Sasuke slipped his hands into his pockets again. "Hey, crybaby, how did you end up looking so pathetic?"
Naruto put away the gloomy look on his face. "Hmph, you stuck-up brat, where have you been lately? I haven't seen you by the lake."
Sasuke and Naruto had known each other since they were little. Sasuke often practiced Fire Release by the lake, but Naruto had not seen him there at all lately.
Recently, there had been many unfavorable rumors about the Uchiha Clan.
As far as children were concerned, rumors usually focused on the bad parts.
No matter what world it was, brats like them were all the same.
"My father sent me away for a while. I've been shut in the house every day. It's annoying as hell," Sasuke explained casually.
Naruto cautiously asked, "Sasuke, did something happen to your family?"
Sasuke had wanted to get angry, but seeing how careful Naruto was being, he merely snorted. "Nothing happened. The Uchiha are doing just fine!"
Naruto had been bullied ever since he was little. He envied Sasuke deeply, because Sasuke's family was all by his side.
Meanwhile, he himself was just an orphan without parents. Only the Third Hokage would occasionally come visit him.
There were many things he did not understand. He did not know why those people called him a fox demon, nor why they would not be friends with him.
But Sasuke, Hinata, and Shikamaru had never bullied him. They were people he could get close to.
He was afraid that something had happened to his friend's family, that Sasuke would become like him—an orphan no one wanted.
As Naruto and Sasuke talked, several Anbu stood on the branches of a nearby tree.
They had all been assigned by the Hokage to monitor the Nine-Tailed Jinchuriki