"Naruto."
Sparkle ignored Mizuki and looked at Naruto beside her.
"Sparkle?"
Naruto raised his head as well.
"Do what you like. No one has the right to blame you. If you think all this is wrong, then change it. Those people who call you the Demon Fox and bully you all know you aren't some so-called Demon Fox. Because they would never dare provoke a real Demon Fox."
Naruto did not understand what Sparkle meant, but his "killer instinct" seemed to realize something. "So as long as I become stronger, as long as I become Hokage, I can change all this?!"
Sparkle smiled faintly. "What you want to do is up to you. You can choose to forgive, or you can choose not to forgive. That is your right."
Naruto's eyes immediately lit up.
It was as though the whole world had become clear in that instant!
Sparkle merely smiled softly.
There had never been any conspiracy involving Naruto being put under Kotoamatsukami.
Compared to hatred, Naruto simply feared loneliness more. His fear of being alone and his longing for bonds overwhelmed his hatred.
Whether it was Sparkle before him or Teacher Iruka at his side... hadn't they always been there?
At that moment, soothing background music began playing in the video, stirring the viewers' emotions.
"Don't act like I'm not here!" Mizuki lost his mind. With an angry roar, he interrupted the music and charged at Sparkle again.
"Teacher Mizuki, your best option right now is to retreat immediately. How pitiful, to have your eyes blinded by rage." Sparkle merely taunted Mizuki from where she stood.
This time, however, Mizuki did not even make it to her. He was sent flying by a sudden impact halfway through his charge.
—It was Naruto. He rushed out and knocked Mizuki back with an elbow strike.
"Demon Fox, it's all because of you!" Mizuki's face twisted.
Iruka was one thing, but this damned Demon Fox actually dared to provoke him.
"I'm not a Demon Fox." Naruto stared resolutely at Mizuki. "I'm Naruto Uzumaki, the man who will become Hokage!"
"You? You're a dead-last failure who can't even graduate!" Mizuki got back to his feet, his face hideous.
—If I can't deal with Sparkle and Iruka, can't I deal with a dead last like you?!
"Naruto!" Iruka was about to intervene, but Sparkle suddenly appeared in front of him and stopped him. He was pleased by Naruto's resolve, but Naruto charging out so recklessly still worried him.
"Teacher Iruka, leave Naruto to it." Sparkle smiled.
Iruka froze. He suddenly remembered Naruto saying earlier that he had learned some kind of jutsu. "Wait. Could it be—"
At that moment, Naruto had already finished his hand seals. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu—hundreds, even thousands of Narutos packed the entire forest.
This was not Sparkle's earlier Genjutsu. Every single one was real!
"Don't come any closer!"
Mizuki was utterly dumbfounded as countless Narutos took turns beating him senseless.
[Don't come any closer! That overused meme is still chasing me!]
[Why can't Danmaku post pictures? My meme images are dying to be used.]
[Naruto: I don't know who I am, where I am, or what I'm supposed to do. But I know beating you flat is the right answer.]
[Now that's what you call a boomerang.]
[Actually, Sparkle's earlier Genjutsu was a boomerang too, hahaha.]
[You can tell Mizuki really is useless. Naruto learned a forbidden jutsu in one night, while Sparkle said Mizuki probably couldn't even understand it if he looked at it, hahaha.]
[He's worse than a dead-last student. Truly beneath even maggots.]
[Mizuki: Are you never letting this go?!]
The viewers had a good laugh, and so did Sparkle.
For this round of screen time, she had gained a full ten thousand points, second only to her first appearance.
"Looks like there's a bonus for first appearances too."
Although this trick could not be used on this "set," it would definitely come in handy next time. A stunning entrance would help her gain huge amounts of popularity.
After beating Mizuki down, Naruto earned Iruka's recognition, received Iruka's forehead protector, and graduated successfully.
And with that, the first episode came to an end.
[Gaia!]
[I just got here, and it's already over?]
[Why is there only a Live Broadcast?!]
[Did anyone record it?]
[You can't. There's special encryption. Screenshots require a premium membership, screen recordings are black, and even filming the screen with your phone doesn't work. It's guarded like cash. The site's video version will have to wait. I heard it's a new broadcast format.]
[I bought an annual premium membership just to screenshot Sparkle's gorgeous pictures, but there's no replay. Ridiculous.]
[No wonder there was no opening.]
[There probably isn't one. This episode was so long that I doubt they could fit it in, just like RE0.]
[If it isn't a Live Broadcast, we won't get to see Danmaku this entertaining. What a shame.]
[Go read the announcement. The Danmaku will be retained in the video version.]
[Damn it, I didn't leave a "here before it got popular" comment at the beginning. What a loss!]
—So that was how it was?
Sparkle roughly understood the situation on the other side.
This so-called Ninja Path was being broadcast in the form of a Live Broadcast. The video version and complete opening and ending sequences would only be available later.
A night passed without anything major happening. There was not even any need for testimony or investigation, because the Third Hokage had watched the entire thing with the Telescope Technique. The effect was even better than Sparkle watching an anime, since anime only aired at specific times rather than livestreaming twenty-four hours a day. The Third Hokage could not only watch the entire time, but even switch angles.
After returning home, Sparkle did not say much. The Third Hokage sealed the entire matter away. Other than Naruto graduating and Mizuki being imprisoned for investigation, there did not seem to be anything else.
Instead, the maid Natsu Hyuga scolded her, saying she should not have come home so late.
"Whew~" Sparkle took the chance to relax once she entered the bath.
The first episode has finished airing. The comment section has opened. First broadcast Actor's Salary Settlement in progress. Please wait.
After everything was over, the stage also notified Sparkle that the first episode had finished airing.
"Next is the contents of the Scroll of Sealing."
The Scroll of Sealing contained a great deal of varied material, including plenty of bizarre jutsu. Sparkle guessed that the Second Generation had casually developed them, after which the First Generation had casually sealed them away.
Sparkle found Impure World Reincarnation, but that jutsu was not especially useful yet because it was incomplete. Orochimaru's improved version three years later would be more useful, so she only used it as reference.
Four Symbols Seal, Mutual Destruction Paper Bomb, and Summoning Jutsu. Before giving the scroll to Iruka, Sparkle also copied down a more or less useless Reverse Lotus.
Sparkle liked Mutual Destruction Paper Bomb the most. It was a jutsu only rich people could afford to use, but... her family happened to be rather wealthy. Art was an explosion, and Sparkle firmly believed that.
The Four Symbols Seal could be used to undo Naruto's seal, though its greater use was sealing things. It counted as "technical reserves."
As for the Summoning Jutsu, although it was nominally a forbidden jutsu, practically every person and their dog knew it. Many clans had it too.
"I wonder what other rewards there'll be later~"
Compared to Kotoamatsukami, Naruto was more like someone who feared hatred because of loneliness. Put simply, he had been emotionally manipulated by loneliness.
Too bad this place was not suited for acting out the plot of a deceased idealized love interest, hahaha.
Meow~
This Generation's Netizens Were All Talented
After finishing her bath, Natsu Hyuga came in to dry Sparkle off and help her change into pajamas.
"Whew~"
Before going to sleep, Sparkle always drank a cup of warm milk, then did twenty minutes of stretching exercises. She slept straight through until morning and never carried fatigue or stress into the next day.
As an idol, image management was very important. Even if she was only an extra or supporting character right now, who said she could not become the protagonist someday?
Sparkle was especially confident in her looks.
Her appearance was not exactly the same as Hanabi Hyuga's in the "original work," but if she opened her eyes and dressed like her original counterpart, she would look seventy or eighty percent alike.
However, if Sparkle changed into a short kimono, turned her eyes red, and put her hair in twin tails, she could also resemble the other Sparkle from Star Rail.
And if she dyed her hair white, wore a black gauze eyepatch, and carried a sword, she could cosplay Jingliu too. She was just a little too young for the look.
Sparkle's appearance combined all those advantages.
Whatever she dressed as, she looked the part. For an idol, that was an exceptionally rare talent.
"Mm~ Oh? I actually gained this much popularity overnight?"
When she woke up the next day, Sparkle discovered that her popularity had increased by more than a thousand points.
The anime should have already ended.
"The comment section."
When Sparkle checked the comment section yesterday, there had been nothing there.
Time was not synchronized between the two sides, so Sparkle could not be sure what was happening over there. But when she opened the comment section today, she found many discussion threads.
Sparkle could not post anything herself, but she could view discussions related to Ninja Path.
This comment section seemed to belong to the discussion area of the largest video website in that world. Ninja Path was being broadcast on that site.
Although Ninja Path only had a Live Broadcast for now, its anime comment section and rating section had already opened.
"Its popularity is already this high?" After looking around, Sparkle found quite a lot of content in the comments. "Oh, and it's related to me?"
Sparkle discovered that the top-ranked post was actually about her—[Analyzing How Rich Lady Sparkle Is from Her Shoes].
The title looked absurd. Naturally, Sparkle opened such an amusing post to enjoy it.
[While everyone has been studying Sparkle's Genjutsu, I discovered another hidden attribute of hers: she's a rich lady.]
[At the Ninja Academy, it's hard to tell someone's wealth or family background from how they dress. But there is one exception: our Lady Sparkle.]
[Including Sparkle's older sister Hinata, everyone's clothes are quite uniform. They all wear modern casual clothing, and the sandals on their feet seem to be the same ninja sandals. But our Lady Sparkle stands out by refusing to follow convention. I wonder if anyone noticed that, among all the ninja who appeared in the first episode, she was the only one wearing Geta. Among the Ninja Academy students, she was also the only one wearing a kimono.]
"Someone actually noticed?"
Since there was only a Live Broadcast at the moment, with no way to rewatch it or catch up on what was missed, Sparkle had thought not many people would notice this detail until the video version was released.
Sparkle's outfit was not merely for the Attention bonus from her clothing. It was also meant to create a distinctive image.
A "character setting" was part of being an idol, and building one was a signature experience idols had no choice but to taste.
[Let's not even talk about the kimono. The one she wore was a furisode kimono, which is actually very common in a Japanese-style setting. Let's start with Sparkle's shoes and try to analyze her family background.]
[I don't know how many people noticed, but Sparkle actually changed shoes once in the first episode. Sadly, I don't have a premium membership and couldn't get screenshots, so I'll borrow images from other netizens here. Look, Image 1.JPG.]
[During the first half, Sparkle wore Geta, but after graduating, she changed into zori. Here, Image 2.JPG.]
[The zori mentioned here are not straw sandals. They are a type of footwear that goes with kimono. Simply put, they are Geta with the wood replaced by leather.]
[First, let's talk about the Geta Sparkle wore at the start of the story. This type of Geta is called Akomachi Geta. Unmarried young women usually wear them. The front and back of this type of Geta are separate: the front is a slanted triangle, while the back has a semicircular heel, which is why they are also called "rear rounds." Image 3.JPG.]
[However, this low-front high-heeled style is somewhat similar to Aiyoukin Geta, which are modernized Geta. The soles of Aiyoukin Geta resemble certain high heels. This slightly mixed style was probably original to the animation. These shoes are heavy, but highly durable. Image 4.JPG.]
[I wonder if everyone noticed that Sparkle's Akomachi Geta were black, glossy, and exquisitely made. This glossy black lacquer with a red sole style is called Kurodaien. It used to be made with black lacquer, but plant fruits are now used as substitute coating material.]