Chapter no.35 Naruto

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Chapter no.35 Words Left Unsaid

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Konohamaru looked up at naruto, stunned, before breaking into a wide grin. "That. Was. AWESOME!"

"Eh, he had it coming."

"Alright, kid, lesson two: never let a jerk like that boss you around. Got it?"

"Got it, Boss!"

The boy's excitement seemed boundless, and he practically bounced as he followed Naruto into the living room. "You were awesome, Boss! Can you teach me how to do that? That jutsu was insane!"

"You're not ready for that yet, brat. Why don't we focus on getting you home first? It's way past your bedtime."

Konohamaru paused, his grin fading slightly as he looked guilty. Naruto followed his gaze to the counter and froze. The ramen bowls they had just eaten from were now completely empty, and one of them looked like it had been licked clean.

"I needed something to eat while you fought," Konohamaru giggled nervously, letting out a tiny burp.

Naruto's eye twitched. "This kid…" He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. But before he could finish exhaling, an idea struck him. "I think…" he began, reaching for his inventory, "you need to run."

"Run?"

With a low hum, Naruto summoned his Zweihander, the massive blade materializing in his hands with a heavy thud against the floor. The room almost seemed to darken under its sheer weight and presence as Naruto pointed the blade at Konohamaru.

"Run!" Naruto roared, his grin widening into something that was far too gleeful.

Konohamaru's eyes went wide. "I'm sorry, Boss!" he yelped, spinning on his heel and bolting out the door.

Naruto chased after him, the Zweihander over his shoulder, his laughter echoing through the quiet streets. "Come back! I just want to talk!"

"I said I'm sorry!" Konohamaru's voice trailed off as he sprinted away, his little feet slapping against the cobblestone streets.

Eventually, after several blocks of chasing, Naruto caught up to the boy and threw him over his shoulder like a sack of rice. Konohamaru didn't even struggle; he just clung to Naruto's back, laughing between gasps for air as Naruto walked them toward the Sarutobi clan house. The moonlight illuminated the streets, and the gentle hum of the village at night filled the space between them.

After a while, Konohamaru's giggles faded, replaced by a thoughtful quiet. His small arms wrapped around Naruto's neck as he adjusted his position. "Boss… what's your dream?"

Naruto paused for a moment, pretending to focus on his steps. He didn't want to talk about it, but Konohamaru wasn't the type to let things go.

"I heard people say your dream was to become the greatest Hokage," Konohamaru pressed.

Naruto exhaled slowly. "Yeah," he muttered, keeping his voice low. He didn't feel like explaining himself.

"Well, sorry, Boss," Konohamaru said, his proud tone returning. "But I'm gonna be the greatest Hokage. You're just gonna have to settle for second place."

Naruto huffed out a laugh, shaking his head. "It's not that easy, dumbass. The title of Hokage isn't something you just decide to take. It's something you earn. Everyone has to acknowledge you first. Do you think that's easy?" His voice softened as he added, "I've had a hard enough time just getting one person to acknowledge me."

"So, what do I do?"

Naruto adjusted his grip on the boy and kept walking. "Prepare yourself. There aren't any shortcuts to becoming Hokage."

The boy went quiet, chewing on Naruto's words, until the grand Sarutobi clan gates came into view. The carved wooden doors stood tall and imposing, intricate symbols lining their edges. Two guards stood on either side, their expressions neutral. They nodded politely as Naruto approached, but both raised their eyebrows when they saw Konohamaru perched on his back.

Standing in front of the gates, arms crossed and looking more tired than usual, was Hiruzen Sarutobi himself.

"Konohamaru," the Third Hokage said, "do you even know what time it is, young man?"

Konohamaru slid off Naruto's back, standing sheepishly in front of his grandfather. "Sorry, Gramps. I was hanging out with Boss so he could teach me how to beat you."

Naruto winced, giving the Hokage an awkward salute. "Uh… he's not wrong."

Hiruzen raised an eyebrow, glancing between the two of them. "I see." He sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "This will be the last time I overlook this sort of mischief, Konohamaru. Tomorrow is your first day at the academy, and you need to rest."

"Tomorrow's also my first step to becoming Hokage!"

Hiruzen chuckled softly, shaking his head. "We'll see about that." He turned to Naruto. "Thank you for bringing him home, Naruto-kun. I hope Ebisu didn't trouble you too much."

Naruto smirked, biting back a laugh. "Nah, that guy's fine. Probably just… lying low right now."

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"Lying low" was one way to describe it. Ebisu was unceremoniously hurled into a dumpster by one of Naruto's clones, landing with a crash that sent the lid clanging shut above him. Inside the rank, dark space, he groaned, shoving a banana peel off his head, only for a half-eaten apple core to plop onto his shoulder. His glasses were cracked, one lens dangling uselessly, and his normally pristine outfit was smeared with something he hoped was just dirt.

Ebisu sat up slowly, glaring at the walls of the dumpster like it had personally insulted him. "Damn brat," he muttered weakly, trying to summon whatever dignity he had left—just as the dumpster's lid creaked open, and a stray cat peered down at him, its eyes glowing eerily in the moonlight.

The cat let out a judgmental mrrrow, then leaped in, landing squarely on his face.

"GAH!" Ebisu yelped, flailing as the cat bolted, knocking over a bag of garbage that promptly spilled onto his lap. A carton of spoiled milk popped open, drenching him as he slumped back against the dumpster wall, utterly defeated.

"One day," he wheezed, peeling a wet noodle off his cheek, "one day I will have my revenge…"

From the alley, Naruto's clone peeked over the rim of the dumpster, snickering. "You good in there, or should I find a second dumpster for backup?"

Ebisu let out a strangled groan, raising one trembling fist. "Damn… brat…" he muttered before slumping fully into the trash pile, his pride officially dead.

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Back at the compound, Hiruzen gave Naruto a puzzled look but let it go. "Good night, Naruto-kun. Konohamaru, inside. Now."

"But—" Konohamaru yawned halfway through his protest, his defiance fading as his eyes began to droop.

"Go to bed, dumbass," Naruto said, nudging him gently toward the door.

Konohamaru looked up, scrunching his nose. "Blah, stop acting like you know everything, Boss…" His voice slurred as he rubbed his eyes. "I'm not letting you be my boss anymore…"

"Oh, yeah?"

"Yeah!" Konohamaru blinked sleepily but still managed to grin. "From now on… we're rivals!"

Naruto's smirk softened into a smile. He reached into his pocket, palming his green goggles from his inventory. Without drawing attention, he handed them to Konohamaru.

"These are my favorite goggles," he said as the boy's eyes widened. "When the day comes that we're fighting for the Hokage title, I want them back."

Konohamaru's face lit up as he slipped off his helmet and put the goggles on. "Then you'll have to win them back, Boss!"

Naruto laughed, holding out his fist. "Looking forward to it, Konohamaru."

The boy bumped his fist against Naruto's before turning and running inside, his laughter echoing behind him. Naruto stood there for a moment, watching him go.

Hiruzen's voice broke the quiet. "He looks up to you, you know."

Naruto nodded silently, his eyes drifting toward the moonlit village in the distance. The quiet between him and the old man stretched, heavy and awkward, like a weight neither wanted to lift. He shifted his feet, ready to leave, but Hiruzen's voice stopped him.

"Wait, Naruto."

Naruto froze, his body stiffening. "What do you want?"

Hiruzen stepped forward, his robes shifting slightly in the breeze. Without the Hokage's hat, he looked different—less like the leader of the village, and more like an old man weighed down by years of regret.

"I need to talk to you about something," Hiruzen said. He gestured toward the wooden bench near the compound's entrance. "Would you mind sitting for a moment?"

Naruto didn't move. "I'm fine standing," he said curtly, his voice colder than usual.

Hiruzen didn't push the matter at first, letting the silence settle between them. "It's about what happened with Kiba," he said. "I heard you… almost killed him."

Naruto's face remained impassive, like Hiruzen had just told him the sky was blue or that water was wet. There wasn't a flicker of guilt, worry, or even surprise in his expression.

"Naruto, this is serious. You nearly killed a fellow shinobi of the Leaf—in what was essentially a stupid fight. Do you understand the gravity of that?"

"That wasn't just some stupid fight," Naruto said, his voice low and simmering with anger. "Kiba disrespected someone important to me. Someone who taught me about honor and strength—things this village pretends to care about but doesn't actually live by. I wasn't going to let him get away with that."

Hiruzen studied him carefully. "While I understand that Kiba may have been out of line, Naruto, attacking and nearly killing him is inexcusable," he said. "Words can hurt, yes, but they don't justify violence. If you want to grow into a shinobi people can trust, you need to learn to control yourself. A true ninja doesn't let their emotions dictate their actions."

The words stung—not because they were wrong, but because they dismissed what had actually happened. This wasn't about anger. It wasn't even about Kiba. It was about respect. It was about Oscar.

"And who the hell are you to tell me any of this?"

The atmosphere shifted instantly. Hiruzen's gaze hardened, and for the first time that evening, he allowed the weight of his authority to press down on Naruto. The air felt heavier, suffocating, a stark reminder of who Hiruzen Sarutobi truly was—not just an old man, but the Hokage of the Hidden Leaf, the professor, the protector of the village.

"I am the Hokage of the Hidden Leaf Village, Genin Naruto!"

For a moment, Naruto felt the weight of that title crash down on him, the enormity of it making him feel small. But the anger burning in his chest refused to be extinguished. He straightened, his voice steady but trembling with restrained frustration.

"So, is that it?" Naruto asked. "I have to take responsibility? I have to deal with it all? The child has to be the adult?"

The question cut deeper than Hiruzen expected. His jaw tightened, guilt flickering in his eyes. He opened his mouth to respond, but Naruto didn't give him the chance.

"I'm the one who has to 'control myself.' I'm the one who has to 'be fair and just.' I'm the one who has to suck it up and move on, while the rest of this village gets to throw their crap at me and pretend I don't exist. That's what being a ninja means, huh? Just keep taking it, over and over, because that's the Will of Fire?"

"Naruto, that's not what I meant…" Hiruzen's voice softened, his tone almost pleading as he took a step closer, raising a hand.

But Naruto didn't flinch. "Then how did you mean it, old man?" he asked, his voice quieter now but no less biting. "Because it sure sounds like you're telling me I have to carry everyone else's baggage while they get to treat me however they want. That I'm the one who's supposed to be better than them. That I'm supposed to act like a hero for a village that's never done anything for me."

The silence that followed was deafening, broken only by the faint rustle of leaves in the breeze.

"You're right," Hiruzen said finally, his voice heavy with regret. "I wasn't there for you the way I should have been. And neither was this village. For that, Naruto, I am truly sorry."

Naruto flinched, his eyes widening slightly. He hadn't expected that—not the apology, not the raw sadness in the old man's voice. But it wasn't enough. It couldn't be enough.

"Sorry?" Naruto echoed bitterly. "That's it? You think 'sorry' makes up for everything? For the years I spent alone? For —" His throat tightened, and he couldn't finish the sentence.

"No, Naruto," Hiruzen said softly. "I know it doesn't make up for anything. I know I can't undo what's been done. But I want to do better. I want to help you find your place in this village."

Naruto's gaze dropped to the ground, his fists trembling as conflicting emotions swirled inside him. Anger, frustration, sadness—he didn't know which to hold on to, which to let go of.

"You still want to be Hokage, don't you?"

The question hung in the air, a quiet attempt to gauge just how deep the damage truly ran.

Naruto hesitated, the question cutting through him like a blade. Did he? Once, being Hokage had meant everything to him. It had been his dream, his proof that he could matter. But now? Now, it felt ironically hollow.

"What does being Hokage even mean to you?"

Hiruzen's gaze turned distant as he looked out at the moonlit compound gates. "The Hokage is the person who embodies the Will of Fire," he said. "The belief that everyone in this village is part of one family. That we protect and care for each other, no matter what."

Naruto felt a bitter laugh rise in his throat but swallowed it down.

"The Hokage carries the burden of protecting the village," Hiruzen continued. "Of guiding it, ensuring that the Will of Fire is passed down to the next generation. It's a chain that stretches back to the First Hokage, and one I hope will continue long after me."

"So, has Konoha failed me? Has the Hokage failed me?"

Hiruzen's breath hitched.

"I don't think I ever felt the 'warmth' of family when I cried myself to sleep, Hokage-sama," Naruto continued, his voice trembling, not from fear, but from the weight of everything he had held in for so long. "I don't think I ever felt 'protected' when the villagers glared at me like I was a monster. Like I wasn't even human."

Hiruzen's face fell, the regret pooling in his eyes.

Naruto's voice softened, but that only made it worse, the pain in his words sharper for how calm they were. "You talk about fairness," he said, the faintest tremble in his tone betraying the storm brewing underneath, "about justice, about family… but where was all of that when the innocent needed it? Where was the Will of Fire when the ones who truly needed it were left to fend for themselves? Where was it when I needed it?"

Naruto raised his hand, gesturing vaguely toward the Hokage's nonexistent hat. "That hat…" he began. "That hat once meant something to me. It represented hope. A dream that maybe, one day, I could be more than the village outcast. More than just the kid everyone hated for no reason. That maybe, just maybe, I could be someone who mattered."

His gaze locked onto Hiruzen's then, raw, unflinching, and full of unshed tears. His bright blue eyes seemed to bore into the Hokage, demanding he look at the truth he had ignored for so long. But Naruto didn't let those tears fall. He refused to give Hiruzen—or the village—the satisfaction of seeing just how much they had hurt him.

"But now?" Naruto's voice cracked, the bitterness bleeding through as he forced the words out like broken glass. "Now, it's just a hat. Nothing more. A hat worn by a man who preaches fairness and justice but doesn't live it. A man who lets his village turn its back on a child. A man who talks about family, but doesn't even know what the word means. That's what the Hokage's hat is to me now. Nothing. Just an empty symbol."

Hiruzen stood there in silence. He didn't argue. He didn't deny it. How could he? Every word Naruto said was a truth Hiruzen couldn't refute. Every accusation struck deeper than the last, cutting through the ideals he had spent his life trying to uphold. And now, those ideals crumbled under the weight of the boy's pain.

Shame painted itself across Hiruzen's face. It seeped into every line etched into his weathered features. Shame not just as the Hokage—the leader who was supposed to protect and nurture every soul in his village—but as a man. A man who had failed a boy who needed him the most. A boy he had promised to look after and had let down in every way that mattered.

But worst of all, shame as the man Naruto once called "grandpa." That name had been a gift—a sign of trust, of affection, of the hope that maybe, despite everything, Naruto still believed in him. And Hiruzen had thrown it away. Through his inaction, his silence, his complacency, he had let that precious gift rot away until there was nothing left.

"I don't hate you, old man. I should, but I don't." He paused. "What I feel is worse. Disappointment."

He let the word hang in the air like a blade suspended above Hiruzen's head, cutting deeper than any weapon ever could. Then, with no further words, Naruto turned away.

For a moment, he thought to call out, to stop him, to say something—anything—to make this right. But no words came. No action felt sufficient. He remained frozen, bound by the weight of his own failings. Hiruzen Sarutobi, the great Hokage, the Professor, the man who was supposed to guide his people, felt completely powerless.

It wasn't a new feeling, but that only made it worse. He recognized it too well—the same powerlessness that had plagued him when his relationship with his own son, Asuma, had crumbled, built on unspoken expectations and words left unsaid. The same powerlessness that gnawed at him whenever he thought of Tsunade, how he had failed to guide her through her grief and let her leave the village, carrying her pain with her. The same powerlessness that weighed on him every time he remembered Orochimaru, the student he'd let fall into darkness because he couldn't bring himself to act decisively when it mattered most.

And now… now it was Naruto.

This was his great flaw, the one that defined his many regrets: his inability to repair the bonds that should have mattered most to him. Time and again, he had let the people who needed him slip through his fingers, too afraid, too hesitant to confront the mess he had allowed to grow. He always told himself it was for the greater good—that his duty to the village outweighed his personal relationships—but in truth, he simply didn't know how to fix what was broken.

Naruto paused mid-step, his back still turned to the old man.

"If Iruka-sensei hadn't stopped my axe from hitting Kiba," he said, "I would've stopped myself." He glanced over his shoulder. "Not because of anything you taught me. Not because of anything this village stands for. But because I live by the code of someone who believed in me. Someone who gave me hope when no one else would. I wouldn't dirty his code—not even for my anger."

The finality in his voice landed like a hammer blow, reverberating in the space between them. Naruto's eyes lingered on Hiruzen for just a second longer, piercing and resolute, before he turned and began walking again. His steps were deliberate, unhurried, as though he were leaving behind more than just the conversation.

"Good night, Hokage-sama!"

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[ Personal Note: First off, thanks a ton to all of you for sticking with this story. Seriously, you guys are awesome. Now, if you're interested in supporting me on P treon, let me just say that over there, I post these massive 5k-word chapters. But heads up, if you're jumping to P treon, you'll need to start from Chapter 18, since that's where this chapter lines up with the content there.

To everyone here just reading along, please don't forget to leave a comment! Honestly, your comments make my day, and they let me know you're as invested in this story as I am. So yeah, thanks again, and I hope you have an amazing rest of your day!