Blood

Snowflakes drifted down from the sky, covering the trees on both sides like white coats. On a small path outside Konoha, several children surrounded the Hyuga Clan's princess and mocked her loudly.

"Hey! Aren't you from the Hyuga Clan? Show us your Byakugan. If you don't want to, then don't look over here!"

"Your eyes are seriously disgusting!"

"You're actually a monster, aren't you!"

"You Byakugan monster!"

"Ahahaha!"

The three children surrounding Hinata Hyuga, the Hyuga Clan's princess, took turns taunting her.

"Wah..."

Listening to the hurtful words around her, Hinata hugged her knees and cried, looking especially pitiful.

"Hey! Shut up!"

A sharp shout rang out. Naruto Uzumaki, who had been sitting on a swing nearby, saw the crying Hinata, rose to his feet, and ran over.

Samu Kokaze, standing hidden beside a tree, watched Naruto rush out and suppressed his urge to step in.

He had originally intended to earn some goodwill from the Hyuga Clan. With his exceptional senses, Samu could clearly detect the chakra flows of no fewer than five people nearby. There was no need to mention the Anbu protecting Naruto; there should also have been ninja protecting Hinata, the Hyuga Clan's eldest daughter.

But since Naruto had already gone over, so be it. Samu did not want to draw Konoha's higher-ups' attention by getting involved with Naruto.

"Hey! Who the hell are you?" one of the children asked irritably as he watched Naruto stagger over.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki, and I'm going to be the future Hokage!" Naruto declared in a firm, resounding voice filled with absolute confidence.

"The future Hokage?" One of them bent over and sneered at Naruto from the corner of his eye.

"You idiot!"

"Did you come here to make us laugh?" The children pointed at Naruto, who had assumed a hand-sign pose, and burst into laughter.

"Take my fist!"

With a shout, the child who had mocked him first raised his fist and viciously punched Naruto in the face.

Thud...

Naruto took the blow squarely on the bridge of his nose. Blood streamed from his nose, staining the snow red as he fell onto his back.

Samu, who had already turned to leave beside the tree, suddenly froze. His gaze locked onto the blood flowing from Naruto.

He had not planned to interfere, but the instant he saw Naruto's blood drip onto the ground, he changed his mind.

"Nano Core!"

The silver-white object Samu had named the Nano Core possessed power beyond anything ordinary people could imagine.

Every tiny Nanobug scattered throughout his body was equivalent to an ultra-microscopic computer. As Samu's chakra increased, the number of Nanobugs in his body increased as well.

With his absolute control over the Nano Core, it could be said to be Samu's second brain.

All the Nanobugs within his body combined gave Samu vastly increased computing power, greatly enhancing his neural responses, dynamic vision, and everything else related to calculation.

Ordinary people could not even imagine what state Samu's body was currently in. As for why he cared so much about Naruto Uzumaki's blood...

It had to be said that the Naruto World was simply a world where one competed through fathers and bloodlines.

Even with such an incredible cheat as the Nano Core, Samu's chakra was currently less than one-tenth of Naruto Uzumaki's, even though Naruto barely trained at all.

This was especially true because half the chakra Samu refined every day had to be supplied to the Nanobugs in his body, leaving him with even less.

But things would be different if he obtained Naruto Uzumaki's blood. The human genetic map in his mind clearly told him just how far the Nano Core could go.

During the year since obtaining the Nano Core, the Nanobugs scattered throughout his body had completely analyzed Samu's body, leaving no secrets behind.

Samu believed that as long as he acquired Naruto Uzumaki's blood, the Nanobugs in his body could fully analyze the Uzumaki Clan's Kekkei Genkai. Then, through his absolute control over the Nano Core, he could absolutely succeed in modifying his own physique.

Besides, this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Under normal circumstances, obtaining Naruto Uzumaki's blood like this without drawing special attention from Konoha's higher-ups would have been unthinkable.

And now...

Having made up his mind, Samu stepped out of the woods. He deliberately put an angry expression on his cute little face, took a deep breath, and shouted, "Stop!"

"Huh!" The children who had been ganging up on Naruto stopped and turned toward Samu, who had emerged from the woods. One of them said unhappily, "And who are you? You want to meddle like him too?"

"Get lost, or we'll beat you up too!"

"Beat me up too?" Samu deliberately showed anger on his face and shouted heatedly, "Scum like you who take pleasure in bullying others! I'm definitely going to teach you a lesson!!"

Without waiting for them to respond, he started running and charged at them first.

"You bullies, let Uncle Samu Kokaze teach you a proper lesson!"

Waving his fists without any technique, he punched the face of the child who had attacked first.

"Ow!"

The struck child cried out in pain, clutched his cheek, and glared viciously at Samu. He exchanged looks with his two companions and said, "Get him!"

"Yeah! ×2"

The three nodded together and surrounded Samu.

"I'll help too!" Naruto Uzumaki shouted excitedly from where he lay on the ground.

Perhaps because someone was helping him for the first time and did not despise him, his bruised and battered face was filled with excitement.

"Can you handle it?" Samu deliberately put on a doubtful expression as he watched Naruto get to his feet.

"I won't hold you back!" Naruto shouted agitatedly, feeling questioned.

Samu looked at him, his thoughts turning, then showed an expression of reluctant belief. "All right, then I'll leave my back to you! Don't let me down!"

"Yeah!" Naruto answered heavily. At Samu's words, tears of excitement even seeped into the corners of his eyes. He jogged behind Samu, assumed a defensive stance, and looked utterly determined.

"They're coming. Watch out!"

Samu gave a low warning. Watching the punches ahead move almost as slowly as crawling turtles, he still had to put on a grave expression. Suppressing the urge to dodge, he swung his fists just as wildly and charged in.

Smack, smack, smack, smack...

As Samu traded punches with the two boys in front of him, Naruto's determined shout came from behind him: "I'll protect his back! As long as I haven't fallen, I absolutely, absolutely won't let you get past me!"

Hearing the shout behind him, Samu's eye twitched. He put a little more force into his next punch, and before long, he had beaten the children surrounding them until they cried for their parents.