"The demon fox is here! Run!"
The children playing by the roadside scattered in panic as though they had just seen a terrifying monster.
One of them tripped and crashed to the ground.
"D-Don’t come any closer!"
Looking back at the approaching Naruto, the boy’s face turned deathly pale. He frantically scrambled backward, clawing at the dirt in desperation.
"Waaah...! Help! Somebody help!"
Naruto didn’t even slow down.
He merely glanced at the boy as he walked past.
That single look was enough to make the child burst into hysterical tears.
The other children had already retreated to what they considered a safe distance. Despite the fear on their faces, a strange excitement gleamed in their eyes. They bent down, grabbed stones from the ground, and hurled them at Naruto.
"Beat him to death!"
"Kill the demon fox!"
"..."
Now that’s crossing the line.
"Would you idiots shut up already?"
With a single step, Naruto shot forward more than a dozen meters.
In the blink of an eye, he grabbed the chubby boy who had been shouting the loudest.
Then he raised his fist...
And unleashed a merciless barrage of punches across the boy’s round face.
"The demon fox is eating people!"
The remaining children screamed as they fled without daring to look back.
"Hmph. You call me a demon fox, yet you still dare provoke me? Are you trying to get yourselves killed?"
Naruto glanced at the unconscious chubby boy, whose face had already swollen beyond recognition, and muttered in a calm, indifferent tone.
Then he casually tossed him more than a dozen meters away.
At that moment—
A shinobi wearing a black bodysuit beneath gray armor suddenly appeared.
An ANBU operative.
A snarling dog mask concealed his face.
He caught the chubby boy before he hit the ground.
"Naruto Uzumaki."
"You went too far."
Cold eyes stared at Naruto from behind the mask.
"Tch."
Naruto snorted dismissively.
He’s just a brat.
A good beating is enough.
He had never intended to seriously injure the kid.
People in the Naruto world were far tougher than ordinary humans.
Those injuries were nothing.
Even if the ANBU hadn’t caught him, the boy would have ended up with little more than a few bruises.
Besides...
Where were you when they were throwing rocks at me?
What a joke.
Ignoring the ANBU operative’s icy gaze, Naruto clasped his hands behind his head and strolled away with an unconcerned swagger.
He wandered into the small park beside the road.
Walking over to the lonely swing beneath a large tree, he sat down and loosely gripped the ropes.
A trace of loneliness surfaced on his face.
Leaves drifted lazily from the branches overhead.
The quiet scene only made him seem more isolated.
Before he realized it...
Nearly three years had passed since he arrived in this world.
That night, after the Third Hokage carried him away, Naruto had been placed with an ordinary civilian family.
For the first month, life hadn’t been bad.
With the mind of an adult, he rarely cried or caused trouble.
His caretakers hadn’t treated him like their own child, but they had at least fulfilled their responsibilities.
Then the rumors began.
"The demon fox..."
Everything changed.
They stopped feeding him properly.
They beat him.
They abused him.
And worse.
Eventually, under Hiruzen Sarutobi’s orders, Naruto was transferred from one household to another.
The result was always the same.
Only after he turned one and could barely take care of himself did Hiruzen arrange for him to live alone.
Children in the shinobi world matured much faster than those in his previous life.
Among ninja families, it wasn’t unusual for children as young as one or two to begin fending for themselves.
So even though Naruto displayed intelligence far beyond his age, no one found it particularly strange.
Still...
Humans were social creatures.
There were no phones.
No internet.
No entertainment.
Living completely alone...
Enduring hatred and insults every single day...
Even with the mind of an adult, it left a dull ache deep inside him.
So... this is what true isolation feels like.
...
Not far away, the ANBU operative silently watched Naruto sitting alone on the swing.
Behind the dog mask, his brows knit together.
A moment later, hurried footsteps echoed from the distance.
With a quiet sigh, the ANBU gently set the unconscious chubby boy back on the ground before disappearing without a trace.
"Over here! The demon fox attacked someone!"
Moments later, the children returned with several adult villagers.
The adults looked toward Naruto.
Their eyes were filled with unconcealed disgust.
When Naruto met their gaze, memories of the Night of the Nine-Tails resurfaced in their minds.
A trace of fear flashed through their eyes.
Almost immediately, they looked away and scolded the excited children beside them.
"How many times have we told you? If you see the demon fox, run! Don’t provoke him! Why won’t you listen?"
As they spoke, each child received a smack on the head.
One of the adults picked up the dazed chubby boy while the others hurried the children away.
"Let’s go!"
"If you provoke the demon fox again and get eaten, don’t expect anyone to save you!"
"That monster should’ve been driven out of the village long ago!"
"I still don’t understand why Lord Hokage allows something like that to stay in Konoha."
The younger children, born after the Nine-Tails’ attack, had no idea how terrifying the so-called "demon fox" truly was.
Only reckless little brats dared to provoke Naruto.
But every villager who had lived through that horrific night remembered it vividly.
Half of Konoha had been reduced to rubble.
Thousands of civilians and shinobi had died.
Fear.
Despair.
Even after all these years, the memory alone was enough to send chills down their spines.
No one dared provoke the vessel they believed contained the demon fox.
After all...
Who could guarantee he wouldn’t suddenly transform into the Nine-Tails and plunge Konoha into another catastrophe?
Fortunately, over the past two years, the villagers had noticed a pattern.
As long as no one attacked him...
Nothing happened.
But the moment someone laid a hand on him—
Child or adult—
Naruto would beat them without the slightest hesitation.
He never crippled anyone.
But he always made sure they learned their lesson.
Complaining to the Third Hokage accomplished nothing.
After all...
They had always been the ones to strike first.
That was why, despite the chubby boy’s swollen face, none of the villagers dared retaliate.
At most, they cursed Naruto from a safe distance.
Or whispered insults behind his back.
...
Watching the villagers disappear into the distance, Naruto listened as their curses gradually faded away.
Then he looked up at the darkening sky.
It was getting late.
Time to go home.
He stepped off the swing and quietly began the walk back.
Beneath the crimson glow of the setting sun, his solitary shadow stretched long across the empty road.