Chapter 595: Naruto Saves Himself

Nobody had expected there to have once been a country that bizarre.

Thinking about it that way, Konoha's Will of Bullying suddenly had a somewhat reasonable explanation.

It no longer felt quite like one of those incomprehensible rule-based horror stories.

Instead, it resembled a kind of Dark Forest principle.

You had to bully others to prove your own status!

If you treated someone kindly, that was taken as proof that you were beneath them—and therefore someone who could be bullied freely.

If they were talking purely about darkness, Obito's belief that the shinobi world was too dark and therefore needed Infinite Tsukuyomi was actually backwards.

The shinobi world was far too bright.

Whether politicians or merchants, even people with malicious intentions were almost pitifully simple.

Even the supposed masterminds and professional scapegoats—people like Danzō and Black Zetsu—had only done so much.

There were cultural differences between regions, of course, but everyone still spoke the same language and even used the same currency.

There simply weren't that many deep barriers between different parts of the shinobi world.

Compared with Makoto's previous world, the shinobi world's darkness was still nowhere close.

Even during the bloodiest and most chaotic era of the Warring States, Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara's greatest dream had simply been:

A world where children wouldn't have to go onto battlefields and die.

And that revealed something important.

In their understanding of the world, children who didn't go to war simply wouldn't die.

They could grow up happily.

In other words, if you weren't on the battlefield and weren't considered an enemy, you were safe.

There were no incidents where someone like Deidara would ride a clay bird over a village and casually drop explosive clay onto the Ninja Academy, hospital, or orphanage.

That fundamentally innocent environment was precisely why Hashirama believed peace could be achieved through mutual understanding rather than conquest and elimination of potential threats.

In many ways, the shinobi world was genuinely kind.

Except when it came to the Will of Bullying.

There, Konoha had long since surpassed even the Masala Kingdom.

The Masala Kingdom's Will of Bullying was impressive mostly because of scale: more than a billion people supposedly shared it.

But theirs was still merely ordinary bullying of the weak and fear of the strong.

Like a spring—

If you didn't press them down first, they would spring back and press you down instead.

Konoha's Will of Bullying had transcended such shallow limitations.

Who said someone stronger than them could force them to behave?

Only bullying the strong could demonstrate the true Will of Bullying!

If you were stronger and threatened their lives, they would bully you anyway.

If you were stronger and didn't threaten their lives—

Then they had even more reason to bully you viciously.

That was exactly what Naruto was experiencing now.

Konoha's true inheritors of the Will of Bullying would neither fear a strong target nor spare a weak one out of some desire to appear honorable.

That was called treating everyone equally.

Pragmatism.

Faced with the Hyūga clan's concentrated Will of Bullying, Naruto genuinely had no idea how to respond.

So he turned around and tried to leave.

"Naruto, stop!"

"If you walk away, that means you look down on us!"

"You think saving us gives you the right to despise us?!"

"Naruto, if you want to fight, take this kunai and stab me straight through the heart! Come on!"

The Hyūga clansmen surged forward and surrounded Naruto.

They weren't even afraid of death.

What else could possibly frighten them?

Naruto was completely helpless.

[Commercial Break — We'll Be Right Back]

Time for a brief language lesson~

The modern slang character 怂, meaning cowardly or timid, is derived from the older character 㞞.

Historically, that older character carried a much cruder meaning, and classical works sometimes used related phrases as insults implying humiliation, submission, and being controlled by others.

Over time, that sense of being dominated or made powerless gradually evolved into the modern meaning of cowardice.

And thanks to convergent linguistic evolution, even though the shinobi world had never experienced the exact same development of written characters, similar ideas had apparently emerged there too.

Which meant…

The Hyūga clansmen, intent on bullying the currently defenseless fox-like Naruto, began preparing themselves for an even more outrageous escalation.

"Lady Hokage, move!"

Hinata, still battling Kushina in the air, noticed what was happening below and immediately panicked.

"Let me kill them! People like that don't deserve to call themselves my clansmen!"

"Impossible!"

Kushina refused without hesitation.

"Hinata, stop this now!"

"I will not allow you to harm even one of these worthless villagers!"

"Every worthless villager in Konoha is still my personal property."

"You've already committed an unforgivable crime by trying to destroy my possessions without permission!"

"That's right, Nee-sama!"

Hanabi stood on a rooftop below, crying as she shouted toward the sky.

"At least leave a few for me!"

Uh.

That one had accidentally come straight from the heart.

Fortunately, the battle overhead was too intense.

Golden and teal streaks of chakra repeatedly collided in midair, and neither Kushina nor Hinata could hear Hanabi clearly.

The situation below was becoming equally urgent.

If nobody stopped it soon, Naruto's future might become very strange indeed.

Naruto panicked.

Every time he tried to force his way free, one of the Hyūga clansmen immediately raised a kunai toward their own throat, threatening to die on the spot.

Under that kind of moral coercion, Naruto couldn't do anything.

By now, he had completely forgotten that he was inside the illusionary world of Engraved Tsukuyomi.

Even if someone died here, nothing would happen to the real person.

His indiscriminate kindness had become a chain binding his own hands.

Then, at the most critical moment—

Naruto suddenly remembered one of the most important conclusions he had reached earlier.

The ultimate counter to space-time ninjutsu…

Was sewage.

Right!

That was it!

Inheritors of the Will of Bullying might not fear death—

But did they fear filth?

"STOP!"

Naruto suddenly shouted.

"Naruto, are you still trying to resist?"

"If you do, we'll all kill ourselves right here!"

"Let's see how you explain that to Lady Hokage!"

"No!"

Naruto hurriedly shook his head.

"What I mean is… there are so many of you, but only one of me."

"How am I supposed to deal with everyone fairly?"

"And if you line up, what happens if the people at the back are germaphobes?"

"So…"

Naruto raised his hands.

"I'm going to use the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique."

"…"

One clansman blinked.

"Naruto, you're actually being pretty considerate."

Naruto immediately created a huge number of shadow clones.

But in reality, he secretly sent many of them racing toward Konoha's septic tank in search of a way out.

…

"Naruto?"

Namikaze Minato happened to glance out a window and spotted a familiar figure rushing past.

He immediately climbed out and intercepted the shadow clone.

"Dad!"

The moment Naruto saw him, he nearly burst into tears.

"I was wrong! Please save me!"

Naruto hurriedly explained the terrible situation his real body was about to face.

"What?!"

Minato's eyes widened.

"There's something that good—"

He stopped himself.

"No. I mean, of course I'll help you."

Minato was admittedly rather envious of Naruto's predicament.

But Naruto wasn't like him.

His son wasn't the kind of person who enjoyed chaotic situations like that.

So Minato reluctantly suppressed his own reaction.

"Naruto."

He placed a Flying Raijin mark on the shadow clone.

"I've marked you."

"Go back."

"Leave the rest to me."

"Trust your father."

Naruto's clone stared at him.

Then nodded hard.

"Yeah!"

For the first time since entering this world, Naruto genuinely felt the warmth of a father's love.

Even though this version of his father was naturally questionable in all kinds of ways—

Minato was still willing to trust him and help him unconditionally.

It was almost enough to make Naruto cry.

Then Namikaze Minato activated Flying Raijin.

He disappeared.

And reappeared inside Konoha's septic tank.

Standing in the middle of it, Minato spread both arms and formed the necessary technique.

"Flying Raijin: Guiding Thunder!"

That's right.

The same derivative of Flying Raijin capable of redirecting even a Ten-Tails Tailed Beast Bomb.