"The son of a hero?" Sasuke let out a derisive snort, as if he had heard the biggest joke in the world, "Yondaime Hokage, it seems you are completely ignorant of your son's life all these years."
Minato's heart sank violently. A sense of foreboding enveloped him.
The smile vanished completely from his face, replaced by deep gravity. His voice became strained, "What... what do you mean by that?"
"I mean, your so-called son has no friends, no family in the village. From the moment he could remember, he has lived under the scorn and contempt of everyone."
Minato's eyes trembled intensely.
Sasuke's voice continued, like a blunt knife, slicing into his soul piece by piece.
"When I first saw him, he was being chased away by a grocery store owner with a broom, like a stray dog."
"I saw him sitting alone on a swing after school, watching other children get picked up by their parents, while he could only hug his knees and wait for the sun to set."
The color drained from Minato's face in an instant.
He instinctively took a step back, his body trembling slightly.
'Impossible... Sandaime, he...'
He tried to find an excuse, for himself and for the village. A thought surfaced in his mind.
"Was it... to protect him?" Minato's voice was hoarse and dry, as if trying to convince himself, "Not revealing his identity was to prevent him from being targeted by my enemies. Yes, that must be it."
"Then hiding his identity would have been enough."
Sasuke took a step forward and let out a cold laugh, "But your son, Uzumaki Naruto, has a nickname known to everyone in the village."
He paused, a look of pity appearing on his face, "The Demon Fox!"
Sasuke hadn't expected Hiruzen to be so ruthless. Not only did he not reveal Naruto's identity, he actually fabricated a demon fox identity.
It was a miracle Naruto turned out as resilient as he did.
"Demon Fox?" Minato's pupils constricted instantly. He seemed to understand something, but couldn't bring himself to believe it.
"Impossible!" he refuted instinctively, his eyes filled with disbelief. "Sandaime... everyone in the village... how could they..."
He froze, his gaze unconsciously sweeping across this dark sewer, as if he could see Naruto's life outside through it.
"Then what do you think Naruto's life should have been like?"
"Let me tell you. From the day he was born until now, in the entire village, aside from a ramen shop's owner and an Academy's teacher, no one has been willing to say a complete sentence to him."
"He could only use the stupidest pranks, graffiti on the Hokage Rock, to obtain even the slightest bit of attention."
"This is the son of a hero you thought was doing just fine."
"What about Kakashi?" Minato asked after a moment's hesitation, unwilling to give up.
Naruto was his son. Kakashi, as his student, was like a brother in terms of relationship, so how could an older brother not take care of his younger brother?
"Hatake Kakashi?"
A complex look flashed in Sasuke's eyes. He countered Minato's question with one of his own, "He himself is a drowning man in need of saving. What makes you think he could pull your son ashore?"
Minato's body jolted violently.
"What did you say? Kakashi, he..."
These words were like a heavy hammer, smashing directly into Minato's heart.
The disciple he was so proud of was actually living in such pain.
Sasuke looked at Minato's devastated expression, the mockery at the corner of his mouth deepening.
"You sacrificed yourself and your wife for the village, sealed the Kyubi inside your newborn son, and arrogantly believed yourself a hero who saved the world."
"But what did the village give you in return? They see your son as the embodiment of disaster, transferring all their hatred for the demon fox onto an innocent child."
"They enjoy the peace you brought, yet they harmed your most cherished legacy without restraint."
"This... is the village you gave your life to protect, Yondaime Hokage."
Minato stood utterly still, rooted to the spot. He remembered Kushina's final wish before her death, the promise he had made to the infant swaddled in his arms.
The light in his eyes completely dimmed, drowned in an endless sea of regret and self-blame.
"I..."
He opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but no words came out.
The Yondaime Hokage, the savior of Konoha, now stood like a child who had done wrong, silent tears streaming down his face.
Sasuke looked quietly at the broken man before him calmly, not a trace of pity in his eyes.
However, just as Sasuke thought the other party would remain lost in despair, Minato's trembling body gradually stilled.
He slowly raised a hand and used his sleeve to wipe the tear stains from his face.
When he looked up again, those sky-blue eyes had regained their clarity.
"Thank you... for telling me all of this."
Minato's voice was still hoarse, but his tone was utterly serious.
"But, in your words just now, I heard your indifference towards Konoha, your disdain for the villagers, even your contempt for the very concept of a 'village' itself."
Minato spoke slowly. This sudden shift made Sasuke's brow raise slightly.
"You seem... to have no sense of belonging to Konoha."
Sasuke's eyes turned cold. He hadn't expected this man to recover his ability to think so quickly after such a devastating blow.
'As expected of the Yondaime Hokage.'
"Sense of belonging?" Sasuke sneered, "Something like that is meaningless to me."
"My clan, my parents... were all slaughtered that night."
His voice was extremely cold, as if narrating someone else's story, "To me, whether the village exists or not makes no difference."
He raised his head, his dark eyes meeting Minato's without flinching.
"I can't be like you. After learning what your son has endured, you can still care about this village."
The clarity that had just returned to Minato's blue eyes vanished in an instant, his pupils contracting violently once more.
"...What did you say?"
Minato's voice trembled. "Your clan... the Uchiha Clan... slaughtered to the last?"
Sasuke looked at his expression, no ripple of emotion in his own eyes.
"A few years after your death. One bloody night. The entire Uchiha Clan's compound. Not a single survivor."
'How was that possible?!'
Minato's mind went blank. He couldn't even begin to process the terrifying implications behind this news.
That was Konoha's most powerful clan. One of the two founding pillars of the village, alongside the Senju Clan.
They possessed a Kekkei Genkai that made all Shinobi Villages wary. Their clan was renowned for producing geniuses.
How could such a clan, such a behemoth whose destruction would shake the very foundations of the Land of Fire, be slaughtered to the last?
Sasuke felt a wave of irritation and had no intention of explaining further.
He turned, preparing to leave this space.
Just as he was about to mobilize his power to forcibly break out of Naruto's mental world, his movements hesitated slightly.
He remembered Naruto's face, always on the verge of tears after failing.
'Annoying...'
Cursing inwardly, Sasuke stopped and turned his head slightly.
"Hey."
Minato looked at him in confusion.
"The seal you left inside Naruto. While it converts the Kyubi's Chakra into his own power, it also severely hinders his control over his own Chakra."
"Adjust it."
Having said that, he paused no longer.
The space around Sasuke's body began to distort.
Leaving only one sentence echoing in the dead silence of the sewer.
"Right now, he can't even use the most basic Transformation Technique properly."
---
Check out My Patreon For 40+ Advanced Chapters:
Pat reon.com/IamPoorGuyToo