Chapter 261: Age Six
Inside Naruto's apartment.
"Naruto, hitting people is wrong."
The Third Hokage leaned down and used his hand to wipe away the flour from the face of Naruto, who had just come out of the kitchen.
Naruto's blue eyes stared at the Third Hokage, his gaze completely unwavering.
"But they were bullying my friends."
"Even so, you shouldn't. They are also people of the Village. Doesn't Little Naruto want to become the Hokage?
If you were the Hokage, you would mediate in such a situation rather than using such radical methods.
Especially since you're about to start school; you can't be like this then."
Thinking back to that snowy night three years ago, when the Nine-Tailed Chakra on Naruto's body condensed into the shape of a small fox head, the Third Hokage didn't feel at ease letting Naruto fight.
What if?
Kushina herself was a master of Sealing Techniques.
But even she went berserk several times after becoming the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki.
Therefore, every time Naruto got into a fight, the Third Hokage would pay him a visit.
From initial reprimands to later casual visits, there had only been one outbreak of Nine-Tailed Chakra in between.
The Third Hokage discovered that as long as he wasn't provoked, the Nine-Tailed Chakra inside Naruto remained stable.
Once someone scolded Naruto, the Nine-Tailed Chakra inside him would become restless.
Under these circumstances, the Third Hokage didn't dare to speak harshly to Naruto.
Fortunately, Naruto was a good child.
Naruto thought to himself: 'The Code of Hammurabi is two thousand years more progressive than your ideology.'
However, he didn't show it on the surface and instead nodded to the Third Hokage.
"I understand, Grandpa Third Hokage."
He'd still do it next time.
Naruto quickly changed the subject.
"Grandpa Third Hokage, do you want to try the Buns I made?"
The Third Hokage's eyes lit up upon hearing this.
When this kid Naruto cooked, he was very generous with the meat, and his cooking methods balanced flavor while being very friendly to an old man's teeth.
"Then I must properly taste Naruto's skills."
Unlike the Naruto in the original story who didn't know how to manage money, Naruto's money was basically all spent on food.
Meat in Konoha Village was incredibly expensive; sometimes when he wanted to eat meat, Naruto had to go hunting with Might Guy.
Although he didn't know why the wild boars near Konoha Village were so large, the meat quality was decent.
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The classroom was a cacophony of voices; the whispers of new students, the dragging of chairs, and occasional bursts of clear laughter intertwined, the air floating with the excitement and unease of first meetings.
Shino Aburame settled himself into a window seat, head lowered, hands neatly folded on the desk, like a silent plant transplanted into the depths of a bustling garden.
His high-collared coat tightly wrapped around his neck, and sunglasses covered his eyes, filtering the overly vivid scenery outside into a quiet, dark hue.
He just sat there motionless, as if the waves of sound around him were quietly absorbed and eliminated by an invisible film an inch from his body.
In a position toward the middle-back of the classroom, the Ino–Shika–Chō trio, who had known each other since childhood, sat together.
Nara Shikamaru was already lazily propping up his chin, his eyes glazed over as he stared at the ceiling; Akimichi Choji was focused on tearing open a bag of chips and grabbing them to eat; Ino Yamanaka was energetically turning around, talking heatedly with her seatmate Sakura Haruno, who was looking around a bit mischievously.
Sakura's pink hair swayed slightly as she nodded or smiled with pursed lips, though one could still sense she seemed to be looking for something.
The air in the area where the four of them sat seemed more active and warmer than elsewhere.
Most other children were also in groups of twos and threes, either based on old acquaintances or formed through quick conversations, rapidly creating small, noisy clusters.
Only Shino was an absolute blank space in this noisy picture.
No one noticed him, or rather, no one tried to extend the feelers of conversation toward this corner that radiated a "do not approach" aura.
He was used to this state of being invisibly separated, even feeling a familiar sense of peace within it.
Just as he lowered his head slightly and began to miss Big Brother Torune in his heart...
The chair next to him was pulled out, making a distinct friction sound.
A figure brought a gust of wind, intruding into his silent territory without any reservation.
"I've seen you before, back at the ramen shop."
The voice was bright, like a beam of sunlight piercing through thick fog without warning, shining directly over.
Shino's whole body gave an imperceptible shudder, and his previously lowered head snapped up, turning toward the source of the voice.
He looked at the newcomer beside him.
It was a boy with striking short blond hair, whisker-like marks on his cheeks, and blue eyes rippling with shadowless smiles, grinning at him.
In that instant, Shino felt his eyes widen slightly behind his sunglasses.
It wasn't alertness, but astonishment.
The ramen shop?
Fragments of memory flipped through quickly—the interior of the bustling Ichiraku Ramen, amidst the swirling steam... it seemed there had indeed been a few encounters, though more often he had seen him running in the Village.
"I remember you; you and that green-clothed uncle with the mustache were often training in the Village."
The sunglasses well-hid the flash of surprise in his eyes.
He actually took the initiative to find me?
The blond boy seemed completely unaware of Shino's subtle tremor and the surprise hidden beneath his silence.
He smiled even more brightly and introduced himself:
"My name is Naruto. Two years ago, Grandpa Third Hokage told me my surname is Uzumaki, which means I am Uzumaki Naruto. I'm six years old."
At this moment, the clamor of the classroom seemed pushed away into a blurred background noise.
Shino was silent for a second, maybe two, and then he nodded slightly, responding in his usual steady and clear tone:
"I am Shino Aburame, also six years old."
The voice wasn't loud, but it was like a pebble dropped into a silent pool, gently rippling a new, unexpected circle between himself and the world.
Light from outside shone in diagonally, a faint glint passing over his dark lenses.
That corner, which always felt on the edge of the crowd, had a different meaning for the first time because of the sudden approach of another's warmth.
"I saw that you seemed to be sitting alone too; do you want to be my friend?"
Naruto's words were clean and crisp, without any indirect testing, just as direct as his action of pulling out the chair earlier.
Friend?
The word stirred a faint echo in Shino's heart.
Aside from Big Brother Torune, it seemed no one near his age had ever explicitly thrown such a word at him.
The interactions of his clansmen had their own quiet, tacit protocols, while the outside world... the gazes of outsiders mostly flickered past, lingered, and then moved away, just as a bird wouldn't specifically land on a silent reef.
And now, this "reef" had been patted by a pair of warm and ungrudging hands, and someone said loudly to it: "I see you, let's be friends!"
Shino's small frame seemed to sit a bit straighter in his seat.
The sunlight outside moved exactly an inch, hitting his round sunglasses perfectly and reflecting a brief, dazzling white light that instantly covered any emotions that might have flickered behind the lenses.
The light came and went quickly, like the fleeting ripple stirred in his heart by those words.
He didn't cheer like an ordinary child, nor did he show much hesitation or shyness.
He just turned his body slightly to face Naruto more fully and then gave a serious response:
"Okay, Uzumaki Naruto."
He paused, as if confirming the name, and also as if confirming the weight of the decision.
In the classroom, Iruka-sensei seemed to have already walked onto the podium, the noise was gradually subsiding, but in this little corner between him and Naruto, time seemed stretched by the conversation just now.
"We are friends."
"There's a seat here, I'll sit down!"
Before the words even finished, a figure had already nimbly sat in the empty seat to Naruto's left.
It was a black-haired boy, filled with restless vitality.
He had a big smile on his face, and the two symmetrical red inverted triangle markings on his cheeks added a touch of wildness and flamboyance.
After the boy sat down, he first bumped Naruto—who hadn't fully reacted yet—with his shoulder, and then turned his head, his gaze sweeping over Naruto before landing on the upright Shino. With his smile undiminished, he introduced himself in a hearty voice: "This great one is called Kiba Inuzuka; we'll be classmates from now on."
However, almost at the same time.
"Alright, students, please be quiet."
A gentle voice came from the podium, carrying a steady power that made one involuntarily focus their attention.
Everyone's eyes followed the sound.
Iruka Umino was already standing behind the podium with a genial smile, the horizontal scar across his forehead doing nothing to diminish the warmth in his eyes.
He scanned the entire classroom, taking in every small face that was curious, excited, or slightly nervous.
"I am your teacher, Iruka Umino."
He introduced himself simply, his voice not loud but reaching every corner of the classroom steadily.
"Before we officially start class, I'll take attendance to see if everyone is here. Please answer 'Present' when your name is called."
He picked up the roster on the podium, his eyes falling on the first line.
As Iruka-sensei's steady voice rang out, the last remaining whispers completely vanished.
A fresh silence, mixed with expectation and the unknown, filled the air.
"Uchiha Sasuke."
"Present."
Sunlight streamed through the window, evenly spilling onto the neatly arranged desks, illuminating the faces that would write the stories of countless days and nights to come.
The next six years of life at the Ninja Academy quietly turned its first page on this ordinary yet destined-to-be extraordinary morning.
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