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After leaving the Hokage Tower, seeing that it was still early, Naruto asked around but couldn't find Sakura, so he simply went home and lay down.
Kurama had been going out more often recently, like a cat frequently sneaking off for secret affairs. If Naruto didn’t know Kurama lacked certain anatomy, he might have thought Kurama was getting overly frisky.
It wasn’t until nightfall that Naruto woke up, and his stomach growled with hunger.
He was never the most disciplined person. With no one around to manage him, his lifestyle habits were far from ideal. Wandering around the open-air balcony, he noticed that Kurama still hadn’t returned.
"Damn, could Kurama really have run away with a female dog?" Naruto muttered.
The balcony was silent, the distant horizon black as ink, with the hot midsummer night breeze blowing gently.
Naruto stood there spacing out for a while, then thought of the unfinished mission in the Land of Snow, and immediately felt a wave of melancholy. The complete Flying Thunder God Technique was like a thorn in his heart, and he could never forget it.
If not for that accident, he might have already acquired the complete Flying Thunder God Technique by now. But some things came up in between, and Koyuki had also left.
With the mission target gone, the mission itself stalled.
After standing dazed for a while, Naruto snapped back to reality.
‘Jiraiya was about to return to the village soon, and once he did, the preparations to uproot the Akatsuki would need to start. According to Tsunade, she wants me to learn Senjutsu first.’
‘But Senjutsu…’ Naruto instinctively felt some resistance towards the Great Toad Sage of Mount Myoboku, ‘That mysterious prophecy ability, seeing the light of the Child of Prophecy…’
‘If we really meet, who knows if that old toad would be able to see the otherworldly soul within me?’
Naruto wasn't entirely sure, but the Chakra of Asura seemed to have disappeared from his body.
After all, while the system was rather lazy, its authority appeared to be higher than the level of this world, like a key from another realm, ruthlessly piercing Asura's vital point.
For the exact situation, he would have to wait and see after Jiraiya returned. If there's really no other choice, he might just have to bite the bullet and visit Mount Myoboku to meet the old toad.
Looking at the gradually darkening night, Naruto lowered his gaze for a moment, then turned, locked the door, and stepped out.
The Hokage Tower was brightly lit.
In the document room, the quiet rustling of a pen echoed in the office.
A sudden knock broke the silence.
Sakura looked up from the pile of documents, her eyes showing a hint of fatigue, but it quickly disappeared.
Before anyone stepped in, a voice preceded them.
"So this is why I find you during the day. Were you working overtime here?" Naruto leaned lazily against the doorframe, looking at Sakura with a slight smile.
"Doesn't working overtime all day get boring? You don't even have any time for yourself."
"Boring?" Dark Sakura lifted her eyes slightly, set down the pen in her hand, and asked seriously, "If not working overtime, what should a normal person be doing at this time?"
"Who knows? A normal person is probably working a night shift too." Naruto said as he walked towards her, moths fluttering around the ceiling light. "If it were me, I'd probably be lying down and sleeping."
He noticed the word ‘normal’ that Sakura mentioned, his eyelid twitched slightly, but he managed to keep a calm expression.
"Lying down and sleeping?" Sakura murmured, repeating the phrase, "But I can't fall asleep. I've slept long enough. and when I want to close my eyes, I just can't."
The desk was positioned against one side of the wall, and the ceiling light placement was unreasonable. It wasn't hung in the center of the office but off to the left near the wall As a result, the desk can only be tucked into a corner.
"Isn't there anything in particular you want to do?" Naruto asked as he stood in front of her, blocking the light and looking down at her.
"Yes, kill her." Sakura raised her eyes and looked up at Naruto, "Would you feel bad?"
Naruto understood that the so-called ‘she’ should be Pink Sakura, ‘Did the second personality want to kill the main personality? But this kind of thing is indeed not impossible.’
Naruto didn't want to avoid it, and he wanted to find out what was really going on.
"No." He replied without changing his expression.
"Really?" Sakura narrowed her eyes, "Then I might actually do it, you know? You'll never see the familiar her again."
"It doesn't matter." Naruto's heart skipped a beat and he became nervous.
Not because he was unsure of his choice, but because such a matter wasn't easy to decide. However, given that it was someone familiar, he couldn't help but feel something.
"Just kidding." A smile suddenly appeared on Sakura’s face. "I can't touch her, and she doesn't even know I exist. For her, it's probably just like taking a nap."
"Ironic, isn't it? I haven't slept for an entire year, but my consciousness is extremely clear."
Naruto didn't show any surprise in his eyes, he just looked at her calmly. He turned sideways, allowing half of the light to illuminate one side of Sakura's body.
"Insomnia, huh? That sounds pretty serious." Naruto's hand reached towards the desk, pressing down on the documents, "There's something I'd like to know."
"About her?" Sakura's smile remained.
"No." Naruto shook his head, "I sleep well and spend most of the day lying down and sleeping, so I'm sorry I can't empathize with you."
His hand, which was pressing on the document on the desktop, slowly crawled forward inch by inch, like a slowly growing green tree. His fingers gradually extended towards the other side.
"But I'm curious, what does a person think about when they're struggling with insomnia? Do they get up to eat, or feel like going out for a walk? In the summer, do they go look at the stars? In the winter nights, do they step outside to watch the snow?"
"I don't know. I... I never did any of that." Sakura was a little surprised, her hand curling slightly.
She had originally expected Naruto to ask some cliché questions, like ‘What's wrong?’ or ‘Why do you think that way?’ or say something along the lines of ‘Everyone is equally important to me’.
But no matter what, she hadn't expected him to ask that, so she began to reflect and think carefully.
"When my parents are asleep, sometimes I stand in the kitchen, or I take out old photo albums and look through them over and over. Most of the time, I just close my eyes like a normal person."
"Maybe try doing something different occasionally." Naruto turned his palm up in an inviting gesture, his gaze calm, as if he were discussing a simple, ordinary matter.
"Let's go out for a walk and look at the stars."