Chapter 209: Treatment Of A Hero’s Son
In Konohagakure, inside Menma’s two-story house, Menma and Kushina quietly appeared.
Menma was wearing that iconic black sportswear, his hedgehog-like black short hair looking spirited and neat.
He glanced around his training room.
“Mom, disguise yourself a bit.” Menma pointed at Kushina’s ashen face and conspicuous red hair.
Kushina nodded, her hands forming hand seals.
After a chakra fluctuation, her red hair turned into an inconspicuous dark brown, the fine black cracks on her face were somewhat concealed, and her skin tone was adjusted to resemble that of an ordinary woman, though those gray eyes couldn’t be completely eliminated, giving her a slightly fatigued and weathered look.
Wearing a plain dark green cotton jacket, she looked just like an ordinary woman with a haggard face and a sickly complexion.
Pushing open the door, Konoha’s winter cold wind immediately brought the street’s clamor rushing in.
It wasn’t mealtime or a weekend, and the servants at home had finished work and gone home.
Konoha hadn’t snowed yet, and though the sunlight was bright, it held no warmth.
The two walked on Konoha’s streets, with Kushina curiously scrutinizing Konoha.
There were quite a few pedestrians on the street, bundled in thick winter clothes, hurrying along.
Konoha’s streets after reconstruction seemed a bit wider than in Kushina’s memory, the shops had updated signs, but that familiar everyday vibe and the unique tension of a ninja village remained.
Menma naturally walked half a step beside Kushina, like a boy accompanying his mother out.
His voice wasn’t loud, but it clearly reached Kushina’s ears: “After the Nine-Tails Attack, many surviving ninjas claimed to have seen Sharingan patterns in the Nine-Tails’ uncontrollable eyes.”
Menma’s gaze swept over the Konoha Military Police Force members patrolling on both sides of the street; the Uchiha clan fan marking was clearly visible on their uniform armbands.
“This rumor spread through the village like wildfire. At the time, Shimura Danzō, who was commanding Root’s operations, strongly prevented the Uchiha Clan from participating in the frontal suppression of the Nine-Tails under the pretext of ‘maintaining order and preventing Uchiha power from controlling the Nine-Tails,’ allowing them only to handle evacuating and relocating villagers.”
Kushina’s steps paused slightly, her pupils contracting behind her sunglasses.
“The result…” Menma’s voice carried a hint of cold mockery: “In the villagers’ eyes, Sharingan appeared in the Nine-Tails’ eyes, and the Uchiha Clan ‘happened’ not to be on the most brutal battlefield… The seeds of suspicion and resentment were sown just like that. Over these years, the rumors have never subsided.”
He raised his hand pointing toward a more peripheral area of the village: “Now the Uchiha Clan Territory has been relocated to the most remote corner of the village. The Konoha Military Police Force’s conflicts with the villagers have grown increasingly intense, and the current Uchiha Clan is nearly isolated in Konoha.”
His gaze swept over an alley entrance, where two men dressed in ordinary villager clothes but with sharp eyes and cold auras stood silently watching the street, their gazes lingering especially on the patrolling Uchiha Military Police members—clearly Root’s informants.
Kushina listened silently, her hands quietly clenching inside her cotton jacket sleeves.
The Konoha in her memory, though not without friction, had largely been harmonious, but now it seemed covered in an invisible rift.
The two continued along the street.
Turning a street corner, the massive Hokage Rock suddenly came into view.
The First Hokage, the Second Hokage, the Third Hokage…
Beside the Third Hokage, that young stone statue, Minato Namikaze, was overlooking the entire Konoha.
Kushina’s steps halted abruptly.
She tilted her head up, staring fixedly at Minato’s statue.
The morning light outlined the statue’s handsome contours, that familiar face as if transcending life and death.
The reanimated body felt no heartbeat, but that bone-deep longing and pain gripped her soul.
Her ashen face showed little expression under the disguise, but her body trembled slightly, the hem of her dark green cotton jacket swaying gently in the cold wind.
Menma didn’t urge her, just quietly stood by her side.
At that moment, Menma’s gaze passed over the crowd and landed on the opposite side of the street: “He’s here.”
Kushina came back to herself and eagerly looked in the direction Menma indicated.
She saw a small, thin figure walking alone on the sidewalk by the street.
The glaring golden-yellow hair was like a stubborn little flame burning, especially striking in the drab winter scene.
He wore an old orange jacket, a red scarf around his neck, his small face frozen somewhat red, hands in his pockets, head down, kicking at small pebbles by the roadside.
His lonely shadow was stretched long by the winter sun.
It was Naruto!
Her child!
Kushina almost couldn’t control herself from rushing over!
However, just as her steps shifted slightly to get closer to Naruto, the surrounding pedestrians’ whispers drilled into her ears.
“Tch, that demon fox is out again…” An auntie carrying a vegetable basket frowned, pulling her companion to deliberately veer a few steps away, her voice not loud but clearly drifting over.
“Lord Third Hokage is too soft-hearted; a disaster star like that should be driven out of the village!”
“Exactly! Who knows when he’ll go berserk again? Lord Fourth Hokage might have been killed by his jinx…”
“Stay away, stay away, what bad luck!”
Those whispers filled with malice and fear were like poison-quenched needles, stabbing densely into Kushina’s heart!
She froze in place, incredulously looking at these villagers she and Minato had desperately protected.
As Naruto passed by, the surrounding villagers scattered like avoiding the plague, quickening their steps to widen the distance, their gazes filled with undisguised disgust and fear.
Naruto seemed long accustomed to all this.
He kept his head down, kicking stones, but those small shoulders seemed to hunch even tighter.
At this point, Naruto stopped in front of a small stall selling steaming oden and roasted sweet potatoes.
The enticing aroma wafted in the cold wind.
He lifted his small face, blue eyes longingly fixed on the rolling fish balls in the pot and the fragrant sweet potatoes on the grill, his small hand subconsciously touching his empty pocket.
“Hey! Kid!” The burly stall boss immediately scowled, waving his tongs like shooing a fly, his voice rough and full of disgust.
“What are you looking at! No money? Get lost! Don’t block my business, you jinx!”
Naruto flinched at the sudden scolding.
He jerked his head down like a startled little animal, quickly turning and running away, his small figure swiftly vanishing into the crowd at the street corner, leaving only a panicked back.
“Naruto…” Kushina subconsciously reached out, but grasped only a handful of cold air.
She stood rigid in place, her reanimated body trembling violently, her ashen face under the disguise seeming even paler.
In those gray eyes, no real tears could flow, but around the eye sockets, fine gray-white paper flakes began to silently, rustlingly drift down!
Like shattered teardrops, swirling in the cold wind, quietly landing.
Menma silently stood by her side, reaching out to gently press Kushina’s shoulder, which trembled from extreme anger and heartbreak.
He could feel the Nine-Tails Chakra surging under that cold shell, nearly breaking free of its restraints.
The two silently followed in the direction Naruto had disappeared, keeping their distance.
Kushina’s steps were as heavy as if filled with lead.
She personally witnessed the various malice directed at Naruto.
The grocery store boss slammed the shutter down with a “bang” when Naruto approached the display window.
Several children in thick cotton jackets, being led by their parents, ran off quickly under their parents’ stern glares and pulls; one slightly older boy even turned back to make a face and shouted “Monster!”
A ninja wearing a chunin vest, hurrying along, clearly frowned upon seeing Naruto approaching from the front, subtly shifting his steps to open at least a three-meter distance, his eyes filled with cold scrutiny and alienation.
An invisible wall built of fear, hatred, and rumors completely isolated that small, golden-yellow figure from the crowd, from warmth and kindness.
“Why…” Kushina’s voice carried suppressed-to-the-extreme grief and bewilderment; she suddenly grabbed Menma’s arm, her fingertips digging so hard they nearly embedded into his clothes.
“Where is Lord Third Hokage?! What about Kakashi?! What about Lord Jiraiya? What about Minato’s subordinates?! Why… why is no one taking care of him?! Why has no one stepped forward… to stop these vicious rumors?! Just letting Naruto… all alone… grow up in a place like this?!”
She was like an injured lioness, letting out a mournful cry to protect her cub.
Menma held Kushina’s hand, his deep blue eyes looking toward the Hokage Rock, his voice low: “Lord Third Hokage gave Naruto an apartment and sends him living expenses every month.”
Menma’s gaze swept over the two faintly visible Root informants in the street corner shadows: “But certain people are fanning the flames in the dark, making the ‘demon fox’ rumors take root like a poison thorn in the villagers’ hearts. I’m not clear why Lord Third Hokage didn’t dispel them, and as for Jiraiya and Kakashi…”
Menma sighed: “Jiraiya left the village long ago, and Kakashi is immersed in his own darkness—how much energy can he spare to illuminate another child shrouded in the same darkness? Besides, they aren’t Naruto’s blood relatives; without Lord Third Hokage’s explicit assignment, whether Jiraiya or Kakashi, or even Fugaku, Mikoto, and Father’s former subordinates, approaching the ‘demon fox’ rashly would only invite more suspicion and criticism.”
Kushina listened, her body shaking even harder, those drifting paper flakes seeming more numerous.
She watched Naruto’s small figure finally disappear into the remote alley entrance leading to his cold apartment, that door shutting out all external malice—and all warmth.
“Konoha… how did it become like this…” Kushina’s voice was filled with despair and heartbreak; she looked up at Minato Namikaze’s statue on the distant Hokage Rock, feeling nothing but irony.
The village she and her husband had guarded with their lives was treating his child so cruelly.
Compared to Menma, who was taken by the mysterious masked man and trapped in an illusion world for fifteen years, but had a complete family providing him affection and warmth, allowing him to grow up smoothly.
Yet Naruto, under the Third Hokage’s care, had to endure such rumors and gossip.
Kushina couldn’t imagine how strong young Naruto had to be to survive in such a malice-filled environment!
