"You want to lock me up?" Naruto asked coldly.
At that, Hiruzen Sarutobi raised a hand, intending to ruffle Naruto's hair.
Naruto stepped back and dodged; Hiruzen's hand awkwardly froze in midair.
Retracting his hand, Hiruzen gave a sigh in his heart, then forced a kindly smile.
"No, no — just temporarily to let you lay low until your grandfather sorts things out. Once he's settled it, we'll let you out. After that, no one will speak ill of you again."
"Believe grandpa, okay? Grandpa would never hurt you!"
Hiruzen spoke with painful earnestness, thinking himself to be comforting Naruto — but the words only drew a cold sneer from Naruto.
"Believe you? You wouldn't hurt me?"
The sarcasm in that sentence made Hiruzen's heart skip.
Naruto continued, "You're the Hokage, right? I've been insulted and shunned by the villagers since I was little — you're going to tell me none of that happened with your consent?"
"As the Hokage, you only had to give one order and I could have been freed from that situation. What did you do?"
"You watched me, assigned people to spy on me, looked coldly on my suffering — all 'for my own good,' right?"
"And now you expect me to believe you? Isn't that a little laughable, Hokage-sama?"
Naruto's rapid-fire accusations left Hiruzen frozen in place, his breath caught for a moment.
Only now did he realize: Naruto had seen through everything.
Especially the last line — "Hokage-sama" — which sounded particularly bitter in Hiruzen's ears.
He wanted to explain, but when he met Naruto's cold eyes the words stuck in his throat.
That look made the boy before him feel utterly unfamiliar.
So unfamiliar it sent a chill down Hiruzen's spine.
He had assumed that years of visits had forged a grandfather-grandson bond between them. But seeing Naruto now, all of that seemed absurd.
Sigh — 'Danzo has misled me!' Hiruzen lamented inwardly. Things had come to this; he could not change what he had already decided. Today he must take Naruto.
If Naruto were allowed to run free, it would spell mutual ruin — both for Naruto and for the people of Konoha.
"Sorry, Naruto. I'll explain the past to you later, but for now you must come with me."
"Is that so? If soft words won't work, are you going to force me?" Naruto's gaze went utterly cold.
He would never let his fate be decided by others — not Danzo, and not Hiruzen.
A tired look deepened Hiruzen's eyes; he appeared even older.
"Do it." He closed his eyes and gave the despairing order.
Outside, four ANBU formed a square and surrounded Naruto's home.
Their hands moved fast through the seals, stepping through several hand signs.
"Four Red Sun Formation!"
As the four ANBU finished their seals, a red barrier began to rise to enclose Naruto's location.
Naruto passed through the Transparent World and sensed everything.
The instant the barrier completed, Naruto vanished from beneath Hiruzen's eyes as if from thin air.
"W-what!" Hiruzen cried out.
Even this jutsu instructor could not react in time.
After a moment, Hiruzen murmured with wonder and bitterness in his voice, "Flying Thunder God… In only a month, to master Flying Thunder God to this level — what terrifying talent…"
Naruto's move had caught Hiruzen completely off guard.
Even Minato had trained for years before he mastered Flying Thunder God.
Hiruzen could not understand — after Naruto received the sealing book, he had no indication Naruto had ever practiced Flying Thunder God.
When had he learned it? How?!
Even learning it aside, the instantaneous Flying Thunder God Naruto displayed made Hiruzen feel that Naruto's proficiency rivaled Minato at his peak.
This kind of unnatural talent shattered Hiruzen's assumptions.
"Minato… what kind of child did you…"
After the awe came an ache of worry.
A child who could use Flying Thunder God and who felt nothing for Konoha — and who was also a Jinchuriki…
How should we deal with him?
Hiruzen felt his guts twist with regret; what had he been doing all these years? Why had he listened to Danzo? With the precedent before him, he'd been foolish.
On the Hokage Rock, Naruto appeared out of thin air and landed lightly, stepping onto the statue of Hiruzen Sarutobi.
At the landing point, there was a string of tadpole-like marks — the Flying Thunder God glyph he had previously carved there.
The Flying Thunder God formula can be inscribed on any object or person and will not be erased by time.
Over this period, Naruto had quietly carved such formulas across Konoha — perhaps dozens — prepared for a moment like this.
Although he guessed Flying Thunder God might allow him to escape the Four Red Sun Formation, he didn't want to risk it.
If it could be avoided, why force a confrontation?
Back below, the Four Red Sun Formation was complete.
Nearly a hundred elite ANBU packed Naruto's home tightly.
Among them were shinobi skilled in sealing techniques.
Hiruzen slowly came out the gate, sorrow filling his eyes until tears brimmed.
On the Hokage Rock the night wind blew, tugging at Naruto's clothing.
"I've held myself in for so long — maybe it's time to act."
He muttered and let the wind carry his words.
He spread his hands as if to embrace freedom.
Relaxing his stance, he leapt from the sack-high side of the Hokage Rock.
Even the suffocating fall felt exhilarating.
Several meters above the ground a vast gust of wind-nature chakra surged out.
Naruto seemed to float in midair, suspended.
Inside the sealed space, the Nine-Tails watched Naruto's posturing with eager eyes and twitched its mouth in a grin.
Kagura Mind's Eye and the Transparent World opened at once, and Naruto began to search outward from Konoha's perimeter.
This time he had two objectives.
Go to Root, kill that old Danzo, and collect Hashirama's cells!
Root lay hidden deep under Konoha, its sensing range concentrated mostly underground.
Along the search path, a group of people dressed in black mourning clothes blocked the way.
From the Kagura Mind's Eye sensing, Naruto had paid them no special heed.
But a sharp voice pulled his gaze in.
In the center of the crowd stood a widow, hair piled up, dressed in black widow's garb; her eyes were full of venom as she glared at Naruto, her index finger trembling as she pointed.
"You demon fox! You still come out to hurt people! I'll kill you… I'll kill you… to avenge my husband!"
Her eyes were bloodshot. She yanked the hairpin from her piled hair; her raven locks tumbled down.
Clutching the hairpin like a weapon, she charged at Naruto like a raving madwoman.
That malice was so thick that even without the Nine-Tails' warning Naruto could feel it.
This widow truly loved her husband — not at all like those widows in certain melodramas.
Naruto's eyes narrowed. He immediately activated First Form — a blue-light figure flashed through the crowd.
In an instant he crossed tens of meters.
The widow and the dozen or so people in the street were all struck and sent flying, tumbling to the ground in every direction.
They spat blood and seemed near death.
The widow's eyes bulged; her neck twisted into an eerie arc, yet she still clutched the hairpin tightly.