text; un: 🍥🍜

[acknowledgement]

(≡ ｀ｗ´≡)/
hey everyone!
i'm Uzumaki Naruto
um in my world we give family name first
so you can just call me Naruto!

listen…
i have an important question that i'd like to hear your opinions on

some people doubt this place is really the afterlife
and if we’re actually dead

but let’s say there’s a chance we can all return to our own dimensions, alive
…would you want to?
or would you prefer to stay here instead, permanently?

it’s kinda personal, so i get it if you wanna use the
uh
anonymous
thingy
just don’t ask me how to switch it on
because idk (that means i don’t know)

oh also
if anyone needs help with anything
or wants to tackle some missions together
i'm your shinobi!

[Sorry, Sasuke and Sakura. Naruto forgot the “keep our profession/backgrounds a secret” rule. (And already broke the rule several times over.)]

Comments

[acknowledgement]

oh
uh
hehehehehe

just a little joke

[He can already hear Sakura's message screaming at him.]

[zangetsu]

next time you want to try lying

don't type out

'hehehehehe'

kinda gives it away.

[acknowledgement]

huh??
i use hehehe all the time
what's it got to do with lying?

seems like a weird thing to assume
about somebody you don't even know!

[zangetsu]

right.

（ whatever, man, he's too depressed to argue. lie about whatever you want. it's not like he's being honest himself, and he bets a lot of people are in the same boat. ）

so what makes you think there's a way home?

（ are there deets, give him some deets. ）

[acknowledgement]

well we got here somehow right?
so obviously there's gotta be a way back too
unless we really ARE all dead
but i don't believe that

🔒

[zangetsu]

（ man, why is this guy's enthusiasm reminding him of inoue? it's brasher, bolder, and certainly has a more... guy-ish energy to it, but all he can think of is how much she always tries to maintain an optimistic outlook about things, even when the world's burning around them.

he misses her with an ache that's sudden and sharp. but it's why he doesn't just hang up and go his separate way. instead, after some fumbling, he finds the privacy options and locks his post. ）

do you know what a shinigami is?

[acknowledgement]

[Naruto notices that the thread has been locked. The shift feels ominous.]

yeah
well...after talking to someone else about shinigami
i know what they are in MY world
what are they in yours?

[zangetsu]

they act as a balancing force in my world.

protecting and regulating the flow of souls to and from the world of the living.

the way to the afterlife is dangerous, but the way to the living world from the afterlife can be even worse.

i'm not saying it's the same as here.

but if there's a way out, it's not going to be easy.

[acknowledgement]

heh never expected it to be easy
in your world how would you get to the living world from the afterlife?
might give us an idea of where to start here

[zangetsu]

there are gates that can be opened.

but in my world, the living world and soul society — where the dead live — are parallel worlds. they exist sort of layered over one another if that makes sense.

but only people with spiritual energy can pass through the senkaimon, normal humans can't go through it without special precautions. there's a way to do it but i don't know how myself.

and you need something called a jigokuchō. a hell butterfly. it sort of acts like a guide.

without one, you have to take a path called the dangai. it's more dangerous, and it distorts time around you. an hour in the real world could be a thousand years there. and there's a creature that lives in it that will eat anything it finds. hard to kill.

i can't open a gate. i tried.

（ he's never been a kidō expert, but all you need to unlock a senkaimon is a zanpakutō and the right key phrase, which he's known ever since he first fought renji. if it was going to work, it would have worked.

man, he'd kill to have urahara here... ）

different place, different rules and all.

but if I had to guess, i'd say we should start by figure out where the roots of the shrouds reach.

[acknowledgement]

[Were these unique words not Japanese—the Earthen language that mirrors his own native tongue—Naruto would struggle to keep up. Fortunately, he's able to grasp what Ichigo is telling him while also applying it to the little he's familiar with about dimensional travel. This is all valuable information he should share with Sasuke and Sakura.]

the shrouds...
those are the egg thingies we all woke up in right?
i didn't even notice there were roots attached to them...
but it makes sense that they'd be connected to a way back

i wonder if there's a way to tell if someone is already in one
like an unhatched bird
could be related to time distortion
my friend from home is from a year ahead of me after all
what if i spent a year here in a shroud and didn't even know it?
um or maybe not...
this isn't really my specialty hehehehe

i definitely want to check out the shrouds though

[zangetsu]

i spend most of my time in the shadowlands.

so if you want a guide or anything...

（ not about to say 'let's go together', that's weird?? but, you know, an offer to help is something completely different. ）