Naruto: We Agreed on a Simulation, But They Actually Came to Life?

Chapter 83: Chapter 83: Nawaki?

The sun had just dipped below the horizon when Kitahara Kaede arrived at the Cloud Village front line camp.

The camp had more than doubled in size since a few months ago; the rows of tents stretched as far as the eye could see.

The Chunin handling reports glanced at his documents and jerked his chin to the left.

"Sector Seven. Find your own bunk."

Carrying his gear, Kitahara Kaede walked through the tent city and dropped his things in his assigned spot.

The curtain of the neighboring tent wasn’t fully closed, and he could hear two people speaking in low tones inside.

"...Out of seven scout teams, only three returned."

"What happened to the rest?"

"Two were wiped out, and two have gone missing. There’s not much difference between the two."

A few seconds of silence followed.

"The AB combo."

As soon as those words were spoken, neither man said another word.

A, the successor to the Fourth Raikage, and Killer Bee, the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki.

This pair appeared repeatedly on the front lines. Their speed and destructive power far exceeded what conventional combat forces could handle, leaving the scout teams’ mission routes in shambles.

After listening, Kitahara Kaede rolled out his bedding and went to collect the mission assignment sheet.

Over the next three weeks, he completed five high-risk reconnaissance missions.

His approach remained the same as before: make full use of the terrain, verify everything repeatedly, and never gamble on luck.

The combined reward for the four missions totaled five hundred and thirty thousand Ryo. Adding what he had already saved, he now had two million eight hundred and eighty thousand.

Mission rewards on the front lines were several times higher than in the rear. At this rate, the five-million Ryo deficit would be filled faster than expected.

Kitahara Kaede closed his ledger and lay down.

Tomorrow was the last one—a three-man squad targeting the surrounding terrain where the AB combo had recently been sighted.

...

The fifth mission.

After entering the marked area, Kitahara Kaede analyzed broken branches, deep fissures in the ground, and the lingering scent of scorched air. He determined that the two were active not far ahead.

He didn’t linger for a second.

He raised a hand. Retreat.

The three-man squad withdrew silently, without making a single sound throughout the process.

Upon returning to camp, he spent an hour sketching the AB combo’s range of activity into a heat map.

He categorized the areas into high-risk zones, buffer zones, and permeable zones, attaching calculated time windows. He organized this into a report and submitted it.

That afternoon, the report was passed up through the chain of command to the command tent.

Minato Namikaze opened the folder, his finger pausing on the heat map.

He flipped to the signature: Kitahara Kaede.

Minato still remembered the supplementary report from the supply escort mission a few months ago.

The same person. Last time, he had predicted an ambush using a bird’s nest; this time, he had deduced the activity patterns of the AB combo through topographical traces.

Among the many scout teams on the front lines, no one had ever produced such a systematic analysis.

Minato closed the report and stepped out of the tent.

...

Evening.

Kitahara Kaede sat on a rock at the edge of the camp, staring blankly at the distant ridgeline.

After a mission, he was in the habit of sitting alone for a while to clear his mind.

As his gaze swept across the camp, he paused.

At the edge of the tent area, a slender figure leaned against a tree trunk.

Long black hair, amber snake-like pupils.

Orochimaru.

Kitahara Kaede had noticed him since his first day at the camp.

This gaze had followed him intermittently for three weeks—sometimes near the command tent, sometimes at the camp’s entrance and exit.

He hadn’t understood why one of the Sannin was staring at him.

Until this moment.

Orochimaru straightened up from the tree and walked toward him.

As that pale face drew closer, Kitahara Kaede suddenly remembered something.

During this time period, Orochimaru was working for Danzo.

Orochimaru stopped a few paces in front of him.

"Have you made up your mind?"

Those amber snake-like eyes didn’t blink.

As expected, it had finally happened.

Last time, in that dark alley, Danzo had given him three days to "think it over."

He had refused.

Then came the leaked intelligence, the canyon ambush, and finally, being shoved onto the dispatch list to the front lines.

Danzo was not the type of man to give up just because he was rejected; he had simply changed the mouth delivering the question.

Kitahara Kaede remained seated and silent.

He couldn’t agree.

Once you entered Root, you became a pawn.

But he couldn’t refuse a second time to his face.

He had already experienced the price of the first refusal. If it happened again, the stakes would only get higher.

The two stared at each other.

Kitahara Kaede had no intention of speaking, and Orochimaru didn’t press him.

After a dozen seconds, Orochimaru’s gaze shifted.

Footsteps were approaching from the direction of the command tent.

Orochimaru withdrew his gaze and gave Kitahara Kaede one last look.

"I hope to hear your answer next time."

His tone was as flat as when he arrived.

He turned and walked back toward the camp.

After a few steps, he encountered Minato Namikaze turning the corner from the tent area.

Minato bowed slightly.

"Lord Orochimaru."

Orochimaru paused, nodded without speaking, and continued walking.

Minato watched the retreating figure before turning back to Kitahara Kaede, who was still sitting on the rock.

He walked over and sat on a nearby stone.

"Did Lord Orochimaru speak with you?"

Kitahara Kaede nodded.

Minato smiled.

"You weren’t intimidated, were you?"

"No."

"Don’t take it to heart," Minato said casually. "He is indeed difficult to approach right now, but he wasn’t always like this."

Kitahara Kaede didn’t respond.

"It’s because of his disciple."

Minato paused, as if considering how to put it.

"Lord Orochimaru once had a disciple. The boy was talented and had a bright personality. Lord Orochimaru never said anything, but he actually cared for him deeply."

He spoke quite casually.

"But during a mission, their team encountered an enemy and was scattered in the chaos. After Lord Orochimaru cleared the enemies in front of him and turned back to find the boy, he was gone."

Kitahara Kaede listened in silence.

"They searched for a long time." Minato looked at the ground. "Eventually, they only found a necklace in the ruins."

"No body, no survivor."

The expression on Kitahara Kaede’s face didn’t change.

But his heart was racing.

Something was wrong!

Nawaki didn’t die like that.

In his memory, Nawaki had stepped on an Explosive Tag.

The explosion had happened right before their eyes, and the necklace had bounced to Orochimaru’s feet.

Orochimaru had watched his disciple be blown to pieces less than three meters away.

He remembered it vividly.

Yet Minato said he had simply "vanished."

First, Dan Kato.

In his memory, Dan should have died in the Second Great Ninja War, but now he was alive.

Then, Nawaki.

In his memory, he died in front of Orochimaru, blown to bits, but now it was categorized as a disappearance leading to a presumed death.

This could no longer be explained by the "simulator affecting reality."

If the simulator had truly overwritten reality—meaning he had saved Nawaki in the simulation—then Nawaki shouldn’t have happened to him at all; and Tsunade should have retained her full memories and recognized him the moment they met.

But Dan was alive, Nawaki still met his end (though the method had changed), and Tsunade had not recognized him.

What exactly had changed this world?

"Kitahara."

Minato’s voice pulled him back.

"What are you thinking about?"

Kitahara Kaede didn’t know how long he had been silent.

"...I was thinking about Lord Orochimaru," he paused. "It was a bit unexpected."

Minato didn’t press further and nodded.

"He’s not a bad person. After going through something like that, it’s only natural for his personality to shift..."

Minato stood up and looked at him.

"By the way, I’ve read the reports you submitted recently. That heat map—no one on the front lines has ever done an analysis like that."

"In the future, if you find anything, just give it to me directly. You don’t need to go through the formal chain of command."

Kitahara Kaede stood up and bowed slightly.

"Understood."

Minato gave a dismissive wave and turned to head back toward the command tent.

Night settled in.

Kitahara Kaede stood where he was, watching Minato’s retreating figure fade into the distance. After a moment, he turned and made his way back to his own tent.

He lay down, leaving the lamp unlit.

Outside, guards were changing shifts, their footsteps crunching across the gravel. Kitahara Kaede kept his eyes open, staring up at the fabric of the tent ceiling.

’Dan Kato is alive.’

’And Nawaki... the way he died has changed.’

’Why?’

He couldn’t figure it out. There was simply too little information.

Now, only one thing was certain: the number of things he could actually be certain about was slowly dwindling.

He rolled over and closed his eyes.