GA: Chapter 205: Fragile Emotions — The Feeling Beating in the Chest
"Have you ever considered — if you died, whether this world's Uzumaki Naruto would still repeat what I experienced?"
"Nine-Tails. Monster. Filthy beast. Hated by everyone. Rejected by everyone. Every person desperate to pin all their ugliest thoughts onto a child who had done nothing at all."
"Rice mixed with sand. Expired milk and instant noodles. Food with no nutritional value. Being surrounded and beaten by groups of other children — those were just the minor, forgettable parts."
"If not for the influence of Asura's chakra and his own inherently kind nature, he should have become the person in this world who hated Konoha most of all."
"I am simply the version of him who let that darkness out."
Minato was silent for a long moment.
The matter of power was something he didn't want to contest right now. What mattered most to him was ensuring Kushina and Naruto's safety. Everything else he was willing to wait and address afterward.
He didn't argue with Naruto's words either, because what Naruto had described was genuinely the most direct solution. He simply couldn't choose a path like that.
He would find another way — just not Naruto's.
"In your world, when you destroyed Konoha — were Hinata, Sasuke, Kakashi, Jiraiya-sensei among those who fell? At the very least, they were sincere toward you."
"Are you joking?"
A short, derisive sound came from Naruto's direction.
"Have you not finished waking up from the anime's plot? And what you call sincerity was simply a product of various circumstances that developed over time."
"Setting aside the bond between Asura and Indra — Uchiha Sasuke and I had no real connection. So-called sincerity requires investment from both parties. I destroyed Asura's chakra. That bond broke naturally."
"I helped him grow stronger, killed Uchiha Itachi, killed Konoha's leadership — and in exchange, he became my subordinate through our agreement."
"As for Hatake Kakashi and Jiraiya — what did they do when I was suffering?"
"Kakashi gave me no help whatsoever. That remained true after we were placed in the same team. And Jiraiya — all those years wandering the ninja world, and before the Chunin Exams, he never once returned to Konoha to look in on his student's child."
"I don't blame them. When it comes down to it, the title of 'teacher' is just a title. It doesn't carry genuine feeling."
"I intended to destroy Konoha. They tried to stop me. So they died."
Naruto said it without inflection.
In his eyes, these so-called emotions were too fragile. The feelings the original Naruto had shown in the later story were largely nothing more than guilt.
He didn't need that.
"As for Hinata—"
A flicker of something soft crossed Naruto's eyes.
Unfortunately, the system hadn't provided any function to bring people along through transmigrations. But he couldn't give up on growing stronger either.
So he had spent a lifetime with Hinata — and in the moment of her death, he froze her soul and body in stasis and placed them in the system space, to be restored once his journey reached its end.
The memory faded. Naruto's gaze returned to stillness.
"I need this world's Tailed Beasts. To revive the Ten-Tails. To seize Kaguya Ōtsutsuki's power once more."
"That is my task in this world."
"If you wish to stop me — do as you like."
Minato stood at those words.
"Impossible."
"The other Tailed Beasts — I can accept that. But not the Nine-Tails."
"Kushina—"
"And what does that have to do with me?"
Naruto's voice was cold.
"It's merely some pain. With the Uzumaki constitution, as long as she's treated promptly, she won't die."
"Besides — you've joined a chat group. You can exchange for healing items and help her recover."
"Or—"
Something seemed to occur to him. An expression of faint, wry amusement crossed Naruto's face.
"You could also simply give me the Nine-Tails from your own body."
"Alright."
Without the slightest hesitation, Minato nodded.
To him — as long as Kushina and Naruto weren't harmed, losing one Nine-Tails was nothing.
"..."
Naruto went quiet for a moment at the directness of that response. Then he started to laugh. The laughter grew increasingly unhinged, increasingly self-mocking.
"I don't know what to say."
"Perhaps I should compliment you for being a remarkable father?"
"Heh."
"If I didn't know better, I might think I was actually the son you raised in this world."
"I genuinely can't understand it. I really can't."
"For both our sakes, we're just people from different worlds — and yet you're not only willing to give up the mission's rewards, you didn't hesitate for even a moment to give up the Nine-Tails' power."
"How ironic. Are you kind, or are you simply foolish..."
The laughter faded. Naruto's expression settled into something flat and cold. Those black eyes fixed on Minato. Minato looked back.
A long silence passed between them.
Then—
"I'm leaving."
Naruto stood. A deep fissure split the air behind him.
"I won't come back to this world again."
He felt the strange sensation stirring in his chest. What was this, exactly — family? Kinship?
What a bitter joke.
He had told himself he didn't need something this fragile. So what was this feeling doing here?
A scene surfaced unbidden in his mind — the parallel world where he had revived both Namikaze Minato and Uzumaki Kushina.
He had only told them what had happened, then handed power back to Minato. He had noticed the mixture of tension, unease, and concern that flickered across their faces when they looked at him — and had felt nothing but coldness toward it.
Reviving them had been simply because they were his parents. No emotion involved. The three of them had no such thing as a bond between them.
He held no hatred toward Minato or Kushina. But he had felt nothing toward them either.
Though — they hadn't actually done anything wrong, had they?
His father had believed that what he was doing would make his son a child of heroes, someone admired by everyone. His mother, in her final moments, had spoken every last hope she held for him into his ear.
Their feelings for him were no less than any parent's.
The miserable childhood he had experienced was the result of one thing only — his parents had trusted the wrong people.
Yes. Simply that.
"I actually envy you, the Naruto of this world."
"What you get to have — I never did, and never stopped longing for."
Naruto drew a slow, deep breath. The system's voice sounded in his mind.
"Ding — transmigration request confirmed. Remaining transmigrations — zero."
"Ding — countdown initiated. Transmigration begins in ten seconds."
"Ding — please prepare, host."
Listening to the system's voice, Naruto snapped his fingers. A mysterious force spread outward through all of Konoha.
"What a Hokage needs is simply to ensure the civilians of this village live better lives — to help Konoha grow and flourish."
"Benevolence is a quality a Hokage should possess. But so is decisiveness. And so is authority."
"Peace does not always require war to achieve — but the prerequisite is strength so absolute that no one dares challenge it."
"If you wish to obtain peace with truly no cost — then try reaching for the power of the Infinite Tsukuyomi."
As those words settled, Naruto's figure dissolved into the fissure and was gone.
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