Have You Realized Some Mistakes?

"Everyone, look! Who's that standing on the Nine-Tails' shoulder?"

"No idea. An Uzumaki mask... What a strange outfit. I've never seen anything like it."

"The Nine-Tails seems to have stopped. What's going on?"

"Could it be..."

Everyone turned to look at Hiruzen Sarutobi in unison, but his face was equally filled with confusion.

For a moment, he could not make sense of what had happened.

What method had this suddenly appearing person used to actually calm the Nine-Tails...

Was he an enemy or an ally?

Very soon, the Nine-Tails' actions gave everyone their answer.

It suddenly changed direction, turning its body to face Konoha.

It raised its head as a massive Tailed Beast Bomb rapidly condensed in the air, its destructive aura spreading without end.

Everyone, including Hiruzen Sarutobi, went pale.

A Tailed Beast Bomb!

And in that direction...

"Not good! Stop it!"

Hiruzen Sarutobi shouted, and the surrounding Konoha Ninja quickly came to their senses.

If that enormous Tailed Beast Bomb exploded inside the village, everything would be over!

For a time, everyone desperately circulated the Chakra within their bodies, trying to draw the Nine-Tails away from the village like before.

But this time, the Nine-Tails completely ignored the Konoha Ninja's attacks.

Finally...

Before everyone's despairing eyes, the massive Tailed Beast Bomb kicked up a violent blast of air and hurtled toward Konoha.

A huge sphere of light rose out of nowhere, and the ground shook violently.

They could see that even the space around the sphere seemed to twist and distort.

Only dozens of seconds later did the thunderous roar reach them from afar.

"Those expressions are truly delightful..."

Watching the fury, unwillingness, fear, despair, and grief on the faces of the Konoha Ninja below, the Nine-Tails revealed a smug expression.

The next second, its enormous body vanished, leaving only Minato Namikaze unconscious on the ground.

"Catch that masked bastard!"

Hiruzen Sarutobi shouted through gritted teeth.

That bastard must have reminded the Nine-Tails to turn its target back toward the village.

No matter who he was, he absolutely could not be allowed to escape.

As the Konoha Ninja closed in around him, the man in the Uzumaki mask suddenly clapped his hands together. Then, a low voice rang beside everyone's ears.

"Secret Technique!!!"

Hiruzen Sarutobi and the Anbu immediately halted, staring warily at the Mysterious Man before them.

Anyone capable of making even the Nine-Tails obedient was absolutely not to be underestimated.

Yet the next second, the masked man's voice suddenly turned mocking. "Shadow Clone Technique—Release!"

As a puff of white smoke dispersed into the air, Hiruzen Sarutobi and the others wore expressions as ugly as if they had eaten shit.

They had been played!

Atop Hokage Rock, Uchiha Yuzuru stood on Tobirama Senju's head, looking down at the Konoha villagers below as they wept and cried out.

Ever since he had deliberately let those Konoha Ninja go last time, he had infiltrated the village through Kamui.

He had originally intended to use the power of the Mangekyō Sharingan to make Mito Uzumaki go berserk, but after sensing how little life force Mito Uzumaki had left, he changed his mind.

Rather than waste Dojutsu Power, he might as well wait quietly for a few days.

Without Kushina Uzumaki, no one in Konoha could perfectly suppress the Nine-Tails in its complete form.

Just as he had expected, the instant Mito Uzumaki died, the Nine-Tails broke free of its seal.

Nearly a thousand ninja had died, close to one-third of the village had been reduced to ruins, countless civilians had been left homeless, and the property losses were even more impossible to estimate...

He wondered whether they now recognized at least some of their mistakes.

They lived in a village founded by the Uchiha Clan, yet had never truly accepted the Uchiha people.

Not only had they failed to show gratitude for the Uchiha's contributions to Konoha, they had instead regarded the Uchiha as a destabilizing factor within the village.

Exclusion, surveillance, slander...

If that was the case, then he would use facts to prove...

Who had given them the right to enjoy the fertile land beneath their feet?!

The blazing sun hung high in the sky.

The biting cold wind never ceased. Konoha's people huddled in the underground shelters, their expressions numb.

The Nine-Tails' rampage in the early hours had claimed countless lives.

Many people's homes had been reduced directly to rubble.

For Konoha's villagers, whose economy had remained sluggish ever since the Uchiha Clan left Konoha, this was nothing less than a bolt from the blue.

Perhaps they would truly have to sleep on the streets from now on.

Despair spread through the crowd, and the entire underground shelter was steeped in lifeless gloom.

A burst of footsteps sounded. Several dozen utterly exhausted, dust-covered ninja entered. After handing over to the next shift, they all collapsed onto the floor.

"I'm fucking exhausted. The Nine-Tails' power is terrifying. Just looking at that chaotic wreckage, you can imagine how horrifying the Tailed Beast Bomb's explosion must have been."

"Why did we let the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki live in the village? If there hadn't been a Nine-Tails, so many of us wouldn't have died!"

"There's no helping it. Every other village has a tailed beast. If we alone lacked a strategic weapon like that, we'd be at a huge disadvantage."

"That's true... The other villages' situations probably aren't much different from ours. Having a tailed beast's power means bearing the corresponding risks."

At the sound of their discussion, a low voice spoke up. "No. At least Kumogakure isn't like this."

Everyone turned toward the speaker. One of them asked curiously, "Tōru, why do you say that?"

"Because I saw it with my own eyes!" Harada Tōru gritted his teeth. "Not long ago, I ran into Kumogakure's Jinchuriki while carrying out a mission."

"That guy could freely use the tailed beast's power!"

"What?!" Harada Tōru's words left everyone staring in shock, and the once-quiet shelter erupted into noise.

Everyone gathered around Harada Tōru, curiously looking at the wounded man whose head was wrapped in bandages.

"My companions died at Kumogakure's Jinchuriki's hands, so I know this better than anyone."

"That guy used the tailed beast's tails to block every single one of our attacks."

The image of his companions' gruesome deaths flashed through his mind, and Harada Tōru's expression turned sorrowful and furious. "If it hadn't been for Lord Jiraiya, I probably would have died at his hands long ago."

"But those tailed beasts are such savage creatures. No matter how you look at it, they don't seem willing to lend their power to humans, do they?"

Seeing the doubt in everyone's eyes, Tachibana Hiko and Yamada Kōshi sighed and stepped forward. "Believe it or not, we saw it with our own eyes. Lord Jiraiya can testify to it as well."

"Actually, Hojo Shinroku knew about it too, but he was killed by the Nine-Tails last night."

Once the three mentioned Jiraiya's name, the doubts in everyone's hearts vanished.

Given that man's prestige and status, no one would lie in his name.

"How enviable..." someone said with a bitter smile. "If our Jinchuriki could do what Kumogakure's Jinchuriki does, we wouldn't have suffered like this."

"That's exactly it..." Harada Tōru suddenly shouted. "That's what makes me so angry!"