“Sakura, what are you doing all the way out here alone?” Ino lowered herself onto the grass beside Sakura, looking at her curiously.
“My parents ordered me to go outside and make some friends my age.
Since I couldn’t refuse, I decided to come here and hide instead.” Sakura’s expression was filled with helplessness.
“I really don’t know how to get along with those childish kids.” “Childish?” Several imaginary black lines seemed to appear across Ino’s forehead.
Why did Sakura remind her so much of one of her own friends?!
“Wait.
You mean Shikamaru Nara from the Nara Clan, right?” The moment Ino mentioned that Sakura reminded her of a friend, Sakura immediately figured out who she was talking about.
Shikamaru Nara, the future genius strategist of Naruto Uzumaki, the Seventh Hokage, and eventually the brother-in-law of Gaara, the Fifth Kazekage.
” You know him too?” Ino looked at Sakura in surprise.
“I’ve heard a little about him!” Thinking about Shikamaru’s personality from the original story, Sakura couldn’t help laughing.
Perhaps it was because his intelligence was simply too high.
Shikamaru always gave people the impression that he was lazy and completely lacking in motivation.
In reality, however, Shikamaru was an extremely reliable person.
“Yeah.
That guy always looks so lazy.
Whenever Aunt Yoshino tells him to go outside and play with the other kids, he always says that children his age are too childish and that he can’t get along with them!” Ino covered her mouth and giggled.
“Of course, Aunt Yoshino ends up forcing him out of the house every single time!” The two four-year-old girls sat on the grass and chatted.
Perhaps it was fate.
Although this was their first meeting, the two of them quickly became as close as old friends who had known each other for years.
Sakura didn’t dislike that feeling at all.
“Hmm?
What’s that over there?!” While they were talking, Sakura suddenly turned toward the river.
She could sense a living presence drifting downstream.
And judging from the strength of its soul, it definitely wasn’t a fish or some other aquatic creature.
“Someone seems to be floating down from upstream…” Ino focused her eyes on the river, then suddenly turned pale.
“Could we have found a corpse?!” “It’s not a corpse.
I can sense that his soul is still alive!” Sakura immediately got to her feet and ran toward the river.
The Soul Stone could manipulate souls, so naturally, it could also sense them.
Although the range of her perception was still rather limited, she could clearly sense the soul of the person floating in the river.
When she reached the riverbank and saw the small figure with golden-blond hair drifting in the water, Sakura raised her right hand.
A flash of red light passed through her emerald-green eyes.
The power of the Reality Stone activated.
An invisible force instantly pulled the figure out of the river.
“Eh?!” At that moment, Sakura suddenly sensed several additional souls around them.
She was somewhat puzzled.
Half of those souls were filled with killing intent, giving off an intense aura of bloodlust.
The other half were eerily dead and emotionless, as though they possessed no feelings whatsoever.
“Naruto Uzumaki?!” After Sakura placed the person from the river on the ground and saw his face, she immediately understood who the people surrounding them were.
The ANBU monitoring the Nine-Tails’ jinchūriki… and Root?
Those souls filled with killing intent were probably members of the ANBU, controlled by the Third Hokage.
They spent years carrying out assassination and other covert missions, so it was only natural that their killing intent had become deeply ingrained.
As for the other half… That lifeless, emotionless presence could only belong to Root, the organization controlled by Danzo Shimura.
But these people were seriously going too far!
As Sakura performed first aid on Naruto, she secretly shook her head.
She didn’t know how Naruto had ended up drowning, but the fact that not a single one of these people had come out to rescue him was simply outrageous.
Root’s emotional detachment was one thing.
But the ANBU?
They weren’t supposed to sever their emotions the way Root operatives did.
Yet they could stand by and watch Naruto nearly drown without lifting a finger.
Sakura simply couldn’t accept that.
Naruto was the son of the Fourth Hokage.
He was the hero who had become the vessel for the Nine-Tails.
Yet the entire village hated him because of the beast sealed within him.
Despite growing up in such an environment, he had still managed to maintain such a bright and unwavering heart.
It was no wonder that so many people were eventually moved by his words.
Rather than saying that Naruto’s legendary Talk no Jutsu was simply too powerful, it would be more accurate to say that his unwavering heart allowed others to empathize with him.
“Should we take him to the hospital?” Ino asked nervously.
“No.
We’d be better off treating him ourselves.” Sakura shook her head.
The entire village believed that Naruto was the Nine-Tails’ incarnation.
Even if they took him to the hospital, the doctors and nurses there probably wouldn’t be willing to help him.
“Why?!” Ino didn’t understand.
But after Sakura pointed at Naruto’s face, Ino immediately understood.
As someone who came from a shinobi clan, Ino naturally wouldn’t believe the nonsense about Naruto being some kind of incarnation of the Nine-Tails.
If he really were the Nine-Tails itself in human form, would they still be standing here insulting him without suffering any consequences?
“Ugh… cough, cough, cough!” After some rather unprofessional first aid, combined with Sakura secretly using the Reality Stone to help, Naruto quickly regained consciousness.
“How do you feel?” Sakura took out a handkerchief and handed it to him, indicating that he should wipe the water from his face.
“Thank you for saving me!” Naruto accepted the handkerchief and lowered his head as he wiped the water from his face.
His voice was very soft, as though he were afraid of frightening Sakura and Ino.
“How did you end up falling into the river?” Ino asked curiously.
“Well… I… I went to the river to catch some fish to eat, but then I accidentally got pulled into the water by one of the fish…” Naruto scratched his head awkwardly.
The merchants in Konoha didn’t want to sell food to him, so he had no choice but to catch fish himself.
Unfortunately, he had nearly lost his life doing it.
“What a dummy!” Looking at Naruto’s tiny, frail body, Sakura couldn’t help feeling sorry for him.
He was a boy, yet he was even thinner and weaker-looking than her.
That alone showed how poor his daily diet must have been.
If he hadn’t inherited the Uzumaki clan’s extraordinary vitality, he probably wouldn’t have been able to endure such a lifestyle.
“Ah… sorry…” The moment Naruto heard Sakura call him a dummy, his body instinctively trembled.
Even his golden-blond hair seemed to lose some of its brightness.
“Why are you apologizing?” Sakura reached out and gently touched Naruto’s damp hair.
“I… I’m the Nine-Tails…” Naruto forced a smile.
His sky-blue eyes darted nervously from side to side, unwilling to meet Sakura’s gaze.
“I… I must have scared you, right?” “You’re not some Nine-Tails.” Sakura reached out and gently lifted Naruto’s chin with one finger, making him look directly at her.
“Look, fox spirits are supposed to be extremely alluring.
If a fox spirit looked like you, it’d probably be out of a job!” “Really?
I’m… I’m not the Nine-Tails?!” Naruto asked hesitantly.
His eyes were filled with anticipation.
“This is what a fox spirit looks like.
Understand?” Sakura suddenly pulled out a sheet of white paper.
It contained drawings of numerous characters with fox ears and fox tails.
Without exception, however, they were dressed rather scantily, posed seductively, and had extremely exaggerated figures.
The moment Sakura took out the paper, she could sense the minds of many hidden ANBU operatives around them fluctuating dramatically.
Even some members of Root showed noticeable emotional disturbances.
“They really don’t look anything like me…” Naruto was still innocent at this age.
After looking at Sakura’s drawings and comparing them to himself, his eyes immediately lit up.
So he really wasn’t the Nine-Tails!
“Ah, Sakura!
Why do you even have something like that on you?!” Ino’s face flushed red.
Unlike Naruto, whose thoughts were still completely innocent, Ino was already mature enough to start imagining all sorts of things when she saw the pictures.
“Come on, Ino.
They’re just a few drawings.
Is there really any need to react so strongly?!” Sakura put on an innocent expression.
Most of the drawings were characters related to foxes from anime or games she had seen in her previous life.
Well… There were also a few pictures from certain rather risqué series.
But that was beside the point.
“B-but… this… this…” Ino’s face was bright red, and she didn’t know what to say.
“Ahem.
Anyway, Naruto, look.
They’re the ones who qualify as fox spirits.” Sakura coughed lightly and slipped the paper back into her pocket.
“You don’t have fox ears, and you don’t have a fox tail.
So how could you possibly be a fox spirit?” While speaking, Sakura secretly used the Reality Stone to destroy the drawings.
It was better not to let Naruto and Ino see too much.
She definitely didn’t want to corrupt them at such a young age.
“Is that so?” Naruto’s eyes widened.
“So I’m not the Nine-Tails… I’m not the Nine-Tails…” Suddenly, Naruto threw his arms around Sakura and began crying.
As a child who had endured years of psychological abuse—and even physical attacks—from almost the entire village, it was only natural that he carried an enormous amount of pain inside him.
Yet Sakura’s words were like a ray of light illuminating his heart.
From that moment onward, this scene would become one of Naruto’s deepest and most treasured memories.
“That’s right.
You’re Naruto Uzumaki of Konohagakure, not some Nine-Tails…” Sakura was stunned for a moment when Naruto suddenly hugged her.
After recovering, she smiled and gently patted his hair.
“Starting today, I’m your friend.
Let me introduce myself properly.
My name is Sakura Haruno, but you can call me Sakura!” “And me!
My name is Ino Yamanaka.
You can just call me Ino!” Ino also smiled as she introduced herself.
“Yeah!
I’m Naruto Uzumaki.
You can call me Naruto!” Naruto wiped away his tears.
A bright smile spread across his face.
For the first time, he looked like a little sun.