"Look, it's that kid again."
"I heard he was making a scene on the street again. What a nuisance."
"I really don't understand why the Hokage still keeps this troublemaker around. They should've dealt with him already. After all, he is a fo—"
"Shhh! Have you forgotten what can and can't be said?"
"Tch! Whatever. Just ignore him from now on. And we need to remind the kids not to play with him. He's too dangerous—who knows when he might suddenly..."
Dozens of mouths, spewing cold words in the heat of summer. Dozens of eyes filled with indifference—even resentment.
The little blond boy walking down the street lowered his head, at a loss for what to do. He looked like he wanted to explain, but couldn't find the words. In the end, he could only leave with a lonely silhouette.
Natsuki stood quietly behind the crowd, silently watching little Naruto walk away.
He then looked up at the Hokage Rock. The stone faces of the four Hokage seemed to be silently watching over the village.
"As expected… I've really come to the world of Naruto. This is Konoha. Judging by Naruto's appearance, he's about five or six, same as me. Looks like there's about six years until the main story begins."
With that thought, Natsuki decisively turned and headed home.
His house was in a relatively remote area of the village, far from the bustling streets. It took him quite a while to walk back.
There weren't many people living in this area. It wasn't as lively as the marketplace, but the houses here had more space. Most families had their own little yard.
Natsuki pushed open the wooden gate to his yard. His eyes swept across the vegetable patch. The greens were thriving in this season, fresh and vibrant, mouthwateringly tender.
In another corner of the yard, cured meat was hung out to dry on a rack, surrounded by fishing net to ward off birds and cats.
Beneath the wall, slices of sweet potato were sun-drying, and two strings of orange peels hung above the window.
It all felt… surreal.
"Planting vegetables in the yard, making cured meat and dried sweet potatoes, even collecting orange peels—this is clearly something ingrained in my DNA. Maybe… I was actually born here and just temporarily lost my memory. All of this was instinctive. And only yesterday, after extracting chakra, did my memories awaken."
Natsuki remembered it clearly. He had recently passed the entrance exam for the Ninja Academy and had received his acceptance letter.
So these past few days, he had been training hard. It wasn't until last night that he successfully extracted chakra for the first time—then immediately passed out.
After that, it was like he had a dream—one full of memories from his previous life.
To confirm his suspicions, he ran to the town center early this morning.
The Hokage Rock was unmistakable. He also found familiar places like Ichiraku Ramen, BBQ Q, Yamanaka Flower Shop, and Mantendou Ninja Tool Store—all iconic locations from the anime.
He even saw little Naruto just moments ago, which confirmed everything.
Not only that, he now had a general grasp of the timeline.
Looking at all the familiar things in his yard again, Natsuki figured he hadn't taken over someone else's body—these memories really were his own. And with that realization, he finally felt a bit more at ease.
Still, that was just a psychological comfort. It wasn't the most important thing.
What truly mattered was that he had arrived in this dangerous world!
As we all know, the Naruto world is filled with danger and madness—one wrong move and the sky comes crashing down. People lose their humanity on a regular basis. When you're watching the anime, it's all passion and emotion—but actually living in it? He couldn't help but tremble.
Thankfully, this world had a destined savior. So, the destruction of the world wasn't his problem.
As long as he gave up the idea of being the savior, respected fate, and let the chosen one do their job, he could simply focus on living his life well. No need to overthink the rest.
With that, Natsuki laid down the guiding principle for his survival. Then he hurried to close the gate and rushed back into the house to dig through his parents' belongings.
There wasn't much—just a scroll of notes, two kunai, ten shuriken, one ninja tool pouch, and ten thousand ryo in Fire Country currency.
The scroll contained basic knowledge: how to extract chakra, the Three Basic Jutsu, and some throwing techniques for kunai and shuriken. Nothing too valuable.
There was no helping it—Natsuki's father had been an ordinary genin. Average skills. Good with tools and the Three Basic Jutsu. He was lucky to survive the Nine-Tails incident, but later died on an escort mission. He didn't leave much behind.
Word was the enemy had already been dealt with, so there wasn't even a revenge arc waiting.
Back then, Natsuki had only been three years old.
His mother had been a civilian. When she heard of her husband's death, she was heartbroken. She did her best to raise Natsuki until he was five, then passed away herself.
Classic orphan beginning. Gotta love the accuracy of the isekai setup.
But perhaps it was a blessing in disguise. In such a twisted and dangerous world, having fewer attachments might actually help one survive longer. If he ever became a missing-nin someday, at least he wouldn't have to worry about family back home.
Of course, humans are social creatures. Long-term loneliness isn't sustainable. So making some friends or even finding a partner might not be such a bad idea down the road.
Natsuki glanced over the scroll again, then quickly set it aside.
He'd read this thing so many times already that he could recite the Three Jutsu hand seals backwards in his sleep. What he needed now was more practice.
He packed the scroll and the ninja tools back into the pouch. But when he picked up the ten thousand ryo, his face twitched.
1 ryo = 10 yen
So 10,000 ryo = 100.000 yen
A hundred thousand… and then what?
A simple bowl of Ichiraku ramen costs around 60 ryo. If he ate three meals a day, each being one bowl, he wouldn't even last two months.
How's anyone supposed to survive like that?
Oh, right—orphans get subsidies. Less than 2,000 ryo a month. Just enough to not starve.
"Sure, I won't starve… but a kid's growth depends on proper nutrition. No nutrition means poor physical development. Poor development means less chakra. Less chakra means no future. And while I don't expect to become some great hero, if I can't even reach Kage-level, then wasn't this whole transmigration a waste?"
Natsuki frowned and put the money away, already thinking about ways to earn more.
He refused to suffer. And he definitely didn't want to live like Naruto—barely scraping by, not even able to eat well.
Naruto at least had his Uzumaki physique and the Nine-Tails to power him up. But with nothing but instant noodles, ramen, and expired milk? No wonder he turned out short. Any other kid would've died from malnutrition.
Just imagining a life of instant noodles and ramen made Natsuki shudder. For someone with a Chinese soul, that kind of life was a nightmare.
"But damn it, I'm only six! How am I supposed to make money at six?" he cursed internally. "Thank god I remembered how to plant vegetables and make preserved food before awakening my past life memories. Otherwise, I'd never be able to support myself."
"But now that I'll be attending the Ninja Academy soon, my training will only get harder. I'll need even more nutrients. The way I've been eating until now won't be enough. I really need to figure out a way to make some money…"
(End of Chapter)
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