"Pay attention to safety, come one by one."
With a smile on his face, Iruka watched these lively students as they walked into the designated training area one by one under his guidance.
"Come, watch carefully, this is how you use a shuriken."
Iruka looked very serious while teaching. Facing the enthusiastic questions from these little carrot heads, he answered them all very patiently.
He faced everyone, smiling continuously.
"Alright, the people I name next, come up one by one to try. Uchiha Sasuke."
"Wow!"
"So handsome!"
"Tch, Uchiha bastard."
A large number of gazes, following the eyes of those around, fell upon Uchiha Sasuke, who stepped forward dashingly.
In front of his older brother, he acted like a spoiled Sasuke; in front of others, he was the proud and aloof genius of the Uchiha.
"Well done, everyone can learn from Sasuke!"
Sasuke's performance ended quickly. Even though he hadn't awakened the Sharingan, having started training within his clan, he was undoubtedly a standout among his peers.
Iruka also smiled and praised Sasuke, then asked the next person to come up and continue practicing.
Uzumaki Naruto watched cheerfully as they tried in front of him, summarizing their failures.
When Naruto saw Iruka pointing out the mistakes of everyone other than Uchiha Sasuke and telling them how to improve, unsurprisingly, some people felt a trace of anger toward Uchiha Sasuke.
After that night, led by certain people with ulterior motives, the villagers had developed a deep resentment toward the Uchiha Clan.
Some blamed the Uchiha Clan for not appearing that night to help the village resist the Nine-Tails, leading to heavy casualties in the village and even the deaths of their relatives.
Some speculated that the Uchiha Clan controlled the Nine-Tails to unleash that terrible disaster, aiming to overthrow the village's high-ranking officials at the time and seize absolute power in Konoha.
Of course, children didn't understand these aspects very well. They were simply very unhappy seeing Uchiha Sasuke attract the gazes of most of the girls in the class!
"Next... Uzumaki Naruto."
Iruka's patience vanished instantly after reading Naruto's name.
The originally bustling playground also quieted down rapidly as everyone's gazes fell upon that figure with goggles on his head and golden hair.
The atmosphere was terribly stagnant. When Iruka read the name Uzumaki Naruto, it was laden with emotion.
The surrounding children also looked at Naruto, looked at this 'Demon Fox' whom their parents had emphatically warned them not to get close to!
In this moment, facing the crowd standing before him and facing their terrible stares, Naruto felt as if there was a thick wall separating him from them.
In this moment, the distance between them was infinitely far, as if separated by a world.
In a trance, Naruto couldn't quite see their gazes clearly, nor hear their whispered discussions.
Even though he knew he would encounter this, even though he had encountered such things several times.
Yet now, Uzumaki Naruto still felt as if his heart was being grabbed and his neck was being choked, making it impossible to breathe.
A ball of fire—boom—exploded in Naruto's heart.
He did not choose to be like the original Naruto, wanting to use mischief and pranks to attract others' attention, to let more people see him, to make them accept him, and then slowly be accepted by Iruka and guided onto the path of the Hokage.
He also walked forward in silence, picked up a shuriken, and in his mind, simulated the Uchiha technique which was unique in all of Konoha, aiming to get infinitely close to it in shuriken throwing.
Furthermore, he eliminated the mistakes that other children might make.
Then, his palm tightened forcefully. Veins popped on the arm throwing the shuriken.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
Cutting through the air, the shuriken pierced into the target. Although they didn't hit the bullseye, they embedded deeply into the wood.
Iruka still gave no indication; there was no praise and no criticism, as if he hadn't seen Uzumaki Naruto at all, or paid him any attention.
He simply called Uzumaki Naruto's name as a matter of routine, then coldly watched Uzumaki Naruto complete the training.
When this batch of new students enrolled, the Third Hokage had come to him in advance to request that he be Uzumaki Naruto's homeroom teacher.
The previously designated homeroom teacher reportedly really didn't want to teach the 'Demon Fox', and Iruka had no way to refuse the Third Hokage's request.
Before becoming a teacher, Iruka had also thought about how he should treat Naruto, but now, his heart indeed could not calm down.
He could only try his best to maintain indifference on his face.
The surrounding classmates didn't cheer either. There were only those icy, incomprehensible gazes of hatred watching Uzumaki Naruto, as if he really had a deep-seated feud with their families.
"Next..."
Naruto also gave no indication and walked out of the crowd.
That wall separating him from these people became even thicker.
Hinata watched this scene, unable to understand why such a thing was happening.
Why do I feel that this classmate named Uzumaki Naruto is drifting further and further away from others?
In her chest, she felt a sense of grievance, a grievance and bitterness much stronger than her own.
She wanted to do something, wanted to say something.
But she was too afraid. She couldn't do anything but stand there, watching Naruto walk out of the crowd, go to that corner with the swing, and sit down.
Naruto sat on the swing, swaying lonely, his head hanging low.
However, there was no sadness or misery in his eyes, only a raging fire of anger!
Being treated like this, how could one not be angry? Only feeling that he wasn't doing well enough, wanting to do everything possible to attract others' attention to get more people's approval...
That was something only the original Uzumaki Naruto would do!
Even if he didn't know his background, facing others' harsh words and cold, hostile gazes, he still wanted others' approval and acceptance.
Such behavior, such thoughts—the current Naruto found them incredible.
He simply couldn't do that, and absolutely wouldn't be like that!
But, as he slowly raised his head, Uzumaki Naruto's eyes revealed many grievances, and there was even a faint glimmer of tears.
Today was the first day of school. The Ninja Academy was the future of Konoha, a place to cultivate a large number of ninjas for Konoha, a place the Hokage must grasp.
Uzumaki Naruto ran laps alone on the playground. After draining his stamina, he returned to the classroom alone.
His loneliness almost overflowed the entire Ninja Academy.
However, when school was over, someone was waiting there at the Ninja Academy. Amidst Naruto's surprised gaze and the incomprehending, disgusted gazes of those around, she waved to Naruto.
Naruto looked up. Hyuga Shiro was standing there, not wearing silk stockings today, her pair of long legs standing straight. She had a smile on her face, and her chest was bursting so tightly it made many people's eyes pop out as they stared at her. She was waiting for him.