Tsunade looked at the small face still streaked with tears, now filled with confusion and grievance because of her words, and knew the moment had come to unveil the cruelest, yet most essential truth.
She stopped circling the issue and pointed straight at its root.
'Brat, haven't you always wanted to know why the people of the Village dislike you—why they even call you "demon fox"?' Tsunade's tone was calm, yet carried an unquestionable gravity.
Naruto nodded hard; blue eyes brimmed with incomprehension and resentment. 'Yeah! I never did anything! Why does everyone…'
'Because right here—' Tsunade extended a finger and tapped his abdomen, '—you really do seal a monster: the Nine-Tailed demon fox.'
'Wh-what?!' Naruto felt lightning strike; he jerked his gaze to his stomach, horror and disbelief written across his face. 'The demon fox… inside me?! Impossible! I… I didn't know!'
He had always thought 'demon fox' was only a nasty nickname, never imagining it could be a literal, terrifying fact.
Seeing his shock, Tsunade continued in a steady voice, trying to make him understand rather than merely fear.
'Your body serves as the vessel that seals the Nine-Tails. People like you are called Jinchuriki.'
'Because the Nine-Tails wields destructive power and once brought great calamity to the Village, the villagers fear that power—and so they fear and reject you, its container.'
That explanation was a key that instantly unlocked the doubts amassed in Naruto's heart for years.
Those looks of loathing and terror had not truly been aimed at him, but at the horrific existence inside him—one he had never known.
It didn't erase his pain, yet it gave that pain a clear, comprehensible source.
Next, Tsunade began recounting the history of the Nine-Tails, deliberately slowing her pace.
'You are not the only Nine-Tails Jinchuriki. The first was my grandmother, wife of the First Hokage—Uzumaki Mito.'
A faint softness crept into Tsunade's voice when she mentioned her grandmother.
Then, with deep-set eyes, she looked at Naruto and spoke the crucial name.
'The second Nine-Tails Jinchuriki… was named Uzumaki Kushina.'
'Uzu… maki…?'
Hearing the surname, Naruto's head snapped up; shock turned to stunned bewilderment.
He instinctively repeated the name that meant everything to him, azure eyes wide as if hearing the unbelievable.
'Same… surname as me?' he murmured, confusion and a vague, still-unfathomed hope thick in his voice.
A hazy yet heart-racing guess sprouted wildly inside him.
'Exactly what you're thinking.' Tsunade met his gaze—astonishment shifting toward incredulous anticipation—and confirmed it, voice clear and certain.
'Uzumaki Kushina is your mother.'
She pointed at the wooden box Naruto hugged tightly. 'The red-haired woman in the photo.'
'She even used to call me Big Sister Tsunade!'
Confirmed!
That beautiful woman with the warm smile and long red hair was his mom!
She wasn't a vague image in a picture; she had a name—Uzumaki Kushina!
And, like him, she too had once been… the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki!
The massive information barrage hit Naruto, yet the first thing he seized upon wasn't the thrill of finally learning his parentage—it was… heartache.
He thought of the scorn, isolation, and insults he'd endured because of the Nine-Tails seal; that bone-deep loneliness was all too familiar.
Then… what about Mom?
Had she, back then, also been feared and rejected by everyone?
Had she… lived in hardship and pain as well?
The idea that she might have suffered what he had—perhaps worse—stung his nose; tears he'd only just stopped now threatened to fall again.
He sniffed hard and croaked, 'Mom… must've… hurt a lot too… right?'
Thud.
Those soft, heavy words struck Tsunade—and Jiraiya standing nearby—like the gentlest yet most crushing hammer-blow!
Tsunade was utterly stunned.
Jiraiya too was shaken!
Tsunade had imagined countless reactions—wild joy, fury, demands to know who his father was, or deeper grievance over his plight—but never had she expected that, upon hearing the truth, the first emotion this child felt was sympathetic pain for what his mother might have endured!
Even before he could fully process his own years of suffering, that pure heart instinctively reached out to care for another's pain.
Even if that person was his mother, already gone.
Tsunade gazed deeply at the blond boy with reddened eyes, clutching his parents' relics yet worrying whether his mother had suffered, and huge waves surged within her.
All the lectures and consolations she had prepared now felt so pale and redundant.
This child… really… it was as if his own pain never came first; those clear blue eyes reflected… other people's misery first.
She had no words left!
Beside her, Jiraiya's eyes reddened instantly; he spun away, roughly wiping his face, shoulders trembling.
Minato, Kushina… your son… he possesses the most precious thing in the world!
The office sank into silence.
Yet it wasn't awkward or sorrowful; it was a respectful hush born of being awed by absolute, unalloyed kindness.
Tsunade looked at Naruto, her gaze inexpressibly complex, finally turning into a sigh so soft it was almost inaudible, the emotion within gentler than ever before.
She knew Konoha might owe this child far too much, yet this quality of his might be the very key to saving everything in the future.
'Then… what about my dad?' Naruto lifted his tear-stained face, pressing for the full picture of his family.
Yet that question troubled Tsunade even more.
She irritably ruffled her blond hair; it felt ten times tougher than facing ten S-rank missions.
'Son of the Fourth Hokage—Minato Namikaze.'