The Land of Fire, Konohagakure.
The weather was fair and breezy that day, with bright sunshine and only a few white clouds drifting across the sky.
On the village streets, women gathered to gossip as they always did.
Suddenly, one middle-aged woman beckoned her friends to look behind them as though she had seen a ghost.
They looked in the direction she indicated. When they saw a sickly-looking, blond-haired young man strolling toward them, every woman reacted as though she had spotted a walking plague.
"He hasn't come out in two or three years. I thought he'd died at home. Why is he out again?"
"He's hard to kill. I heard his girlfriend-that Uchiha remnant who betrayed Konoha-dealt him a terrible blow. Hasn't he been lying at home for over two years now?"
"He really isn't dead? How strange. How did he not starve to death? Was the Third Hokage supporting him again?"
"Most likely. He must have survived on assistance from the village."
"Has the Third Hokage gone senile? Couldn't that money have been spent improving our lives? Why give handouts to a useless bum? We'd be better off with his kind dead."
At that moment, another woman, who was usually quiet, spoke up. "It wasn't assistance from the village. My Miss has visited him often over the years, and she brought food every time."
The women all turned toward her. "The Nara Clan's Miss? How is that possible?"
"It's absolutely true. My Miss seems to like him, too."
Clearly, as a servant at the Nara Residence, the woman carried herself and spoke with far more decorum than her friends. She did not deliberately disparage Naruto.
Years earlier, when Naruto had visited the Nara Residence, she had received him as a maid.
By then, the Spore Clone had drawn