"Who exactly are you?"
Hearing Yakushi Nonō say those words, it was as if time had turned back to that day.
Kabuto stared blankly at her, a single tear sliding down his cheek.
He didn't know how to tell her. He didn't even dare face this woman he revered as his foster mother. There was so much he wanted to say, but at this moment, the ever-eloquent Kabuto found himself choking up—thousands of words stuck in his throat, none of them able to come out.
"Why do you weep again? You must be someone I know… Who are you really?"
Nonō looked at Kabuto, baffled by his sudden tears. She felt an urge to wipe them away, and at the same time her heart ached terribly, as if she had forgotten something of great importance. But no matter how hard she tried to recall, her mind held no memory of him.
Who was he?
Who?
According to what Rin once told Obito—"I've been watching you from the Pure Land"—it could be inferred that souls in the Pure Land could, in some cases, witness what happened in the living world. But it was not true for all. For instance, during the Fourth Great Ninja War, the vast Edo Tensei army that Kabuto summoned—including Madara—had no knowledge of what had transpired in the present world.
Yakushi Nonō was the same. She could not see the events of the living world.
"…And that's why I hate riddlers."
At that moment, Naruto cut in, breaking the growing tension.
"Instead of asking who he is and waiting for him to explain, why don't you see for yourself?"
Naruto stepped forward and gently touched a finger to Nonō's forehead. In that instant, Kabuto's memories poured into her mind like a flood.
This was one of the side abilities of his "ki" power—allowing someone to view another's memories, though only once. Beyond serving as a means of explanation, it held little use.
Nonō froze.
She saw Kabuto leaving the orphanage for the sake of its survival, following Danzō and the others, choosing to become a Root operative.
She saw him undertake mission after mission over five long years, constantly moving between the Five Great Nations, enduring near-death experiences time and again—all so that she and the other children could live better lives.
She saw the ten-year-old Kabuto, on the night he left the orphanage, whispering with a child's voice: "Nine o'clock—it's time for bed."
This boy had always been protecting her, protecting the orphanage, in his own way.
At that moment, Nonō's eyes moistened, tears slipping down her cheeks—mirroring Kabuto's. With thousands of words in her heart, only one came out.
"I'm sorry, Kabuto. You've suffered all these years."
She tried to give him a gentle smile, but because she was bound by Edo Tensei, her expression was stiff and unnatural.
Kabuto didn't care. Overwhelmed, he threw himself into her arms.
"Director…"
Naruto could hear Kabuto's muffled sobs. After all, he had been waiting for this moment for far too long.
Naruto simply stood in silence, not disturbing the two of them.
Only after a long, long while did their emotions finally calm.
"It's all my fault," Nonō whispered softly, stroking Kabuto's hair as if he were still that little boy. "I didn't even recognize you. I'm sorry."
By age, she wasn't much older than Kabuto now—Nonō had died at thirty-one, Kabuto was twenty-one.
"It doesn't matter anymore," Kabuto said gently, wiping away his tears. Then, looking at her seriously, he added: "Director, I have a way to bring you back."
"No." Nonō shook her head softly. "Life or death doesn't matter anymore. Just being able to see you again is enough."
"But—" Kabuto began.
"I am already dead. The dead should remain in the Pure Land," Nonō said calmly.
She had made peace with it. But Naruto wasn't about to let her dismiss it so easily.
"Don't you want to see the other children at the orphanage again?"
"Don't you want to meet them like this—an undead shell?"
"Don't you want to continue caring for the innocent children who suffer because of war?"
"Don't you want Kabuto's sacrifices to mean something? Do you know how much he's given up just to revive you?"
"This…" Nonō faltered.
If asked whether she wanted to see the children again, her answer was obvious: yes.
Aside from Kabuto, they were the ones she could never let go of. Not only them—if possible, she wished she could protect even more children, those wounded and broken by the endless wars.
Nonō was inherently a gentle soul, utterly unsuited for Root. It was hard to believe someone like her had ever joined in the first place.
Seeing her hesitate, Kabuto gave Naruto a grateful glance before joining in to persuade her.
At last, Nonō agreed.
If you refuse to be revived… I'll have a hard time explaining this, Naruto thought privately.
He wasn't doing this purely for Kabuto's sake. He had his own reasons.
If this method truly worked, there was someone else he wanted to bring back—his father, the Fourth Hokage. Until now, Minato had only been able to exist through shadow clones; Naruto wished to restore him fully.
"Then, Kabuto. Begin," Naruto said flatly, opening the central chamber of the lab.
Kabuto lifted the cloned body from the cultivation tank.
The resurrection ritual was about to begin.
The principle behind it was actually simple.
The key lay in the combination of two techniques: Orochimaru's Living Corpse Reincarnation and the Impure World Reincarnation.
Living Corpse Reincarnation allowed one to transfer their soul into another's body. By constantly changing vessels, the user could achieve pseudo-immortality. As Orochimaru described it, the process was essentially seizing a body to use as a container for one's soul. The better the compatibility, the longer the body could last.
The crucial element was soul replacement.
Impure World Reincarnation, on the other hand, summoned the soul of the deceased back from the Pure Land.
So—what would happen if a soul summoned by Edo Tensei used Living Corpse Reincarnation on another body?
Of course, the technique was not without risks. The greater the rejection from the host's soul, the lower the chance of success.
Orochimaru himself had been defeated by Sasuke once during the process, and sealed away by Itachi another time.
But—what if the target body had no soul to resist?
And what if that body was a clone created from the original owner's cells?
Then the compatibility would be over ninety percent, and the lack of a soul would eliminate rejection entirely—making the transfer virtually guaranteed.
Thus: Edo Tensei + Living Corpse Reincarnation + a cloned body.
This amounted to a degraded version of true resurrection.