Chapter 95 – The Sound of Footsteps That Never Echo
In the ruins of Uzushio, the sea never slept.
Waves crashed against jagged rocks, pulling away bits of stone, memory, and silence.
No ships passed here.No birds nested.Even scavengers stayed away.
But someone walked there now.
A woman.
Long hair. Red as blood.Eyes old enough to have cried a thousand wars.
Kushina Uzumaki.
No longer young.No longer dead.
Brought back?Revived?No.
Just… returned.
The sea called her back.The same sea that once swallowed her clan.Swallowed her dreams.Swallowed her son.
She stood on the broken bridge that used to lead to the village center.
Beneath her, rubble.
Above her, grey clouds waiting to weep.
She wasn't here for closure.
She was here because she felt it.
A thread.
Tugging.Calling.
Her boy.
Gone from memory.
But not from the world.
She whispered to the wind.
"You think I don't recognize your chakra, Naruto?"
Silence answered.
Then—
A pulse.
A warmth against her chest.
She reached beneath her robe.
Pulled out a small, knotted coil of thread.
Gold. Still warm.
She hadn't tied it.Hadn't found it.
She'd woken up with it, wrapped around her wrist like a promise.
And it never stopped glowing.
She touched it.
The world shifted.
Time bent.
And suddenly—she was not alone.
A shimmer stood beside her.
Taller than she remembered.
Eyes softer than she expected.
Naruto.
She didn't cry.
Didn't scream.
She just looked at him.
"You idiot," she said.
He smiled.
"I know."
"I was supposed to die first. That was the deal."
"I broke it."
"Of course you did."
They stood in silence.
Then she reached out.
Touched his face.
Couldn't feel it.
Didn't need to.
"You're not here, are you?"
"No," he whispered. "Not fully."
"Then why come?"
He looked out over the sea.
Where Uzushio once stood.
"Because there's something left to fix."
"Not everything can be fixed, Naruto."
He smiled.
"Doesn't mean I shouldn't try."
She watched him.
And for a second—
The ghost of the boy returned.
That little grin.That hopeful ache in the eyes.That belief that even the world's ugliest things could bloom again.
Kushina stepped back.
"Then go. Do it."
"You're not going to stop me?"
"I've never been able to stop you."
Naruto's shape began to fade.
But his voice remained.
"There's a girl in Kiri. She has a scream that shatters stone.There's a merchant in Kumo who teaches orphans how to read.There's a drunk in Ame who stopped drinking because he dreamed of a boy in orange."
"They don't know me.""But they are me."
Kushina closed her eyes.
Let the wind wash over her.
Let the memories go.
Let the future rise.
Naruto was gone again.
But the bridge beneath her was whole now.
Not perfect.
Cracked. Worn.
But it held.
Like the world he left behind.
Like the mother who still waited.
And the sea?
It whispered not of sorrow—But of footsteps that had no echo.
Because they never truly left.
—End of Chapter 95—