Chapter 589: Forcing Naruto’s Real Body to Appear

If Namikaze Minato or Uzumaki Naruto truly decided to run and hide, catching either of them would be incredibly difficult.

That was exactly why both of them needed to remain, at least relatively speaking, decent people.

They needed some kind of moral bottom line.

Something they cared about.

Only then would they have weaknesses.

Flying Raijin alone was already ridiculous.

Minato could place a Flying Raijin mark in each of the Five Great Nations.

The moment someone came looking for him, he could simply teleport somewhere else, rest for a few days while they traveled after him, then move again.

The only realistic solution was to attack before Minato even realized you were there and kill him in one strike.

But there was another problem.

Anyone capable of using Flying Raijin naturally possessed excellent sensory abilities, while Minato's reflexes were among the very best.

Flying Raijin also had virtually no activation delay.

Trying to kill him before he could react was extraordinarily difficult.

The only reason Neji had managed to seal Minato's chakra points earlier with his Imitation Rabbit Hair Needle was that Minato had never intended to flee.

He had only tried to dodge.

That allowed Neji to cover a broad area with an attack and catch him.

Capturing Naruto worked on much the same principle.

If Naruto genuinely wanted to hide, his enormous chakra reserves allowed him to scatter an absurd number of shadow clones throughout the world.

Finding the original would be like opening the world map in some game and discovering it completely covered with endlessly respawning toilet-cleaning side quests, each offering almost no reward.

Every shadow clone was effectively one tiny quest.

You had to find it.

Catch or defeat it.

And only afterward could you learn whether it had been the real Naruto.

Looking at the final battle from Kaguya and Black Zetsu's perspective was enough to understand how maddening that could become.

And that was with Naruto trapped inside only a handful of dimensions, unable to truly escape.

So if Neji wanted to capture Naruto, blindly searching for him like an idiot would never work.

He needed to identify Naruto's weak point and force the real body to come to him.

As for whether exploiting Naruto's attachments was morally questionable…

That was no longer Neji's concern.

Ever since he swore loyalty to the Hokage, nothing about him belonged entirely to himself anymore.

Not even his reputation.

The moment he began using his own position to intimidate Hyūga Hiashi, he had already crossed that line.

Why hesitate now?

He was merely acting as a dirty glove for the Hokage.

And honestly, his original position in the clan had been worse than that anyway.

…

Inside the library, Naruto's real body was peacefully continuing to read classified documents.

"Naruto!"

Tenten suddenly rushed in with Ino and Kiba, all three wearing anxious expressions.

"Why are you here?! Something terrible happened! Where's your real body? Hurry and tell him to come back!"

"What happened?"

Naruto remained perfectly calm.

Even though this really was his original body, nobody knew that.

"How can you still be this relaxed?!"

Tenten grabbed him by the shoulders.

"Neji's gone crazy! He started capturing everyone just to force you to show yourself!"

"Capturing everyone?"

Naruto tilted his head.

"To force me out?"

He didn't quite understand what Tenten meant.

Naruto had assumed Neji might capture Minato, beat him up, and threaten Naruto's real body into appearing.

"Neji doesn't know who you actually like."

Tenten sighed when Naruto continued looking completely lost.

"So first, he captured Sakura."

Ino continued.

"We were walking around together when Neji suddenly appeared. He fired a bunch of needles, immobilized Sakura, then stuffed her into a pink sack."

Naruto's expression changed.

"I chased after him to stop him, but Neji said if I interfered with his service to Lady Hokage again, he'd take me too."

Ino looked solemn.

"I was scared, and I was worried that if I got captured too, nobody would even know what happened."

"So I endured the humiliation and chose to survive."

She paused.

"Then I ran into these two."

"What?! Sakura?!"

Naruto could no longer stay seated.

"What does Neji want with Sakura?!"

"Don't worry about what he wants yet."

Kiba sighed.

"It's not just Sakura. Hinata got taken too."

Naruto froze.

"Neji even left me a message. He said I was free to complain to Clan Head Hiashi if I wanted, and I could see whether Hiashi dared interfere."

Kiba gave a serious nod.

"I also endured the humiliation for the greater good, so I didn't try to stop him."

"…"

Naruto stared at them.

Why did every single person keep calling this "enduring humiliation for the greater good"?

Was that really what this was?

Had everyone in this world become cowards along with his father?

"Yeah."

Tenten picked up the explanation.

"Ever since Neji swore loyalty to Lady Hokage, he's become a completely different person."

She hesitated.

"He said he's acting according to Lady Hokage's preferences and plans to hand Sakura and Hinata over to Makoto, the supermarket owner."

Naruto stared.

"If you don't show up by this evening, he says he's going through with it."

The three of them fell silent and looked at Naruto, waiting to see what he would do.

"Why would he give them to Makoto?"

Naruto asked in confusion.

"No idea."

Kiba shrugged.

"But for some reason, rumors suddenly spread all over the village today saying Lady Hokage and the supermarket owner are together, and that Namikaze Minato is a useless husband who got replaced."

"…"

Naruto's face stiffened.

That one might actually have been his fault.

"Neji really thinks this will make me surrender and reveal my real body?"

Naruto scoffed.

"Relax. He would never dare do something like that."

He had been about to say, I know Neji. He cares about his comrades.

Then he remembered that was the real-world Neji.

That had nothing to do with this version.

So Naruto immediately changed direction.

"I know my mo—"

He caught himself.

"I know the Hokage."

"Yesterday I personally saw her behind the supermarket getting jealous and questioning Makoto about whatever happened with the Mizukage."

Naruto crossed his arms confidently.

"So there's absolutely no way Neji would dare give Sakura and Hinata to him."

"He thinks he's pleasing Makoto and indirectly pleasing the Hokage, but he's got it completely backward!"

Naruto raised his chin.

"As one of the Hokage's trusted people, there's no way Neji wouldn't know that."

It was one of Naruto's rare moments of genuinely clear, logical analysis.

Unfortunately—

Tenten, Ino, and Kiba all shook their heads.

They looked at him with pity.

"Naruto…"

Tenten sighed.

"I never thought that, despite being the Hokage's son, you'd understand her personality this badly."

Kiba frowned.

"Wait, could those rumors actually be true?"

"Did Namikaze Minato ruin himself so badly before marriage that Naruto could only be born through some weird Nine-Tails chakra method?"

"So Naruto, are you actually the Nine-Tails' child?"

"Uh…"

Naruto scratched his head.

"What are you guys talking about?"

The truth was, Naruto really didn't understand Kushina.

She was one of the few people he couldn't properly research through the archives.

As Konoha's sole authoritarian ruler, Kushina could simply erase whatever information about herself she didn't want preserved.

So when the three of them said this, Naruto genuinely had no way to argue.

He could only play dumb.

When it came to understanding Kushina, Naruto might actually know less than some random villager.

"Lady Hokage likes doing things her own way."

Tenten lowered her voice.

"She once said something very famous:

'If I give it to you, you may take it. If I don't, then you are not allowed to steal it.'

"The conflict between her and the Mizukage was probably because the Mizukage took something without asking."

Naruto blinked.

"And on the other hand…"

Tenten continued.

"Lady Hokage has also said that if she likes something, then she wants the entire shinobi world to like it too."

"The more people who appreciate it, the more accomplished she feels."

Naruto's expression slowly collapsed.

"Then what about my dad?"

If that was really Kushina's attitude, why was Minato treated like such an embarrassment?

Tenten sighed.

"Lady Hokage may enjoy sharing and letting everyone join in the fun…"

"But the thing she hates most in the world is bond-type shinobi."

She looked directly at Naruto.

"And there's something else you should know."

"Lee and Guy-sensei have been captured too."