"As expected, I can't hide anything from the Second Hokage."
Hearing Tobirama's observation, Jie Uchiha finally dropped his act and smiled, teasing the reanimated Kage. In truth, Jie never planned to hide his intentions. Being casually exposed didn't surprise him at all.
Tobirama narrowed his eyes as he noticed the fourth person resurrected by the Edo Tensei. "To think Danzo was brought back too. Things aren't as simple as they seem." He shifted his sharp gaze back to Jie. "Speak, Uchiha brat. Why did you summon us?"
Jie maintained his calm smile. "There's no need to rush, Second Hokage. We have plenty of time to chat. But first, wouldn't you like to hear a story? A story about a demon fox and the son of a hero."
Hashirama didn't react much, but Tobirama's eyes narrowed further as he pondered the hidden meaning. Only Minato Namikaze and Hiruzen Sarutobi showed drastic shifts in their expressions.
"Tobirama-sensei! First Hokage!" Hiruzen roared, desperately trying to mask his guilty conscience. "The Uchiha clan is rebelling! For the sake of the village, strike immediately and execute this traitor!"
"Monkey?" Tobirama shot him a look. Tobirama was no fool. His political instincts were leaps and bounds ahead of Hiruzen's. In just a few short words, his keen instincts told him this "story" was directly tied to his former student—and was likely the very catalyst for today's confrontation.
"Jie, speak," Minato interrupted gently. "I want to know how much pain I, an incompetent father, have caused Naruto."
Minato had actually recognized Jie. When the Fourth Hokage died, Jie was already five years old. Though the young man had grown up, Minato could still trace the outline of the child he once knew.
Father? Son of a hero? Demon fox? Tobirama caught the keywords, feeling like he had already grasped the ugly truth. He glanced at Hiruzen, who was forcing a calm facade, and his brow furrowed deeply. If the truth was what he suspected, then Monkey had truly crossed a line.
Ignoring Tobirama's reaction, Jie shook his head. "Fourth Hokage, you were an excellent leader, but you certainly weren't a good father. Still, I shouldn't be the one to tell this story. It would be more convincing coming from the person involved."
Right on cue, an Uchiha clansman vanished from the training ground. A moment later, a deeply confused Naruto was carried into the clearing and set down among the imposing figures.
"The Uchiha big brother who treated me to ramen!" Naruto's face lit up the second he spotted Jie, completely oblivious to the heavy atmosphere. "Are you going to treat me to ramen today too? Where's that arrogant Sasuke? He kicked me last time, and I'm definitely going to pay him back!"
Smiling, Jie crouched down, patted Naruto's head, and pointed at Minato. "Take a look at him. Do you know who this is?"
Naruto turned his head and stared at Minato in confusion. The man's spiky blonde hair was nearly identical to his own. Despite the strange, papery cracks marring the man's face, Naruto felt an inexplicable sense of familiarity. He looked at the other men standing nearby. The longer he stared, the more familiar they seemed. It felt like he saw their faces every single day.
After a moment of intense concentration, Naruto caught a glimpse of the furious Third Hokage out of the corner of his eye. It finally clicked.
"Ah!" Naruto exclaimed, his eyes going wide with pure adoration. "Lord Fourth Hokage! And the First and Second Hokages too!"
A bitter lump formed in Minato's throat seeing that his own son didn't even recognize him. His heart ached. Why did Naruto have such a deep obsession with ramen? It was as if a simple bowl of noodles was the only happiness the boy had ever known. Swallowing his grief, Minato stayed silent, letting Jie guide the conversation.
"Naruto, weren't you curious why I thought you looked familiar the first time I saw you?" Jie asked calmly.
"Yeah, why was that?" Naruto blinked.
"Don't you think you look an awful lot like our Fourth Hokage?" Jie replied, shooting a cold sneer in Hiruzen's direction.
Naruto was naive, but he wasn't completely brainless. With Jie dropping such obvious hints, he slowly started to piece it together. If he hadn't, Jie would have seriously reconsidered letting Sasuke hang around him—stupidity was contagious, after all.
Naruto fell totally silent. When he finally spoke, he forced the words out with immense difficulty. "So... the Fourth Hokage is... my father?"
"Naruto, I am your father," Minato said. His voice was low, thick with sorrow. "A truly incompetent father."
Tears instantly welled up in Naruto's eyes. Without a second of hesitation, the boy charged toward Minato. But what awaited the Fourth Hokage wasn't a desperate, longing embrace.
It was a punch.
The Edo Tensei body possessed no sense of touch and felt no physical pain. Besides, Naruto was only four years old; his tiny fist carried virtually no real force. Yet, in that fleeting instant, Minato felt the blow bypass his physical form, striking directly into his chest and shattering his heart.
Hashirama and Tobirama looked as if they had felt the blow themselves. Their expressions instantly hardened to stone. What exactly had happened in this village for a child to not even know his own father, and to greet him with a punch the first time they met?
"Hiruzen, what is the meaning of this?" Tobirama demanded, his voice chillingly stern.
Under the crushing weight of his former master's gaze, Hiruzen's aged face drained of color. He stammered weakly, unable to form a single coherent excuse.
"Uchiha brat," Hashirama interjected. He had dropped his usual goofy demeanor, his voice taking on a dark, commanding tone. "Tell us everything you know. Do not leave out a single detail."
"Four years ago, the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, Kushina Uzumaki—wife of the Fourth Hokage—went into labor," Jie began, his tone steady and merciless. "During that time, Konoha was invaded. The Nine-Tails broke free and wreaked havoc across the village. After repelling the invader, the Fourth Hokage sacrificed his own life to seal the Nine-Tails inside his newborn child. "
"That child is Naruto."
Jie let the words hang in the air before delivering the final strike. "However, instead of being treated as the son of a hero, Naruto's true identity was buried.
Meanwhile, news of the Nine-Tails being sealed inside him was somehow allowed to spread like wildfire. The villagers who lost loved ones that night had nowhere else to direct their grief, so they vented all their hatred onto little Naruto."
Jie looked down at the blonde boy. "If Naruto wasn't a descendant of the Uzumaki clan, and if he wasn't sustained by the Nine-Tails' chakra... had he been any ordinary child, I truly don't know how he would have survived until now, living off nothing but expired milk, moldy bread, and stale instant noodles day after day."
Boom! An overwhelmingly oppressive aura erupted from Hashirama Senju. The visual chakra fluctuation wasn't massive, but the suffocating ferocity of the God of Shinobi's presence forced Hiruzen to stumble backward in terror.
"Hiruzen," Hashirama practically snarled, "what the hell have you done?!"
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