Crazy Capital

"Naruto! I... I..."

Father and son reflected each other's figures. Naruto quietly looked at his father, while Minato Namikaze's voice choked up, unable to form a complete sentence.

The son before his eyes felt as unreachable as if he were at the ends of the earth. This heart-wrenching tangle of emotions could not be put into words.

He had once been so powerful that everyone in the Shinobi World had to give him a wide berth, yet now tears streamed down his face.

"All right, Father. I was merely stating a fact. You don't need to take it so seriously. Come on, could you shake my hand?"

Everything Naruto had suffered in his previous life had made him inherently believe that he was selfish and indifferent after coming to this world. Still, he would not deny that genuine feelings existed in the world.

He could admire them with envy and support.

But such feelings were not meant for him.

Now, he needed to collect data. A notification had suddenly sounded in his mind earlier, saying that there was data on his father related to the Mirrored World that could be collected.

This also let him understand for the first time that the Mirrored World required direct contact with the relevant target to collect data.

"Shake hands?"

Minato Namikaze was initially puzzled, but when he heard his son call him Father, he excitedly crouched down and pulled Naruto tightly into his arms.

"Beginning collection of current data."

The instant he was embraced, Naruto instinctively resisted. Yet his body's instincts made him abandon the thought of pushing him away.

He could feel that, even though he possessed the soul of an adult, his heart was still stirred by indescribable waves at that moment. The sudden rush of emotion left him melancholy.

"Current data collection complete. Relevant updates are as follows. Current data completeness: 2%. Please complete the data as soon as possible."

After the mechanical voice vanished, a glint flashed in Naruto's eyes. One of the newly updated functions concerned him greatly. After sighing, he buried those emotions deep within his heart.

"That's enough, Father."

"Oh, all right!" Hearing Naruto's voice, Minato Namikaze reluctantly loosened his arms, then immediately said, "You suffered so much. As your father, I have no face to apologize to you. I know asking for your forgiveness is..."

"It doesn't matter, Father."

"I haven't really suffered much. You saw how I've lived these past few years—I'm perfectly fine. Maybe you won't believe me, but I want to tell you that I have never blamed you."

"You and Mother gave me the most precious thing in the world: life. And you gave me a healthy body."

"And you care about me. That is especially important!"

"So, to me, you are already the best parents in the world."

After saying this, Naruto walked toward the fox behind the iron gate.

Minato Namikaze still blamed himself deeply after hearing this, but when Naruto said he did not blame him, tears began streaming from the corners of his eyes again. Yet just as his emotions of gratitude continued to rise, Naruto said something that made his expression change drastically.

"Father, can you let it out of this seal?"

The fox had been secretly annoyed that it had not gotten to see the spectacle it had hoped for. When it saw Naruto approach the iron gate again, it wanted to bare its fangs. But remembering how this brat had not even blinked when his head had nearly been pierced, it decided against it.

Besides, with the sealed iron gate between them, what was the point of baring its fangs?

"What?"

The fox's eyes widened as it wondered if it had heard wrong. Let it out?

Hadn't his old man clearly explained what Jinchuriki and Tailed Beasts were? He had even explained matters related to the seal.

If it truly broke out of the seal, the brat would be dead for sure.

"Absolutely not!"

Minato Namikaze took two steps to Naruto's side and solemnly looked at the fox.

"Once it breaks out of the seal, it will take over your body. You will die. The Nine-Tails is an evil Tailed Beast, a Demon Fox filled with hatred!"

"Heh heh! Brat, he's right!" The fox revealed an evil smile upon hearing that.

Naruto first smiled just as broadly at the fox, then looked at his father and asked, "Evil? I don't think so! By the way, Father, I'm very interested in whether you can tell me who decided that Tailed Beasts were inherently evil."

"Uh..."

Minato Namikaze froze at the question. He had no answer for Naruto's question.

After hearing it, the fox behind the iron gate looked at Naruto with surprise in its narrow eyes, a complicated expression flashing through them. How could such a young brat ask a question like that?

"Well, Father? Do you have an answer now?"

Naruto looked up at his father, whose brows were twisted into a knot, and continued asking.

"Naruto, Tailed Beasts are evil. This is universally acknowledged in the Shinobi World, a fact passed down for over a thousand years. Besides, let's not discuss that for now. Do you know the consequences of releasing it? Not only will you die, but once it gets out, it will definitely bring unimaginable disaster to Konoha. As long as it appears, Konoha will fall into a crisis that may be impossible to save."

After weighing his words, Minato Namikaze spoke with a warning tone.

The fox inside sneered inwardly at Minato Namikaze's words, but its gaze remained fixed on Naruto, as if anticipating something.

"Heh heh... Konoha."

"My Father, I know. You want to save Konoha. You want to protect them."

"Of course, of course. Just look at the Hokage Robe you're wearing. After all, you are Konoha's Fourth Hokage."

After Naruto said this with a light laugh, the entire Sealed Space fell silent once more.

Minato Namikaze's heart trembled. Naruto's words felt especially piercing to him.

The fox behind the iron gate also looked at Minato Namikaze with mockery in its eyes. It could hear the ridicule in Naruto's words.

"Naruto, I..."

Minato Namikaze wanted to say something.

Naruto waved his hand, then pointed at the fox inside. "All right, Father. Since the party involved is here, let's discuss the definition of Tailed Beasts."

"The definition of Tailed Beasts?" Minato Namikaze asked in confusion.

Naruto nodded. "Yes. You told me many things about Tailed Beasts earlier, so let's begin with how the Tailed Beasts came to be in the various villages of the Shinobi World."

Minato Namikaze replied instinctively, "The Tailed Beasts currently possessed by the major shinobi villages were captured by Konoha's First. To preserve peace in the Shinobi World and maintain the balance of power among the nations and villages, he voluntarily distributed them as gifts during the first Five Kage Summit. That was—"

The fox's expression grew even more indignant upon hearing this, because the core of those words was that Tailed Beasts had been treated like gifts humans exchanged during visits.

Naruto interrupted him at that point. "Stop!"

"Hm?" Minato Namikaze was puzzled to see his son interrupt him.

"Father, that's enough. Now let me speak." Naruto nodded, then turned to look at the fox. "May I ask, when you were captured, had you done anything that harmed humans?"

The fox behind the iron gate had not wanted to respond to Naruto, but the resentment in its heart burst from its big mouth. "Never! We Tailed Beasts all lived far away from humans. Who would go looking for trouble with humans for no reason?"

"Thank you." Naruto inclined his head in thanks, then looked at his father. "Then the matter is clear. The Tailed Beasts were living peacefully in their own homes, and the First captured them one by one as gifts for the sake of human peace in the Shinobi World. Isn't that excuse a little too overbearing?"

"What does human peace have to do with Tailed Beasts? Do Tailed Beasts have an obligation to pay the price for peace in the Shinobi World?"

"You said that Tailed Beasts appearing would bring disaster and harm humans, so why capture them in the first place? Isn't that just tying yourself up in knots?"

Minato Namikaze was embarrassed. Wasn't this how the Shinobi World had always handled Tailed Beasts?

"Father, this is merely the selfishness of humans in the Shinobi World at work. They suffer from persecutory delusions, so they shift the conflict onto Tailed Beasts. When they see power they cannot control, they want to seize it and keep it under their own control, even if it harms others and themselves."

"Look at it. It is clearly an intelligent creature. Other than its biological traits differing from ours, how is it any different from us humans? Why was the First unwilling to communicate with them back then?"

"They captured Tailed Beasts as mindless beasts, then wanted to control and seize their power. If the Tailed Beasts did not hate you, were they supposed to love you instead? The most absurd thing is that humans seem to expect Tailed Beasts to understand their actions."

"They captured Tailed Beasts and sealed them inside Jinchuriki, never to see daylight, yet expected the Tailed Beasts to willingly accept that outcome while making themselves sound so righteous."

"I can only describe such unreasonable behavior as shameless."

Minato Namikaze was stunned. He himself did not know how many times he had been stunned since seeing his son.

The fox inside was also full of astonishment. Naruto's words had struck straight into its heart.

"Why are Tailed Beasts defined as evil? Father, you actually already know the answer. If they were not branded as evil, how could humans be righteous? Then there would be no justification for capturing Tailed Beasts. So from the very beginning, Tailed Beasts had to be evil—without reason."

Minato Namikaze felt the subject becoming increasingly heavy and opened his mouth. "Naruto, I cannot refute your words, but regarding Tailed Beasts—"

"There are no buts!" Naruto decisively interrupted his father, stepping forward another two paces until he was nearly pressed against the iron gate.

"Just as I was born in Konoha and branded a Demon Fox from the start, so everyone hated me and feared me."

"Why do people fear Tailed Beasts? Because they possess the capital to run wild in the Shinobi World!"

"And it and I exist as one, so I happen to possess that capital to run wild as well!"