"Look, that demon fox is here again!"
"Ugh, what bad luck. Stay away from him. Don't get too close!"
"Looks like he's here to buy food. Keep an eye on your stuff—don't let that demon fox eat too much!"
Amid the curses and ridicule surrounding him, Naruto silently stepped into a small shop. Under the shopkeeper's hostile gaze, he quickly picked out a cup of instant noodles, paid for it, and left the street as if fleeing for his life.
Back in his messy little room, he shut the door and turned on the light. The dim yellow glow offered him no comfort. He boiled some water, poured it into the cup noodles, waited a bit, and then began slurping them down while muttering,
"I wish I could have real ramen..."
After finishing the noodles in record time, Naruto patted his stomach and sighed. He had just turned twelve this year—an age when a boy grows fast—and one cup of instant noodles was hardly enough to fill him up.
But he was already used to it. Though he acted loud and carefree on the outside, Naruto was far more mature than most boys his age. Hunger wasn't the worst part. What hurt the most was the constant malice he received from everyone around him.
After dinner, Naruto didn't bother cleaning up. With no real entertainment, he washed up quickly and went to bed.
He tossed and turned for a while before finally drifting into a hazy sleep. In his dream, he saw a tall, handsome "young man" and a massive, terrifying Nine-Tailed Fox.
Both man and beast stared at him. The man's gaze was complicated—teasing, yet tinged with sympathy. The beast's eyes were simpler: violent, cold, mocking—nothing but hostility.
Half-asleep, Naruto thought vaguely,
"He looks way better than Sasuke. If I looked like him, Sakura would definitely like me... Maybe everyone wouldn't hate me so much..."
"This fox is kinda scary though... Wait, it has nine tails!? Nine-Tails!?"
Naruto's eyes flew open. He shot up in bed with a start. Dawn was just breaking outside. He leapt to the mirror and checked his reflection.
Aside from looking a bit messy, he was the same as always. He let out a breath of relief.
He didn't really understand what the villagers meant when they called him a demon fox. But hearing it so often, he sometimes wondered if he really was some kind of monster... maybe one day his true form would come out.
After a dream like that, Naruto couldn't get back to sleep.
His energy was always overflowing anyway. He grabbed a quick breakfast, washed up, and bolted out the door toward the Ninja Academy.
This was his final year at the Academy. Becoming a ninja meant a lot to him, though his dream went far beyond that—he wanted to become Hokage, so that everyone would have to acknowledge him.
To be honest, at this point, Naruto's dream was way more ambitious than that crybaby next door.
...
He rushed through the school gates. The campus was empty and quiet—Naruto was the first student to arrive today.
He went to the classroom. There was still some time before class started, so, bored out of his mind, he slumped over his desk and pretended to nap.
...
Inside Naruto's sealed space, Carl opened his eyes. A dazzling golden light flickered in his pupils as his perception of the outside world grew clearer.
Beside him lay the Nine-Tails, crouched on the ground in silence.
After yesterday's events, the Nine-Tails had realized just how terrifying this human was. That strange black power had made it feel the threat of death itself.
But with its prideful nature, it wouldn't grovel before Carl. It simply stayed quiet, watching to see what Carl intended to do.
Carl had already accepted the reality of being trapped in this sealed space—for now. After spending the night observing Naruto's life, he had more or less figured out the timeline of this world.
But that was just side information. His main goal was to get out of this seal.
If this were his full-powered self, he would have destroyed this place instantly, even if it meant Naruto's death. What did Naruto's life or death matter to him?
But his strength here was recovering painfully slowly, as if it were being compressed inside him. To break free sooner, he needed to shatter the seal itself.
He considered communicating with Naruto. After all, no matter how mature Naruto acted, he was still only twelve—a vulnerable age, before he even experienced the key turning point with Iruka. Carl was confident he could persuade Naruto to release the seal.
The problem was that breaking the seal wasn't just up to Naruto. With the memories from Earth, Carl knew that Naruto's father—the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze—had left a fragment of his will inside the seal as a safeguard, to stop Naruto from doing anything reckless.
If Carl triggered Minato's will now, it would definitely tighten the seal even further, delaying his escape for who knew how long.
He couldn't afford that. He still had to find Lily and deal with that scheming Sage of Six Paths hiding in the shadows. That old man needed to be taught a lesson for daring to mess with him.
...
As Carl was planning his escape, the second student finally entered the classroom.
Carl raised an eyebrow.
"Well, look who it is—the second kid," he thought.
That kid, of course, was none other than Uchiha Sasuke—the eternal rival, the cool, brooding type who was either showing off or on his way to show off.
Truth be told, Carl actually liked Sasuke.
He was a good kid—just terribly unlucky. When you thought about it, Sasuke's whole life was one tragedy after another.
...
The moment Sasuke stepped inside, Naruto, who was half-asleep at his desk, caught his scent, opened his eyes, and looked up to see him.
-----------
+100 chapters on p@treon/tambeerg