By this point, Naruto Uzumaki had long since exhausted his body's chakra.
He had risked his life rushing over to save someone, but his body had already reached its limit. He was running entirely on reserves he no longer had.
During the Konoha Crush, Orochimaru's side hadn't been the only battlefield. Elsewhere, Naruto had fought Gaara's Tailed Beast Transformation with everything he had, pushing his body beyond its limits and squeezing out every last drop of chakra. His chakra pathways had long since become sore and painful, almost to the point of rupturing.
When he had rushed out to protect Konohamaru and shouted at Miki Yūya, it hadn't been because he still had strength left. The anger and obsession in his heart were all that kept him standing.
Once that drive faded, he would collapse completely.
And now, Miki Yūya's words had brutally snapped the last pillar holding him up and ground it to dust!
Naruto's head buzzed. He was utterly stunned, his heart churning with endless pain, guilt, and self-loathing.
He had always lived amid contradiction and confusion.
Ever since he defeated Gaara, Baki's words had kept circling through his mind.
Gaara had grown up without family or friends. He had spent his entire life treated as a tool for killing, with slaughter as his only reason to live. From beginning to end, all he had was endless loneliness.
In that moment, Naruto had understood him completely.
He knew that feeling all too well.
Ever since he was little, no one in Konoha had liked him. The whole village avoided him, feared him, and called him a monster, a demon fox. He had grown up alone, without so much as a hot meal or a word of concern.
Precisely because he had suffered himself, he desperately wanted to shelter others from suffering.
He had thought he understood loneliness, suffering, and right and wrong.
He had thought he was righteous and kind.
He had fought desperately to save Gaara, genuinely wanting that boy, who was just as lonely as he was, to become a better person.
He sympathized with everyone who was alone, including Sasuke Uchiha, who lived in solitude and carried everything on his shoulders.
Naruto had always believed he understood loneliness and showed consideration for others better than anyone else in the world.
But now, with just a few words, Miki Yūya had torn his self-deluding kindness to shreds!
Naruto felt as though his heart were being ripped apart.
Why... why would I think like that?
I sympathize with Gaara, with Sasuke, with everyone who's lonely...
But what gives me the right to have double standards?
Ninja kill people, ninjutsu destroys villages, and war kills countless innocent villagers. Those deaths and disasters are real!
The villagers did nothing wrong. They were just living in their village, only to lose their homes and families for no reason!
How does feeling wronged and voicing a few complaints make them guilty?
I keep saying I understand pain and loneliness, but it turns out the most selfish, stupid person of all is me!
He had always held himself up as kind and righteous. He wanted to become someone everyone acknowledged, to become Hokage-a Hokage acknowledged by everyone.
But deep down, he had been biased and selfish from the very beginning.
Seeing Sasuke all alone, he had felt that they were finally alike. Yet he had never considered what the Uchiha clansmen who died in the Uchiha civil war and Konoha's internal conflicts had done to deserve it.
His heart ached for Gaara being treated as a tool, yet he had never pitied the people Gaara killed in his madness. Because he couldn't see them, their deaths didn't matter.
Because those people had cursed Gaara, they deserved to die.
His mouth was full of justice, but in reality, he simply made a habit of shielding people and ignoring the suffering of others. All his peace of mind came from selfishness. The moment something involved him, he could no longer remain fair.
What was even more laughable, even more painful, was-
Miki Yūya's question had pierced the darkest corner of his heart like a needle.
When other people became orphans and lost their families, he actually felt a faint sense of relief and comfort: Finally, someone is like me!
He was actually using other people's misfortune to soothe his own loneliness! Sasuke, Gaara... and now Konohamaru. Was that true of all of them?
Had there been an ulterior reason behind every choice he made?
So his supposed efforts to save others had all been self-indulgence!
So his supposed kindness had all been selfishness!
So the beliefs he had always clung to had been wrong from beginning to end!
Overwhelming guilt, self-reproach, regret, and pain swallowed Naruto in an instant!
It felt as though a large hand had clenched around his heart, squeezing so painfully that he could barely breathe. Tears swirled uncontrollably in his eyes.
I'm sorry, Sasuke...
I'm sorry, Gaara...
I'm sorry to all the ordinary people caught up in war...
And... I'm sorry to my parents who died.
Although Naruto had never met his parents, he had always imagined them as gentle people, wonderful parents.
They had risked their lives to protect him because they wanted him to live well and become an honorable person.
Instead, he had become a selfish, stupid joke, full of double standards and unable to tell right from wrong!
His utter mental collapse finally broke his already exhausted body!
Naruto shook violently all over. His consciousness blurred, and his eyes became completely vacant and dark.
His mental defenses crumbled entirely!
At that very moment!
The cage sealing the Nine-Tails inside him suddenly loosened dramatically!
Deep within the pitch-black seal, a pair of crimson, slit-pupiled eyes snapped open, filled with greed and mockery.
"Heh heh heh, hahahaha!! The seal actually loosened..."
"Are you dying...?"
"My turn to come out, brat!"
The cold, evil voice burrowed into Naruto's mind. The Nine-Tails' vast, savage, dark resentment instantly wrapped around his collapsing consciousness and dragged at it by force!
Naruto had no strength to resist at all. His consciousness was forcibly pulled into the dark cage in the deepest part of the seal, right before the Nine-Tails.
Yet by now, Naruto's mind was already that of a "walking corpse." His consciousness completely ignored the Nine-Tails' existence, as though he were dead.
In the real world!
BOOM-!!
Terrifying crimson chakra surged!
Dark tailed beast miasma erupted wildly, churning and sweeping through the surroundings.
Savage Nine-Tails chakra instantly enveloped Naruto's entire body. A monstrous Tailed Beast Cloak rapidly took shape as fierce winds raged, fine cracks spread across the ground, and every weed and loose stone nearby was instantly shredded!
This was pure, brutal tailed beast power, enough to destroy Konoha!
Beside him, the already gravely wounded, barely breathing Konohamaru couldn't withstand the terrifying shock wave at all.
His head lolled as the violent blast flung him over. His eyes closed, and he passed out completely, lying motionless.
The terrifying presence of the Nine-Tails spread, instantly covering more than half of Konoha!
Every jonin handling the aftermath amid the ruins and comforting the villagers went deathly pale!
Kakashi's pupils contracted sharply, and shock jolted through him!
Might Guy's smile vanished instantly. His whole body tensed, his fighting spirit and vigilance rising to their peak!
Asuma, Kurenai Yuhi, the heads of the Ino-Shika-Cho Clans-everyone's expression changed drastically, their scalps prickling!
"That's Nine-Tails chakra!! What's going on?"
"Has Naruto's seal loosened? He's going berserk!!"
Kakashi was the first to rush toward Naruto.
"Hurry! Get over there at full speed! If we're late, the village will be in serious trouble!!"
The jonin could no longer spare a thought for compensation for the villagers or disputes among the higher-ups. Every one of them sprinted at full speed toward the eruption of Nine-Tails chakra!
Meanwhile, in the little alley, the completely berserk Naruto had lost all human awareness!
His crimson eyes were bloodthirsty and vacant. Destructive chakra boiled around him, and his limbs tensed. Like a vicious beast that had broken its shackles, he sprang into the air and lunged savagely at Miki Yūya with enough force to annihilate everything!
Any ordinary jonin facing this Nine-Tails rampage would have been instantly suppressed, grievously injured, and crushed!
Yet Miki Yūya wasn't the least bit flustered.
He watched the berserk Naruto hurtle toward him, his gaze frighteningly calm, filled with nothing but indifference and disdain.
A mere half-baked Nine-Tails rampage, with only a single tail formed, and he dares run wild in front of me?
The next second!
HUM-!!
An invisible, domineering, terrifying aura that crushed everything erupted from Miki Yūya's body!
Conqueror's Haki, refined to its utmost, instantly spread out. Every bit of it surged toward Naruto.
There were no flashy effects or earth-shaking explosions, only absolute suppression through Haki-the terrifying pressure of Conqueror's Haki that stood above everything.
Before this Haki, the Nine-Tails' fiercest, most savage tailed beast miasma was like a candle flame before a gale.
All its brutality, all its murderous intent, all its destructive power were instantly locked down and suppressed by this Conqueror's Haki that towered above everything.
Without even lifting his eyelids, Miki Yūya coldly uttered a single command:
"Scram."
CRACK!!
The air itself seemed to shatter!
The Nine-Tails chakra leaking through the loosened seal instantly stiffened, shriveled, shattered, and vanished, melting away like ice and snow.
The monstrous Tailed Beast Cloak disappeared inch by inch. The savage pressure of the tailed beast was completely erased!
Naruto, who had just been rampaging with overwhelming ferocity, poised to destroy everything, had every bit of his power forcibly suppressed by Haki in an instant!
That tiny amount of raw, savage will and power that had leaked out couldn't withstand the pressure of Conqueror's Haki at all.
Thud!
Naruto went limp and fell straight to the ground. His eyes were shut, and he sank into a deep coma, utterly motionless.
In an instant, the entire narrow lane fell silent.
The fierce winds stopped, and the miasma dispersed. All that remained was the wreckage scattered across the ground, along with Konohamaru and Naruto lying unconscious.
Miki Yūya glanced indifferently at the two of them, his heart completely unmoved.
Pity them?
They weren't worth it.
Konoha's values had long since been warped beyond recognition. These people's double standards and naivety were simply bringing suffering upon themselves.
He didn't linger for even a moment or feel the slightest guilt. He turned, slipped both hands into his pockets, and walked away at an easy, unhurried pace without looking back.
Effortless, decisive, domineering!
So what if Konoha's villagers are troublemakers? So what if they bully everyone or have no decency? However uncivilized they are, they won't make someone die. But in the ninja world, people really do beat others to death.
Bonds? Friendship? Even the worst malice of Konoha's villagers doesn't compare to how brutally Naruto attacks Sasuke.
By the time Kakashi, Guy, Asuma, and the other jonin rushed to the scene,
all that remained was the wrecked ground and the unconscious Naruto and Konohamaru.
"Take them to the medical team!"
"What's going on? This lingering chakra... he clearly should have gone berserk."
Kakashi's gaze sharpened slightly. He couldn't quite make sense of it.
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