Uzumaki Naruto

"Scram, scram, scram! Stop getting in the way!"

Naruto had just stood on tiptoe to peek into the sweets shop when a powerful shove brutally knocked him aside. He rolled three times with a "grumble, rumble" before stopping.

"Oww~~~ What was that for?!"

Naruto dusted himself off and looked up in bewilderment, his voice still carrying a trace of childish softness.

The owner's skinny monkey-like face was sharp and vicious, like a walking sucker!

As the crowd gradually gathered around them, Naruto's little eyes spun.

"Three years old—prime age for throwing myself under the bus! Shopkeeper, don't expect me to move without at least a hundred thousand or eighty thousand!" He simply sprawled out flat, looking like a bandit declaring, "I'm welded here today."

"You little jinx! I won't sell anything to a disaster star like you!" the owner roared, hopping madly as his trembling finger nearly jabbed Naruto between the brows.

"Huh?" Naruto's tiny brows twisted together.

He tried hard to recall his "great achievements" over the past three years since transmigrating—he hardly seemed to have even left the front door a few times, though?

A jinx? Him? A three-year-old toddler?

Impossible. Absolutely impossible.

"Open your eyes and look carefully!"

He raised his childish voice stubbornly, his little chest heaving. "Who am I? Look closely! Have we even met? And you're calling me a 'jinx'?!"

The surrounding murmurs suddenly surged like a lake disturbed by a thrown stone.

"It's him. The Nine-Tails Fox!"

"Quick! Don't let him get close!"

"Bad luck. Why is he still alive?"

Naruto's ears rang.

The onlookers' gazes were cold and hateful. Some even concealed killing intent?!

One name had made everyone want to beat him to death?

"You heard them, didn't you?! Get lost! Or else..." The owner's voice rose. "Hmph!"

That snort was chillingly cold.

Heh.

Absurd, icy anger welled up inside Naruto, and he nearly failed to suppress the laugh born of an adult's restraint.

Just because he was an orphan? Because he was alone?

Fine! Just fine!

He firmly memorized the owner's face and the shop's name, recording both in his little grudge notebook!

The next second, he abruptly lowered his head, climbed up without a word, shoved through the crowd, and vanished.

Naruto kicked pebbles as he walked back, and the narcissistic little calculations in his heart completely fell apart.

He had always felt prickly stares on his back before, thinking it was because he was simply too dazzlingly handsome.

Now the case was solved: he was the focal point of the entire village's resentment!

With hostility this intense, the "misunderstanding theory" was nothing but self-deception.

Who could a little toddler like him possibly have harmed?

The blame was too enormous. It had to be an "inheritance" left behind by the previous generation—those divine parents he had never met.

Naruto let out a long sigh.

Parents: Son, your beginner's gift pack is a "village-wide hatred aura." Surprised?

Naruto: Me.

As for his parents' "great achievements"?

Having transmigrated when he had still been a fertilized egg, there was really nothing he could do to help.

And as for infancy?

His brain development had probably been about as good as a goldfish's memory, plus a little extra.

He vaguely remembered that on the day he was born, some murderous god had seemingly held him in one hand like a potato.

The scene had hit like the opening scare of a horror movie, frightening him into blacking out on the spot.

When he woke up again, he had become an "honorary member of Konoha Orphanage."

Hiss. That was way too much information!

Naruto sucked in a sharp breath.

"So the reason I've been able to survive and jump around in this hell-difficulty dungeon until today is because the villagers showed mercy and didn't strangle me back then?"

He was moved to tears, folks. This was absolutely a hell-mode start!

"Fuck! Who wrote this transmigration script? One-star review, refund my money!"

Naruto kicked a pebble flying. Thinking of his unfinished research—scratch that, his life as a corporate slave—made his heart ache. He had merely attended a meeting with his advisor. How had Truck-kun sent him to Tokyo's streets and then arranged new employment for him in another world?

And this world?

He knew absolutely nothing about it!

He only remembered a classmate mentioning something: it seemed to be some hugely popular long-running manga? What was it called again?

"Legend of the Ninja"?

"Ninja Mobilization"?

"Konoha's Good Voice"?

Characters? He only remembered two weird names: What was gay? Naruto?

"Wait. Naruto. Naruto? Me?!"

Naruto abruptly stopped, his CPU nearly overheating. "By that naming logic, am I the protagonist? But could a protagonist really be this miserable? Hunted by the whole village?"

"Could it be... I'm the final villain, the big boss?!"

He imagined his own hellish beginning.

Suddenly, the script made perfect sense.

His blood pressure immediately shot up. "Damn it! Is it too late to restart now?"

In the end, his desire to survive overwhelmed everything else. "Whatever! Even if I'm the villain, I have to survive until the finale before I get written off!"

He took a deep breath and instantly felt the pressure weighing down on him.

System? he silently called.

A translucent panel that only he could see instantly appeared before him—a Golden Finger that even the violent tenant inside his body, the Nine-Tails, could not detect.

[Initial Mission: Refine Chakra]

Chakra. Chakra?!

"What the hell even is Chakra? Trash game! You ruined my youth!"

"Gruuumble~~~"

His stomach issued a timely declaration of protest.

He reached into his pocket—there were only a few scattered coins inside: sixteen taels in total!

"Huh?"

Naruto was dumbfounded. "Where's the 'huge fortune' from the start of the month? Did someone swallow it?"

Forget it. Expecting to buy food with this money? How naive!

"Let's go get something at the docks—cough! Into the mountains!"

Naruto decisively changed his strategic target—the great forest behind the mountain, a completely natural all-you-can-eat restaurant!

He turned and sprinted home.

A few minutes later, with a bulging little bundle on his back—stuffed with all his valuables and emergency rations—he quickly locked the door!

Strategic relocation!

He could not stay in that house for now. Back when he had been naive and innocent, he had not understood. But now?

His enemy list was roughly half the village—no, the entire village!

What if some villager overflowing with a sense of justice decided to give him an early ending? Where would he go to cry?

Bet on people's character?

Naruto shook his head like a rattle drum. "It's safer to keep my life in my own hands!"

In the back mountain, Naruto found a hidden, dry corner and painstakingly built a simple "safe house."

This would be his temporary residence for the next few days.

"Food, clothing, shelter, transportation. 'Shelter' is handled; now I need to keep up with 'food'!"

He immediately entered wilderness survival mode.

Picking mushrooms? He knew a little, but not much!

Anything bright and flower-colored? Absolutely say no!

He only picked the grayish-white ones that looked honest and harmless, like three generations of their ancestors had been guaranteed non-toxic.

Better safe than sorry!

Finally, he picked up the secondhand fishing rod he had bought at great expense and wandered over to the riverbank.

He had bought it purely to pass the time. Who could have expected it to become a tool for making a living so soon?

Sigh. After his identity was exposed, even a fishing rod would probably become contraband.

One hour later—

"The beginner's luck buff doesn't lie!"

Naruto beamed at his haul: five plump river fish.

When the last ray of daylight was swallowed by the shadows of the trees, he deftly lit a campfire.

"Master Naruto's little kitchen is now open!"

Half an hour later—

After working busily for half the day, Master Naruto finally gave the fish in his hand—charred black outside and, well... arguably cooked inside—a solemn evaluation:

"Mm, edible! When surviving in the wilderness, what more could you ask for?"

"Sniff, sniff, sniff—"

A strange sound of someone sniffing suddenly rang out!

"Fuck! What demon is that?!"

Naruto's hair stood on end in fright, and he nearly shoved the grilled fish into the fire. Then, without warning, an old wrinkled face poked out from the nearby bushes!

"Don't panic, don't panic~" The face smiled so broadly that its wrinkles bloomed. "This old man is merely... an ordinary passerby who lost his way while observing the stars at night!"

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