"Haori…?"
Why did Hagoromo push things this far?
Why could he push things this far?
At this very mont, Kushina's reaction was both the reason for everything Hagoromo had done—and the value of it all. Humans were selfish beings; nothing existed without reason.
The aning one person held for another lay precisely here.
Hagoromo's appearance was now just as half-human, half-monster as before—but Kushina recognized him at a glance.
Who else could have done that?
No one.
"So… I really did get to see you one last ti."
Kushina and Minato sat leaning against each other. Behind them stood a wooden altar.
"Kushina… can you stand?" Hagoromo asked.
Perhaps there was silence.
Or perhaps he simply forced the words out.
In his current state, Hagoromo could not touch Kushina.
The more "solid," the more "resilient" a thing was, the fewer death-lines it possessed. Under the vision of his Eyes of Death, Hagoromo couldn't even properly make out Kushina's form.
She looked like a mass of crimson threads.
He couldn't freely control these eyes yet.
So he couldn't touch her.
And so—
What could he say?
What should he say?
What was he allowed to say?
He didn't know.
"I'm sorry, Kushina. If I could use dical ninjutsu—"
Kushina smiled.
She was probably smiling just as she always had—but Hagoromo could only imagine it.
"Haori… you already know. A jinchūriki who's lost their tailed beast is beyond the reach of dical ninjutsu. So…"
"This is my end."
Did Hagoromo not know?
He wished he didn't.
But knowing was knowing—clearly, undeniably knowing.
"Your eyes?" Kushina asked.
"These? Just a new technique."
"Your face?"
"It'll recover soon."
"Is that so? That's good… I never said this before, but I always thought you had a bit of a girlish face. Still, it's much better than how you look now."
"…Yeah. I agree."
"So… you ran into a powerful enemy, didn't you?"
Kushina struggled to lift her right hand.
Hagoromo didn't know what she intended, but he bent down anyway.
She was trying to help him remove the black rod lodged in his left shoulder—sowhere his single arm couldn't reach.
But she no longer had the strength.
"I handled it easily," Hagoromo said. "Nothing special."
He wanted to smile in return.
But even with perfect control over every neural signal, he couldn't force the muscles of his face to lift—even slightly.
People couldn't go against their own will.
So things simply couldn't be done.
"I see… that's good."
With Hagoromo's injuries, his opponent could never have been "ordinary."
But to Kushina, the fact that he was alive—
That was enough.
"Haori… when we first t, you said there was sothing you wanted. What was it?"
"I already found it."
As he spoke, Hagoromo's gaze drifted past Kushina's head.
She noticed.
Though Hagoromo desperately didn't want to say the word that began with hui and ended with gui—right now, Kushina was exactly in that state.
So she smiled again.
Playful. Disbelieving.
Just like the Kushina he'd first t.
"So what you really wanted… was a little boy or a little girl?" she teased.
"Haori, I never thought you were this kind of dangerous person."
Telling sothing to soone was called "informing."
"What I wanted," Hagoromo said, "was probably just soone like ."
"Not a companion… just soone of the sa kind?" Kushina asked softly.
Hagoromo looked ordinary—but in truth, he was different from everyone else. The closer one got to him, the more obvious that disconnect beca.
After all, he was an otherworlder.
An outsider.
An esper.
In a sense—even a person from the future.
So Kushina's surprise faded.
She could know Hagoromo's story.
She could understand it.
She could grieve it.
"Haori… with those new eyes, what kind of world do you see now?"
"And what kind of world will you see in the future?"
That was what she wanted to ask.
Not where the eyes ca from.
That no longer mattered.
"…The cool, refreshing breeze of Itof in sumr… blue skies that still feel cold… Morioh City adorned by beautiful forests, and the erald glow of the grasslands outside town… I'd wander through familiar-looking scenery, rembering a quiet year in Itof…"
"You're saying strange things again. Another reference?" Kushina laughed.
"But… this is fine."
Kushina often didn't understand what Hagoromo said.
But she always understood what he ant.
So she said it was fine.
No matter what—
Shiraishi Hagoromo's story would go on.
"Haori… what kind of world is the world after death?"
"Kushina would probably et a god."
"A god… I imagine soone like the Third Hokage. An old man."
"No," Hagoromo said after thinking.
"More like Jiraiya. A perverted one."
"Haha—so even gods are perverts?"
"…Yeah. So, Kushina—don't leave Minato's side."
"I see… This cherry blossom grove is where I first t Minato. It's a sha—it's sumr now."
The "eting" she spoke of was that eting.
"Every spring from now on," Hagoromo said quietly,
"I'll co here."
"Haori… live on."
"Haori… I'm leaving the rest to you."
Leaving what—Hagoromo knew without asking.
That was probably why Kushina had held on until now.
"I know."
So that was all he said.
Kushina smiled.
Her voice was barely audible.
"Haori… did you know?"
"There are countless beauties in the world… yet my life was always deep—like a dark blue abyss."
Hagoromo looked toward what remained of the cherry blossom grove.
Most of it had been destroyed.
Confessing one's feelings was called a confession.
But Hagoromo was the kind of person who never said what shouldn't be said—even if no one would ever hear it again.
In so sense, what he felt for Kushina was only affection—not less, not more.
But the aning one person held for another went far beyond that.
And that was the least important part of what existed between them.
"Did you know, Kushina…"
"Regret and happiness—that's what life is."
"It's just a pity… my wish can't continue any further."
"If it were spring, this place would be beautiful. But that was last year's scenery…"
"So happy—and yet humans are so lonely."
Life, as it should be.
Death, as it should be.
That loneliness was what it ant to be human.
Fate brought soone into the world.
Fate took soone away.
Fate allowed rebirth.
Fate arranged etings.
Fate granted hope.
Fate delivered despair.
"My story will go on… but—"
Shiraishi Hagoromo's story would go on.
But—
"So…"
To express departure was called farewell.
"So, Kushina…"
"Goodbye."
And so—
Uzumaki Kushina was gone.
Forever.
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