Chapter 160: Memories

Disclaimer: Naruto and all of its characters belong to Shueisha and Masashi Kishimoto. I own nothing but the original characters I create.

"Dialogue"

'Thoughts'

-Author notes-

Chapter 160: Memories

"What is this...?" Ino couldn't believe what she was seeing.

The room she now stood in was many times larger than the previous one, and that one had already been massive.

But it wasn't the sheer size of the room that took her breath away, it was its contents.

Rows upon rows of tall wooden bookcases stretched endlessly before her, each shelf filled with pristine white scrolls.

The rows seemed to vanish into the distance, twisting and turning to form countless labyrinthine passages.

It was impossible to count the shelves, let alone the number of scrolls they held.

Naruto hadn't exaggerated when he warned her about getting lost in here. This was a maze of identical bookcases, each one indistinguishable from the next. She felt like, if left alone here, she could spend years wandering the corridors with no way to find her way out.

"What is this place? What's in the scrolls?" Ino approached the nearest shelf cautiously.

Naruto didn't stop her, he simply observed.

Each scroll was pure white, devoid of markings, making it impossible to guess their contents.

She glanced back at Naruto, who gave her a nod of approval.

Ino hesitated for only a moment before trying to pull one of the scrolls from the shelf. But the moment her fingers touched it, a flood of information surged into her mind.

She found herself in a place she'd never seen before, a small and humble wooden house. She was seated at a table surrounded by adults wearing modest clothing.

Before her was a plate with a single piece of old bread.

"What...?" she murmured, her confusion mounting as the people around her began to speak in a foreign language.

"I don't understand what you're—"

Her vision abruptly darkened, and she was back in the library, her fingers still resting on the scroll.

It took her a moment to process what had happened. When she did, her eyes widened. "Memories..."

"Correct," Naruto said calmly. "This hall is where memories are stored. It's well-organized, isn't it?"

"Yes, but..." Ino couldn't deny the impeccable organization, but that wasn't what puzzled her. "Whose memories are these?"

"Mine, of course," Naruto replied.

"But the people I saw didn't look like they were from around here, and they spoke in some foreign language. Who were they?"

"My parents," Naruto explained. "What you saw was a simple scene of my family having dinner. I grew up in a very humble home in a small farming village."

Despite the lack of labels, Naruto knew the contents of every single scroll. The memories were arranged with purpose.

The scrolls on the outer perimeter held mundane recollections, like childhood moments, years spent meditating in isolation, or trivial routines like brewing tea or eating something.

The more significant memories, the ones he deemed held vital information...were locked deep within the library's core, far beyond reach.

Ino still looked perplexed. Naruto's explanation had only raised more questions.

"Souls are meant to be eternal, did you know that?" Naruto asked suddenly.

"Souls?" Ino repeated, confused by the sudden shift in topic.

"When a mortal person dies, their soul undergoes changes. It's purified, and all previous memories are erased. Then, the soul finds a new home, and life begins anew.

But those memories aren't completely gone. There are ways to recover them."

Naruto continued. "It's a known truth among cultivators that if someone reaches the Spirit Transformation Stage, they regain all their memories from past lives."

"Spirit Transformation?"

"It's the second-to-last stage a mortal can achieve before ascending to Godhood. Very few ever reach it, and unfortunately, I wasn't one of them."

He paused, a flicker of thought crossing his features. 'I'm convinced my unique situation was caused by the Golden Scripture. It's the most logical explanation and the only one I have. But I cannot tell her about that.' That was one topic he refused to touch.

Ino frowned, her suspicion clear. "Naruto... are you suggesting what I think you are?"

Naruto extended his hand toward her. "Come. I have something else to show you."

After a moment's hesitation, Ino placed her hand in his.

Naruto guided her through the endless corridors of the library.

"The most interesting ones are closer to the center, the ones at the entrance are all boring ones," he said as they walked.

"How big is this place? How can there be so many memories?" Ino was still overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the library. Even if each scroll contained only a short moment, there were far too many.

Finally, Naruto stopped and pointed at a particular scroll. "This one."

Ino instinctively reached for it. As soon as her fingers brushed its surface, the memories flowed into her mind.

She was sitting in the middle of a massive stadium-like structure.

Around her were young boys and girls, all dressed in green tunics.

At the center of the arena stood an older man in intricate black robes, exuding a powerful and commanding presence.

The man spoke in the same foreign language as the villagers from before, but this time, Ino felt a strange sense of peace while listening.

Though she couldn't understand the words, fragments of meaning seemed to reach her.

"A breathing exercise? What is this?" Ino wondered, feeling herself falling into a trance for an unknown amount of time, listening to the words coming out of that person's mouth.

"Ino..."

Naruto's voice brought her back to the library. He was standing beside her, watching her closely. She didn't even realize that she had already left the memory.

"How was it?" he asked.

"What was that? And who was that man? There was something... entrancing about his speech, but I couldn't understand it."

"That," Naruto explained, "was my first public lesson after joining the Blue Jade Sect. The man speaking was one of the elders. He was teaching a basic cultivation technique to the apprentices.

Even if you didn't understand his words, some of that knowledge likely reached you. That's the power of hearing a high-ranking cultivator's preaching."

"Sect? Cultivators? Was that really your life? This makes no sense..." Ino trailed off, her thoughts racing.

Naruto extended his hand once more. "It will make sense soon enough. Follow me."

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