Placed beside everything Naruto had endured over the years, that identity was unbearably ironic—
cruel to the point of being almost obscene.
Even Tsunade, merely telling the story, felt a deep, unspeakable shame.
How was she supposed to tell this child that his father had died a hero for the village—
while the village had treated the hero's only son like this?
Tsunade didn't answer Naruto's question about his father right away. Instead, in a heavy voice, she continued recounting the events of that night.
"Naruto, listen carefully. In Konoha Year 48, your mother gave birth to you. But on that very day, enemies infiltrated the village… and they took advantage of the moment to extract the Nine-Tails sealed inside your mother."
Naruto didn't fully understand what "extracting the Nine-Tails" meant, but instinctively, he sensed grave danger.
Tsunade's voice carried unmistakable restraint.
"When a jinchūriki loses their tailed beast… there is only one outcome…"
She didn't finish the sentence.
But the implication fell like the coldest verdict.
Death?
So… Mom…
Because she gave birth to me…
Because the Nine-Tails was ripped out of her… she…
The realization struck Naruto like a bolt of lightning.
His mind rang violently, and an uncontrollable storm of emotions—grief, rage, guilt, and raw destructive impulse—erupted from the depths of his heart like a volcano.
"GRAAAH—!!!"
Naruto let out a hoarse, inhuman roar. His eyes turned instantly crimson as dark red chakra—thick with hatred and violence—burst from his body like wildfire!
His skin flushed an ominous red. His teeth sharpened.
The Nine-Tails' chakra, triggered by Naruto's extreme emotional upheaval, began to leak out.
"Naruto!"
Jiraiya, who had been ready, reacted instantly. His expression changed drastically as he roared—his voice infused with chakra, like thunder—trying to snap Naruto back to his senses.
In the same instant, he flashed to Naruto's side and slammed a palm, layered with powerful sealing formulas, onto Naruto's violently heaving abdomen.
"Calm down! This isn't your fault!" Jiraiya said firmly. His chakra surged like a stabilizing dam, temporarily halting the Nine-Tails' rampage.
Under that external intervention, the boiling dark-red chakra slowly receded like a withdrawing tide. The crimson faded from Naruto's eyes, returning to clear blue.
Though the Nine-Tails' chakra was suppressed, Naruto's grief only deepened.
He lifted his tear-streaked face, blue eyes filled with desperation and pleading, and choked out:
"Granny Tsunade… p-please… keep going… please…"
Seeing him force himself to stay upright while desperately clinging to the truth, Tsunade sighed deeply—deeper than she ever had before.
She knew the final curtain had to be raised.
Her voice settled into a grave calm, each word heavy with history.
"Your father… on that night… chose to protect the village."
"He chose… to seal the rampaging Nine-Tails once again."
She paused, then met Naruto's gaze directly.
"And the place he sealed it… was inside you."
"After completing the seal… he died from exhaustion."
Naruto's breathing stopped.
It felt as though an invisible hand had clenched his heart.
Sacrificed…
Dad… died too…
To seal the Nine-Tails…
To protect the village…
The sheer weight of it emptied his mind.
But Tsunade wasn't finished.
She delivered the final, heaviest blow—her words ringing clearly through the Hokage's office.
"And your father… was Konoha's Fourth Hokage."
"Namikaze Minato."
Namikaze Minato.
The name exploded like a final thunderclap deep within Naruto's soul.
"My… my dad… was the Hokage…?"
Naruto whispered, his voice barely audible.
His face went utterly blank—shock, confusion, and an almost absurd disbelief blending into an empty stare.
He turned sharply, eyes piercing through the office window, locking onto the distant Hokage Rock.
There, carved into the massive cliff, stood the stone faces of Konoha's Hokage.
The man he had looked up to since childhood.
One of the village's greatest heroes.
The face he'd seen countless times while pulling pranks and painting graffiti on the mountain.
The figure he dreamed of becoming—of surpassing.
That man…
Was his father?
"Dad…"
He was the Hokage's son…
And yet—what kind of life had he lived?
"But… why?"
Naruto lifted his tear-blurred eyes. Pain and confusion twisted his expression as he asked the question that cut straight to the core:
"Why… was the Nine-Tails sealed inside me?"
"I'm his son… aren't I?"
Why would his father choose to make him bear this suffering?
Why—knowing what it meant to be a jinchūriki—would he force that fate onto his newborn child?
Was that really… a father's choice?
The question left Tsunade speechless.
To her, people had always mattered more than the village.
She could neither understand nor accept sacrificing a child's future—condemning them to a cursed fate—for the sake of the village.
If it were her, she would have made a completely different choice.
But to Namikaze Minato—and to people like Jiraiya—
the weight of "the village" often outweighed that of the individual, even of family.
This was the cruel side of the Will of Fire they believed in.
Tsunade couldn't judge whether it was right or wrong.
Because this wasn't a question of morality—it was a clash of fundamental beliefs.
The village is built by people—so of course people matter.
But to protect people as a whole—then the village matters more.
That difference in perspective defined everything.
Seeing Tsunade fall silent, Jiraiya let out a deep sigh.
He knew this answer had to come from him.
"Naruto," Jiraiya said gravely, his voice worn with years and responsibility,
"this… is the burden of being Hokage."
He looked straight at Naruto, eyes heavy.
"The Hokage doesn't belong to one person. He doesn't belong to one family."
"He is the shadow of the entire village."
"When the village faces destruction, the Hokage must make the choice that best protects the village—"
"Even if that choice… is unbearably painful."
"Protecting the village—protecting the many 'families' within it—"
"That is the responsibility… and the resolve… a Hokage must carry."
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