"Once the seal reaches the eighth tail, I'll appear inside your consciousness."
Namikaze Minato explained, "I made a small adjustment to the seal. I sincerely hoped this would never happen, because I had no desire to see you again, Nine-Tails."
Minato glanced behind him at the Nine-Tails, his expression dark.
The Nine-Tails responded with an enraged roar.
This man again.
"But I was also looking forward to meeting my son after he'd grown up. I suppose there are good and bad sides to it."
Before Minato could continue, the Nine-Tails cut him off with a furious roar.
"Fourth Hokage! Get over here so I can tear you to pieces!"
"You say you'll tear me apart, but you can't even get close to me. Isn't that right, Naruto?"
Namikaze Minato turned toward his son with a smile.
"Naruto is my name. Why does the Fourth Hokage know it?"
At that moment, Uzumaki Naruto still had no idea that the man standing before him was his father.
"Because I'm the one who gave you that name. You're my son."
Minato smiled gently.
"Your son? Me?"
Uzumaki Naruto stared at him in disbelief.
"I just told you, didn't I? You're my son," Minato said.
The moment Naruto heard those words, tears began spilling down his face.
He didn't even realize he was crying.
Watching Naruto break down, Uchiha Sasuke felt an unexpected ache in his chest.
His own life had been miserable. He had lost both his parents at a young age.
But at least he had known their love.
That Dead Last had never experienced the love of a mother or father. He hadn't even learned who his father was until he was fifteen or sixteen.
Kaede Kitahara had once asked a question in his diary.
Who was more miserable?
Sasuke, who had known love and lost it, or Uzumaki Naruto, who had never known it at all?
Sasuke thought Naruto might have suffered more.
Seeing his son's tears, Namikaze Minato moved them into a different mental space.
"The Third Hokage never told you anything, did he? I suppose he wanted to conceal everything connected to the Nine-Tails as much as possible."
Minato's expression made it very clear that he wasn't pleased.
"If people had known you were my son, countless dangers would have come after you."
"Dad!"
Uzumaki Naruto shouted.
Then he drove his fist straight into Namikaze Minato's stomach.
Everyone was caught completely off guard.
Everyone except Namikaze Minato and Seventh Hokage Naruto.
"Hahahaha! He really is my son. Like father, like son."
Namikaze Minato remembered that Naruto had punched him the same way when they first met.
"Why did you seal the Nine-Tails inside your own son? Because of you, I suffered so much! All the adults treated me coldly, and I could barely make any friends. So I kept trying. I kept working harder and harder because I wanted everyone to acknowledge me. I trained like crazy and became stronger. Then I met Umino Iruka, Kakashi-sensei, and Pervy Sage. I was happy that I was getting stronger.
"But because of that, the Akatsuki started targeting me, so I had to train even harder. I finally became strong, but my friends were hurt by the Akatsuki. And I… Huh? I… Ah, I don't even know anymore. Am I supposed to be happy or angry? I can't tell!"
Uzumaki Naruto clutched his head.
He didn't know whether he should be furious or overjoyed that he had finally met his father.
Naruto's words made more than just Namikaze Minato's eyes turn red.
Minato felt he had failed the son he would one day leave behind.
Hatake Kakashi, Tsunade, and Jiraiya felt equally bitter.
Namikaze Minato had failed to fulfill his duty as a father, but he had his reasons. He had died protecting Konoha from the Nine-Tails.
But what about them?
One had been Minato's teacher.
One had been Minato's student.
Even Tsunade had shared a good relationship with him.
Yet none of the three had taken proper care of Uzumaki Naruto. They had allowed him to grow up alone in such a cruel environment.
How could they not feel guilty?
They remembered what Kaede Kitahara had written in his diary before.
When they added everything up, he had been right.
Naruto had been rejected since childhood. He had no friends. He barely had enough food to eat.
Under those circumstances, turning into someone like Uzumaki Menma would have been the normal outcome.
Growing into such a bright and cheerful person was the part that didn't make sense.
Jiraiya also remembered the Otsutsuki Asura mentioned in Kaede Kitahara's diary.
Was Naruto's personality being influenced by Otsutsuki Asura?
The thought made everything feel wrong.
Uchiha Sasuke watched Naruto reunite with his father in the diary and felt a trace of envy.
At least the future Naruto would still have the chance to meet his father.
Sasuke knew he would never have that opportunity.
So there really were things about Naruto that he could envy.
But then Sasuke thought about everything Naruto had endured.
Had he really suffered that much?
It wasn't as though Sasuke had never seen Naruto being ostracized.
He had witnessed scattered moments here and there, but those fragments had never formed a complete picture.
Back then, revenge had consumed his thoughts. He had barely noticed anything else.
Only now did he begin to understand what it truly meant for an orphan to be rejected by everyone around him.
They were both orphans, but Uzumaki Naruto had suffered far more.
At least Sasuke carried the name of the Uchiha Clan's last survivor. No one openly rejected him.
Sasuke was lonely.
Naruto was lonely and hated.
"Naruto, how old are you?"
Namikaze Minato listened to his son's complaints with a heavy heart.
"Sixteen."
Uzumaki Naruto wiped his tears as he answered.
"I see. You're already sixteen."
Minato sighed.
"It looks like you've been through a great deal of pain, Naruto. I'm sorry."
As a father, he had no idea how to fix this.
"I made my own son suffer so much. I have no right to ask you to forgive me."
"It doesn't matter anymore. I'm the Fourth Hokage's son, after all. I can handle it!"
Uzumaki Naruto quickly accepted the change in his identity.
He had grown up as an orphan. Though he still had complaints, the happiness in his heart was impossible to hide.
Once his son had calmed down, Namikaze Minato continued.
"I sealed half of the Nine-Tails' Chakra inside you because I believed you would one day learn how to control and use its power. You're my son. I had a reason for doing it.
"Sixteen years ago, when the Nine-Tails attacked the village, I discovered something."
"A hidden mastermind was controlling the Nine-Tails and using it to attack Konoha. He was an extremely powerful shinobi. Without a special kind of power, no one could stand against him. I'm afraid they may attack the village again someday."
Everyone watching the diary already knew who that hidden mastermind was.
He was one of the members of the Akatsuki Organization.
The man who called himself Uchiha Madara, but was actually Uchiha Kenji, was also part of Akatsuki.
Namikaze Minato briefly explained what had happened back then.
He didn't go into detail, but it was enough for Uzumaki Naruto to understand many things.
Even Nagato had been used as a pawn.
"Minato believes Nagato was manipulated by that Uchiha Kenji too?"
Jiraiya paused, then sighed.
"Minato has always seen things so clearly."
As he listened to Namikaze Minato explain the shinobi system and how killing created even more hatred, Jiraiya couldn't help but feel emotional.
Minato had always been the perfect shinobi in his eyes.
His perspective was somewhat similar to Nagato's.
Both believed that many of the world's problems were born from the shinobi system itself.
Killing and hatred were both products of that system.
They weren't problems that could be solved by killing one or two people.
"But even so, I can't forgive Pain."
Uzumaki Naruto's face twisted with pain.
Both of his teachers had died at Pain's hands.
There was no way he could forgive him.
"Fourth Hokage, please tell me. What am I supposed to do?"
Naruto looked lost as he asked his father for an answer.
"You'll have to find that answer for yourself. I don't know what it is either," Namikaze Minato admitted.
He was also part of the shinobi system. He couldn't completely step outside it.
"If even Pervy Sage and the Fourth Hokage don't know, how am I supposed to figure it out?" Uzumaki Naruto protested. "You're both too selfish! I'm not smart, and I'm not even that great of a shinobi. And I…"
Before he could continue, Namikaze Minato placed a hand firmly on his head.
"You'll find the answer. I believe in you. No matter where we are, parents always believe their children can do it. That's what being a parent means.
"And I have to go now. My Chakra is fading. I'll repair the seal, but this will be the last time.
"Konoha can be rebuilt. I'm counting on you, Naruto."
"Thank you, Dad."
Uzumaki Naruto's expression became resolute.
"No matter where we are, parents always believe their children can do it. That's what being a parent means…"
Uchiha Itachi thought of his own father.
Hadn't his father said something similar before he died?
Even when Itachi betrayed him, his father had possessed the Mangekyo Sharingan just like he did, yet he hadn't resisted.
He hadn't even tried to stop him.
Had he been thinking the same thing?
Had his father entrusted everything to Itachi, believing that he and Sasuke could find their own way?
Uchiha Itachi's eyes turned red.
His thoughts returned to that night.
The night he had raised the blade with his own hands.
He quickly forced those emotions back down, but a different thought had already taken root in his heart.
Could he trust Sasuke too?
Perhaps he could tell Sasuke more and allow him to make his own choice.
"No. I can't. It would still be too dangerous. This world is far too dangerous."
Uchiha Itachi immediately shook his head and cast the thought aside.