"I won't sell it to you, don't you understand? Get out of here!"
In the crowded toy store, the store owner raised his broom and tried to drive Uzumaki Naruto away, as if the latter had some odor that made him feel sick.
Among the guests with children around, some of them were chuunin or below or civilians, they all showed bored eyes and hid aside to watch indifferently.
Several Jonin who knew Naruto's true identity frowned slightly, but in the end they didn't say anything and immediately left quickly with their children.
Seeing that all the really wealthy customers had left, the shopkeeper's face turned red with anger.
He stared at Naruto with the eyes of an infectious disease patient, and shouted at the child who was standing motionless at the door of the store: "If you don't get out, I'm really going to take action!"
But he didn't know that in Naruto's heart, the hatred in the shop owner's eyes obviously caused more damage than the raised broom.
In the midst of dozens of eyes full of ridicule, hatred or indifference, Uzumaki Naruto felt as if countless cold hands were grabbing the joints of his body, but his throat seemed to be wrapped with hot coals, blocking him.
All grievances.
For a long time, Uzumaki Naruto skillfully adjusted his mood and forced out a forced smile.
"I, I can pay you double. Triple is fine too."
He took out a lot of coins from his pockets, held them in both hands and handed them to the shop owner, who was looking at them coldly.
This is all money that he can't usually spend.
Naruto opened his clear sky-blue eyes and looked hopefully at the dark green frog wallet on the shelf next to him, with a hint of pleading in his tone: "Please sell me that wallet. I like it very much."
The frog wallet has a wide open red mouth, as if it can laugh loudly in any situation; and the bulging eyes are also very similar to the goggles Naruto wears on his head.
Because of this similarity, Naruto fell in love with that wallet at a glance and planned to give it to himself as a New Year's gift.
Before coming here, he thought that he had not appeared here for a long time, and maybe everyone had forgotten about him.
But the reality is cruel.
"You want this wallet, right?"
The shopkeeper didn't even look at the coins in Naruto's hand. He sneered, pinched the frog wallet, rounded his arms and threw it out the door, onto the busy street.
"Go out and pick it up!"
It’s just a small wallet. Even if it’s triple the price, how much is it worth?
But if this kid continues to stay here, he really won't be able to sell anything.
Might as well lure him out.
Naruto turned his head in panic, and followed the wallet as it fell into the snow outside the door.
He watched as the frog with its wide mouth was stepped on by a foot, and then kicked further away, and he seemed to hear a miserable croak in his ears.
At this moment, Uzumaki Naruto felt that his situation in the village was very similar to that wallet being kicked around, and his young heart was filled with ice.
He hurriedly ran out of the toy store, but tripped over the threshold again. The coins he held in his hands scattered like flowers and were buried in the thin snow on the street.
"Hahahaha, so stupid!"
"A monster can actually trip? It's so funny."
"Is he the one who says he wants to become Hokage all the time?"
"Really, why didn't you just fall to death?"
The bad words stabbed into Naruto's back like knives, but he had neither the mind nor the time to deal with them.
【This is all my savings.】
Naruto wailed in his heart and crawled out of the toy store. His young body lay on the street, picking up the coins one by one from the feet of pedestrians, while keeping an eye on the people who had been kicked to the other side of the street.
, the frog wallet that got dirty.
Soon, after he collected all the coins around him, only one coin with a face value of 100 taels (equivalent to 60 yuan) was left lying in the middle of the street. The figures of passers-by were reflected on the portrait of the Daimyo of the Land of Fire.
The color also changes with the different clothing of pedestrians.
[With 100 taels, you can buy a box of miso-flavored cup noodles.]
Naruto got up from the ground, and while uttering apologies, he staggered through the gaps between pedestrians.
But when he was less than one meter away from the coin, the latter was picked up by two slender fingers.
It was a child of eight or nine years old. He held the coin in his hand and then turned his eyes to Naruto.
"Thanks……"
Just when Naruto thought that the other party was about to return the money to him, the child made a face at him, and then escaped into the dense crowd, out of Naruto's sight.
"Hey, that's——"
Naruto stood there in a daze, his pants below the knees were covered with a thin layer of snow, his two red hands were dirty, but he didn't know where to put them.
Fully feeling the various looks that people on the street cast at him, Naruto finally lowered his head, crossed the street amidst the murmurs of complaints and curses, and picked up the "scarred" item at the door of the Taiyaki shop opposite the toy store.
"Wallet.
The frog was laughing, and Naruto wanted to cry, but he didn't want to cry here.
Otherwise, you will only receive more cruel ridicule.
"You are actually in pain too."
The frog was still laughing. Naruto zipped up his wallet and it closed its mouth.
"It's better to go back and eat first."
He muttered to himself, patted the shoe prints on his wallet with his hand, and as soon as he turned his head, he bumped into a body radiating intense heat.
【Oops.】
Uzumaki Naruto raised his head in panic, but met eyes as unfathomable as the sea, but unexpectedly did not feel any malice.
The intense heat from the other person's body rushed toward him, washing away the coldness that welled up in his heart.
Naruto felt that this boy who was slightly taller than him looked familiar, but he couldn't remember where he had seen him before.
Until Uchiha Giyuu took the lead to speak out.
"Oh, it is indeed you."
【I haven’t seen him for so long that I thought he was no longer in the village.】
As Yiyong spoke, he spread out his free hand and found a coin with a face value of 100 taels lying inside.
"Is this yours?"
"Hey, this..."
"I saw it and took it back for you."
Yongyong's words are concise and to the point.
He said almost nothing, and only showed the Uchiha emblem on his back to the child who took Naruto's coin, and the child obediently presented the coin to him.
"Thank you."
The moment Naruto reached out to take the coin, he suddenly remembered!
He remembered where he had heard this sound!
He will never remember it wrong, because what happened that day is still one of the warm memories that cheers him up when he is alone.
"It's you!"
The last bit of chill in Naruto's body was dissipated and turned into an inexplicable excitement, sinking into his limbs like wine.
In the disgusted eyes of passers-by, he grabbed Yiyong's hand that hadn't been taken back and said, "You were the one who gave me the mask last time. It was in the woods over there in the village. Do you still remember me? You should remember me.
Bar?"
His sky-blue eyes were filled with passion, and he had never been more eager to be remembered than now.
"Um."
Yiyong nodded and glanced at the grabbed hand with some embarrassment, fearing that the high temperature around him would burn the child.
"Yes, I'm sorry, I was too excited."
Naruto took his hands away embarrassedly, and then noticed that his hands were all dirty now.
Looking at Yiyong who was almost spotless, with not even a single extra wrinkle on his clothes, he suddenly felt a little ashamed of himself.
"Well, my name is Uzumaki Naruto."
He lowered his head and was a little shy. After all, except for Uncle Hands, Sister Changpu, the old man who often came to see him, and the confused girl with white eyes, he had almost never communicated with anyone who was not hostile to him.
"Last time you left suddenly, and I didn't even ask for your name. Can you tell me your name?"
"Uchiha Giyu."
Yiyong said his name, but this time there was some emphasis in it.
Because it wasn't long ago that he truly accepted his identity with peace of mind.
"Haha, I just remember that girl said the word Uchiha or something..."
Naruto was happy for his good memory for a while, then looked at the paper bag in Giyuu's hand, looked around for a while before asking: "Are you alone?"
"My mother... my mother went to buy fireworks."
Giyuu turned his attention to Uchiha Mikoto, who was queuing not far away.
But this time, Uchiha Mikoto just waved to Giyuu. Her eyes stayed on Naruto for a moment and then immediately looked away. She seemed to be looking for something in the surroundings, and finally took a deep look in one direction.
Not far away, behind the chimney on the roof, Kakashi, who was wearing a mask, had two drops of sweat on his forehead, and whispered softly: "I can only say that you are worthy of being an Uchiha clan?"
"What are you muttering about?"
An old but powerful voice sounded in his ear, "Is it because you have to be on duty during the New Year, so you have complaints against me?"
"Third generation sir?"
Kakashi turned around and knelt down on one knee, "Why are you here?"
【Is it the shadow clone of the Third Generation? 】
Kakashi discovered that the other party did not carry a cigarette rod.
"Because Naruto seems to have made a new friend."
Ever since the third generation heard that Naruto had left the house, he had been monitoring Naruto's every move using the telescope technique, "So let's take a look."
"Sorry, I was negligent. I separated them immediately and will prevent them from meeting again."
Kakashi thought that the third generation was influenced by Danzo and had to guard against even such a young child.
But the third generation laughed.
"That was not what I meant."
He put his hands behind his back, first glanced at Uchiha Mikoto, and then focused on Naruto and Giyuu who were talking at the corner of the street. His kind eyes looked full of smiles.
"Naruto will be enrolling in school in March, wouldn't it be nice to have some friends in advance? This way he won't be too lonely."
Kakashi said nothing.
[Make it as if his current situation has nothing to do with you.]
["Because he is a Jinchuuriki, he knows how to be more patient than ordinary people." Isn't this your exact words? 】
"I came here to tell you that you don't have to worry about the matter between Naruto and the child for the time being."
Sarutobi Hiruzen has recently been very attracted to Uchiha Itachi, who became a chuunin, but that kid is very strong and has a bit of an independent personality. There is no hope of locking him down by relying on the bonds between partners.
But his two younger brothers are still blank slates.
If these two children could have more friends outside of Uchiha in the village, I believe it would be easier to influence Itachi's attitude towards the village.
"But Danzo-sama..."
"He is not in the village." Sarutobi Hiruzen said calmly.
"Yes." Kakashi was relieved.
In this way, no one will make a fuss about this matter.
"Thank you for your hard work, Kakashi."
The third generation finally said: "If you want to give something to Naruto, do it during these few days."
After saying that, he turned into a ball of smoke and disappeared directly.
It is indeed a shadow clone.
The real Hiruzen Sarutobi was still smoking his pipe in front of the crystal ball, quietly observing everything that happened inside.
At this time, most of Giyuu's attention was focused on Naruto's hair.
He discovered that due to malnutrition, the child's hair, which should have been brilliant, was now extremely dull, and his physical condition was somewhat difficult to describe.
"Don't you usually have enough to eat?"
Giyuu always asked directly what he thought of, which made Naruto a little confused.
"Yes, it's okay."
Naruto's food and clothing can still be guaranteed.
He picked up most of the expired instant noodles and milk that the stores didn't want.
"Oh." Yiyong paused, "Then what you eat is quite nutritious. Don't your family members know how to cook?"
Upon hearing the word "family", Naruto's expression suddenly darkened, and his three pairs of beards rolled down as if they were wet with water.
"I'm the only one at home..."
【What would he say if he knew I was an orphan?】
He was a little nervous and worried that Yiyong's attitude towards him would change as a result.
"..."
Yiyong was silent for a while before speaking: "Is it always the case?"
He was an orphan, but at least he still had his sister, and later Qiu Tu and his master.
But this child, who looks younger than he is now, is living alone in this village?
"Yeah." Uzumaki Naruto's head sank even lower.
Tomioka Giyuu did not continue to ask, "How did your parents die?", but raised his head and glanced at the sky.
It's still quite some time until dark.
"Can I come to your house and see you?"
After Giyu said these words, Uzumaki Naruto suddenly raised his head.
"Eh?!"
He was a little surprised at first, but the expression on his face immediately turned into surprise, "Are you telling the truth?"
"Um."
Yiyong planned to become friends with this child first to see if he could improve his life.
Apart from the simple reason that he is soft-hearted...
He also wanted to solve Naruto Uzumaki's malnutrition before asking him for his hair as a material for the psychic purgatory Anjuro.
At first, he took it for granted that the better the health of Uzumaki Naruto, the better the health of the resurrected Infernal Anjuro (it actually does not affect it).
Secondly, since you ask the other person to help provide hair, you should also reciprocate, otherwise you will feel bad.
"May I?"
Yiyong asked again.
Sarutobi Hiruzen, who was behind the crystal ball, squinted his eyes, wondering if the imaginary friendship was developing too quickly, as if someone was pushing it from behind.
But after all, Yiyong is just a child with no threat, and he plans to continue to see it before talking about it.
Uzumaki Naruto nodded heavily: "Yes! Of course!"
Then he asked with some worry: "But does your mother agree?"
Children who were willing to play with him in the past only started to stay away from him after being taught and warned by their parents.
"I'll tell her."
Under Uzumaki Naruto's expectant gaze, Giyuu walked up to his mother who was queuing up and told her his plan.
"Hey, have you met any new friends?"
Uchiha Mikoto glanced at Kakashi's position in surprise, seeming to ask why he didn't stop him.
The latter gave her a gesture that only jonins could understand.
【The meaning of the Third Generation.】
She frowned slightly and turned back, intending to ask Yiyong to go home with her.
But when I saw Uzumaki Naruto's two bright eyes over there, I thought of my old friend Uzumaki Kushina again.
[Since I can't do anything for her...]
[And that child is probably as lonely as the previous volunteer. 】
"Then Yiyong can't disturb him for too long."
Uchiha Mikoto touched her son's hair and said with a smile.
"Otherwise I will cook for myself."
Not far away, Uzumaki Naruto recognized the meaning of that expression and jumped up happily.
"I understand." Yiyong nodded.
"Huh?" Uchiha Mikoto raised her eyebrows.
"I understand," Yiyong said with a faint blush on his face, "Mom."