Early the next morning, Naruto got up bright and early, ready to go find Anko. As he sat in the living room waiting for his instant noodles to steep, he remembered leaving Tsunade's office the day before. He had planned to go home and see Karin, only to find the house empty. That struck him as odd, since Karin usually stayed home practicing Sealing Jutsu whenever she had nothing else to do. Only when he saw the note on the table did he realize she had left the village on a mission.
It was worth mentioning that after becoming a ninja, Karin had formed a team with Yuki Haku and Kurama Yakumo, with Shizuka Uchiha as their supervising teacher. Naruto had been shocked when he learned about it. Although Shizuka Uchiha becoming Karin's teacher had surprised him, what surprised him most was Kurama Yakumo herself.
Naruto remembered Kurama Yakumo's story very clearly. She was one of the people he had most wanted to meet after his rebirth, because her circumstances were so similar to his own. They were both shunned by the villagers and called monsters. It gave Naruto the strange feeling that he had found someone like himself.
Naruto looked around the empty house, suddenly struck by a familiarity that felt strangely foreign. He smiled bitterly to himself. Ah, I guess I've changed too. I used to live alone and never felt anything of it. Now that someone else has been here, being alone feels lonely instead.
Deep down, Naruto still longed for companionship. But he was an orphan, and the villagers considered him the Nine-Tails demon fox. Although Naruto did not hate the Nine-Tails, he sometimes wondered what things would have been like without him inside his body. Perhaps the villagers would not have shunned him. He quickly