Naruto made no effort to hide himself in that moment, or perhaps, there was simply no need to. Not only did he forgo secrecy, but he grandly revealed his true form.
"It's Naruto," Jiraiya murmured, watching him suspended in the sky. 'What is he doing? When did he learn to fly? That outfit is so much like the Fourth Hokage's. He truly is Minato's son.'
Before Jiraiya could continue this line of thought, he was drawn away by the sound of disgust rising from below.
"Look, 'he' is up there!"
Having hidden during the Sunagakure raid, the Villagers of Konoha now poured out onto the streets, relieved to hear the invaders had retreated. Though many Konoha ninja were killed or injured in the battle, most of the villagers, aside from those who lived near Naruto's 'house' and likely deserved whatever trouble they got, were largely unscathed.
"It's 'him'! Up there! It's sickening!"
"Why can *that* fly? What is it trying to do?"
"Just disappear, you monster."
"Why didn't Suna-nins kill 'him'?"
"Such a shame."
"I'll have to see him wearing a forehead protector again? The thought alone makes me want to puke."
"Let him stay a Genin his whole life. He absolutely can't be a Jonin, no, not even a Chunin."
After hearing just a few sentences, Jiraiya grasped the seriousness of the situation. These villagers held a massive, festering prejudice against Naruto. Even if he was disliked as a Jinchuriki, he was still Minato's son.
'How did it get this bad?' Having been gone for over a decade, Jiraiya was completely out of touch with the village's internal dynamics.
He shot a questioning look at Kakashi.
Kakashi slowly answered, "Shortly after Sensei's sacrifice, rumors began circulating that Naruto was the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox incarnate. Naruto's presence has incurred the unanimous hatred of every villager here."
"It has to be that Danzo!" Jiraiya declared instantly. "He always wanted to control Naruto. He must have used this method to try and force Naruto to join Root. What did Sensei do about it?"
"Third Hokage-sama issued a strict decree prohibiting any discussion of Naruto's Jinchuriki status," Kakashi stated matter-of-factly, before adding, "But he never publicly disclosed that Naruto was the Fourth Hokage's son."
"What?" Jiraiya's voice dropped. Hiruzen hadn't mentioned any of this when he'd seen him earlier, only that Naruto and Danzo had some close connection. Jiraiya had originally planned to settle everything after the Chunin Exams.
'What was he thinking? Doesn't he realize that not denying it confirms Naruto's Jinchuriki status? And the more you strictly forbid something, the more people will break the rule. Especially... given how many ninja and villagers died during the Night of the Nine-Tails Rampage.'
The suffering Naruto must have endured as a child was now obvious. No wonder he had seemed so cold to him when they first met. Even Hiruzen's decree couldn't extinguish the villagers deep malice. Since they couldn't confront Hiruzen, their resentment was redirected onto Naruto, making his life even worse than before.
As if sensing their curses, the Black Sphere hovering on Naruto's fingertip, initially the size of a fingernail, instantly swelled to the size of a basketball.
"This is not good!" From his experience, Jiraiya could feel the terrifying power contained within that Black Sphere. A deep, cold unease settled in his gut. 'I hope my guess is wrong, or else Minato's child...'
"Summoning Jutsu!" Jiraiya performed the hand signs, and a large Toad with wings on its back summoned before him.
He immediately jumped onto it without a second thought. The Toad then slowly began to ascend, drifting upward in a bizarre, physics-defying manner. Its wings remained still, like mere decorations. It was heading straight for Naruto in the sky.
The Toads of Mount Myoboku were truly varied and strange: there was the Scroll Toad that became a scroll, the shapeshifting Shop Toad, the Messenger Toad used for communication, and the Gourd Toad, whose body contained an independent barrier space. With so many Toads possessing peculiar abilities, one more that could fly was hardly unusual. Ryuchi Cave, by comparison, was far inferior, aside from the few individual Snake Sages, it was just a pit of ferocious, poisonous snakes, like a villain's den.
Watching Jiraiya ascend, Kakashi remained perfectly still, a look of complete indifference on his face. Everything he had truly cherished had vanished over a decade ago, one by one, right before his eyes. He had been in a fog for all these years. If not for promising Rin and Obito that he would live, Kakashi might not have held on this long.
"Naruto, what are you doing?" Jiraiya quickly closed the distance.
Naruto glanced at him and spoke flatly. "Oh, it's you. I'm merely preparing to plant a seed."
As he spoke, he extended his fingertip, and the Black Sphere enlarged again. "Look..."
"Naruto, I don't know what you've been through..." Jiraiya, for once, dropped his playful facade, speaking with intense seriousness. "But you can't do this! I can't stand by and watch you fall into Darkness."
"Fall into Darkness?" Naruto sneered, choosing not to linger on the word. "Did you know? This entire village wants me dead."
Naruto in the sky and the shadow clone spoke at the same time. One addressed Jiraiya, the other, Sasuke and Neji.
"I trained desperately because I didn't want to be bullied. But when I was injured, they would stand nearby, wishing I'd been hurt worse, hoping I'd be crippled."
"No one would sell me food. When I walked the streets, stomach rumbling, every person who saw me hoped I would starve to death. Even when I did get food, it was rotten, expired or poisoned."
"When I tried to approach them, they'd wave me away with disgusted looks, as if I constantly reeked."
"I had to be very careful to avoid getting sick..."
Jiraiya's heart seized up, but he forced himself to counter, "But they didn't do anything worse to you..."
"True, they didn't, or didn't dare, do anything worse to me directly. Because all the excessively horrible things have already been done. They constantly flood me with the greatest Malice."
"If only I knew nothing, but I feel every bit of it. Can you possibly understand how maddening it is to face this crushing tide of Malice all the time?"
"No, you don't. Because you are the high-and-mighty Toad Sage, Jiraiya. A man who always ran away."
"Now, as I plan to punish them, you appear, standing right in front of me."
"You take the moral high ground and tell me I'm falling into darkness, but do you even know the kind of bullying I endured here?"
"How noble of you! All you have to do is airily say, 'I don't know what you've been through, but you can't do this and that'..."
"Since that's the case, why don't you feel it for yourself."
Naruto instantly appeared right in front of Jiraiya. Before the Sannin could react, Naruto's other index finger touched the center of his forehead.
A torrent of frantic Malice surged into Jiraiya's mind.
"Ugh!" Jiraiya only lasted a moment before covering his mouth and retching.
"As I thought you weren't even able to handle even this much," Naruto said flatly.
In truth, Jiraiya's reaction was quite strong, others might have lost their minds the moment they contacted this Malice. Jiraiya only vomited.
"See. This power is called 'Harbinger's Bloom.' It's a power that grows by absorbing Malice. The deeper the Malice, the greater its power."
Naruto raised his right hand high.
"Stop!" Jiraiya now fully understood Naruto's intent. Before he could move, Naruto's voice echoed from every direction into the ears of all the Villagers of Konoha.
"Villagers of Konoha, grant me the power to destroy you."
===============
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