Guy makes a grand entrance

"The village feels so strange today."

Naruto walked down the street, looking around.

The shops were open as usual, and the streets were as crowded and bustling as ever, but Naruto still felt that something about the atmosphere had changed.

After walking a little farther, Naruto suddenly saw that the crowd ahead had moved to either side, leaving the entire street clear.

At the intersection, a Ninja wearing a Konoha Forehead Protector was restraining a man and marching him forward. Their expressions were unusually grave.

What happened?

Naruto stepped aside to stand among the crowd as well. When the man passed him, he instinctively looked up to examine his clothes and spotted a somewhat familiar symbol on the back.

It was a fan-shaped crest.

"Huh, I remember that..." Naruto stopped in his tracks. He vaguely remembered that symbol.

"How many members of the Uchiha Clan does that make now?"

"They're supposed to be the Military Police Force, yet they're committing the very crimes they should be preventing. Disgraceful."

"Well, it is the Uchiha Clan! All they ever do is give us trouble. They've never done anything good!"

"I heard several Ninja died this time. Sigh... to think someone in the Military Police Force was working with the enemy..."

Everyone was talking, and their scattered remarks gave him a rough idea of what had happened.

In short, apparently there were traitors among the Uchiha Clan, who were responsible for policing the village. They had actually let Ninja from other villages sneak in. Fortunately, the Anbu members had discovered and stopped them in time, preventing the village's secrets from being leaked.

But quite a few Anbu Ninja had died as well. The Third Hokage was furious, and they were now arresting spies within the Uchiha Clan.

Notably, even though Naruto was merely standing off to the side to hear what had happened, people still noticed him, pointed at him, and hurried to avoid him.

"...Huh." Naruto did not quite understand, but he felt a little dejected. Though he was curious about the Uchiha Clan, the cold looks he drew hurt him more.

Now, Naruto only wanted to avoid places where people gathered. He stopped concerning himself with what was happening in the village and quietly headed to the Training Ground alone.

What he failed to notice was that every time he went to the Training Ground, a pair of snow-white eyes would hide quietly among the crowd, shyly watching him from behind.

The unrest in the village soon passed. After several days of tension, calm returned once more.

But no one knew just how fiercely the currents beneath that tranquil surface were churning.

Over the past few days, Minato had taught Naruto nothing but basic Ninjutsu in his dreams. It was as though, having noticed that Naruto had begun training on his own initiative, he had put instruction in specific techniques on hold and instead kept filling gaps in his basic knowledge, deliberately strengthening Naruto's foundation.

There was one thing, however, that even someone of Minato's Hokage-level ability could do little about. Because Naruto's instinctive emotions were amplified in his dreams, his aversion to theoretical knowledge was especially pronounced. Once, when Minato tried to demonstrate and explain the basics of Genjutsu, Naruto, who was already asleep and dreaming, nearly fell asleep again inside his own dream.

And that was not even what frustrated Minato most. What left him even more speechless was that Naruto was not the only one. Another student, who listened from the back without revealing their true form, had also hinted that the theoretical lessons were so dull they were nearly falling asleep.

That made preparing lessons dramatically harder for Minato-sensei.

Still, it was not enough to defeat him. After applying himself with renewed determination, Minato successfully acquired a special ability called teaching through comedy routines.

Naruto woke feeling refreshed, his head brimming with knowledge and ideas he wanted to put into practice. Full of energy, he quickly washed up, grabbed a bottle of milk and some bread he had bought a few days earlier, and hurried to the Training Ground.

Naruto looked excited the whole way, stuffing breakfast into his mouth while his hands kept practicing Hand Seals.

Over the past year and more, he had grown used to waking up with knowledge and muscle memory for things he had never learned. Reviewing them the moment he got out of bed and putting them into practice was the best way to remember those techniques.

Behind him, a cute little mushroom-shaped head peeked out from behind a utility pole. Hinata secretly followed, her face flushed with embarrassment, and could not help thinking, Naruto-kun gets up so early to train every day. He's so hardworking.

It never occurred to her that, in a sense, she was quite hardworking herself, getting up at the crack of dawn every day to sneak out of her house.

Just as Naruto arrived at the Training Ground he had become thoroughly familiar with over the past few days, he suddenly heard a strange cry from inside: "Hi-yah!"

The odd cry was followed by a thunderous crash that even made the ground tremble slightly.

"Wh-what's going on?" Since discovering this Training Ground a few days ago, Naruto had been coming here to practice every day. He had never seen anyone else training in this run-down place.

He remembered seeing those old, battered wooden posts for the first time and assuming the Training Ground had been abandoned. Why was someone here today?

Naruto hurried over to take a look. Inside the training ground, a man with a bowl cut and a watermelon-green training outfit was leaping about, darting and weaving like a tornado. As he let out one strange cry after another, every punch and kick struck a wooden post with precision, producing a series of booming crashes.

That was what had caused the sounds and vibrations Naruto had just heard and felt.

"Leaf Great Whirlwind!" Seeming to grow more excited with every strike, the bowl-cut man shouted, then unleashed a spinning kick that actually whipped up a gale like a tornado rising from flat ground. He kicked straight through the wooden posts, each as thick as an elephant's leg, snapping them in half and scattering them across the ground.

"Whew! Back in the village at last after finishing my mission. Now this is a satisfying workout!" The man stopped spinning in midair and landed, then wiped the sweat from his forehead. Two rows of gleaming white teeth shone in his bright smile. "This is youth! All right, next I'll do a hundred laps around the village on my hands... hmm?"

Only then did the man notice Naruto, who stood a short distance away, staring in amazement. He greeted him. "Yo, young man! Isn't this a wonderful morning? It's at times like these that you can really feel your youth burning!"

"Ah..." Naruto froze.

He had never seen this person in the village before, but the Konoha Forehead Protector fastened at his waist meant he was probably one of the village's Ninja.

But that was not the important part. As far as Naruto could remember, very few people ever took the initiative to greet him like this. For a moment, he did not even know how to respond.

"Yes, morning is the best time to get things done! Being here so early proves that you, too, are a hot-blooded young man... oh, and a young lady!" The man seemed accustomed to not receiving an immediate response to his greetings. Completely unbothered, he waved at Naruto and someone behind him, then gave them a thumbs-up. "Well? Join me for a hundred laps around the village on our hands as a warm-up!"

As he spoke, the green figure had already appeared in front of Naruto. Without waiting for an answer, he grabbed Naruto's hand, along with Hinata, who was hiding in the trees beside him. Laughing heartily, he was just about to set off when he suddenly froze.

As though only belatedly realizing something, he turned to look at the two children he was holding. The corners of his eyes twitched, and his smile stiffened on his face.

Huh? Now that I look closely, aren't these the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, whom the village strictly forbids Jonin from approaching, and the Young Lady of the Hyuga Clan?