The villagers' malice

"Oh! My whiskers are gone!"

Little Naruto panicked a little. His whiskers!

The whiskers he had had since he was little had suddenly disappeared. How could this happen?!

"Hey, little Naruto, it's all right."

Hashirama's voice came from the sealing space.

Ever since little Naruto had extracted chakra, his body had actually grown stronger.

He was just like Hashirama had been back then.

Hashirama was very satisfied with his student. At the very least, he was much easier to teach than Monkey and the others.

"Really?"

Naruto rubbed his soft, fair little face. The spots where his whiskers had been were now smooth.

"It still feels a little strange."

Although he was very sad, life still had to go on. Under the First Hokage's powerful Wood Release, a small fruit tree sprouted straight out of the soil in a flowerpot.

"Red fruit, white fruit, green fruit."

All sorts of fruit grew out just like that.

"Eat up. I'll cut off the connection for now. Give me a shout whenever you miss your teacher."

Hashirama happily ended his conversation with his student, then looked up to find Kurama staring at him with disdain tinged with envy.

"What are you looking at? You don't have Wood Release."

Hashirama's taunt angered Kurama, so, in his fury, he got angry for a moment.

Watching Kurama lie back down without another word, Hashirama tilted his head and thought for a bit.

"All right!"

He clapped his hands, and a huge fruit tree shot up into the sky.

Kurama kept his eyes closed, trying to shut out this First Hokage who had no sense of boundaries.

"What are you doing?"

But Hashirama threw a large object onto the Nine-Tails' face, forcing him to open his eyes.

"Here, some fruit for you."

Hashirama nodded in satisfaction. His strength was undiminished from back then.

After all, Madara had loved eating his fruit back in the day.

Actual fruit, mind you.

"Hmph."

Kurama turned his head away, but after a while, he still ate the big fruit while Hashirama was resting.

It was unexpectedly delicious.

Although Tailed Beasts did not need to eat, the Sage of Six Paths had still given them a sense of taste when he created them.

But because they were so enormous, the flavors of many foods were barely noticeable in their mouths.

This fruit, however, gave him a different sort of flavor.

It tasted a little like the fruit Asura had fed him when they played together when he was little.

So yummy.

"La la la, la la la, I'm a little running champ."

Last night, his teacher had told him that he could now run for a while every day to exercise.

As his teacher's good student, little Naruto diligently followed his instructions.

He set off from home, running toward East Street.

Early in the morning, many old women were already squatting at the street corner, chattering away as they exchanged information.

Then, just as expected, little Naruto was caught by several aunties.

"That's right! Yellow hair, a child!"

"Yes, yes, it's him. I saw him here yesterday."

Little Naruto, who stood one meter tall, was surrounded by four old aunties who were each 1.6 meters tall.

"Tell us, are you the Nine-Tailed Fox?!"

"Do we even need to ask? Just look at him. He definitely is."

"But he doesn't have whiskers."

"So what?"

For a moment, the four aunties fell silent.

"My whiskers? They disappeared this morning for some strange reason."

Hearing what they said, little Naruto thought they had come to play with him, so he explained how his whiskers had disappeared.

"It really is him!"

"Everyone, come look! This is the Nine-Tailed Fox!"

"It even cut off its whiskers on purpose!"

That shout sent ripples through the crowd. Everyone nearby surged over, looking at Naruto as if he were a monster.

"Wh-what's wrong?"

"I'm not the Nine-Tailed Fox. I'm Naruto Uzumaki!"

Little Naruto still did not know that the Nine-Tailed Fox was Kurama inside his belly, but everyone's hostile stares were making him deeply uncomfortable.

Why are they staring at me like that?

Then a rotten egg came flying at him.

"Quick, beat it to death before its accomplices get here!"

A civilian man wore a vicious expression as he hurled the rotten egg he had just been about to throw away straight at little Naruto in the middle of the crowd.

"Yes, yes, everyone, get it!"

Little Naruto turned sideways to dodge the rotten egg, only for a bunch of rotten cabbage to hit him in the face.

"What are you doing?!"

"Did I do something wrong?"

Little Naruto threw away the stinking rotten cabbage crawling with bugs from his face, angry, frantic, and afraid.

Why are they throwing things at me?

"Heh, so you dare kill people, but you won't own up to it?"

"If you ask me, a demon fox like you should just hurry up and die."

"Don't be afraid, everyone. Just hit it!"

Several grown men pushed their way to the front and looked at Naruto before them. Although they were not entirely sure, the crowd was already so worked up.

"Ah!"

A man punched Naruto's tiny body.

Little Naruto was sent flying. The crowd parted, letting him fall straight to the ground.

Fox watched the farce below from a tree, failing to protect little Naruto as the Third had instructed.

"Lord Danzo's orders are absolute."

Cold light flickered in his eyes beneath his mask as he watched Naruto being beaten by the crowd below, his face expressionless.

"Stop!"

Uzuki Yugao arrived at the critical moment.

"What are you doing?!"

Seeing the masked Uzuki Yugao leap in front of Naruto, the villagers surrounding him instantly scattered and went home.

Only the few at the front failed to escape in time and were surrounded by a squad of ANBU that arrived next.

"Help! The ANBU are beating people!!!"

Driven into a corner, a man had a flash of inspiration and shouted to those around him.

As a result, the villagers who had still been watching from a distance ran even farther away.

"You're suspected of spreading classified information and beating a child. Come with us."

Several ANBU escorted these ringleaders to the Uchiha Police Force.

"No, my lord! It isn't a child, it's a monster! It's the Nine-Tailed Fox that eats people and gets away with it!"

"Don't let its disguise fool you."

Little Naruto slowly climbed up from the ground. His injuries had long since healed, but he felt awful now.

Why had they hit him?

Why?

I'm not the Nine-Tailed Fox.

Teacher, why?

Sitting inside the sealing space, Hashirama's expression was now frighteningly dark.

But Kurama chose that moment to sneer.

"Take a good look. Your villagers. What do you think?"

Hashirama did not know how to refute him. Why had information about the Jinchūriki been leaked?

Why did the villagers regard the Jinchūriki as a Tailed Beast?

Usually so easygoing, he fell silent now.

"Naruto, let's leave first, all right?"

Hashirama did his best to suppress the anger in his heart and spoke gently to Naruto.

Little Naruto wiped away his tears of hurt and headed toward the mountain.

"Little Naruto."

Watching little Naruto cry, Uzuki Yugao felt somewhat upset.

How could she not know the difference between a Jinchūriki and a Tailed Beast?

She knew, but she was powerless.

The rumor had already spread. The best solution now was to contain it as quickly as possible.