Naruto [Parental Link]

Naruto straddled the middle-aged man and began punching him repeatedly.

The man's cheeks were swollen beyond recognition, and his face was covered in blood from his nose, mixed with tears and snot, forming a small, sticky puddle on the ground.

"Ahhh!! Help!! Someone save me!!"

The man's screams echoed through the empty street, sharp and piercing.

The doors of the surrounding houses were tightly shut, and a few windows were slightly ajar, as people watched the scene with fear.

There wasn't much surprise in the villagers' eyes, as if they were already used to the scene before them.

"That crazy kid is hitting someone again..."

Shh! Keep your voice down! Do you want him to hear you?

"What's wrong with him? This kid wasn't like this before..."

"Who knows? Just don't mess with him."

Whispers seeped from the cracks in the doors and windows, like a swarm of mice rustling against the wall.

Jiraiya gradually recovered from his shock.

He stared at the blond boy riding on top of an adult, throwing punches, his brow furrowed, his usually carefree face now filled with deep thought.

Something's wrong. Everything happening right now... is very wrong.

He instinctively wanted to step forward and stop Naruto's "violent" action.

However, he stopped as soon as he took a step.

Because of his perception, he was told something else.

With his top-notch sensory abilities, the moment he set foot on Konoha soil, he had already taken in everything around him.

Hidden around Naruto were at least a dozen Anbu members!

Faced with the Jinchuriki's violent acts against the villagers, they did nothing but watch quietly from the shadows.

Even though he found it hard to believe, the scene before him forced Jiraiya to think of the most likely explanation:

"The Old Man... he tacitly approved of Naruto's behavior?"

Jiraiya couldn't help but find the idea that had popped into his head absurd.

"That Old Man condoned Naruto beating up the villagers? How is that possible?!"

Jiraiya is thinking hard...

0.01 seconds later, Jiraiya gave up thinking.

Tsk.

He scratched his head, somewhat annoyed, and muttered to himself:

"Never mind, I'll just ask the Old Man in person when I see him."

Now, the most important thing is...

Jiraiya looked at Naruto, who showed no sign of stopping, and at the middle-aged man beneath him convulsing in pain, and was momentarily at a loss.

In this situation, how should I start a conversation with this child?

Just as Jiraiya was racking his brains trying to figure out how he should appear before Naruto in a normal way,

Naruto's raised fist paused for a moment.

A gentle male voice echoed in his mind:

"Alright, Naruto, isn't it enough to stop now?"

The voice was like a gentle spring breeze, warm and soft, carrying undisguised doting affection:

"He has already been punished. As long as he recognizes his mistakes, then..."

"Minato, shut up!!"

Before the man could finish speaking, an angry female voice suddenly rang out, interrupting him.

Hearing the angry female voice, Naruto almost instinctively trembled.

Naruto's inner world at this moment.

It was a vast space, the ground bathed in a pale blue halo, the sky grayish-white, without the sun, yet filled with light.

In the center of the space, a massive iron gate covered in sealing runes stood there, behind which were a pair of crimson vertical pupils, larger than lanterns, radiating a dangerous light in the darkness.

Minato stood in the pale blue halo, cautiously glancing at his enraged wife beside him:

"Kushina, I think this is good enough..."

His voice was very soft, as if he were coaxing an angry child:

"Now no one in Konoha dares to bully Naruto anymore. If this continues, Naruto's reputation in Konoha will probably suffer even more..."

"What are you afraid of?!"

Kushina looked at Minato with a dark expression.

Her long red hair swayed gently in the windless air, like a burning flame.

Kushina stood with her hands on her hips, her beautiful face filled with undisguised anger.

"Minato! Whose side are you on anyway?!"

"I, of course I'm on your and Naruto's side!"

Looking at his angry wife, Minato answered quickly without thinking.

"Then don't speak up for them!!"

Kushina crossed her arms in front of her chest and said angrily:

"Naruto has been bullied by them for so many years, what's wrong with letting them suffer a little?!"

"These cowards who bully the weak and fear the strong, they haven't learned a thing after all these years."

"They dared to bully me when I first came to Konoha, and now they dare to bully my son?!"

They've really given them too much face! I think these guys deserve a beating! They have to be taught a lesson!

Hearing his wife's angry words, Minato wisely chose to remain silent.

With a mix of trepidation and excitement, he silently took half a step closer to his wife, as if to demonstrate his absolute loyalty.

Kushina ignored the sweating Minato beside her and shouted loudly into the sky:

"Naruto! Don't listen to your dad's nonsense! Listen to your mom, give him a good beating!!!"

From within the massive prison doors behind them came a roar of barely suppressed fury:

"It's so noisy!!!"

"Go argue somewhere else!! Don't disturb my sleep!!!"

Before the words were even finished, a huge orange-red tail swept across the cell door, making the entire underside of consciousness vibrate and buzz.

In reality, Naruto instinctively covered his ears.

Although he knew perfectly well that this action had no real effect on blocking out the voices in his mind.

Naruto sighed helplessly.

I've always loved the feeling of my dad and mom bickering in my mind.

Even though this kind of life had been going on for two years, he had never felt even a little bit bored.

After all... that feeling of being cared for and loved by my parents was something I could only experience in my dreams two years ago.

But that deafening breath that occasionally pops into your head is a different story...

Thinking of this, Naruto's little face couldn't help but twist slightly.

The man pinned to the ground by Naruto clearly noticed that the pressure on him had eased slightly, and he very carefully turned his face, which was so swollen that it was unrecognizable, around.

His body was still trembling, but he dared not move. He cautiously looked at Naruto with his barely open eyes, asking with his eyes whether Naruto had spared him.

Naruto looked at the man in front of him, whose face he had beaten into a pig's head, and a thoughtful look flashed in his sky-blue eyes.

He frowned, pondered for a moment, and then asked earnestly in a childish voice:

"Hey, do you... know you're wrong?"

The man nodded frantically, responding urgently:

"I know I was wrong, I know I was wrong!!"

"Where did we go wrong?"

"The mistake was... the mistake was..."

The man's words came to an abrupt halt.

His eyes darted frantically around in their swollen sockets, as if he were trying to think, but he couldn't come up with anything.

"Um?"

Looking at the man in front of him who hadn't uttered a word for a long time, Naruto raised an eyebrow slightly, but didn't ask any further questions. He simply raised his fist high.

His fist blocked the afternoon sunlight streaming in from directly behind him, casting a small, circular shadow on the man's swollen, almost unrecognizable face.

"I... I really don't know!!!"

The man shouted in grievance:

"My lord, my ancestor!! I admit, I admit I did speak ill of you before, but ever since you reprimanded me last time..."

I really, truly haven't said a single bad word about you since!

You have to believe me!! I'm innocent... I'm truly innocent!!!

Listening to the man's wailing and howling explanations, Naruto nodded calmly.

"That's true. You've definitely behaved a lot since I beat you up like a pig's head last time."

"Then, why did you...?"

Naruto shook his head, a deep disgust appearing on his youthful face.

"The mistake you made wasn't mine."

"... ah?"

The man's mouth was agape in an "O" shape, and his eyes, swollen shut, were filled with confusion.

Naruto's voice suddenly turned cold, and he said through gritted teeth to the man in front of him:

"You... didn't you say that? In front of those bunch of cronies, you smugly declared, ' The Uchiha Clan deserved to be wiped out!' You said that, didn't you?!"

Naruto clenched his fists even tighter:

"You bastard who's been locked up by the Konoha Military Police Force for days for stealing, how dare you say such smug things?!"

He looked at the trembling man before him, raised his fist high, and raised his voice several octaves:

"A parasite like you deserves to be—"

Just as Naruto's fist was about to land, a weary voice came from behind him:

"That's enough, Naruto..."

Hearing the sound behind him, Naruto stopped abruptly.

His fist hovered in mid-air, and the angry expression on his youthful face vanished instantly.

Naruto turned around abruptly and looked at the black-haired boy behind him.

The boy looked to be around seven or eight years old, the same age as Naruto.

He was wearing a black turtleneck sweater, with fair skin and delicate features.

Although he is still young, one can already tell what a handsome young man he will become.

Her long, black hair was slightly disheveled, and her large, black eyes were filled with a heartbreaking emptiness.

Only when looking at the blond boy in front of her did a hint of emotion appear in her lonely eyes.

"Sasuke, what are you doing here?!"

Naruto called out the boy's name in surprise.

He jumped off the middle-aged man and then skillfully kicked him into an alleyway by the roadside.

The man rolled into the shadows of the alley, letting out a muffled "ouch," and then fell silent.

Naruto clapped his hands, then Earth Flow a grin.

Sasuke looked at Naruto's feigned indifference, a subtle ripple flickering in his empty eyes.

He didn't say anything else, but turned his head and whispered:

"Let's... go back."

Naruto looked at the lifeless Sasuke in front of him, his young face filled with heartache.

As he listened to his parents' thoughts, which were in his mind, suggesting how to comfort Sasuke, he sighed helplessly.

Jiraiya, who witnessed the entire process, seemed to still be processing what had just happened.

It wasn't until Naruto was about to leave that Jiraiya belatedly came to his senses.

He had no time to think about the "perfect way to make an entrance," and said urgently:

"Wait, Naruto!!"

The sound echoed loudly in the empty street.

Naruto and Sasuke stopped at the same time.

Naruto heard someone calling his name and turned his head in confusion.

On that young face, the expression changed from confusion to curiosity.

When he saw Jiraiya's tall figure, a joyful voice exploded in his mind.

"That's... Jiraiya- Teacher?!"

In Naruto's inner world, Minato saw the familiar figure before him through Naruto's vision, his voice filled with undisguised excitement and longing.

Naruto looked at Jiraiya and subconsciously repeated the words from his father that echoed in his mind:

"Jiraiya... Teacher?"