Hypoglycemia. A tricky word that Granny Tsunade had thrown at him. They say he fainted from malnutrition, told him to eat normally, and not to choke on noodles. For a moment, her heart warmed up—after all, she cared about him. Like Grandpa Three once did, like Mr. Jiraiya... they're good people, after all.
But that thought was immediately drowned in doubt. Did he voluntarily eat only ramen? Since childhood, no one had taught him how to cook, no one cared what he ate. Beyond the Ichiraku menu and instant noodles, the culinary world simply did not exist for him.
And something about their explanations didn't add up. Some kind of wormhole of doubt gnawed at the inside. He was feeling great before he lost consciousness. No weakness, no dizziness. Nothing.
And the main question that was a thorn in my mind: where is Sasuke?
Where could he have disappeared to?
Naruto stood motionless on a tree branch on the outskirts of Konoha, looking at the ruins that had once been his home. He hadn't seen Sasuke since he woke up. Inquiries led to nothing. No one, not even Granny Tsunade, gave him an answer. Everyone kept saying, "We don't know."
During this time spent in common solitude, he and Sasuke became real friends. At least Naruto already considered him a friend with all his heart.
And now Sasuke has disappeared.
The names that became symbols of the disaster popped up in my memory: Uchiha Yue, Shimura Danzo, Grandfather the Third… How could everything collapse like this overnight? So many dead. And the Uchiha clan... is destroyed. It was said to be the fault of Danzo, who wanted to exterminate them.
Naruto couldn't comprehend it. Grandpa Three always taught that the villagers are one family, comrades who need to be protected. This is the Will of Fire. He grew up on these words, absorbing them as truth. Even when he was shunned and scolded, he remembered the instructions of the Third and silently endured, convincing himself that these were his comrades.
But wasn't the Uchiha clan part of that family? Why did Danzo, the man who stood at the very throne of the Hokage, destroy them? Shouldn't the same Will of Fire have burned in his heart, forcing him to protect his own?
It was said that Danzo did not stop at Uchiha. He performed inhumane experiments on the villagers, tried to kill the Hokage.…
"The village… What happened to you? Naruto thought, feeling everything go cold inside. — And Sasuke… Did you go to look for Uchiha Yue?"
The idea seemed frighteningly plausible. Previously, he would have rushed to return it without hesitation. But now…
Is it necessary?
Konoha, which Grandfather Three had imagined in his imagination, was a bright place where everyone understood and supported each other. Naruto naively believed that there was no darkness in her. But now he saw her in person. Is the Will of Fire a lie? If he brought Sasuke back, would he be happy here? Will he be safe?
Danzo is dead, but can we trust the others? The Hokage himself, who allowed such a person to exist next to him?
He remembered Jiraiya. The gray-haired hermit's gaze always caused him a vague uneasiness, as if there was something else behind the mask of a simpleton.
The boy didn't know the whole truth yet. I didn't know that Sasuke was dead, destined to be a senseless sacrifice from the very beginning. I didn't know that there was no hypoglycemia. He was simply stunned, turned into a limp puppet, a live battery for pumping out the Nine-Tails' chakra.
To the village, he was no longer a Jinchuuriki, nor the son of the Fourth Hokage. Just a vessel with unlimited power. And no one cared about his feelings or his thoughts. If they had needed Sasuke instead of Sasuke to capture Yue's eyes, Jiraiya would have sacrificed his student's son without hesitation.
Deep inside Naruto, in the twilight of the cage, the Nine-tailed Fox lay panting. His chakra was being pumped out mercilessly, like water from a dried-up well. If he hadn't been the epitome of pure might, he would have dried up long ago.
But now he felt something new. He could feel the darkness rising in the boy's soul—doubt, resentment, disappointment. The seeds were sown.
"It's time, Naruto," he rumbled, and malicious laughter bubbled in his voice. "It's time to show you the true face of your precious Konoha!"
The nine-tails, unlike his jailer, was conscious the whole time. He heard everything. All the conversations between Jiraiya and the others, when they were not shy about discussing their plans right in front of the "battery". Anger used to cloud his eyes, but now... now was his time.
— Still no news? We can't wait any longer! Uchiha Yue's strength is growing every day. You need to gather the power of the entire Shinobi world, otherwise the Land of Fire will fall!
In the office of the Hokage, Jiraiya paced the room, restless. His nervousness was reflected in the glass case on the table, under which Sarutobi Hiruzen's head rested.
—Jiraiya, calm down,— came the calm, emotionless voice of the Third. — You sent out the letters just a few days ago. Patience. Other villages still see Yue as just a trophy, not an existential threat. They don't understand his true power, and neither did we.
"Hmm... you're right, Teacher," Jiraiya exhaled, stopping. But the anxiety in his eyes did not fade.