Naruto: My name is Naruto Nianma

"Master!" Menma shouted anxiously to Jiraiya.

"Menma, remember what you promised me? No matter what you see or hear, don't care, don't ask, and don't interfere!" Jiraiya held Menma tightly and whispered.

"But..." Menma said, pointing to the bottom of the cliff.

The old man fell off the cliff. If you hadn't stopped me just now, maybe I could have saved him.

Jiraiya shook his head and said in a serious tone: "This is his own choice!"

"Why?" Menma asked.

Jiraiya didn't answer. He tapped Shinpei, who was kneeling on the ground not far away, with his chin, signaling Menma to continue reading.

Menma had no choice but to suppress the doubts in his heart and look again.

Shen Ping cried on the ground for a while, then slowly stood up on his knees, walked to the edge of the cliff and looked down, knelt down again and kowtowed three times.

After doing all this, Shen Ping wiped his face and walked down the mountain through the snow.

After Shinpei walked away, Menma jumped up from his hiding place and asked Jiraiya seriously:

"Master, what on earth is going on?

Do you know something?

Why don't you let me save people? "

Jiraiya also slowly stood up and slowly explained the reason:

"When I was young, I traveled alone in the ninja world and passed through the country of Kawakawa.

I remember it was also winter at that time, with heavy snow closing the mountains.

I was trudging in the snow, and when I passed the foot of a mountain, I found an old man who had broken his leg and was about to freeze.

Crows surrounded him, waiting for him to die.

Strangely enough, these crows didn't run away at all when they saw me coming, they just jumped to the side with fluttering wings.

I was young at that time, and I only wanted to save people, so I ignored that there were many human remains around the old man.

I ran and ran with the old man on my back. Fortunately, I found a village nearby.

But when the villagers saw me coming back carrying the old man on my back, they all stared at me with strange eyes, as if I had done something strange.

I asked them for help, but no one was willing to help me.

I had no choice but to find a sheltered place, lit a fire, and used my half-baked medical ninjutsu to revive the old man.

But who knew that after the old man woke up, instead of thanking me, he yelled at me, saying that I delayed him from serving the mountain god.

I was confused when I heard this, thinking that the old man was bewitched by a cult, so I tried my best to explain to him that there was no such thing as a mountain god in this world.

After hearing this, the old man just sighed, then told me that he knew, and then explained to me the reason.

It turns out that he is a villager from another nearby small village. There is a custom in the village that once an old man is over 60 years old, his son will carry him up the mountain and push him off the cliff, which is called serving the mountain god.

I was furious when I heard this. How could there be such a ridiculous custom in this world?Also, why can their son be so cold-blooded?

I immediately wanted to take the old man to their village to ask for an explanation, but the old man stopped me.

He said there was no way around it. Their small village was very poor, the land was barren, and the food they produced was extremely limited.

Especially in winter, life will be even more difficult.

Therefore, a custom arose in their village, which was to send old people who were unable to work up to the mountains and let them fend for themselves, thereby achieving the purpose of saving food rations.

I was still young at that time, how could I agree with this statement?So he just carried the old man back to their home and wanted to seek justice for the old man.

I thought at the time that it made no sense for this old man to be cruelly abandoned by his family after working hard for his family all his life! "

At this point, Jiraiya fell silent, as if lost in memories.

Menma reminded: "What happened next?"

Jiraiya woke up, sighed, and continued: "But when I arrived at their house, I couldn't vent my anger.

Menma, do you think the poorest person can be so poor? "

"Without food and clothing?" Menma replied hesitantly.

Jiraiya shook his head and sighed: "If you don't have enough to eat, at least you still have food; if you don't have enough clothes to cover your body, at least you still have clothes on!

But the family I saw ate grass roots, tree bark, and dried insects and mice.

Only one person in the family had a tattered thick coat!

In the cold winter months, everyone else was still wearing tattered single clothes, and men, women, old and young were all huddled together to keep warm!

Their bodies were dirty and smelly, their limbs were as thin as firewood, but their bellies were round.

Seeing me carrying the old man back, the whole family burst into tears.

You said, with a family like this, how can I accuse them of being inhumane? "

"Then Master, you can help them. With your skills at that time, it is not difficult to get prey in the forest!" Menma said.

Jiraiya glanced at Menma meaningfully and said, "I had the same thoughts as you at the time, and I did the same thing!"

"What happened next? Did their situation improve?" Menma asked.

Jiraiya closed his eyes, with a hint of regret in his expression:

“I went out at that time and found a bear that had been hibernating in the mountains. I killed it and took it back with me.

They were happy because they finally had enough to eat.

But great joy brings sorrow, and a child died that night.

I checked his body and found that he had been strangled to death. "

Speaking of this, Jiraiya's voice had a rare hint of choking:

"You know Menma? Even so, they still comforted me, saying that he survived and was a lucky child..."

"..." Menma didn't know what to say.

After a while, Jiraiya calmed down and continued:

“I later lived in that village, helping them hunt, repair their houses, and collect firewood.

After one winter, no one in the village died of hunger or cold. On the contrary, seven women were pregnant. "

"This is a good thing. The population of the village has increased." Menma said.

Jiraiya glanced at Menma and didn't refute, just continued: "After spring arrived, after I told them not to abandon the old man again, I left. By the time I returned to that village, it had already been two years. After that.

At this time, there were only a few young men left in the village, and all the others were dead. "

"How could this happen?" Menma exclaimed.

“Because the land in the village is very poor and can only support so many people, there are seven more babies all of a sudden, and there are four or five old people who can only eat but cannot work, and there is simply not enough food.

So that winter, first the old people, then the children, then the women, one after another starved to death and froze to death, and finally only a few men were left who barely survived the winter. "