Very well, before continuing with any other story (especially Heir and King of Heroes, where—please—stop commenting songs. It's not even annoying or uncomfortable, just weird), I've decided that this story—which is legally finished—just needs to be updated to match my real writing style (and no, I don't use AI, except for translating, you idiot I had to ban for posting that five times in a row). Anyway, let's get to the next chapter.
Oh, and one more thing for the guy who said he doesn't want to see Minato and Kushina suffer. That's not going to happen for one very simple reason: Naruto exists. And Naruto is spiteful and vengeful to the extreme. The mere fact that they're still alive and happy is, literally, a constant spit in his face, because they fucking abandoned him to suffer like a mangy dog for fifteen years. And even if not, they're still believers in the Will of Fire and are literally indoctrinated into "Konoha above all"—and that's not something I made up, it's literally the doctrine of the Will of Fire.
Chapter 5: "Unhealed Wounds"
—Two days later—
The streets of the capital of the Land of Snow were, to put it simply, packed with shinobi from all nations—more so than in previous years when a tournament like this had been held. However, most of them weren't entirely happy with the new rule that had been implemented this time around. In fact, some had even protested quite vocally about the unfairness they felt at that moment.
It was true that most of the rules remained mostly unchanged, and a few had even been modified, such as the ban on weapons and jutsu which had been standard in past events. Apparently, the Empire wanted its fighters to go all out and felt it was unfair that the shinobi couldn't fight with the same freedom. But there was one rule in particular that really upset them: the number of participants who would actually have a real chance of winning the grand prize.
In previous years, the total number of fighters had always been exactly thirty-two, which allowed more than two representatives per village. However, this time the number was drastically reduced to only sixteen spots, as the other sixteen were granted to the Empire without any of their fighters having to compete in preliminaries like the shinobi villages were doing... which they felt was blatant favoritism toward a guest nation.
Fortunately, that was the only rule that had been changed. Of course, there had been rumors of an age restriction between fifteen and twenty-seven years, but thankfully Koyuki herself had dismissed that as an unpleasant rumor, since aside from one Imperial fighter who was only twenty-five, the rest were over forty—some much more than that—so the outrage didn't grow as much as it might have if the rule had been real.
And although some members of the younger generation were genuinely talented—Maru Sarutobi and Sasuke Uchiha from Konoha, or Darui from Kumo—the real heavy hitters were from the previous generation. Once again, in Konoha for example, there was Maito Gai, Kushina, and Kakashi, as well as Minato himself, who actually chose to stay out of the tournament since it was something all the Kage had agreed upon... even if Ay wasn't too happy about the decision to exclude the current Kage.
Of course, some members of the younger generation still had a real chance to participate in the tournament. After all, although hated in Konoha as he was right now, the Black Lion of the Leaf—title Sasuke hated, by the way—was the strongest of his generation and had surpassed Kakashi a good couple of years ago.
Neji was another solid contender from the younger generation, of course. Though not at the level of Naruto's adoptive brother, his taijutsu skills were frankly unmatched—even his self-proclaimed eternal rival admitted he had caught up.
And speaking of that self-proclaimed rival, the truth was that Lee didn't make it in not only because his bones never regained their former strength after being shattered by Gaara, but because everyone has a limit—and Lee's had been reduced for more than obvious reasons. Even so, despite all his limitations, the truth was he was still very strong.
As for Maru Sarutobi, formerly known as Konohamaru Sarutobi, he had become a truly strong Jounin at the young age of twenty, thanks to his mother's support. After the loss of the person he considered an older brother, he legally changed his name, removing the "Konoha" part and leaving it simply as Maru.
Even so, the possibility of Konoha winning was rather slim, considering there were only sixteen available spots, and even if they managed to secure two of them, the odds of emerging victorious were, at best, two out of thirty-two.
"It doesn't matter, Konoha will still win," Mito exclaimed, her voice full of enthusiasm and determination even after learning about the low chances of victory… She knew, of course, that she wouldn't actually participate. She was strong—there was no doubt about that—but she had never been able to beat her older brothers, much less her mother or Kakashi… which completely ruled out the possibility of defeating Sasuke.
But putting that aside, the truth was that winning could help restore a bit of the Namikaze family's reputation in Konoha, especially among Naruto's friends, and those friends did not hold a good opinion of the Namikaze family—in fact, quite the opposite… relations were tense at best, and downright hostile at worst.
A clear example was Menma, the youngest of the triplets, and his resentment was more than well-earned, at least from the group's perspective. He was basically glued to Hinata, constantly asking her out, and of course, the Hyūga heiress had rejected him so many times that most people had lost count. Menma had tried relentlessly to get close to Hinata.
So much so that Sasuke once even compared the idiot to a blonde, even dumber version of Sakura, who still kept trying to court him… and although Sasuke wasn't exactly popular with the rest of the Konoha Twelve, some had to admit he had a point there.
And things actually got worse when Hinata, fed up with his constant advances, used the most recent promotion exams to unleash all the rage she'd been holding in—not just against the little moron, but against Konoha, against herself for being a coward, and for many other reasons. As a result, she ended up turning the so-called Namikaze prodigy into a bloody, barely recognizable pulp.
And to Menma's misfortune, since it had happened during a promotion exam where he'd signed a liability waiver, there wasn't much they could do to punish Hinata—other than deny her promotion, at least until Hiashi reminded them that things could turn out far worse if she wasn't promoted in this round.
And as if that weren't enough, Neji ended up redeeming himself for his loss against Naruto… well, maybe not entirely, but it was definitely a satisfying fight—at least for the young Hyūga. In the same exam where his cousin had faced Menma, he had fought against Shio, another clingy annoyance—except she was in love with Neji… and he didn't even know why. After all, they had exchanged maybe two words total in all their encounters, and none of them had been particularly kind. Not to mention that Neji couldn't stand being in the same room with any member of the Namikaze family for more than five minutes without wanting to stab them in the eyes.
Even if that weren't the case, Neji had his uncle's blessing to date his teammate, Tenten, whom he'd been in love with for quite some time.
Back to Hinata, the day she beat Menma within an inch of his life, just a second later she looked directly at the Kage box—just like a certain black-haired, bright-eyed boy had done in the past—with a look that said more than a thousand words. "Is this the one you left him for?" A look that, once it landed directly on Minato and Kushina, neither of them could return.
Because Menma, as even those who supported their side had said, was nothing more than a shadow of his brother. He could dye his hair black and pour as much chakra into his eyes as he wanted to look more like his brother, and he still wouldn't be even a tenth of what his older brother had once been.
Naruto was an Uchiha by upbringing, which made him naturally distant—no one denied that—but as long as you didn't bother him, he was polite. Menma, on the other hand, was always arrogant. Naruto would help you if you truly needed it, even if he didn't like you. Menma was smug and pretty cowardly if things didn't go exactly the way he wanted them to.
Naruto was tenacious, brave, and despite everything, he never backed down—even when completely outmatched—always seeing death as just another obstacle that wouldn't defeat him. In his own words, even if all his bones were broken, as long as his heart was still beating, he wouldn't stop fighting.
Menma didn't even have a hundredth of that strength or courage. He had the tendency to give up if things weren't 100% in his favor.
And the facts spoke for themselves. While Naruto wouldn't have stopped fighting until he physically couldn't go on, all it took was for Hinata to hit Menma in the balls once for all his bravado and arrogance to vanish. As a result, he stopped defending himself and received the full, unrestrained fury of the scorned Hyūga heiress.
Which was especially sad if you considered that during his fight against Neji—a true prodigy compared to Hinata's barely competent use of the Hyūga clan's Taijutsu—Naruto had not only endured the best strikes of the Gentle Fist style but had also managed to overcome them and win through sheer willpower, stubbornness, and to be honest… way more endurance than most Jounin had.
And it only got worse when you considered that in that fight Naruto had nothing but raw physical strength and a street-style, unrefined technique, while Menma had not only a much more varied arsenal of techniques but also all of Minato and Kushina's knowledge about his opponent's fighting style.
On the bright side, after that battle, Menma finally decided to stop trying to flirt with Hinata, who had vented every ounce of frustration and anger she had during that fight… of course, this was a good outcome for Hinata—not so much for Menma. In fact, it had been one of the worst experiences for the youngest of the Namikaze triplets.
A very bad moment that only worsened a year and a half later, when chakra and blood sample experiments revealed that, of the triplets, Naruto was the one who had actually had the real potential to control the Kyūbi. It was true that Naruto's chakra was very different from anything seen before, but that same chakra made his body far more resistant, and because of that, his body was the most prepared to withstand the immense power of the beast.
His siblings, on the other hand… they didn't have Naruto's genetic lottery luck. They were hybrids—it was true that the Uzumaki bloodline was powerful, but when only half your genes came from that clan and the other half from a civilian, the chances of inheriting the special gene that allowed for Biju-controlling chakra were pretty low. As a result, they couldn't access the fox's power without it overwhelming their wills and taking control of their bodies.
Sasuke had been very vocal when he found out, telling them they had abandoned their brother for nothing. Because of that, the Uchiha—and a good number of Naruto's friends—followed the village's own policy of "blame the innocent one who has nothing to do with it." Menma had become the new scapegoat for the pro-Naruto faction… mainly Hinata, who used him as a punching bag whenever she needed to vent her rage.
Shio hadn't fared much better, to be honest, because again, Neji was superior to Hinata in every combat-related aspect, and as a result, the girl had even worse luck than Menma when she faced Neji during the chunin exams. And the less said about the embarrassing defeats Mito and Hashirama—the youngest Namikaze siblings—suffered at the hands of Udon and Hanabi, the better… after all, Hashirama still had nightmares about those white eyes.
The point was that with every defeat, the Namikaze family slowly began to realize they had bet on the wrong horse. After all, while Naruto wasn't undefeated—not by a long shot—he always fought until his last breath, always affirming that turning back meant betraying everything he had sworn about always moving forward and only looking back to gain momentum.
Of course, the Namikaze weren't the only ones who had severed ties or had more than earned the disdain of the Konoha Twelve—or at least a good portion of them. After all, the relationship between Lee, Neji, and Tenten had practically fractured beyond repair. No matter how many times Gai had tried to mend things between his team members… in reality, each attempt only seemed to make things worse, so he had stopped trying years ago.
It was a situation that repeated itself with Teams Eight and Ten, since Kiba and Ino received the same treatment from Hinata, Shino, Chōji, and Shikamaru. Only, in that case, it was a little worse, as their sensei were just as stained in the eyes of the younger generation as their students were.
Sasuke was a… well, no one was really sure how to deal with him. As a general rule, he was a complete asshole to anyone from Konoha who wasn't named Teuchi or Ayame. But since he didn't bother anyone else, most of the Konoha Twelve treated him with neutrality.
Sakura… well, she was simply a lost cause, so the less said about her, the better.
"Brave words coming from a loser," Maru commented, finally pulling her out of her thoughts with a cold, sarcastic remark. After all, she wasn't even going to try to win because she knew she couldn't beat some members of her own village.
"Konohamaru, that's no way to talk to the Hokage's daughter," Asuma reprimanded him, trying—and failing miserably—to sound firm with his nephew.
"You didn't bite your tongue, Uncle Asuma," Maru shot back with evident venom in his voice, sarcasm dripping from every syllable, his coldest glare fixed on his uncle.
After all, it was well known—after many, truly many inquiries by Minato—that, ironically enough, Sasuke had done less damage to his brother's body in the Valley of the End fight than Asuma had inflicted on him when he was only six years old.
"And besides, unlike others, what I say is the absolute truth. She won't fight because she knows she can't beat anyone from the village, and she's scared to face fighters from other villages who won't show her the slightest mercy like we're forced to." Every word was a dagger to Mito's heart, as she knew Maru was right. Her father really did force everyone to hold back when sparring with them—at least after they were beaten to a pulp for the tenth time.
And, of course, no one really tried to argue with that logic—or rather, no one wanted to—since every time they did, things escalated horribly, and they couldn't afford to show any more cracks in the village's unity than were already blatantly visible.
So they simply continued with the registration process in as much silence as possible, and when they finished signing up, the group went looking for somewhere to stay—or at least somewhere that would let them stay. They didn't have much luck due to the bad blood many held toward them. But in the end, they found a run-down inn at a steep overprice… still, it was better than sleeping out in the open in the bitter winter of the Land of Spring.
End of the chapter.