"I've always found this brat interesting." Funan looked at the child he was holding, gently squeezing his cheeks. "A child named Konohamaru, huh? My, my. Looks like they're already paving the way for him to be the future Hokage."
"Uchiha Funan!" Hiruzen roared.
Funan didn't even look at him.
Two Jonin were enough to keep Hiruzen's shadow clone busy. Besides, Funan wasn't alone. There was no way the Uchiha would let him come to Hiruzen's lair unescorted.
There were ten high-level shinobi between Jonin and special Jonin hidden in the shadows.
"Konohamaru!" Funan smiled as he looked at the trembling boy in front of him. "I want to invite you to visit my laboratory, what do you say?"
Konohamaru's lips trembled, and tears could not stop flowing. His silent crying was heartbreaking.
Funan put on a false expression of compassion.
"If you don't say anything, I'll take that as a yes." His smile widened. "I have a grand experiment in hand, did you know that? It's something your grandfather has been working on for years: combining the power of the Senju and the Uchiha into one body…"
"Roar!!!" Hiruzen is going crazy.
He knew exactly what experiment he was referring to.
He had spent years on this research without a single success. Each attempt had cost him unimaginable sacrifice. And now, Funan wanted to use his grandson as a guinea pig! That was a death sentence!
"Uchiha Funan, you deserve to die, you deserve to die!"
Hiruzen kept yelling. His eyes were bloodshot!
"Stop!"
Just then, a loud shout rang out.
A moment later, a blond boy burst into the place.
Funan blinked and said, "Naruto? Why are you here?"
"Funan-aniki!" Naruto said anxiously, "What are you doing?! Release Konohamaru right now!"
Funan's eyes narrowed slightly and said, "Does Jiraiya know that you are here?"
"Ero-Sennin?" Naruto was startled and said, "He told me not to come, but I managed to sneak away."
"Did you manage to sneak past him?" Funan was about to sneer but suddenly reacted.
This Naruto was not the same immature child from the original timeline. He was now a shinobi with strength close to that of a Jonin and, above all, he had the chakra of the Nine-Tails.
If he is determined to get rid of Jiraiya, it is not impossible.
Funan's expression relaxed slightly, but her tone became stern. "Naruto, this is none of your business. Get out of here right now!"
"No!" Naruto refused without hesitation, "Funan-aniki, what are you going to do to Konohamaru? He is still a child!"
Funan looked at Naruto suspiciously and said, "Tell me, Naruto, why are you here?"
"This..." Naruto hesitated.
"It's me!" Danzo's shadow clone sneered and said, "Uchiha Funan, what's wrong? Can't you do what you want to do in front of Naruto?"
Funan glanced at him. Now he understood everything, but that didn't matter to him.
"Naruto!" He stared at Naruto and said, "I am now giving you an order as the Hokage. Leave here immediately!"
"This..." Naruto was stunned.
Naruto, despite his carefree personality, also understood that any Konoha shinobi must obey the Hokage's orders.
"Shut up!"
A roar echoed through the air.
Jiraiya rushed over quickly and stood between Naruto and Funan.
He glared at Danzo and said coldly: "Danzo, I should have killed you at the beginning, you damn bastard, you actually wanted to use Naruto!"
"Hehe, haha!" Danzo laughed crazily.
Seeing this, Funan waved his hand, signaling the two attacking jonin to stop.
He wanted to give Danzo a chance to speak!
He wanted to see what Danzo could say.
Danzo, noticing Funan's intention, instantly took advantage of it. "Naruto, do you think Konohamaru is wrong?"
Naruto was startled.
Wrong?
What could Konohamaru do wrong?
Her eyes fell on the boy, whose face was covered in tears and snot.
Naruto confirmed his thoughts.
He was just a child, what serious mistake could he have made?
At most, some pranks!
"Do you know why Funan is unwilling to let Konohamaru go?" Danzo laughed. "Because the previous Hokage and Uchiha Funan were mortal enemies. That's why Uchiha Funan seeks revenge against us!"
"Konohamaru is his tool!"
"He is not even going to let go of a child, let alone other people in the Sarutobi clan. Is this the Hokage you admire?"
"How can this be?" Naruto said this subconsciously. He looked at Funan nervously, he hoped to get an explanation from Funan.
"Are you done?" Funan looked at Danzo playfully and said, "Can I continue?"
He extended his hand to Konohamaru.
"Hokage-sama!" Jiraiya stood in front of Funan with a serious expression.
"What? Jiraiya, you want to stop me?" Funan looked amused.
"Hokage-sama, you are not such a person, Konohamaru, he is just a child!" Jiraiya said embarrassedly: "You are the number one in the shinobi world now!"
"Oh, so I'm the strongest man in the shinobi world now?" Funan said as he let out a laugh.
He then fixed his gaze on Jiraiya and said in a cold tone, "Jiraiya, do not feign ignorance. You know very well how many members of the Uchiha clan were sacrificed in experiments by the two in front of you."
He pointed at Sarutobi Hiruzen and Shimura Danzo and said: "They are eager for the power of Uchiha, so they attack Uchiha recklessly, whether they are adults or children, corpses or living people. Why? They can do it, but I can't? Are they so noble?"
Jiraiya was silent.
Naruto looked stunned and couldn't help saying: "Impossible, absolutely impossible, Funan-aniki, you must have made a mistake, how could Grandpa Hokage do such a thing?"
"Wrong!?" Funan laughed and said: "Naruto, you already know the truth about your origin, right?"
"Yeah!" Naruto's expression was a little complicated. He knew it a long time ago.
"Then tell me, what kind of life did you live before I became the Hokage?" Funan looked at Naruto with interest and said, "Do you think that kind of life is the life that a son of a Hokage should have?"
Naruto was silent again. His life since childhood was indeed a mess. Because of this, he is relatively mature.
"If you look at it this way, I was the one who saved you from that hell, wasn't I?" Funan said coldly. "Though I don't expect you to thank me. I just want you to know that your father wanted you to be the hero of the village, but Sarutobi Hiruzen made you a public enemy."
Naruto pressed his lips together and said with difficulty, "Still..."
"Your father's death was probably caused by Sarutobi Hiruzen."
Funan gave Naruto no chance to justify himself any further and launched her strongest blow.
This critical hit also stunned Jiraiya.
Of course, Sarutobi Hiruzen was also stunned.
'What is he talking about?' Hiruzen thought, blinking in disbelief. 'I killed Minato? I didn't even know!'
Danzo also looked at Hiruzen dully: 'Good guy, Hiruzen, how much have you done behind my back?'
However, suddenly everything started to fall into place.
Why did Minato, who had already begun to act against them, suddenly die?
Why was Hiruzen able to take over as Hokage immediately?
It turns out that all of this was planned by Hiruzen.
'No wonder he became the Hokage, but I could only be the Darkness of the Shinobi for so long.'
It was not uncommon for rumors to circulate about this but hearing it directly from Funan's mouth made it even more shocking.
And the worst thing was that it made sense.
"Funan, are you telling the truth?" Even Jiraiya couldn't help but raise his voice. "Minato... his death...!"
"It's just a guess." Funan shrugged, not showing the slightest responsibility for his words. "Think about it. When did Minato die?"
"Just when I was about to take power for real."
"Isn't that too much of a coincidence?"
"He had just established himself as the Hokage and was about to take true power into his own hands, and then Konoha erupted in the Night of the Nine-Tails, and then he and his wife died."
"Soon after, Hiruzen took over the leadership and remained in the position for years without even considering appointing a new Hokage. Tsk! If it weren't for me, who knows how much longer he would have lasted!"
"Think carefully!"
"Investigate how the shinobi acted that night. Minato shined with his performance, but what about Hiruzen? What exactly did he do? Danzo didn't even show up, but he made sure to suppress the Uchiha, the only clan that could help control the Nine-Tails. Tsk! How convenient!"
Funan smiled mockingly. "It's clear that they wanted to make sure Namikaze Minato died."
Everyone present was stunned.
Jiraiya's mind began to constantly recall the events before and after Minato's death.
After Minato's death, he secretly returned to Konoha.
Minato was his most beloved disciple, the son of prophecy who was predicted by him to change the shinobi world. How could Jiraiya remain indifferent when he died!
He had used all his secret connections to investigate the matter.
And, strangely, the facts matched what Funan said.
Sarutobi Hiruzen performed very poorly that night.
Shimura Danzo led the Root to suppress the Uchiha clan.
None of the thousands of Sarutobi clan members showed up.
The most inexplicable thing for Jiraiya... How did the mysterious man who attacked Konoha know the time of Kushina's delivery and how did he successfully break through the protective barrier?
You said no one cooperated, no one believes it!
Jiraiya stared at Sarutobi Hiruzen in a daze.
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