What Do You Want to Do to the Village’s Jinchuriki? (1/5)

As usual, Konoha Village was exceptionally quiet tonight. Aside from several main commercial streets, most other areas had already fallen into darkness.

Those ordinary people had no idea that the village’s most important Scroll of Seals had just been stolen by a student who had failed the Graduation Exam not long ago.

At this moment, all the ninjas in the village had been urgently mobilized to search everywhere for someone named Naruto Uzumaki.

Of course, on the surface, this looked like nothing more than a top-secret item theft. In reality, however, it was a carefully scripted and staged performance.

The Scroll of Seals had remained under Anbu surveillance the entire time and had never left their control.

It has to be said, the Third Hokage had chosen an excellent moment.

At this point, Naruto had failed to graduate and become an official ninja, so in theory, he was not bound by any ninja regulations. On top of that, there was also that fool Mizuki to take the blame.

Finally, with the old man himself smoothing things over, there was an eighty percent chance the matter would be reduced from serious to trivial, then quietly settled.

What the old man did not know was that someone had already seen through his little trick and was hiding in the shadows, ready to give him a huge surprise.

In the forest outside the village, Naruto sat on the ground with the Scroll of Seals, which was nearly half his size, in his arms. He muttered in a voice only he could hear, "Let’s see, the first ninjutsu is… Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu. What? Why does it start with the type I’m worst at?!"

Still, complaints were complaints. He immediately began practicing in earnest, his face filled with concentration.

Before long, he had gradually mastered this forbidden technique, one that could exhaust most ninjas to death.

The enormous Chakra reserves of the Uzumaki bloodline were displayed in the simplest and most direct way through this blond-haired boy.

You must know, Multiple Shadow Clones were different from ordinary Shadow Clones. It was a genuine forbidden technique.

Not only did it require enough Chakra to instantly create a large number of clones, but the user also had to endure the pain, injuries, and fatigue fed back when those clones disappeared.

Even a jonin would probably need to lie in bed recovering for ten days to half a month after using it once.

But Naruto?

He used it several times in a row as if nothing had happened.

After all, he was not even a genin yet!

This showed just how terrifying his unfathomable talent was!

"Sure enough, in this world, bloodlines are more important capital than anything else. Without bloodlines directly descended from the Sage of Six Paths, like the Uchiha, Hyuga, Uzumaki, or Senju, all the hard work in the world is useless. In the end, aside from Might Guy, who can open the Eighth Gate, there isn’t a single person worth fighting."

Allen, who had been silently observing from a dark corner, reached a startling conclusion.

Naruto might have been full of passion in its early stages, constantly emphasizing that hard work could change one’s fate, but once it entered the middle and later stages, that message was slapped in the face hard.

The grudges that had run through the ninja world for centuries were, in truth, merely Kaguya Ōtsutsuki’s family affair—a melodramatic story of sons turning against their mother, with the conflict continuing through generations of descendants.

Everyone’s fate was, in reality, the product of manipulation by two hidden masterminds.

Black Zetsu was one of them, while Sage of Six Paths Hagoromo Otsutsuki was the other.

As for everyone else, they were all nothing more than pieces on those two men’s chessboard.

Just as Allen was privately lamenting how tragic the humans of this world were, Naruto finally completed his training in the Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu.

Suddenly, a figure dropped from the sky and demanded through gritted teeth, "Hey! Naruto! Do you know what you’ve done?"

"Hehehehe! So I got caught! I only just learned one ninjutsu."

Naruto scratched the back of his head, an incomparably awkward smile appearing on his face.

Clearly, this guy, who only had one thought left in his head, had not realized the seriousness of the situation at all.

The instant he revealed who had told him about the Scroll of Seals and where it was kept, more than a dozen kunai flew down from above. One of them struck Iruka accurately in the thigh.

The intense pain made the Ninja Academy’s chunin instructor let out a muffled groan, his face twisting in agony.

"Naruto! Hand over the Scroll of Seals!" Mizuki slowly emerged from the darkness.

"Huh? What’s going on? What happened?" Naruto opened his mouth in shock, completely unable to understand the situation before him.

But Iruka endured the pain and shouted, "Naruto! You must not hand over the scroll, even if you die! It records many terrifying forbidden techniques that can kill people. Mizuki used you because he wants to obtain it!"

Mizuki, however, was no poor speaker either. He immediately spilled everything about the Nine-Tails sealed inside Naruto’s body, telling him why everyone in the village hated and despised him. He even revealed that Iruka, who had always taken such good care of him, had parents who died in the Nine-Tails’ Rampage and harbored deep hatred for the Nine-Tails in his heart.

For a moment, Naruto was stunned by the explosive news. He stood there dumbfounded, completely unsure what to do.

After all, his greatest wish had always been to become a ninja, then gain the approval of every villager by protecting everyone.

But now, someone was suddenly telling him that his very existence was an original sin. For a child barely ten years old, it was as terrifying as the sky collapsing and the earth splitting apart.

Seizing the opportunity, Mizuki wasted no time throwing a massive Shuriken, intending to use the sneak attack to kill the annoying brat before him and reclaim the Scroll of Seals.

But just as the spinning Shuriken was about to strike Naruto, Allen, who had been hiding in the shadows, finally moved.

The other three present saw only a flash of cold light!

The massive Shuriken was split cleanly in two by a Chakra-wreathed blade, embedding itself in the nearby tree trunks with two loud bangs.

"Chunin Mizuki! What do you intend to do to the village’s important war weapon, the Jinchuriki?"

Masked Allen held a long sword and questioned him in an icy voice.

"Root…"

The moment Mizuki saw that unmistakable mask, sweat instantly covered his forehead, and even his breathing became rapid.

For a spy, the Root Organization led by Danzō was more terrifying than both the Anbu and the interrogation department.

By contrast, Naruto blinked in confusion. "Jinchuriki? Weapon of war? Are you talking about me?"

"Of course I’m talking about you! Who else did you think I meant? If not for the Nine-Tails sealed inside you, the charge of stealing the Scroll of Seals alone would have meant any other ninja would be treated as having left the village and executed without mercy. Now get out of the way and stop being a nuisance."

After saying that, Allen snatched the Scroll of Seals from Naruto’s hands, tossed him toward Iruka nearby, and slung the scroll over his back.

Only after finishing all that did he sneer at Mizuki. "Now, you have two choices. One, surrender immediately and honestly confess everything you know. Or two, I execute you here, bring your corpse back, and extract your memories directly. Tell me, which one will you choose?"

Without question, Mizuki knew full well that he was no match for an elite of the Root Organization. Without another word, he turned and tried to flee.

But how could Allen possibly let him escape? In a flash, he appeared before him and drove his long sword through Mizuki’s chest from behind, pinning him directly to a tree trunk.

In an instant!

A huge amount of blood gushed from the shattered heart. The bloody scene filled Naruto, who was witnessing a killing with his own eyes for the first time, with shock and fear from the depths of his heart.