Aoba caught the collapsing body to muffle the sound of impact.
Then he addressed the woman on the ground.
"My apologies for letting your daughter witness this. Now I'll ask you plainly—do you wish to leave this place?"
A glimmer of hope flashed in the little girl's eyes, but her mother pulled her close protectively, wariness radiating from her gaze.
This mother-daughter pair were none other than surviving members of the Uzumaki clan—Karin Uzumaki and her mother.
In the original timeline, Karin's mother was already dead by her debut. But Aoba had arrived years earlier, when the woman still lived.
Though years of abuse from the Grass ninja's beatings and bites had left her body broken, teetering on the edge of collapse.
Yet even now, even after Aoba had slain her tormentor, trust remained elusive.
And once again, Konoha bore the blame.
Truth be told, Konoha's rap sheet stretched endlessly. Tracing the roots of most calamities across the Shinobi World, seventy or eighty percent led back to Konoha.
Consider Nagato—the man who'd later nuke Konoha—also an Uzumaki orphan. And a student of Konoha's Sannin, Jiraiya.
Now here stood Karin and her mother, more abandoned Uzumaki strays.
The Uzumaki clan had once stood among the elite, rivaling even the Uchiha and Senju.
Their bloodline carried formidable shinobi talents. Uzumaki physiques typically surpassed even the Senju's in overall robustness.
Yes—discounting Hashirama Senju's outlier Sage Body, the Senju as a whole couldn't hold a candle to the Uzumaki.
Their vitality was legendary. Cases like Karin and her mother's special constitution appeared frequently.
Their wounds healed rapidly. A single bite could channel massive life energy to heal others.
This trait amounted to a diluted Sage Body—and unlike Hashirama's unique case, such individuals weren't vanishingly rare.
Moreover, their Chakra reserves ranked among the Shinobi World's most prodigious. Even without the Nine-Tails, someone like Naruto Uzumaki would never worry about Chakra depletion.Not to mention their clan's mastery of sealing techniques, along with the potential to awaken the Kagura Mind's Eye—a powerful sensory ability that rivals even the Byakugan. They could even sense the malice of others.
Their overall attributes were so formidable that they were considered the strongest in the Shinobi World.
Yet, despite their immense power, this Ninja clan was annihilated overnight.
It was understandable that the Uzumaki clan would be envied. After all, their innate advantages were simply too great.
In truth, the Uzumaki clan had long anticipated such a day would come.
They maintained close ties with the Senju clan and formed an alliance with Konoha. Hashirama Senju's wife, in fact, was from the Uzumaki clan.
Originally, it was thought that allying with the strongest shinobi village in the Shinobi World would be enough to ensure the safety of one's own clan. But unexpectedly, when the enemy attacked, Konoha just stood by and watched...
In his previous life, Aoba had read many explanations about the Uzumaki clan. Countless internet trolls analyzed from every angle why the Uzumaki clan was destroyed.
Some even claimed that the Uzumaki clan's system, which combined a shinobi village with a clan structure, posed a threat to other villages.
But honestly, for every explanation, Aoba simply replied with "utter nonsense." That's right—utter nonsense.
Because looking at this issue from the real world's perspective, there's only one answer: the original author was an idiot.
But if we consider the Naruto world itself, the only thing to say is that Konoha's leadership was utterly idiotic.
To reiterate, every single leader in Konoha, starting from the First Hokage, was a complete and utter idiot.
The First Hokage was a good person, an idealist, but not a good leader.
To be blunt, if Uchiha Madara had become Hokage back then, the world wouldn't have had so many problems later on.
Though Madara was later manipulated by Black Zetsu, that was only because he was limited by a lack of information.
In reality, if Madara had become Hokage from the start, he would have continued waging war. Together with Hashirama, they would have swept across the entire Shinobi World and achieved complete unification. The saying "Susano'o cloaked over the Buddha, two men annihilating four nations" wasn't just empty boasting. They absolutely had the power to do it.
Afterward, all the bloodline clans—Uzumaki, Kaguya, Hōzuki—would have been under his control. With effective integration of these resources, within a few generations, the entire Shinobi World would have taken off.
But that didn't happen. Out of benevolence, Senju Hashirama made the decision to end the war. That in itself wasn't wrong. However, his naive belief that this would eliminate war was pure idiocy.
After his death, war never truly stopped.
His successor, Senju Tobirama, was a true genius in forbidden techniques and ninjutsu research. But as a leader, he was just as idiotic.
Needless to say, the idea that "the Uchiha are an evil clan" should never have come from a Hokage's mouth. Even if it were true, a fucking Hokage shouldn't say it out loud.
Whether the Uchiha were evil or not was irrelevant. They were Konoha's strongest combat force, always at the forefront, shedding blood for the village.
And what happened? His words drove the strongest clan in Konoha away from the village's mainstream. Worse, his statement deeply influenced his equally idiotic successors.
Here's the interesting part. After uttering those words, the Second Hokage probably regretted it. He might have truly believed it, but he also knew he shouldn't have said it.
So he took Uchiha Kagami as his student to mend relations with the Uchiha clan.
This move was actually quite brilliant. With this, the Uchiha now had a direct connection to the Hokage's lineage.
Later, if Uchiha Kagami had become the Uchiha clan head, the clan would have naturally reintegrated into Konoha's core. It would have been a win-win situation.When the time comes, no matter which of my disciples succeeds as Hokage, they will share a master-disciple bond with the Uchiha clan head. We're all on the same side, and over time, they'll naturally integrate completely.
Unfortunately, later, Kagami died. The Second Hokage didn't have time to select another Uchiha disciple before he, too, passed away.
In truth, the death of the Second Hokage, Senju Tobirama, was itself highly irrational. But Aoba couldn't criticize it—because he was upholding the ideals he and his elder brother had established.
In that moment, he embodied the true Will of Fire.
Given the circumstances at the time, he chose to sacrifice himself to protect the younger generation. This was the genuine Will of Fire that had sustained Konoha for so long.
The leaves at the top fall, burn to ash, and nourish the roots, allowing the tree to grow taller. This philosophy was proposed by him and his elder brother, Senju Hashirama, and they lived by it. Thus, even though Aoba disapproved of his leadership skills, he still considered both of them worthy Hokage.
But the Third Hokage…