"You bastard!!!" Tobirama Senju's outrage exploded through the chat room like a cannon shot. "When did I ever teach you any of that?!" His fury only swelled from there. "Orochimaru, find a way to resurrect me with Edo Tensei right now. I'm going to clean house with my own hands!"
Minato's reply came only after a pause. "...No. I don't understand either."
After the black-bordered screen laid bare Hiruzen Sarutobi's true thoughts for the entire world to see, Kushina still hadn't spoken again. Minato assumed she had been forcibly muted once more. The very first sentence she wanted to hurl at Hiruzen had probably been too violent even for the system to allow.
That only made the silence heavier. Minato understood Tobirama's mood better than ever now. But unlike the Second Hokage, he couldn't even bring himself to force out words he didn't mean just to keep appearances intact.
In the arena, Kakashi's palms had begun to sweat. He was so tense that even his visible eye felt dry. Guy noticed it almost immediately. "Kakashi, what's wrong with you?"
Kakashi wiped at cold sweat that wasn't really there. "Nothing." But of course it wasn't nothing. He had no idea how he was supposed to face Minato-sensei and Kushina now.
And yet, strangely enough, the two of them had barely questioned him at all. Kakashi didn't understand it. Before they died, he had been a half-broken scarecrow of a person, carrying grief, failure, and emptiness in silence. Compared to that version of himself, the current Kakashi was almost stable. Almost.
In another filthy corner of Konoha's darkness, some people were far more nervous than he was. They were terrified the black-bordered screen would suddenly shift its gaze onto them next. If that happened, the chat room would be a bloodbath. Judging by the atmosphere so far, everyone's voices would be very lively indeed.
Hiruzen Sarutobi simply covered his face, refusing to see and refusing to hear. At this point, any explanation would only be sophistry. Worse still, it would be sophistry that no one would believe. The condemnation aimed at him grew louder and louder, yet the old man remained like a mute stone, not even flinching when Orochimaru continued to prod him.
Orochimaru only smiled. "Sarutobi-sensei, the real spectacle is just beginning." His voice was almost gentle, which only made it more vicious. "It's a pity. I originally wanted you to die a hero. But now it seems quite a few people think you're not worthy of that. Even the Second Hokage seems to agree."
The black-bordered screen continued to play.
***
The next morning, Naruto woke up in unusually good spirits. He wasn't happy, exactly, but neither was he so fragile that pain could stop him from sleeping. In fact, he had slept deeply and soundly, while the ANBU outside his room had probably spent the whole night being fed to mosquitoes.
After a long, comfortable stretch, Naruto climbed out of bed and went to wash up. But the moment he stood, he froze. There were more things in the room now than there had been before.
It was subtle, but obvious if you looked carefully. There were household items that seemed to have appeared overnight out of thin air, like this miserable room had grown furnishings all by itself while he slept. Naruto walked over to the refrigerator, opened it, and found milk and fruit inside.
"Hmph. That guy called Third Generation must've ordered it," he muttered. He didn't overthink it. After washing up, he took the extra milk and bread, sat down, and quietly ate breakfast.
In the stands, Tenten suddenly reacted. "Wait a second. If I remember right, the gold-frame Naruto didn't even know where the food from last night came from, did he?" Rock Lee immediately nodded. "That's right! Gold-frame Naruto just stuffed himself without even wondering about it!"
Ino blinked, then groaned as realization hit her. "Oh no. I actually think black-frame Naruto is kind of cool." She paused, horrified by herself. "Wait, why did that come out so naturally?!" Sakura could only glance helplessly toward Naruto below. The children who had grown up around him understood the difference between the two Narutos more clearly than anyone.
Hinata's thoughts were elsewhere entirely. If black-frame Naruto existed in that world... then would he still have gone out for a walk that night? Would she still have met him? Her fingers tightened unconsciously. Sasuke, meanwhile, shot the screen a disdainful stare. "This guy... don't tell me... impossible. A loser like him can't possibly surpass an Uchiha."
On the black-bordered screen, Naruto finished breakfast, grabbed his fishhooks and line, and rushed straight out the door. He was heading for the back hill. Before leaving, he had already prepared himself for the possibility of catching nothing at all.
"There were more things in the river than just fish," he thought as he hurried along. "Snails too... If I can't get fish, I'll look for those." With that in mind, he picked up speed.
As he passed the morning market, Naruto stole another careful glance at the stalls. "Someone once said a balanced diet means eating both meat and vegetables," he thought. "Yesterday I saw children about my age, but they were much stronger than me. Is it because they actually eat properly?"
Ino immediately spoke up again. "That's right. Naruto's always been thin and weak since he was little. Among the boys, he was never noticeable in that way." Then, looking slightly awkward, she added, "It's mean to say it out loud, but besides calling him dead last, a lot of people also called him a shorty."
Sakura's expression turned complicated. "Naruto always ate instant noodles, so I thought he just really liked them. I didn't realize... that he only ate them because he didn't have anything else." Tenten frowned. "How can that possibly count as nutrition?" Lee, in all seriousness, added, "Gai-sensei says if you don't eat meat, you won't put on weight."
Shikamaru's lazy eyes had gone unusually sharp. "So that means Naruto was... malnourished."
Izuna Uchiha snorted in disdain. "The brats are right. He's a ninja, yet he can't even guarantee basic daily energy intake? He's from the Uzumaki clan, isn't he?" Tobirama answered immediately, stubborn even now. "Not only that. The Fourth Hokage should have been considered part of my Senju line. After the clan merged into Konoha, they stopped using the surname."
Izuna's irritation was instant. "Did I ask you that?" Then his tone sharpened further. "If the boy didn't have both the Uzumaki and Senju bloodlines strengthening his constitution, this wouldn't just be malnutrition. He'd probably be skin and bones with a yellow, sickly face even with the Nine-Tails sealed inside him."
Hinata blinked. Not getting enough food... malnutrition? Then didn't that mean she herself had once been like that too, at least in some ways? The thought unsettled her.
Naruto kept moving fast, his mind working constantly. He was like a blank page, desperate to fill itself with everything useful it could gather. He filtered out the murmurs, curses, and pointless abuse, listening only for what mattered. Still, many things remained beyond his control.
His appearance spread quickly through the area. People who hadn't seen him yesterday came running over with undisguised excitement. Quite a few openly regretted missing the chance to deal with that damned fox demon the day before. As more and more people gathered, Naruto's brows knitted together. The dense malice pressing in from all sides made his skin crawl.
Fortunately, he had no intention of wasting energy on them right now. Fishing came first. Because of that, Naruto noticed something important. The strange "murmuring" voice in his mind only appeared when his emotions swung hard toward anger, hatred, grief, or fear. Without that spike of negativity, it stayed silent.
He was just thinking about that when something suddenly dropped in front of him with a soft thump. Naruto's eyes narrowed. It was a mask. He had no intention of stopping, and taking a detour felt just as pointless. So he adjusted his stride and prepared to step neatly over it.
But if nothing unexpected happened, then it wouldn't have been his life.
"Are you blind?!"
A powerful shove slammed into him without warning. Naruto's vision darkened for an instant as his balance was destroyed mid-step. Because he had changed his stride at the last second, his center of gravity was already unstable. He crashed hard to the ground, the impact knocking the breath from his chest.
The first thing he thought was simple: This bastard did that on purpose.
Naruto looked up. A middle-aged man had already picked the fallen mask back up and was glaring down at him with a face full of cold disgust.
"You blind little fox... brat!" the man snapped. "If you damage my mask, can you afford to pay for it?!" The malice rolling off him was thick enough to touch.
Anger flashed in Naruto's eyes. The murmur in his head began to rise again. But unlike before, this time his body was still fully his own. Naruto pushed himself to his feet in one swift motion.
"What, are you mute too?" the mask shop owner barked. "Apologize!" As he roared, he raised a hand as if ready to strike.
Naruto suddenly lifted his head and stared straight at him. For the briefest instant, the shop owner felt a chill rip through his spine. "Red eyes?!" he thought, body freezing. "No way... this brat... that fox demon couldn't possibly..." But then, just as abruptly, Naruto's eyes looked blue again.
The shop owner was stunned. Had he imagined it? Was it fear? Or was that monster child really changing right in front of him? That moment of hesitation was all Naruto needed.
Sasuke couldn't help sneering from the sidelines. "Hmph. A bunch of cowardly bullies." But before his sentence had even fully landed, the black-bordered Naruto had already moved.
He launched himself forward with all the strength his small body could muster. Naruto knew exactly how weak he currently was. He knew a child's fist wouldn't do much to a grown man if it hit the wrong place. So instead of fighting fair, he went straight for the target he remembered most clearly from a certain scene.
Straight between the legs.
Crack.
The sound was not loud, but it was horrifyingly distinct.
For a single frozen second, the entire world seemed to go silent. Then the mask shop owner's face twisted beyond recognition. His mouth opened soundlessly first, like his body couldn't even process the pain fast enough, before the scream finally tore out of him like something being ripped apart.
"AAAAAAARGH-!"
He folded instantly, knees buckling, both hands clutching downward as his entire body curled around the agony. The masks hanging outside his stall rattled from the force of his collapse. His face went from red to white to a sickly green in the span of a heartbeat.
Naruto hopped back lightly the moment the blow landed, not out of mercy, but caution. His eyes stayed fixed on the man, cold and alert. He wasn't smiling. There was no childish glee in his expression. If anything, his face had gone even calmer.
"You wanted to hit me, didn't you?" Naruto said in a flat voice. "Then you should've been ready to get hit back."
The crowd nearby stared with their mouths hanging open. No one had expected that. No one had expected a little brat who looked skinny enough to be blown over by the wind to answer violence with something so vicious, so precise, and so utterly shameless.
Then the surrounding adults exploded. "That little fox demon attacked someone!" "He really is a monster!" "See? I told you he'd lash out sooner or later!" Their outrage came faster than thought, as if they'd all been waiting for exactly this kind of excuse.
Naruto ignored them. He had already learned enough by now. Adults like this weren't looking for truth. They were looking for permission. Permission to hate him, permission to hurt him, permission to turn whatever happened into proof that he deserved it.
The mask shop owner still couldn't stand. He knelt there shuddering, face covered in tears and snot, trying and failing to scream properly through the pain. For all his earlier bluster, he now looked less like a terrifying adult and more like a broken sack dropped in the road.
Naruto stared at him for one more beat. Then he turned away as if he had no intention of wasting another second.
But of course, the matter wasn't over. Not when so many eyes were watching. Not when hatred in Konoha spread faster than fire through dry grass. The moment Naruto took three steps forward, the rising tide of hostility around him thickened again, and somewhere deeper in the crowd, movement shifted in a way that wasn't quite civilian anymore.
On the screen, Naruto's little hand still hung at his side, fingers tense from the strike. His face remained expressionless, but his thoughts were racing. He had hit first and won the exchange. That meant only one thing - the next retaliation would be bigger, faster, and much uglier.
And sure enough, the black-bordered film held on that exact instant: the moment after the counterattack, the breath before the mob surged, the split second before the world came crashing down on a five-year-old child who had dared to hit back.
What came next was written all over everyone's faces - and it wasn't going to end with just one man clutching his crotch in the street.