BlackStar_BH:
More Power Stones and comments, guys!
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[—
"He selected a newborn child, the umbilical cord freshly cut, and bound up all nine tails of the fox within the infant's navel."
The Third Hokage spoke of that fateful day twelve years ago.
In the background, the newborn Naruto cried as a strange seal appeared on his belly. Blood stained his small body, apparently not his own.
"Naruto was sacrificed, for the safety of us all, to become a living vessel for the imprisonment of the fox."
"But that is not the way the adults who chose to see it…"
It seemed the Third Hokage was expressing his frustration about this matter to Iruka.
"Instead, their treatment of the boy is so contemptuous and hostile—It has been picked up on by children who have no idea of the truth… picked up on and perpetrated!"
The Third Hokage frowned as he realized this.
"Iruka… Can you imagine…?" he asked.
"Imagine what?"
"How it must feel… So much hatred and hostility… To be treated with an animosity so intense as to be annihilating… to have around you many who would deny you even the right to exist…"
Iruka froze at those words.
Elsewhere, Ebisu had already found both Naruto and Konohamaru.
"There you are!"
"Feh…" 'Damned fox… Naruto!'
Ebisu glared at Naruto with pure hatred.
'That look! The same ugly look, from yet another person! There's always someone!'
Naruto stepped back; another person harbored resentment toward him.
—]
…
At that moment, a heavy silence filled the art store. One could almost hear a needle drop.
It was not a bored silence, but the silence that arises when words feel meaningless. The manga page carried words far too heavy, and even the children had fallen silent unusually.
The page open before them was simple in its art, yet violent in its content.
A newborn…
A freshly cut umbilical cord…
And a black seal closing over his belly, while blood not his own stained his small body.
The background accompanying the Third Hokage's words about the newborn Naruto depicted that catastrophic day… everything remained shrouded in mystery, yet the manga suggested the effects of that fateful day still rippled in the current events.
Hiruzen felt as if the words spoken by his manga counterpart were not fiction, but a confession.
A sincere confession, wrapped in the inability to change anything: "I wonder what you were doing for the past twelve years…? Shouldn't your role have been to change what troubled you?"
Hiruzen could feel the honesty of his counterpart as he expressed his dissatisfaction with the hatred the villagers directed toward Naruto, who had truly played no role in what had happened. In fact, he became the next vessel of the Kyuubi and saved the village from disaster.
He himself knew the difficulty of finding a suitable host for a Bijuu! And in such a critical moment, when the Kyuubi was raging in Konoha, finding Naruto was truly a blessing that deserved lifelong gratitude.
"So what actually happened to make Naruto the hated child, one whom no one wished to see alive?! This is absurd…"
…
Kushina trembled at the sight. A newborn Naruto covered in blood… and yet, somehow, she felt she had been there. Yes, at this moment, a thought buzzed in her mind, forcing itself upon her consciousness.
'I must have been there… next to the newborn Naruto… somehow breaking the Kyuubi's seal and separating it from my body… and then Naruto came and took on the responsibility after me…'
'How could the seal be broken… There are two ways to break the seal: either voluntarily by me, or when the seal weakens… And how does it weaken? Through childbirth…'
As this thought hit Kushina's mind, her body trembled more and more.
Before transferring the Kyuubi seal to her, Grandma Mito had told her everything: about the seal, the risks involved, and the ways it could be weakened. But she emphasized that pregnancy—specifically childbirth—was the only way to reduce the seal to its lowest strength, and without proper protection, catastrophe could occur.
Since Kushina knew all this, in that moment, she felt that Naruto could truly be… her son.
Without realizing it, tears fell from Kushina's eyes as she silently wept.
Witnessing this, Minato could do nothing but comfort her quietly.
He did not know the thoughts storming through her mind or what caused this emotional whirlwind, but he felt her sincere empathy for Naruto.
Even he, normally stoic, was genuinely affected by Naruto's tragic background.
…
This time, Jiraiya did not laugh. For the first time since he began reading, he looked at the page differently.
"A newborn child, who upon entering this world became the Jinchūriki of the Kyuubi against his will, and instead of being loved for this sacrifice, he becomes hated…? Do the villagers of Konoha eat garbage instead of healthy food?!"
Jiraiya felt anger—true, searing anger—toward the people of his village.
"Do they want to create the ultimate villain!?"
This was Jiraiya's perspective.
No matter how pure a person's nature, the stupidity of the crowd could turn it black as the abyss… Such cruel treatment of Konoha's true hero was completely unjustified, making the villagers appear like villains themselves, unworthy of life.
It was not only Jiraiya who felt this… After seeing the truth on the manga page and hearing the old Hokage's explanation, most readers reacted like Iruka in the manga: shock… and speechless helplessness.
…
Danzo gazed deeply at the manga scene and smiled faintly.
"Necessary," he described internally.
He completely ignored the words of hatred and isolation. The results… were what mattered. One child… versus an entire village. A worthwhile trade, wasn't it?
But…
When he saw Naruto step back before Ebisu's gaze,
when he saw the fear… turning into anger in his eyes… eyes like those of a fox who would not retreat when cornered, and would surely take revenge…
His smile shrank for a moment.
"That look…"
That demonic gaze, that unbroken determination, did not make the villagers' hatred of him foster calm and loyalty, creating the perfect tool for the village. Instead, it planted a seed of rebellion… and that was what Danzo hated most.
From Danzo's perspective, Naruto should remain humble and loyal to the village no matter what. After all, the village still embraced him, no one had truly harmed him, and a few cold glances didn't matter as long as he lived well and thrived, right?
…
Meanwhile, Rob stood behind the bar counter, hands busy mixing drinks, but his eyes quietly observed everything.
He watched them all.
He said nothing.
He laughed not.
This time, he did not think of the coins.
He simply looked at the page in the manga and then at the readers' faces.
"Ah, now you understand a little of the truth…" he thought calmly.
Naruto was not born a demonic fox; he was an ordinary child, like any other in the world. Due to an incident in which he was not directly responsible, the Kyuubi was placed inside him, and he became the vessel.
Somewhere between the silence and the heavy breaths, the second Naruto manga chapter accomplished what politics, decisions, and slogans could not…
It forced everyone…
to look directly at the truth, nothing but the truth.
No one imagined that what they were witnessing was a truth from a near future.
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Upcoming chapter titles (spoilers):
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Chapter 30: The True Shinobi!
Chapter 31: An Unexpected Kiss!
Chapter 32: The Formation of Team Seven — Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke!
Chapter 33: The Appearance of Hatake Kakashi!
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BlackStar_BH:
The chapters currently available on Patreon are up to Chapter 43.
There are 14 advanced chapters available now:
5 chapters in the Silver tier ($5 subscription), 5 more chapters in the Gold tier ($10 subscription), and 4 more chapters in the Platinum tier ($15 subscription).
On Patreon and Ko-fi, too.
In the coming days, chapters will be made available for all tiers, reaching up to 50 advanced chapters… Enjoy!