Naruto: I, who fooled the ninja world, was hailed as a savior.

Chapter 274 Naruto: This is not the answer I'm looking for
The underground refuge is located deep beneath Shadow Rock.

The reinforced dome was packed with people.

Thousands of civilians who escaped to safety huddled together like sardines in a can—men, women, the elderly, children…

The heat and stench from thousands of people crammed together, along with the strong smell of blood emanating from the wounded area, mingled with the pungent odor of disinfectant.

It creates a "taste" called fear and death, nauseating, pressing down on everyone's chest, making it almost impossible to breathe.

This is Konoha's largest and most fortified refuge. Compared to the roars, explosions, and shouts of battle on the ground, there is only an almost suffocating silence here.

However, this deathly silence is not peace.

But fear.

"Water...please give me some water..."

"Waaah, Mommy, I'm scared..."

The groans of the wounded were no longer clear cries of pain, but rather intermittent groans squeezed out from deep in their throats, with occasional short screams from those who could not bear the excruciating pain.

The children had been crying for so long that it had mostly turned into physiological sobbing. They curled up in their parents' arms, their bodies trembling with fear.

The women's suppressed sobs never ceased; their faces were already blurred by smoke and tears, leaving only primal fear and bewilderment at their unknown fate.

Whenever a dull explosion and tremor came from the rock above, all sound in the entire shelter would instantly disappear.

Thousands of people seemed to have been collectively choked, raising their heads in terror and staring intently at the seemingly solid dome, their hearts almost stopping.

Only after the tremors subsided did a chorus of trembling breaths, as if the survivors had escaped a catastrophe, and even more suppressed sobs erupt.

Most corners of the shelter were shrouded in dim shadow, and the limited lighting was mostly used for the first aid area for the wounded.

"Here, here we need hemostats!"

"Bandages! Does anyone have any clean bandages?!"

"Miss Shizune! This child is dying, come quickly!"

There were very few medical ninjas, led by Shizune. Most of them were constantly running around among the wounded, their shadows dancing on the rock wall and stretching and deforming with the movement of the lights.

"Huh...huh..."

Silent breathing was heavy. Her once-neat medical gown was now stained beyond recognition with blood and dirt. The hair on her forehead was soaked with sweat and clung tightly to her pale cheeks.

She was focused on treating a severely wounded Konoha ninja in front of her. Shrapnel from an explosive grenade was deeply embedded in his lungs, and each breath was accompanied by a chilling sound of blood and foam.

Debridement, exploration, hemostasis, careful removal of fragments, suturing of ruptured blood vessels...

The silent movements were quick yet precise, almost like a machine, since each step had been repeated dozens of times, almost forming muscle memory.

"Needle holder." Without looking up, she instinctively reached out her hand to her side and said.

"Shizune-neechan," Karin, who was assisting her, said quickly, "the needle holder is gone."

Upon hearing this, Shizune paused for a moment, then turned her head sharply, her expression changing instantly.

"Karin." A steady voice came promptly, accompanied by hurried but not flustered footsteps.

Naruto Uzumaki strode over, his face bearing a seriousness beyond his years, carrying the needle holder and hemostat she desperately needed, which had already been urgently sterilized.

"Naruto, that was just in time!" Karin almost greedily inhaled, her tense nerves instantly relaxing for a moment.

Without even a word of thanks, Jingyin grabbed the instruments and immediately plunged back into the bloody surgery.

Naruto paid no attention, silently taking a step back to leave enough space, and looked at the pale face and hideous wounds of the seriously injured ninja, his eyes flickering slightly.

"Naruto."

Just then, another clear voice came from not far away. Naruto immediately came to his senses and looked in the direction of the voice.

Uchiha Sasuke and another medical ninja were standing next to a makeshift operating table.

Sasuke's lowered face also carried a solemn expression, and his dark eyes flashed with a scarlet light, his three-tomoe Sharingan having been activated for a long time.

"Here you go." Naruto immediately stepped forward and handed over the sutures and cotton wool that Sasuke and the others urgently needed.

"Thank you." Sasuke looked up, smiled at him, took the gift, and handed it to the medical ninja beside him.

Using the Sharingan's dynamic vision and insight, he pinpointed the location of minute blood vessels and nerve bundles, assisting the medical ninja beside him in performing nerve reconnection surgery.

Naruto took another step back, shifting his gaze from the heavily injured ninja, and slowly raised his head to survey the entire shelter.

The makeshift stretchers laid out on the ground were no longer sufficient, and the wounded who were brought in later had to lie directly on the ground. The painful groans and uncontrollable screams of the seriously injured rose and fell.

Blood pooled on the ground, forming thick, dark red splatters. Konoha ninjas walked back and forth stepping on them, making soft, pattering sounds that sent chills down one's spine.

Those with minor injuries were either sitting or lying down, most with vacant and blank stares, clearly still recovering from their terrifying experience.

Most of them were covered by a slimy slug split body, which was emitting a soft, emerald-green light, healing their injuries.

Naruto's gaze swept across the busy crowd and spotted other familiar figures.

Kiba Inuzuka, Shino Aburame, Shikamaru Nara, Choji Akimichi, Lee, Tenten...

In a corner, Sakura Haruno, who had always excelled in theoretical studies at the Ninja Academy, was now deathly pale.

"Ugh! Cough cough!" She gripped the cold rock wall with both hands, her body trembling and vomiting uncontrollably.

After all, she was just an ordinary person. She had just witnessed the entire amputation surgery, and the bloody scene and the agonizing screams of the injured person shattered her psychological defenses.

In contrast, Yamanaka Ino, who came from a mountain clan and had a wider range of knowledge, was in a slightly better condition. Although her face was also pale, she endured her discomfort and gently patted Sakura's back.

In fact, students like Sakura Haruno, Naruto, and Sasuke who still dare to stay here and help are a very, very small minority.

Most children of this age, even those in ninja training, are seeing this kind of scene for the first time and simply cannot withstand the impact of such carnage and life-or-death situations.

They had already been relegated to relatively clean areas to comfort others, or were simply too terrified to offer any help and were curled up trembling.

However, there is no alternative.

The Akatsuki's horrific attack on Konoha in an attempt to seize the Nine-Tails has resulted in casualties and destruction that have even surpassed the infamous "Uchiha Night."

The "Uchiha Night" was largely contained around the Uchiha clan's territory because the clan's territory was located on the edge of Konoha.

Furthermore, since the 'Shadows' and 'Espada' did not launch a large-scale attack, the impact on other areas of the village was relatively limited, so the civilian casualties were not actually that great.

But this time, it's completely different.

In order to attract and restrain the majority of Konoha's power and conceal their true purpose of seizing the Nine-Tails, the Akatsuki organization is creating the largest-scale chaos and panic without any scruples.

Whether it's Miyajo En, whose hands are stained with the blood of his own kind and whose mind is already twisted, or Shennong, who is ambitious and wants to revive the Land of the Sky, and his Sky Ninja... they will show no mercy or leniency towards Konoha in order to achieve their goals.

The rows of lifeless corpses, silently covered with white sheets, stood in the corner, silently yet deafeningly telling the story of the attack's brutality and cruelty.

While some of the wounded can be healed by slug mitochondria, the number of wounded people to be concerned about is simply too large.

The slugs have been dispersed to their limit, and the healing ability of each split entity has been weakened to the minimum, only able to keep the seriously injured alive or heal the minor injuries.

Most of the Konoha ninjas were out fighting the enemy, and the number of medical ninjas left behind in the shelters was ultimately insufficient to cope with so many wounded.

Therefore, they could only force these still-naive genin, or even children who had not yet graduated from the ninja academy, to face death prematurely, a fate they should have faced only after becoming genin.

They were forced to use the hands that should have been used to practice kunai to pass blood-stained equipment, to carry mutilated limbs, and to face the most real death...

"Is this what war is?"

Naruto Uzumaki stared at everything before him, his stomach churning and his heart pounding wildly in his chest.

Instinctive fear, like a cold tide, repeatedly assaulted his nerves, driving him to look away and flee from this bloodshed and despair.

However, the composure cultivated under the tutelage of Otsutsuki Kumoshiki firmly held his shoulders, telling him that there was no point in running away.

If you truly abhor death, you should confront it directly, understand it, and know why it exists.

Thinking of this, Naruto slowly took a breath, as if he were forcibly absorbing, breaking down, and enduring the thick stench of blood and despair in the air.

His body stopped trembling slightly, and his eyes gradually changed from initial fear, reluctance, and sadness to calm and rationality.

The perspective seems to be detached, transforming from a participant into an absolutely rational observer suspended in mid-air.

"Teacher," Naruto said in his mind, "Do you know who these intruders are, and why they did this?"

After a brief silence, a voice that seemed devoid of any emotion resounded directly from the depths of his mind.

"The Land of Rain, 'Akatsuki,' an organization established in Amegakure around the time of the Third Shinobi World War."

"Their initial idea was to build a bridge of hope to peace through communication between people and between countries, and to bring true peace to their country without relying on extreme force."

Naruto's pupils twitched slightly; this answer clearly contradicted the cruelty he witnessed.

However, Yun's next words revealed the root of this contradiction.

"However, the leader of Amegakure at that time was misled and instigated by Danzo Shimura, the leader of Konoha Root."

"Hanzo feared that the Akatsuki's growing prestige might threaten his rule and even weaken the once-determined Amegakure, causing it to lose its will to fight."

"So he used 'peaceful negotiations' as a proposal to deceive three core members of Akatsuki into going to the meeting. At the meeting place, Hanzo colluded with Danzo to set up an ambush."

"They threatened another core member, Nagato, with the life of one of their core members, Konan, to kill the first leader, Yahiko. Because he couldn't bring himself to do it, Yahiko deliberately ran into the kunai in Nagato's hand."

Yun's tone remained calm, but Naruto could sense the immense and chilling cruelty hidden beneath that calmness.

"Thus, having lost their dearest friends and faith, the Akatsuki organization, in extreme pain and despair, and under the guidance of others, went to another extreme."

“Nagato became the second leader, believing that people in this world would never understand each other, so he devised an extreme plan.”

"To create the ultimate weapon capable of instantly destroying a country, and to use humanity's fear of pain and death to forcibly suppress war and guide the world toward peace."

Yun's narration ends here, without adding any subjective evaluation, simply presenting the coldest facts to Naruto's consciousness.

Upon hearing this, Naruto fell into a long silence, standing motionless as if he had turned into a stone statue.

Compared to his peers, and even compared to most ninjas, he is very familiar with the history of the ninja world under the careful guidance of his "teacher" over the years.

He certainly knew about the Land of Rain, which was known as the "Land of Weeping".

It is also clearer that the Land of Rain's strategic location at the intersection of the three great nations of fire, earth, and wind made it the battlefield of the three great ninja villages during the Second Shinobi World War.

For their own interests, the great powers brought war to the Land of Rain. Countless civilians of the Land of Rain were displaced, their families destroyed, and their lives lost in the war launched by the great powers.

Konoha was one of the main players involved.

Danzo Shimura, a high-ranking official in Konoha, directly planned and participated in the massacre of the Akatsuki organization.

That is to say...

"War breeds hatred." Naruto's lips moved slightly as he murmured to himself in a voice only he could hear.

His gaze swept across the scene before him once more, over the wounded groaning in pain, over the civilians weeping over the loss of their loved ones, over the survivors trembling with fear…

It was as if I could see the innocent souls of the Rain Kingdom, hidden in the shadows of history, weeping in the war...

“Hatred has created a new war.” Naruto’s voice lowered, carrying a heavy sense of powerlessness and confusion.

Whether he was originally the reincarnation of Ashura's chakra or Naruto who has now received education in another world, no matter how he changes, he still detests war from the bottom of his heart.

However, the difference is that what Naruto sees at this moment is not just the pain of Konoha, but the pain of centuries of war throughout the entire ninja world.

However, he is too young now and cannot see a way out.

All he could see was an endless spiral.

Who is right? Who is wrong?
For Konoha, Akatsuki, who attacked and caused casualties, is now an enemy; for Nagato, Konoha, which once brought him pain, is also an enemy.

No matter which side you're on, you can accuse the other of being wrong or evil; no one thinks they are the evil one.

It's just a difference in perspective.

So……

"Do I also have a stance?" Naruto asked himself. "Should I stand on Konoha's side?"

Yes, as a ninja of Konoha, I should stand on Konoha's side.

But from Konoha's perspective, can I still avert war?

The answer is obvious.

No.

Standing solely from Konoha's perspective, we can only bring peace to Konoha.

Even this false peace is built on the tyranny of a select few, just as Itachi Uchiha "sacrificed" the Uchiha clan for the sake of Konoha's peace.

This is not the answer Naruto is looking for.

　One more chapter! There are a lot of words in today's update, please wait a little longer QAQ
　　
　
(End of this chapter)