Naruto: Passerby and Returnee

Chapter 86 End and Beginning

There was no sun this morning.

The alarm clock rang at the other end of the room. The caterpillar on the bed rolled around a few times, and after struggling to turn off the noisy ringing, it forced itself to open its eyes.

Ah, he remembered, he couldn't be late today.

Forced to stay up all night, Naruto plunged his head into cold water to force himself to wake up. While pressing his temples, he took out the food he had prepared the night before and heated it up. While he was heating the food, Sasuke opened the door and came in. The two children, dressed in black, silently finished their breakfast, soaked their bowls and chopsticks in the sink, and then left.

The sky was overcast and gray, and the air was thick with a stifling dampness. Everyone on the street looked solemn and spontaneously gathered in one place.

After every major battle, Konoha organizes a mass funeral, where people lay white flowers before the heroes are buried, both as a way of remembering and inspiring them. They will not forget the heroes who died for Konoha, and their sacrifice inspires future generations to protect Konoha with even greater determination.

But only a few heroes are remembered in history; many more die silently in the shadows, becoming wandering, lonely souls.

Even with Hui's covert intervention, Konoha still paid the price for this invasion. Naruto looked up and met the gaze of the kind old man in the center of the room, and after a long while, he slowly closed his eyes.

This is the consequence of his promise, and he must bear it.

Post-war debriefings weren't just held in Konoha; Hidden Leaf Village held them too. Naruto listened to both debriefings yesterday, and of course, he clearly heard the reason for the Third Hokage's death. Even without the First and Second Hokage, Orochimaru still used the Kage from other Kage villages to force the Third Hokage to choose a suicidal strategy.

Orochimaru was defeated and fled, losing both hands and then being brutally beaten by Jiraiya. He even lost two of his four henchmen before managing to escape. The Sound Ninja, who were attacking from three sides, suffered heavy losses.

It can be said that Orochimaru lost completely, and the Konoha leadership felt that exchanging one Hokage for four Kage-level opponents was a fitting end. On one hand, they couldn't wait to start planning how to divide the power left by the Hokage vacancy, and on the other hand, they felt that the village couldn't be without a leader for a day. The three old guys played a game of cat and mouse, and finally set their sights on the Sannin who had been away from the village for more than ten years.

At this stage, Konoha truly has no one more suitable than the Legendary Sannin.

Unable to see Hiruzen or ask about the true situation of Konoha over the years, Hashirama scratched his head in frustration. "We really need to find a way to lift the Reaper Death Seal as soon as possible."

"It's too late to undo it now. If we undo it here, Orochimaru will immediately notice." Tobirama hadn't figured out how to face his disciple yet, so he wasn't in a hurry at all and immediately poured a bucket of cold water on him.

“Then let’s take him under control. I’m good at brainwashing him.” Izuna didn’t think this was a problem.

Fugaku silently broke out in a cold sweat. He knew all too well how troublesome that snake was. Was his ancestor being too overconfident?

"In short, Konoha nominated Tsunade as Hokage, but at the same time, they are also dividing up the political legacy of the Third Hokage." Naruto's clone, acting as a messenger, succinctly summarized the blame-shifting meeting held by Konoha.

"Heh." The long silence was broken by a cold laugh. Izuna's gaze was extremely cold as he said, "It's about time to accept reality, Hokage-sama? The system of decentralization you created is destined to breed this kind of cancerous tumor that will stop at nothing for power. The so-called 'roots' who protect Konoha, what have they done this time besides leaking Konoha's information? They couldn't even be bothered to send a few people out to make a show of it."

Naruto, who knew Root fairly well and had been deeply troubled by it, spoke up about the dangerous topic that was about to unfold, "The overly extreme talent cultivation has destined this organization to be extreme and exclusive. Most of the people in Root are trained from a young age and are relatively loyal to Danzo. Killing them all at once would only backfire and cause these original talents to get out of control. If we don't want too many people to die, we must find a suitable reason or use the hands of outsiders."

Sasuke was targeted by the remnants of Root in the same way, and some even amplified their hatred and transferred it to Konoha, secretly lurking for over a decade, and even forcibly instilling their hatred into the next generation. Therefore, Naruto knew that Root had to be dealt with properly.

"Now is not the best time. If Konoha is thrown into turmoil again, the neighboring countries will become restless. The priority now should be maintaining stability. Perhaps we should think carefully about the second phase of the Fire Seed Project."

The tense atmosphere eased somewhat, and before they knew it, dawn had broken. The situation in Konoha was similar, but in order to prepare for the funeral, they ended their meeting a few hours earlier, giving Naruto a little time to sleep; otherwise, he definitely wouldn't have woken up.

But the funeral didn't mean the end. Naruto comforted Konohamaru, who was crying his eyes out, and was just about to continue counseling Sasuke when Konoha came along and gave him a hard time.

Jiraiya arrived with a letter of commendation and a mission scroll, even faster than expected, which surprised Naruto.

"This is to commend Naruto for making the most correct judgment without orders, and for stopping the enemy's summoning beasts from attacking from two directions. Without you, Konoha's losses would have been even more severe." Jiraiya was a reliable adult who rarely showed negative emotions when facing children; even when he was sad, he would hide it well. Moreover, he was actually very good at taking care of children, and even the disciples he trained who went to extremes were among the best ninjas.

He didn't show favoritism; he praised Sasuke to the skies.

"Sasuke, you did a great job too. I heard you helped cut off the Sound Ninja's retreat route and saved quite a few people. Congratulations in advance, you'll be promoted to Chunin soon! Only three people will be promoted to Chunin this year."

Sasuke still couldn't get used to Naruto's overly familiar personality. He silently moved behind Naruto and glanced at the mission scroll in Naruto's hand, which immediately put him in a bad mood.

Why would they need to find Naruto for a mission as dangerous as "following Captain Jiraiya to find the Fifth Hokage"?

"...Can I bring one more person?"

"Huh?" Jiraiya paused for a moment, then instantly understood when he saw the two pairs of sparkling eyes. A strong sense of déjà vu returned, but after so many days, Jiraiya hadn't noticed anything unusual or out of line in the two children's interactions.

Sure enough, this is just the filthy, delusional thinking of adults.

Jiraiya's playful side resurfaced, and he also wanted to see just how much Sasuke cared about Naruto, so he deliberately said, "No way~ This is a secret mission, Sasuke is too conspicuous~"

Doesn't Naruto's golden hair catch the eye?!

Sasuke glared at him angrily, hesitated for a long time, and then awkwardly said, "I can choose not to wear clothes with the Uchiha clan crest."

"Pfft..." Naruto couldn't help but burst out laughing first.

What are you laughing at?!

"If it were a real secret mission, you wouldn't have seen it, hahaha~"

"...Damn it, stop laughing!"