A week had passed since the Third Hokage's funeral.
Yet the scenes from the funeral still lingered in many people's minds. They could not forget the truths Kakashi had exposed, nor could they forget the Uzushio Village ninjas who still remained in Konoha.
By all rights, the Uzushio Village ninjas' actions at the Third Hokage's funeral had been an insult to Konoha.
But the people of Konoha did not seem to see it that way. Although Naruto had left the village and severed his ties with Konoha, the Hokage's son could only be a Konoha ninja. In the future, he would still become Hokage.
Because of the cold attitude displayed by the Uzushio Village ninjas and Naruto, they began verbally attacking the Sarutobi Clan's ninjas again and isolating the Sarutobi Clan.
It was as though making the Sarutobi Clan suffer badly enough would win them Uzumaki Naruto's favor.
At the Uzumaki Clan Compound, Naruto lay in the courtyard basking in the sun, while also increasing his affinity with Nature Energy. Never abandoning self-improvement at any time was one of his principles in life.
The reason Naruto was still in Konoha was simple.
On one hand, he was waiting for Konoha to sort out the assets it had seized back then. On the other, he planned to merge the Uzumaki compound with the Uchiha compound and turn it into a nation within Konoha.
Within this area, Konoha residents would not be allowed to enter or leave freely, while Uzushio Village could station a guard force of no more than fifty people there, serving as a symbol of friendship between the two great ninja villages.
Of course, that was the nicer way to put it. In practical terms, it meant allowing Uzushio Village to station troops there.
They would use Uzushio Village's