Two Brothers Struggling to Get By

In that place, thick with sorrow and a heavy atmosphere, the aftermath of a brutal battle still lingered.

A ninja followed Hiruzen Sarutobi into the grief-stricken area. His gaze fell on the two infants lying on the ground, and after hesitating, he asked quietly, "Lord Third, what should we do with these two children?"

"Take them back to the village and find somewhere for them to stay. I'll arrange for someone to look after them." Hiruzen Sarutobi slowly rose and answered the ninja.

The jonin nodded. "Understood, Lord Third." He and another jonin then picked up Naruto and Menma and headed toward Konoha.

Just as they were about to leave, several more jonin arrived. Seeing the scene, they were stunned. "Lord Fourth... Lady Kushina..." Everyone was overcome with grief.

"Take Minato and Kushina back to the village. They were heroes of Konoha!" Hiruzen Sarutobi let out a long sigh, then returned to the village with Minato and Kushina's bodies.

Three years slipped by like flowing water, yet the atmosphere in the Hokage Office was as oppressive as the calm before a storm. Danzo's gaze was unyielding. He slammed his hand down on the Hokage's desk with a loud bang! The documents on it shuddered.

He shouted at Hiruzen, "Hiruzen! No matter how you look at it, there's no problem with handing one of these two Jinchuriki over to Root for training, is there?"

Hiruzen sat behind his desk, smoking his pipe. After exhaling a ring of smoke, he said to Danzo, "Danzo, these children are Minato and Kushina's. I don't want them tainted by darkness. I only want to honor Kushina's final wish and let the two of them grow up happy."

Danzo's lips curled into a cold sneer, tinged with scorn. He spoke slowly, his voice cool and rational. "Grow up happy? Hmph! Once they become Jinchuriki, there's no chance they'll grow up carefree. You know how the villagers treat them..."

Before Danzo could finish, Hiruzen slammed his hand on the desk and cut him off. "You know perfectly well who's spreading those rumors!" Hiruzen took a puff from his pipe, then continued, "Give it up. I won't hand either child over to Root."

Hiruzen finally showed some of the Hokage's authority. Seeing him like this, Danzo had no choice but to give in. "Then I'll have a few Root operatives protect them in secret. Surely there's no problem with that?" Danzo seemed to be offering a concession as he watched Hiruzen.

Hiruzen said nothing. He continued smoking his pipe and slowly turned away.

"Since you're not saying anything, I'll take that as a yes." Danzo gritted his teeth as he spoke.

"I've already assigned the Hokage's personal Anbu to protect them in secret. There's no need to trouble Root." Hiruzen replied slowly without turning around.

"Hiruzen! You..." Danzo spun around angrily and slammed the door behind him.

The door shut with a bang!, making the documents on the desk tremble.

Watching Danzo storm out, Hiruzen couldn't help sighing. He resumed smoking his pipe.

On the streets of Konoha, two blond, blue-eyed boys walked together. One had three whisker-like marks on each cheek, the other had two. Everywhere they went, people pointed and whispered.

Naruto looked at the people around them, then turned to Menma and asked in confusion, "Menma, why are they treating us like this?"

Menma laced his hands behind his head, casually chewing on a blade of grass. His eyes narrowed slightly, as if shielding them from the strange looks around them.

He answered unconcernedly, "Who cares? Their gossip is like the wind. It can blow whichever way it wants, but it won't change anything. We just need to be ourselves."

Naruto pondered this, then rummaged in his pocket and asked, "Menma, how much money do you have left?"

Menma lowered his hands and felt around in his pocket, then sighed. "Oh, my dear brother, could you stop buying so much candy? They don't even want to eat it. Why buy so much? Now we have to live on candy every day."

Menma looked so troubled that Naruto gave an embarrassed smile. "Okay, I won't do it again. How about we eat out today?"

Seeing how excited Naruto was, Menma reluctantly agreed. "Sigh. Looks like it's fish again." With that, Menma followed Naruto to a stream in the forest.

"Great! Let's catch a bunch of fish and have a feast!" Naruto clenched his fist excitedly, then took out his homemade fishing rod and started fishing. Menma watched Naruto act like a maniac, too exhausted to comment.

"Sigh, if we had Minato and Kushina's inheritance, we wouldn't have to fish here," Menma muttered.

"What did you say, Menma? What inheritance?" Naruto asked curiously, his eyes wide.

Menma's heart skipped a beat. He knew it wasn't the right time to bring this up. After all, he was only guessing about the so-called inheritance.

He quickly covered it up. "N-nothing... I was thinking of a new way to catch fish." Menma smiled awkwardly, trying to distract Naruto.

"A new way? What way?" Naruto gazed at him expectantly, his eyes sparkling.

"Um... I'm not sure it'll work, so you should keep fishing. If it fails, we'll have nothing to eat." Menma watched him helplessly.

Naruto's eager expression dimmed a little. "All right. Let's see who catches more fish."

"Sure!" Menma replied, then started looking for stones.

Before long, a pile of stones of different sizes had gathered by the stream. Menma took off his shoes, picked up a fist-sized rock, and waded into the water.

Using the rocks, Menma built a little fish trap at the edge of the stream. It was wide at the entrance and narrowed toward the back. He felt a deep sense of accomplishment as he admired the trap he'd made.

He'd watched plenty of survival videos back in the day. Now that he was putting what he'd seen into practice, he felt like a wilderness survival expert.

"Um, Menma... are you playing with rocks? Weren't we supposed to catch fish?" Naruto asked, watching Menma stand on the bank and look at the trap he'd built.

"Heh, just wait and see. I've got this in the bag." Menma put some earthworms in the trap, then went over and sat beside Naruto.

Watching Menma's confidence, Naruto gripped his fishing rod. He stared intently at the water and called out, full of fighting spirit, "Just you wait! I'm definitely going to win!" As soon as he finished, the rod suddenly twitched. Naruto's eyes lit up. He knew he had a bite.

Naruto yanked the rod up, bringing a fish out of the water. "Look, this is already my second fish!" he boasted to Menma.

Menma shook his head helplessly and turned to look in a certain direction.

Hiruzen Sarutobi had been watching the two brothers with his crystal ball from the Hokage Office for quite some time. He saw the moment Menma looked over.

Hiruzen's heart jumped. "Has he noticed me? Is this child's sensory ability really that strong?" he said in shock.

In truth, Menma's sensory ability wasn't particularly strong. A strange-looking cloud had simply drifted into view in that direction.

"That cloud... kind of looks like... a head-patting emoji..." Menma muttered as he looked at the oddly shaped cloud.

But that casual glance was like a key, instantly unlocking the door to his memories.

The mysterious man who'd spammed head-patting emojis three years ago appeared in his mind. Then the image of Madara, powerful and dangerous, surfaced as well.

At the thought that he might have to face such a powerful enemy as Madara in the future, Menma's heart gave a hard lurch, and his face turned pale.

"Menma, are you feeling sick? Why are you so pale?" Naruto asked with concern when he noticed something was wrong.

"N-no, it's nothing. I'm just a little cold." Menma came back to himself and turned to look at Naruto.

"The water is pretty cold. If you're cold, let's make a fire first." Naruto set down his fishing rod and reached out to help Menma up. They went over to a spot nearby and started a fire.

Watching Naruto, Menma felt a complicated mix of emotions. I'm still just a kid myself, but I have to look after someone who seems just as young as me. I may be the younger brother, but being taken care of like this feels pretty strange.

Before long, dusk fell. Menma went over to the fish trap and saw several fish inside. Delighted, he immediately called Naruto over to help catch them.

"Awesome! You really are my little brother!" Naruto said happily as he looked at the fish in the trap.

Hearing Naruto say that gave Menma that strange feeling again.

That evening, Naruto and Menma sat by the campfire roasting fish. The flames crackled as the smell of grilled fish filled their noses.

"There are still a few fish in the trap. We won't have to worry about food for the next couple of days," Naruto said happily.

"Yeah. That'll give me time to get some training in," Menma said with a sigh, gazing up at the stars.

"Hey, Menma, what kind of people do you think our mom and dad were?" Naruto asked, glancing at Menma and then up at the stars.

"Mom and Dad? Who knows? They were probably amazing people. Maybe they were the Hokage," Menma replied slowly, his eyes still on the stars.

"The Hokage, huh? One day, I'll become Hokage and earn everyone's recognition!" Naruto declared confidently.

Watching Naruto hold on to his dream of becoming Hokage, Menma couldn't help reflecting to himself.