Land of Fire.
Konoha.
A small apartment.
"Hiss—ah… my head hurts."
A young boy with bright blond hair scrunched up his small face and propped himself up with one hand, slowly sitting up in bed.
He couldn't understand—why did his head suddenly hurt so much?
He didn't remember hitting a wall in his sleep last night.
Still half-dazed, he blinked open his eyes—and what he saw made them widen in shock.
Because…
The room he was sleeping in right now—
was not the same place he had fallen asleep in last night!
Suddenly—
a huge wave of unfamiliar memories surged through the boy's mind, flooding every corner of it.
"I… I've transmigrated!"
"And I've actually been reborn as Uzumaki Naruto, the protagonist of Naruto!?"
Naruto froze, his face a mixture of astonishment and confusion.
But soon, he calmed himself.
Since I'm here, I might as well accept it.
Just then, a voice echoed within his mind:
"You have received the blessing of the Primordial Will!"
"You have obtained You have awakened an extraordinary talent for chakra comprehension"
The next moment, Naruto felt his previously aching, muddled head instantly clear.
It was as if every stray thought had been washed away—his mind now bright and transparent, his heart calm as still water.
He immediately realized—
this must be the power of that so-called Heaven-Defying Comprehension(Exceptional chakra intuition).
And surely… that wasn't its only effect.
But then the throbbing pain returned once more.
He frowned, reached up, and felt something wrapped around his forehead—bandages.
"What the—?"
He got out of bed, walked to the bathroom, climbed onto a stool, and looked into the mirror.
Only then did he realize—
his head was indeed wrapped in gauze.
Apparently, he'd been injured.
Naruto instinctively reached up and tapped the bandage with his fingertip—
and a sharp, icy pain shot straight through his skull.
"Hiss—!" He sucked in a breath through his teeth, and memories belonging to the original Naruto came rushing back.
And the more he remembered,
the more his expression twisted with anger.
Just like the story he once watched—
the young Naruto had been treated as the "Nine-Tails Demon Fox,"
a monster blamed for the destruction of the village,
and subjected to endless discrimination and cruelty.
Whenever he walked by, villagers cast scornful, fearful looks.
He couldn't buy things at stores—either they refused to sell to him outright, or sold him spoiled, expired goods at full price.
He had no friends—parents would drag their children away and whisper that he was a monster.
He had no family, no one to rely on.
The only person who ever treated him kindly—
was the Third Hokage himself.
Sarutobi Hiruzen, the "Professor of Ninjutsu,"
leader of the greatest shinobi village in the world,
revered by all.
Every month, the Third would personally visit Naruto, hand him his living expenses, and chat with him warmly—
making himself the only source of warmth in Naruto's lonely world.
If not for knowing the story in advance,
the transmigrated Naruto might have fallen for that act too.
Because the truth was bitterly ironic—
Naruto was the son of the Fourth Hokage, Namikaze Minato,
and Uzumaki Kushina, the previous Nine-Tails jinchūriki.
His parents had sacrificed their lives sealing the beast,
saving the village from annihilation.
They were heroes.
And yet—
their only son was branded a demon and treated as a criminal.
The villagers who owed their lives to his parents felt not an ounce of shame as they tormented a child.
How did the rumor that he himself was the Nine-Tails even start?
There had been no civilians present the night of the attack—only Konoha's elite ninja.
So who spread it?
And more importantly—
why didn't the Hokage stop it?
Could Sarutobi Hiruzen truly not know the truth?
Impossible.
Because Minato and Kushina had entrusted Naruto to him with their dying breaths.
He knew everything.
So why allow this?
Simple.
Because he needed it.
Shimura Danzo, head of the Root division, wanted the Nine-Tails' power for himself, so he spread rumors to isolate the boy.
But Hiruzen was no better—
he simply wanted to keep Naruto's emotions, and thus the Nine-Tails, under his own control.
He let Danzo do the dirty work while playing the benevolent grandfather—
"showing him darkness, then giving him a speck of light."
Classic manipulation.
Hiruzen's methods were far more refined—and far more insidious—than Danzo's.
No wonder he'd held power for so long.
Once, he truly had been the "Professor," the master of chakra natures, once hailed as the strongest Hokage in history.
But years in power had corroded his heart,
blinded him with ambition.
He now saw the village as his property,
and every decision served his own interests.
He crushed dissent, eliminated talent.
The once-glorious Hidden Leaf—
home of the White Fang, the Three Legendary Sannin, and the Yellow Flash—
had rotted from within.
Now only he remained at Kage-level.
Hatake Sakumo driven to suicide.
The Sannin scattered—one a traitor, one a wanderer, one in self-exile.
The once-mighty Senju clan nearly gone,
save perhaps for Tsunade.
And the Uchiha—
distrusted, feared, eventually slaughtered.
Even if their own arrogance played a part,
the root cause was the paranoia of the Hokage's circle.
If the other nations knew how weak Konoha truly was,
they'd have torn it apart long ago.
Naruto clenched his fists.
He would not follow the original's path.
The fate of Uzumaki Naruto—
he would end it here.
He would rewrite it.
Konoha… it's time for a new sky.