Sasuke felt nothing about it. Long accustomed to others keeping their distance, he strode on with his head held high, filled with anticipation for school.
Zongyan and Uchiha Itachi were even more accustomed to it. Their expressions remained calm and their steps unhurried as they ignored the varied looks around them and made their way steadily toward the Ninja Academy.
After seeing Sasuke safely to the academy gates and watching him eagerly join the stream of new students and enter the grounds full of anticipation, Zongyan and Uchiha Itachi exchanged a glance and prepared to leave.
The Ninja Academy gates were crowded with children attending school for the first time and the parents seeing them off. The noise and bustle brimmed with youthful vitality.
Just as the two were about to turn around, a boy's slightly brash, energetic voice suddenly rang out beside them. "Hey! You're Big Brother Uchiha Zongyan, right?"
Zongyan turned toward the voice and saw Naruto Uzumaki, with his blond hair and whisker-like marks on his cheeks, racing excitedly toward him with wide blue eyes.
In the two years since they had last met, Naruto had shed some of his childhood innocence and grown considerably taller, but the stubbornness and liveliness in his eyes remained unchanged.
Naruto ran all the way up to Zongyan, panting, yet wearing an utterly sincere, excited smile. His voice brimmed with delight:
"Big Brother Zongyan! I finally found you again! I've remembered you all these two years, and every day I hoped I'd see you again! Ever since we met back then, I kept thinking that I had to run into you again and give you a proper hello!"
Looking at the overly enthusiastic Naruto before him, Zongyan nodded slightly, his expression gentle rather than distant.
Uchiha Itachi stood quietly beside him, watching their conversation in silence.
But during their brief exchange, several children gathered a short distance away whispered among themselves in lowered voices, their tones full of wariness and malice.
"Look, it's that demon fox, Naruto Uzumaki!"
"That's him, the incarnation of disaster, the village's scourge..."
Their voices were quiet but clear enough that Naruto heard every word.
Naruto, who had been smiling and bubbling with excitement just moments before, suddenly froze.
His clear blue eyes abruptly narrowed. All their liveliness and warmth vanished, leaving only cold hostility.
Without a word, he whipped his head around and strode toward the children who had mocked him.
Before they could react, Naruto raised his hands and shoved the child who had led the taunting hard to the ground. Then he stepped forward, grabbed him by the collar, and brought his fists down without mercy.
Dull thuds rang out one after another as his punches and kicks landed. The blows were vicious, nothing like children roughhousing, and steeped in hostility.
The other children screamed and backed away in fright, not daring to intervene.
The child's parents were nearby. Their faces changed dramatically at the sight, and they rushed over to pull Naruto away and protect their child.
But Naruto had completely lost himself in the moment, hostility surging through him. Rather than stopping, he turned his strength on the ordinary couple trying to intervene, shoving them hard to the ground as well and raining punches and kicks on them.
Within moments, Naruto had given all three family members a savage beating, leaving them sprawled on the ground in a miserable heap, wailing nonstop.
Having witnessed the entire scene, Zongyan's gaze tightened slightly, his heart filled with astonishment.
The little Naruto he remembered, deprived of affection, desperate for recognition, innocent and stubborn, now seemed to be developing pronounced violent tendencies. He acted with vicious brutality, utterly heedless of the consequences.
After dealing with the family of three who had mocked him and tried to stop him, Naruto quickly reined in his hostility, as though the person who had attacked so savagely had not been him at all.
He dusted off his hands, immediately turned around with another cheerful grin, and jogged back to Zongyan as though nothing had happened.
Seeing this extreme contrast, Zongyan wore a complicated expression and said nothing.
Naruto noticed nothing amiss. He simply began talking, gradually recounting the changes and experiences he had gone through over the past two years.
"Big Brother Zongyan, I've always remembered what you told me two years ago. I never forgot!"
Naruto scratched the back of his head, his tone earnest. "But Grandpa Third kept teaching me to get along with the people in the village and treat others kindly."
"Then one time, I saw some kids bullying a girl. I couldn't stand it, so I went to help."
"But they kept cursing at me and even hit me."
At this point, Naruto's voice grew heavy, and a vicious glint flashed through his eyes.
Seeing this, Zongyan could not help feeling a little sympathy for what Naruto had suffered, even though he had not witnessed the incident.
"I really couldn't take it anymore. I was stronger than them, so I grabbed their leader and beat him as hard as I could. I kept hitting him until his face was covered in blood and he couldn't breathe."
"I thought I'd definitely get punished badly for causing so much trouble, but in the end, Grandpa Third just lectured me a little. He said a couple of things, and that was it!"
As Naruto spoke, his face took on the clarity of someone who had suddenly understood everything, along with a hint of taking it for granted.
Hearing this, Zongyan found himself somewhat amused.
Of course your Grandpa Third wouldn't do anything to you!
You're Konoha's most powerful living weapon-the Nine-Tails' jinchuriki. You're even the Fourth Hokage's only son, with plenty of goodwill toward the Fourth passed down to you.
Zongyan's thoughts wandered, but he continued listening closely.
Naruto continued his account as though it all made perfect sense:
"From that day on, I understood. Big Brother Zongyan, you were absolutely right!"
"There's no need to put up with anything! As long as I beat everyone who bullies and insults me into submission, no one will ever dare bully or insult me again!"
From then on, Naruto's disposition changed completely.
Over those two years, he gradually became a little bully whom everyone in Konoha feared.
Whenever anyone dared mock or insult him behind his back, he attacked without a word, beating them within an inch of their lives.
If someone relied on their parents' backing to brazenly exclude or ridicule him, he would find a moment when their parents were absent to ambush them in retaliation. He even dared to attack and punish their parents as well.
He had caused trouble and gotten into fights countless times. No matter how big a commotion he made or how many people he provoked, all he ever received in the end was a few toothless words of admonishment from the Third Hokage. Nothing more.
"Anyway, Grandpa Third just says a couple of things to me every time. Nothing ever happens. It's no big deal!" Naruto smiled casually, utterly relaxed.
Besides that, there was one thing he had never managed to understand, though it only made him increasingly brazen.
"And I noticed something really strange. Even when I turn the village upside down, the ninja from those big clans never interfere or pick on me!"
"Big Brother Zongyan, do you know why?"
Naruto talked on and on, filled with pride at having figured out the "rules of survival."
Beside him, Zongyan quietly listened to this absurd, outrageous account. Inside, towering waves had already risen, conflicting feelings churned, and countless thoughts surged through him like ten thousand wild horses galloping past.
He stared blankly at Naruto, who looked so innocent and believed he had grasped the truth, and answered his question.
"Perhaps only your Grandpa Third might know about that."
At the same time, he actually began to feel a little guilty.
I... did those few offhand words of mine back then really turn the once innocent, kindhearted Naruto into this vicious, domineering boy who believes violence solves everything?
Uchiha Itachi, who had been watching quietly beside them, now felt the corners of his mouth twitch uncontrollably. A trace of speechless helplessness and uncertainty over whether to laugh or cry passed through his eyes.
He had often heard rumors in the village that Naruto Uzumaki's unruly, domineering behavior had long been a constant headache for the Third Hokage. Children in the village were frequently bullied by him, and complaints from villagers never stopped. Naruto had become Konoha's most troublesome "little tyrant."
The entire Konoha High Command had been utterly baffled as to why Naruto, who had been lonely and helpless from childhood and should have been timid and insecure, had developed such a violent disposition, acting without restraint and striking people at the slightest provocation.
So this was where the problem lay.
As it turned out, Naruto Uzumaki, the problem child who gave the Third Hokage daily headaches and filled Konoha's villagers with dread, had not been born unruly at all. His own younger brother had personally led him astray.
A casual piece of advice from two years ago had become an unshakable guiding principle for the young Naruto. He had followed it through to the bitter end, completely warping his disposition and the way he dealt with things.
Looking at Naruto, still smugly convinced he had grasped the truth of survival, then at his younger brother beside him, who was filled with a sense of absurdity, Uchiha Itachi felt nothing but helplessness.
He had never imagined that, during the two years his younger brother had kept a low profile and bided his time, he had quietly cultivated a little bully who ran rampant through Konoha.
For a moment, a subtle, almost comical awkwardness hung in the air.
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