"Naruto, let's eat first, okay?" Hanzo asked again.
Naruto pouted, standing motionless without a word.
Kurama watched the show, thinking the kid was asking for a smack right now.
Hanzo remembered a line from a parenting book: you can be affectionate with a child, but you mustn't spoil them.
"Naruto, there's a time for everything. Isn't it time to eat now?" Hanzo's voice lowered slightly.
Her face was still gentle, but it made Naruto feel a little scared.
"Sis, I'll eat. Don't be mad." Naruto hurried forward to placate her.
He was young, but he knew who treated him well. He'd seen the strange looks from villagers too many times.
But his sister never gave him those looks.
Hanzo's tone softened. "Then let's eat, okay?"
Naruto nodded.
"Naruto."
Hagure opened the door and set Neji down.
The previously obedient Naruto, sitting on his stool, immediately changed expression, glaring at Neji with pure hostility.
"Little brother Naruto." Noticing the look, Neji smiled slightly.
He stepped forward and, under Naruto's near-explosive glare, reached out and patted Naruto's head. "Has Naruto been eating well?"
Neji's every move was like a miniature adult.
Hagure closed the door, watching the two kids with amusement.
Naruto snarled and lunged, trying to bite Neji's hand.
Neji had already started his training; of course he wouldn't get bitten. But he still put on a convincingly startled expression.
"Naruto!" Hagure frowned, stepping forward to gently grasp Naruto's chin and turn his head away. "That's not polite."
Naruto's lips trembled. He looked utterly wronged. Tears welled up in his big blue eyes, shimmering.
The words Hagure was about to say next got stuck in his throat.
Neji saw the scene unfolding. Ever the understanding one, he took Hagure's hand. "Sensei, it's okay! Naruto is still little. He didn't bite me. Please don't scold him."
Hagure heard this and instinctively frowned again.
"Why does that sound so weird to me?"
"Agreed."
The system felt the same.
"Kinda… green tea."
Hagure, a master of the art himself, quickly recognized the brewing tea leaves in Neji's words.
"Tsk."
"Who taught this kid?"
Hagure's expression was complicated.
The system spoke flatly. "You're his sensei. Don't you have a clue?"
"…"
Hagure absolutely refused to admit he'd ever taught Neji the art of tea. It had to be Neji's own innate talent. He'd learned Hagure's moves just by watching with those eyes. Granted, this was still just the basics.
Neji and Naruto sat on the small sofa, their gazes locked, sparking with silent lightning.
"Sensei, I'll take Naruto out to play!" Neji said to Hagure.
Hagure was momentarily startled, then his eyes lit up. "Great!"
Naruto was sensitive and rarely went out on his own. It'd be good for him to be exposed to other kids with Neji. Most importantly, it meant he and Hanzo wouldn't be tormented at home.
Naruto actually really wanted to go out. He was, after all, a kid bursting with energy and nowhere to put it. But after being secretly pointed at and whispered about, he stopped trying. Now, even though he didn't like this person stealing Hagure's attention, the urge to make friends was too strong to resist.
"Let's go." Neji went out first.
Naruto, suppressing the excitement on his face, followed closely behind Neji, step for step.
The evening clouds were like stacked ocean waves, cresting in layer upon layer of shifting colors. Konoha's public safety was excellent. On every street, patrols from the Security Forces could be seen.
This was Naruto's first time on the streets without Hanzo or Hagure.
His large eyes took in everything with wonder, unwilling to look away.
"Neji! Want some dango? Auntie will give you a stick!"
A kindly dango shop owner warmly pressed a skewer of dango into Neji's hand.
Neji, carved from pink jade, polite, from a good family, and a student of Hagure's… His popularity in the village was high. Middle-aged women, in particular, had an absurdly high opinion of him.
"Thank you, auntie." Neji bowed slightly.
The dango shop owner's face lit up with a smile. Her gaze suddenly fell on the child behind Neji, who was staring right at her.
The owner's face changed. The disgust in her eyes was impossible to hide.
Not wanting to show it in front of Neji, she forced a strained smile. "Neji, dear… if you're going to play, it's best not to play with… that fox demon child behind you."
She assumed Naruto was just trailing after Neji, not with him, so she offered what she considered helpful advice. After speaking, she shot a wary glance at Naruto and hurried back inside her shop.
Neji, holding the dango, froze. He couldn't help but look back at Naruto.
The gem-like blue of Naruto's eyes dimmed. He wandered forward, looking utterly lost.
Neji looked at the dango in his hand, then stepped forward and offered it. "I don't like sweets. You can have it."
Naruto stopped. He stared at the skewer, then shook his head. "That lady gave it to you."
Neji pressed his lips together. "She gave it to me. So I have the right to give it to you."
Naruto reached out a tentative hand.
In the end, they split the single skewer. It wasn't that Naruto and Neji couldn't afford another stick. There was just something special, something cherished, about a gift given freely.
"I… don't hate you as much now!" Naruto lifted his chin, all haughty pride.
"Why did you hate me?" Neji was genuinely curious. Everyone around him liked him. Naruto was the sole exception.
"Just because!" Naruto snorted. "You already have so many people who like you, but you always hog Hagure-neechan!"
His world wasn't like Neji's. Neji's world was full of people. Naruto's world only had Hagure and Hanzo.
Neji didn't quite understand Naruto's use of "hog." It was a mutual thing between him and his sensei. How could that word apply?
"Wow! Her eyes are so ugly!"
"What kind of thing is that?"
"Like a blind person!"
"I've seen blind people! They look like that!"
Suddenly, a chorus of malicious laughter reached Naruto and Neji's ears. Mixed in with the taunts was the faint, broken sound of a little girl crying.
Neji and Naruto's expressions changed. They ran toward the noise.
"Ooh, crying already?"
"Ugly freak! Cry, cry some more!"
Three boys had a little girl circled, their faces twisted with cruel glee.
"Hinata?" Neji didn't expect to see his little sister here. These guys were really…
A gust of wind blew past Neji's side. A familiar figure had already dashed forward.
"…"
Naruto stood protectively in front of Hinata, glaring at the three boys. "Why are you bullying her?"
The three boys were startled by Naruto's sudden appearance. Once they recognized him, their expressions turned to disgust.
"Eww! It's that fox demon child!"
"So gross!"
"The fox demon child and the little blind girl!"
"Hahahaha…"
The boys' unrestrained laughter made Naruto clench his fists. He hated that name more than anything. And they were calling a little girl 'blind.'
"You're… you're going too far! That's so rude!"
Forgive Naruto, raised in a decent environment, for having zero exposure to actual profanity. This was the harshest thing he could think to say.
"Hey! Don't think living with the Hokage makes you special!" The leader's face darkened. This wasn't simple malice anymore. A deep, simmering hatred now filled his expression.
"A thing with a mother to birth it but no one to raise it! Who do you think you are, shouting at us?" the leader said coldly.
"You!"
Naruto had learned a basic Clone Technique from Hanzo.
POOF!
White smoke billowed. Five Narutos now surrounded the boys.
"What? Gonna hit us, fox demon brat?" The leader wasn't scared. He actually laughed. He stepped forward. "What gives you the right? You killed our parents! You killed the Hokage's only family! And you still get adopted by him, live this life, get to learn ninjutsu! What gives you the right?!"
The boy's chest burned with furious fire. He and the two behind him were all orphans from the Nine-Tails attack. Even though the Fifth Hokage's policies for orphans were generous, in a child's world, they instinctively ostracized the different. Kids without parents were also seen as freaks. So the orphans stuck together.
Naruto froze. He asked, dazed, "What… what did you just say?"
The leader opened his mouth to speak again.
Neji, who had now reached them, cut him off. "That's enough."
Neji's face was cold, carrying a natural, intimidating air.
The three boys glanced at Neji, then scattered, running away.
Neji saw how shaken Naruto was. Frowning with concern, he called out, "Naruto."
Naruto suddenly shoved Neji aside and took off running toward home.
"Naruto!"
Neji was caught in a dilemma. He was worried about Naruto, but also couldn't leave his sister Hinata alone.
Naruto's figure vanished around a corner in a flash.
Neji sighed, choosing to take Hinata home first.
"Hinata, why didn't you fight back when they bullied you?" On the way back, Neji asked.
"I… I…" Hinata stammered, unable to answer.
"They bully you because you're too timid. It'll just keep happening, Hinata." Neji's expression was one of helpless frustration.
Meanwhile.
Naruto shot toward home like a human cannonball.
Kurama waited in its seal space, ready for the main event.
The boy's words echoed in Naruto's mind.
"You killed the Hokage's only family…"
"You killed the Hokage's only family…"
"No!"
"That can't be true!"
Naruto's vision blurred. He stumbled and fell hard on the ground. Tears hit the dirt with soft plops. He pushed himself up and kept running.
Since Neji and Naruto had gone out to play, the front door was left unlocked.
Hagure was on the sofa reading manga. Hanzo was nearby, planning Naruto's next study session. Hagure knew Hanzo was teaching Naruto ninjutsu, but he didn't stop it. That was Hanzo's own decision.
A sound came from the doorway.
Hagure lifted his eyes from the comic book, meeting Naruto's gaze from the threshold.
Naruto looked a complete mess. His new clothes, changed by Hanzo that morning, were smeared with dirt. His pale, soft cheeks were scraped. Tears and dust painted uneven tracks down his face.
"Naruto?" Hagure clicked his tongue. Had the kid been rolling in a mud pit?
Hanzo, however, stopped writing immediately. She'd raised Naruto from a baby. She knew him too well. One look told her something had happened outside.
"Hagure-neechan…" Naruto didn't come in. When he asked the question, tears flooded forth like a burst river. "…do you hate me?"
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