Chapter 593: Forcing Naruto's Real Body to Appear
For a father and son pair like Namikaze Minato and Uzumaki Naruto...
If they truly wanted to run away and hide, catching them would be almost impossible.
That was why both of them could only work as front-line characters—or at least relatively front-line ones.
They needed to have some moral boundaries, something they genuinely cared about.
Only then would they have weaknesses.
Otherwise...
There was no need to even mention the Flying Thunder God Technique.
Minato could simply leave one Flying Thunder God mark in each of the Five Great Nations.
The moment you arrived at one location, he'd immediately teleport to the next.
He could rest there for a few days while waiting for you to catch up, then simply move somewhere else again.
The only way to deal with him would be to attack before he noticed you and kill him in a single strike.
But the problem was...
A Flying Thunder God user already possessed excellent sensory abilities.
Their reaction speed was among the very best.
And activating Flying Thunder God had virtually no startup time.
Accomplishing that was easier said than done.
Earlier, Neji had sealed Minato's chakra points with the imitation Rabbit Hair Needle because Minato had never intended to flee.
He had only wanted to dodge.
That was why he ended up getting caught within the large-area attack.
The same principle applied to capturing Naruto.
If Naruto truly wanted to hide...
With his enormous chakra reserves, he could create countless Shadow Clones and scatter them all over the world.
Trying to find Naruto's real body would be like opening the world map in certain games and seeing nothing but endless unclog-the-toilet side quests.
They refreshed infinitely every day.
And each one only rewarded you with scraps.
Every Shadow Clone was a separate quest.
You had to find it and defeat it before you could confirm whether it was the real Naruto or just another clone.
If you looked at the final battle from Kaguya and Black Zetsu's perspective, you'd understand just how much of a headache that was.
And that was with Naruto trapped inside only a handful of dimensions, unable to escape.
If Neji wanted to capture Naruto...
He had to do it the right way.
He needed to find Naruto's weakness and force the real body to reveal itself.
Running around searching blindly like an idiot wouldn't accomplish anything.
As for whether targeting Naruto's weakness was immoral...
That wasn't something Neji cared about anymore.
Ever since pledging loyalty to the Hokage...
Nothing about him belonged to himself anymore.
Not even his reputation.
The moment he used his own existence to threaten Hyuga Hiashi, he had already crossed that line.
What else did he have to fear now?
He was merely acting as a dirty glove.
Compared to his original position...
This was already an improvement.
---
Inside the library.
Naruto's real body was leisurely reading classified documents.
"Naruto, why are you here? This is terrible! Where's your real body? Hurry and tell him to come back!"
Tenten, Ino, and Kiba rushed over, all wearing anxious expressions.
"What happened?"
Naruto remained completely calm.
Although he was the real body...
No one currently knew that.
"How are you still so calm? Neji's gone crazy! To force you out, he's captured everyone!"
Tenten grabbed Naruto by the arm.
"He captured everyone? To force me out?"
Naruto tilted his head in confusion.
He didn't understand what Tenten meant by "everyone."
He had assumed Neji would capture his dad and beat him up to force his real body to appear.
"Neji doesn't know who you actually like."
Seeing Naruto still looking clueless, Tenten sighed.
"He captured Sakura first."
Ino continued, "We were shopping with Sakura when Neji suddenly appeared. He threw out a bunch of needles that pinned Sakura down, then stuffed her into a pink sack."
"I chased after him to stop him, but Neji said that if I dared interfere with him serving Hokage-sama again, he'd capture me too."
"I got scared, and I was worried that if I got captured too, no one would know what had happened."
"So I endured the humiliation and survived at all costs…"
"Then I ran into these two."
"What? Sakura? Why did Neji capture Sakura??"
Naruto instantly shot to his feet.
"Don't worry about why he captured her yet. It wasn't just Sakura. Hinata was captured too."
"Neji even left behind a message. He said I was welcome to report him to Clan Head Hiashi and see whether Hiashi dared stop him."
Kiba sighed.
"I also chose to endure the humiliation for the greater good, so I didn't stop Neji."
"..."
Naruto was speechless.
One after another...
Every one of them claimed they were "enduring humiliation."
Was this really enduring humiliation?
Had this ninja world changed so much?
Not only had his dad become a coward...
Even his friends had changed?
"That's right. Ever since Neji pledged loyalty to Hokage-sama, he's become a completely different person."
"He's doing everything to satisfy the Hokage's preferences."
"He said he's going to present Sakura and Hinata to Shiromo-nii, the supermarket owner."
"If you don't show up before sunset today…"
"He's going to make his move!"
Tenten finished explaining.
All three of them looked toward Naruto, waiting to see what he would do.
"Why present them to Shiromo-nii?"
Naruto looked puzzled.
"Someone started spreading rumors throughout the village today."
"They're saying Hokage-sama and the supermarket owner are together, and that Namikaze Minato is an incompetent husband who got cuckolded."
"..."
That seemed to be entirely Naruto's own doing.
"Does Neji really think this will make me surrender and force my real body to appear?"
"Don't worry."
"He wouldn't dare do something like that."
"I know..."
Naruto had been about to say that he knew Neji cared about his comrades.
But then he remembered—That was Neji from the real ninja world.
What did that have to do with this world's Neji?
So he immediately changed his wording.
"I know my mo—the Hokage."
"Just yesterday she was arguing with Shiromo-nii behind the supermarket, asking why he had given something to the Mizukage."
"So Neji absolutely wouldn't dare do this."
"He thinks he's currying favor with Shiromo-nii and, through him, indirectly pleasing the Hokage."
"But he's completely mistaken!"
"As one of the Hokage's trusted subordinates, there's no way he wouldn't know that."
Naruto confidently raised his head.
Faced with one of the rare occasions where Naruto's analysis was actually logical...
The other three all shook their heads at the same time and looked at him with pity.
"Naruto... I never expected that, as the Hokage's son, you don't even understand what kind of person she really is."
"So the rumors are true?"
"Namikaze Minato was already ruined before getting married and could only rely on the Nine-Tails' chakra to passively father you?"
"Naruto... are you actually the Nine-Tails' child?"
"Uh... What do you mean?"
Naruto scratched his head.
As for Kushina...
He really didn't know much about her.
Because this was one of the few things he couldn't learn from the archives.
As Konoha's sole dictator, Kushina could erase every piece of information about herself.
So after hearing what they said...
Naruto genuinely couldn't refute them.
He could only play dumb.
After all...
When it came to understanding Kushina, Naruto might actually know less than an ordinary villager.
"Hokage-sama favors a domineering approach. She once said—'You may only take what I give you; If I don't give it to you, you're not allowed to take it.'"
"The conflict between Hokage-sama and the Mizukage was probably because the Mizukage took something without asking."
"On the other hand, Hokage-sama has also said that whatever she likes should be liked by the entire ninja world."
"The more people who like it, the greater her sense of accomplishment..."
"Then what about my dad?"
Naruto was completely dumbfounded.
He hadn't expected there to be another twist.
If that was really the case...
Then his dad shouldn't have been looked down upon, should he?
"Although Hokage-sama enjoys sharing and having fun together with the people…"
"The type of ninja she hates the most is the 'power of bonds' type."
Tenten sighed.
"Oh, and did you know?"
"Lee and Guy-Sensei have also been captured."
(End of this chapter)