Hello, AMagicWriter here. I'm happy to publish the first Chapter of Better Late Than Never

If you want to Read 7 More Chapters Right Now. Search 'www.patreon.com/AMagicWriter40' in Websearch.

The following 7 chapters are already available to Patrons.

Chapter 2 (A Shinobi's Heart), Chapter 3 (The Weight of Dreams), Chapter 4 (Leaving Konoha), Chapter 5 (The Singing Seal), Chapter 6 (The Art of Connection), Chapter 7 (Veil of the Mother Tree), and Chapter 8 (Her Wings, Their Chains) are already available for Patrons.

The hospital room was quiet except for the steady beeping of medical equipment. Naruto sat on the edge of his bed, bandages covering most of his body, his normally bright blue eyes dulled with exhaustion and defeat. The fight at the Valley of the End played over and over in his mind—every punch, every exchange, every word. And the final moment when Sasuke had walked away, leaving him unconscious in the rain.

The door slid open, and Naruto looked up to see Jiraiya standing there. The Toad Sage's usual jovial expression was nowhere to be seen, replaced by an uncharacteristically serious look.

"How are you feeling, kid?" Jiraiya asked, pulling up a chair beside the bed.

"I'm fine," Naruto mumbled, his fingers clutching the sheets. "The Nine-Tails' chakra healed most of the wounds already."

Jiraiya nodded slowly, studying his student's face. "I heard about what happened. The whole thing, from start to finish."

"Then you know I have to get stronger," Naruto said, his voice gaining some of its usual determination. "I need to train harder, learn more jutsu. Next time, I'll definitely bring him back. I promised Sakura-chan that I would—"

"And what then?" Jiraiya interrupted.

Naruto blinked, thrown off by the question. "What do you mean, what then? I'll bring Sasuke back to the village, away from Orochimaru, and everything will go back to normal!"

"Normal?" Jiraiya's voice took on an edge Naruto had never heard before. "What exactly is normal about any of this?"

"I know Sasuke's confused right now, but if I can just talk to him again, make him understand—"

"ENOUGH!" Jiraiya's shout echoed through the room, making Naruto jump. The boy stared at his teacher, blue eyes wide with shock. In all their time together, Jiraiya had never raised his voice at him like this.

"You fool," Jiraiya said, his voice trembling with barely contained anger. "You absolute fool."

"Ero-sennin, I—"

"No. You're going to shut up and listen for once in your life," Jiraiya cut him off, standing up. His imposing figure loomed over Naruto. "Because out of all the young shinobi I've met—and I've met many—you might just be the most foolish of them all."

Naruto felt his face grow hot with anger. "How can you say that? I'm trying to save my friend!"

"Your friend?" Jiraiya laughed, but there was no humor in it. "Your friend who shoved a Chidori through your chest? Your friend who left you for dead? That friend?"

"You don't understand—"

"No, YOU don't understand!" Jiraiya's fist slammed against the wall, making the medical equipment rattle. "And that headband you're wearing? Maybe you don't deserve to wear it at all."

Naruto's hand instinctively went to his forehead protector, his fingers tracing the leaf symbol. "What are you talking about? I earned this!"

"Did you? Because from where I'm standing, you're acting more like a lovesick civilian than a shinobi of the Hidden Leaf." Jiraiya's words cut deep. "Let's talk about your brilliant decisions lately, shall we?"

"I did what I had to do!"

"Oh really? Let's start with the Chunin Exams," Jiraiya began counting off on his fingers. "You barely prepared, relied almost entirely on the Nine-Tails' chakra, and showed absolutely no tactical thinking. You won against Neji through sheer luck and stubborn determination—admirable, but not the makings of a true shinobi."

"I still won, didn't I?"

"And that's exactly your problem! You think winning is all that matters, but you never stop to think about how or why!" Jiraiya's voice grew harder. "Then there's your brilliant handling of Sasuke's jealousy and isolation. Did you ever once try to understand what he was going through? Did you ever notice how he was spiraling?"

Naruto opened his mouth to respond, but Jiraiya wasn't finished.

"And let's talk about that promise to Sakura," Jiraiya continued, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "The promise to bring back someone who doesn't want to be brought back. Did you even think about what that meant? About what you'd have to do to keep that promise?"

"I never go back on my word! That's my ninja way!"

"YOUR NINJA WAY WILL GET YOU KILLED!" Jiraiya roared, and for the first time, Naruto saw real fear behind his teacher's anger. "Do you think Orochimaru will just let you walk up and take his new vessel? Do you think Sasuke will come quietly next time? He'll kill you, Naruto. He'll kill you, and your precious 'ninja way' will mean nothing when you're dead!"

Tears of frustration welled up in Naruto's eyes. "So what am I supposed to do? Just give up on him?"

"Yes," Jiraiya said bluntly. "That's exactly what you're supposed to do."

"I can't do that!"

"Then you'll never be Hokage."

The words hung in the air like a physical presence. Naruto felt as if all the air had been sucked from his lungs.

"W-what?"

"You heard me," Jiraiya's voice was quieter now, but no less intense. "A Hokage's duty is to the village first. Always. Do you think the Third would have chased after Orochimaru if it meant abandoning the village? Do you think the Fourth would have ignored his duties to save one person?"

"But Sasuke is part of the village!"

"No, Naruto. Sasuke WAS part of the village. He made his choice. He chose power over loyalty, revenge over bonds. He's a missing-nin now, and if you can't accept that, you have no business dreaming about becoming Hokage."

Naruto's hands were shaking. "You're wrong. You're wrong about everything! Sasuke is my friend, and I won't abandon him!"

"Then you're not just a fool, you're a dangerous fool," Jiraiya said coldly. "Because next time, you won't be in a hospital bed, you will be in a grave, and the worst part, you won't be alone. It'll be with Shikamaru, or Choji, or Kiba, or Neji. Are you willing to sacrifice their lives for your obsession with Sasuke?"

The question hit Naruto like a bucket of ice water. The images of his injured friends flashed through his mind—Choji, nearly dead from his soldier pills; Neji, with a hole in his chest; Kiba, beaten and broken; Shikamaru, the guilt in his eyes as he apologized for the mission's failure.

"I... I didn't..."

"Didn't think about that, did you?" Jiraiya's voice softened slightly. "Because you never think, Naruto. You feel, you act, you charge forward—but you never stop to think about the consequences."

"But... but what about you?" Naruto asked, his voice small. "You've been chasing after Orochimaru all these years..."

"Yes, I have," Jiraiya acknowledged. "But not at the expense of everything else. I've continued to serve the village, to gather intelligence, to train shinobi like you. I didn't let my failure with Orochimaru define my entire existence."

He sat back down, looking suddenly tired. "And do you want to know the hardest lesson I had to learn? Sometimes, people don't want to be saved. Sometimes, they make choices we don't agree with, choices that hurt us, and we have to let them go."

"But—"

"No buts, Naruto. Sasuke chose to leave. He chose to seek power from Orochimaru. He chose to try to kill you rather than return to the village. These were his choices, not yours."

Naruto stared at his hands, his vision blurring with tears. "Then what am I supposed to do?"

"You're supposed to grow up," Jiraiya said firmly. "You're supposed to learn from this failure instead of blindly repeating it. You're supposed to think about what it really means to be a shinobi of the Hidden Leaf."

He stood up and walked to the window, looking out at the village. "You want to be Hokage? Then start acting like it. Think about the village as a whole, not just your personal feelings. Train not just to chase after Sasuke, but to protect everyone who needs protecting. Learn to make the hard choices, even when they break your heart."

"I don't know if I can," Naruto whispered.

"Then you're not ready," Jiraiya said simply. "And you won't be ready until you understand that being Hokage isn't about keeping promises to your friends or never going back on your word. It's about putting the village first, always. It's about making decisions that keep you up at night because there are no good choices, only less terrible ones."

He turned back to Naruto. "So you have a choice to make, kid. You can keep chasing after Sasuke until it gets you or your friends killed, or you can start walking the real path to becoming Hokage. But you can't do both. You have to let go of Sasuke. You abandoned your teammates to chase after him."

"Wait," Naruto called out, his voice hoarse. "You don't understand. I couldn't just let him go without trying everything I could!"

"Everything you could? Let's talk about what you actually did. You abandoned your teammates—the same ones who nearly died trying to help you."

"I didn't abandon them! I went ahead because—"

"Because of Sasuke," Jiraiya cut in sharply. "Always because of Sasuke. Tell me, what was the one thing—the ONE thing—Kakashi drilled into your head from day one?"

Naruto's voice grew quiet. "Those who abandon their comrades are worse than scum..."

"Exactly. And what did you do? You left Shikamaru behind when he was fighting Tayuya. You didn't even stop to check if Choji was still alive. You broke the most fundamental rule of being a shinobi, and for what? So you could have your dramatic one-on-one fight with Sasuke?"

"I trusted them to handle their fights!" Naruto protested.

"Oh? And how did that work out? Choji nearly died from soldier pill poisoning. Neji's heart almost stopped. Kiba and Akamaru were beaten half to death. And Shikamaru—the team leader YOU were supposed to follow—was left to face an enemy alone until Temari showed up."

Naruto's face paled as each injury was listed off.

"But that's not even the worst part," Jiraiya continued, his voice growing colder. "When you finally caught up to Sasuke at the Valley, what did you do? Did you act like a shinobi of the Leaf?"

"I tried to talk to him, to make him understand—"

"And that was your first mistake!" Jiraiya slammed his hand on the bedside table. "You should have asked him once—ONCE—if he would return peacefully. The moment he refused, your duty as a Leaf shinobi was clear. You should have gone for the kill immediately, without hesitation."

Naruto recoiled as if struck. "Kill him? But he's my friend!"

"No! At that moment, he was an enemy combatant attempting to defect to Orochimaru—the same man who killed the Third Hokage, your teacher, the man you called Old Man!" Jiraiya's voice rose with each word. "The same man who experiments on children and destroys lives for his own gain. And you, instead of eliminating a clear threat to the village, decided to have a heart-to-heart chat and a drawn-out battle!"

"I couldn't just kill him!"

"Then you're not ready to be a shinobi, let alone Hokage!" Jiraiya roared. "Do you think ANBU hesitate when they're ordered to eliminate a threat? Do you think the Fourth Hokage waited to have a nice chat with enemy ninja during the war? This isn't a game, Naruto! This isn't one of your childhood spats that can be resolved with a good fight and a handshake!"

Naruto's hands were trembling. "But... but that would make me just like him. Just like Sasuke, choosing to kill a friend..."

"No," Jiraiya's voice softened slightly, but remained firm. "It would make you a shinobi doing his duty. Sasuke chose to betray the village for power and revenge. You would have been protecting the village by eliminating a threat. There's a world of difference."

He walked back to Naruto's bed and sat down heavily. "Let me tell you something about being Hokage that you clearly don't understand. Sometimes, you have to give orders that send your friends to their deaths. Sometimes, you have to sacrifice one person to save many. Sometimes, you have to kill people you once called comrades because they've become a threat to everything you're sworn to protect."

"Is that... is that really what being Hokage means?" Naruto asked, his voice small.

"That's part of it. It's not all glory and respect and having your face carved on a mountain. It's about making the hard choices, the ones that keep you awake at night. It's about putting the village before your personal feelings, every single time."

Jiraiya stood up again. "So you need to decide right now: are you a child playing at being ninja, or are you ready to become a real shinobi? Because if you ever find yourself facing Sasuke again, you can't hesitate. You can't waste time trying to 'save' him. The moment he proves himself a threat, you either eliminate him or die trying. That's what it means to wear that headband."

He walked to the door again, pausing with his hand on the handle. "Think about everything I've said. Think about your teammates who almost died while you were having your dramatic showdown. Think about what it really means to protect this village. And when you're ready to take this seriously—really seriously—come find me. Until then, you're just a kid playing ninja games."

The door closed behind him with a final click, leaving Naruto alone with thoughts that would change his perspective forever. The weight of reality, of what it truly meant to be a shinobi, settled over him like a suffocating blanket. His dreams of becoming Hokage suddenly seemed childish and naive in the face of the harsh truths Jiraiya had forced him to confront.

After Jiraiya left, Naruto sat motionless in his hospital bed, his teacher's words echoing in his mind like thunder. His hands trembled as he reached up and untied his headband, holding it in front of him. The leaf symbol caught the fading sunlight from his window, and for the first time, he saw it not as a mark of his dreams, but as a symbol of responsibility—one he might have failed to honor.

"I didn't even check on them," he whispered to himself, his voice cracking. The realization hit him like a punch. "I have been here for hours. I could have checked on them... all of them..."

Images flashed through his mind: Choji, always kind despite the teasing he endured, lying somewhere in these same halls, his body ravaged by the soldier pills. Neji, who had changed so much after their fight, who had learned to believe in changing fate—only to nearly have his own fate end protecting Naruto's mission. Kiba and Akamaru, loyal to a fault, beaten and broken. Shikamaru, who had trusted him as a team member, left to face an enemy alone.

His fingers clenched around the headband until his knuckles turned white. "What kind of friend am I? What kind of shinobi?"

Sasuke's face appeared in his mind, but this time, instead of seeing his friend, he saw what Jiraiya had tried to make him see—a ninja with a curse mark, wielding a Chidori aimed at his heart, fully intending to kill him. Not for the village, not for a mission, but for power. For revenge.

"He... he really would have killed me," Naruto admitted aloud, the words tasting bitter in his mouth. "He wasn't holding back at all."

The truth he'd been avoiding crashed down around him. Every moment of their fight played back in his mind, but now he saw it through different eyes. He saw himself, trying to talk, trying to reason, while Sasuke responded with increasingly lethal attacks. He saw himself holding back, trying not to hurt his friend, while Sasuke aimed killing blow after killing blow.

"Ero-sennin was right," he murmured, tears falling onto his headband. "I wasn't fighting like a shinobi. I was fighting like a kid on the academy playground. And because of that..."

He looked at his hands, remembering how many times he'd formed the Rasengan during that fight. 

Naruto swung his legs over the side of the bed, wincing at the residual pain. His body protested, but he pushed himself to stand. He tied his headband back on, but it felt heavier now, weighted with new understanding.

"I need to see them," he decided, his voice firm despite his tears. "I need to face what my actions caused. What my... my obsession with Sasuke did to my real friends."

He made his way to the door, leaning against the wall for support. A medical-nin passing by tried to stop him, but the look in his eyes made her step back.

"Which rooms are they in?" he asked quietly. "My teammates from the retrieval mission. I need to see them."

The medical-nin hesitated, then nodded, understanding something in his demeanor had changed. "Choji Akimaru is in Room 301, still in critical care but stable. Neji Hyuga is in 304, recovering from surgery. Kiba Inuzuka and his ninken are in 302, both under observation. Shikamaru Nara was treated for minor injuries and released, but he's been here visiting the others."

Naruto nodded, memorizing each room number. "Thank you."

As he made his way down the hall, each step felt like lead. This wouldn't be like his usual visits—loud, optimistic, full of promises and bright smiles. This would be different. This would be him facing the consequences of his actions, of his choices.

"I've been such a fool," he muttered, pausing outside Choji's room. "But that stops now. No more charging ahead without thinking. No more putting my promises to one person above everyone else's safety. No more playing at being a ninja."

He took a deep breath, steeling himself for what he would find inside. This was his first step toward becoming what Jiraiya had talked about—a real shinobi, someone worthy of wearing the leaf symbol. It would hurt, seeing his friends like this, knowing he had contributed to their conditions. But that pain was necessary.

"Time to grow up," he whispered, and slid open the door to face the consequences of his actions.

The sight of Choji, pale and thin in his hospital bed, surrounded by medical equipment, would be forever burned into his memory—a reminder of what happens when personal feelings are put before duty.

The steady beeping of medical equipment filled Choji's room. The usually robust boy looked skeletal, his body ravaged by the effects of the soldier pills. Tubes ran into his arms, and his breathing was shallow.

"Hey... Choji," Naruto said softly, approaching the bed. The guilt intensified when he saw Choji struggle just to turn his head.

"Naruto..." Choji's voice was barely a whisper. "Did you... get Sasuke back?"

The innocent question felt like a kunai to the heart. "No," Naruto replied, his voice cracking. "I failed. And look what that failure cost..."

"Don't worry about it," Choji tried to smile, but even that seemed to drain his energy. "We all knew... the risks..."

"But you shouldn't have had to take them," Naruto's hands clenched. "Not for..."

He couldn't finish the sentence. Seeing Choji's condition, the words stuck in his throat.

In Neji's room, the situation wasn't much better. The Hyuga prodigy lay still, his chest heavily bandaged. The monitor showed his heartbeat—steady now, but Naruto had heard how close it had come to stopping completely.

"Naruto," Neji acknowledged him, his voice stronger than Choji's but still weak. "I trust you're recovering well?"

"Me?" Naruto almost laughed at the absurdity. "I'm fine. But you... you almost died. And for what?"

"For the mission," Neji stated simply. "Though I assume from your expression that Sasuke did not return willingly."

"No," Naruto admitted. "He tried to kill me. He would have succeeded if not for the Nine-Tails' chakra."

Neji's expression grew serious. "Then perhaps it's time to accept that some bonds cannot be preserved, no matter how much we wish otherwise."

Kiba's room was next, where both he and Akamaru were recovering. The usually energetic duo was subdued, with Akamaru whimpering softly on a cushion next to Kiba's bed.

"About time you showed up," Kiba growled, but there was no real anger in his voice. "How'd it go with your precious Uchiha?"

The sarcasm in Kiba's voice made Naruto flinch. "He... he chose to leave."

"No shit," Kiba snorted. "Could've told you that before we all got our asses handed to us. Oh wait, I did."

"Kiba, I—"

"Save it," Kiba cut him off. "Just... next time you want to chase after a traitor, maybe think about who you're dragging down with you."

The last stop was finding Shikamaru, who was sitting in the hospital's garden area, staring at his bandaged finger. The same finger he'd broken to escape Tayuya's genjutsu.

"Shikamaru..." Naruto started.

"You know what the worst part is?" Shikamaru didn't look up. "I was the team leader. Their injuries are on me. I made the calls that put them in those rooms."

"No," Naruto's voice was firm. "It's on me. I was the one who insisted on going after Sasuke. I was the one who ran ahead without thinking. I was the one..."

"Playing at being a ninja?" Shikamaru finished, finally looking at him. "Yeah, we all were. But some of us learned from this. The question is, did you?"

Naruto sank onto the bench beside him, the weight of everything crushing down. He thought about Jiraiya's words, about seeing his friends in their hospital beds, about Sasuke's Chidori aimed at his heart.

"I've been such a child," he whispered. "Running around shouting about being Hokage, making promises I couldn't keep, thinking everything would work out if I just tried hard enough. But that's not how the real world works, is it?"

"No," Shikamaru agreed. "It's not."

"All this time, I've been playing ninja while everyone else was living it. Sasuke... he wasn't playing. He was ready to kill me. And I couldn't even see it because I was too busy clinging to some childhood promise."

"So what are you going to do about it?"

Naruto looked at his hands, then up at the hospital windows where his friends lay recovering. "I'm going to grow up. I'm going to learn what it really means to be a shinobi, not just play at being one. And..." he swallowed hard, "I'm going to stop pretending that wearing this headband means I'm ready to be Hokage. I'm not. Not even close."

"That's the smartest thing I've heard you say," Shikamaru nodded. "Ever."

"Ero-sennin was right," Naruto continued, his voice strengthening with conviction. "About everything. About Sasuke, about what it means to be a real shinobi, about me... I've been treating all this like some kind of game, where trying your best always means you win in the end. But look where that got us. Look what it cost everyone."

He stood up, looking toward the Hokage Monument visible in the distance. "If I ever face Sasuke again... it won't be as a friend trying to save him. It'll be as a shinobi of the Hidden Leaf, dealing with a threat to the village. No more games. No more childish promises."

"You really mean that?" Shikamaru asked, studying him carefully.

"Yeah," Naruto nodded, his voice heavy with newfound maturity. "I do. Because that's what being a real shinobi means. That's what protecting the village means. And if I ever want to be worthy of being Hokage... that's what I need to become."

The sun was setting over Konoha, casting long shadows across the garden. In those shadows, a boy who had been playing at being ninja finally began to understand what it meant to become one. The path ahead would be harder, darker, and more complex than his childhood dreams had ever imagined, but for the first time, he was ready to walk it with his eyes open to reality.

If you want to Read 7 More Chapters Right Now. Search 'www.patreon.com/AMagicWriter40' in Websearch.