"Danzo-dono…"
"Danzo-dono, are you alright…?"
"Damn it—this monster dared to ambush Danzo-dono…!"
Panicked voices crashed over each other. A mass of shinobi surged forward to shield Danzo, eyes locked warily on the blond boy.
With a hiss of movement, multiple shinobi in Ne (Root) garb appeared as well, forming a second wall before Danzo and staring icily at Naruto.
The stand-off went taut in an instant. Every shinobi on the scene watched Naruto with knives for eyes.
On both sides of the street, the villagers, shocked at first, quickly recovered once they realized shinobi were nearby; hatred and disgust twisted their faces as they hurled curses.
"You damned monster! We always knew you were rotten—you've finally shown your true colors!"
"Hokage-sama, kill the monster!"
"He dared raise a hand against a shinobi—we can't let him live!"
…
Amid the clamor, Naruto glanced toward the civilians, expression empty. His fist clenched—then crashed down.
BOOM!!!
The ground cratered beneath him. Neat flagstones blasted apart, shards scything down the street like bullets, peppering the villagers on both sides.
In a heartbeat: wails and howls.
Villagers hit the dirt, rolling and screaming, blood splashing from shattered skin where stone had struck home. The cries swallowed the street; the heckling went silent.
Those few who weren't hit didn't dare keep shouting; they could only stare at Naruto with wild, terrified eyes.
One villager stammered, shaking, "Hokage-sama… what are you waiting for? Kill the monster!"
Others looked to Hiruzen with desperate hope.
Naruto chuckled and pointed at the Hokage, whose face had gone iron blue. "Idiots. I'm standing right here. You think he dares kill me?"
"Why wouldn't he!" another villager spat. "You're a fox demon! If Hokage-sama hadn't been so kind as to let you stay, you'd have died long ago!"
"Hahaha…" Naruto laughed outright. "And that's why you're idiots. I'm the Jinchūriki (Tailed Beast Host) who seals the Kyūbi (Nine-Tails). The fox and I are one. If I die, the Nine-Tails inside me dies with me."
"But the moment my life is truly threatened, the Nine-Tails will rampage—and even reassert its will."
"And say I am killed. Then and there, the Nine-Tails in me will perish too."
"Can Konoha afford to lose its human weapon?"
His smile thinned as he turned to Hiruzen. "Back then, that fool of a First Hokage captured the nine bijū to 'ensure peace' and handed them out to the great powers."
"The intent was to use the terror of the bijū to deter war."
"But out of private interest, he kept the Nine-Tails in Konoha. The power of a single Nine-Tails can counter the other eight combined."
"In other words, if I'm truly killed, Konoha loses the human weapon that balances every other nation's bijū."
The villagers went slack-jawed. They had never imagined that the "monster" Uzumaki Naruto was that important. If he died, and another shinobi war came, wouldn't Konoha be crushed beneath the other nations' human weapons?
Naruto walked toward them, voice like ice. "I've despised you for a long time—ignorant cattle. You bullied me, insulted me, poured all your malice onto me…"
His fist tightened again, drawing back for another blow.
Hiruzen snapped back to himself, face ashen. "Restrain Uzumaki Naruto—now! We can't allow him to keep rampaging!"
Then, as if remembering something vital, he barked a second order: "Do not kill Uzumaki Naruto!"
His face flushed, then blanched, then flushed again. Just as Naruto said—Konoha could not lose the Nine-Tails. Without it, they'd have no counter to other hidden villages. In wartime, an enemy could lob a single Jinchūriki into the Leaf and level it with brute force alone.
The villagers' eyes went wide. So Naruto had been telling the truth. The "monster" really was that critical.
Shock broke into survival instinct. They scrambled for the shelters in a sobbing, snot-smeared stampede, tripping over each other in their haste, as if a single late step meant death.
Naruto's lips curled. His fist slammed down again, gouging another crater; stone shards geysered outward, felling more villagers.
He raised his right leg, laughter dying to a chill edge. "What's wrong? Didn't you call me a fox demon every day? Where's all that courage now?"
"Rankyaku: Shūdan (Tempest Kick: Perimeter Sever)!"
A crescent blade of azure pressure howled free. With a grinding roar it scythed along the street, slicing through building fronts in an instant; walls sheared, roofs collapsed.
Under the villagers' petrified gazes, the crescent cut through them as well.
In a flash—scarlet blossomed.
Bodies split at the waist; blood fountained, painting the street—and the very air—red.
The screaming leapt an octave.
Watching friends die in pieces, the survivors broke entirely. "A-aaah! A monster!"
They fled on hands and knees alike, all trace of the arrogance in Naruto's memories gone without a whisper.
"Damn you—Uzumaki Naruto, stop!" Chōza roared, fury snapping his restraint. He charged first, driving a meaty fist straight at Naruto.
Naruto snapped his head around and met the punch with his own. "You think you can beat me?!"
Fists collided.
BOOM! Chōza's huge, heavy body launched like a boulder, smashing through the storefront behind him—then the wall behind that—and kept going, rocketing through building after building until he finally ground to a halt. Blood jetted from his mouth as he hit the floor, arm twisted grotesquely.
"Chōza!!" Shikaku shouted, panic cracking his voice.
He stared through the Chōza-shaped holes punched in the walls in disbelief—his friend lay crumpled and broken, arm ruined.
(End of Chapter)
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