Chairman's Young Lady Kidnapping Incident

After training until he was completely exhausted in the morning, Naruto only needed an afternoon nap to be full of energy again. He had gained a preliminary understanding of his recovery ability. Does this mean that as long as I don't train myself to death, I should train to death?

However, there was no training scheduled for the afternoon. Kushina had gone to work and specifically told Naruto not to do extra training. He was still too young, and over-training on his own could easily lead to injury.

Kushina was different from Mikoto Uchiha. When there was no war, Mikoto stayed home peacefully as a full-time wife. But Kushina was a Jinchuriki and needed to maintain a certain level of combat power, so aside from working every day, she occasionally had to go out and execute missions.

After all, Naruto was already three years old and no longer required much care. Even Kakashi had long since stopped being responsible for protecting Naruto. Instead, he often took on all kinds of high-difficulty missions and had already earned the title of Konoha Technician.

Since Kushina said he could not train, Naruto felt he should listen to Mother and not make her worry. Then should he read? He still did not know enough words to read through even a copy of Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Ninja. With nothing to do at home, Naruto decided to go out for a stroll.

He walked through street after street and passed shop after shop. Konoha felt much like a small town. The passersby were quite friendly toward Naruto, after all, he was the son of a hero.

Some people had originally called him "Young Master Naruto," but Minato and Kushina had seriously corrected them all.

Naruto did not care much. He had no intention of throwing his weight around just because he was the foolish son of the village chief's family.

Naruto wandered around aimlessly and, before he knew it, arrived at the Ninja Academy.

The school itself was nothing unusual, but he saw someone familiar at the entrance. Naruto went up with a grin and greeted him, "Third Hokage!"

Yet inwardly, he was curious. Although the Third Hokage's eldest son was busy with missions and his second son had run away from home, his spouse was still alive. Why was he here instead of at home keeping his spouse company? Could it be that after retirement, he could no longer use the Crystal Ball to peep into the women's bathhouse, so loneliness had driven him to become the school gatekeeper?

The Third Hokage pulled back the leg he had already stepped into the school with and replied with a smile, "It's Naruto. Did you come out to play by yourself?"

"Mm. Why are you here, Third Hokage?" Although Naruto knew there had to be Anbu following him—after all, he was half a Jinchuriki—they could not show themselves, so there was no problem saying he had come out alone.

"Haha, Grandpa is going to give the children a lecture in a little while."

"A lecture?"

"Yes, Naruto, do you know about the Will of Fire?"

Without waiting for Naruto's answer, the Third Hokage continued while rubbing Naruto's head. "Where the leaves dance, the fire burns on. The firelight will continue to illuminate the village and make new leaves sprout."

Naruto thought, I know this part. But he did not say anything.

"Haha, it's still too early for you to understand all that. Do you want to go inside and take a look?"

"Okay." Naruto nodded. He had never actually been inside the Ninja Academy.

Naruto followed him into the school with great interest. As they walked, the Third Hokage gave Naruto some popular science:

"The Ninja Academy was established by the Second Hokage. Since its founding, it has nurtured many talents for Konoha... blah blah blah..."

"The Second Hokage was named Tobirama Senju, and he was my teacher. He was the younger brother of the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju, and developed many ninjutsu. Your father, the Fourth Hokage, was best known for the Flying Thunder God Technique, which Teacher Tobirama invented. Back then, it was called the fastest technique in the ninja world..."

"Speaking of which, your father and mother met at the Ninja Academy. Back then, Kushina was kidnapped by enemy ninja, and Minato rescued her. Later..."

Elders were like that. As long as they had a listener, they could talk without stopping. Sometimes they did not care whether you responded, or even whether you were really listening. It was enough that you were there.

Naruto suddenly felt a little sorry for this elder. In his previous life, he had often joined others in criticizing him, saying he was greedy for power, that Minato had only been a Puppet Hokage, that he had indulged Danzo, and so on. But at this moment, he was merely an ordinary empty nest elder.

Naruto listened as the Third Hokage talked about the history of the Ninja Academy, the glorious deeds of the past Hokage, and gossip about his parents. The elder seemed satisfied, or perhaps class time had arrived, so he let Naruto go play on his own.

And so, every morning he completed taijutsu training, while every afternoon he ran around the village. Life remained calm and peaceful, and two months passed quickly.

December in Konoha had already entered winter. Unlike Jiang Cheng's winter, with its so-called damp cold that dealt "magic damage," Konoha's winter was more like the northern dry cold that dealt "physical damage." Every day, they had to add a few more clothes before going out.

The envoy group from the Hidden Cloud Village of the Land of Lightning had been staying in Konoha for several days, and the negotiations over the alliance between the two nations were nearing their end. Konoha decided to hold a celebration on December 27 to commemorate the alliance. That day also happened to be the third birthday of Hinata Hyuga, the eldest young lady of the Hyuga Main Family.

The people of Konoha seemed to place great importance on a child's third birthday, as though turning three qualified one to be called an independent person. Naruto's own third birthday had been more grand than his first two, while the Hyuga Clan valued it even more.

On that day, the entire Hyuga Clan would attend Hinata's third birthday celebration, even disregarding the village festival. Hinata's position as the legitimate daughter of the main family would be formally established, and Neji, a member of the branch family, would receive the Caged Bird Curse Mark. From then on, Neji would live to protect the young lady of the main family.

The Caged Bird Curse Mark was somewhat like an enhanced Golden Fillet. One function allowed the main family to give branch family members marked with the cursed seal splitting headaches, or even directly destroy their brain nerves and kill them. Its second function was to seal the Byakugan. When its bearer died or had their eyes removed, it would destroy the eyeballs and brain to prevent the Byakugan from falling into outside hands.

Yet Neji at this time... seemed to be enjoying it. The child appeared to have a sister complex and did not resist the idea of protecting his cousin at all. He was even quite happy about it...

That was how it had been in the original work. It was not until Neji's father, Hizashi Hyuga, died that Neji came to hate the system of the main and branch families, and hate the Caged Bird Curse Mark.

Hizashi Hyuga himself had even been willing to die in Hiashi's place in order to get rid of the Caged Bird Curse Mark. He claimed it was his own decision and believed he had resisted so-called fate.

But from a more pessimistic perspective, there was actually a nursery rhyme in Japanese with the same name, "Caged Bird." Its general idea was that, at the last moment, someone would become a scapegoat in place of the bird in the cage. That was rather ironic. The way Hizashi summoned courage to resist was by becoming Hiashi's scapegoat, which instead fit the meaning of Caged Bird perfectly.

Everyone had their own thoughts. Konoha's villagers happily attended the Alliance Celebration Ceremony, and Naruto too strolled and ate under Kushina's company;

The Hyuga Clan attended the third birthday ceremony of the main family's young lady with solemn dignity. Who knew how many people, like Hizashi, silently felt indignant over their own children's fate;

Meanwhile, the ninjas of the Hidden Cloud Village harbored malicious intent and planned to cause trouble.

The next day, a piece of news quietly spread through Konoha—"Shocking! Chairman's Young Lady Kidnapping Incident!"

The leader of the Hidden Cloud envoys had actually kidnapped the young lady of the Hyuga Clan, only to be killed on the spot after Clan Head Hyuga Hiashi discovered him. Yet the Hidden Cloud envoy group counter-accused the Hyuga Clan of unprovoked murder and demanded that Konoha hand over the killer.

The residents were buzzing with discussion. Some sympathized with Hinata's ordeal, some cursed the Hidden Cloud ninjas for being shameless, and some worried that it would spark a conflict.

If this matter was not handled properly, Konoha and the Hidden Cloud Village, which had only just formed an alliance, might turn against each other.

So Minato immediately went to the Hyuga Clan, intending to understand in detail the beginning and end of the matter and discuss a solution.