Naruto's tone dropped, slower and softer—like the moment before thunder.
"Don't you all want to know about your clans? Or… the ones closest to you? Your grandchildren?"
Mito blinked—then her eyes lit up with a soft warmth.
"Now that you mention it… I nearly forgot to ask. My grandchildren… Tsunade and Nawaki. Tsunade always had that temper, but Nawaki—He used to talk endlessly about becoming Hokage one day…"
She smiled, nostalgic and glowing. Even Hashirama chuckled fondly at finding he had a grandson.
"That boy had guts. He was going to be something."
Naruto's silence came like a winter wind.
Then he said it.
"Tsunade… she's alive. Stronger than ever. She's destined to become Hokage—she will wear that hat someday."
Mito and Hashirama both smiled—until they saw that Naruto's face hadn't changed.
"But Nawaki…"
He took a breath.
"He died. In the Second Shinobi War.
A landmine.
He was just a kid."
The room froze.
Mito's eyes widened, her hand going to her mouth.
Hashirama staggered as if struck. The strongest man to ever live—brought to his knees by a single sentence.
And Tobirama?
Silent. Eyes down. A flicker of guilt crossed his sharp features.
Orochimaru, who had remained silent until now, finally spoke—his voice unusually quiet, almost reverent.
"…I'm sorry. I couldn't save him. He died right in front of me." His eyes dimmed, the weight of old regrets pulling at his features. "He was my student."
Mito, Hashirama, and Tobirama turned toward him with solemn expressions.
"He was more than that," Minato added, his voice steady but heavy with sorrow. "He was like an older brother to me… a friend. I wanted him to live. But life…" He paused. "Life isn't always fair."
Naruto, watching them speak with such raw honesty, gave a faint, bittersweet smile.
"War took a lot from all of us," he said. "Just like Nawaki, there were countless children who went to war… and never came back. Some are even younger than him. You know what that means, right?"
His gaze sharpened, cutting through the silence like a kunai.
"This village… it was supposed to protect children. That was the dream. The hope. The promise." He looked around the room. "But instead, the ones who stayed behind sent children off to fight their wars for them. Safe in their homes… while kids bled for peace."
Tobirama's expression faltered. The guilt was already there, but Naruto's words turned it into something deeper. A wound that couldn't be healed by logic or reason.
He clenched his jaw, remorse tightening his throat. "I see…" he murmured. He had long accepted the mistake of choosing Hiruzen as his successor—but this… this added another layer of grief.
Naruto stepped forward, his voice rising—not in anger, but in righteous resolve.
"You want to hear more?" he asked quietly, almost like a challenge.
The old legends, once feared and revered, now looked at him—not as a child, but as a bearer of truth. They nodded.
"Then listen closely."
He exhaled.
"You all know of the Sage of Six Paths. Rikudō Sennin. The one who gave this world Chakra." He looked them each in the eye. "What most people forget… is what came after."
They nodded. He continued.
"The Senju. The Uzumaki. The Uchiha." Naruto gestured slowly with each name. "We're not just clans. We're family. Direct descendants of the Sage himself. Not just people who learned Chakra—but born from it. From his blood."
A pause.
"You always knew the Senju and Uzumaki were brother clans," Naruto said, glancing at Hashirama and Mito. "But the Uchiha were your brothers, too. You just didn't realize it… or maybe you forgot."
He turned his gaze to Madara, who remained silent, unreadable.
"…Except you, right? You knew."
Madara didn't answer. But the flicker in his eyes spoke volumes.
Hashirama turned to Madara, his voice low but sharp with realization.
"You knew… didn't you?"
Madara met his eyes, his stoic mask faltering for a heartbeat. He gave a slow, almost sheepish nod.
"In the Uchiha stone tablet—kept in the heart of our clan—it's written," Madara said quietly. "That we, the Senju, the Uzumaki, and the Uchiha… were once brothers. Bound not just by fate—but by blood. Descendants of the Sage of Six Paths himself."
He let the words linger before continuing.
"The tablet doesn't tell it straight. It's written in riddles… metaphors. But the message is clear: the hatred between our clans… didn't begin with war. It began with family. With a rift between the Sage's sons—one born of love, the other of power."
He closed his eyes, bitter with memory. "From one son came the Senju and Uzumaki. From the other… the Uchiha. What began as a feud between siblings became a legacy of hatred passed down like an heirloom. Until it grew into something far too big for any of us to stop."
"Brothers…" Tobirama whispered the word like it was cursed.
It struck him like a lightning bolt to the chest.
He wanted to reject it. Wanted to scream no. He remembered the blood. His brother's body. The losses his clan suffered at Uchiha hands. How could he ever accept them… as family?
His fists clenched. His jaw tightened. Logic warred with pride, with pain.
Naruto watched him with calm understanding—the kind that cuts deeper than accusation.
"Second," Naruto said gently, but firmly, "you don't have to like it. But you can't deny it. It's the truth, whether you accept it or not."
He stepped closer, voice ringing with conviction.
"Why do you think our clans have always stood above the rest? Why does our chakra run deeper, our instincts sharper, our presence heavier? We were born from the Sage himself. While others were taught chakra… we inherited it. It's in our bones. In our blood."
He pointed between them.
"Senju. Uchiha. Uzumaki. We are three branches from the same tree. No matter how far the branches reach… the roots don't change."
Tobirama looked down. The silence that followed wasn't empty—it was thunderous. The kind of silence where souls shift.
"I knew it," Orochimaru said, voice low and slithering with intrigue. "That's why it's always these three—the Senju, the Uchiha, and the Uzumaki. No matter the era, they birth monsters and miracles in equal measure. Their blood… is different."
His tongue flicked out, savoring the chaos of revelation.
Naruto crossed his arms, his voice sobering the moment. "But what's the point of knowing now?" he said flatly. "The Senju are down to a single member. And she—never married. Never passed on the legacy."
He glanced toward Mito. "The Uzumaki… we still have a chance. But even then, we're just a handful. Survivors, not a clan."
"And the Uchiha?" he shrugged. "If they hadn't barely escaped their own massacre, they'd be down to two graves. Maybe less."
The room fell into a stunned silence.
"Hey! Can you slow down a little?" Hashirama protested, throwing up his hands. "You're just lobbing truth grenades every few seconds. Our emotions can't keep up!"
But Tobirama had stopped listening. His eyes were wide, fixated on Naruto's earlier words.
"…Only one Senju left?" he asked, stepping forward, his voice unusually hoarse. "You mentioned her before. Tsunade. That's my grandniece." He suddenly grabbed Naruto by the shoulders. "Then why didn't she… why didn't she marry? What happened to our clan?!"
Naruto looked into the eyes of the man who once led Konoha with absolute discipline—and pointed, coldly, at the broken figure of Hiruzen Sarutobi.
"You'll have to ask him," Naruto said. "The one who drew up the perfect plan. The one who erased the Senju clan without even getting his hands dirty."
Tobirama's expression turned from confusion to fury in a heartbeat. Chakra flared. Emotion surged. Something inside him snapped.
He stormed toward Hiruzen, who still lay trembling, gasping from the earlier confrontation.
"…Naruto. Can you give me another tenfold?"
Naruto's lips curled slightly. "My pleasure."
A fresh wave of torment surged through Hiruzen's body, making him convulse violently. Bones creaked under invisible pressure. Then—
Crack.
Tobirama struck him. Not once. Not twice. But with the force of decades of betrayal and dishonor. Blood sprayed across the floor like a scarlet storm. It was no longer a lesson—it was vengeance.
And it would have gone too far…
If not for Hashirama, who moved in an instant and caught Tobirama's arm mid-strike. His voice was calm, but firm.
"That's enough, Brother."
Tobirama panted, eyes wild. Hiruzen lay barely conscious, a heap of blood and regret.
Naruto, watching it unfold, thought to himself:
"Tobirama looks terrifying right now… That hatred he had for the Uchiha? Hiruzen just surpassed it."
He almost smiled at the irony.
Across the room, Mito exhaled sharply, the matriarch's composure slowly returning.
"…Can you give us the specifics?" she asked.
Naruto nodded, his voice quieter now, but no less powerful.
"A short explanation," he began. "The Second Hokage—Tobirama—disbanded the Senju clan to balance power. To appease the other clans. It was political… but also reckless. The Senju were scattered, weakened. Easy to manipulate. Easy to send off to war."
He looked at Tobirama, who now stood frozen in place.
"Your clan was used," Naruto continued. "It's people—especially the younger ones—were always deployed to the frontlines. No exceptions. Not even children. Or those who had left the clan to live normal lives. They still ended up on the battlefield."
He paused, letting the silence grow heavy again.
"But here's the thing… almost none of them died in direct combat. They died in ambushes. As if someone had deliberately leaked their positions."
Tobirama's expression twisted into something unreadable.
"Even your grandchildren," Naruto added, his voice softer now. "One died on the field. The other survived… but was left with crippling trauma. Tsunade developed haemophobia. She couldn't even look at blood without trembling. That fear haunted her for years."
Mito closed her eyes, a single tear slipping down her cheek.
Hashirama looked like the weight of the entire forest had landed on his shoulders.
And Tobirama? He stood in silence, the fury drained, replaced now with something worse—regret.
Naruto's voice turned cold—measured, but burning beneath the surface.
"Now… let's talk about the Uzumaki."
He turned toward Mito.
"You were alive, Mito-san. You were here… when my clan was erased from the map."
The words dropped like kunai into silence.
"All of them," Naruto said, eyes fixed on her. "Surrounded in the dead of night. Ambushed by the other shinobi nations—all of them. No warning. No chance. Just flames and screams."
His jaw tightened. "The Uzumaki… were wiped out. Reduced to a handful of survivors. My mother… was one of them."
Mito's lips trembled. Her breath hitched. She opened her mouth, but no words came.
Naruto didn't wait.
"You were right here when it happened. You had the seal arts. The knowledge. The influence. You had power. If you had taken a stance—if you had spoken—even once…" He looked her straight in the eyes. "We could've been saved."
Mito's head bowed under the weight of guilt. Shame clawed at her like chains tightening around her heart. "I… I didn't know—"
"No," Naruto cut in. "That's not even the worst of it."
He turned now, his voice rising—not with anger, but with the kind of pain that scorches through generations.
"Okay. Let's say the destruction couldn't be stopped. Let's say it was too late." He paused. "But then tell me… when it was over… when the ashes settled… why didn't he send anyone to look for survivors?"
He pointed down at Hiruzen, still barely conscious.
"Not a team. Not a scout. Not even a whisper. He knew—he knew survivors were out there. And still, he did nothing."
Naruto clenched his fists.
"There are two other Uzumaki in this village. Not just me. Two more."
He looked at all of them now, each one frozen in their own storm of disbelief.
"They were taken by Kusagakure. Survivors." His voice wavered, just for a moment. "But they weren't treated like humans. They were used. They were treated as a healing battery—strapped to a room, drained of chakra over and over. And…"
He stopped. Looked away. His next words came quiet, raw.
"…I won't say what happened. But you can imagine. You know what shinobi are capable of."
A heavy silence pressed over the room like a suffocating fog.
Naruto exhaled, his voice regaining its fire.
"When I found out… I didn't ask questions. I didn't wait for permission."
He looked back at them, firm as steel.
"I burned Kusagakure off the map."
Eyes widened.
"I found them. I brought them back. And now… they're safe. Because I chose to protect them when no one else did."
Mito could only whisper, "Naruto…"
"I'm not blaming you for everything, Mito-san. But silence… is a choice. And in our world, silence kills."
His words echoed like thunder in the ancient hall.