You're So Pretty!

In eastern Konoha, in a back alley off Third Street.

The sun slanted down, cutting a sharp line between light and shade across the alley entrance. One half was dazzlingly bright; the other lay in shadow.

Naruto Uzumaki crouched on a stone bollard by the roadside, emptied all the money from his green toad wallet into his palm, and counted the coins one by one.

Once he finished, he sighed to himself.

He had gone out today and failed to buy anything again.

The grocery store owner hadn't even bothered lifting his eyelids when he saw him. He said the milk was sold out, even though it was lined up neatly on the shelves.

The dumpling shop owner had been even more direct. Before Naruto could open his mouth, the man had said the last skewer was gone.

"Sigh..."

Forget it. I'll go to Teuchi's for ramen tonight!

He lowered his head and counted again, the smile slowly slipping from his face.

He seemed to be a little short of enough for a bowl of miso ramen with roast pork.

Naruto: "..."

He was fretting over the coins in his palm when four shadows fell over him, blocking out the last of the sunlight.

"Well, well, if it isn't Naruto! Counting your money here?"

Naruto looked up. Four boys about his age stood there, all from the Ninja Academy. The tall one leading them was notorious for keeping his hands to anything but himself.

"Where'd you get that money?" The tall boy folded his arms. "Stole it, didn't you? Everyone in the village knows you're-"

"I didn't steal it! I saved it up!"

Naruto jerked his wallet against his chest.

"Hand it over!"

A hand suddenly grabbed at him from the side, trying to snatch his wallet. Naruto clung to it desperately and stumbled several steps under the tugging. The coins he had just counted scattered across the ground with a clatter.

"Pah! Since when do monsters deserve money?"

"Demon fox! My dad said you're the demon fox!"

"I'm not a demon fox!"

Naruto's eyes instantly reddened. He clenched his fists and lunged, but two lackeys caught him by the arms, one on either side. No matter how hard he kicked, he couldn't reach them.

"If you're not a demon fox, what are you?"

"Yeah! Someone like you is nothing but a menace to the village!"

Naruto gritted his teeth, fury surging wildly in his chest.

Fine. Just you wait.

He wrenched one hand free and quickly formed hand seals. They were crooked and sloppy, but he couldn't spare a thought for that.

"C-Clone Technique!"

Poof, poof.

Two clouds of white smoke burst beside Naruto, and two little Narutos rolled out of them. They were only palm-sized and couldn't even stand steadily. They propped each other up, swayed twice, then vanished completely with a pop.

Naruto froze.

That wasn't right.

That energy was clearly rampaging through his body, swelling until his chest hurt. Why, when he actually tried to use it, wouldn't a single strand flow properly into the seals? Why had he only managed to squeeze out those two things?

He stared at the empty ground. As his resolve drained away, his legs went weak, and he dropped onto his backside.

The alley fell silent for half a second before laughter erupted.

"Hahahahaha! What the heck were those?!"

"Runts! He made two little runts!"

"You want to be a ninja? Loser! Demon fox!"

The tall boy laughed so hard he couldn't straighten up. When he finally had his fill, he lifted his foot to stamp on the coins-

"Hey, hold on."

A lazy voice drifted in from the alley entrance, interrupting him.

Everyone turned their heads.

Someone stood at the entrance, backlit, with both hands in his pockets. Light fringed Redhead's hair, and for a moment, they couldn't tell whether he was a boy or a girl.

"That kid only has a few coins, and you're going to split them four ways?"

Uzumaki Hayashi strolled over and continued as he looked at the four boys:

"What is this, The Quintessential Quadruplets? Split that up, and I doubt any of you could even buy a skewer of dumplings."

The tall boy's face flushed scarlet. "Y-you! Who are you? Mind your own business!"

"Me?" Uzumaki Hayashi gave it some serious thought. "Just a passing Kamen Rider?"

"Redhead... You're a monster too, aren't you! Tomato monster! Get lost!"

Uzumaki Hayashi paused midstep.

Tomato.

Right, he knew that one. Naruto's own mother had been called that back in the day.

Well, damn. Even insults were hereditary in Konoha?

One of the lackeys rolled up his sleeves and reached out to shove him. Uzumaki Hayashi lazily shifted half a step aside and lightly tapped the boy's ankle with his toe.

The lackey yelped and fell flat on his face.

"Slippery road. Watch your step, handsome."

Uzumaki Hayashi lowered his head, looking at the fallen lackey with an innocent expression.

The other three didn't dare move.

His gaze passed over them one by one, settling on the tall boy's face.

"You were the one laughing loudest just now, weren't you?"

"S-so what if I was!" The tall boy stiffened his neck. "Tomato monster! Just you wait-"

As Uzumaki Hayashi looked at him, he suddenly lost interest.

Reasoning with brats who stole money was nothing but a waste of breath.

He took a step forward and casually released the chakra he had kept contained within his body, pressing it down on all four of them.

That weight was invisible, but its force against their bodies was very real. The four children felt their chests sink, their breath cut short, and their calves shake uncontrollably.

They wanted to run, but their feet seemed rooted to the ground. They couldn't move.

Only when Uzumaki Hayashi withdrew his chakra and that weight abruptly vanished could they breathe again.

The tall boy's lips trembled for a long moment before he managed to squeeze out a single, distorted sentence:

"Th-this tomato monster's freaky! Run! Hurry!"

The four scrambled away, stumbling and crawling. The tall boy ran fastest. Even after falling, he picked himself up and kept running, outpacing all his lackeys by a wide margin.

[Ding-]

[The bullies have been driven off. Mission progress: 50%.]

The alley suddenly fell quiet.

Uzumaki Hayashi turned to look at Naruto Uzumaki.

The blond boy was still sitting on the ground, clutching his toad wallet tightly against his chest and staring up at him with wide blue eyes.

"What are you staring at?" He crouched and picked up the scattered coins one by one, holding them between his fingertips to blow off the dust. "You can't even hold on to your own money, and you still dare come somewhere like this alone?"

Then he placed the coins back in Naruto's palm and folded his fingers closed, one by one.

Naruto didn't dare move a muscle.

That hand brushed across his palm, soft and warm. As it closed his fingers, he could feel its softness.

Of everyone who had touched his hands in his life, the person in front of him was the first whose hands were this soft and smelled this nice.

Naruto looked down at his palm, then up at him. After struggling for a long while, he asked quietly:

"Y-you... Why did you help me?"

"I was passing by," Uzumaki Hayashi said casually.

"Passing by?"

"Yeah. Did a little good deed on the way."

Naruto stared at him blankly.

The evening sun slanted through the alley entrance, lighting up that falling red hair.

It was like... just like Hokage Rock at dusk.

The color he always saw whenever he swung alone on the swing until dark and looked up.

Naruto clenched the coins in his palm, gripping them tightly, not daring to loosen his hold at all.

Then he scrambled awkwardly to his feet and brushed the dust off his trousers with a slightly deliberate air.

His face reddened all the way to his ears. He scratched his head and struggled for a long time before finally speaking:

"Um, well... Y-you... You're so pretty!"

"?"

Uzumaki Hayashi put on a puzzled expression.

"Huh?"