บท 3: Chapter 3: Malice
...
The claw withdrew.
A dark shadow loomed, a massive face pressing against the gate bars.
Triangular face, golden eyes, furry.
It was a fox.
A fox whose single face towered over Naruto, its stature colossal.
It bared its teeth in a vicious grin "What did they tell you?"
"To make you have this delusion."
Mocking, scornful, sarcastic.
Naruto furrowed his brow, slightly puzzled.
He disliked this... naked, unconcealed malice, but the teacher had said that perhaps the Zanpakutō spirits expressed emotions differently, some friendly, some fierce, but undoubtedly these manners were just outward tests of whether the wielder was truly qualified to take up the blade.
The content he had learned flipped through his mind like turning pages.
"You are the manifestation of my spiritual power." he answered. "My most important partner for life."
Nine Tails couldn't help but laugh uproariously "Spiritual Power... Partner..."
"How absurd."
"Have the fools of Konoha fallen to such naïve depths?"
Naruto froze.
What had he just heard?
Konoha?
How could it be "Konoha," how could this fox spew out such a word?
"How could it have anything to do with Konoha?" he instinctively refuted.
Nine Tails chuckled mockingly, "How could it not be related to Konoha..."
"I'm already dead," Naruto stated firmly, interrupting it. "I've long since left Konoha."
Nine Tails narrowed its eyes, a bit ruffled "Dead?"
No, that couldn't be...
He himself didn't even feel it, dying so inexplicably?
Stated so matter-of-factly from the mouth of this short brat, it sent shivers down its spine.
Naruto sat cross-legged, recounting the events of the past three years.
The new terms like "Soul Society," "Shinigami," "Shin'ō Academy," "Gotei 13" kept pouring into the Nine Tails' ears.
The "Afterlife"... it had heard the name when it was first born, accompanying that old man "Ōtsutsuki Hagoromo." As for this "Shinigami" thing... it had seen it when it was in the belly of the First Jinchūriki of Konoha, Uzumaki Mito.
But it was completely different from what Naruto was describing.
A lie fabricated by Konoha?
Unlikely.
Such a lie would be meaningless, unable to deceive itself.
And with its own knowledge and experience, these things sounded coherent, not like falsehoods.
And the way this brat thought was easy to grasp, not like he was telling lies.
"That's the gist of it," Naruto concluded. "Regardless of whether you were born in my heart when I was in Konoha, or came with me to the Soul Society, we are partners from now on."
"Will you tell me your name?"
Nine Tails bared its teeth, exhaling a heavy breath "You speak eloquently, but I find it hard to believe your words."
"How about this."
"Brat, let me experience these things you speak of."
Naruto was puzzled "Experience?"
"What should I do?"
Nine Tails pondered, its gaze shifting from the sealing marks on the gate "Consider it a reward for pleasing me this time."
"No need to resist my chakra any longer, I will control it carefully to borrow your senses and feel the world."
It wanted Naruto to remove the seal, to release itself.
But... the things he said, though different from Naruto's conception of the "Afterlife," sounded convincing.
Half its body was still sealed within the soul of that Fourth Hokage fellow.
Compared to a momentary release, completing its physical form was more important.
"If are not in Konoha, would you tell me your name..." Naruto remained stubbornly focused on this question.
~Clang~
The claw slammed hard against the gate bars, the Nine Tails irritated by the question "I might consider that, brat!"
Its power surged, driving Naruto out.
Vision went black.
That sensation of weightless falling again.
Before he even opened his eyes...
A pungent, putrid stench was prying into his nostrils.
Something was rotting.
Naruto opened his eyes—
Not the bright, spacious classroom, but lying on a bed in a cramped, narrow room.
The room felt familiar.
It was... his old residence in Konoha.
He sat up, his gaze following the odor in bemusement.
Unwashed instant ramen cups, an open carton of spoiled milk, some half-eaten fish and mushrooms that could pass as side dishes...
Memories flashed through his mind.
Instant ramen had practically been his only sustenance in recent years, as no one was willing to sell him anything, so he had to stock up on this cheap fast food.
The fish and mushrooms... he had foraged them from the mountains, not easy to come by.
But...
Hadn't he already died?
How did he end up back in Konoha, in this residence he had almost forgotten?
The somewhat difficult but very happy days in the Soul Society and the Shin'ō Academy - what were those?
"This doesn't seem to be the 'Soul Society' you mentioned, brat." Nine Tails' slightly angry voice sounded in Naruto's ear.
Naruto snapped back to attention "Can you see?"
"No." Nine Tails was impatient. "But didn't I say I could borrow your senses to experience this world?"
"So?"
"Where's the evidence of the Soul Society?"
Naruto remained silent, puzzled himself.
Could it have been a dream?
But such a long, vivid dream...
He frowned, about to get up from the bed to push open the door and take a look.
But a pain in his waist, something hard jabbing him.
Naruto looked down.
It was a sheathed sword, the sword guard pressing against his abdomen.
He perked up!
It was the Asauchi.
He reached out, gripping the hilt and lifting it.
"Can you see this sword?" Naruto spoke, his eyes burning.
Nine Tails was puzzled "A sword? There's no..."
It paused, "Huh, strange, you really do have a weapon in your hand."
It had seen many styles of shinobi tools.
Whether ordinary kunai, shuriken, or the Kiri blades with their peculiar effects, even the Sage of Six Paths' Bashōsen and Sword of Nunoboko... none of them were like the one Naruto held.
Those weapons, no matter how special, had a tangible existence in this world.
But the one in Naruto's hand...
If not pointed out, it would have been easily overlooked.
It existed in a state of intangibility, intertwined with Naruto's spiritual essence, almost like an extension of his own body.
"This is the Asauchi I told you about," Naruto's voice grew excited. "Although I'm not sure why we're back in Konoha, the Asauchi came back with me, which means the Soul Society and Shin'ō Academy weren't just a dream!"
"They really exist!"
Nine Tails hummed noncommittally.
"Now you should tell me your name." Naruto said matter-of-factly.
Nine Tails bared its teeth "It's just a weapon, that doesn't prove anything."
It was also puzzled.
This kind of weapon... it was hard to say if it was forged by shinobi. In its long lifespan, it had indeed seen some shinobi techniques related to the soul - like the "Corpse Clone Technique," the "Reaper Death Seal"... but even the Shinigami summoned by the latter didn't have this kind of feel.
Instinct told it that Naruto wasn't lying, the Soul Society must exist.
But without witnessing it firsthand, it was hard to believe.
Naruto held back, not shouting.
He gripped the Asauchi, pondering why he had suddenly returned to Konoha.
Was it because... he entered the inner world?
He tried Jinzen again, reentering that "sewer" area, but after the Nine Tails drove him out, he was still in his little home, not back at the Shin'ō Academy.
He tried various other strange methods, but none were effective.
Couldn't go back?
Naruto looked out the window at the Hokage Rock in the distance, tightening his hold on the Asauchi.
No...
There was still a chance!
The Gotei 13 carried out "Soul Burial" dispatching Shinigami to the living world.
Konoha would be no exception.
As long as he found that Shinigami, he could still return to the Soul Society.
As for now...
First, figure out what changes had occurred in Konoha during his absence.
Just not sure how to explain to Konoha his sudden disappearance for three years, only to return still not having grown.
But the furnishings in the room were unchanged, the neglected state...
Probably no one would even care about him.
Naruto cleaned up the place, disposing of the trash.
Rummaging through the drawers, he found his meager savings of just over a thousand ryō, heading out the door towards the nearest convenience store.
Just as he reached the doorway, an old man in an apron came rushing out of the house, waving a broom in a panic "Get out, get out, you plague!"
"I told you, don't come near my store!"
Naruto looked up at him, his expression surprised.
Not surprised by this attitude -
The people of Konoha were all like this, openly malicious towards him.
But the appearance of this convenience store owner had not changed at all, despite Naruto having spent over three years in the Soul Society.
He tiptoed to look at the digital clock inside, completely different from the mechanical alarm clock he used in Soul Society, displaying the time and date.
It was not three years later.
Still the same day he left Konoha for the Soul Society.
It was as if... time had been frozen at the moment he left, only to resume flowing once he returned.
"You bastard, didn't you hear me?" The store owner didn't care what Naruto was thinking, this unyielding behavior eyeing his shop only fueled his anger further, raising the broom high to strike at Naruto.
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