After Hiashi and the others left, only Hiruzen and the other three elders remained in the conference room.
Hiruzen continued puffing on his pipe. Koharu and Homura stayed silent.
Only Danzō sat there with a face as dark as iron.
After a long silence, Hiruzen looked at Danzō with guilt.
"Danzō, I'm sorry you had to suffer that just now."
Danzō scoffed coldly, showing no appreciation.
"I did what I promised. We're even now."
Of course, he hadn't taken the fall out of kindness.
Before the meeting, Hiruzen had approached him privately.
He used the incident where Danzō leaked the location of Kushina's childbirth as leverage to threaten him into taking the blame for everything else.
Yes—Hiruzen had known everything all along.
The reason he hadn't punished Danzō before was because he was a perfect executor of his dirty work.
Hiruzen had Danzō completely under control.
Faced with such a fatal weakness, Danzō had no choice but to comply.
And that's how that entire scene had played out.
Not wanting to say another word to Hiruzen, Danzō stood and left without hesitation.
His ROOT organization had been completely destroyed. He no longer had the strength to challenge Hiruzen.
With war approaching, he needed to focus on rebuilding ROOT.
After Danzō left, Hiruzen gave Koharu and Homura a stern warning as well—
—forcing them to obediently hand over funds to rebuild Konoha.
Once everything was dealt with, Hiruzen finally let out a deep sigh of relief.
…
The next day.
Standing atop the ruins of the Hidden Leaf, Hiruzen gathered all of Konoha's citizens.
He took a deep breath, removed his Hokage hat, and said solemnly:
"Everyone… what happened last night was something I failed to foresee."
"As Hokage, the deaths of the villagers and shinobi are entirely my responsibility!"
He even squeezed out a few tears at the corners of his eyes.
"Even if you all could forgive me, I cannot forgive myself."
"So… I hereby resign from the position of Hokage!"
The crowd immediately erupted in shock.
While they had wanted the truth, none of them expected Hiruzen to outright step down.
Yes, everything that had happened last night, and what Kaede had said, made them furious—
—but Hiruzen had been the only Hokage they had known and trusted, always humble, never aloof.
Hearing he was stepping down… brought some a sense of sadness.
But the sharp-minded ones merely smiled coldly.
Their disappointment in Konoha's leadership had reached its peak.
Seeing the crowd's reaction, Hiruzen felt reassured.
His carefully cultivated image over decades still held strong when it mattered.
Then, he quickly pushed Danzō forward.
Danzō coldly admitted to all the crimes.
The villagers, of course, were outraged. Hiruzen immediately announced:
"Danzō will be stripped of all duties and imprisoned in ANBU custody for reflection!"
As for whether Danzō would actually be punished in any real way?
Heh…
Next, Koharu and Homura stepped forward.
They sorrowfully claimed:
"The reason our families didn't appear on the battlefield last night… is because we chose to evacuate civilians immediately. That's always been our belief: the safety of the villagers comes first!"
Those words deeply moved the civilians and lower-ranked shinobi.
Naturally, they forgave them.
Even more so when the two elders publicly announced they would donate their entire family wealth to help rebuild Konoha.
Another round of praise from the public followed.
At the very end, Hiashi Hyūga looked up at the ash-gray sky (still clouded from the lava eruption)—
And murmured, "Konoha… has completely rotted."
So what future did the Hyūga clan have now?
…
As for Naruto and the other kids, Hiruzen had arranged a separate residence for them.
Naruto walked back in a daze, confusion clouding his face.
That morning, he'd left with hope in his heart.
He thought that once his identity was revealed, he would finally receive respect… and friendship.
But reality slapped him hard.
On the way back, everyone he passed still avoided him like he was the plague.
Thanks to the sensory ability given by Kurama, he could feel the emotions of everyone around him:
Guilt… conflict… sorrow…
And a trace of… resentment?!
It wasn't just a few people—everyone had those emotions!
"Can't figure it out, can you?"
As soon as he returned to his assigned residence, Kurama—who had been secretly watching—appeared.
Naruto said nothing. He truly didn't understand.
Kurama mocked, "This is humanity for you."
"Now that your identity is out, they don't want to acknowledge it."
"After all, they bullied and ostracized you for eight whole years!"
"To accept your identity… would be admitting they acted like absolute scum."
"That's why no one wants to acknowledge it."
Naruto clenched his lips, his whole body beginning to tremble.
Kurama continued, "As for that trace of resentment… heh…"
"Some still see you as the 'Nine-Tails,' as their scapegoat."
"Others wonder… why you had to be the Fourth's son."
"If you weren't his child, they wouldn't have to feel guilty at all…"
In that moment, Naruto finally understood what human nature truly was.
Kurama, too, couldn't help but speak of his own past:
"You know why I was created?"
He closed his eyes, speaking like to himself:
"The man who made us said: 'You are the power meant to protect this world.'"
"But what was the reality?"
"For a thousand years, humans fought each other—until powerful shinobi started targeting us."
"So we decided to vanish from the world, to stop interfering."
"But about fifty years ago, a man named Uchiha Madara found me."
"He used his Mangekyō Sharingan to control me, and fought against Konoha's First Hokage."
"In the end, he lost. And I…"
Kurama's eyes snapped open in fury. He raised his head and roared:
"That damn First Hokage said my power was too dangerous—that I'd bring disaster to the shinobi world!"
"So he sealed me inside his wife, Uzumaki Mito!"
"Then he went on to capture seven more Tailed Beasts—everything except the One-Tail—and sold them to other villages!"
"For the next few decades, yes—we did become disasters!"
"But only because you humans kept starting wars and using us as weapons!"
"How are we at fault? We were created to protect the world!"
"But thanks to you humans, we became nothing more than tools of war, branded as 'catastrophes!'"
Kurama's roar shook the heavens.
Naruto's worldview shattered completely.
He realized that the so-called 'truth' of the world… had always been written by others.
The Nine Tailed Beasts weren't disasters. Once, they were protectors of the shinobi world!
Naruto stared blankly at the ceiling and whispered:
"In this kind of world… does the truth even exist?"
He remembered what Kurama had told him before—only by becoming stronger could one see the truth.
Naruto slowly clenched his fists.
"To become stronger, huh…"
He thought back to the man he saw last night—Uchiha Kaede.
"If it's him… he must be strong enough already, right?"
(End of Chapter)
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