Chapter 148 I'm Waiting (Subscription Request)

It was like some kind of setting.

The sad atmosphere always goes well with rainy days, and it appears when people are extremely depressed.

The sound of the drizzling rain dispelled the heat of this summer, but it also cast a layer of grayness on Konoha Village.

Black umbrellas and villagers in black robes walked out of the house and came to the street. They held a bunch of white flowers in their hands and walked in an orderly manner towards the memorial.

Regardless of identity or status, the whole Konoha was immersed in a quiet and solemn atmosphere.

Food street, convenience store...

Except for necessary public institutions such as hospitals, the entire Konoha structure was temporarily paralyzed.

Even no matter where in the village, everyone spoke in a low voice, fearing to disturb the rest of the deceased.

Even Hyuga Hiashi, who had always been afraid of Sarutobi Hiruzen, took the Hyuga clan to the street.

Regardless of Sarutobi Hiruzen's past, regardless of whether his previous decisions were right or wrong.

But during his long tenure as the Third Hokage, he had led Konoha out of the shadow of the Second Hokage's murder, led people to the Land of Lightning for revenge, and brought a brief peace to the village.

Until the end, he was fighting for the fresh blood of the next generation.

Sarutobi Hiruzen, truly used his life to implement what he believed to be the will of fire and the spirit passed on to him by the Second Hokage, which is worthy of admiration.

In front of the memorial.

One after another, the villagers with serious faces put down the bouquets in their hands, bowed, and left.

As family members, Sarutobi Asuma, Sarutobi Konohamaru and others bowed one by one beside the tombstone to express their gratitude.

This was the highest level of farewell funeral, participated by the whole village.

The death of the Kage of the Village, although Sarutobi Hiruzen admitted some mistakes during his tenure in the last stage of his life, he was always a leader respected by most people in the village.

In contrast, no one cared about Shimura Danzo who disappeared in the village.

Several days of searching yielded no results. Apart from the traces of fighting outside the village, there was no trace of the person.

The village leaders suspected that Sarutobi Hiruzen had arranged some secret orders before his death, asking people to take Shimura Danzo with him.

After all, in public, he warned many people loudly not to let Shimura Danzo get close to Naruto, which was enough to show his vigilance against Danzo.

But after all, there was no concrete evidence, so the matter was not made public.

But it made no difference whether it was made public or not.

Only a few people knew about Shimura Danzo's past, and even only a few people could remember who this person was when his name was mentioned.

This is the difference between standing in the sun and trying to shine in the dark.

"...It's him."

"..."

"..."

"He's here too..."

In the cemetery, there was a slight commotion among the originally quiet crowd.

But soon, the commotion disappeared completely, and they tacitly did not discuss anything.

The scene fell into a dead silence.

As most of them showed strange colors on their faces and made way with complicated expressions, a young man wearing the same black robe as them appeared.

Uzumaki Naruto...

Almost everyone knew this young man, and this young man looked the same as before, in their memory, still so silent, withdrawn, and unsociable.

Especially the narrow and long beard on his face, which was a weapon they once hated.

In the past, they always felt that this person was the incarnation of the nine-tailed demon fox, so there was a kind of demon smell on him. As long as they approached and were contaminated by this smell, their lives would become unfortunate.

But now, Naruto did not have that kind of disgusting aura, but... made them dare not look directly at him.

Silently avoiding their sight, the crowd was very "well-behaved" to make way.

Unlike before when everyone stared at Naruto with hatred and rejection.

This time, almost no one dared to look at him, and they avoided their sight, as if they thought that as long as they avoided their sight, they could avoid the things they had done before.

Faced with such a "familiar" scene, Uzumaki Naruto calmly walked through the road made by the crowd and slowly came to the tombstone of the third generation.

Like everyone else, he also held a bunch of white flowers in his hand.

Standing in front of the tombstone, he first politely nodded to Asuma and his family members, then slowly placed the white flowers in the pile of flowers that had already piled up, and finally bowed deeply.

Without tears or showing much sadness, he just bent down quietly to express his respect.

At this time, the silent atmosphere continued.

Naruto kept this action very calmly for a long time, and no one knew what he was thinking at the moment.

But many people were guessing what he was thinking, after all... he suffered a lot because of the third generation of Hokage.

And he didn't move, and no one else on the scene moved either.

After a long time, Naruto straightened his back again and nodded to the family members again.

Then he turned around silently and left from the way he came.

During the whole process, he didn't say a word.

Whether it was when he came or when he left, no one in the crowd spoke.

It wasn't until Naruto's figure was far away from this area that the memorial began to have other colors again.

But there was still no relevant discussion, everyone tacitly avoided this topic and this person.

As for Uzumaki Naruto, they didn't dare to face him for the time being...

Leaving the memorial.

Walking silently on the road alone, Naruto raised his head and looked straight ahead.

And for the people he met along the way, no one released the malice they once had towards him.

The life he had long been accustomed to and accepted disappeared directly on the night three days ago.

Living this kind of life that a "normal person" should have in a trance, he was a little uncomfortable. Without that kind of malice, this village made him feel strange.

This is an extremely ironic point.

This strange feeling made Naruto try to stay away from the crowd again. He left the long queue of people waiting to send flowers to the festival, left the street, and left the center of the village.

Unconsciously, he came to the wild again and climbed up the familiar Hokage Rock again.

Holding an umbrella, Uzumaki Naruto looked at the Konoha Village below with a trance.

Once... he met the third generation Hokage for the first time here.

Bits of memories echoed in his mind. It was impossible to say that he was not sad about the death of Sarutobi Hiruzen, after all, he was an old man who had accompanied him to grow up for so many years.

And many of his ninja skills were taught by the third generation, and Sarutobi Hiruzen could be regarded as half of his teacher.

Although... there was no formal master-disciple relationship.

"I knew you would come."

A familiar voice sounded from behind, causing Naruto's confused eyes to fluctuate a little.

Turning around, he forced a smile, "Thank you for helping me that night, Ryosuke."

The person waiting for him on the Hokage Rock was, of course, Ryosuke.

He jumped down from the tree branch. Although it was drizzling, he didn't hold an umbrella, and there was no trace of moisture on Ryosuke's body. "It looks like you are in a good situation. Don't they doubt you because of the strength you have shown?"

He could sense that Naruto was no longer under the surveillance of those people.

With his control, it was difficult to explain that Naruto's strength had improved by leaps and bounds.

At the beginning, Ryosuke could think that after Sarutobi Hiruzen revealed Naruto's identity, although Naruto could not explain this issue clearly, his safety would definitely be guaranteed.

But what he didn't expect was that there was no surveillance at all.

As for Ryosuke's doubts, Naruto shook his head and explained with a complicated expression, "I attributed all this to my father. I told them that I didn't know what happened at that time, but I saw his figure before I fainted."

"When I woke up, I was already next to the Sandaime."

"It seems that because of the seal that was reinforced on my body, they believed my explanation, or... because my identity was revealed."

"They asked me not to go on the mission for the time being, and wait... my father's master brought the Fifth Hokage back to the village to take office, and then make arrangements."

Recently, his life can be said to be enjoyable because of his identity.

"Not only is it free to buy things, but the bosses all smile in a friendly manner."

"And every day at mealtime, someone will knock on the door silently, and when I open the door, there are all kinds of hot lunch boxes outside."

"Those people don't dare to see me, so they choose to "compensate" me in this way..."

After briefly explaining the arrangements of the Konoha high-level, Naruto casually chatted about recent life events

He seemed to have suddenly changed from a vigorous young man to a mature and stable middle-aged man, "The world is just like this, but although I feel unfamiliar with these things, I don't care that much."

"What I really care about is the words that the third generation said to me before he died."

"What words?"

Ryosuke asked curiously. He was in a hurry to get rid of Shimura Danzo before he returned to his nest, so he didn't listen to the whole thing.

"Just some inspiring words."

Naruto looked back at the village below, a little confused and a little emotional, "The will of fire... Oh, I can't understand why they sacrificed themselves one after another for this village."

"The Sandaime is like this, and so is my father. I heard that there are many people like this in the village. Maybe they are crazy?"

There was no mocking smile, but he didn't understand this idea at all.

"Maybe it's the amount and size of love that are different."

Ryosuke put his hands in his pockets and stood on the Hokage Rock with him, looking down at the village below. "Like me, my love is very small, and can only accommodate the people around me."

He was still quite impressed by Naruto's changes.

Stimulation after stimulation made him grow rapidly again and again, both in strength and in thought.

In other words, Naruto's psychological endurance and adaptability are relatively high. If it were Uchiha Obito, after experiencing these things, perhaps he would have ignored the infinite moon reading, the moon eye, and directly opened Susanoo to destroy the world.

"Then my love should also be small."

Holding an umbrella, Naruto also agreed with Ryosuke's statement, "And my love may be smaller than yours, and now it may only accommodate you."

"... But I have Hinata."

Silently moving away from him a little bit, it's not Ryosuke's fault for thinking wrongly, because this sentence is too ambiguous.

After Naruto said it, he realized what he had just said. He turned his head and looked at him with a smile, "I didn't mean that."

"I know."

Although he said so, Ryosuke moved away a little.

The heavy atmosphere between the two of them was also eased a little with this little joke.

After laughing, Naruto was not as deep as before. He shook his head helplessly, "I'm serious. I really don't know who to trust in the village now, except you."

As he spoke, he scratched his head, "Maybe it's really like you said, I still lack a certain degree of judgment, but because I have experienced too many things, I unconsciously think too much in my mind."

"Like this time, if you think about it in a good way, he may really be doing it for my good, so he made my identity public and wanted me to inherit his position."

"But if you think about it in a bad way, it may be that he wants to bind me with his life, so there is the last so-called... dying speech of the will of fire. He wants me to become like him and work hard for this village."

Naruto's statement made Ryosuke feel a little interesting, and he smiled and asked, "Do you want to choose the good side or the bad side?"

As he spoke, he turned his eyes to Naruto.

"Good and bad, right and wrong are not so absolute, isn't that what you told me?"

Naruto easily saw through his temptation, and replied with a smile: "See, since my current decisiveness is not enough, let time make up for it."

"I can always find a suitable choice, and there is no need to choose one between the two."

"But for now, I don't have any idea of ​​being a Hokage or protecting the village. Compared to these, I want to leave the village and go out to see the world."

"You have the Nine-Tails on you, it's not an easy thing to go out."

Ryosuke shook his head, "Unless... there is a relatively reliable person to take you, someone who can make Konoha feel at ease in terms of identity and strength."

"Are you talking about... my father's teacher?"

Naruto cleverly guessed who Ryosuke was talking about.

But after a moment of silence, he spoke with some distrust, "Although the Konoha high-level officials will give him such an important task as finding the fifth generation, I think he may not be so friendly to me."

"How do you explain this?"

Ryosuke asked again.

"This should be easy to see, right?"

Naruto was a little confused by his question, "As my father's teacher, that is, my... master, he seems to have never come to see me since I was born, let alone care about me at all."

"I don't believe he doesn't know my identity, and I heard that he is listed as one of the three ninjas of Konoha like Orochimaru."

"It's hard for me to imagine what kind of person my master would be who can get along with a guy like Orochimaru."

As Naruto spoke, a very stereotyped image appeared in Ryosuke's mind.

But soon, this image was replaced by a relatively wretched person.

Indeed, because of the cognitive premise, Ryosuke's first thought when he thought of Jiraiya was that he would be very good to Naruto.

But if you don't know this person's character and past in advance, and simply consider Naruto's growth process, then he is indeed a very irresponsible and unfriendly master.

"Forget it, let's talk about it when we meet, I'm leaving first..."

Compared to his previous dependence on Ryosuke, Naruto actually took the initiative to leave first this time, "Rather than seeing the sadness of this village, I want to fight Uchiha Sasuke and vent my anger."

"And I advise you not to be too complacent, lest you be caught up by me. After being controlled by you this time, I found many of my own shortcomings."

"I believe that my strength will improve quickly next."

Turning around with a chuckle, Ryosuke looked at his back indifferently, "I'll wait."