Reborn!

48: Sanbi, Yonbi, Gobi...

Naruto sighed as he put away the last of the gifts he received from his third sixteenth birthday party, feeling completely spent.

Despite his exhaustion, there was a smile on his face.

He first had a small reception with the jinchūriki and his teammates before dawn. They had a short party, shared a meal and cut a cake. Right after he sent the last jinchūriki away with a fond grin -- Fū had too much to chatter about, Akihiko appeared in the Crystal Caves and whisked him away to Amegakure. It had taken much coaxing to calm the alarmed Yugito Nii down, reassuring her that he was fine and had not been abducted by the Uchiha lookalike who had appeared in the underground cave with Sharingan blazing -- even if it technically was a kidnapping.

He had to sternly admonish the blood clone regarding this.

Even Naruto knew better than to grab someone without warning or explanation and bring them away without permission... Albeit this was something he learned while reading books with Kaien recently. Perhaps he should assign his blood clones with similar reading material to improve the "common sense" level among them. There were too many things that were commonplace in the lives of others that Naruto did not comprehend.

"Consent is important," Naruto reiterated for the tenth time as he allowed himself to be blindfolded and led into Akatsuki's main headquarters.

He was not sure if Akihiko truly understood the point he was trying to make, but his blindfold was burned away then -- probably Itachi's "ingenious" idea, as expected of those pyromaniacal Uchihas, and he was faced with a lavishly decorated room that was probably once the meeting hall. Nagato, Konan, Sasori, Deidara, Hidan, Itachi and Kisame had formed a ring around him -- he could sense as much even without relying on his eyes -- and tossed confetti on Naruto as his blindfold burned in the black flames of Amaterasu (it seemed Itachi's control over his Mangekyō has advanced yet again). Naruto inspected the mess of colourful paper scraps perplexedly. He has never seen such a wide assortment of paper types in the same place at the same time. The confetti was produced from a variety ranging from traditional Washi paper to fragrant banana paper. This was probably Deidara's idea -- it reeked of his lack of common sense, though Naruto was not one to talk.

Hidan seemed to itch to bring a human sacrifice to the party and said pretty disturbing things about gifting Naruto with Kakuzu's head, though Sasori was able to dissuade him with ease -- Naruto supposed he had Sasori to thank for the lack of blood and gore at this celebration.

The massive cake was blue and yellow, but otherwise quite normal in taste and smell... Kisame's craft, no doubt, considering the lack of culinary skills among the rest of the Akatsuki members. It reminded him of how Itachi's cooking was only passable when tomatoes were in the recipe. This was a mysterious wonder of the world and a special defining characteristic of an Uchiha. Back to the birthday cake, it was a three-tiered cake that would not be out of place at a wedding with his name iced on each layer by a careful hand in Nagato's handwriting (read top to bottom and written in katakana). Origami flowers decorated the centrepiece, and strange paper candles on the top layer spelt out his age. He had no idea how the candles were burning like normal wax candles when they were obviously paper, but he knew better than to ask. The fire did look suspiciously similar to Itachi's black flames... no, he had told himself that he would not question it.

Naruto withstood the chaotic festival and tolerated being paraded around the village -- it was a miracle that no spies from any other organisations (such as Konoha) discovered his presence in Amegakure that day. He was being manhandled and carried around like a doll by the members of Akatsuki in turn despite his size -- even Sasori had a turn. This was probably... Naruto did not want to think about it anymore. They then sat him at the top of Nagato's control tower, stopped the rain to set off fireworks and dumped wrapped presents at his feet as if giving offerings to an idol of some deity. At some point, the kids from the orphanage, now grown up, also came to give him stuff, and the event evolved to include all of Amegakure's citizens.