"You don't know?"
Kushina gave the Fire Daimyō a cold smile.
"You and your heir came to see me together, yet you're telling me you had no idea who he was meeting?"
"That's right. I really don't know anything. Hokage, you're falsely accusing me."
The Daimyō had already made up his mind to deny everything to the bitter end.
As the ruler of the Land of Fire, he had naturally been deeply dissatisfied with an overbearing, authoritarian Hokage like Kushina.
Even if he couldn't replace her with someone completely obedient, he at least wanted a Hokage who wouldn't openly walk all over him.
That was precisely why he had secretly contacted Orochimaru, who wanted to overthrow Konoha's current order, and offered to help with the Konoha Restoration Plan.
"Falsely accusing you?"
Kushina's smile vanished.
"Lord Daimyō, you are the sovereign and I am merely your subject. Subjects can be wronged, but how could a Daimyō ever be wrongfully accused?"
She slammed her palm onto the desk with such force that the entire room shook, then casually waved one hand.
The ANBU holding Ikkyū Madoka immediately began dragging him away for execution.
He had already drawn his blade.
"Father! Save me!"
Ikkyū shouted desperately toward the Daimyō.
"Hokage! Please!"
The Daimyō's face went pale.
"He's my only son! I'm already too old to have another child. Could you at least let Ikkyū father an heir before you—"
"You want him to leave behind a child who can avenge his father someday?"
Kushina interrupted coldly.
Then she looked toward the ANBU.
"Tanuki. Why haven't you done it yet? Do I need to remind you?"
"Yes, Lady Hokage!"
The masked ANBU dragged Ikkyū toward the enormous window overlooking Konoha.
Ikkyū tried to shout again, but the ANBU immediately silenced him before hauling him the rest of the way.
A flash of steel swept past.
Moments later, Ikkyū Madoka's execution was complete.
The villagers below barely reacted.
Public executions like this had happened more than once under Kushina's rule.
They simply had no idea that the person executed this time had been the Fire Daimyō's sole heir.
"Lord Daimyō."
Kushina returned to her seat as though nothing unusual had happened.
"Your heir's treason has nothing to do with you this time."
"But if there's a next time, things won't end this simply."
"Was there anything else you wanted to discuss with me?"
"If not, I still have to deal with the aftermath of this conspiracy. Please return to your hotel and rest."
She had plainly dismissed him.
"N-No. Nothing else."
The Daimyō forced an ugly smile.
"Hokage, you truly are formidable. Ten times the hero the First Hokage ever was…"
Then he hurriedly left with his dignity in tatters.
Naruto stared after him, completely speechless.
Until now, he had only heard rumors about how domineering his mother was in this world.
He had assumed people merely meant she was a little too strict.
Today was the first time he had witnessed what her rule actually looked like.
The shock was so great that Naruto had completely forgotten to plead for the Daimyō's heir.
For the first time, he felt as though he could understand the Sage of Six Paths.
Perhaps Hagoromo's mother, Kaguya, really had ruled like this too.
Naruto was confused.
For a while, he genuinely didn't know what he was supposed to do.
…
After everyone dispersed, Naruto thought of Jiraiya.
He decided to seek out this world's Pervy Sage and ask for help.
More importantly, he wanted to understand why Jiraiya had joined forces with Orochimaru and become involved in this conspiracy.
Even in the real shinobi world, Jiraiya and Orochimaru might not have become absolute mortal enemies, but their paths had still diverged completely.
Orochimaru valued reason and pursued science.
Jiraiya was driven almost entirely by emotion and believed deeply in prophecy.
Their philosophies were fundamentally incompatible.
As for Kushina, although she had assigned Neji and the others the task of exposing Orochimaru's conspiracy as a way to redeem themselves, she hadn't simply left the matter in their hands.
She also dispatched ANBU to conduct a full investigation.
Konoha was purged from the inside out.
Rumor had it that one married couple once whispered a dirty joke about Kushina and Makoto while lying in bed late at night.
Before the wife could even laugh, the ANBU hiding beneath their bed laughed first.
Then the couple disappeared.
It was terrifying.
…
Naruto arrived at the Fire Temple.
He had heard of the place in the real shinobi world, but he had never actually visited it.
Jiraiya had once mentioned that there was supposedly a miniature Nine-Tails here, though Naruto had no idea whether Engraved Tsukuyomi had preserved that part of reality.
"Pervy Sage!"
Naruto spotted Jiraiya emerging from the Fire Temple with an obviously nervous expression and immediately ran toward him in delight.
"Naruto?!"
Jiraiya's face changed.
He turned around and tried to flee.
Unfortunately for him, Naruto now possessed Nine-Tails chakra.
There was no chance Jiraiya could outrun him.
Naruto caught him within moments.
Jiraiya's face immediately became one of absolute despair.
"Naruto."
He spoke with the solemnity of a man facing his final moments.
"For the sake of your father being my student, just give me a quick death."
"Whatever you do, don't hand me over to your mother."
"…"
Naruto scratched his head.
"I'm not here to arrest you."
Jiraiya froze.
"What?"
"I came because I wanted to ask you something."
Naruto frowned.
"Pervy Sage, why are you working with Orochimaru? And why did you get involved in all of this?"
"You're… not here to arrest me?"
Jiraiya stared at him for several seconds.
Then understanding dawned.
"Wait."
"Naruto, do you also think Kushina is wrong?"
"Uh…"
Naruto hesitated.
"I guess so."
"That's fantastic!"
Jiraiya grabbed both of Naruto's hands.
"Naruto, you absolutely have to join us!"
"Hold on!"
Naruto quickly pulled back.
"I still don't understand any of this. Why are you doing it?"
Jiraiya knew that unless Naruto's doubts were resolved, there was no chance he would comfortably join their side.
So he decided to tell Naruto the truth about himself and Orochimaru.
"Orochimaru and I…"
Jiraiya paused.
"…are actually married."
Naruto's eyes nearly jumped out of his skull.
"You two are bond-type shinobi?!"
By now, Naruto had become remarkably proficient at using the term.
No wonder Jiraiya had rebelled against his mother.
He was one of them too!
"No."
To Naruto's astonishment, Jiraiya shook his head.
"I'm not."
"Orochimaru is a woman."
Naruto went silent.
"And I don't mean that Orochimaru only became female after Living Corpse Reincarnation."
Jiraiya's expression turned unusually serious.
"I mean Orochimaru was originally female."
Naruto stared at him.
"I discovered it while researching ancient texts."
"In one old book, I found the story of a tragic married couple. The more I read, the more I realized that the two of them were strangely similar to Orochimaru and me."
"At first, I assumed it was coincidence."
"But the coincidences kept piling up."
"So eventually, I brought Orochimaru here to the Fire Temple."
Naruto blinked.
"Why the Fire Temple?"
"Because one of the monks here, Chiriku, guards a place known as the Thunder Pagoda."
"Inside it are sealed the memories of Orochimaru's and my previous lives."
Naruto stared at him.
"Why is there a Thunder Pagoda inside the Fire Temple?"
"Don't worry about insignificant details."
Jiraiya waved him off.
"The important part is that Orochimaru and I came here to recover the memories of our past lives."
"And only then did I learn the truth."
Jiraiya's expression became distant.
"In our previous lives, I used to call Orochimaru Zhen'er."
"And she called me Xian-lang."
Naruto's face slowly went blank.
"Orochimaru really was a white snake."
"The forbidden technique she's developing now, the Eight Branches Technique, was never merely some random transformation."
"It was a method her previous incarnation left behind so that she could eventually return to her ancestral form."
"And the reason she can't learn senjutsu from Ryūchi Cave…"
Jiraiya sighed.
"…is because in her previous life, she abandoned Ryūchi Cave to be with me."
"The White Snake Sage was furious and cast her out."
"…"
Naruto finally understood.
Case closed.
They weren't bond-type shinobi at all.
They were furry lovers!
No wonder Orochimaru wanted to carry out the Konoha Restoration Plan.
If the world didn't return to an age where humans and animals could openly live together in harmony, then Orochimaru and Jiraiya's relationship would never be accepted by the shinobi world.
Eventually, another monk—or perhaps another Uchiha Itachi—would appear and tear them apart all over again.