At this moment, the Third Hokage had finished saying everything that had been buried in his heart for many years, and the office fell into silence. He quietly awaited Naruto's reaction, his aged eyes filled with tension and anticipation.
Jiraiya, though he believed Naruto's magnanimity wouldn't be narrow, also felt his heart suspended until he received a definite answer.
"...Um," Naruto began, his tone tinged with confusion, "The disappointment and resentment you're talking about, does that mean you think I'd run off to become a rogue ninja or something because of this?"
Hearing this, the Third Hokage and Jiraiya's nerves instantly tightened, but then Naruto showed a somewhat speechless expression and continued.
"But, for things one doesn't care about, other people's opinions aren't really that important. In that situation, if I didn't save them, I wouldn't be able to look at myself... It's fine." He waved his hand, his tone relaxed.
"Old Man, you can have a little more faith in me, you know." Naruto's familiar smile reappeared on his face, "What I've felt in Konoha isn't all those annoying things... Oh, by the way, my Chunin Exams match was interrupted. Is there still hope for me to be promoted to Chunin?"
Seeing Naruto's grinning face, and that last question, which was clearly meant to lighten the mood with a touch of everyday triviality... the huge stone that had weighed on the Third Hokage's heart for who knows how long finally landed with a "thud." The immense sense of relief even made his legs go weak, and he almost slumped backward into his chair.
He looked at the face before him, so similar to the Fourth Hokage, yet also infused with Kushina's resilience and cheerfulness, and his eyes grew slightly warm.
Yes... He... he is that person's child after all... "Naruto... Thank you."
Hearing such a solemn apology, Naruto scratched his face uncomfortably, "Uh, well, it's nothing. Can I go now? I still have some things to deal with." His mind was now filled with questions about his mother, Kushina, and he was eager to start researching solutions.
As for the "don't care" he mentioned earlier, it was certainly true. Naruto didn't consider himself that petty. He actually never quite understood why characters would become enraged enough to kill everyone, or even destroy an entire Village, just because they were cursed at a few times.
He couldn't help but think of some sensational Hokage fanfiction he had occasionally glimpsed—those so-called "Dark Naruto" stories, which claimed to be "decisive and ruthless," but what they wrote was "I don't eat beef."
It was as if the original Naruto, once he knew the plot, would inevitably turn to extremism and destruction.
Even if he hadn't had Satsuki's companionship when he was young, and the villagers' behavior had been even more excessive, at most Naruto would have completely given up and then found an opportunity to leave the Village and live alone.
Naruto mumbled to himself. He thought of the widespread saying—"The person who should have become a rogue ninja ended up becoming Hokage."
Gaara—besides being ostracized, he lived for years under the constant threat of assassination by his closest relatives; Nagato—his parents died tragically before his eyes, he wandered in wartime, almost starved to death, and witnessed his best friend die protecting him; Kakashi—his father committed suicide under public scorn, two teammates died or "betrayed," his beloved sensei and sensei's wife both sacrificed themselves, and almost the only close friend he had left was Might Guy.
If one were to talk about tragedy, to turn dark, one would at least have to reach the level of these individuals, right?
Being bullied or cursed at can be fought back against or cursed back. Killing? Is that a dark elementary schooler?
— — — — — —
Consciousness drifted in a chaotic darkness, like struggling to awaken from endless slumber, with heavy sleepiness constantly eroding the edges of wakefulness.
Uzumaki Kushina could feel that as long as she relaxed even a little, giving up resistance, she would immediately fall back into that unconscious sleep.
Just sorting through her thoughts, trying to understand her current situation, had already used all her strength besides resisting sleep.
The last memory was of... her body being pierced by the Nine-Tailed's sharp, giant claw... intense pain, the rapid loss of life... No, even if she hadn't been pierced, as a Jinchuriki, with the Tailed Beast extracted, death was already inevitable... That day, it should have been the happiest day of her life, but instead, in the last moments of her life, she could only hastily glimpse her newborn child before facing an eternal separation... And then?
There was a gap in her memory. When her consciousness revived again, what flashed before her eyes was that face... that young face... Was it him?
That face held unwillingness, bottomless sorrow, and an intensely lingering reluctance... The contours of the features were somewhat like her own, but between the brows, they were more like Minato's... But, hadn't she already died? Why was she in this situation now? The sensation of her body... so strange, no real feeling, no pain...
"That's right... Minato seemed to have told me about a similar situation, didn't he?"
Her internal monologue, with its strange verbal tic, Uzumaki Kushina struggled to search through her confused memories. She recalled that in the past, when Minato was researching the Flying Thunder God Technique, he seemed to have mentioned... that within the scroll of forbidden Jutsu, which recorded countless secrets, there existed a forbidden Jutsu that could bring the dead back to the living world.
Of course, Kushina hadn't delved into it at the time; she only knew of the Jutsu's existence and didn't understand its specific principles. After all, who would want to learn such a Jutsu that disturbed the order of life and death? But combining it with the current situation, it seemed to be the only possible explanation.
Her body was bound by some power... This feeling was... "Is this the Eight Trigrams Sealing Style?"
As an inheritor of the Uzumaki Clan's bloodline and a master of Sealing Jutsu, Kushina immediately recognized the familiar sensation of being bound.
That meant that after she and Minato sacrificed themselves that day, for some unknown and unpleasant reason, she was summoned by someone using a forbidden Jutsu... and might even have been controlled to do something?
This thought made her heart clench. So... that child, Naruto, was that why he showed such a sad, such a pained expression? Was it to stop me from being controlled?
Between death and being summoned... there was no memory, not even the passage of time could be felt. Was that what it felt like for a soul to reside in the Pure Land? And now she could still think, still perceive, meaning her soul was still confined to the living world, right... She was already a dead person... She shouldn't interfere with anything in the living world... This rational thought flashed clearly in Kushina's mind. However, when she tried, ever so slightly, to move her fingers, and felt that long-lost "touch," even if it was based on a body of dust, an uncontrollable urge from the depths of her soul made her unconsciously want to move more.
How old is he now? He should... be a teenager now, right... Without parents by his side, these past years... has he been lonely? Has anyone bullied him?
Has he been eating well? Will he go hungry? What does he like to eat? Is his body strong?
Has he made friends? Is his personality gentle like Minato's, or a bit impulsive like hers?
Does he... hate us? Hate us for leaving him alone like this... Questions, worries, guilt, and deep love instantly overwhelmed the rational dam, just built, about "not interfering with the living world." That deep-seated concern of a mother, at this moment, outweighed everything.
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