"A powerful shinobi… named Naruto!?"
Hiruzen froze for a beat. The first image that flashed through his mind was a blond teenager.
But he quickly shook his head, thought for a moment, and said, "Never heard of him. Does that name carry some special meaning?"
Jiraiya frowned. "I suspect Menma is a false name. When I ambushed them, I heard them address Menma as Naruto-sama…"
"This…" Hiruzen's brow furrowed even tighter, yet he truly couldn't think of any top-tier shinobi in the world named Naruto.
He summoned ANBU, but they were just as baffled—no such name had ever circulated through the shinobi world.
After asking every shinobi he could, Jiraiya "893" couldn't help letting out a sigh.
"Haah… what a mysterious guy."
"Hiruzen-sensei, get our shinobi over there fast before those people really invade Konoha. As for me…"
Jiraiya glanced toward the window.
"I'm going to see Minato's child."
—The Book.
"So that's Naruto Uzumaki, huh?"
At the Ninja Academy, Jiraiya peered through the window at the blond boy in class, a faint melancholy stirring in his chest.
"He really does look like his father…"
The dismissal bell rang. Many classmates shied away from the blond kid, glaring at him with open disgust.
The boy didn't care, quietly packing his books before heading out alone.
Jiraiya sighed again, murmuring,
"So… the Kyūbi Jinchūriki identity, huh?"
He had long known that, with Naruto's origins hidden, the villagers' hatred for the Nine-Tails would fall on him.
He hadn't expected that hatred to be inherited by the next generation as well.
Thankfully, Naruto's mindset seemed decent enough… or so Jiraiya tried to comfort himself.
Seeing the blond boy walk out, Jiraiya stepped forward, just about to speak—then he got a clear look at the boy's face and froze.
"Wait a second…"
Jiraiya's eyes went wide.
"How is he… even more like that guy Menma than he is like Minato!?"
The blond boy looked six or seven, with messy golden hair, blue eyes, and a tan outfit—
a wild, scruffy kid—yet uncannily similar to Menma.
But Menma was an adult, nearly two meters tall, with jagged golden hair, blue eyes shaded by a red streak at the corner, a ceremonial divine robe, and a massive scroll on his back—likely for sealing.
The difference between the two was like heaven and earth.
Jiraiya thought again of his earlier suspicion—Menma might be Minato himself… or Minato's kin.
"An illusion…?" he muttered under his breath.
He raised a hand to block the boy's Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Technique), forcing a smile.
"You're Naruto, right?"
Naruto's clone gave Jiraiya a glance, said nothing, and coldly brushed past him, heading toward the dorms.
Jiraiya stood rooted in place for a long moment before looking at the boy's retreating back.
"What was… that gaze?"
He was just a six- or seven-year-old child, yet his eyes were as cold as a winter pool. One glance was like an icy squall slamming into the face.
…
"So you finally decided to come look for me, huh?"
High atop a giant's shoulder, Naruto's lips curled into a faint arc.
"Jiraiya… you never disappoint."
From the clone's returning memories, once Jiraiya got back to Konoha, he either huddled with Hiruzen or went peeping at the bathhouse—
and only today did he bother to check on the legacy of the Fourth Hokage.
"Fuu…" Naruto exhaled. Under Tsunade's furious, flustered glare, he jabbed ten times straight into her chest.
"Urrgh…!"
Tsunade hissed through clenched teeth.
Barely suppressing the pain, she glared at Naruto.
"Naruto, what do you think you're doing!?"
Naruto chuckled. "Aren't you the woman of Jiraiya's dreams? He pissed me off, so I'm taking it out on you."
Tsunade ground her teeth—angry at Naruto, and even angrier at Jiraiya.
You bastard… ignoring your student's child back then, and now look at the little devil that bred.
Naruto withdrew his gaze and looked out over the land shrouded in low clouds and drizzle.
"The Land of Rain… sure lives up to its name."
He knew Amegakure's perpetual rain was usually caused by Ukojizai no Jutsu (Rain Tiger at Will Technique)…
but the gentle drizzle before his eyes was simply the country's normal weather.
"Ahead is Amegakure. Eyes up—
the strong there aren't comparable to the shinobi you just fought."
Naruto's voice was cool as he warned them.
The pirate legion snapped to alert, marching in a mighty column into the rain.
Crocodile clenched a cigar in his teeth, scowling as the rain soaked him.
"Perfect. My least favorite weather."
…
"What is that!?"
"A giant!?"
"And a half-man, half-fish!?"
"These guys look even weirder than we do!"
On a tall tree near Amegakure, a pitcher-plant-headed figure—half black, half white—peered down.
Beside him stood a pure-white figure that barely looked human at all.
Both stared, stunned, at the pirate legion.
"Where did they come from? Judging by their route… are they headed for Amegakure!?"
"We need to notify Zero right—"
The pitcher-plant figure was muttering as he began to sink into the tree.
But before he finished, his expression changed. On the giant's shoulder, a blond youth looked back at them with icy eyes.
The youth's arm ignited, flames roaring until they almost took on solid form.
With a bellowed name—Hiken (Fire Fist)—he punched.
Flames gathered into a titanic fist, sweeping forward like a conflagration.
BOOM!!!
The tree exploded under the blast, woodchips filling the air—only to be incinerated into ash by the heat before they could fall.
The pure-white figure failed to dodge and was swallowed whole by the sea of fire—
his scream cut off as he burned away into nothing.
But the pitcher-plant figure vanished within the firestorm.
Naruto lowered his fist, eyeing the scorched crater where roots still smoldered with a trace of regret.
"Escaped through the roots, huh?"
(End of Chapter)
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