Konoha Notes

Chapter 419 Empty (Part 2)

Shikamaru brought Killer Bee and Naruto to the office.

As soon as the Eight-Tails' Jinchūriki entered, he strode to the desk in the middle and loudly proclaimed his demands to the person sitting on it.

Taking advantage of the break, Shikamaru moved to the small desk by the door.

He explained the situation to Itachi: "Itachi-senpai, Killer Bee has finished organizing the band members and now wants to find a suitable place to rehearse, but the logistics department said there is no suitable space."

In the main seat, Kakashi finally raised his head, or rather, Itachi's shadow clone disguised as Kakashi raised his head.

"The venue... is indeed a problem."

"The interior space plan for the Joint Affairs Bureau building has been finalized."

"Use of Konoha Village's space requires permission from the Hokage's office, and the Joint Affairs Bureau does not have sufficient authority to requisition it."

Naruto raised his hand and eagerly said, "Then let's go find Fifth Hokage and Shuji, and Uncle Bi."

"They'll definitely find a way!"

“Those two are quite busy right now, Naruto.” Kakashi shook his head. “However, there is a ready-made option. The main arena in the stadium area is currently undergoing maintenance during the break between matches, which makes it a perfect rehearsal venue.”

"A stage for performances! A stage for practice!" Killer Bee whirled around, his fist clenched in the air. "Perfect! A perfect match! I'll go tell everyone else to bring their instruments and equipment right now! Naruto, you—"

"Please wait a moment."

This time, it was Itachi, who was behind the small desk, who spoke. He had already stopped writing, took a blank application form from the drawer, and began filling in the necessary information at a dazzling speed.

“Even vacant venues under maintenance require formal application and registration for use.”

"Send this application to the police department. They will coordinate with the venue management and send someone to check the venue conditions with you."

"Understood." Shikamaru accepted it.

"Naruto! You and that dead-eyed brat go check out the venue first!" Killer Bee had already rushed to the door like a whirlwind, pointing at Shikamaru and then at Naruto. "Meet at the main entrance of the venue in one hour! No dinner for those who are late!"

Before he finished speaking, the tall figure had already disappeared down the corridor.

"...Who has dead fish eyes?" Shikamaru muttered under his breath.

Naruto leaned closer, stared into Shikamaru's eyes, and burst out laughing.

"Speaking of which, Shikamaru's eyes really do look alike."

"Without light, it's as if it's dead."

Shikamaru raised his eyelids: "Enough with the nagging, let's go."

The two walked out of the secret service building, and Naruto skipped down the steps.

"Hurry up, Shikamaru, Uncle says there's not much time left."

“The venue is empty, so the process won’t be too slow.” Shikamaru maintained his slow pace as he walked down the steps, looked at the road leading to the venue area, and clicked his tongue. “Tsk, I didn’t expect the scope of work to expand to that area so quickly.”

"Shikamaru is still so unmotivated." Naruto walked a little ahead. "By the way, that guy in the office, his name is Itachi, right? The same name as Sasuke's brother."

"That's Sasuke's older brother."

"Eh?! Sasuke's older brother?" Naruto stopped and turned around. "Wait... looking closely, he does look a bit like him! But he's nothing like Sasuke's arrogant personality!"

That's because he's a workaholic who works like there's no tomorrow, his efficiency is so high it's almost despair-inducing.

Shikamaru remarked, "If possible, I really wish he were more of an Uchiha."

This will significantly reduce the amount of work assigned to him.

“Uchiha, a little…” Naruto scratched his cheek, “Shikamaru is saying something incomprehensible again.”

Shikamaru sighed, "I originally thought that the work area would not expand until at least next year's holiday."

"It's all thanks to you, Naruto."

"Huh? Me?" Naruto pointed at himself, then grinned. "Isn't this great? And look—"

As he spoke, he reached out and snatched the application form from Shikamaru's hand, waving it in the air.

"It's just a piece of paper, it doesn't weigh at all! It's not far from here!"

Looking at Naruto's matter-of-fact expression, Shikamaru suddenly felt a little tired.

He wouldn't understand how he went from being a visitor to delivering mail, and then to helping sort documents.

He wouldn't understand that in a place like the Joint Affairs Bureau, once you demonstrate your "usability," those seemingly simple and trivial tasks will snowball and eventually overwhelm you completely.

“Once you do something once,” Shikamaru said softly, “it will keep coming back, Naruto.”

Naruto didn't hear clearly.

"what?"

"It's nothing." Shikamaru shook his head and snatched the application form back from Naruto's hand. "Let's go."

The two walked along the tree-lined path connecting the administrative building and the venue area.

As Naruto rounded a corner, he suddenly exclaimed "Ah!" and stopped in his tracks.

"Shikamaru, I just..." He pointed towards the fork in the road across the street, "...I think I saw the director of the secret service. Silver hair, one eye covered...was it him?"

Shikamaru looked in the direction Naruto pointed. The fork in the road was deserted, with only a few fallen leaves swirling in the wind.

He was silent for two seconds, and the helplessness in his dead fish eyes was almost overflowing.

I only saw Kakashi... He really did sneak away while instructing Sasuke.

But Shikamaru didn't say it aloud. He simply said in his usual tone, "Is that so? High-ranking ninjas often use shadow clones to handle matters."

"Shadow clones can be used like this..." Naruto stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Wouldn't that mean one person could do many things at the same time!"

"After all, although shadow clones take away chakra, causing the main body's combat power to decrease, they are the same as the main body in terms of thinking."

As they spoke, the two arrived at the entrance of the police department.

The police department's procedures went more smoothly than expected. Shikamaru came out in less than ten minutes, holding a site use permit stamped with a red seal.

Next, we will head to the main stadium.

They went straight in through the main entrance.

Inside the door was a very high-ceilinged hall with a smooth, dark marble floor and walls adorned with portraits of past winners of the joint martial arts exercises and photos of the events.

Because it has only been held for a few years, there aren't many people there yet.

A Chunin wearing a green vest, the standard uniform of Konoha, stood up from behind the reception desk in the corner of the hall.

"Is there anything I can help you with?"

Shikamaru stepped forward and handed over the application form and the secretariat's permission document.

"Joint Secretariat, application for temporary venue use. We need to confirm the condition of the main stadium venue in preparation for subsequent events."

The chunin took the document and quickly glanced through it.

“The application from the Joint Affairs Bureau… Okay, please wait a moment.” He turned around and took a thick register from the filing cabinet behind him, flipped to the latest page, and began to fill in the registration information item by item. The whole process took about five minutes.

During this time, Naruto kept standing on tiptoe, trying to see into the main arena through the crack of the tightly closed double doors on the inside of the hall.

"Alright." The Chunin closed the register and took a set of keys from the drawer. "I'll take you in. The facility is currently under maintenance, and some equipment may be unusable. Please be careful."

"Thank you for your help." Shikamaru nodded.

The chunin led them through the hall and used a key to open the double door.

huge.

This was the first word that popped into Naruto's mind.

It looks completely different from when I watched the game.

Naruto unconsciously took a few steps forward. He looked down at the shallow imprints left by his shoes on the sand. Then he raised his head, slowly turning his body, his gaze shifting from the edge of the arena to the empty stands.

He seemed to catch a glimpse of a figure, but when he tried to look again, a commotion arose from the direction of the stadium entrance.

First came Killer Bee's rap-style shout-out: "This is it! The stage of the future! Babies, get on the beat!"

Then came a series of chaotic footsteps.

Leading the way was naturally Killer Bee. He carried a huge box that looked like a loudspeaker on his shoulder, and in his other hand he carried a cloth bag full of various cables.

Han silently pushed a handcart, while the two wooden figures, their faces full of reluctance, carried bags of clothes that swayed impatiently with each step.

Utakata followed a little behind. The Six-Tails Jinchuriki of Kirigakure carried a long harp case on his back and held several sheets of sheet music in his hand.

Gaara and Fou walked at the very back. The red-haired boy carried a cardboard box containing a small speaker in his arms. Fou, on the other hand, carried a pile of colorful fabrics and decorative flags. The initial wariness and unease on her face had vanished, replaced by undisguised curiosity and excitement.

"Assembled!" Killer Bee placed the box on his shoulder at the edge of the arena, turned around, and opened his arms. "Venue confirmed! Equipment in place! Personnel all present! Next—set up the stage! Test the equipment! Assign positions!"

"Han! Put the drum kit over there! Yes, in that shaded area! Steampunk-style drumming needs a solid base!"

"Yukito! Leave the clothes at the entrance of the passage!"

"Yugao, your seat..."

As commands were issued one by one, Naruto quickly stepped out of his exploration of the arena and began to work within it.

Shikamaru remained leaning against the wall at the entrance of the passage, watching everything unfold.

Is this... the band of human jinchūriki?

He looked up at the audience. In a high seat, in a shadowy corner, there did seem to be someone sitting. But the distance was too great, and the light too dim, so he couldn't see clearly.

In the shadows within Shikamaru's line of sight, Sasuke sat quietly in the empty stands.

Kakashi's words were still echoing in his mind.

He tried to understand, to grasp something, but his thoughts were like a tangled ball of yarn, becoming more and more chaotic the more he tried to untangle them.

Then he saw Naruto.

Last place... we can no longer call him last place. No matter how much we try to ignore it, Sasuke knows that Naruto is no longer at the bottom.

However, the progress he has made is still far behind his previous achievements.

I originally thought I was going to participate in some unique training.

So... this guy is actually doing such a ridiculous thing here?
Why aren't they training? Why is even Gaara doing this kind of thing?

Are these people doing what Kakashi meant by "recognizing one's own path"?
At the same time, at the headquarters of Konoha Village, in the Hokage's office.

Shuji put down his pen, looked up, and stared at the uninvited man.

"Shouldn't you be instructing Sasuke?"

"I'm working on it." Kakashi replied, one hand in his pocket and the other flipping through a book. "By the way, I can tell you something. The list of Sunagakure personnel recently sent to the Secretariat includes a new ninja named Yura."

"This is someone you're paying attention to, isn't it?"

Shuji nodded.

“Pay attention to the people he associates with, both those from Sunagakure and those from outside Sunagakure.”

"clear."

After saying that, Kakashi turned to leave on his own.

"Going back to work?" Shuji asked.

"Later, Itachi's here anyway," Kakashi replied. "I haven't visited them in a while."

Shuji paused for a moment, then asked, "How's the Kaleidoscope doing?"

Kakashi turned around and pulled up his headband.

The moment the headband was removed, the left eye, which had been covered all along, was revealed. Against a crimson background, three tomoe slowly rotated, and then—their shape began to change.

The magatama is elongated and deformed, with its ends connected.

"After trying it for a while, I found that it worked."

"Already used?"

"I tried to understand the ability." Kakashi lowered his headband and covered his left eye again. "I suffered a severe backlash the first time I used it. As you said, it's definitely not an ability that can be used as a regular means."

He walked to the sofa and sat down opposite Xiuji.

"As for the specific effects... it's a long-range spacetime attack capability. It can forcibly suck objects locked in by sight into a separate alternate dimension."

"The Uchiha clan's Mangekyou Sharingan," Kakashi looked at him, "does it have that many space-time abilities?"

Shuji didn't answer immediately. He picked up his teacup, took a sip of the now-cold tea, and then slowly spoke:
"On the contrary, according to some confidential records left over from the past, although the Kaleidoscope eye technique is diverse, in most cases, it is usually accompanied by extreme emotional impact when the eye is opened."

"Destructive desires, hatred, and a thirst for power—so what is actually repeated most often is the black flame called Amaterasu, which can burn everything."

He put down his teacup.

"Space-time related eye techniques are relatively rare."

“I’m having Kabuto conduct white Zetsu cell experiments,” Shuji continued. “When it’s feasible, you can give it a try. If it’s compatible, it might alleviate the burden on Kaleidoscope.”

"Space-time ninjutsu is still very useful."

"It would be best if it could be preserved."

Kakashi leaned back on the sofa, looking up at the ceiling. The office ceiling was high, painted a clean white, without any decorations, just a clean emptiness.

“Is it special…” he murmured, as if talking to himself.

Then he stood up.

"I am leaving."

This time, Shuji didn't ask any more questions.

(End of this chapter)