum is it likely to be?"

"That would depend on factors I have no knowledge of."

Konan began to type on her phone. "We'll leave it at 'he may return' for the moment."

Clone Nagato raised his hand. "I'm not quite finished. Has anyone else seen signs of sapience in our chakra?"

"Sapience or sentience?" Sasori asked.

Clone Nagato blinked. "Well, if you have seen signs that chakra has opinions, feel free to mention it. But that's a little too…horrifying to ask about right now."

"I just wanted to make sure you understood the distinction," Sasori replied. "As the expert on living things that are sapient and not sentient, I can conclusively say that chakra, or mana, or whatever you want to call it, does not have sentience. Either it's completely mindless or it's like the bicycles are."

Clone Nagato nearly collapsed with relief. "Oh thank the gods."

Clone Yahiko held up his hand. "My chakra has qualities that come from my personality. If it can copy my personality, which is the way that I think about and perceive the world, doesn't that imply it has ways to think and perceive?"

"Tell us more about the bicycles," Kakuzu ordered. Sasori had never described them or what it was like to work with them in any detail. The rest of the group knew very little about them.

"Alright," Sasori said slowly. "Where do I start…"

"Motives. What sorts of motives do beings like that have?"

"Whatever motives they are made to have," Sasori replied. "They have 'goals' the same way that water has a destination: not because of desire, but because of the laws of physics. There are certain things they are drawn to. If an obstacle gets in the way, they will either go around it, break it down, or stop in their tracks and do nothing until/unless something else breaks up the obstacle for them. Like water flowing downhill."

"Bicycles?" White Zetsu muttered. They and Obito were totally lost.

"Don't worry about the bicycles. They don't matter," Clone Yahiko told them. "What matters is what Sasori's saying about gravity. He's saying that…um…"

"That bicycles are like water?" Kisame asked. "I'm confused."

"I get it," Clone Hidan said. "The magic energy we're surrounded by behaves like water. It flows downhill and it pools. In this case, it flows toward living things and it pools inside living things."

"Stop speaking," Konan barked. Everyone obeyed. For several seconds, nothing was said, allowing the general confusion to ebb away and the people in the room to process what had been said.

Itachi slowly asked, "Did not Konan tell us that living beings generate chakra?"

"Out of nothing?" Clone Hidan replied. "That doesn't make any sense. Conservation of energy or some shit. If people generated chakra out of nothing, more and more chakra would build up until eventually the world blew itself up. That can't be right."

"It is possible that what appears to be generation might actually be a 'pooling' mechanism like Hidan describes," Konan allowed.

"So it seeps in, we kick it out, it seeps back in, rinse and repeat for infinity?" Sasori asked.

Clone Hidan frowned. "Isn't that what you said?"

"I said that magic energy - chakra, mana, whatever you want to call it - is probably drawn to certain things. I never said that living beings were those things."

"Well, Konan said chakra had all sorts of shit to do with life and souls and whatever, so it seemed obvious."

"In conclusion," Clone Nagato cut in, "magic energy does not behave in ways that could potentially harm us? Is that the conclusion?" It seemed to be so. "Its intelligence has no effect on the way we use it?" Again, that did appear to be the case.

"Unless one of us develops the same power as that guy had," Kisame said. "Does he manipulate life force? He'd have to, right? If you want to control mana, control the thing it's drawn to. If that's so, then Yahiko might be able to learn some interesting skills."

Clone Yahiko turned pale. "Not until I've recovered!"

"Chakra donation is a skill that only medical ninjas, to my knowledge, can perform," Konan murmured. "It is a plausible concept. I recommend further investigation when possible." She picked up her phone and started typing. "It is also possible that other beings, such as the demons and vampires, have the ability to manipulate life force even though they cannot perform spells or jutsus. This hypothesis suggests that they could use their abilities to work magic by proxy. It is worth sharing."

"Right now, all we have are hypotheses," Itachi said. "I hope that man returns. It would be wonderful to have concrete, codified knowledge from a world where people have studied the matter for longer than a month."

"Are most in favor of his return?" Konan asked. Everybody who was raised their hand. That turned out to be everybody who had hands, plus Samehada, who didn't. "I will inform Soye of our judgment."

"Sammy eats chakra, yeah?" Deidara asked, looking down at the shark. Samehada lolled her tongue out. "Isn't that backwards? Eating keeps people alive, so it's like the chakra you eat draws in life force after it. But Hidan says it's the other way around - that life force draws in chakra, yeah."

"I'd be surprised if there isn't some back-and-forth," Clone Hidan said. "I'm an infinite well of life force. If chakra always follows life force, I should suck up all the chakra around me like a black hole. But I don't. If life force also follows chakra, at least a little bit, then I'd have life force pouring out of me and washing some of the chakra away. That'd explain why I don't absorb literally all of the chakra in my vicinity."

"Medical shinobi do not work with life force directly," Konan murmured. "They work using chakra, like any other ninja."

"I can work directly with life force if I choose to," Clone Yahiko said. "Wow, I'm awesome! I can do medical jutsu both ways!"

Itachi nodded to Clone Nagato, who was right next to him. "Calling a meeting was exactly the right thing to do. Your news was interesting in more than a merely theoretical way." He turned to Original Hidan. "Interesting enough to satisfy you?"

"Eh, sure," Original Hidan replied in a bored tone, like he hadn't just minutes before had his ears fully perked and his tail raised.

Clone Hidan sat up straighter. "Hey, Other Me. We gotta talk about that sacrifice ritual. If we can figure out how it works, I dunno, maybe we could learn other life-force-controlling techniques from it."

"You can't stand to talk about Jashinist things," Kakuzu reminded him.

Clone Hidan looked up. "...This feels different. I think I could talk about it, at least a little."

"Interesting." Could bringing those dolls back to life have affected more than just his memories?

Konan stood up. "We have sat and talked long enough. It is time now to return to what needs doing. Sasori, Kakuzu, fetch a bedside table from an unused room and a basin. The dolls will assist with drawing the water seal. Dinner also must be made."

Her timely reminder was appreciated. Everyone was satisfied. At exactly the right moment, the meeting broke up.

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A/N: I have decided to stop working on my book and turn my attention to other stories of mine for a while, so we might not see the mystery man's return for some time, if ever.

A most wonderful week to everyone reading this! Stay cool, or warm, whatever your case may be. Stay hydrated. Get some rest so that you can go out and enjoy the world. ^_^