Birthday present

Although there had been a brief disturbance, the crowd gradually dispersed after Hyuga Hengzuo left with Hiashi. Naruto had left an impression on some of them, such as Neji, but because Hiashi had put a stop to things so quickly, most people never connected the incident to Naruto. They simply thought the young lady was playing with the village's unpopular child.

Afterward, Hinata found Naruto just as he was about to get something to eat, carrying a small wrapped gift. She had only intended to give him a return gift, as her father had instructed.

But when she held out the gift, Naruto suddenly froze, then said something Hinata had never expected. "Th-this is a Birthday Gift for me?"

"Today... today is your... your birthday, Naruto-kun?" Hinata's heart nearly skipped a beat as she stammered out the question.

"Yeah... the Orphanage teachers said my birthday was October tenth, so I guess it is." Looking deeply touched, Naruto accepted the gift. "Can I open it now?"

It's his birthday. Should I give him a present too... because we're friends?

"Um, Naruto-kun." Hinata hurriedly interrupted Naruto just as he was about to unwrap the gift. "What do you want most right now?"

With so much on her mind, Hinata had even forgotten her habit of speaking too softly.

"What do I want most? Oh, definitely a meal at Ichiraku Ramen! Tonkotsu Ramen would be best, with an extra egg!" Naruto answered with a grin.

"Then... then let me treat you!" Hinata offered before she could think twice.

"Huh?"

"Will Hyuga Hiashi notice anything?"

When Hyuga Hiashi had approached Naruto earlier, the Nine-Tails had stopped sharing its Chakra, so Minato naturally couldn't see what happened next.

After all, Hyuga Hiashi's mastery of the Byakugan was so advanced that there was no telling what he might do if he discovered the current state of Naruto's inner world.

"I've withdrawn all my Chakra. Forget the Byakugan—even the Rinnegan wouldn't be able to see anything." The Nine-Tails gave a dismissive chuckle.

"That's a relief. Still, this is wonderful. Naruto's made a friend." After hearing the Nine-Tails' explanation, Minato Namikaze figured there was nothing to worry about, even though he had no real sense of how powerful the Rinnegan was. "But what did you mean earlier when you said Naruto was just like me? I was never the type to attract this much attention."

Seeing Naruto make a friend seemed to have put Minato in an excellent mood. He was even joking with the Nine-Tails.

"I wasn't talking about his personality." The Nine-Tails glanced at Minato, then narrowed its eyes. "Hinata Hyuga is your daughter-in-law. At least, she was in the future I lived through."

Daughter-in-law?

Minato Namikaze froze, finally understanding what the Nine-Tails had meant earlier.

Back when I saved Kushina at the Academy, the bond we formed...

"Uh... but Naruto's still a child. Isn't he a little too young? Even during the war, we weren't that young when we... But the Nine-Tails said they really did end up together in the future. Would that still count as dating too young?" Minato Namikaze, Konoha's Yellow Flash and the heroic Fourth Hokage, had entered a stage of reflection every father was bound to experience—or rather, a state of agonized indecision. "That girl's personality is clearly the complete opposite of Kushina's. Naruto won't bully her when they're older, will he...?"

Hmph.

Watching Minato wrestle with his worries, the Nine-Tails had no interest in discussing such things with him.

Some time had passed, after all, and Naruto had probably left the vicinity of the Hyuga Clan by now. No one should be able to detect the Nine-Tails at this point.

The Nine-Tails released a little of its Chakra, and Naruto's current surroundings appeared in its mind, revealing an unexpected figure.

"Uchiha Itachi?"

Uchiha Itachi was rather surprised as well. He had just finished an Anbu mission that day and, exhausted in both body and mind, hadn't been paying attention to the people or events around him. Then Naruto had stopped him as he passed Ichiraku Ramen.

"What is it?" Itachi asked quietly. He still remembered his father's instructions: as a member of the Uchiha Clan, he needed to limit his contact with Naruto, the tailed beast jinchūriki, to avoid misunderstandings.

"Burp... I came to give this back to you..." A little too full from the Ramen he had just eaten, Naruto rummaged through his clothes and pulled out a kunai. Just as he was about to hand it over, he saw Uchiha Itachi draw a shuriken and point it at him.

Realizing that his oversensitive reflexes had caused a misunderstanding, Uchiha Itachi felt a little embarrassed, but his expression remained blank as he put away the shuriken. Then, under Naruto's slightly apologetic gaze, he accepted the kunai and shuriken Naruto handed him.

"Ah, well, I picked these up by the river last time and wanted to give them back, but I never ran into you..." Naruto sheepishly rubbed the back of his head. "I definitely wasn't trying them out myself, and it wasn't that I wanted to keep them..."

"I know. They are my ninja tools." Uchiha Itachi interrupted Naruto, then pointed at the Flying Thunder God Mark on the kunai's handle. "What's this?"

Oh no, I forgot to wipe it off. Naruto froze, then hurried to explain. "Oh, that's just something I scribbled on there. It's just a little hard to wipe off..."

"Is that so?" Apparently feeling that he had already spoken to Naruto too much, Itachi said nothing more. He put away the shuriken and kunai, thanked Naruto, and vanished before him.

"So cool!" Seeing Uchiha Itachi's Body Flicker Technique again made Naruto's eyes light up once more. He was even more eager to grow up and attend the Ninja Academy. After all, once his birthday was over today, he would be five, with only two more years to go before he could attend school and learn real ninjutsu.

Speaking of birthdays, I still haven't opened the Birthday Gift Hinata gave me. But this is the first birthday present I've ever received. Should I get her a return gift?

"Oh, come to think of it, I think someone wished me a happy birthday in my dream today. Otherwise, I wouldn't even have remembered my birthday, and I wouldn't have gotten a Birthday Gift from a friend." The more Naruto thought about it, the more he felt that his dreams were full of good luck.