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"Damn fox demon, hurry up and die!"
"Just seeing you makes me sick…"
"Why would the Hokage let this monster live in our village?"
"If only we could kill him right here…"
Hatred filled the air.
On the streets of Konoha, villagers lined both sides, glaring coldly at the blond-haired boy as their curses poured out without restraint.
But the boy didn't flinch.
He had long since grown used to it.
Instead of anger, he showed a bright, sun-like smile and waved enthusiastically.
"Yo! Good morning, everyone!"
His cheerful greeting only fueled their rage further. Some even twisted their faces in disgust.
How dare this monster smile like that!?
The words weren't spoken aloud, but the thought echoed in every villager's heart.
Soon the street was filled with jeers and thrown stones.
Naruto just kept smiling faintly, dodging the rocks as he jogged back home.
The moment the broken door shut behind him, however, his smile faded—replaced by a cold expression, as sharp and unfeeling as an iceberg.
"Tch. Annoying trash…"
His name was Naruto Uzumaki.
Yes, that Naruto.
The "main character" of the Shinobi World.
He had known who he was ever since he arrived in this world five years ago.
The first thing he saw upon opening his eyes was Kushina Uzumaki.
Then came the Masked Man, Minato Namikaze, and the rampaging Nine-Tails.
That was when he realized—he wasn't just reborn here. He was Naruto Uzumaki, the Jinchūriki of the Nine-Tailed Fox.
But unlike in the anime, he received no protagonist's blessings. Instead, he became the village pariah.
After Minato and Kushina died sealing the fox, the Third Hokage kept his parentage a secret.
And so the villagers, scarred by the Nine-Tails' rampage, poured all their hatred and grief onto him.
Abused from infancy, mistreated even as a child—he was forced to hide his resentment behind a mask of foolish cheer, smiling every day to survive.
"Damn… worthless scum…" Naruto muttered, his voice low and icy.
He shook the thought away, exhaled, and headed into the kitchen.
There, he boiled some water and prepared two buckets of instant ramen.
It wasn't healthy, and he knew it. But as the Nine-Tails' host, the shops would never sell him fresh food—only expired, moldy scraps.
Ramen was all he could get.
After finishing, he pulled out the new school textbook: "Chakra Refinement."
Every aspiring ninja had to learn it.
Reading carefully, Naruto nodded.
"So… chakra comes from refining spiritual energy and physical energy, then merging them together.
Spiritual energy is willpower and mind… physical energy comes from the body and its cells.
My spiritual energy should be strong—I've lived two lifetimes. But physical energy…"
He looked down at his skinny frame.
Years of malnutrition had left him far weaker than his peers.
Still, he had no choice.
"If I don't start refining chakra, I'll never be a ninja. Even if it weakens me further, maybe someday I'll find a way to recover."
But before beginning chakra training, he had something else to do.
Naruto extended his right hand toward the empty air and whispered:
"Open… the door."
A creak rang out.
The air rippled, and a faint, translucent door appeared where there had been nothing.
Naruto calmly reached through, ignoring the strain on his body, and pulled out a bottle of milk and a sausage.
This was his hidden ability—his cheat.
The Door-Door Fruit.
A power that let him turn anything he touched into a door, and step through space at will.
He had gained it as an infant, during the night of the Nine-Tails' attack.
Back then, in the midst of the battle between the Masked Man and Minato, Flying Thunder God clashed with Kamui.
The collision of two space-time techniques ripped reality open.
And from that rift, a single Devil Fruit fell—landing directly in his swaddled arms.
Instinctively, baby Naruto bit into it.
From that moment, the power of the Door-Door Fruit became his.
But his body had been too weak. Only last year did he finally manage to use it—forcing open "air doors" just long enough to steal scraps from stores.
"Once I refine chakra… maybe I'll finally have the strength to use this power properly," he thought.
He ate the sausage and drank the milk, then sat cross-legged on the kitchen floor.
Closing his eyes, he began to focus.
Minutes passed.
His spirit and body energies were drawn out, slowly merging together.
And then—
A brilliant blue energy formed in his stomach.
Chakra.
Naruto's blue eyes snapped open in shock.
"W-what is that!?"
In his mind's eye, a massive gate appeared.
Unlike the transparent doors he normally made, this one towered endlessly, stretching skyward, filling his entire consciousness.
It was ocean-blue, shimmering with waves, echoing with the roar of the sea.
As though it were carved entirely from seawater.
"Could this be… the Nine-Tails' seal? No… that gate was red."
Confused, Naruto closed his eyes again, reaching out with his consciousness.
When he touched the great blue door, understanding flooded his mind.
"This is…"
"The Gate of Worlds."
"A path to the Pirate World!"
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