Outside, things were already being set into motion as Haruto awoke from his sleep. Shinobi had already begun to rebuild the destroyed buildings. Haruto suspected that he had been out for a few hours since the sun was now high in the sky. He looked around and saw the first person that he wanted to see… Tsunade. He quickly ran over to her with a purpose.
As he came closer, he saw that she was overseeing the survivors that they had stashed away within the Hokage Mountain safe rooms to make sure that they were not infected by their bite. He stopped a few feet away from her as he saw that she was very busy. Not trying to be selfish, Haruto waited for what felt like hours until she finally noticed he was standing there. She waved other medic ninja over and walked over Haruto with a smile on her face. "Haruto-kun, how are you? Can you believe that this is all finally over?"
Haruto chuckled darkly and stared at the ground with cold, dead eyes. It's over for you guys, at least. He looked back up to her with a weak smile on his tanned and dirtied face. "That's actually what I wanted to talk to you about, Baa-chan…" Tsunade got a questioning look on her face and followed Haruto as he began to pace off. She came up beside him. "What do you mean, Haruto-kun?" Haruto stopped walking and sighed much like Naruko had done so much when he talked to her about the situation. He turned to Tsunade with a sullen look on his face. "Baa-chan…I can't stay here…"
Haruto's first words shocked Tsunade to no end. She felt her eyes beginning to burn… she didn't want to lose her godson because of this. "What do you mean? Why can't you stay?" Haruto's face seemed to get darker. "Because while this thing is over for all of you…it is not over for me. Kyuubi talked to me when I slept a few hours ago…" Tsunade's following gasp was understandable to Haruto. He had never told anyone that he had started talking to Kyuubi. Hell… they still thought that he and the fox hated each other with a deadly passion. Tsunade's next words shocked Haruto, though. "What did the Kyuubi say, Haruto-kun?"
Not willing to look a gift horse in the mouth, Haruto continued. "She told me that there will be another outbreak… far more dangerous than this one… but it is far from here. She is going to take me there tomorrow and the odds of me coming are low. I wanted to tell you before I left." Haruto could see that Tsunade was ready to cry. "What if I say no?" Haruto gave a weak smile and looked down, but then hardened and looked back up again. "I would still go. If what she told me is accurate, then I may be the wildcard in the outbreak. Where it is, they cannot use chakra which in turn means that they cannot use jutsu. With me, they would stand a greater chance."
Tsunade had small tears streaming down her face now and her face was starting to fall. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. She looked down with a pitiful frown. "Haruto-kun..." Haruto started to feel his own eyes burn with tears and closed the distance between them, pulling his grandmother into a tight hug. He clenched his eyes shut as he felt his tears begin to fall into her hair. "Baa-chan… don't worry about me… please don't cry…" Haruto's words only made her cry more, but underneath all of the tears, Tsunade gave a small but genuine smile as her thoughts ran through her head. My godson is finally a man…
Tsunade pulled back and looked at Haruto with her smile on her face. "Haruto-kun… as long as you know what you are doing then I am happy. I will be sad, yes… but I won't stop you from doing what you think is right." Haruto smiled and pulled her back into the hug. When it ended, he spoke. "Baa-chan… thank you. But you know what that means you'll have to do, right?" Tsunade looked down and nodded. "I know… I'll bring up your resignation papers and sign them myself when the repairs to the Hokage Tower are complete. Since you'll be gone before them I'll have to sign them down as a dishonorable discharge, though." Haruto smiled softly to reassure her, but if he were honest, the thought of a dishonorable discharge after all he had done for the village… burned him.
Haruto wiped the thought away and spoke again. "I know that… but it is needed. Well… I was planning on talking to the rest but I remembered that I have to pack a few of my things up. If this is going to be as bad as Kyuubi put it, then I'm going to need all of my supplies. Since I'll be gone… can you gather them in your office when it's rebuilt and tell them where I am?" Tsunade simply nodded with a teary smile before she pulled him back into a hug. "Haruto-kun… I'm going to miss you… I really am…" When their hug broke, Haruto began to walk away, but he stopped and turned. "I know you will, Baa-chan… I know you will…" With his final words to her spoken… Haruto left without another word.
It took him some time and he saw the sun beginning to set, but he finally made it to his apartment. He chuckled to himself when he saw the state of the complex… perfectly intact. I guess that they had had enough of Hell… He walked up to his apartment and opened the door to find that nothing had been touched by the looters that Konoha had experienced over the last few years of the outbreak. He chuckled darkly at this and went back to his room. I guess that I should be glad that I live in Hell…because at least they wouldn't think twice about what I might have.
Opening up his closet, Haruto began to sift through his things before he was able to find what he was looking for. It was a medium sized chest underneath the trash that lay in his space. He dragged it out and started working at the lock. It took him some time but he finally remembered the combination after not opening it for so long. Tossing the small lock aside, Haruto opened it up and inside were three storage scrolls. One was black with white edges, another was white with black edges and the last one was very shiny yet dark red that was held closed by a silky black ribbon. The black one was on the left and the white was on the right while the red lied in the middle. He sighed to himself as he thought, I never thought that I'd actually have to use these things…
Tossing his depression over this situation aside, he pulled out the dominantly black scroll and opened it up on the ground. He removed the headband, jacket and pants of his jumpsuit and unsealed the first item. It was a pair of black cargo pants that had multiple storage scrolls around the waist. Inside the scrolls were well over hundreds of kunai knives and shuriken. He quickly put them on and then put on another pair of socks. He unsealed the next item, which happened to be a pair of black steel-toed boots. He quickly put them on and tied the laces, letting the cargo pants fall over them.
Haruto kept his black shirt on and then unsealed the second to last seal on the scroll. Inside of the seal was a long, black trench coat that fell down to just above Haruto's ankles. He slipped it on and inspected it to make sure that the years had not taken their toll on it. The sleeves were intact and fell down to cover half of his hands. Inside of the jacket were seals of resistance to keep it from ripping easily. Bending down, he unsealed the last seal. Out popped a myriad of items that Haruto proceeded to put on. He put on the black gloves first that had metal plates over the back of them. He then put on the black facemask that covered his mouth and the bottom half of his nose.
Hesitating at first, Haruto picked up the black banded headband and stared down at the Konoha symbol that was carved into the silvery metal. He sighed and placed it back down onto the seal and resealed it into the scroll. I won't need that where I'm going… Haruto sat down on his knees and rolled the scroll up before putting it back in its place in the chest. He then pulled out the white scroll.
Haruto rolled the white scroll open in the same place that the black scroll was. On the scroll were ten seals. Haruto unsealed the first one and simply inspected its contents. Inside of the seal was a stack of twenty blank seal tags. Haruto inspected these to make sure that they were not deteriorated or damaged in any way. When he was satisfied with the tags, he resealed them. Haruto then simply inspected the seals themselves over the other ones. Along with the twenty blank tags, I think that I have twenty of the others… Naru-chan, what were they again? Haruto then heard the sultry voice of Naruko in his head. If I remember correctly, then you packed the explosive tags, shock burst tags… hmmm… I think that you also packed the experimental ones too. It's a shame that we couldn't test that one out… I really would've liked to see what it could do.
Haruto chuckled at the mock pouting that she did in his head. Well if things are going to go as you said that they would, then I think we will have plenty of opportunities to use them. The only problem is that being that we never tested them in an open environment, I'm not sure if I got the seal formula right. Haruto sighed and closed the scroll up and placed it in one of his cargo pockets. He then moved to the last scroll.
The last scroll, the red one, was the single, most important scroll that Haruto possessed. When he thought about it, all the money that he had put into its contents probably paid for his own life. He carefully placed it down and removed the silky black band that bound it closed. He placed the ribbon above it on the floor and unrolled the scroll with extreme care, so as not to make the scroll bend in any way. When it was unrolled completely, Haruto looked at the intricacy of the seals that were expertly placed together in a way to make sure that the contents were perfectly preserved. Haruto pricked his finger so that only a single drop of blood was drawn and he dripped the single drop on the center seal, the blood seal.
Haruto watched as smoke began to pour from the seal in different places instead of bursting forth like his others had. Haruto had his reason for designing the seals like this though. He watched as the individual streams began to collaborate in the middle into a perfect sphere of smoke. Intrigued by his own seal design, Haruto kept watching as the smoke stretched from its ball form and formed a rod-like case of smoke landscape-wise on the scroll. Finally, the smoke burst into a cloud that covered the entire room.
When the smoke finally cleared the room via the window, Haruto looked back to see that his seal design had worked in the way that he had wanted. Haruto had designed the seal to split the item up into parts and seal them into different parts on the scroll that were to keep them each in conditions that would preserve them with no problem.
On the scroll now lies a Katana. It was no Katana that any sword smith would recognize, simply because it was not any sword smith that created the sword. Haruto had asked Naruko herself to create a blade for him that could withstand scratching, breaking and dulling. Naruko had quickly obliged to his request and used their combined chakra to create a blade that would make any sword smith worth his salt cry in wonder and make them get on their knees and beg for a chance to simply touch the edge. She had created… Shukketsu Souru.
The sheath of Shukketsu Souru was blacker than the deepest abyss. Its tsuba was black as well and rectangular in shape. It had no defining marks on it as it went down the white banded handle of the blade to the gold pommel of the blade capping it off. Haruto picked it up with care in both of his hands and stood up. He strapped the blade to his side inside of his coat and quickly and gracefully pulled the blade out with no resistance and only the sound of the blade ringing to signal its coming. He inspected the blade closely. He had no idea how Naruko had been able to create such a magnificent blade, but he was grateful to her for doing it so willingly.
Whilst Haruto inspected the blade, he heard Naruko's voice once more in his head. You can sense it, can't you? You can feel the presence within the blade. The energy rolling off of it in waves. You can feel the power… can't you? Haruto nodded as he thought back to her. I can…and it confuses me. I knew that swords could be imbued with power…but this is far different. This thing that I'm feeling is not simply power… it feels like it is a living thing… and it feels oddly like your own presence.
Haruto heard the chuckle of Naruko ring through his head and he smiled slightly. He loved the sound of a woman's happiness. That is because I have imbued the sword with a fraction of my soul, Haru-kun. Haruto's eyes widened as he looked over the blade with a newfound intrigue. You put a piece of your own soul in the blade? Why'd you do that?
Because I knew that whenever you used the blade a little extra help would never hurt. With a piece of me within the blade, your possession of Shukketsu Souru would grant you considerable dominance over the element of fire.
Haruto nodded with acceptance to the answer and sheathed Shukketsu Souru. Haruto then turned to his door as he began to think to himself. Naru-chan… do you think…maybe I should leave tonight? Leave so that I don't draw too much attention to myself when I leave in the middle of the day when everyone is awake? Haruto heard Naruko sigh and couldn't help but chuckle at how many times she had done that in one day.'I know you don't want to face your friends, Haru-kun. But unfortunately you must rest before you go otherwise you may not survive the process of time travel. Rest, Haru-kun… trust me when I say that you will need it.
Haruto sighed himself and walked over to his bed and sat down. He cradled his head in his hands as he started to think to himself. I still can't believe that all of this happened. Now that it's over…I leave to fight another outbreak. Did I do something in a past life to deserve this? Did I wrong someone that I shouldn't have? Unable to think of a reason for the madness that he was being subjected to, Haruto simply lay down on top of the covers and closed his eyes, drifting into a dreamless sleep.