Child of the Hero

Do tailed beasts and jinchuriki live in harmony? Or the most brutal Nine-Tails?

Hiruzen Sarutobi's pupils shrank to pinpricks.

He had watched Naruto grow up, literally watched him. The Anbu would submit periodic intelligence reports, and he would also often use the Telescope Jutsu to observe through the crystal ball.

He knew Naruto was a straightforward child with a simple mind, incapable of lying.

Hiruzen Sarutobi fell silent, contemplating. For a moment, he felt this matter was both good and bad. After all, the attitude of the village elders towards Naruto was unified: he was seen as a vessel carrying the Nine-Tails.

They had never considered investing any resources in his training.

Seeing Hiruzen fall silent, Naruto's smile grew even brighter. He gestured with his hands and said, "The ninjutsu it taught me is amazing! Let me show you! Heavenly Claw!"

Shing!

Orange-yellow chakra erupted from Naruto's five fingers, mimicking the shape of the Nine-Tails' claws, gradually condensing and emitting a metallic sheen like a blade.

Hiruzen Sarutobi stared at the flowing chakra, the fox claws existing in a state between semi-solid and semi-ethereal, and his doubts completely vanished.

His thoughts drifted back to the past, to the end of the Third Great Ninja War, and then to the Nine-Tails' rampage, and the depleted Konohagakure.

"Hiruzen, you absolutely cannot be soft-hearted. The village is short on money now, the financial problems are huge."

"Minato and Kushina's inheritance is too much. It's impossible to let it remain until Naruto grows up."

"Exactly! Contributing it to village development is how it can be of greatest use."

"Naruto, as Minato's son, should inherit his father's spirit of protecting Konoha!"

Shimura Danzō slammed the table: "This is a collective decision by all of us, for the Will of Fire! Necessary sacrifices!"

Hiruzen Sarutobi sighed. Concealing the fact that Naruto's father was the Fourth was a decision made by the high-level meeting, concerning the interests of the Konohagakure community.

He had originally planned to tell Naruto when he was a bit older, old enough to understand the Will of Fire.

But now that Naruto had directly established a connection with the Nine-Tails, exposure seemed imminent.

Hiruzen Sarutobi gazed at the Hokage Rock shrouded in the night sky, his eyes fixed on the carved heads of himself and the Fourth. He said with deep affection:

"Naruto, do you like Konohagakure?"

Naruto chuckled, "As an orphan, Konohagakure raised me. I should be grateful."

Hiruzen Sarutobi's body, with his hands behind his back, became even more stooped. "I like it. I love Konohagakure, I love every plant and tree here, every house, every person. I love you too."

He made up his mind and reached out to touch Naruto's head. "Do you know who delivered you?"

Naruto shook his head. His understanding of his own background was limited to one sentence: "an abandoned orphan."

Thinking about it made him feel lonely, so he didn't think about it, and over time, he habitually forgot.

To him now, his background was already insignificant. Born but not raised, there was no kindness to speak of.

Seeing the calm look in Naruto's eyes, Hiruzen Sarutobi felt ashamed, then sadly nodded. "It was my wife, Biwako, Konohamaru's grandmother. A strict yet caring woman."

"After Biwako delivered you, your mother, the previous Nine-Tails Jinchuriki Kushina, stayed in the barrier to look after you and your mother."

At this point, Hiruzen Sarutobi's voice suddenly choked. "But she couldn't come back, and neither could your mother. What returned was the Nine-Tails Demon Fox, madly destroying our village."

Naruto listened, feeling increasingly uneasy. This old man's storytelling was problematic. It sounded as if he was born with a debt.

"Then how did I survive?"

Hiruzen Sarutobi: "Your father, Konohagakure's hero, the Fourth Minato Namikaze, sacrificed himself to perform a sealing jutsu, sealing the Nine-Tails within you, who possess the Uzumaki bloodline."

Naruto was stunned.

This old man's words didn't move him at all. It felt like being tied up with a rope full of heads.

"So I am the son of a hero?"

Hiruzen Sarutobi nodded heavily. "Yes, your parents both sacrificed their young, precious lives to protect you, to protect our Konohagakure."

Naruto's mood, which had been beautiful from eating ramen, instantly crumbled. He really couldn't accept this kind of responsibility-laden education.

"Do you need anything else?"

"No."

Naruto waved his hand and turned. "It's late. I should go home and sleep. Goodbye, Third Grandpa."

Hiruzen Sarutobi stood frozen in place, watching Naruto walk away and turn the corner. His body inside the trench coat was thin and desolate.

A lifeless room, a narrow bed.

Naruto lay quietly, looking at the tiled ceiling.

What Hiruzen Sarutobi had said earlier held no memory for him, not even a sliver.

It was like a movie playing, with an opening theme forcefully inserted, telling him the movie was made because of the opening theme.

Was this important? Perhaps.

It wasn't that he couldn't empathize. Knowing his parents were heroes and that they had done it for his own good was a happy thing.

But if they wanted to use this to blackmail him, weren't they thinking too much?

And that old man's words were too subjective, definitely deviating from the actual beginning and end of the events.

But his intention was to stop me from seeking confirmation from the Nine-Tails, so it wasn't entirely false.

In conclusion.

"Let's sleep."

Clang clang~

In the deep underground pipes, water flowed murmuringly.

Naruto rubbed his sleepy eyes and once again walked out of the passage, arriving in front of the extremely tall prison bars, and yawned.

"Don't you know I'm in my growth spurt? If you affect my sleep and slow down my body's growth, what will you give me as compensation?"

As he spoke, he pulled open his waistband and glanced down with concern.

The Nine-Tails lowered its head from the darkness, no longer arrogant like last time, but smiling sinisterly and cunningly, baring its white teeth.

"Your subconscious is calling me, you want to see me, right?"

Naruto was stunned. "Maybe, I do have something I want to ask you."

The Nine-Tails suddenly raised its claw and pointed at the seal on the door. "Tear it off, and I'll answer you."

"Don't push your luck." Naruto's expression instantly turned fierce. "If I ask you a question, you'd better cooperate properly."

The Nine-Tails was furious, its teeth grinding, but it didn't drive Naruto away immediately like last time.

"Why should I answer you?"

Naruto: "You killed my parents, right?"

The Nine-Tails' smile suddenly widened, its smiling face extremely cruel. Its nine tails shot straight up to the ceiling of the cage like a peacock's tail, waving excitedly.

"Yes! I killed them! With one claw, this one, I pierced both of them at once!"

"Damn that Uzumaki woman, damn that Fourth, do you want revenge? Come on! I'm right here!"

A monstrous hatred, a hatred for all of humanity, surged over Naruto like an invisible tide.

But Naruto didn't resist; instead, he let this hatred fill his chest.

The only thing he saw was a fragmented image of his adoptive father, the strong man who died, drifting on the sea and clouds.

Tears flowed from the corners of his eyes for the second time.

The Nine-Tails was delighted and taunted, "Boo hoo, tears are coming out? What a useless brat. Perhaps I should consider finding a Jinchuriki with more spirit!"

Naruto was still reminiscing when he heard this irritating disturbance. Anger surged into his eyes, burning his blood-red Chakra.

Around his navel, the Eight Trigrams Seal, composed of two four-symbol seals, erupted with surging Chakra, covering his body and pulsing with a peculiar rhythm.

"You dog locked in a cage, I don't know what you're barking about!"

"Chakra pushes Hundred Thousand Volts! Hell Piercing Sword!"

In the dim mental world, a silver light bloomed.

Naruto flashed to the prison door, using his hand as a sword, and thrust it through the bars, stabbing the back of the Nine-Tails' claw that was supporting its weight. The fur was pierced, and flesh was cut, blood seeping out.

Pain!

The Nine-Tails felt pain!

"Roar!"

It raised its arm and flung Naruto away, staring at the back of its claw where it had been stabbed. The bleeding stopped, but the wound remained.

Conspicuous, glaring.