Minato Namikaze

The Nine-Tails had been sealed away, but he was not stupid.

After being sealed, he had plenty of time to think.

The Fourth Hokage! The first Hokage in history to have been born a commoner.

He had succeeded the position not long after the end of the Third Ninja War.

He often won battles with his speed, and his masterful Flying Thunder God Technique made his movements impossible to track, allowing him to race across the battlefield like a bolt of lightning.

He became famous throughout the ninja world under the title of the "Yellow Flash."

In Third's eyes, he was the perfect grand-disciple: gentle in nature and an inheritor of the Will of Fire.

In the eyes of his master, Jiraiya, he was a genius disciple with superb ninjutsu and outstanding battle awareness.

Whether villagers or even enemies, everyone spoke highly of him.

His smile was as bright and radiant as sunlight.

He was the perfect Hokage, the perfect father.

But one thing could not be ignored.

He was also a ninja.

A ninja who had fought his way out of the battlefield, his hands stained with blood.

His gentleness and kindness were forever reserved for his own people.

The Nine-Tails understood that Konoha's various factions were tangled together in a complicated web. To become Hokage, the Fourth Hokage must have been meticulous and deeply calculating.

To Konoha, he was both an enemy and a weapon used to deter other ninja villages.

Sealing him into an infant on a whim was not the Fourth Hokage's style.

He must have left behind many contingencies.

That was why the Nine-Tails had Naruto try to tear off the seal. At that point, the Fourth Hokage's backup measures would be revealed.

The Nine-Tails was very curious about what sort of contingency the Fourth Hokage, who had always treated others so gently, had placed within the seal.

"From the way you answered, my parents should have been the ones who sealed you, right?" Upon hearing the Nine-Tails' response, Naruto's suspicions were further confirmed.

"That's right. You can try peeling off the seal. He definitely left something behind. Perhaps the two of you can meet." The Nine-Tails grinned wickedly.

Then Naruto suddenly chuckled.

"There aren't many members of the Uzumaki Clan in Konoha. To seal you away, one would naturally need incredibly powerful sealing techniques."

"The first Nine-Tails Jinchuriki was Mito Uzumaki, the First Hokage's wife. Since she could become the First Hokage's wife, her sealing techniques were naturally powerful. I don't know who the second Nine-Tails Jinchuriki was. I couldn't find any relevant records, and no one ever told me."

"But I noticed that the beloved Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, had a wife named Kushina Uzumaki." Naruto looked at the Nine-Tails' dazed eyes, a smile curling across his lips as he continued on his own.

"I found it strange a long time ago. There were no Uzumakis in Konoha. The only information I could find was about Kushina Uzumaki and Mito Uzumaki."

"The Uzumaki Clan, with its powerful sealing techniques, suffered Clan Annihilation and the destruction of its homeland. Konoha took in the remaining Uzumakis. Yet now, I am the only surviving member of the Uzumaki Clan."

"The Fourth Hokage and his wife died during the night of the Nine-Tails, while the Nine-Tails was also suppressed then. No one knew whether the Nine-Tails had been killed or sealed away, but from that day onward, Konoha had an infant regarded as the Nine-Tails Fox Demon."

At this point, a trace of amusement appeared at the corner of Naruto's mouth.

"He inherited the Uzumaki surname."

"Even more interestingly, he had the same blond hair as the Fourth Hokage, and the same sunny appearance." Naruto brushed his bangs upward slightly and took off his glasses.

For a moment, his features overlapped with those of the Fourth Hokage.

"Hiss." The Nine-Tails swallowed, looking at Naruto with even greater shock as a guess surfaced in his heart.

No way.

This brat hadn't figured all this out by himself, had he?

Impossible!

Was this brat really that smart?!

Naruto put his glasses back on and said unhurriedly, "If you calculate carefully, I was born in the year the Nine-Tails went berserk."

"I have a face extremely similar to the Fourth Hokage's, and I share the Uzumaki surname with the Fourth Hokage's wife. There can't be that many coincidences in the world. When all these coincidences come together, they become fact."

"Rather than saying I reached this conclusion now, it would be more accurate to say that I only began accepting this fact now."

"Six years ago, during the Nine-Tails Rebellion, the Fourth Hokage died, and at the same time, an infant containing the sealed Nine-Tails appeared. If I'm not mistaken, before they died, they sealed you inside me, hoping that I would live on as the son of heroes and earn the villagers' respect."

"But why did I become the Nine-Tails Fox Demon everyone despised?" Naruto still wore a smile, as though he were narrating from the perspective of a bystander.

Yet the calmer he was, the more unnerved the Nine-Tails became.

"Ahem, brat, don't talk while smiling. It's a little creepy." The Nine-Tails swallowed, feeling his skin crawl.

"If I'm not mistaken, Konoha's higher-ups altered the truth and made me bear everyone's malice, so they could control me." Naruto's lips curved into a mocking smile as he turned to the Nine-Tails.

"The Will of Fire says that old leaves turn into flames, inspiring and warming the younger generation. But now, new leaves have become life-sustaining herbs for the rotten, withered ones. The entire tree serves those few decaying leaves."

"The son of heroes became a tool for politicians to manipulate people's hearts, and even became a rat everyone wanted to beat."

"You tell me—when the usually gentle and kind Fourth Hokage learns the truth, do you think he'll go dark?"

The Nine-Tails froze for a moment, the shock in his eyes deepening.

Clearly, he had not expected Naruto to have already deduced the truth.

Over his long life, he had seen countless exceptionally gifted people. But aside from that pervert who had grabbed him like a baby, he had never truly regarded anyone highly.

Yet at this moment, he actually felt a trace of admiration for Naruto.

He then burst into laughter. "Now that you put it that way, I'm looking forward to it."

Just imagining the expression the ever-gentle Fourth Hokage might wear upon learning of Naruto's circumstances made the Nine-Tails want to roll around on the ground and laugh his heart out.

"Fun. This is going to be fun, kid. Want to give it a try?" The Nine-Tails urged him repeatedly.

"I happen to have a lot of questions for him." Naruto stood up. A sharp glint appeared in his calm eyes as he reached for the sealing strip.

Naruto held no favorable feelings toward the Fourth Hokage—his biological father. He even felt some disgust.

Anyone capable of becoming Konoha's Hokage had to possess at least some intelligence.

At the top, strength was not the only thing that mattered. Political acumen mattered too.

Konoha's factions were tangled and complex. As the one holding the banner, the most important thing was to balance the interests of every side and keep everything under control.

But the Fourth Hokage had been as naive as a child. He had underestimated human nature, underestimated the Third, and foolishly sealed the Nine-Tails away without guarding against the Third at all.

Logically speaking, as Hokage, he should have understood Konoha's darkness.

Yet he had still miscalculated, and the price had been Naruto's dark childhood and his current precarious situation.

How could Naruto possibly feel any affection for a father he had never met?

So Naruto reached for the sealing strip without hesitation.

The instant his hand touched the sealing strip, a warm, large hand pressed down over his.

Golden Chakra, warm as sunlight, illuminated the entire space and reflected the complicated look in the Nine-Tails' eyes.

"Minato, so you really did leave something behind."

Along with the Nine-Tails' murmur, a handsome blond, blue-eyed man in a white Hokage cloak appeared beside Naruto.

He had been known as the Little Sun, his smile as brilliant as sunshine.

He was also the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, beloved and respected by the villagers.

But no matter how great his reputation was, before Naruto, he was an unqualified father.

"Naruto, you've grown up." Minato looked at Naruto, who resembled him so closely, his expression filled with complicated emotions.