Chapter 138: A Day of Family Reunion

Naruto did not press the shinobi to immediately devise new sources of revenue for Konoha. He merely planted a seed, allowing them to eventually grasp for themselves the absurdity of being the ones who wielded the power, yet remaining shackled by the daimyo.

By the time the meeting concluded, the moon had climbed high into the sky. Naruto left the conference room with a light step, his back straight, showing not a hint of fatigue. The other shinobi watched his retreating figure and whispered among themselves, lamenting what a pity it was that someone so physically strong and full of vitality as Naruto would refuse to become the Hokage.

For the first time in a long while, Naruto had finished his work, and he returned to his small apartment. Since the day the extraterrestrial robots invaded, he had not closed his eyes once, relying entirely on his robust constitution to push through. Today, he finally had the leisure to get some proper rest.

As he threw his exhausted body onto the soft sheets, voices suddenly drifted into his ears.

"Kurama, has Naruto always lived like this? All by himself?" one voice asked, filled with concern. "I didn't have to live like this back then."

"Indeed. The brat is quite capable of taking care of himself; he always looks after his own needs well," Kurama’s voice remained as imposing as ever.

"No, that’s not what we meant. We’re asking if Naruto is always this busy? He hasn’t even had a proper meal," another voice interceded, its tone laced with heartache.

"And he’s worked so hard, yet there’s no one to look after him?" this voice continued. "He’s been toiling away for days, and now that he’s finally back home, he doesn’t even have a warm meal to eat. This is just..."

There were three people speaking in total—one was Kurama, but Naruto did not recognize the other two voices. However, they felt strangely familiar, as if he had heard them somewhere before.

Who could be talking to Kurama? Naruto was filled with confusion.

He remembered that ever since the day of the Chunin Exams, when he borrowed power from the Nine-Tails, he had not had a moment to speak with the beast. With that in mind, he sank his consciousness inward and entered the seal space.

"Ah, the brat has arrived."

As soon as Naruto entered the seal space, he saw Kurama standing beside a man and a woman.

The two of them, one with golden hair and the other with red, possessed faces that were deeply familiar to Naruto. He had gazed upon these faces in photographs countless times; they were his parents—the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, and the previous Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, Kushina Uzumaki.

"Dad, Mom, you’re here too," Naruto said.

He had imagined in countless silent nights whether he would find it difficult to utter the words "Dad" and "Mom" if he ever met his biological parents. In those daydreams, he felt these words might be impossibly heavy, difficult to speak. But when he finally said them, Naruto was surprised to find that they came out so naturally, as if they had always been on his lips, ready to be spoken at any moment.

Naruto had also pondered whether he harbored any resentment toward his parents. Although he could understand their reasoning back then, he had ultimately suffered a great deal because of their arrangements and had not lived a particularly happy life. Moreover, he had paid a heavy price for their plans without reaping much of the benefit. It was only recently, when the shinobi wanted to nominate him as the next Hokage due to his lineage and abilities, that Naruto finally saw some of the dividends—yet, he had rejected them anyway.

But now, standing before them, Naruto found that he had no such complicated thoughts. He discovered that his attitude toward his parents was entirely natural. Perhaps it was because, in his previous life at the orphanage, the matron had taught him what love was and how to get along with family.

It was just a pity that while Naruto had found love, he had also lost it.

At this thought, Naruto could not help but feel a touch of self-mockery. He wondered, if he had been a member of the Uchiha clan, would he have already awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan the day the artillery fire leveled the orphanage?

In that instant, a complex wave of emotions surged within him: nostalgia for the past, reflections on fate, and high aspirations for the future.

"Naruto..."

Minato stood there, looking somewhat at a loss. It seemed he had not prepared himself for this encounter.

Kushina, however, rushed straight forward. She landed a punch on Naruto’s head, then grabbed his face and rubbed it vigorously, scolding him loudly with an expression of fury:

"Naruto! What did I tell you back then? I told you not to be a picky eater! I told you to eat plenty! But look at what you’ve been eating these past few days! Nothing but three cups of instant noodles! It’s all junk food, and so little of it! You should at least have some rice and vegetables, something warm!"

"I told you not to stay up late, to get plenty of sleep! Look at you, how many days has it been since you’ve slept? I’ve seen seven days already, and Kurama told me you didn't sleep properly the night before the Chunin Exams! He even told me you’re always staying up late, tinkering with those useless things! If it weren't for your Uzumaki constitution and Kurama helping you, you would have died long ago!"

"And I told you to remember to bathe regularly and soak in warm water to keep yourself healthy. Did you listen? Hmm? I can even smell the stench on you!"

"I told you to make more friends. And what about you? Aside from Sasuke and that little Hinata, do you have any other friends? That brat Sasuke is still giving you the cold shoulder lately, and I don't think it makes any sense at all. You helped him protect his parents, yet he’s still angry with you—is there any reason in that? I’m going to have a serious talk with Mikoto!"

"And you, Minato! How did you teach Kakashi? And what about that Obito? One of them just stands there pretending to be dead, not taking little Naruto seriously; the other actually dared to raise a hand against him! If I had known, I would have beaten them up every single day!"

As she spoke, Kushina pulled Naruto into a tight embrace and began to sob.

"Naruto, why aren't you obedient? Mom told you so many things, and you didn't remember a single one!"

"Mom doesn't want you to live such a hard life; you just needed to grow up safe, sound, and healthy! Why are you torturing yourself like this?"

"I told you to be careful of Master Jiraiya, and yet you still ran off with him! Not just Jiraiya, you’ve been running around with Orochimaru, and you want to find that old hag Tsunade... Those three scoundrels—one a pervert, one a gambler, and one a poisonous snake—none of them are any good. Why are you hanging out with them?"

Naruto nestled quietly in Kushina’s arms, listening to her incoherent rambling. He finally understood why Kushina had earned the nickname "Red Hot Habanero" in Konoha. Her strength was truly immense; she gripped his shoulders so tightly that even with his constitution, he felt the pain.

At this moment, Naruto felt as if all the air was being squeezed out of his lungs, as if he were being crushed, his very bones and blood yearning to return to Kushina.