Attitude Determines Everything

"Hey! Why isn't that human kid fighting back? What a coward!"

Kurama had been watching as well, but even he could barely stand it.

"Yeah, I can't understand why he isn't fighting back either." After running through the anime's plot in his mind, Naruto realized that Rock Lee's childhood had really been like this. The reason Rock Lee could become so strong later on was entirely because of Might Guy's care.

After considering it for a moment, Minato Namikaze interjected, "Maybe it's because he can't beat them. So many people are bullying him alone. What if he fights back and still loses?"

"I disagree with you, Father."

"Whether you can win is a matter of ability. Whether you rise up and resist is a matter of attitude, and a person's attitude determines their fate."

"Look at him. His silent endurance will only make others think he is weak."

"Silence is the fate of the bullied. Speaking up is the beginning of changing one's destiny."

In Konoha, someone with Rock Lee's temperament could win Might Guy's favor, but in the world Naruto knew, he would only be devoured until not even bones remained.

With Rock Lee's potential, he could have become a king acknowledged even by Madara Uchiha, like Might Guy. Yet in the end, he had only become one of the awkwardly assembled Konoha 12, there to fill out the plot.

Naruto gave Rock Lee, who was still silently enduring, one last look before turning and walking away.

Minato Namikaze was left speechless in the Sealed Space. That child being bullied reminded him of Kushina back then.

Kushina had often been bullied by others at school too. In order not to be looked down on by her classmates, she had even shouted in class that she wanted to become the first female Hokage.

Though both had been bullied, Kushina's approach had been completely different from that boy's.

His fiery-tempered wife had given it everything she had and beaten those classmates down one by one.

"Ah."

Minato Namikaze could not help but let out a long sigh.

He was somewhat worried about Naruto's state of mind. Then, when he thought of everything his son had suffered in the village over the past few years, his brows furrowed even deeper.

"Fourth Hokage, what kind of expression is that? This kid Naruto is right!" Kurama said excitedly from within the seal.

Naruto had just arrived at the entrance of a ramen shop when he saw the signboard and stopped.

It was the legendary Ichiraku Ramen.

"Father, are you worried that I might do something to Konoha?"

After softly asking that question in the Mental World, Naruto continued walking forward.

He did not like ramen.

Minato Namikaze forced out an awkward smile. "Naruto, you won't do anything to Konoha in the future, right~?"

After turning onto two of the roads he had to take home, Naruto paused slightly and said, "It seems you still don't understand me, Father."

"Uh~ I..."

Minato Namikaze truly wanted to say that he really did not understand what his son was thinking.

"Don't worry. As long as they don't court death, I won't do anything to Konoha. Besides, I'm not even a genin right now. What are you worrying about?"

"I'm not stupid. Why would I become an active troublemaker? That would make them feel seriously threatened, and it would make it harder to conceal my purpose."

Naruto's words sent a chill through Minato Namikaze's heart, because the premise in Naruto's words was crucial.

A cold wind swept past, and heavy snow began drifting down from the sky again.

Since no one was following or monitoring him today, he might as well go back and begin training.

Previously, after Kurama had replenished Minato Namikaze's Chakra, Minato Namikaze had immediately said he wanted to guide Naruto's training. But Naruto remembered that he currently had a certain amount of free time every day to go outside and get some air, and he could not waste it.

He greatly enjoyed the feeling of being able to walk. Sometimes, he could barely restrain himself from wanting to run freely down the roads.

Under Kurama and Minato Namikaze's puzzled gazes, he went out.

Before leaving, however, he had specifically gone to the Mirrored World to conduct an experiment with Kurama.

When he stood inside the seal, even if his body remained motionless while his consciousness was fighting a Puppet, Kurama could still use their Chakra-based mental link to send him messages at any time without obstruction.

But his father, Minato Namikaze, could not do the same.

Naruto had tested it repeatedly. Even after assigning him a guest identity, Minato Namikaze could not transmit any information to Naruto from within the seal.

Kurama was immensely proud of this, while Minato Namikaze was deeply disappointed.

He could not accept that his connection with his own son was somehow less intimate than the connection Naruto had with a fox.

After lunch, Naruto sat in a chair at home and pretended to read. Within the seal in the Mental World, Minato Namikaze had already begun teaching him.

"Naruto, stop using your previous Chakra extraction method."

Minato Namikaze's expression had turned somewhat ugly from the very beginning.

"Hm? There's something wrong with that Chakra extraction method?"

Naruto's gaze instantly sharpened.

Minato Namikaze hurriedly waved his hands. "There's nothing wrong with the method itself! It's just that this is a method Konoha specifically provides for civilians to cultivate with, and its Chakra extraction efficiency is not very good."

"Heh~ Our Lord Hokage truly leaves no detail unattended!"

Naruto sneered after hearing his father's explanation.

Kurama said nothing from the side, but he too looked at the Fourth Hokage with contempt. He felt that humans really were far too underhanded in the way they did things.

As Minato Namikaze awkwardly began teaching Naruto a new Chakra extraction method, he also felt secretly furious.

The Third Hokage had discovered this matter when he first set Naruto on the path of cultivation, but what could Minato Namikaze do when he was already dead?

He was now extremely glad that Naruto had met him so early.

Setting aside Naruto's own hidden trump cards, if things continued according to the Third Hokage's arrangements and no one was willing to guide his son, then Naruto was destined to become dead last.

Compared to what the Third Hokage had provided, the cultivation method his father taught him was not complicated at all. It was actually much simpler. According to Minato Namikaze, it was an exclusive secret of Naruto's mother's Uzumaki Clan, and it suited Naruto's constitution perfectly.

After mastering the new Chakra extraction method, Naruto calmed his mind and began extracting Chakra. He quickly discovered that the energy surging from all parts of his body was extremely active, completely different from how it had felt while training yesterday.

With a thought, he entered the Mirrored World directly.

He opened the pop-up window and saw that, in his current projection state, his Chakra had suddenly increased to enough for half an hour of challenge time.

Since he was here, he could not waste the time.

It seemed as though a voice in his heart was constantly urging him to pursue greater strength.

Naruto walked up to Kotetsu Hagane and initiated a challenge.

This was not hardship. Though it might affect him mentally, he was not the sort of person who chose comfort when he still had the chance to strive.

When Naruto woke early the next morning, still carrying traces of fatigue, Kurama immediately told him that something even stranger had happened last night.

After he had fallen asleep, one of the people who usually came to take over the surveillance shift had called for all the Anbu monitoring him to withdraw.

This truly left Naruto somewhat puzzled.

He asked his father, who had once been Hokage, but Minato Namikaze was equally confused and could not understand what the Third Hokage was doing.

What was the Third Hokage up to?

First, he had withdrawn the people following Naruto outside, and then he had even withdrawn those monitoring him around the clock.

Naruto did not spend too much energy on these matters. After washing up and changing clothes, he ate breakfast while digesting the rewards he had gained from lying dead last night.

He was sorting through Kotetsu Hagane's cultivation experience from his genin days.

It was only after transforming himself and going out that he learned last night had apparently been far from peaceful.

Naruto wandered around and had just reached a newsstand, about to pick up a newspaper, when he heard several people whispering among themselves.

"Did you hear? They say the Cloud Village leader who came yesterday was beaten to death."

"Huh? No way! Didn't Cloud Village come to Konoha yesterday to sign an alliance agreement?"

"It's true. I heard about it too. Someone from the Hyuga Clan killed him!"

"That's right. Things blew up last night. Those people from the Land of Lightning carried the corpse to the Hyuga Clan's gates and demanded that the Hyuga Clan hand over the culprit, or they would go to war with Konoha!"

"What? War? No way. The village doesn't look like it's preparing for war."

"That's thanks to Lord Hokage. He preserved the village's peace! I saw him bring many ninja over there last night and make the Hyuga Clan hand over the culprit. Otherwise, there really might have been a war. But the alliance talks are off too. Those people from the Land of Lightning left Konoha overnight. What a pity."

"Hmph! Since the Hyuga Clan killed someone, the village should never have had to take the blame for them. They even ruined our alliance with Cloud Village. They're terrible."

"Exactly! What a shame."

Naruto understood what had happened when he heard this. Without changing expression, he handed the newsstand owner two bills, picked up the latest newspaper, and turned to leave.

This should have been the bloody incident caused by Hinata being abducted by Cloud Village. The people from the Land of Lightning had never come to form an alliance at all; they had deliberately come to make trouble.

Their most obvious intention had been to seize the power of the Byakugan.

Yet in the end, Hizashi Hyuga, Neji's father and a member of the branch family, had committed suicide in place of Hyuga Hiashi, the head of the main family, to give Cloud Village an explanation.

Under the Hyuga Clan's main-family and branch-family system, branch family members were designated from birth to serve as guards for the main family.

The Caged Bird Seal would be branded onto the heads of branch family members. This seal restricted their Byakugan abilities, while the main family could manipulate it at will and activate it at any time to destroy the brain tissue of those branch family members.

They were plainly slaves who had no control over their own lives.

Hizashi Hyuga had desperately wanted to resist that fate.

The reason he had willingly gone to his death was because, in his entire life, this was the one time he could choose his own fate.

After running through the plot in his mind, Naruto could not help but wonder what role the Third Hokage had played in this matter.

Had Konoha ever lost the Third Great Ninja War?

Would Konoha fear war?

What a joke!