"I'll take the relay."
A voice brushed past Shikaku's ear—the low timbre unique to a middle-aged man, not very loud, yet as rough as coarse sandpaper.
He tilted his head and looked. The wooden-shelled face of Hiruko pointed right at him, with Sasori of the Red Sands hidden away inside.
Konoha's original villagers were enthusiastically tidying up the debris and garbage overturned by Shinra Tensei.
Smiles hung on every face. The change in regime hadn't brought them the slightest bit of trouble.
The subsidies they had received over the past couple of days were thicker than anything they could dig up in a lifetime.
Back when Konoha collapsed, Naruto had arranged evacuation points in advance, and not a single civilian had died in the flames of war.
With pockets full of benefits, how could this crowd find the spare time to mourn Third Hokage? Their sharp tongues were honed faster than anyone else's.
"Third Hokage turned out to be such scum."
"What Third Hokage? His name is Hiruzen Sarutobi!"
"Naruto is obviously the Fourth Hokage's own son, and a hero who saved Konoha to boot. He actually kept a lid on something like that and never let it out."
"That kid had it too rough. The misery he endured when he was little..."
"He was ruthless enough to wipe out the entire Uchiha clan. Who would have guessed his heart was so black?"
"He even forced Itachi Uchiha to do it, making the poor guy slaughter his own kin, kill his mom and dad, and run outside to act as an undercover agent for him while carrying all that infamy."
"Still, the Akatsuki is Lord Naruto's territory. All these rotten deeds of his were investigated thoroughly long ago."
"You've all heard, right? The Nine-Tails didn't go berserk at all. Back