The crowd was getting restless, their murmurs growing into a hostile roar. What Iruka Umino was saying felt like pure defiance.
But no one was buying it. They weren't about to go easy on Naruto Uzumaki just because he was a kid.
A kid? He was twelve. He was a full-fledged ninja now.
"Iruka, don't you forget," someone shouted from the crowd, "your parents died in the Nine-Tails attack twelve years ago!"
Naruto's face fell.
"I've never forgotten!" Iruka shot back, spinning to face the ninja who had spoken. His voice was raw and powerful as he grit his teeth and admitted his own failings. "I used to hate him too, just like all of you. I was his teacher, and I didn't care enough. That's why this happened!"
He stood beside Naruto, his fists clenched and his head bowed. "Everyone hates Naruto... everyone bullies him... But don't you see? If we hadn't treated him with so much hatred, if we hadn't cursed him and pushed him away, none of this would have happened today."
"All of this... it was our fault from the start!"
"We were the ones who bullied this child, who pushed him until his spirit broke. We're the ones who fear the Nine-Tails, but we're also the ones who forced him to become the very monster we're so afraid of!"
Yes. It was their fault. They had made his life a living hell. They were the ones who created this mess, so how could they possibly hate him for it? He was the most innocent one in all of this.
"Sensei..." Naruto mumbled, grabbing Iruka's arm. "That's not it..."
He wanted to tell him to calm down, that he knew the real reason for the rampage. It was about his own hatred for his father, Minato Namikaze, for leaving him with this life. The Nine-Tails' chakra had taken advantage of that, not the villagers' hate...
"Your leg is injured."
Emiya Shirou's voice cut through the tension, his eyes fixed on a wound on Iruka's leg.
"Iruka," the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, said, seeing his chance to change the subject. He pointed to the injury, which clearly looked like it had been made by a sharp blade. "What happened?"
With the entire village dealing with the Nine-Tails, how had Iruka gotten hurt?
"It was Mizuki," Iruka said, his expression hardening. "He was working with one of Orochimaru's men. I found out about their plan, and they hunted me down!"
Instantly, every ninja in the crowd started searching for Mizuki.
"No... that's not..." Mizuki stammered, waving his hands frantically as all eyes fell on him. A sickening, desperate smile spread across his face as he tried to pin the blame on Naruto. "It was... it was the brat... it was Naruto himself..."
"That's a lie!" Iruka shouted. "This was your conspiracy with Orochimaru's man all along! You knew exactly who Naruto is—the son of the Fourth Hokage and Kushina Uzumaki! You were trying to use his Uzumaki blood to get your hands on the clan's treasure!"
"No..." Mizuki choked out, a look of agony on his face.
"Wait..."
"What did Iruka just say?"
The crowd erupted. A wave of whispers swept through the village as everyone turned to the person next to them, asking if they'd heard correctly. They didn't care about some long-lost treasure; they had only heard one thing.
Naruto Uzumaki... was the son of the Fourth Hokage?
"How is that possible!"
"He can't be the Fourth's son!"
The ninjas stared in shock as they processed the secret the village had hidden for so long. They had never known.
It wasn't just that he was the Fourth Hokage's son. More importantly, he was the son of a hero. When Obito Uchiha had unleashed the Nine-Tails, the Fourth and his wife had sacrificed their own lives to seal the beast away.
But they hadn't just sacrificed themselves... they had sacrificed their own son, Naruto, in the process.
The thought was sickening. All at once, every ninja who had ever cursed the boy felt a crushing wave of guilt. They couldn't even look at him. They still feared the Nine-Tails, but they couldn't believe they had treated the orphan of a village hero this way.
What the hell had the village been doing?
The hero's son was also the demon fox everyone hated?
"What... what have we been doing all this time?" one ninja whispered, his voice trembling as he looked at the small boy next to Iruka. He looked like he was about to pass out.
Most people, however, were just confused, unsure of how they were supposed to feel about Naruto now.
Jiraiya's brow furrowed. He knew this sudden change of heart was only because of who Naruto's father was. Their guilt would fade, but their fear of the jinchuriki would remain.
Naruto would have to earn their respect on his own. He had to show the world that he wasn't a disaster, but a hero like his father—a great ninja who could protect them all.
The noise from the crowd was deafening. Hiruzen Sarutobi finally raised a hand for silence, his gaze landing on Mizuki. As important as Naruto's parentage was, Hiruzen was more worried about Orochimaru's plot.
What treasure were they after?
"No..." Mizuki babbled, shaking his head with an ugly, trembling smile. "It's not like that... We didn't get the treasure! I had just told Naruto who his parents were when the Nine-Tails went wild. There was no time!"
"The treasure is already gone!" Iruka said, looking at Mizuki with a mixture of pity and frustration. "Orochimaru's man already took it!"
Mizuki, he realized, was just a pawn who'd been thrown away.
A look of pure despair washed over Mizuki's face.
The treasure... was gone?
He thought it was in the Uzumaki clan's Mask Temple. Had he... been tricked?
"You were tricked," Iruka sighed. "That guy just used you to piss off Naruto and start this whole mess. He wanted the Nine-Tails to kill Lord Third and the Sannin to make it easier for Orochimaru to invade later..."
Mizuki's eyes turned red. That bastard!
How could he just use him like that? Didn't he know how dangerous the Nine-Tails was?
Didn't he care that Mizuki had been terrified for his life?
Rage and betrayal flooded Mizuki's heart. But when he looked up and met the eyes of the other Konoha ninja, the fear returned.
A few might have felt sorry for him, but most were just furious that one of their own had tried to unleash the Nine-Tails on the village. They all remembered the disaster from twelve years ago. Luckily, this time, nothing truly terrible had happened.
"Take him away," Hiruzen ordered, gesturing to the Interrogation Unit. "Find out everything that happened tonight."
He then turned to the ANBU. "And search the entire village! That infiltrator cannot be allowed to escape!"
"Yes, sir!" a squad of ANBU replied, vanishing in a blur. They figured the man couldn't have gotten far.
But they would never find him. Kabuto Yakushi was already hiding in the one place they couldn't search: the Root, Shimura Danzo's personal territory.
When Kabuto arrived, Danzo didn't look happy to see him. He had once tried to eliminate this man, and now here he was, standing right in front of him. But Kabuto didn't care. He knew the news he brought was about to make Danzo even unhappier.
"Hmph," Danzo grunted, the irritation practically etched on his face. "You and your master certainly caused quite a stir tonight. You nearly brought disaster down on Konoha."
"It was just a small accident," Kabuto said with a sigh of mock helplessness. "If things had gone smoothly, we would have taken out the Third Hokage and both Sannin."
A small smile played on Kabuto's lips as he pushed up his glasses.
"Consider it a small gift from Lord Orochimaru to you, Lord Danzo."