With Orochimaru and Kabuto gone, the small town returned to its usual peace.
Tsunade still spent her days gambling and squandering money, living a carefree life off the embezzled Konoha medical funds. Yet deep down, her mind was a complete mess, stirred up by the bargaining chip Orochimaru had thrown out about resurrecting her loved ones, leaving her restless all day long.
Meanwhile, Miki Yūya wrapped his head in bandages and recuperated honestly.
Tsunade's angry punch from that day possessed a truly terrifying force.
Even though he had activated his Observation Haki in advance to anticipate it and driven his fledgling Armament Haki to endure it head-on, he was still struck until his entire skeleton tingled, embedding him directly into the wall and cracking it in a spiderweb pattern, unable to climb out for ages.
Precisely because of that punch, Miki Yūya finally behaved himself for a few days. There was no help for it-Tsunade was the Garp of the One Piece world; no matter how strong Miki Yūya's Haki was, he could not stand up to the Hero of the Marines.
Until a few afternoons later, two familiar figures stepped into the town.
It was the lazy, unrestrained Jiraiya with his untamed white hair, accompanied by a frail, silent little figure.
It was Naruto Uzumaki.
The current Naruto was like a completely different person from the loud, high-spirited dropout of before.
His eyes were hollow, his expression dull, his spine slightly hunchbacked, and not a trace of a smile remained on his face. An aura of dead, decadent ruin enveloped his entire body.
It was as if his shell was still alive, but the soul inside had already perished in silence.
Miki Yūya's round of verbal output had driven Naruto to a direct psychological breakdown. Had Minato not left a portion of his chakra inside Naruto's body, and had Minato's spiritual power not ultimately dragged Naruto back out from his mindscape, Naruto could easily have been turned into a vegetable.
Jiraiya wore a grave expression at this moment, his brows heavy with exhaustion and worry. He had no idea what had happened to Naruto.
"Tsunade, I need you to do me a favor."
Tsunade raised her eyes and swept a glance over the bizarrely conditioned Naruto. Unlike Miki Yūya, Naruto's situation looked wrong at a single glance. Tsunade furrowed her brows slightly:
"What's wrong?"
"After the Konoha Crush ended, this child was unconscious for several days. When he finally woke up, he had completely changed."
Jiraiya spoke in a heavy tone, every word reeking of helplessness.
"Naruto's body isn't injured, his meridians are fine, and his chakra circulation is normal. All of Konoha's medical ninjas took turns examining him and couldn't find a physical problem."
"But his spiritual power has indeed suffered an issue. He neither makes a fuss nor causes trouble, neither laughs nor cries, and remains completely indifferent to everything outside."
"He looks like he's alive, but on a spiritual level, he seems dead. He only comes back to life at certain times."
Tsunade raised her hand, and a wisp of gentle, light-green medical chakra slowly probed into Naruto's body, meticulously wandering to investigate his meridians and check his condition.
A moment later, she withdrew her chakra, and a speechless complaint blurted out from a face full of exasperation:
"How truly bizarre. What's going on with Konoha lately?"
"Commoners are having their brains twisted, and now even the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki is undergoing spiritual mutations."
"Is Konoha mass-producing mentally abnormal people nowadays?"
Jiraiya looked utterly bewildered, completely failing to understand what she meant:
"What mentally abnormal people? There's no one like Naruto in Konoha recently."
Tsunade couldn't be bothered to explain about Miki Yūya-that fellow who picked fights every day, was classified by the hospital as mentally abnormal, and had been beaten sensible by a single punch from her-so she dismissively waved a hand to skip the topic.
"I'll check again. There is the presence of Nine-Tails chakra within Naruto's chakra, but this kind of impact isn't intentionally caused by the Nine-Tails; instead, it's as if something went wrong with Naruto himself..."
Jiraiya took a deep breath. With Tsunade around, she had indeed managed to check out some things.
Afterwards, Jiraiya brought up the second purpose of this trip, which was also the most crucial one.
"Tsunade, the reason I came to find you this time isn't just for Naruto."
"The old man has passed away, Konoha is left without a leader, and the high command has completely collapsed into chaos."
"Throughout the entire village, all the high-ranking officials unanimously decided to invite you to return to Konoha and succeed to the position of the Fifth Hokage."
As these words dropped, the tavern fell instantly quiet.
Tsunade's action of probing Naruto stopped abruptly, a trace of complex vicissitudes flashing through the depths of her eyes. After a silence of several seconds, she spoke softly:
"The old man... was he killed by Orochimaru?"
Hearing this, Jiraiya's expression turned gloomy. He hesitated for a long time before slowly nodding and shaking his head at the same time, his tone exceptionally bitter:
"It's true that Orochimaru was the one who made a move, but the old man made his own choice."
"He used his life as the price to execute the Reaper Death Seal."
Saying this, Jiraiya's tone grew increasingly powerless. His feelings toward the Third Hokage, Orochimaru, and the village were complex.
Even if nobody in the village talked about the Third Hokage committing suicide to escape punishment, in the original storyline, people hadn't felt Orochimaru was all that evil; everything had been the Third Hokage's choice.
After all, as the Third Hokage's Students, Jiraiya and Tsunade had never hated Orochimaru either. Furthermore, by the time of Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, Orochimaru had already returned to the village, and Konohamaru held not a shred of hatred toward Orochimaru.
Therefore, back when Miki Yūya initiated the verbal assault and stated that the Third Hokage had committed suicide, Konoha's villagers and ninjas accepted that explanation in a split second.
Whether it was suicide to escape punishment was unknown, but suicide was already a nailed-down certainty.
"Now rumors are flying all over the village, and everyone is saying the old man committed suicide to escape punishment."
"Back then, he connived at Orochimaru's defection and the Uchiha Clan's grievances, to the extent that the Uchiha Clan was wiped out. Countless old accounts have been dug up, and the high command is utterly powerless to refute them. The village right now is an absolute mess."
Tsunade listened in prolonged silence.
Her teacher of old had reached such a curtain call, serving as Hokage for half a lifetime only to reap a lifetime of infamy, leaving her mind full of mixed emotions. Yet to be honest, it was merely complicated feelings.
After a long while, she slowly shook her head, her tone resolute:
"I can help treat Naruto."
"But as for the Hokage, I won't go back to be it."
Having drifted in the Shinobi World for many years, she had long grown weary of Konoha's disputes, let alone wanting to take over thismess (mess). Of course, Jiraiya understood Tsunade's choice as well.
Right at that moment, Naruto-who had remained blank and silent, acting just like a wooden puppet-slowly raised his head.
His eyes were completely hollow, and his voice was hoarse yet childish, carrying a child's purest confusion as he asked softly:
"Lady Tsunade, Master Jiraiya."
"Grandpa Third... did he really deserve to die?"
A single sentence instantly choked back all words from the two of them.
Jiraiya's Adam's apple bobbed, his face full of bitterness, unable to formulate a reply.
Tsunade gazed at the child's pure yet bewildered expression, her heart a tangled mess. Her lips moved, and in the end she could only sink into silence.
Right and wrong, merits and faults, justice and injustice had long been churned into a muddy swamp by Konoha's rumors and chaos; no one dared to give a standard answer.
The entire tavern plunged into a dead silence as a heavy atmosphere spread outward.
Right at that moment, a shuffling sound of footsteps drifted in from the doorway of the tavern.
Wrapped in thick bandages around his head with bruises still staining half his face, Miki Yūya strolled in leisurely. He happened to catch Naruto's question and also witnessed the speechless silence of the two adults.
He let out a scoff, his voice grating and blunt, instantly tearing apart that false warmth.
"The Third didn't deserve to die?"
Miki Yūya shoved his hands into his pockets, his face full of mockery as he spoke with unbridled audacity.
"If the Third didn't deserve to die, then did the commoners who died in the war flames of Konoha, the clansmen slaughtered by rogue ninjas, and the low-ranking ninjas sacrificed by the high command deserve to die?"
"He guarded Konoha for his entire life and ended up with a reputation of committing suicide to escape punishment. Fault is fault, merit is merit-one yard is one yard. No one owes him anything; he is the one who owes Konoha!"
These blunt and ruthless hard truths caused Jiraiya's and Tsunade's expressions to sink in unison. Yet neither of them rushed to speak out in rebuttal.
As the two of them stayed silent and refrained from refuting him, Miki Yūya's gaze landed on the dazed Naruto, his tone turning even more obnoxious as he offered a casual, mocking taunt:
"Oh? Isn't this Konoha's notorious Fox Demon orphan, Naruto Uzumaki?"
"I finally get it now."
"When other people say this kind of thing, I really don't understand it. But coming from you, it makes total sense. If you're going to sympathize this much with the Third, then your parents really did deserve to die a bit more than the Third. Hahaha!"
Swish-!
The air froze instantly!
Jiraiya's gaze turned abruptly sharp, the aura around his body instantly plunging into icy coldness. His eyes locked fiercely onto Miki Yūya, brimming with hostility and fury!
Tsunade knitted her brows tightly together, a flash of anger sweeping across the depths of her eyes.
This remark had long since crossed the line of foul-mouthed ridicule; it was sheer, malicious cruelty!
[Ding! Conqueror's Haki +5]
[Ding! Conqueror's Haki +7]
Naruto-who had remained numb and dead to the world, showing zero reaction to the outside environment-suddenly gave a visceral, instinctive shudder!
It felt as though the softest, most hidden scar deep inside his heart had been savagely ripped open and trampled upon in public!
His hollow eyes contracted abruptly. A wisp of dark, malevolent intent quietly bred in the depths of his gaze before subsiding once more as his consciousness fully awakened.
"It's you!!"
Naruto looked toward Miki Yūya.
He found himself utterly unable to refute Miki Yūya's words.
Yet there was one point where Naruto felt Miki Yūya had acted wrongly.
"Grandpa Third is already dead. Even if it's true that he committed suicide to escape punishment, couldn't you at least let Grandpa Third go? Do you have any idea what kind of life Konohamaru is living in the village right now?"
Naruto bit his lower lip, listing out piece by piece the grievances Konohamaru had suffered during these days, every single sentence laden with heartache:
"Konohamaru didn't do anything wrong. He's just a little child, and he has zero connection to this matter."
"Yet whenever the villagers see him, they point fingers, cursing him as a criminal's grandson."
"When he buys things at the marketplace, the stall owners intentionally jack up the prices or flat-out refuse to sell to him."
"When he plays on the street, kids his own age gather in groups to shove him, throw stones at him, and corner him in alleys to bully him."
"Everyone says his grandfather caused Konoha's calamity, that he doesn't deserve to enjoy the village's preferential treatment, and they even ban him from entering the training ground."
Saying this, Naruto's voice spiked abruptly, the pent-up grievance in his heart erupting entirely.
"Why should an innocent child have to bear the rights and wrongs of the older generation's grudges?!"
Hearing this, Tsunade's tightly knitted brow relaxed for a fraction of a second, a trace of compassion welling up in her heart.
She had seen enough of shinobi world slaughter and political scheming, yet she couldn't bear to watch an innocent child get swept up in rumors and subjected to unprovoked bullying.
Jiraiya let out a long sigh, chiming in softly:
"Indeed. Konoha has truly turned into this state nowadays. Tsunade, this is also the most twisted aspect of the village."
Jiraiya's attention wasn't on Miki Yūya; instead, he looked at Tsunade.
Upon hearing this, far from feeling even a shred of guilt, Miki Yūya scoffed, feeling that these individuals had something wrong with their brains.
"What do you mean by Konoha has turned into this state nowadays?"
"And Naruto, you keep running your mouth about Konohamaru being innocent and the villagers having no business treating him like that."
"Well, what about you? As the Fox Demon, aren't you innocent? The ostracization you faced from the villagers, the cold indifference you experienced since childhood, and the various forms of aversion and targeting-aren't you innocent?"
"Who do you think you are? Naruto Uzumaki!!!"
Miki Yūya walked over to Naruto's side, towering over him as he looked down.
"I've never looked down on you just because you're a Fox Demon, nor have I ever disliked you just because you're an orphan. But you shouldn't have shown up in front of Konohamaru back then, and you shouldn't have blocked my way."
"If you think Konohamaru is innocent, then what about you? What did you do wrong?"
"And you even have the nerve to keep calling that old piece of trash the Third 'Grandpa Third'? I honestly wonder: if your parents knew that you were completely innocent yet suffered so many grievances, what would they think?"
"What? You feel like Konohamaru is suffering, and it breaks your heart? Then ask yourself: why didn't the so-called Grandpa Third in your mouth ever care about you? If you feel that this so-called Grandpa Third of yours didn't fail you, then everything Konohamaru is experiencing right now is precisely what the old piece of trash Third wanted."
"Everything you've been through was deemed reasonable by the Third, so why shouldn't Konohamaru go through everything you've experienced?"
"You, Naruto Uzumaki, have the nerve to utter such words here? Do you think you have the qualification to forgive the village on behalf of your parents?"
Those words struck like the sharpest blades of ice, savagely slicing open the fig leaf of feigned warmth that everyone in Konoha had deliberately avoided and pretended not to see.
In an instant, they pierced right through all of Naruto's grievances and self-righteous emotionalism.
Naruto froze on the spot, his entire body turning abruptly cold, his complexion as pale as paper.
He hung his mouth open, his lips trembling, yet not a single syllable came out to refute it.
His head buzzed furiously. All his righteous indignation on Konohamaru's behalf, all his fond remembrance of the Third, and all his forbearance toward the village were ground to dust by Miki Yūya's words at this very moment.
That's right.
What did he, Naruto Uzumaki, do wrong? What did his parents do wrong?
He might be able to choose to be kind to others, but did he have the qualification to forgive others on behalf of his parents? Did he have the qualification to urge anyone to forgive the Third?
Beside them, every trace of anger and hostility vanished entirely from Jiraiya's face.
He stood frozen in place, his expression rigid while endless complexity, guilt, and speechlessness churned in the depths of his eyes.
He had originally thought Miki Yūya simply possessed excessive malice, hated Konoha, and vented his personal frustrations arbitrarily by lashing out at everyone.
Yet after listening to this entire passage, his heart gave a violent jolt, and in an instant, he figured out countless truths that Konoha's high command and everyone else had deliberately concealed.
That's right.
No one had the qualification to forgive on behalf of the dead.
Minato rushed to his death for Konoha, and Kushina sacrificed her life for Konoha. What did they get in exchange for the village they had risked their lives to protect?
In return, their only flesh and blood was subjected to endless bullying in his homeland, left isolated, helpless, and completely ignored.
Whatever Konohamaru was experiencing was nothing more than what Naruto had already endured. None of them possessed the right to act in place of Minato and Kushina to forgive the Third.
Beside them, the hostility surrounding Tsunade dissipated completely as well.
Her tightly knitted brows slowly smoothed out, and her gaze-which had previously carried a warning, icy edge-softened entirely.
Tsunade remained silent for a long time, watching the youth standing before her who was brimming with malice yet delivered piercing truths with every sentence. For the very first time, she truly and clearly felt-
This was the grievance and pain of a Konoha villager named Miki Yūya, suppressed for over a decade, seen by no one and cared for by no one.
Only someone who was genuinely in pain could articulate these wounding truths with such thorough clarity.
A hazy mist clouded Tsunade's eyes. The village her grandfather had founded had turned into this very state by her teacher's generation, leaving her with nothing but a sense of guilt.
"Yūya!!"
Tsunade stood up and looked toward Miki Yūya.
Miki Yūya's heart tightened.
Crap, I had my fun ranting, but now I'm going to get beaten up. Oh well, I went with my feelings again!!
Tsunade stepped right up to Miki Yūya, prompting him to instinctively raise his hands in front of his face to put up a defensive guard.
Yet the very next instant, Miki Yūya's hands pressed against her face, and his entire person sank directly into a mass of softness.
Tsunade's eyes welled with hot tears as her voice turned tender:
"Yūya, thank you for your hard work all these years! You must have felt so wronged and in so much pain all by yourself!"
No, not wronged at all, not in pain at all. It's so big, so soft, so... wait, it looks like I'm having a nosebleed, and my head is spinning.
Before you continue