Hearing Orochimaru's words, both Hiruzen Sarutobi and Jiraiya felt their eyes narrow.
One word, in particular, stood out to both of them.
Leader.
That was not a word people used lightly.
Normally, it referred to the head of an organization or the one standing at the top of a larger force. In other words, whoever stood before them was not acting alone. He belonged to something bigger.
And if that was true, then their appearance in Konoha was no coincidence.
They had approached the Nine-Tails' jinchūriki with a clear purpose.
There was no way Hiruzen would believe otherwise.
"What exactly do you mean by that?" Hiruzen asked, his voice turning cold. "Who are you? And what is your purpose in coming to Konoha?"
The moment his words fell, the ANBU stationed around the room immediately moved. Weapons were drawn in near-perfect unison, every gaze fixed sharply on the two intruders.
Yet in the face of that killing intent, Namikaze Kirito remained completely unbothered.
He sat there as though none of it concerned him, calmly continuing to eat from the bowl in his hands.
Beside him, Orochimaru's eyes flickered with open disdain.
With his current power, he did not think much of the people gathered here.
After all, he now possessed the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan. If he truly wished to, he could deal with everyone in this room himself, even without Kirito lifting a finger.
That included Hiruzen Sarutobi and Jiraiya.
Though he had spent much of his time in Gensokyo immersed in research, he had never neglected his own strength.
Orochimaru had always been the kind of man most willing to experiment on himself.
No matter what rare kekkei genkai, strange physique, or even something like Hashirama's cells, he would find a way to integrate it into his own body if it served his purposes.
With the leader's dark power making so many things possible, it would have been stranger if he hadn't gained something from it.
Jiraiya stared at Orochimaru, a deep unease rising in his chest.
That familiar feeling had returned.
It made no sense. The two of them had never met this man before… and yet the way he stood there, the way he looked at them, even the way he carried himself—
It all felt painfully familiar.
Unlike Jiraiya, who was still caught in that uneasy confusion, Hiruzen had already lost patience.
Seeing that neither of them intended to answer, the pressure around his body slowly began to rise.
At this point in time, Hiruzen was not yet the old man he would one day become. Though the title of "strongest Hokage" had long since become more symbolic than absolute, no one could deny that in his prime, he was still a shinobi of terrifying caliber.
If he had been able to preserve the resolve and clarity he possessed in the era when he was hailed as The Professor, perhaps Konoha would never have become what it later did.
And perhaps Namikaze Kirito would never have suffered as he had.
Kirito finally looked up.
He sounded almost bored.
"With pressure like that, you should really stop before you embarrass yourself."
The instant he spoke, a far more terrifying presence flooded the room.
It came without warning.
Minato and Kushina were not affected by it, but for Hiruzen, who stood directly in front of Kirito, it felt as though a mountain had suddenly crashed down onto his shoulders.
His body nearly buckled on the spot.
Only by forcing every bit of strength through his limbs did he manage to keep himself upright.
Jiraiya was no better off. The table beneath the hand he had braced against split apart with a sharp crack.
The ANBU were in an even worse state.
One after another, they were slammed to the ground under the sheer force of that pressure. Some coughed violently, fresh blood spilling from their mouths and noses as their bodies trembled against the floor.
The atmosphere in the room turned suffocating.
Minato's expression grew complicated.
In his heart, he was instinctively drawn toward Kirito.
But he was also a shinobi of Konoha.
Kushina, on the other hand, was far less conflicted.
As far as she was concerned, Hiruzen and the others had come here with clear hostility toward someone from her clan. Kirito pushing back was only natural.
Besides, no one had died.
That alone made it easy enough for her to dismiss.
Hiruzen stared at Kirito in disbelief, his heart sinking.
He had never felt pressure like this before.
Not even when facing his own teacher.
How could someone so young possess power this monstrous?
And judging from Kirito's relaxed expression, this was still not his full strength.
Hiruzen's guess was right.
If Kirito had truly released everything at once, the house would have collapsed long ago.
But he had no intention of destroying this place.
This was still his home.
Too many memories were tied to it.
And more importantly, his parents were standing right there beside him, still unaware of the full truth. If he destroyed Konoha right in front of them now, there would be no easy way to explain it.
At that moment, Orochimaru rose to his feet.
Naturally, Kirito's pressure did not affect him.
He walked slowly toward Jiraiya, then stopped in front of him and said in a low, almost mocking voice,
"You really do look like an idiot no matter when I see you."
Jiraiya's eyes widened.
That voice.
That way of speaking...
His mind jolted.
Orochimaru.
There was no mistaking it. The words, the expression, the mannerisms… all of it felt exactly like Orochimaru.
But that was impossible.
The real Orochimaru was supposed to be away on a mission. He had even contacted Jiraiya not long ago.
So who the hell was this?
Jiraiya's gaze turned colder.
"Who are you people?!"
At that, the corners of Kirito's lips lifted slightly.
At last.
The moment had finally come.
This was where he would find out whether history really could be changed.
"As I told you before, the name Uzumaki Kirito was a lie."
The room froze.
Under everyone's stunned gaze, Kirito spoke slowly and clearly.
"My real name is… Namikaze Kirito."
"Namikaze Kirito?!"
"The Namikaze… and an Uzumaki?"
Even in shock, Jiraiya's mind was racing.
He looked at Kirito's face, then at Minato, then Kushina.
The resemblance was obvious now that he allowed himself to see it.
Kirito carried Minato's features, but there was also something of Kushina in him. Add that to the Uzumaki bloodline, the Namikaze name, and the way he had spoken to Minato from the moment he arrived—
A terrible conclusion began to form in Jiraiya's mind.
Minato and Kushina stared at Kirito in stunned silence.
"Namikaze…?"
Their voices were barely above a whisper.
If what he was saying was true, then that meant—
Their child?
But that was absurd.
They were not even married yet. How could they possibly have a son this old standing in front of them?
And yet the strange pull they had both felt from the very beginning suddenly made far more sense.
Kushina had assumed it was simply because he belonged to the same clan.
Now that explanation had shattered completely.
Hiruzen, meanwhile, flatly refused to believe it.
Even with the evidence staring him right in the face, he would not accept something so outrageous.
"How could you possibly be Minato's son?" he snapped. "This is simply Impossible!"
At that exact moment, the door suddenly slid open again.
Another figure stepped inside.
It was Orochimaru.
He had received Hiruzen's summons earlier, and since the mission site was not far from Konoha, he had returned directly with his people.
But the moment he saw the scene before him, even he paused.
His teacher and Jiraiya were both being suppressed.
The ANBU had been forced to the ground.
The air itself felt heavy with invisible pressure.
What kind of monster had created a scene like this?
The older Orochimaru—the one standing beside Kirito in disguise—looked at his younger self and immediately smiled, his eyes gleaming with amusement.
"Hehe… how strange. Looking at myself like this is a rather interesting feeling."
Jiraiya looked as though he had just been struck by lightning.
Kirito claiming to be Minato's child.
That overwhelming sense of familiarity.
And now this.
If Jiraiya was not mistaken, then he was witnessing something far more terrifying than a simple infiltration.
Young Orochimaru stepped forward and went straight to Hiruzen's side. Then he turned his slit-pupiled gaze toward Kirito with open curiosity.
"Sensei," he asked calmly, "is the Uzumaki clansman the target?"
When Hiruzen gave a grim nod, Orochimaru licked his lips, drew a kunai, and lowered himself into a fighting stance.
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