Marvel: Raising — Chapter 137 - Naruto: I’ve Got Someone Backing Me Up

"Who wants this thing!"

Universally acknowledged pretty boy. Genius. Bearer of a clan's massacre and the hatred of one particular utility pole.

Sasuke was like Chu Zihang on that rainy overpass night, in the back of a Maybach, his whole life, he had an inescapable need to flex.

One day without flexing, and someone would come hammer him, forcing him to be impressive.

But today.

Years of flexing. The Uchiha dream. Shattered by a single punch from the dead-last Naruto.

Sasuke's eyes were red. Head lowered. He tossed the telescope aside.

He turned around completely, faced the wall, and his shoulders started hitching, one jerk, then another, punctuated by choked, wet sniffles.

Naruto: "......"

No way.

Is he seriously crying?

Naruto tilted his head to peek, like a crow eyeing something shiny.

On the other side.

The fangirls, Sakura and Ino, had suddenly found their second wind.

Sakura said, "Naruto, you went way too far!"

Ino, meanwhile, had already switched targets. "Hehehe — Naruto, you're so dead! Naruto is so cool, so cool!"

?

The two looked at each other. Immediately clashed.

Sakura roared: "Ino, you want to get hit?"

Ino sneered: "I'll use the Mind Body Switch Technique on you and make you eat shit by the mouthful."

Sakura went calm.

She picked up the telescope, about to throw it even farther away, when a sharp shriek cut through the air:

"That's mine! Give it back!"

Sakura: "?"

Sasuke added: "Put it on the ground. I'll pick it up myself."

He still had his back to everyone. He wanted to cry a little longer, bear it all alone, sort himself out.

Then Naruto's face appeared right in front of him, serious, delivered via Flying Thunder God: "You okay?"

"Wah, I'm fine... wuwu — dead last, don't get cocky! Your punch didn't even hurt, I just got careless and didn't dodge! I... wuwuwu... I'm not taking it to heart at all!"

Second Pillar. King of Flex. Strong-willed from birth. Even beaten to tears, voice cracking apart, he still had to hold the line.

Naruto: "......"

Man. Why is there this inexplicable, crushing wave of guilt right now?

"Cry it out," Naruto said. "It's not a sin. I heard from a wise man that Uchiha with too high a stress tolerance — that's not actually a good thing."

Sasuke cried harder.

Fuck!

The night of the massacre, awakening a single-tomoe Sharingan in raw terror, was that his fault?

He'd only just found out today that he'd even awakened it!

Naruto!

You wash yourself clean and wait!

Sasuke stormed off. He was going to train until his body broke, improve himself, and crush Naruto flat.

Everyone watched the entertainment end.

And drifted back to their seats.

Back to class as usual.

But...

Staring at textbooks like "Three Body Techniques: From Beginner to Buried," "The Principles of Kunai Use: Everything Can Be Stabbed (Author: Danzo)," and "Will of Fire, Excerpts and Reading Comprehension."

Naruto was completely speechless.

This content. This knowledge. In the end, it only ever turned a person into a mindless tool.

"Nothing worth learning here."

He shook his head, slipped out of the classroom amid a barrage of Iruka's flying chalk, and stepped outside.

Just out the door.

"Naruto, congrats on getting stronger!"

Another Academy instructor, Mizuki, walked over wearing a wide smile.

At the Academy, Mizuki and Iruka were among the rare few whose attitude toward Naruto wasn't outright hostile.

"Hello, sensei." Naruto said politely. "Thanks for the compliment."

"Everyone else is still in class. Why'd you come out on your own?"

Mizuki's face was all concern.

Before Naruto could answer "because it's boring," Mizuki, as if he'd already seen right through everything, said with weight behind it: "Getting pushed out again, huh?"

"Other people have parents. A family. Happiness. But you only have yourself, Naruto."

"Do you know why that is?"

"I don't only have myself. I have comrades, and a place where I feel at home." Naruto pushed back first, then asked: "Because I'm the demon fox?"

"That's what everyone says."

Mizuki lowered his voice. His tone turned coaxing. "But the real truth is hidden inside the Scroll of Seals."

"That scroll is in the Hokage's office."

"Everything you want to know is recorded in it. Just go ahead and steal it."

Steal?

Naruto turned it over in his mind. True enough, the Hokage's office really should have a lot of things buried in there.

About himself. About Sasuke. About history.

He wanted to know.

But there was no need to steal. He could just walk in and take it.

"This 'prank' is a little big. Can I bring someone to help?"

Naruto asked.

"Of course." Mizuki smiled. "I can help you."

Then.

Naruto returned to his little shack, whoosh, one Flying Thunder God to the farm, and brought Azu over.

He had no idea why Mizuki was nudging him toward stealing something.

But it didn't matter.

He had someone at his back.

"Oh?"

Seeing Azu, same blond hair, same blue eyes, but standing there drinking milk, Mizuki's amusement only grew. "This is your friend?"

Naturally. A dead last's friends were garbage too.

Big guy, not a trace of chakra on him, eyes clear and vacant, mannerisms no different from some little brat.

Mizuki was already cackling internally.

Then Azu grabbed him by the throat and lifted him off the ground.

"The hell are you laughing at?"

"Why is your inner monologue this busy?"

"You do know I can read minds, right?"

Azu's face was pure contempt. His tone was worse.

"?"

"Got some tricks, huh. Born with inhuman strength, sure, but if I use ninjutsu, what are you going to do about it?"

Mizuki kept right on cackling. Confident.

And then.

Azu squeezed.

One hand. Popped him like a grape. Dead on the spot.

"Lunatic."

Azu spat and said, "Brat, hurry it up. I've got a Godzilla dorsal-fin slide waiting for me back home."

Naruto: "Nice! But Azu-nii, can you maybe not kill people?"

"Going soft?" Azu.

"They're my villagers, after all. If they turn against me, I should be the one to take them out personally."

Naruto said, with full seriousness: "When it's personal, you should handle it yourself, it's better for your peace of mind. That's my principle."

Azu: "Respect."

With Azu along, Naruto walked straight into the Hokage's office. Invisible to everyone.

He rifled through classified files, made trips to the Anbu and Root to pull evidence, and could have Azu handle interrogations, extract memories on demand.

Then, carrying a pile of scrolls, he arrived at the Uchiha household.

Calling it a household was generous.

It was just Sasuke.

"Hmph. Naruto, you're getting a little clingy."

"Even if you came to apologize, it's already too late..."

Seeing Naruto show up, Sasuke slid right back into the pose.

"Your brother killed your entire family," Naruto said. "Slaughtered your parents right in front of you. But he did it to protect you."

"?" Sasuke.

"Because the Uchiha were, or might have been, or were about to become, Konoha's rogue-nin clan."

Naruto continued: "And Uchiha Itachi was never a rogue-nin. He was Konoha's undercover agent. He loved too much."

"?" Sasuke.

"You were a hostage," Naruto said. "For Konoha. And for Uchiha Itachi."

Then: "Danzo has a whole room full of Sharingan. Hot-swappable."

"?"

Too much. Too fast. Sasuke couldn't take it all in at once.

"HAHAHAHAHAHA! Are you insane?! What the hell, is this world insane?! Is there a single normal person in any of this?!"

Then.

He looked at the scrolls Naruto had tossed over. At the files stamped with the Hokage's official seal. At the glowing memory orbs, extracted and retrieved whole.

Sasuke was so furious he couldn't stop laughing.

➤ Next: Naruto and Sasuke Eloped