Confirmed: The Third Hokage's Parenting Was Crap

"Brat! Now! Get out there and run ten laps before you come back!"

Hagoromo picked Naruto up, tossed him out the door, and slammed it shut.

By now, Hagoromo was starting to regret the advance payment he had left at Ichiraku Ramen that night. That was more than half a month's wages!

Besides, Naruto wasn't broke. The shops around him simply weren't very willing to sell to him.

And with nobody keeping an eye on him, the moment Naruto received the money the Third Hokage gave him, he spent it on a pile of milk and instant noodles.

The goods were all overpriced, too, and he was so careless with his money.

It would have been strange if Naruto could live well like that.

By the time Naruto came running back, drenched in sweat, Hagoromo was already waiting for him at the dining table.

"Wash your hands, then come eat."

Hagoromo spoke with his arms folded in front of him.

"Yes, teacher!"

Naruto knew he had just made Hagoromo angry, so he didn't dare do anything else. He obediently washed his hands and sat down at the table.

"Eat up," Hagoromo said, pushing a bowl heaped with rice toward Naruto.

"Okay!"

Naruto immediately picked up his chopsticks and dug in.

He kept putting food on Hagoromo's plate, too, leaving Hagoromo with no choice but to finish eating before discussing anything else.

Over the meal, Hagoromo finally learned from Naruto how things stood.

He settled his bill at Ichiraku Ramen after every few visits, always leaving the money under his bowl and chopsticks.

After all, no matter how oblivious Naruto was, he couldn't eat for free every time.

And Ichiraku Ramen wasn't cheap, so he didn't go there every day.

Hagoromo nodded in satisfaction. As for the money he had left, he wasn't worried about Ichiraku refusing to acknowledge it.

As long as it all ended up in Naruto's stomach, that was enough.

After all, he had left right after putting down the money that night. Uncle Teuchi couldn't have abandoned the shop to chase after him.

All he could say was that the Third Hokage really was...

He was every bit the old fart, handing out money without caring how Naruto spent it.

That was why Hagoromo had thought Naruto's assistance payments were being skimmed, while the Third Hokage was so busy with work that he had never had a chance to learn about Naruto's living habits.

Naruto, meanwhile, had no parents to teach him and had no idea how to budget, leading to the misunderstanding.

Well, the three of them had formed an unexpectedly perfect closed loop with their actions and assumptions.

Hagoromo thought about how Naruto, after becoming Hokage, had been busy as a dog even while using clones.

Although some things hadn't needed doing, it also showed just how busy the Hokage's job really was.

But looking back, Konohamaru's personality early on had clearly shown him to be a brat.

If Naruto hadn't stumbled into helping Konohamaru see reason, he really might have grown up with the personality of a spoiled young master.

Hmm...

Hagoromo was sure of it: Hiruzen's parenting was crap...

"Naruto, from now on, you're not allowed to live on instant noodles."

Hagoromo came back to his senses and spoke to Naruto, gesturing at his height as he did.

"If you keep eating like this, by the time you're about to hit your growth spurt, you'll definitely be the shortest in your class!"

Naruto had initially been thinking that losing his diet of instant noodles meant losing one of his great pleasures, but Hagoromo's next words left him frozen.

He imagined himself becoming the shortest in class, even shorter than Sasuke.

Naruto couldn't help shuddering all over. What a pretty picture that would be.

"But, teacher, if I don't eat instant noodles, I don't know what to eat."

Faced with the threat to his height, Naruto scratched the back of his head.

Hagoromo glanced at Naruto and said irritably, "Cook. If you don't know how, I'll teach you bit by bit later. It'll count as a kind of learning."

There was no helping it. Hagoromo knew he couldn't keep coming over to Naruto's place all the time, so he could only teach him to cook for himself whenever he had the time.

Even if it didn't taste good, at least he'd be getting proper nutrition.

After resting for a while, Hagoromo couldn't withstand Naruto's constant requests.

He took Naruto to the small training ground where he usually trained.

"Wow! Teacher, is this where you usually train?"

Naruto wandered curiously around the training ground as he asked.

"That's right. You can come here too whenever you have time."

Hagoromo put down the ninja tool pouch he had brought, clapped his hands, and called Naruto over.

"All right, time to start running. Naruto, your task today is to run around this training ground until you can't run anymore!"

"Huh?!"

Naruto, who had still been looking around curiously, turned to stare at Hagoromo.

"Physical fitness is the first prerequisite for a ninja, whether you're traveling long distances on missions, gathering intelligence, or escaping an encirclement."

"All of that requires excellent stamina. You should know that one careless mistake could get you killed."

By this point, Hagoromo's tone had inevitably grown serious.

After all, before becoming a teacher, Hagoromo had carried out missions, including C-rank missions that required leaving the village.

Those also placed high demands on a ninja's abilities.

Otherwise, did people really think those D-rank missions were just busywork for Genin?

They were also a way of training newcomers who had just become Genin. Only by meeting the mission requirements could they advance to missions of the next rank.

After all, by then, both the Genin's physical fitness and the Jonin's guidance had reached a critical point.

Going out like that, completing the mission meant a transformation and a fresh start.

Those who didn't succeed would return to doing D-rank missions, and in worse cases, they wouldn't come back at all.

Or they would lose an arm or a leg and be forced to retire on the spot.

This world wasn't a hot-blooded anime. It was a real, cruel world where the excellent rose, the mediocre fell, and the inferior were eliminated.

Seeing how serious Hagoromo was, Naruto put aside his casual attitude.

A serious look appeared on his young face. "I understand, Teacher Hagoromo."

Hagoromo nodded and tossed Naruto what he was holding.

"Strap them to your legs. They're weights, but they're only the lightest ones, five kilograms."

"Remember, as long as you can keep going, I hope you won't stop."

Although making him wear weights on his very first running session was a bit much, Hagoromo also knew this:

Given Naruto's own ability to recover, he would bounce back in no time from simply running.

That would make the training pointless.

Physical fitness could only improve by breaking through one's limits again and again.

In the original story, Guy, who had nearly kicked his way to the ending in a single blow, along with his father and Rock Lee, had all demonstrated it clearly.

Even those without a special bloodline could become very strong.

Although the price was their lives.

But if someone with Naruto's innate advantages could also train day and night like Guy and Rock Lee,

Even if his Ninjutsu and other pursuits meant he couldn't focus on just one thing like Guy and the others,

The improvement would still be enormous.