(NEW ICHIRAKU RAMEN) CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Naruto crouched beside what remained of Mahito, his hand resting loosely against his knee as he watched the curse fade into the ether.

It did not look like death in the way he was used to. There was no stillness settling over a body as Mahito came apart in pieces, and even the space around him still felt wrong, heavy in a way that lingered even after his domain had shattered.

Naruto let out a slow breath and glanced over his shoulder.

There had been people there a second ago. He had sensed them arrive, their attention brushing slightly against his in the aftermath of the fight. Now there was nothing, no trace left behind beyond the slightest disturbance in the air.

He held the silence for a moment longer before letting it go and pushing himself to his feet.

Hinata stood a few steps away, her stance still guarded though her Byakugan had long since deactivated. There were no injuries on her, nothing that suggested she had struggled at all, and yet her expression had not eased since the fight ended. Her gaze rested somewhere past Mahito’s fading form, unfocused, as though she were looking at something far beyond what was in front of her.

Naruto watched her for a second before walking over.

“Should I have spared him?” he asked.

Hinata shook her head almost immediately. “No. He was a cursed spirit.”

Naruto inclined his head slightly, studying her face instead of her answer. “Then why do you look so sad?”

She did not respond right away.

The city spread out around them, moving on without pause. Headlights drifted through distant intersections, and in nearby buildings, silhouettes shifted behind lit windows as people went about their evenings, unaware of what had just happened.

Naruto waited.

Hinata’s fingers curled slightly at her sides before she spoke.

“Naruto-kun?”

“Yeah, Hinata-chan?”

She paused, just enough for him to notice. “This world is similar to ours, isn’t it?”

Naruto frowned a little at that, the subject change catching him off guard. He stepped closer without thinking, stopping just in front of her.

“What do you mean?”

Hinata’s gaze dipped for a moment before lifting again, softer now, though no less troubled.

“The hatred,” she said. “Can we ever truly escape the cycle of hatred?”

For a moment, Naruto couldn't answer.

His mind was pulled back to a different battlefield, to a broken ground beneath his feet and a sky above filled with smoke. He remembered the weight of those words as they had been thrown at him, the anger behind them, and the certainty that nothing would ever change. Pain had believed it completely, had lived it, had built his entire existence around that philosophy.

Naruto had fought him anyway.

He had chosen to believe there was another way, even when he could not fully explain it. Even when it would have been easier to agree.  

And later, there was Sasuke Uchiha, with a different kind of hatred, one that had taken root slowly and held on just as tightly. 

Naruto had reached him too, somehow, through everything that stood between them. Back then, he had thought it meant something final. That maybe things would be different from that point on.

The thought slipped away as his attention returned to the present, to the remnants of cursed energy still lingering in the air.

Mahito.

There had been no reaching him, no understanding to hold onto, and no shared ground to stand on. He had been something that hurt people because he could, because he wanted to, because that was what he was.

Naruto exhaled slowly.

To break the cycle, you had to understand the other side. That was what he had believed. That was what he had fought for.

But what did that mean here?

Cursed spirits were born from fear, from anger, from everything people tried to bury and failed. They did not choose it. They simply came into being.

And people would keep creating them.

Which meant someone would always have to destroy them.

Naruto looked at Hinata, at the unspoken question in her eyes, and for a brief moment, he did not have an answer he felt certain about.

A part of him wanted to say no, but he quickly stifled the urge. 

It wasn't because of a misguided attempt to hide the uncomfortable truth from his wife, or because it was easy to ignore, but because it was not something he was willing to accept. He had seen where that path led, what it had done to people, and he refused to walk it.

Naruto stepped forward and pulled her into his arms, one hand settling gently against the small of her back as he held her close.

“Yes,” he said.

The word came out calmer than he felt, carrying strong through the air.

“For our children,” he continued softly, “and their children’s children.”

Hinata did not answer right away, but she leaned into him even more, her hands resting lightly against his chest. And Naruto held her there, his gaze drifting past her shoulder toward the rest of the city, toward a world that was not his and yet was becoming theirs all the same.

He did not know what it would take. He did not know if it would be enough. 

But he had chosen his answer. 

And he would keep choosing it, as many times as it took.