Naruto utilized the power of the King Kai's Voice Transmission to its absolute limit, blanketing the entirety of Konohagakure. His voice rang clearly in the ears of every villager and ninja present.
At the same time, an image of Naruto appeared in the depths of their minds, not his human form, but the terrifying silhouette of the Nine-Tailed Fox.
Like cold water poured into boiling oil, the village below instantly erupted into chaos.
"What?!"
"Did you hear that? That monster said he's going to destroy the village!"
"Did you see it? He finally turned into the Nine-Tailed Fox!"
"Hahaha, he finally exposed his true colors. Now Hokage-sama can order his execution, right?"
"Shinobi-sama, hurry! Kill that monster and avenge our dead relatives!"
Ugly, venomous curses rang out from every corner, eventually converging into a single, bloodthirsty chant.
"Execute him! Execute him! Execute him!"
The booming shouts reached even Naruto and Jiraiya high in the sky. The Black Orb balanced on Naruto's fingertip began to expand rapidly, fifty meters, one hundred meters, a kilometer, growing constantly larger and more potent.
Compared to the malice the Konoha villagers held toward Naruto, the hostility of Kusagakure didn't amount to a fraction. The twisted hatred radiating from these people was strong enough to birth a Zero-Tails.
"Jiraiya-san, look. What Konoha becomes is entirely decided by the villagers themselves." Naruto spoke calmly. His heart was tranquil, devoid of even a single ripple of hesitation. "I merely did a trivial thing. It is they who killed themselves."
"Konoha, accept judgment."
The Black Orb floating above Naruto's finger was now a massive Black Orb, large enough to eclipse the entire village. "I will bring despair!"
"Hahahaha! Do it, brat! Destroy them, annihilate them! You should have done this long ago!" Kurama laughed frantically within the Seal Space, feeling an unprecedented sense of relief. "Let these disgusting maggots witness the power of my Jinchuriki."
Kurama patted his round belly, his face twisting in disgust. "It is precisely because of these wretched creatures that I became this way!"
He was deeply dissatisfied with his current appearance. A thousand years ago, he had been cute, now, he was just a giant fox who had grown up wrong. However, while the face might be unfortunate, the belly really wasn't humanity's fault.
The original Kurama was simply a pure Chakra Lifeform. But over a thousand years, possessing the same malice-sensing ability as Naruto, countless human grievances had latched onto him. It was because of this accumulated hatred that Kurama came to be known as the embodiment of disaster.
It was laughable. These grudges were originally attached by humans themselves, yet those same humans blamed the Tailed Beasts for the hatred they had created.
It wasn't just Kurama, The Eight Other Tailed Beasts were the same. Initially created to protect humanity, they had been twisted into weapons for human wars.
Naruto curled his finger slightly, and the Dark Orb began its slow descent toward Konohagakure. "Let the world feel pain!"
Only then did the villagers below truly panic.
It felt just like that night years ago, facing the Tailed Beast Bomb the Nine-Tails had unleashed upon the village-there was only a deep, crushing sense of powerlessness. But this time, Minato wasn't there to risk his life and block it for them.
No, perhaps there was still someone.
Jiraiya forced his battered body to move, steering the Flying Toad to block the path of the Dark Orb.
"Although I have many prejudices against this village, I cannot watch helplessly as Konoha is destroyed."
"Summoning Jutsu!"
Two clothed toads appeared in a puff of smoke. "Pa, Ma, Honored Sages, there's no time to explain. I need your help."
"Jiraiya, leave it to us." The Sage toads, Fukasaku and Shima, exchanged a glance before hopping onto Jiraiya's left and right shoulders.
"Sage Mode: Activate!"
Jiraiya's nose instantly swelled, turning bright red and pebbled with warts. He had been gathering natural energy since the start of the confrontation, waiting for this exact moment.
He had to stop Naruto.
"Sage Art: Goemon!"
Oil, wind, and fire-three combined, infused with massive amounts of Senjutsu chakra. Theoretically, this attack could swallow any tangible matter in existence.
However, against the sheer density of the black sphere, the powerful Sage Art couldn't even slow its descent.
"Sage Art: Super Giant Flame Bullet!"
Another high-level Sage Art roared out, but it remained useless.
Sage Mode was indeed powerful, but the energy gathered from the concentrated malice of thousands was not something mere Senjutsu could withstand, at least, not Jiraiya's.
No matter what he tried, he could not stop Naruto's attack.
"Sage Art: Super Big Rasengan!"
Jiraiya drew out every ounce of chakra left in his body, compressing it into a massive sphere more than a hundred times the size of a standard Big Ball Rasengan.
"Jiraiya, are you thinking of...?" Shima guessed his intent.
"Ma, Pa, please return to Mount Myoboku," Jiraiya said, his expression relaxing as he looked up at the approaching doom. "I haven't returned to the village in so many years. I bear responsibility for this too."
"If someone must be sacrificed, why shouldn't it be me?" He smiled, his tone open and accepting. "I have already experienced everything I should have in this life. This is end of the tale of Jiraiya the Gallant..."
"Hahahaha! I didn't expect that I, a Wanderer, would be able to speak such profound philosophy one day."
"Such cool words... If I had known earlier, I would have written them into a book."
"I'm just sorry, Soaring Toad, that I'm making you perish here with me."
'The only pity is, I really wanted to see you one last time before dying, Tsunade.'
Even now, a trace of regret lingered in Jiraiya's heart. That woman, at least in his eyes, was his girl. He had loved her since they were students, and that feeling had never changed.
"Gu gu!" The Soaring Toad croaked a mournful response.
The two Toad Sages gave Jiraiya a deep, sorrowful look before disappearing in two pops of white smoke.
Jiraiya held the Sage Art: Super Big Rasengan high and charged straight toward the Dark Orb. The scene mirrored that of Bardock resolutely flying alone to face the Planet Frieza Destruction Cannon.
He didn't know how to dissuade Naruto, nor could he physically stop the attack. And so, he planned to sacrifice his life to awaken him.
Clearly, the fault wasn't his, yet he insisted on using his death to stop Naruto. The so-called 'awakening' was simply an attempt to trigger Naruto's guilt.
It was unreasonable. He had to pay the consequences of Hiruzen's and Danzo's mismanagement and bad decisions.
"Jiraiya-san, I do not hate you. The one who has to pay the price is not you, nor should it be you..." Naruto had noticed Jiraiya's movements early on. He didn't intervene, simply watching quietly as the Dark Orb swallowed the Sannin whole.
Unfortunately, Jiraiya's sacrifice had no effect. The Black Orb continued to fall, not delaying for even a heartbeat.
However, when the sphere was only a dozen meters from the ground, Jiraiya's body reappeared in the sky, completely intact.
He was still frozen in his sacrificial pose, hands raised high as if holding the Super Big Rasengan, though the technique itself was gone. The Black Orb seemed to have passed right through him without causing a scratch.
"Huh? Why am I fine?" Prepared for death, Jiraiya patted his chest in confusion, unable to understand how he had survived contact with such terrifying energy. 'Is it a genjutsu?'
Of course, it wasn't a genjutsu.
"I won't kill you," Naruto said slowly, finishing his earlier thought. "Every injustice has its perpetrator, every debt has its debtor. If it's not your business, you won't be invovled."
'You want to sacrifice yourself? I don't accept it.'
"Besides, have you really experienced everything you should have?" Naruto looked Jiraiya up and down with a pitying gaze.
"Aren't you still a virgin?"
Naruto had anticipated this. He knew someone would try to pull a heroic self-sacrifice, it was a staple of the genre, after all.
That was why he had improved the technique. This was the 'Harbinger's Bloom: Revised'.
'Harbinger's Bloom: Revised: An evolution of the technique that destroyed Kusagakure, specifically tailored for Konoha. It was developed by mimicking the principles of the Spirit Bomb, with a few key modifications.
Of course, if the name isn't cool enough, one could also call it Wind Style: Revenge Ultimate Demon Flash Death Destruction Cannon.
A traditional Spirit Bomb is formed by absorbing the vitality of living things, it damages opponents based on the evil in their hearts. Those with a heart of justice remain unharmed.
Naruto's Harbinger's Bloom: Revised, or rather, the Grudge Bomb, worked on a similar principle. As long as a person held no malice toward Naruto, they would not be harmed. The degree of damage received was directly proportional to their hatred.
This ensured he wouldn't accidentally kill certain innocent villagers, like the owner of the Ichiraku Ramen shop, or a slacker captain of Team 7.
Naruto wasn't a psychopath conducting indiscriminate slaughter. He had no desire to hurt the few people who had shown him kindness.
And that list included Jiraiya. Even now, the old sage held no true malice toward him.
"Who said I am a virgin?!" Jiraiya roared in protest. Are you kidding? Someone actually had the gall to call the Ninja World's Number One Wanderer, a regular patron of high-end establishments, a virgin?
But as the words left his mouth, reality crashed back in. He spun around, desperate to stop the attack. But having 'died' once, his mind was faster than his body, his conditioned reflexes hesitated for a fraction of a second.
And that split-second pause was all it took. It was too late.
The Black Orb fully submerged into the village.
In an instant, Konoha was swallowed. There were no landslides, no earth-shattering quakes, only a massive, drowning boom. Wherever the energy touched, matter ceased to exist. Countless buildings turned to dust in a heartbeat. Even the Hokage Rock, the iconic symbol that had withstood three Shinobi World wars, disintegrated as if it had never existed.
Villagers, Genin, Chunin, Jonin, status didn't matter. Anyone who held malice toward Naruto was equal in this moment.
All living beings are equal.
Just as Naruto had said, they were killed by their own malice. The deeper the hatred, the greater the devastation.
A massive mushroom cloud slowly rose into the sky.
The Harbinger's Bloom had bloomed once again.
"Sasuke-san, Neji-san, come look at the fireworks. Such beautiful fireworks."
===============
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