Days later in Konoha.
"It's cold," Naruto murmured in a low voice, squinting his eyes with some annoyance as he moved in his bed. Even though it was obvious the time to wake up had come, he still kept shifting positions constantly.
"Sak..." the blond boy stopped mid-sentence, suddenly opening his eyes. He sat up forcefully in his bed and patted his face a couple of times, "Sakura," he finished the name he hadn't completed.
"..."
Naruto's mind spun for a moment before stabilizing. "Why?" he asked himself in a low voice. The blond lowered his hands to look at them, his eyes completely bright. "Why the world...?" he felt confused.
The blond boy thought about the pink-haired girl for a moment before getting out of bed sluggishly. His face looked like a raccoon's from the dark circles under his eyes, he looked haggard to the point that he even walked hunched over.
The boy changed into an outfit he thought he would never wear again after Kurenai Yuhi's funeral—the black suit that Anbu ninja had given him some time ago. He fixed his hair as best as he could and washed his face with water before leaving his apartment without even having breakfast.
Outside, the atmosphere was gloomy. A cloudy day greeted him; the cold wind struck the houses and people, and it almost looked like it would rain due to the pile of black clouds above.
Naruto paid no attention to it. He clenched his teeth and calmly walked toward the Ninja Academy.
"Do you think they'll execute Miss Hinata?"
"Hmph, no one knows, but most likely yes. I mean, she committed a crime against the daughter of the Haruno clan. It's... it's something Lord Hokage can't overlook..."
"The Hyuga are now the most powerful clan in Konoha, Hinata is the clan leader's daughter, she can't be executed."
The voices of several people talking about the recent incident reached Naruto's ears. He just looked at them from a distance, squinted his eyes, and shook his head.
After all, it was no longer a secret—Hinata, that girl who seemed shy and incapable of hurting anyone, had taken Sakura Haruno's life.
The reason why and how Hinata had snuck into Sakura's room in the middle of the night to commit the crime was unknown, but she had been found by Anbu ninjas patrolling the village after hearing Sakura's screams.
And since then, she had been imprisoned in Konoha's dungeon, awaiting her sentence.
Once he arrived at the Ninja Academy, Naruto saw several of the guys who used to attend with him, also wearing black clothes. But unlike him, the young minds of those guys didn't fully grasp the gravity of the matter, and some even joked about not having to study for a day.
However, Naruto's attention didn't stop on those people. He walked quickly; his goal was clear. Days before, Professor Iruka had mentioned that a ceremony would be held prior to Sakura's wake on the second floor of the Ninja Academy.
He passed through several hallways, climbed the stairs quickly, and finally reached the second floor, where he soon arrived at a closed door with several people inside.
"How was it possible that a girl her age could evade the Haruno clan guards and murder Sakura?"
Naruto stopped his hand, which was about to knock on the door. He stayed outside for a moment, thinking whether he should knock and open it to see Sakura's coffin.
"Most importantly, What the hell is wrong with you people that your clan leader's daughter could murder in cold blood?" Naruto heard a furious man's voice inside the room.
A moment of silence settled as everyone in that room fell quiet. "Should I knock? I need... to see Sakura," the blond boy said softly to himself, raising his right hand.
However—
Crash
A loud sound came from inside the room, something like a weapon cutting through flesh, then another, and finally screams filled the room.
Naruto, outside the door, couldn't see exactly what was happening, but the screams of rage, sadness, and hatred reached his ears, making him step back.
The blond boy gritted his teeth suddenly, his breathing became agitated as he backed away. "What the hell is going on in there?" he asked himself in a low voice before starting to run back the way he had come.
Hours later, the ceremony to bid farewell to Sakura Haruno before her burial at the Ninja Academy was canceled for unspecified reasons.
Naruto had to return home discouraged, sad, and even somewhat angry. In his mind, one question kept repeating, "Why didn't I knock on the door to go in?" The boy had his hands in his pockets as he walked back to his apartment.
The blond raised his head slightly, only for a few drops of rain to stain his face. "I really wanted to see Sakura before..." he repeated softly to himself, blinking a few times. Before he could continue walking, he felt dizzy.
"I..." his stomach growled like a dying beast, the hunger he had been repressing due to his mood over the past day suddenly appeared.
Naruto touched his stomach, "Why so suddenly?" he couldn't help but think about why just a moment ago he hadn't felt hungry, but now he did. He quickly ran to the Ichiraku Ramen stand he had been frequenting over the past few months.
"With an 'Extra large ramen with ten servings of pork!!'" Naruto hurriedly sat down and looked at Ichiraku with fire in his eyes.
"The hell?!" Ichiraku, who had been calmly chopping vegetables at his ramen stand, saw Naruto rush in and make an enormous order. In fact, this had become somewhat normal from time to time at his stand. However, "Is this kid really looking at me like a starving wolf?" Ichiraku thought before hurrying to fulfill Naruto's order.
...
Ichiraku practically watched Naruto devour not one, not two, but three bowls of ramen with thirty extra portions of pork in less than half an hour. "Strange," that was the first word that came to his mind.
"Normally he only devours two bowls of ramen and ten extra portions of pork, and sometimes he doesn't even pay," Ichiraku squinted, quickly inspecting the boy with his eyes.
Worn-out clothes, incredibly dark circles, a tired look, greasy unkempt hair—Naruto simply looked like a boy living on the streets.
"Are you okay?" Ichiraku asked unconsciously. However, Naruto narrowed his eyes, didn't answer, and instead took out a coin unused in Konoha and placed it on the counter.
"This is a gold coin. Should be enough to pay my bill and my debt?" the boy asked, lifting his head.
Curious, Ichiraku looked at the shiny golden coin. It read, "Fractured Mind."