Tobirama Senju was the first to react. In the Pure Land, the Second Hokage's face changed at once, and the words burst out of him before anyone else could speak. "This is bad. Black-Frame Naruto should never have said that."
Mei Terumi followed immediately after. Her tone remained as smooth as ever, but even she was careful with her wording now. "The Second Hokage is right. There are ANBU in that crowd, and they're watching him get bullied without stepping in. There may even be Root operatives mixed among them."
She paused for a heartbeat before adding, "And that only proves something else. For a child this intelligent to abandon restraint and say something so irrational under these circumstances... well. That says enough by itself."
Mei had softened the edge of her words as much as she could. Even so, the meaning still landed like a blade.
The Hidden Mist had no right to act righteous. Not after the Bloody Mist era. Mei knew that better than anyone, which was exactly why she could not speak too freely. But even with all that restraint, what Konoha was showing the world was ugly enough to make every excuse sound hollow.
Below the stands, Ino and Sakura exchanged a glance. A bright child? They both searched their memories and found themselves unable to attach those words to the Naruto they knew.
Down on the arena floor, Naruto himself looked miserable. He scratched at his cheek and muttered, "Neji, why does everyone sound like they have such high hopes for the other me?"
He forced a laugh, but it came out thin. "They never looked at me like that. Not even once."
There was no crueller thing than comparison. Even the Nine-Tails rolled its eyes inside the seal. If you were half as sharp as him, the fox thought sourly, I'd already be satisfied.
On the black-bordered screen, the crowd around little Naruto had already snapped. "That fox demon dares say something like that?!" one person screamed. "Kill him!"
The words hit some invisible nerve. One by one, those reddened eyes turned savage. Sleeves were rolled up. Bodies surged forward. The defenseless child at the center of the street had become the perfect outlet for all the fear, hatred, and cowardice they had never dared face in themselves.
Naruto let out a ragged roar. He bent down in a frenzy, grabbing whatever was at his feet and hurling it back at them. "I'll kill you all!" he shouted. "You want me dead? Then I won't die! Remember this! As long as I'm alive, one day I'll take my revenge!"
It sounded wild, hysterical, thoughtless. But the black-framed Naruto was not lashing out blindly. Beneath the fury, his eyes stayed fixed on a single patch of the crowd.
He saw it quickly. Several so-called civilians moved too fast. They dodged what he threw with unnatural ease, then flicked stones of their own and knocked his attacks from the air. That was not normal. That was not how ordinary villagers moved.
In the arena, Kurenai's expression darkened. "If this keeps going," she said quietly, "Danzo may try to use Black-Frame Naruto as an excuse to force the Third Hokage to step down."
Uzuki Yugao's eyes narrowed. "I served in ANBU. I've never seen this in any official records."
Anko snorted, her mouth twisting bitterly. "That trick again. They've always been good at this kind of thing. And that damned Orochimaru too."
Orochimaru merely glanced at her, then looked away. He said nothing about the past. Nothing about how he had once taken her with him when he defected, only for her to lose her nerve halfway through. Nothing about the memories he erased before abandoning her in Konoha. Some things were too ugly even for him to bother saying aloud.
In the chat room, Tobirama spoke again. "That is very likely. If the jinchuriki showed hostility toward the village, it would become the perfect excuse. I should never have allowed Hiruzen and the others to volunteer to stay behind. The Will of Fire has lost its original meaning."
Those words made both Hiruzen and Danzo go still. The weight of the Second Hokage's disapproval was something even they could not brush aside with a smile.
Finally, Danzo snapped. "Tobirama-sensei, you're already dead," he fired back. "And it was you who chose Hiruzen as Hokage!"
His voice grew harsher with every word. "I was never Hokage. Yet all these years, who has truly protected Konoha? Me. Openly, secretly, at all times—it was me. What has Hiruzen ever done?"
Hiruzen's face flushed a dangerous red. "Danzo! Are you saying I contributed nothing?" he barked. "Even if I did nothing, what right do you have to say that of me?"
For a moment it looked as though the two old men were about to tear each other apart right there. The tension on Konoha's side tightened until it could barely hold.
Then Orochimaru smiled and destroyed them both with a few lazy sentences.
"I defected because of human experimentation," he said mildly. "Sarutobi-sensei had a chance to kill me then. He let me go."
The entire village seemed to freeze. Human experimentation? That single phrase was enough to yank countless old fears back into the light. People who had vanished without explanation. Children who had disappeared. Whispers no one had dared say too loudly.
But before Hiruzen could begin his excuses, before the Konoha crowd could recover enough to accuse or deny, Orochimaru added one last line.
"The test subjects were provided by Danzo."
That hit even harder.
The other great villages stared in stunned silence for half a second, and then the pieces clicked neatly into place. Of course it had been Danzo. The so-called Darkness of Konoha was exactly the kind of man who would make such filth sound like necessity.
Tobirama's patience finally snapped. "Enough. Orochimaru's crimes can wait. Monkey. Danzo. Give me an explanation."
Even Hashirama's expression turned grave. "This crosses a line," the First Hokage said. "Both of you know that."
Onoki gave a cold little laugh. "I don't believe for a second that the Third Hokage knew nothing."
Danzo immediately twisted the blade elsewhere. "Exactly! He knew! After he let Orochimaru go, he even kept most of the research data!"
Madara cut in at last, visibly annoyed. "Enough. I'm sick of hearing about this rotten village."
Izuna was no gentler. "He's right. And don't act so lofty, Senju Tobirama. Don't tell me you're above this sort of thing."
Tobirama's reply came sharp and immediate. "I used the enemy. I did not stoop to disgusting schemes against a child who knew nothing—let alone the son of a hero who died protecting Konoha."
With the First and Second Hokage both openly condemning the matter, the atmosphere inside the chat room shifted. The awe many Konoha shinobi had always felt toward Hiruzen and Danzo cracked. More voices joined in. More people questioned them. Even Minato's earlier doubt seemed to hang silently in the air, making it easier for everyone else to speak.
The chat room was eventually muted, but reality was not. In the arena stands, questions and whispers continued in a low, poisonous buzz. Hiruzen's face was so grim it seemed carved from stone. Beside him, Orochimaru laughed without restraint.
He laughed so hard tears gathered in the corners of his eyes.
The black-bordered screen did not wait for any of them.
A sharp, whistling sound tore through the air. Naruto sensed the danger instantly. But sensing and moving were not the same thing, and his battered body could not keep pace with what his mind had already seen.
This time, the attack was a kunai.
Hatred flared through him so fiercely it almost burned. If he lived through this, he swore he would return every bit of pain to the people who had given it to him.
Then, just as despair was about to close over him, a masked shinobi appeared in a blur and blocked the blade.
Naruto froze for half a beat. The next second, understanding crashed into him. That feeling—he had sensed it earlier in the crowd. The same unnatural presence. The same malice wrapped in control.
These bastards...
Before he could think further, another masked ninja dropped down in front of him. Naruto didn't even need to look properly to know what kind of person this one was. The malice pouring off him was almost no different from the mob's.
Then the ANBU agent seized his arm.
Pain shot through Naruto so violently that he hissed. "Let go of me!" he snarled. The shinobi ignored him and dragged him away with all the gentleness one might use on a sack of trash.
Once they were clear of the crowd, Naruto stopped struggling like prey and started fighting like a feral animal. He couldn't pry the hand off, so he lowered his head and bit down as hard as he could on the man's wrist.
As was well known, shinobi often had frightening offense and mediocre defense. The ANBU flinched hard enough to release him on instinct.
"Not good—!" the masked man cursed, already preparing to grab him again.
But Naruto didn't run.
He stood where he was, rubbing his abused arm, glaring like a wounded cub that had finally learned where to sink its teeth. Then he spat to the side and said through clenched teeth, "I can walk by myself."
His tone was terrible, naturally. He strode past the ANBU shinobi without waiting for permission, wiping at the filth on his face.
By then, blood and egg yolk had mixed together on his skin. He had rolled on the dirt-covered ground several times while trying to protect himself, and his whole body felt sticky, grimy, and miserable. Naruto wanted to scrub it all off. But for now, all he could do was endure it.
Still, his thoughts remained painfully clear. If these people had truly wanted to kill me, he realized, they would have done it already. I wouldn't have had any way to resist.
That conclusion had barely formed when another cold voice cut through the air.
The tardy ANBU operative finally announced the Third Hokage's decree to the villagers of Konoha. "The Third Hokage has issued an order! No one is to mention the words 'demon fox,' or similar terms, in front of Naruto Uzumaki! No one is to attack Naruto Uzumaki! All discussion related to Naruto Uzumaki is forbidden!"
Naruto's small brows drew together tightly.
Third Hokage?
He turned the unfamiliar title over in his mind. Then his gaze swept once across the street, the masked shinobi, the retreating crowd, and the hate that had not vanished even after the order was given.
In that instant, one simple, cutting thought took shape in his heart.
So the leader of this whole pack of bastards... is the Third?