Sage's Resurrection

Chapter 42

The girl wove a single seal and exhaled a small stream of blue fire into the kiln.

She must have mastered some sort of circular breathing technique, Sayuri observed, as she'd been keeping it up for over two minutes without stopping.

Sayuri raised her hand to stop the fire and shut the kiln.

Later, Sena would attribute the batch as entirely Sayuri's, much to her discomfort.

---

Naruto woke up, worn.

He kicked off the covers and stepped outside the home he'd been staying in.

He planted his hands in the ground, and the barren fields grew once more.

With a fair deal of effort, wheat, millet, and rice all sprouted from the earth across the whole valley.

Sayuri rushed at him and stopped. "What are you doing out here? Shouldn't you still be resting? How are you growing these with Wood Release?"

"I'm fine. And for the last question, trees are the easiest plants to grow, 'cus you can just tower up and do pretty well. But I can grow all sorts of things. Flowers, grains, edible roots, tubers, everything you can think of."

Sayuri raised an eyebrow. "Okay, fine, I got out on my own. I'm trying to pay my debts as quickly and efficiently as possible."

"Come on, you can't be so reckless. I..." she stopped herself. "I'll talk about it later."

Naruto nodded. "Take your time."

"So anyway," Sayuri changed the subject. "How are you planning on harvesting all this- oh. Oh."

A gust of wind uprooted the crops, moving them to each house, one by one.

"Naruto? Your eyes are a little red."

Naruto rubbed his eyes a little bit.

"Are... are you allergic to pollen?"

Naruto laughed. "That's crazy! This is all Kurama!" He sneezed. "Ow, looks like I haven't healed fully yet."

Sayuri looked over him with her sharingan and grinned. "You're totally allergic, aren't you."

"... I refuse to elaborate on this," Naruto said.

"I'm sure you do. Look at that! The person with Wood Release has pollen allergies! This is amazing!" she doubled over.

Naruto's face flushed. "We are never bringing this up to anyone, okay?"

"Sure, sure~ Something like that, anyway. The Rinne Festival is in a couple of days. Hurry up, we'll miss it!"

"I haven't seen you this excited over anything in a long time," he said. "What's the occasion?"

"Kita's making a display and I wouldn't miss it for the world! Would you like to see it with me?"

"Kita... she does drawings, right? They're amazing, I'd love to see them."

"That's Yui. And that's right, I really should show them to you sometime. But Kita's the seamstress."

Naruto nodded. "Well, I'll go, since you're excited."

—

"I can't even begin to show my thanks," Ayase said. "Thank you so much for everything. If you ever come around, feel free to say hi."

"I only did what anyone should. It was my pleasure," Naruto said before turning away. "Stay well, all of you."

"So, aside from the start, that went pretty well," Naruto sighed.