They wanted to use this awkward, indirect way to apologize and make amends—
yet because of the shame weighing on their hearts, they didn't dare appear before Naruto in person.
They didn't dare face those blue eyes—
eyes that might still be clear and bright, but which they themselves had once wounded.
On Konoha's nights, the furious curses echoing outside the Sarutobi clan compound and the mountains of gifts piled outside Naruto's home formed the most ironic—and most truthful—contrast imaginable.
Standing by the window of the Hokage's office, Jiraiya gazed toward the distant Sarutobi compound, where the noise still carried faintly on the wind. His expression was complicated.
He could picture the scene all too clearly:
an enraged crowd, tightly shut gates, and inside them an old man who had once been revered—now disgraced.
"Old man…" Jiraiya said quietly, a trace of complicated emotion in his voice.
"This time… it must really hurt."
"For someone like him—who always talked about reputation and the Will of Fire—being cursed at by the very villagers he devoted his life to protecting…"
Jiraiya let out a breath. "That's probably worse than killing him."
Tsunade stood beside him, arms crossed. There was no sympathy on her face—only a calm so cold it bordered on ruthless indifference.
She gave a faint sigh and shook her head.
"There was never another outcome."
"From the moment he chose to hide Naruto's identity, chose to indulge Danzo, chose 'stability' over the lives of real people—he should've known that once the truth came out, this kind of backlash was inevitable."
"This isn't revenge."
"It's karma."
Jiraiya opened his mouth, then closed it again.
He couldn't refute her—because every word she said was soaked in blood-red truth.
Tsunade's gaze sharpened. She stopped watching the far-off "spectacle" and instead seemed to dissect the festering abscess that Konoha had allowed to grow for decades.
"Good," she said coolly.
"The Sarutobi, Shimura, Mitokado, and Utatane families have been sucking Konoha dry for far too long."
"They enjoyed the dividends of power, while dumping the darkness and the cost onto everyone else."
Her voice carried a chill, decisive edge:
"They took blood. Now they can spit it back out—with interest. Konoha's nourishment was never meant for just a few families."
She turned and walked back behind her desk, utterly unbothered by the chaos outside.
"Let them make noise," she said calmly, calculation flickering in her eyes.
"I'll wait for them to come begging—begging to negotiate compensation."
This storm, this public outrage—
it was the sharpest blade in Tsunade's hand, one meant to pry open the old powers' sealed vaults.
And if they didn't cooperate?
She had even harsher methods.
She trusted that those old foxes would know when to bow their heads.
"I need those compensations," Tsunade said, her fingers tapping the desk as she listed names—each one a soul wounded by the old era.
"Naruto Uzumaki. Hatake Kakashi. Hyūga Neji…"
"And all the countless others—
martyrs' families whose pensions were embezzled,
the nameless ones sacrificed by Root,
or turned into experimental subjects."
Her voice wasn't loud, but it carried unquestionable authority.
She would strip these resources from the old factions and pour them back into Konoha—
to nourish the places that had been neglected, trampled, and bled dry.
Jiraiya remained by the window in silence.
He did feel a flicker of pity for his teacher's situation.
But he knew Tsunade was right.
Konoha had been sick for far too long.
Only bitter medicine could cure it.
The bitter fruit planted by Hiruzen Sarutobi and the old power structure had to be eaten by them—and them alone.
On the other side of the village, Naruto stared at the familiar sight of yet another pile of gifts and apology letters stacked outside his door.
He scratched his messy blond hair.
He wasn't stupid—he could guess where these things came from.
The villagers who once looked at him with hatred, and now with guilt.
"Whatever… I guess they're kind of pitiful too. They were lied to for so long," Naruto muttered.
In the end, he still carried everything inside.
He hadn't decided whether to forgive them yet—but he was never the type to hold a grudge against food or gifts.
Besides, he could feel it:
behind all this awkwardness was a clumsy, genuine attempt to make amends.
The next morning, when Naruto opened his door to head to the Ninja Academy, he froze.
Several neatly arranged bento boxes sat outside, still warm.
No one was around.
He blinked, then understood.
The corner of his mouth lifted unconsciously.
Walking toward school, Naruto experienced something so unfamiliar it almost made him uneasy.
The stares—
the disgust, fear, and hatred that once pierced him like needles—
were gone.
In their place were hesitant, apologetic, even gentle looks.
A few vegetable-selling aunties even gathered their courage, offering stiff but kind smiles.
"Good morning, Naruto-kun."
"Ah—g-good morning!" Naruto replied awkwardly, his cheeks heating up.
Being treated normally felt strange.
Unfamiliar.
But very quickly, that discomfort was swept away by a warmth as brilliant as sunlight breaking through clouds.
He didn't have to keep his head down or walk pressed against the walls anymore.
He could walk straight—right down the middle of the street.
No silence.
No rejection.
Just quiet, living greetings.
The scars of the past wouldn't vanish overnight.
The future might still hold turbulence.
But in this moment—
walking beneath Konoha's morning light, feeling this long-delayed, ordinary kindness—
Naruto Uzumaki grinned, wide and brilliant, without a single shadow in his smile.
The Fifth Hokage Tsunade's decision to clear Naruto Uzumaki's name and publicly announce his identity as the Fourth Hokage's son spread through the shinobi world like a psychic storm.
At first, the other villages' leaders and civilians were absorbed in gossip about Konoha's internal purge.
Speculation ran wild.
What would Konoha do with Naruto Uzumaki—the so-called "future world destroyer"?
Strict surveillance?
Preemptive elimination?
Careful guidance?
But Konoha's answer stunned everyone into momentary silence.
World-destroyer = Son of the Fourth Hokage?
The sheer absurdity of that equation nearly short-circuited the entire shinobi world.
Then, as spies and intelligence agents reported back in detail about Naruto's past—
his isolation,
being branded a "demon fox,"
living in a rundown apartment,
eating expired food,
malnutrition, bullying—
public opinion across the world exploded.
Shock turned rapidly into speechless disbelief.
And then into raw, biting ridicule.
"This… this is Konoha's former leadership?"
"Especially that Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi—"
"Are they insane?"
"…Or just brain-dead?"
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