At last, Uzumaki Naruto confirmed one thing.
He had really transmigrated.
So it hadn’t been a dream.
If it were, he should have woken up by now.
Besides, it was impossible to fall asleep again inside a dream.
If this had all been a dream, he should already have awakened.
Even if he were somehow still dreaming, he wouldn’t be able to feel so clearly that he’d slept, only to wake up because he was hungry.
Even dreams had their own logic.
They couldn’t possibly be this perfectly consistent.
After realizing that he had truly transmigrated instead of simply having an incredibly realistic dream, Naruto sat there in a daze for an entire day.
It wasn’t until evening, when a nurse finally arrived, that he snapped back to reality.
Right on cue, his tiny stomach growled.
He was hungry.
Normally, babies couldn’t speak.
When they were hungry, they cried.
But Naruto possessed the soul of an adult, an office worker no less, so he wasn’t the type to burst into tears whenever he wanted something.
Besides, all day long, aside from being fed one bottle of formula that morning, he hadn’t seen another person until now.
His stomach had long since begun growling.
A young nurse walked into the room.
She glanced at the baby lying there, staring at her with hopeful eyes.
Fear flashed across her face.
Even her feet stopped moving.
In truth, she didn’t know the baby’s identity.
All she knew was that he’d been brought in by ANBU sent by the Third Hokage the previous night.
Supposedly, he was an orphan found on the battlefield where the Nine-Tails had rampaged.
But when she noticed the three symmetrical whisker-like markings on each of his cheeks, she remembered something people at Konoha Hospital had been secretly discussing all day.
Someone had boldly speculated that this mysterious infant might actually be the reincarnation of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox.
Although the Nine-Tails had supposedly died, destroyed through the sacrifice of the Fourth Hokage and his wife.
Perhaps this baby, picked up from the battlefield, was its reincarnation.
In truth, ordinary civilians in the ninja world knew almost nothing about Tailed Beasts or Jinchūriki.
Most had never even heard of them.
It was rather strange.
Perhaps the author simply hadn’t worked out those settings yet.
Even by the time of Naruto Shippuden, Sakura Haruno, Tsunade’s own disciple, didn’t fully understand what a Jinchūriki was or the terrible fate such people endured.
If Sakura didn’t know, then a simple nurse certainly wouldn’t.
Combined with the Nine-Tails’ attack that had happened only the night before, an incident that had left countless casualties and nearly half the village in ruins, the nurse couldn’t help but fear the infant before her.
So she stayed several steps away, tossed a prepared bottle of formula through the air toward him without getting close, and didn’t even notice that it struck Naruto on the shoulder and immediately turned around and ran out of the room.
Naruto only felt a sharp pain in his shoulder.
He was still a newborn baby.
He had absolutely no ability to dodge or protect himself.
His frail body almost couldn’t withstand the impact.
If it had hit him in the head instead he probably would have passed out.
He gritted his teeth.
Well.
he didn’t actually have teeth yet.
Pressing his lips together, Naruto’s tiny face revealed obvious dissatisfaction.
There was even a trace of coldness in his expression.
If even a nurse treated him like this, there was no need to imagine what kind of treatment awaited him in the future.
Before, he’d known Naruto’s childhood hadn’t exactly been happy.
It could even be described as miserable.
But knowing it as a viewer and experiencing it firsthand were two completely different things.
It made him furious.
Damn it.
Who had risked everything to protect Konoha last night?
Why had he become a Jinchūriki?
Wasn’t it precisely so Konoha could retain the power of the Nine-Tails?
His parents, the Fourth Hokage Namikaze Minato and Kushina, had sacrificed their own lives.
Even knowing full well their son might suffer because of it, they still chose this path.
And this.this was how Konoha treated him?
Naruto’s emotions were on the verge of exploding.
But he couldn’t show it.
Or rather, he wasn’t capable of expressing it yet.
All he could do was wear a cold expression as he struggled to lift a hand.
Then he realized he couldn’t.
He couldn’t even raise his hand.
He was only one day old.
How could a newborn possibly move his arms or legs on his own?
He couldn’t even lift his neck.
Naruto almost cried from the humiliation.
Just one day ago he had been a perfectly normal adult.
An ordinary office worker, sure, but not someone as helpless as this.
Yes.
Helpless.
He understood everything.
He had the mind of an adult.
But his body simply couldn’t keep up.
No matter what he wanted to do he couldn’t do it.
Then his empty stomach growled once more.
Yet there wasn’t another person anywhere in the room.
Naruto refused to simply wait for death.
Nor did he cry out for help.
Instead, he stubbornly fought against his own body.
If his limbs wouldn’t obey him, then he’d at least force his tiny head to turn.
He still lacked the strength to lift his head or neck, but after exhausting every ounce of effort, he finally managed to rotate his head slightly against the pillow.
Fortunately, the bottle had landed beside his head after striking his shoulder.
But when he turned toward it he almost burst into tears.
Facing him wasn’t the nipple.
It was at the bottom of the bottle.
How the hell was he supposed to drink that?
There was no way he could reach it!
“Don’t push me too far.”
Naruto almost cursed aloud.
Instead, what came out was only a string of meaningless baby babbles.
“Gaa.
ba.
ah.”
What difference did that make?
All he could do was stare blankly at the bottle lying inches away, close enough to see, yet forever out of reach.
Eventually, Naruto stopped moving.
With his head turned to the side, he lay there in silence.
Even as his stomach continued rumbling, he had already given up.
Before long, an overwhelming wave of drowsiness washed over him.
It wasn’t that he was sleepy.
Rather, after an entire day of mental exhaustion and prolonged hunger, his consciousness finally gave out.
Darkness swallowed him once again.
.
He didn’t know how much time had passed before he woke up again.
This time, stars danced before his eyes.
Having been born only a day ago, not only had he never received Kushina’s breast milk, but the only thing he’d eaten was a small bottle of formula that morning.
To be honest even he knew he was in danger of starving to death.
Yet the room remained pitch-black.
There wasn’t a second person anywhere.
Even if he were willing to throw away his pride and cry at the top of his lungs now.
Who would come?
It was the middle of the night.
Not just this room.
It felt as though the entire world had fallen into absolute silence.
Naruto continued lying there.
Unable to stop himself, he thought sorrowfully,
“Minato.
Kushina.
or maybe I should call you Dad and Mom.”
“After all, you really did give your lives to protect me.
Calling you my parents isn’t wrong.”
“Is this the village you protected?”
“Is this the Konoha you gave your lives to save?”
“Do you know.
your own son might starve to death?”