When Naruto Met Kushina

"Huff, huff, huff!" Naruto Uzumaki, sleeping hazily in bed, seemed to hear something...

"Do you wish to understand the meaning of life? Do you wish to truly live?" This was the favor and mercy bestowed by a god upon a mortal.

"What? What was that? I don't get it!" In his sleep, Naruto Uzumaki spoke frankly, saying exactly what was on his mind—the honest truth.

Lord God fell silent, then changed his approach. "Do you have a dream? Tonight, the omnipotent Lord God shall appear as your mentor and listen to every wish of mortals!"

"I'm so hungry... It'd be great if I could have a bowl of Uncle Ichiraku's ramen..." Having failed to eat his fill before bed, the seven-year-old smacked his lips in his sleep and honestly voiced the wish dictated by instinct.

The omnipotent Lord God fell silent again. Was he supposed to wake Uncle Teuchi in the middle of the night, have him cook fresh ramen, and bring it to this brat? The great Lord God was not meant for this kind of work! He angrily flipped the table...

Even the wish-granting dragon from the neighboring Dragon Ball World would have been moved to tears...

Lord God was utterly helpless before someone who, intentionally or not, was completely impervious to reason!

"Forget it. We'll skip the procedure and get straight to it!"

Standing beside Naruto's bed, Daren Yi formed hand seals with both hands, guiding Naruto deeper into his dream—into a dream-within-a-dream world remodeled and reconstructed by his genjutsu—beginning an ultra-fantastical 5D tearjerker viewing experience!

"Eh, where is this?"

Naruto seemed to abruptly awaken from his dream. His suddenly clear consciousness made him instinctively reach out and grope around, but he could not touch anything. He could not even see his own hands.

"Did... did I die? Is this my soul now? So people really do have souls after they die? And they can still see everything living people can see? But didn't they say people go to the Pure Land after death?"

After a brief moment of panic, Naruto Uzumaki calmed down. His death did not seem like something especially sad.

Even he himself did not seem grieved by his own death. Instead, he vaguely felt relieved. He had actually been living a very, very exhausting life.

Although the thought that he would never again see Uncle Ichiraku, Old Man Third, Sasuke, Sakura, or the other companions he had met at the Ninja Academy made his chest tighten.

What a shame. As a Shamate, he had not even gotten to meet the Ancestor of Shamate in person.

What a shame. Even until his death, he had never heard Sakura say she liked him.

What a shame. Even though he dreamed of becoming Hokage, he had died without becoming an official ninja...

But perhaps that was not necessarily a bad thing for the village. The death of a hated, loathed fox demon brat ought to make a great many people clap and laugh in delight, right?

Would anyone ever miss him, even occasionally?

After feeling dejected for a while, Naruto, who was naturally big-hearted, had his attention drawn to his current predicament. Though the surroundings were quite different, from the pedestrians' conversations...

He learned that this was still Konohagakure, but it was Konohagakure seven years ago. The Fourth Hokage was still alive, and none of it had happened yet!

Before he could think about why such a bizarre situation had occurred, he was already shouting at the top of his lungs.

"Hey, hey, hey, everyone, listen to me! Be careful! Watch out for the Nine-Tails Fox! Watch out for the Third Hokage! No, it probably had nothing to do with Old Man Third. That must have been a misunderstanding..."

Naruto Uzumaki shouted with all his strength at everyone, but no one could hear his voice, nor could he exert the slightest influence on the outside world.

Before long, the dejected Naruto discovered another pattern. He could not move too far away from a red-haired pregnant woman with a large belly. He could only move within a few meters of her.

"Lady Kushina!" "Please give my regards to the Fourth Hokage!" "Greetings, Fourth Hokage's wife!"...

From the conversations and greetings of passersby along the way, Naruto learned that this red-haired pregnant woman was the Fourth Hokage's wife, Kushina Uzumaki.

"Strange. Why does the Fourth Hokage's wife have the same surname as me? We're both Uzumaki?"

Naruto was utterly confused. Were there other people in the village with the surname Uzumaki?

Just then, a black-haired woman holding a newborn baby approached and warmly greeted Kushina Uzumaki like an old friend. Looking at this beautiful young mother holding her child, Naruto felt a sense of familiarity. It seemed he had seen her before?

Kushina Uzumaki eagerly stared at the newborn baby in her best friend's arms, imagining what her own future child would look like. Her child would surely be just as adorable, right?

"Ah, so cute! Is it a girl?"

"It's a boy!"

"He's really adorable! What's his name?"

"Sasuke!"

"The same name as the Third Hokage's father!"

So this little baby was the newly born Sasuke? Naruto suddenly understood. He recalled seeing the Uchiha Clan head's wife attending events on Television programs. She was only younger now, no wonder she had looked somewhat familiar.

Naruto also drifted closer, grinning foolishly as he carefully observed the soft, rosy-cheeked Little Sasuke in his baby stage. He imagined that if he could return, he would definitely share this wonderful experience with his companions, including Sasuke.

He could use this to mock Sasuke for the rest of his life! Hahahaha...

As Naruto reveled in his triumph, he could not stop himself from laughing foolishly, his mouth stretched wide in a grin. Then, in the next instant, he heard something unexpected.

"Kushina, you'll be giving birth soon too, right? You should decide on a name first."

"We've already chosen one!"

The red-haired pregnant woman's cheerful, delighted voice entered his ears. The happiness overflowing from her words and expression was so sweet it could make someone sick. Orphan Naruto Uzumaki's eyes reddened with envy. If the Fourth Hokage and his wife had not died, their child would surely have lived a very happy life!

How nice. How enviable!

"His name will be Naruto!"

Naruto? So the Fourth Hokage's child was also named Naruto, just like me! As Naruto Uzumaki thought this, the foolish grin on his face froze. Uzumaki... Naruto... What a coincidence!

As he connected the dots, he fell silent. The "rumors" he had heard countless times over the past few days seemed to ring in his ears again. His mood sank to a low unlike any he had ever known, as though his soul had fallen into the deep sea, sinking, sinking, and sinking still further... until it plunged into the final abyss!

An unprecedented sense of suffocation and despair tightly enveloped him. Naruto could barely breathe...

Strange. Did dead people need to breathe too?

Naruto stiffly twitched the corner of his mouth, trying to cheer himself up with a dark joke, but it seemed he had lost the ability to smile. What surfaced on his face instead was pain, hatred, and a savage expression!

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