Three years passed in the blink of an eye.
By now, Sora had long escaped the helplessness of infancy.
He could run through the streets on his own, climb over fences badly enough to make his mother panic, and chatter endlessly about every little thing he discovered in town.
It was an ordinary life.
Simple.
Warm.
And to someone who had spent his previous life growing up in an orphanage, it felt almost unreal.
Back then, he used to watch other children hold their parents’ hands while secretly clutching his own sleeves, pretending it didn’t bother him.
But now?
Every morning, he woke to the smell of warm porridge drifting from the kitchen.
Every evening, his father returned home carrying small treats from the market — sweet bean cakes, roasted chestnuts, sugar candies wrapped in paper.
Nothing in this world resembled the modern life he once knew.
The roads were dirt paths, transportation relied on wagons and horses, and most homes were lit by lanterns instead of electricity.
Yet Sora had never felt richer.
As long as his parents were beside him, this small house felt more like home than anywhere else ever had.
— Ever since he learned how to walk, Sora loved sneaking out to explore the town whenever his mother wasn’t watching.
The world fascinated him.
Some things seemed surprisingly advanced, while others felt centuries behind.
People used radios and basic electrical appliances in certain places, yet merchants still traveled with horse-drawn carts.
The inconsistency constantly confused him.
Then one afternoon, everything changed.
Sora had been playing marbles near the town square with a few other children when one of them accidentally bumped into a passing traveler.
The man steadied the boy with one hand and laughed softly.
But Sora barely noticed that.
His eyes were locked onto the metal forehead protector tied around the stranger’s head.
The symbol engraved into the steel felt like lightning crashing through his mind.
Leaf.
Konoha.
Memories from his previous life surged forward all at once.
Ninja.
Chakra.
Ninjutsu.
Naruto.
Sora froze in place as the shinobi disappeared down the street.
Only then did the realization fully settle in.
He hadn’t just reincarnated into another world.
He had been reborn into the world of Naruto.
— At first, the discovery filled him with excitement.
Then came fear.
Real fear.
His name was Uzumaki Sora.
His father was Uzumaki Ryu.
His mother was Uzumaki Reina.
Until now, he hadn’t thought much about the surname.
But in the Naruto world, red hair and the Uzumaki name only meant one thing.
The Uzumaki Clan.
And Sora knew exactly what happened to scattered Uzumaki survivors.
Some were hunted for their powerful chakra.
Others were exploited for their special vitality.
Very few ever found peaceful lives.
That night, Sora sat awake in bed, staring silently at strands of his own red hair between his fingers.
For the first time since reincarnating, he felt afraid of losing everything.
— The change in him didn’t go unnoticed.
Reina was the first to notice something was wrong.
One evening, she knelt beside him and gently brushed his hair back.
“Are you feeling sick, Sora?” she asked softly.
“You’ve been quiet lately.” Sora shook his head.
But the worry in his eyes remained.
Ryu didn’t say much, though every day afterward he brought home little gifts from town — carved wooden toys, whistles, tiny paper crafts.
He never pressured Sora to talk.
He simply stayed close.
Eventually, his parents took him to the small sweets shop near the center of town.
Sora had stared through its windows countless times before, mesmerized by the rows of mochi and red bean pastries displayed behind the glass.
Reina smiled as she handed him a warm sweet bun.
“When something’s bothering you,” she said gently, “something sweet helps a little.” Ryu crouched beside him and added quietly, “And whatever it is… you don’t have to carry it alone.” Sora looked up at them.
At the concern in their eyes.
At the warmth they showed him so naturally.
And little by little, the fear in his chest began to ease.
— Later, he learned more about where they lived.
Their town sat far from Konohagakure, near the border of the Land of Fire.
Remote.
Quiet.
Unimportant.
Surely, if they stayed out of trouble, they could live peacefully.
After all, this was still a shonen world, wasn’t it?
The heroes would defeat the villains eventually.
People like his family were supposed to live ordinary lives in the background.
At least… that was what Sora wanted to believe.
— That illusion shattered half a month later.
It happened just before sunrise.
Most of the town was still asleep when a cloaked figure suddenly appeared on the main road.
The stranger moved with unnatural speed, his presence sharp enough to make nearby shopkeepers immediately shut their doors.
The atmosphere changed instantly.
Inside the house, Ryu had been cleaning farming tools when he suddenly went still.
The cloth slipped from his hand.
For the first time, Sora saw genuine fear on his father’s face.
Ryu exchanged one look with Reina.
That was enough.
Reina immediately grabbed Sora into her arms and rushed toward the back door.
No explanations.
No hesitation.
Just panic.
Sora’s heartbeat thundered in his chest as his mother sprinted through the forest path outside town.
Behind them, footsteps rapidly approached.
Too fast.
Far too fast.
The cloaked man appeared ahead of them in moments, blocking the trail.
Ryu stepped forward immediately, shielding his wife and son behind him.
He grabbed a woodcutting blade leaning near the path, holding it tightly despite knowing how hopeless the situation was.
Then, without turning around, he spoke quietly.
“Take Sora and run toward Konoha.” Reina’s voice trembled.
“What about you?” “I’ll buy you time.” The answer came instantly.
His grip tightened around the blade.
“There are Leaf patrols near the border.
If you reach them, you’ll survive.” Tears welled in Reina’s eyes, but she bit down hard on her lip to stop herself from crying.
She understood.
There was no time.
No other choice.
She pulled Sora closer and ran.
— Sora looked back over his mother’s shoulder.
His father’s figure grew smaller and smaller among the trees until steel finally clashed somewhere deep in the forest.
He wanted to scream.
Wanted to call out.
But Reina covered his mouth tightly as she ran.
Every second mattered now.
Tears blurred Sora’s vision.
Only now did he truly understand something terrifying.
This might be the world of a heroic anime… …but he was not the protagonist.
There was no plot armor protecting ordinary people.
For families like theirs, tragedy could arrive without warning and destroy everything in an instant.
The deaths that once lasted only a few seconds onscreen suddenly felt unbearably real.
— Reina continued running long after sunrise.
She wasn’t a kunoichi.
She had no extraordinary speed or strength.
Only determination.
She stopped only once to eat a few dry rations and let Sora drink water before forcing herself onward again.
Sora stayed silent in her arms, listening to her uneven breathing.
His parents had both survived the destruction of the Uzumaki Clan years ago.
They had spent their lives wandering from country to country before finally settling in this quiet border town.
They thought they had escaped the past.
They thought they could finally live peacefully.
Especially after Sora was born.
But peace in the shinobi world was always fragile.
Now Ryu had stayed behind to face a ninja alone.
And deep down, both of them already knew what that likely meant.
Still, Reina kept moving forward.
Toward Konoha.
Toward their final hope.
As she ran through the endless forest, Sora heard her whisper shakily against his hair.
“Don’t be afraid, Sora… Mom’s going to get you somewhere safe.”