Naruto pushed the power of the North King's voice transmission to its utmost, letting his words cover the entire Hidden Leaf Village. Every villager and shinobi present heard his voice ring in their ears.
At the same time, his image appeared in their minds—not as a human, but as the form of the Nine-Tails itself.
It was like pouring cold water into boiling oil—the villagers below instantly erupted.
"What?!"
"Did you hear that? 'That thing' said it's going to destroy the village!"
"Did you see it? He finally turned into the fox demon!"
"Hahaha, he's exposed at last. Now Lord Third can order his execution, right?"
"Ninja, hurry! Kill 'that thing' and avenge our dead loved ones!"
Countless venomous curses rang out, merging together into one single voice.
"Execute him! Execute him! Execute him!"
The thunderous chants were so loud that even Naruto and Jiraiya, high in the sky, could hear them.
At Naruto's fingertip, the black sphere swelled at terrifying speed. Fifty meters… one hundred meters… a full kilometer—and it kept growing stronger.
Compared to the villagers' hatred for Naruto, the malice of the Grass Village had been nothing.
Their twisted hatred was so intense it could give birth to a Zero-Tails of its own.
"Jiraiya-sensei, you see? Whatever becomes of the Leaf—it's the villagers who decide it for themselves."
"I've only done the smallest of things."
"The ones killing them… are themselves."
Naruto's voice was calm, unnervingly so. His heart was utterly still, without the slightest ripple.
"Konoha—receive judgment."
Above his finger floated a black sphere as massive as the sun itself.
It was large enough to blanket the entire village.
"I will bring despair!"
"Hahahahaha, brat! Destroy it, annihilate it! This should've been done long ago!" Kurama howled with wild laughter from within the seal. For the first time in centuries, he felt sheer relief. "Let these disgusting maggots witness the power of a true jinchūriki!"
The great fox slapped his round belly and snarled in disgust. "It's because of these filthy creatures that I've ended up in this miserable form!"
He despised his current look. A thousand years ago, he had been magnificent—almost adorable. Now he was nothing but a hulking, bloated fox. Perhaps the face could be excused… but the gut? That was entirely humanity's fault.
The Nine-Tails had once been nothing more than pure chakra. But in those thousand years, with his ability to sense malice much like Naruto's, he had absorbed countless grudges and resentments.
It was precisely because of this that the Nine-Tails came to be seen as the embodiment of calamity.
Ironic, really—the malice was originally humanity's own creation, yet they blamed the tailed beasts for it.
And not just the Nine-Tails. The other eight beasts were the same.
They had been created to guard humanity—yet had become weapons of war instead.
Laughable. Pathetic.
Naruto bent his finger ever so slightly. The black sun began to descend slowly toward the village.
"Let the world know pain."
Only now did the villagers below feel true terror.
It was like the night the Nine-Tails had unleashed a Tailed Beast Bomb upon Konoha—only this time, there was no Fourth Hokage to sacrifice himself in their place.
Or perhaps… there was.
Jiraiya, forcing his battered body to act, urged the flying toad to interpose itself between the black sun and the village.
"Even if I've held my grudges against this village… I can't just watch it be destroyed."
"Summoning Jutsu!"
With a puff of smoke, two robed toads appeared. "No time to explain."
"Fukasaku, Shima—I'm counting on you."
"Leave it to us, little Jiraiya," the two elder toads replied, meeting each other's eyes before leaping to his shoulders.
"Sage Mode—activate!"
Jiraiya's nose instantly grew enormous, bulbous and red, sprouting wart-like bumps.
He had been gathering natural energy this whole time, waiting for this moment.
He had to stop Naruto.
"Sage Art: Goemon!"
Oil, wind, and fire—three forces blended together, enhanced with sage chakra. A technique said to devour all material things.
And yet, before that black sphere, even such overwhelming power couldn't slow it for a heartbeat.
"Sage Art: Big Flame Bullet!"
Another mighty jutsu—just as useless.
Sage Mode was indeed powerful. But the power born of such boundless malice was not something mere sage arts could resist. Not his, at least.
No matter what Jiraiya unleashed, he could not halt the black sun.
"Sage Art: Super Ultra Big Ball Rasengan!"
Jiraiya poured the last of his chakra into a Rasengan a hundred times larger than usual.
"Jiraiya-boy, you don't mean—?" Shima realized his intent.
"Fukasaku, Shima—you two should return to Mount Myōboku." Jiraiya looked at the oncoming black sun and, strangely, smiled with relief. "I haven't been back all these years. I bear responsibility too."
"If someone must be sacrificed—why not me?" His voice was light, almost cheerful. "I've lived through all that I was meant to."
"Hahaha, who would've thought? The wandering hermit, speaking like some wise sage."
"If I'd known I'd say something this cool, I'd have written it in one of my books."
"My only regret is dragging you with me, flying toad. Forgive me—for making you share my grave."
And one more regret lingered, unspoken.
If only I could see you one more time, Tsunade…
That girl—at least in Jiraiya's eyes—had always been his girl. From the Academy days until now, he had never stopped.
"Guuu!" the flying toad croaked, as if in answer.
Fukasaku and Shima gave him a final, long look. Then, with twin puffs of smoke, they vanished.
Jiraiya charged the black sun, giant Rasengan raised high. He was like Bardock, hurling himself against Frieza's Planet-Destroying Cannon.
He didn't know how to reason with Naruto, and he couldn't stop that sphere. So he would use his life as the message.
It wasn't fair.
He wasn't the guilty one—yet he would die to stop Naruto. His "answer" was to awaken the boy through guilt.
Unreasonable. Unjust.
The burden of the honest man.
"…Jiraiya-sensei, I don't hate you. The price isn't yours to pay, and it never should be."
Naruto had noticed his move from the start. But he hadn't stopped him—just watched, silently, as the black sun swallowed him whole.
But Jiraiya's sacrifice amounted to nothing. The black sun continued its descent, unaffected.
Until—when it was mere meters from the ground—Jiraiya's form suddenly reappeared in the sky, completely unharmed.
Still frozen in the same pose, Rasengan raised—only now, the sphere was gone from his hand.
The black sun had passed through his body without leaving so much as a scratch.
"…Why am I alive?" Jiraiya stared in disbelief at himself. He had braced for death—yet here he was.
Genjutsu?
Of course not.
"I won't kill you." Naruto finally spoke, finishing his earlier words. "Grudges have their rightful owners. This isn't yours."
You want to throw yourself away? I won't allow it.
"Besides… have you really lived through everything you were meant to?"
Naruto's gaze swept him up and down, sharp and strangely amused.
"…Aren't you still a virgin?"
He had foreseen this. From the start, he had guessed someone would try to sacrifice themselves. It happened all the time in anime.
So he had prepared.
The Flower of Ominous Evil—Modified.
The version that had destroyed the Grass was only a prototype. This one, designed specifically for Konoha, was perfected.
Its principle mirrored the Spirit Bomb—only adjusted.
If Flower of Ominous Evil—Modified wasn't dramatic enough, one could also call it:
"Air Release: Ultimate Revenge Hyper-Death Destruction Cannon Zero-Style."
The Spirit Bomb absorbed life force, growing stronger with an opponent's evil intent. Against pure hearts, it did nothing. It could obliterate even the last cell of an enemy consumed by hatred.
Naruto's Modified Flower—or rather, his "Grudge Bomb"—worked the same, but with one crucial difference: anyone who bore him no malice would be completely unharmed. Damage scaled only to the depth of one's hatred.
He had designed it this way to avoid harming those who had shown him kindness.
People like Teuchi, the ramen shop owner. Or a certain slacker of a team captain.
What a joke—Naruto wasn't insane. This wasn't indiscriminate slaughter. He had no intention of hurting those few who had cared.
Jiraiya, too, was included. For all his flaws, he had never once shown Naruto malice.
"Who says I'm a virgin?!" Jiraiya roared indignantly. The idea that the most notorious womanizer of the shinobi world—the gallant Jiraiya—was untouched? Absurd!
But even as he barked back, the truth dawned, and his body froze for an instant.
That single hesitation was enough.
The black sun had already reached Konoha.
In an instant, it swallowed the village whole.
There was no quake, no avalanche. No roar of the earth.
Just silence.
Buildings crumbled into dust, leaving nothing behind. Even the Hokage Monument, survivor of three Shinobi World Wars, shattered into pieces, vanishing as though it had never been carved.
Villagers, genin, chūnin, jōnin—none were spared.
All those who bore malice toward Naruto were equal before it.
All lives, equal.
Just as he had said—their deaths were their own doing. The deeper their hatred, the greater their destruction.
A colossal mushroom cloud slowly rose into the sky.
The Flower of Ominous Evil bloomed once more.
"Sasuke, Neji—look! Fireworks. Such beautiful fireworks."
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