Byakuya Kuchiki stood on the rooftop, unsure of what to do.
The blond figure in the street was glaringly bright.
Without a word, Naruto had rushed out. Should he go down to join them?
He hesitated, caught in indecision.
Naruto and Hijin were already chatting and laughing. "You and Byakuya seem to be quite close, don't you?"
At the mention, a fleeting change came over Hijin's expression. She shook her head with a wry smile. "Brother Kuchiki is a Shinigami, and apparently a noble. I'm just an ordinary soul—there's no talk of being 'close.'"
"Really?" Naruto feigned confusion, "I thought you were great friends."
"After all, Byakuya often talks about you in front of me."
Naruto emphasized the words "great friends," drawing out the pronunciation.
Hijin was surprised, joy almost spilling from her eyes. "Really? Does Brother Kuchiki really mention me?"
"Of course," Naruto replied softly.
As they conversed, Naruto slowly uncovered more of her past.
After her death, she was born into the "Dog Hanging" district, a place with such harsh living conditions that she fled to the area they were in now.
Byakuya Kuchiki had met her by chance two years ago while on a mission.
They had only met occasionally since.
According to Hijin, they didn't meet often—only every few months. Each time, Byakuya was there for a mission, and after a short conversation, he would leave.
"Is there something wrong with Brother Kuchiki? Is that why you came to find me, Lord Uzumaki?" Hijin hesitantly asked after a brief chat.
She noticed the young blond before her skirting around questions about her and Brother Kuchiki, probing her past without ever stating his purpose.
This left her with some unsettling thoughts.
Naruto did not reply.
He sensed a spiritual pressure stirring, someone growing agitated. A gentle breeze blew, and that person landed beside him.
"It's just coincidental due to my mission," Byakuya Kuchiki said with a composed expression, his voice steady. "He knows I have acquaintances in Rukongai and couldn't resist a look."
He paused, then added, "I have few friends in Seireitei, which piqued his curiosity."
Fēi Zhen nodded, feeling inexplicably disappointed.
So that's it.
Just friends.
"Fēi Zhen-sister, do you believe it?" Naruto leaned forward.
This question left Fēi Zhen momentarily stunned.
Believe what?
Whether Lord Uzumaki is genuinely curious about her or whether "just friends" is true.
Byakuya Kuchiki couldn't help but press Naruto's head down, overwhelmed by an urge to bury him underground.
However, since he was already here, he couldn't resist engaging with Fēi Zhen.
With Naruto around, "falsehood" and "truth" always sprang from his lips at the most inopportune times, making both of them somewhat distracted.
Half an hour later, Byakuya Kuchiki, tugging Naruto along, said their farewells and left.
They had just flash-stepped out of the area.
"Naruto," Byakuya Kuchiki took a deep breath, his tone still calm.
But from the way he addressed him, you could sense the turmoil in his heart, "Why did you do that?"
Naruto walked ahead, "Because you're too reserved."
"I don't want you to regret it to the extreme after she's gone, lamenting why you didn't cherish the time with her when you had the chance."
Byakuya Kuchiki lowered his head in silence.
Naruto continued, "Don't turn into someone as rigid as a stone."
"Byakuya, you're already excellent. No one would think less of you because of this."
Byakuya Kuchiki matched his stride, "I don't want to become like Ganryūjinmitsume."
Naruto chuckled, "He's a scumbag because he doesn't know how to cherish."
"Holding treasure in his hand, yet trampling it carelessly."
"You're not like that, Byakuya. You cherish her deeply."
Byakuya Kuchiki remained silent.
He found Naruto becoming annoyingly similar to Yoruichi Shihouin.
From this day forward, he secretly vowed not to visit Rukongai.
As long as he could conquer and suppress these feelings within him, there wouldn't be so many problems.
Naruto didn't give him a chance.
He would always drag him out forcefully, taking him to the Rukongai to meet Fei Zhen.
Initially, Byakuya would resist, and Naruto would bind him with adamantine chains to bring him along. But later, realizing resistance was futile, he resigned himself. Now, whenever Naruto arrived, he would obediently go with him to Rukongai. Sometimes, if Naruto was a bit late, a faint, almost imperceptible trace of anxiety could be seen on his face.
However, progress was still slow.
At most, Byakuya would chat with Fei Zhen or help her with chores—a lifetime of tasks he had never done as the "Kuchiki Clan heir."
Both of them faced a heavy barrier in their hearts, making it difficult to voice their inner thoughts.
Naruto no longer interfered.
He had hardly any understanding of matters of the heart. He sought advice from Uncle Shunsui, but the suggestions from those two old men sounded utterly ridiculous. Hence, it seemed better to do nothing rather than act haphazardly.
Byakuya and Fei Zhen had started down this path; he had no reason to complicate things.
Naruto focused more on his research and observations. Ginjo Kugo appeared not to be an experiment of Aizen's, which intrigued him regarding that "Hollow aura." Using his own words, he explained that during his embryonic stage, when his mother was pregnant, they were attacked by a Hollow, resulting in his possessing a Hollow aura.
Within the Seireitei, everything remained calm and stable.
Nothing particularly unusual occurred. It seemed even Aizen had begun to behave himself.
Soifon continued to idle in the office, unable to determine the reason—under the assumption of the "Hollowfication incident being resolved," a result almost universally accepted in the Seireitei, it was indeed challenging to break away from such fixed thoughts without notable hints.
As time trickled by, Naruto began preparing for his next return to the Shinobi World.
He wanted to know what he could bring back and wished to understand the principles of traveling between the two worlds. Although he confirmed that the clothes on his body couldn't be taken back, his zanpakuto could. During this period, he always carried a scroll with him, attaching a strip of cloth inscribed with words to his zanpakuto.
On the twenty-fourth year, Naruto woke from sleep and opened his eyes to survey his surroundings.
It wasn't his own room.
It was the inn where he stayed the night in the village.
He had returned to the Shinobi World.
He checked the belongings he had prepared.
Not a single scroll or cloth strip tied to his Zanpakuto had come back with him.
This made Naruto frown, confirming a suspicion.
Only things belonging to one's own soul could be brought back?
The two worlds seemed only connected through himself.
He stretched out his hand again and tried the "Summoning Jutsu".
The curse seal was formed, but nothing was summoned.
Even after Mayuri Kurotsuchi's modifications, the essence of the technique remained summoning objects from the same space, and the Soul Society and Shinobi World were not the same space at all.
Just as he was pondering this.
Within his inner world, the Nine-Tails couldn't help but speak, its tone anxious yet with a hint of joy: "Naruto, we've returned to the Shinobi World."
Naruto smiled.
He knew what the Nine-Tails wanted.
In the Soul Society, with someone like Aizen Sōsuke around, even if he had learned how to temporarily release the Nine-Tails, he still couldn't use it.
But there was no Aizen Sōsuke in the Shinobi World.
Naruto leapt out the window to the outskirts of town.
Standing in the forest, he extended his hand, letting chakra flow to the fingertips, and placed it on his stomach, gently twisting.
On his belly, the curse seal unfolded, and the Four Symbols Seal opened slowly like a fan, but stopped halfway.
The swirling curse pattern near the doorway formed a line that flew into his inner world, connecting with the Nine-Tails' belly.
This technique, researched by Mayuri Kurotsuchi, he named the "Outer Four Symbols Seal".
Upon casting it, there was a sensation of flipping the "Four Symbols Seal" inside out.
The line formed by the curse pattern provided the Nine-Tails with a path out of Naruto's body.
First, a tail emerged, then a paw, and gradually, the enormous body of the Nine-Tails squeezed through the small opening created by the Four Symbols Seal.
The slender thread remained.
It was the manifestation of the "Four Symbols Seal" when unfurled, symbolizing the bond that continued to link Naruto and the Nine-Tails' lifeforce together.
"This is what freedom feels like." The Nine-Tails cautiously waved its tail, clearing a section of the forest, then sat down, extending its paw towards Naruto.
With a quick step, Naruto landed on its shoulder, "But there's still no way to fully unleash it."
"This isn't bad as it is," the Nine-Tails yawned, lowering itself to lie down, "Ninjas are such bothersome creatures."
"If they knew I was fully released,"
"they'd definitely come to pester me, trying to seal me again."
"Staying by your side is definitely better than that."
Recalling something, it spoke with disdain, "Isn't there an organization called Akatsuki? They want to capture us Tailed Beasts."
"The Sharingan is truly an evil power!"
Mentioning those three words, it couldn't help but feel both frightened and wary.
Naruto tilted his head to look at it, "Wanna try reducing your size?"
"You're too conspicuous like this."
"It's a good thing it's the middle of the night, otherwise, just like before, we'd attract countless ninjas."
The Nine-Tails swished its tail, knocking over a few more trees, and grumbled, "Let me enjoy the world like this for a while longer."
"I'll think about how to shrink later."
It relished this feeling.
It had been over a hundred years since it felt this exhilarating.
In the town.
Urged by a few hostesses, the drunken Jiraiya suddenly sobered up.
He sensed a massive chakra surging in the distance, causing his heart to race and filling him with unease.
This feeling drove him out of the izakaya to leap onto the rooftops, staring into the distance.
The massive creature with its fiery red fur made him snap to his senses.
What is that?
The Nine-Tails?!
(End of Chapter)