The Stranger

"Shopkeeper, how much for this mask?"

It was the afternoon, and pure white snowflakes drifted through the sky. On the vast, snow-covered street, people came and went. A small child wearing a pitch-black coat stopped in front of a mask stall, leaned over to pick up a mask, and asked.

"Bastard! Who told you to touch that!"

The shopkeeper, however, jumped up as if his backside had been set on fire. He shrieked, snatched the mask from the child's hand, and pulled a cloth from his pocket to scrub vigorously at the spot the child had just touched, as if there were some indelible filth on it. While he scrubbed, he glared at the child with eyes full of hatred.

Under the shopkeeper's gaze, the child slowly stood up, tilted his head slightly to reveal a pair of azure eyes, gave the man a cold, indifferent look, and turned to leave.

Thwack!

"Hmph! Who would want something touched by a Demon Fox like you! Consider it my bad luck!"

With an angry roar, the shopkeeper slammed the mask directly onto the child's back, sending it tumbling into the snow.

The surrounding pedestrians noticed the commotion. After a flash of surprise crossed their faces, they gathered around to stand on the sidelines, whispering and pointing at the child.

"Be careful, don't get close to that yellow-haired brat! He's a jinx! The Fourth Hokage died because of him!"

"That's right! I heard he's the incarnation of the Demon Fox! He eats people!"

"Exactly! I was almost eaten by him a few years ago. I saw with my own eyes that this Demon Fox ate so many people, and many of the village's powerful ninjas were killed by him too!"

"Why does Lord Hokage still let him stay in the village?"

The child remained indifferent to the clamor around him. However, when he turned back to pick up the mask, he was slightly stunned; he saw that the mask in the snow was painted with a smiling fox face.

But at this moment, that smile looked nothing but mocking to him.

Does even a mask look down on me?

No, no, no. It's just that I'm not calm enough. I was still slightly bothered by these people.

After examining his own emotions, the child picked up the mask, which was coated in a little snow, and pressed it directly onto his face. As his skin adjusted to the cold, icy water melting from his own body heat, two masked figures suddenly appeared before him.

"Ah! It's the Anbu ninjas!"

Someone in the crowd recognized their identities. The onlookers immediately stopped whispering, and with looks of suspicion and fear, they dispersed in twos and threes.

They were just ordinary people looking for excitement; the sudden appearance of ninjas, especially those directly under the Hokage, carried an undeniable deterrent.

"Uzumaki Naruto, it's time to go home. Lord Hokage is waiting for you."

"Yes, I am Uzumaki Naruto. You don't need to remind me so deliberately."

The wind picked up.

Looking up again through the mask, the snowflakes, like willow catkins, fluttered in the cold wind, falling faster and heavier with each passing moment.

As Uzumaki Naruto, he was not actually from this world.

In his original world, he was an abandoned infant, a cripple paralyzed from the waist down. With the help of the community, he had managed to learn a trade and survive in a world full of skyscrapers, but then fate played a cruel joke on him.

During a random earthquake, facing a world full of malice, he—trapped in his wheelchair at home—had died while watching anime, full of resentment.

In the final moment of his life, he had only one thought.

If heaven could give me a healthy life, how wonderful that would be.

When he woke up again, he found he had become an infant. Just as he was excitedly letting out a cry, he realized he was about to be left all alone once more.

Because he had become Uzumaki Naruto, and his parents were about to leave him after whispering a few words. He hadn't even had the chance to open his eyes to see them before a massive surge of power flooded his weak body.

He fell asleep.

He had been in this world for four years, but the snow here was no different from what he had seen before, and the winters here were just as cold.

Crunch... crunch...

Walking on the slightly fluffy snow, Uzumaki Naruto headed home with the two Anbu trailing behind him.

As they passed a corner, a delicate-looking child with black hair was holding the hand of a young man with a ponytail, while his other hand pointed excitedly at Naruto in the distance, acting spoiled.

"Nisan! I want a mask too!"

"Sasuke, what kind of pattern do you like?"

Accompanying the gentle voice, the ponytail youth revealed a handsome face with natural nasolabial folds. After watching Naruto and his escort disappear, he stepped forward and crouched down with his back to the child. On the back of his clothes was clearly printed the pattern of a Gunbai.

The child named Sasuke blushed, and the next moment he happily jumped onto the youth's back. On his own clothes, there was also a Gunbai pattern.

"Hehe! Naruto, I didn't expect you to have learned all the common characters at only four years old, and your comprehension is so high. You truly are a smart and gifted child!"

In a dilapidated small building, the voice of an old man rang out, his laughter and words sounding very kind and approachable.

"What's so smart about learning to read? Besides, Lord Hokage, you've been taking time out of your schedule to teach me for quite a while now. I've seen many children my age already learning ninjutsu; they really seem like geniuses."

After the old man's praise, a childish voice replied.

But after the voice finished speaking, the room fell into a sudden silence. In a room on the second floor of the small building, an old man looked with a complex expression at the child who was meticulously packing his books with his back turned to him.

He was Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage of Konoha.

"Naruto, do you want to be a ninja?"

"Yes, Lord Hokage. I want to be a ninja. Is that allowed?"

Naruto turned around and looked at the old man with a natural expression as he replied.

"Why do you want to become a ninja?"

"I heard those people say that ninjas can use ninjutsu to turn into someone else."

The Third Hokage fell silent upon hearing this. In his view, this reason was not enough to risk giving the current Naruto the opportunity to start practicing ninjutsu.

After all, this child had another identity—the Jinchuriki of the Nine-Tails.

The Third Hokage could not help but flash back to the child's upbringing.

Except for the night he was born, the child before him had never cried again. Once he reached the age where he could walk and talk on his own, he did not display the childlike nature of his peers, nor had he ever been curious about his own origins.

Especially when he turned three, the child had actually taken the initiative to ask him to teach him how to read and write during one of his visits.

This made the Third Hokage feel an inexplicable sense of unease whenever he looked at the boy. Konoha truly could not endure another night like the one four years ago; if he were to teach him ninjutsu now, the risk would be too great.

Just as he was about to open his mouth to refuse, Naruto spoke up again.

"Lord Hokage is very powerful, right? I've heard people in the village say that you are the strongest ninja!"

"Does little Naruto want to become the strongest ninja?"

The Third Hokage asked, looking at Naruto with deep meaning in his eyes.

"Actually, whether I'm strong or not doesn't really matter," Naruto replied after a moment of thought.

"Uh, then Naruto, why do you want to—"

"Lord Hokage, I want to learn ninjutsu mainly because I hope I can really use it to turn into someone else. That way, I won't be hated when I go out, and I won't have to stay at home alone so often."

Naruto walked over to the window as he spoke.

Hearing this, the Third Hokage's mind flashed to the Fourth Hokage, whose tolerant and gentle personality had made him famous throughout the ninja world, and he was finally moved.

"Naruto! Since it's still early, I will teach you how to refine Chakra now! I'll also teach you the Transformation Jutsu you mentioned, but you must be serious!"

"Thank you, Lord Hokage! I will work hard!"