What Seven Years Old Looked Like

Hiruzen Sarutobi's arrival

was merely a small interlude.

But honestly, Hiruzen Sarutobi's massage techniques were truly amazing. If he weren't the Hokage, he could probably have been called the top man of the night with that skill alone.

Naruto thought so.

Time slowly slipped away as he tempered his body, and before long, another day had passed.

By the time he returned home, the sky had already darkened.

At this hour, Konoha's residents, having worked hard all day, would leisurely stroll the streets with their families. Naruto envied them greatly.

Envy was envy, but Naruto still had things to do.

He chopped firewood, boiled water, then poured the hot water into his bathing tub before adding the medicinal solution prepared by the system. The hot water immediately turned a diluted pale green.

With the preparations complete, Naruto took off his clothes, revealing a strong, lean body without an ounce of excess fat. He patted himself. Very sturdy, very sexy.

"Mm-ah~"

Naruto lay in the wooden tub, the medicinal bath rising past his neck, and let out a comfortable moan.

Every day on the Back Mountain, his body and mind underwent double tempering. By the end of the day, his body was exhausted and his spirit weary. At times like this, soaking in a tub of hot medicinal bath made him feel as if he were about to float away in bliss.

Even if someone scattered money across the ground right now, Naruto would not get up to pick it up.

You could never imagine the joy of taking a bath!

After finishing his medicinal bath, Naruto felt light all over, his mind clear and tranquil. He lay on the bed and took out some books to read.

"Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing," "Huang Di Nei Jing," "Compendium of Materia Medica," "Jingui Yaolue," "Qian Jin Fang," "Shang Han Za Bing Lun"... and so on.

They were all medical texts.

These were all books the system wanted Naruto to study.

According to the system, injuries were commonplace on the path of Hardening. Learning more about medicine would always be beneficial to him.

There was another saying here: the injuries suffered by those who embarked upon the path of Hardening were usually sustained while tempering their own bodies, not inflicted by opponents. After all, if one had taken up Hardening and could still be injured by others, then it could only mean that they had gone astray and taken the wrong path!

After reading medical books for nearly two hours, the night had grown very deep. Outside the window, frogs and insects chirped from time to time.

At this hour, Naruto needed to sleep.

He had to wake up early tomorrow—not because he needed to train on the Back Mountain, but because...

Naruto was seven years old.

What did seven years old look like? It was the age when one should attend the Ninja Academy.

That was right. Tomorrow, Naruto would register at the Ninja Academy.

Registering at the Ninja Academy, going to school for the first time—these words suddenly made Naruto think that in an ordinary family, when a child was about to start school, their family and relatives would surely buy them new backpacks, new umbrellas, notebooks, pencils, and such to see them off.

The child being seen off to school would surely have a face overflowing with happy smiles!

Yet those were precisely the things Naruto wanted but could not have. He was only an orphan, an orphan everyone despised. Who would come see him off to school?

Naruto closed his eyes and slowly drifted to sleep amid such wandering thoughts.

Early the next morning, Naruto woke up.

After maintaining a regular routine for two years, even if he tried to sleep a little longer now, he would not be able to.

After washing up and eating breakfast, Naruto picked up a notebook and a pen. Just like that, with nothing more than those simple things, he planned to head to school and register.

As he stepped outside, Naruto looked up and saw that the old tree before his door had sprouted new buds. A clear drop of dew hung from one of them, reflecting the crimson rising sun, gentle and captivating.

He looked around and saw a child about his age standing at the door of a nearby neighboring house. The child wore new clothes and smiled so brightly that flowers seemed to bloom on his face.

His parents and relatives stood behind him. Some were helping him put on a new backpack, while others spoke softly, as though giving him reminders.

What a happy scene!

If only I could...

Naruto quickly cast aside such unrealistic thoughts. He lowered his head, looking somewhat dejected.

"Naruto!"

Naruto's eyes lit up. Looking up, he saw Hiruzen Sarutobi beneath a tree at the corner of the courtyard wall, a kindly smile on his old face. He held up a pink new backpack and waved at him.

"Grandpa Third!" Naruto cried out in surprise.

"Naruto, I've come to see you off to school." Hiruzen Sarutobi walked over to Naruto, shaking the new backpack in his hand with a smile. "Come on, spread your arms. I'll put it on you and see whether it fits."

"Grandpa Third, this... I'm a man. A pink backpack doesn't suit me, does it?!" Naruto complained, but he still spread his arms and let Hiruzen Sarutobi hang the backpack over his back.

"Oh, Naruto, when I went to the stationery shop, this was the only backpack they had left. Just make do with it," Hiruzen Sarutobi said as he fastened the backpack for Naruto.

"It seems a little tight..." Naruto had the backpack on as Hiruzen Sarutobi inspected it carefully, then adjusted the straps before saying with satisfaction, "Now it fits just right."

"Grandpa Third, I feel like something is a little strange..." Naruto turned around, trying to look back at how the backpack looked on him, but he could not see anything.

Hiruzen Sarutobi rubbed his chin. "What's strange about it? Turn around a few times and let me take a look..."

After Naruto spun around a few times, Hiruzen Sarutobi finally said, "I don't think it's strange at all. It suits your temperament quite well."

"All right!"

Since Grandpa Third had said so, Naruto could only admit that perhaps he was being overly sensitive.

Still, Grandpa Third had actually come to see him off to school. It was something he had never dared to imagine, yet it was truly happening now. Thinking of this, Naruto said with a moved expression, "Thank you, Grandpa Third."

Hiruzen Sarutobi rubbed Naruto's head and said, "Naruto, study hard and improve every day!"

This must be what Grandpa Third expects of me.

Naruto nodded firmly. "Don't worry, Grandpa Third. Once I'm at the Ninja Academy, I'll study hard and become an outstanding strong person."

Of course, attending the Ninja Academy was only to get a graduation certificate so he could find a good job in Konoha in the future.

Naruto had long discussed this with the system. He had witnessed the young man's strength and the Little Dot's bearing beneath the willow tree, so he naturally understood that Hardening held broader prospects.

The sea of stars was not the end.

"All right, Naruto, go now. Don't be late," Hiruzen Sarutobi said.

"Mm, Grandpa Third. Goodbye, Grandpa Third." Naruto waved to Hiruzen Sarutobi, then turned around and headed toward the Ninja Academy with his new backpack on his back.

As the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, Naruto, what kind of performance would you show at the Ninja Academy?

Hiruzen Sarutobi watched Naruto's sturdy figure. A tiny pink backpack rested on his broad back as he held his head high and strode forward with the vigor of a dragon and tiger, walking toward the morning sunrise.

The boy was bathed in dawn light.

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