Naruto's Daily Life

Konoha Village.

On the embankment by the river, Sasuke held a bag in his hand, munching away. His little cheeks bulged, and sugar syrup covered the corners of his mouth.

"Big brother, have some too."

As he spoke, he handed the dango from the bag to Itachi behind him.

Itachi smiled and ruffled Sasuke's hair, then took a bite of the dango.

"Hehehe..." Sasuke grinned foolishly.

Big brother spent the whole day with me today. That's so rare.

"You still need to practice your shuriken throwing. You can't even hit the bullseye yet."

Itachi said it casually.

Sasuke chewed on his dango.

"That's because nobody usually trains with me."

Itachi reached out and flicked Sasuke on the forehead.

"If no one trains with you, do you not know how to train by yourself? You're not a little kid anymore."

"Ow."

Sasuke rubbed his forehead, grabbed Itachi's sleeve, and shook it.

"Big brother, can you practice with me more often from now on? I'll be able to hit the bullseye soon."

Itachi affectionately patted Sasuke's head.

"Three days. I'll practice with you for the next three days. If you still can't hit the bullseye after that, I'm going to punish you."

"Huh!? Really!?" Sasuke was both shocked and delighted!

Itachi was extremely busy in the ANBU. Sometimes he would not even be home for days, so taking consecutive days off like this was incredibly rare.

Itachi nodded without saying anything.

Although he still held an ANBU position, it had essentially become a title in name only.

Before, he had needed to act as a double agent, but now that he had openly fallen out with Konoha, Konoha would no longer trust him.

Naturally, he planned to return and help his clan.

There were still a few days of transition before the Police Force changed over, so he could rest for a few days.

Generally speaking, it was extremely difficult to leave the ANBU once one joined, since they frequently came into contact with all sorts of classified information.

But Itachi was not among them. After all, he had the Uchiha backing him.

If he chose not to remain in the ANBU, the Third Hokage could do nothing about it.

As Itachi pondered this, he suddenly noticed Sasuke running toward the river on his little legs. A blond-haired child was squatting there.

Is that... the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki?

Itachi's gaze swept around, and sure enough, he spotted four ANBU watching from the nearby trees.

His brows furrowed slightly—the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki's identity was sensitive, and he could not interfere rashly.

The ANBU were watching. Any unnecessary action could bring trouble to the Uchiha.

With that in mind, he walked toward Sasuke.

"Crybaby, what are you doing here?" Sasuke ran up to Naruto and patted him on the shoulder.

He had often practiced the Great Fireball Technique here in the past and frequently saw Naruto playing alone by the river. The two had known each other for a long time.

Sasuke had seen Naruto secretly crying a few times, so he gave him the nickname Crybaby.

Naruto, who had been silently shedding tears, saw that it was Sasuke and hurriedly wiped his eyes.

"Show-off, why is it you!?"

Sasuke saw the wound on Naruto's forehead, and his expression darkened.

"What happened? Did someone bully you again?"

Naruto did not want to trouble Sasuke with his problems. He covered his forehead and spoke in a fluster.

"No, no. I fell by accident."

Sasuke clenched his fists. His lips moved as though he wanted to press further, but Itachi's voice interrupted him.

"Let's go, Sasuke."

Sasuke turned back and saw the urging look on Itachi's face, then turned to look at Naruto again.

Naruto pushed Sasuke. "Show-off, you should go. I'm fine."

Sasuke hesitated for a moment, then abruptly stuffed the bag in his hand into Naruto's.

"This is for you...!"

With that, he turned and ran away with quick little steps.

Naruto stared blankly at Sasuke's departing back, warmth filling his heart.

He carefully opened the bag. Inside were two skewers of dango.

Naruto cautiously picked one up and bit off a dumpling.

It was sweet.

The ANBU in a nearby tree spoke quietly. "Should we report this to the Third Hokage?"

"No need. Itachi took him away himself. He's deliberately avoiding suspicion, so we shouldn't go looking for trouble."

"Yes, Captain."

Dango were made by mixing glutinous rice flour with various fruit and vegetable juices, then shaping the mixture into balls and stringing them together.

They were actually very cheap and ordinary snacks.

But Naruto had never eaten them before.

Someone who often went hungry naturally had no extra money to buy snacks.

Even if he had money, no one would sell him any.

After eating one skewer, Naruto felt a little full. He could not bear to eat the last one, so he planned to save it for dinner.

He carefully hugged the bag to his chest and headed home along the edge of the residential district.

After all, those residents were not friendly toward him.

Naruto only wanted to get home quickly now. The wound on his head hurt a little.

But what he feared came to pass.

As Naruto walked, a tremendous force suddenly struck from behind and shoved him to the ground.

"Ah!"

Naruto cried out as he hit the ground hard.

Ignoring the scrape on his arm, he hurriedly looked at the paper bag in his arms.

But unfortunately, the bag had been crushed, and the dango rolled onto the ground.

Naruto stretched out his hand desperately, trying to reach the skewer.

That was... a gift from Show-off...

Splat!

A foot stepped on the dango, crushing it flat.

Naruto looked up and saw a fat boy about his age grinning maliciously at him.

"Oh? You even get to eat dango. Where did you steal it from!?"

As he spoke, he ground his foot against the ground, turning the dango completely into a pile of mush.

Naruto's eyes instantly turned red!

"Bastard!" Naruto suddenly shoved the fat boy to the ground.

He threw several punches at the fat boy, making him cry out in pain.

"Ow, ow! Father!"

Bang!

Naruto felt a sharp pain in his waist, and his whole body was kicked half a meter away like a ball.

A thirty-year-old man first helped the fat boy up.

"Damn Demon Fox!"

He furiously kicked Naruto in the back.

Naruto groaned and curled up tightly on the ground, doing his best to protect himself.

Sure enough, a relentless barrage of punches and kicks followed.

Bang! Bang!

Dull impacts rang out against Naruto's body, and he occasionally let out a pained groan.

Seeing Naruto's miserable state, the fat boy excitedly joined in, repeatedly kicking Naruto's head with the foot that had crushed the dango.

"You monster!"

"Go die!"

The ANBU in the nearby trees watched everything coldly, with no intention of helping.

"Should we report this to Lord Hokage?"

Mikawa Ze, the ANBU captain in charge of all this, shook his head.

"No. Lord Hokage has been so busy lately."

"Naruto gets beaten every day. There's no need to report such a minor matter."

"Captain!" An ANBU beside him suddenly shouted!

"The Police Force!"

Naruto curled up on the ground in agony. The pain in his body was nothing compared to the pain in his heart, and tears streamed down his face in grievance.

Why? Why do I have to suffer this kind of bullying?

Sob... why is no one helping me?

Suddenly, the blows raining down on Naruto stopped, and a righteous male voice reached his ears.

"Shisui, as Konoha's protectors, we of the Police Force must stop all acts of violence in Konoha Village!"

Naruto struggled to raise his head. Through his tear-blurred vision, several people in uniforms appeared before him.

He shook his head and finally saw the clan crest on their clothes clearly.

A fan.

That's Show-off's clan.