Dead silence!
A deathly silence!
The air throughout the Hokage Tower seemed frozen solid in silence! Countless villagers wore expressions of shock and disbelief! The Demon Fox was the Fourth Hokage's son?
"How is that possible?! The Fourth Hokage was a hero who saved the entire village. How could the Demon Fox be his son?"
"Exactly! What kind of joke is this?! How could something like this be possible?!"
"It must be a lie fabricated by the Demon Fox's Uncle! He won't even spare the deceased Fourth Hokage, that bastard!"
Noisy voices rose from around the Hokage Tower.
The villagers gathered near the Hokage Tower stared in utter disbelief, as if they had seen a ghost.
The Fourth Hokage had been a hero who sacrificed himself to save the village! On the night of the Nine-Tails' rampage, he had fearlessly used his own life to seal away the Nine-Tails.
He had saved countless lives! How could such a great ninja be the Demon Fox's father? Some villagers looked toward Sarutobi Hiruzen, hoping that the respected Third Hokage would ruthlessly expose Namikaze Mirai's lies!
How could the Demon Fox possibly be the Fourth Hokage's son? It had to be a lie fabricated by the Demon Fox's Uncle!
His purpose was to deceive kind villagers like them!
But then, something that stunned them appeared.
Sarutobi Hiruzen wore a complicated expression. His gray-brown eyes held an indescribable emotion as he remained silent.
Why wasn't the Third Hokage saying anything? Shouldn't he be ruthlessly exposing Namikaze Mirai's lies right now? The villagers began to panic.
Why did the Hokage they had always respected look like this?
Commotion broke out among the crowd! A bustling clamor rose from the villagers.
Soon, they noticed another shocking thing.
The Anbu—these Anbu who had originally been maintaining order—had all fallen silent! One silver-haired Anbu in particular looked utterly dejected, as though all his strength had been drained away in an instant.
These strange scenes finally calmed the frenzied crowd...
"How could this be? Could the Demon Fox really be..."
The moment that thought arose, they could not help but shudder! What kind of joke was this?! If the Demon Fox really was the Fourth Hokage's son, then what did that make them? They had benefited from the Fourth Hokage's grace, only to turn around and torment his son?
Namikaze Mirai looked coldly at Sarutobi Hiruzen.
"Lord Hokage, isn't it time you came clean about everything?"
Such a massive disturbance had spread across more than half of Konoha.
If Naruto's true identity was not made public today, there would be no way to settle this! A dry smile appeared on Sarutobi Hiruzen's lips. He seemed to have aged more than ten years in an instant, his back hunching as his voice became hoarse.
"Have you considered the consequences of revealing everything? Minato made countless enemies during the Third Great Ninja War. If Naruto's identity is exposed, how many will come after him..."
"Lord Hokage! I don't think you understand!"
Namikaze Mirai's tone carried a trace of mockery.
He stared directly at Sarutobi Hiruzen.
Word by word.
"As long as I'm here, no one will be able to threaten Naruto!"
Sarutobi Hiruzen's body suddenly trembled. He seemed to grow even older, his wrinkled face so withered it looked ready to droop.
At last, he sighed.
It seemed he had accepted the outcome.
"He's right. Naruto is the Fourth Hokage's son."
The crowd instantly exploded.
An uproar greater than any before erupted at the Hokage Tower.
Namikaze Mirai's words had only caused a slight stir in their hearts before.
But now that Sarutobi Hiruzen had personally admitted it, the meaning was completely different! Naruto, whom they had always called the Demon Fox, really was the Fourth Hokage's son!
The son of the hero who had sacrificed his life to save the village! The Demon Fox was a hero's son?
"B-but why does everyone call him the Demon Fox?"
"Where did those rumors come from?"
"This is too strange!"
Many villagers were still filled with confusion.
If Naruto was a hero's son, why had he been treated like this?
As the Fourth Hokage's son, shouldn't he have received the best benefits in the entire village and been raised as a hero's son?
Why had Naruto received the exact opposite?
And most importantly...
Throughout this entire process, the Third Hokage had never stepped in. That was far too strange!
"Because... of the Nine-Tails."
Sarutobi Hiruzen's eyes held bitterness unlike anything before.
Things had reached this point. He could only reveal the entire truth.
Otherwise, these enraged villagers would likely turn their anger on him.
"On the night of the Nine-Tails' rampage, Minato and Kushina sacrificed their lives to seal the Nine-Tails inside their son, Naruto."
"This matter was too significant. Leaking it recklessly would have had severe consequences, so I ordered all information related to it sealed away. But I never expected it to evolve into the rumor that Naruto was the Demon Fox."
"If Minato knew this in the afterlife, he would surely blame me!"
An uproar!
A massive uproar!
The truth had finally come to light!
The villagers who learned the truth found it difficult to accept reality.
The Demon Fox they had constantly cursed, the one they believed had killed the Fourth Hokage and his wife, was actually the Fourth Hokage and his wife's only son! All these years, they had been bullying a hero's son!
"I am... the Fourth Hokage's son..."
Naruto stood there blankly.
So his biological parents, whom he had never met, had actually been the heroes who saved the entire village? The Fourth Hokage, the last face carved into Hokage Rock, whom the village revered as a hero! He had never been some Demon Fox! He was a hero's son!
His eyes instantly filled with tears. Naruto pressed his lips together, trying his best not to cry.
Uncle had said that a real man should not cry.
But, but...
Large tears rolled down from his eyes one after another. He nearly cried himself into a puddle of tears.
Namikaze Mirai crouched down and gently wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes.
"Don't resent your parents. They were the people who loved you most in this world. The situation was simply too dangerous back then, and they had no choice but to make that decision."
"No, I don't resent them."
Naruto wiped the tears from his face.
"I'm happy. I'm not the bastard child they said I was. I have parents. They were heroes who saved the village. I just... I just want to see them."
"I really, really want to see them..."
The crowd fell silent.
Some silently wiped tears from the corners of their eyes.
Some clenched their fists in guilt.
Namikaze Mirai rose to his feet, turned around, and stared at Sarutobi Hiruzen.
"Third Hokage, how should the crime of allowing a hero's son to suffer the village's bullying be judged?"
A crime???
Sarutobi Hiruzen's expression suddenly turned ugly.
What did that mean??? Namikaze Mirai was directly targeting him? "As a hero's son, Naruto should have received the best education and the best treatment, but he received none of that! Instead, he had constantly endured baseless bullying!"
"You, the Third Hokage, do you not intend to take responsibility for this?"
The instant Namikaze Mirai's voice fell, noisy discussions immediately rose around them.
"The Hokage should indeed bear some responsibility for Naruto's situation."
"Yeah! We're only human. If the Hokage had announced from the beginning that Naruto was the Fourth Hokage's son, how could we possibly have treated him that way?"
The villagers began passing the blame among themselves. Their guilt over learning Naruto's identity seemed to have found an outlet.
Sarutobi Hiruzen's teeth trembled as he listened. The Anbu beside him also exchanged looks, their resolve wavering.
"How do you want me to compensate him?"
He took a deep breath.
The situation had forced his hand. It was no longer his choice to make.
Namikaze Mirai smiled faintly. "I recall that the inheritance my brother Minato left behind seems to have been appropriated by you. That portion of property should be worth, more or less, 500 million ryo!"
The moment he finished speaking, Sarutobi Hiruzen became anxious.
"How could Minato's property have been worth that much? Don't make such an outrageous demand!"
Namikaze Mirai's expression turned cold. "So you really did swallow my brother's inheritance?"
Sarutobi Hiruzen came back to his senses and noticed the strange looks from the villagers around him. His heart sank.
He had fallen into the trap.
"The property Minato left behind was all used to rebuild the village and compensate the families of the ninjas who died that night. Not a single ryo entered my pocket, and it was absolutely nowhere near 500 million ryo."
Sarutobi Hiruzen forcibly suppressed his anger.
"It's 1 billion ryo now!"
A cold smile appeared at the corner of Namikaze Mirai's mouth.
"Mirai, you!"
Sarutobi Hiruzen clenched his teeth, his blood pressure surging! "Are Naruto's suffering and Minato and Kushina's inheritance not even worth 1 billion ryo?"
"If you can't pay it, can't the Sarutobi Clan pay it?"
It seemed as though flames rose in Sarutobi Hiruzen's eyes as he looked at Namikaze Mirai.
He recalled Namikaze Mirai's declaration in the Hokage Office when he had first returned to the village: I will reclaim every last bit of Minato's inheritance.
If the Sarutobi Clan truly paid 1 billion ryo to compensate Naruto, many clan members would likely have to live in hardship.
But the situation was no longer one he could choose.
"I will send someone to deliver the compensation. Remember, this is for Naruto."
He took a deep breath. Though his tone was calm, his eyes faintly contained a trace of flame.
Yet Namikaze Mirai's gaze remained utterly calm.
As though he were saying that this was only the beginning.
Before you continue