Clarity

Naruto's sudden question caught Hatake Kakashi off guard as well.

"Why did you suddenly ask that?"

Naruto Uzumaki, who had always considered himself an orphan, had rarely experienced the old days of playing alone and being excluded by other children ever since becoming a ninja.

That was also thanks to having made a few troublesome friends back at the Ninja Academy.

As for now, those who knew nothing of the truth were naturally excluded from the matter.

Those who knew a little were mostly like ordinary villagers, keeping Naruto Uzumaki at a respectful distance.

The people who truly knew the full story kept it secret instead, because it was simply too embarrassing.

The hero who had saved the village, the Fourth Hokage's son, had been ostracized and even treated roughly within the village, yet everyone had been powerless to do anything about it.

When the village had suffered losses and was licking its wounds, it needed an outlet to vent and divert its attention. Besides, the identity of the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki truly could not be allowed to spread, so they could only let things develop in a direction no one wanted to see.

By now, it was even harder to find an opportunity to come clean.

People like Mizuki, the senior jonin, and the upper ranks of the major ninja clans definitely knew, but it had nothing to do with them, so they would not take the initiative to interfere.

Jiraiya, Tsunade, and the others had not been in Konoha at the time, and there were some things they could not casually use to criticize the old Third Hokage. Only Hatake Kakashi could not really avoid it: he was Naruto Uzumaki's teacher, as well as the subordinate and student who had benefited from Naruto's father—his own teacher, the Fourth Hokage,