The whiskers reappeared

Naruto got out of his bed. It was already bright outside, probably around noon.

The big sister must have brought me home.

That was Naruto's guess.

Earlier, while the big sister was cooking, Naruto had watched carefully.

One person watching had counted as two and a half people watching.

Naruto counted as one, Kurama counted as one, and Hashirama counted as half.

The reason was that Hashirama knew absolutely nothing about cooking. He could not even tell oil and salt apart, which even Kurama could do.

Toward the end, he had practically been shut out of Naruto and Kurama's discussion about how to cook.

Damn it!

Mito clearly praised my talent for cooking back then.

He vaguely remembered making a bowl of caramel-colored ramen back then. It had smelled wonderful.

Mito had taken it straight to the Nine-Tails, then come back and told Hashirama that the Nine-Tails thought it tasted wonderful, but that she should do the cooking from then on.

Hashirama had not dared argue with Mito. Just being praised had made him happy enough.

So he had gone to Madara and started cooking at his house.

Every time, Madara had patiently watched Hashirama cook, the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan in his eyes constantly spinning. Clearly, he had wanted to steal his recipes.

Hmph, steal them if you want. I'm better off without recipes anyway.

But every time he finished cooking, Madara had kicked him out.

He had never seen Madara taste his cooking, but surely Madara must have been amazed.

In the end, this had continued until rumors spread everywhere that Madara Uchiha had poisoned Tobirama. It was later discovered that he had mixed Hashirama's cooking into Tobirama's food.

After that, Hashirama had never had another chance to cook.

Ah, heaven truly envies genius.

So, as Hashirama held forth about this little-known experience after being excluded, the Nine-Tails painfully remembered how Mito had tied him up with Adamantine Sealing Chains that day.

With an apologetic expression, she had poured that bowl of death-scented ramen into his mouth.

Fortunately, he was a Tailed Beast. Fortunately, his body was big enough. Otherwise, he probably would have been poisoned to death.

And so, under Kurama's guidance, Naruto successfully steered clear of Hashirama, the poison maker.

Truly cause for celebration. Cause for celebration indeed.

Naruto rubbed his empty belly. Yes, it was decided. He was going to make himself a dish and some rice.

He carried a little stool into the kitchen and successfully reached the pan.

In the end, following Kurama's spoken instructions and using his own considerable strength, he produced a bowl of egg fried rice with a fairly normal color.

At least it smelled better than the egg fried rice Hashirama had described.

"Huh, my whiskers grew back."

While washing his face, Naruto was surprised to discover that the whiskers on both his cheeks had grown back.

The reason was that too much Nine-Tails Chakra had spilled out yesterday, and Kurama could not retrieve all of it at once, so it had turned into whiskers on Naruto's face.

Hashirama was a little worried that people would surround Naruto outside again.

"Hey, Kurama, is this okay? These whiskers?"

Kurama cast a disdainful glance at the useless Plant Person, curled his lip, and said,

"Heh, it would have been a problem if Naruto hadn't been recognized before. By now, word of what Naruto looks like has already spread throughout the village."

"With or without whiskers, he's the Nine-Tailed Fox in those stupid villagers' eyes. Since that's the case, we might as well leave the chakra outside. It'll strengthen Naruto's body, too."

Indeed, the villagers who had surrounded Naruto before had already spread the news about his missing whiskers far and wide.

With Naruto wandering around everywhere lately as well, very few people in the village still did not know that he was the Nine-Tailed Fox.

Since that was the case, the whiskers had long since ceased to matter. Their prejudices had already taken root in the villagers' hearts anyway.

It was not that they did not know a child as young as Naruto could not possibly be the Nine-Tailed Fox, but the resentment they had nowhere to vent and the tedium of daily life needed an outlet somewhere.

And through Danzo's maneuvering, Naruto had become that outlet.

"That does seem to be the case. Naruto, don't worry. This is normal."

If the villagers were going to surround Naruto again because he had whiskers, they would have done so already, so it did not really matter.

"OK."

Naruto smiled happily. After all, these whiskers had been with him for three years. He had had them since birth (Grandpa Third had told him).

It was just as well that they were back. He had felt a little unused to their absence before.

After finishing his meal, Naruto planned to go out for a stroll.

After all, being home alone was too boring. Outside, he could chat with Kurama and the others while walking, and scare those stupid villagers along the way.

"Sakura, shall we go pick flowers today?"

The little blond Ino made the suggestion to Sakura.

"But it's winter now. How could there be flowers outside?"

Sakura asked in confusion, tightening the scarf around her neck.

"Oh, come on! How will you know unless you go out and look?"

Ino pulled Sakura along as she ran toward the snow-covered Back Mountain.

The trees in the woods were covered in snow, and the grass beneath them was somewhat withered, with little vitality.

Meanwhile, after his usual routine of scaring a few unlucky villagers, Naruto slipped off to the Back Mountain.

"Heh heh, how could a few mere villagers possibly catch me?"

Listening smugly to the villagers' impotent rage, Naruto headed up the Back Mountain path, thoroughly satisfied.

The villagers who could not catch him were red in the face. Being suddenly frightened by the demon fox in the dead of winter was terrifying.

The worst part was that they had not even managed to catch him. They were fuming, absolutely fuming.

"I say we should take the initiative. Now nobody will dare bully Naruto."

Kurama watched Naruto's accomplishments with satisfaction. When Naruto had appeared just now, Kurama had deliberately used his chakra to create an illusion of the Nine-Tailed Fox.

The one who had chased the hardest and had the reddest face had been the most frightened.

His trousers had already frozen, though they smelled strange.

"Ah, Kurama, I think..."

Hashirama had originally wanted to say that people needed to communicate with one another.

But it was not as though Naruto had never tried communicating. All he had received were curses or rotten eggs thrown at him.

There was an enormous gulf between him and the villagers, one that a child like him could not cross.

Therefore, although Kurama's approach was violent, it could still be a suitable method.

"Hey, Naruto, there are people over there on the mountain. Looks like two kids."

Naruto, who had been skipping happily along, stiffened a little. He was very bad at dealing with situations like this.

Among the children in the village, only Hinata was his friend. None of the others dared come near him.

Perhaps his methods for dealing with those brats had been a little violent... (A certain child whose nose Naruto had broken did not find that funny at all.)

"You seem to have met her before. It's that pink-haired girl."

Naruto stopped turning to head in another direction.

Naruto felt a sense of affinity for both red and pink. This actually came from his mother.

After hesitating for a moment, Naruto walked toward Sakura and Ino.