At this moment, Naruto made no attempt to hide himself—there was no need to.
Not only did he not conceal his identity, he revealed his true form openly and brazenly.
"That's Naruto." Jiraiya looked up at the boy in the sky and muttered, "What is he planning?"
"Since when can he fly?"
"That outfit… he looks so much like the Fourth. As expected of Minato's son."
But before Jiraiya could finish sighing in admiration, a voice dripping with disgust from nearby drew his attention.
"Look—it's 'that one'!"
The villagers, who had hidden during the Sand's surprise attack, had begun to pour back into the streets like bamboo shoots after rain once they heard the Sand ninja had retreated. In the Sand invasion, countless Konoha shinobi had died or been injured. But the villagers—aside from those unlucky enough to live near Naruto's "home," or those who had been "scammed" by him—had come through largely unscathed.
"It's 'that thing' up there! So disgusting!"
"Why is 'that thing' flying? What's it trying to do?"
"Just disappear already, you monster."
"Why didn't the Sand kill 'that thing'?"
"What a pity."
"We'll have to keep seeing him wear that forehead protector? Just thinking about it makes me sick."
"He'll be a genin for life. He must never become a jōnin—no, not even a chūnin!"
Just from hearing a few scattered voices, Jiraiya immediately realized how dire the situation was.
These villagers clearly bore deep prejudice against Naruto.
Even if he was shunned for being a jinchūriki, he was still the son of Minato. Shouldn't that have counted for something?
Why had it come to this?
What's going on? Jiraiya thought. Having been away from the village for over a decade, he was largely unaware of what had transpired.
"...Kakashi," Jiraiya cast him a questioning glance.
Kakashi spoke slowly. "After our teacher sacrificed himself, word began to spread that Naruto was the Nine-Tails' incarnation."
"The entire village's hatred fell on him."
"It must've been Danzō!" Jiraiya didn't even need to think. "He always wanted to control Naruto. This must've been his way of forcing Naruto into Root."
"And the old man? What did he do?"
"The Third Hokage issued a decree—forbidding anyone to discuss Naruto's status as a jinchūriki," Kakashi explained in his usual detached tone, then added, "But he never revealed Naruto was the son of the Fourth."
"…What?" Jiraiya's voice grew heavy. When he'd last spoken to Hiruzen, the man hadn't mentioned any of this—only that Naruto had suspicious ties to Danzō. Jiraiya had been planning to settle the matter after the Chūnin Exams.
"The old man… what was he thinking? Didn't he realize keeping it secret only confirmed Naruto's jinchūriki identity in people's eyes?"
"The more you forbid something, the more people whisper about it."
"Especially… after so many shinobi and villagers died that night when the Nine-Tails attacked…"
Jiraiya could easily imagine the kind of treatment Naruto had endured growing up. No wonder, when they'd first met, the boy had been so cold to him.
Even with Hiruzen's decree, nothing could stop the villagers' malice. They couldn't vent it on the Hokage, so they redirected it at Naruto. If anything, it had only grown worse over time.
As though sensing the curses of the villagers below, the small black sphere at Naruto's fingertip suddenly swelled to the size of a basketball.
"Not good!" Jiraiya could see it clearly—terrifying power was condensed within that black orb. A gnawing unease gripped his heart.
Please let me be wrong. Otherwise… Minato's child…
"Summoning Jutsu!" Jiraiya slammed his hand down, and in a puff of smoke, a strange toad with wings on its back appeared.
Without hesitation, he leapt onto its back.
The toad began to ascend—not by flapping its wings, but drifting upward in blatant defiance of physics, the wings stiff as decoration.
Its destination: Naruto in the sky.
One had to admit, the toads of Mount Myōboku were bizarre beyond compare. Scroll toads that turned themselves into scrolls, messenger toads, the ever-changing Gamakichi, even a gourd toad whose body contained an entire sealed space. With so many oddities, a flying toad was hardly surprising.
In contrast, Ryūchi Cave seemed lacking: aside from a few snake sages with unique powers, the rest were just a nest of vicious serpents—like some villain's lair.
Watching Jiraiya ascend, Kakashi remained indifferent. Or perhaps it was apathy. The things he cherished had been stripped from him one by one, right before his eyes, more than ten years ago. He had been drifting aimlessly ever since. If not for his promise to Rin and Obito to keep living, he might have given up long ago.
"...Naruto, what are you trying to do?" Jiraiya finally reached him.
Naruto glanced at him and said flatly, "So it's the man they called my godfather."
"I'm just planting a seed."
As he spoke, the black sphere at his fingertip grew even larger.
"Listen…"
"Naruto, I don't know what you've been through…" Jiraiya's usual playful mask was gone; his face was deadly serious. "But you can't do this! I won't stand by and watch you fall into darkness!"
"Fall into darkness?" Naruto gave a cold laugh, not bothering to argue the point. "Do you know what this village truly wishes for? That I'd die."
Naruto's true self in the air and his "Uzumaki" shadow clone spoke at the same time—one addressing Jiraiya, the other speaking to Sasuke and Neji.
"Because I refused to be their punching bag and trained with everything I had, when I got hurt, they would stand by, full of malice, thinking, 'Why isn't he hurt worse? Maybe he'll be crippled.'"
"Because no one would sell me food, I wandered the streets clutching my empty stomach, while the people who saw me thought, 'If only he would starve to death.'"
"When I tried to approach them, they would wave me off with disgust. To them, I reeked of filth."
"I couldn't even afford to fall ill."
Jiraiya's heart trembled, but he forced himself to say, "Still… they didn't go further, did they? They didn't do anything too cruel to you…"
"Yes, you're right. They didn't—and they didn't dare. Because the worst was already done."
"What they did instead… was smother me every single day with their pure, unrelenting malice."
"If I were oblivious, maybe it wouldn't matter. But I could feel it. Do you have any idea how maddening it is to face that tidal wave of hatred, every moment of your life?"
"No—you don't understand. Because you're the great sage, Jiraiya of the Toads."
"And now, when I finally choose to give these people a lesson… you appear before me, standing in my way."
"You preach from your moral high ground about not falling into darkness. But do you know what kind of torment I've endured here?"
"You're lofty. You're untouchable. All it takes is for you to say, 'I don't know what you went through, but you can't do this,' and you think that's enough."
"Well then—why don't you feel it for yourself?"
In an instant, Naruto appeared before him. Before Jiraiya could react, Naruto pressed his fingertip to his brow.
A torrent of overwhelming malice surged into him like a flood.
"Ugh—!"
Jiraiya lasted only a moment before he gagged, clutching his mouth and vomiting.
"I thought so. You couldn't even withstand this much," Naruto said coolly.
In truth, Jiraiya was strong to endure as much as he had. Anyone else might have lost themselves immediately. That he merely vomited was already remarkable.
"See?"
"This power is called the Flower of Ominous Evil. It feeds on malice and grows stronger the deeper that malice runs."
Naruto raised his right hand high.
"Stop!" Jiraiya finally understood what Naruto intended. But before he could act, Naruto's voice echoed across the entire village of Konoha—carried on all sides, reaching every villager's ear.
"Villagers of Konoha—grant me the power to destroy you."
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