"What is it, Naruto?" Sakura asked, noticing the usually energetic boy staring into the distance. It wasn't like him at all. One thing she loved about Naruto was how he always said what he was thinking, but today that wasn't the case. Something felt off.
"Nothing, Sakura," he replied, as if placing words in a placeholder already meant for them.
"I think," she paused to choose her words carefully, "I hate it when you are thinking."
"What does that mean?" he said, his distracted mind partly returning at the absurdity of her words.
"Maybe I've been taking it for granted all this time, but you usually have a way of saying exactly what you think," she said, "unlike some other people I know."
He smiled.
"And today, you feel very different, like something terrible happened—or is about to happen," if her vocal cords were a cup of water, there were ripples in it, "it's almost scary."
He sighed, some might say he took a long breath.
"Jiraiya-sensei left me something before he died," he began, unsure where to start. "It's a jutsu he brought into this world, a gate he opened—one he cannot close."
"And," in some ways, Sakura was glad that whatever troubled him did involve her, yet part of her felt a strange sense of loss—like a bubble blower dipped in soapy water, but with no whoosh of air to follow.
"Having opened the gate, one assumes the role of a watchman, if you will," he continued, trying to make it make sense, "and this gate connects different worlds, you could say."
Sakura was beginning to lose comprehension, but she held on. That troubled look on his face could give her nightmares.
"Worlds very different from ours, yet in some ways, very similar," he said, pausing heavily between certain words, as if feeling the absurdity of it even as he spoke. "Once the gate is opened, someone must watch over it, tend to it, or awful things will happen."
"Did something happen with the gate?" Sakura asked, though she knew no good answer would come.
"I met a man—not from here. Red hair, a clawed scar on one of his eyes. He's missing his left arm, carries a sword in the other. He was strong. He was looking for someone."