Chapter 151 - 1

Chapter 1: The Beaten Uzumaki NarutoWinter in Konoha always arrives exceptionally quietly.It wasn't a silent kind of quiet, but a silence where everything was forced into stillness after being covered by heavy snow. Thick white accumulated on the roofs on both sides of the street; occasionally, icicles on the eaves would snap and fall, making a subtle crisp sound before being swallowed by the falling snow. Streetlights cast a hazy yellow glow in the curtain of snow, like a breath exhaled onto steam-blurred glass.Six-year-old Uzumaki Naruto crouched under the eaves of a convenience store, pulling his neck in and sandwiching his hands between his knees for warmth.He didn't actually have anywhere special he wanted to go. Or rather, nowhere he could go felt like "home." No one was waiting for him at the apartment; returning meant sitting alone in the dark, listening to the wind outside. So he preferred staying out, even if it was a bit cold; at least the streets were honest—cold was cold, without pretending to be warm.Today was his sixth birthday.No one remembered. Of course, no one remembered.He buried his face in his knees, his exhaled white breath quickly dissipating into the night. Snow fell on his blond hair, not melting immediately, but building up into a thin layer. From a distance, he looked like a forgotten little mound of earth in the snow."Anyway, no one will—"His muttering suddenly stopped.Because he heard something.It wasn't the sound of wind and snow, nor the sound of breaking icicles, but a sharper cry belonging to a child, mixed with the muffled thuds of something hitting the snow.Naruto raised his head, his ears twitching.The sound came from the alley behind the convenience store. That alley was very narrow; not much light reached it even during the day, and it was pitch black at night. He hesitated—a six-year-old actually knows what fear is, especially a child like him who was constantly pushed and shoved around; he knew all too well what pain felt like.But his feet moved anyway.He crept toward the alley entrance, peeking half his head out against the wall.There were four children in the alley, appearing two or three years older than him, forming a semi-circle. Their target was a little girl crouching on the ground—she had long, dark blue hair and was wearing a thick-looking light purple coat, though it was now covered in snow and mud. She curled up against the base of the wall, head in her hands, her shoulders shaking violently."The Young Miss of the Hyuga Clan, out all by herself?""Her eyes are so weird, white without pupils. Is she a monster?""Hit her! Hit her!"Naruto recognized the girl.Hyuga Hinata.He had seen her a few times—in the Ninja Academy classroom, she always sat in the corner, her voice as quiet as a mosquito's buzz. When answering questions, her whole face would turn red to the tips of her ears. The children in class didn't really talk to her, but no one bullied her either.It was probably because no adults were present. Children were always like this—in places without adults, they would show their true fangs."Stop it!"Naruto didn't know how he managed to shout. His voice echoed briefly in the narrow alley before being swallowed by the snow.The four boys turned their heads. The moment they saw him, their expressions changed from surprise to something more complex—a mix of disgust and excitement."It's that demon fox.""Don't go near him. My mom says he's an Ill Omen."Naruto stood his ground, fists clenched tight, nails digging into his palms. He had heard these words too many times, so often that his ears had grown calloused, but every time he heard them, his chest still hurt as if being slowly sliced open by a dull knife.But he did not back down.He looked at Hinata curled in the corner. She had looked up at some point; those white, pupil-less eyes were staring at him, her eye sockets filled with tears, her eyelashes clinging to droplets of mixed snow and tears. Her lips were trembling, as if she wanted to say something but couldn't make a sound.That kind of gaze.Naruto had never seen that kind of gaze before.Not when the shop owner kicked him out, not when the housewives whispered in low voices, not when he sat alone on the swing watching other children being led home by their parents.Those were "Why are you here?" gazes.Those were "You shouldn't exist" gazes.But he had never seen this from a peer. At this moment, in Hinata's eyes as she looked at him, there was no disgust, no fear—only a pure, helpless panic and the instinctive reliance of a bullied child on any possible hand stretched out to help.Naruto took a deep breath."I told you to stop, didn't you hear me?"He took a step forward, shielding Hinata. His body was shaking—not from the cold, but because he knew what would happen next. He knew all too well.The four boys glanced at each other, and then one of them smirked—the kind of smile that reminded Naruto of the expressions adults wore when mocking him."You want to protect her? With just you?"When the fist swung toward him, Naruto didn't dodge.He actually could have dodged. His body was much more agile than other children his age, perhaps the only "gift" that thing inside him gave him. But he didn't dodge, because he knew if he did, the fist would fall on Hinata.The first punch hit his left cheek. His head snapped to the side, and he immediately tasted the flavor of rust in his mouth.The second punch hit his abdomen. He bent over, a wave of nausea churning in his stomach.Then came the feet, kicking his shins, knees, and shoulders. The snow was slippery; he stumbled but didn't fall—he gritted his teeth and held on because someone was behind him."Enough..." he heard his own voice, hoarse and unlike himself. "That's enough...""A demon fox should just stay quietly in a place where no one is!"A boy grabbed his collar and shoved him against the wall. The back of Naruto's head hit the brick wall; his vision went white for a moment, and his ears buzzed.He felt a warm liquid trickling from his nostrils, dripping onto the snow and spreading into a small patch of dark red.Behind him, Hinata let out a suppressed cry: "Naruto-kun..."Her voice was very small, almost swallowed by the wind and snow, but Naruto heard it.He suddenly remembered something.Why was he here? Why was he being pinned against a wall and beaten on a snowy night just to protect a girl he had barely spoken to?The answer was simple.Because he didn't want anyone to go through what he had gone through.He knew the taste of being bullied all too well. He knew the feeling of having no one help you when you were surrounded all too well. That feeling of "no one in this world will stand by my side" was something he experienced every day, every moment.If even he didn't stand up, then who would?"I said... stop."His voice was lower than before, almost a murmur. But whether it was something in his tone or because the boys were finally tired of hitting him, the fists stopped.The four boys panted as they looked at him, like they were looking at a broken toy."Let's go, this is boring.""Anyway, no one cares if we hit him.""I heard the Sandaime said we aren't allowed to bully him? Tsk, who's going to snitch? Who would speak up for a demon fox?"They turned and left, their footsteps making a crunching sound in the snow as they faded into the distance.Naruto slowly slid down against the wall and sat.His whole body hurt. His left cheek was swollen, his lip was split and bleeding, and the blood mixed with saliva as it trickled down. Every breath after those kicks to his abdomen felt like someone was driving nails into his ribs.He had protected the girl.He had done it."Naruto-kun..." Hinata's voice came from beside him, timid and tearful. "You... you're bleeding... I-I'll go call—""It's nothing."Naruto waved his hand, trying to stand up, but his knees went weak and he slumped back down. Hinata hurriedly reached out to support him; her hands were small and cold, but her grip on his sleeve was very strong."Don't move... I'll find a doctor..." Hinata's voice was shaking, but she still managed to finish her sentence. "Y-You wait a moment—"Naruto shook his head, just about to say something, when suddenly—A wave of intense dizziness hit him without warning.It was as if someone had detonated a bomb in his head.He felt his consciousness being suddenly grabbed and dragged down, down into a bottomless abyss. Everything before his eyes began to distort—the alley walls, the snowy sky, Hinata's panicked face—all swirling together into a blur of light and shadow.Then he heard voices.Not voices from outside, but voices coming from inside his body."—What's going on?!""—Not... allowed!"Two voices exploded in his mind like the collision of two massive forces, making every nerve scream. He felt something tearing inside him, like two giant beasts wrestling over his Soul, trying to rip his very existence in half.Pain.Ten thousand times more painful than the beating just now.It wasn't physical pain, but a tearing sensation at the level of his Soul. He felt like a piece of cloth being grabbed by two hands and pulled in opposite directions, fibers snapping one by one, letting out silent wails."Naruto-kun? Naruto-kun?!"Hinata's voice became distant and muffled, as if separated by a thick layer of water.He wanted to answer her, to say he was fine, to force a smile to reassure her. But his body no longer obeyed—his limbs began to twitch, spasming uncontrollably; his back arched, and the back of his head hit the snow.The last things he saw in his vision were the snowflakes falling from the sky and Hinata's face, blurred by tears.Then, everything went black.Anbu masks reflected the cold light in the snowy night.Two Anbu members emerged from the shadows—they had been monitoring Uzumaki Naruto. This was the Sandaime's order, uninterrupted since the moment he was born. They had watched the entire scene of a six-year-old being beaten by his peers in the snowy night, but they hadn't intervened.Their duty was to "monitor," not to "protect."The Sandaime had once said that if someone always came to Naruto's rescue whenever he was bullied, he would never be able to survive in Konoha. Some paths must be walked alone.But when the blond child suddenly collapsed and began to twitch, foaming at the mouth, the two Anbu glanced at each other and leaped from their hiding place almost simultaneously."Abnormal situation.""Report to the Sandaime. Take him directly to the hospital."One of the Anbu crouched down and placed his finger on Naruto's carotid artery—the pulse was incredibly erratic, flickering between fast and slow, like a machine on the verge of breakdown making its final struggle. He picked Naruto up and found the child's body temperature was dropping rapidly, his lips already turning a bluish-purple."Quick."Two dark shadows streaked across the long, snowy streets toward the Konoha Hospital. Snow fell behind them, quickly covering all traces, including the small patch of dark red blood at the base of the alley wall.Hinata stood where she was, watching the direction where the Anbu had disappeared, her whole body trembling.She didn't know what had happened. She only knew that the boy—the boy she had barely spoken to, the boy everyone in class avoided—had stood up to protect her in the snowy night.