Ever since he dismissed the nannies the Third Hokage had found for him, Naruto's life had grown calm and comfortable.
In the past, it had been an awful feeling to live with people who harbored no kindness toward him and might try to kill him at any moment. He was in his own home, yet it felt like living under someone else's roof, at the mercy of others.
Now, however, Naruto felt an unprecedented sense of ease in his own home. With no one to disturb him, he could cook his own meals when hungry, lie in bed when sleepy, and enjoy plenty of time to think and study. It was a comfortable, relaxing life — one he enjoyed very much.
Though he was only three years old, he had no trouble taking care of himself. Whenever he thought about it, Naruto couldn't help sighing at how remarkable the bodies of this ninja world really were. At just three, he could already control his body with great skill — it felt just like controlling his body in his previous life, with no sense of lag at all.
He remembered that, as a child in his previous life, whenever he had tried to do something, his body would feel clumsy and uncoordinated, as if his brain were sending commands through frayed old wires that always arrived a beat too slow. Now, that feeling was gone entirely. His body obeyed freely and effortlessly, as if mind and body were one.
More than once, Naruto had considered training at home, but he feared that, in his ignorance, blind training might damage his body, so he always held off. Even though his physique was strong enough to beat an ordinary person to death with ease, ninja-level training was high-intensity by any standard, and it was hard to say whether his small body could withstand it.
Training could wait, but eating could not.
Staring at the empty refrigerator, Naruto sighed. In the end, he had to face reality and go out to buy groceries. The nannies of the past may have meant to murder him, but they hadn't been entirely useless — at least they had taken care of the shopping. Now that he had dismissed them and lived alone, he would have to do it himself.
At the thought of the hateful faces of Konoha's villagers, Naruto shrank back a little. Those people had sharper tongues than anyone he knew. What if, while buying vegetables, he couldn't hold back and ended up killing someone?
But one more look at the empty refrigerator had him gritting his teeth and stepping out the door. Better to be scolded than to starve. Besides, though he inhabited the body of a three-year-old, his soul was that of an adult who had weathered storms far worse than this. What was there to fear in a few insults?
Clutching a small bag, Naruto locked the door and headed for the market. Along the way, the people he passed had been chatting and laughing — but the moment they caught sight of him, their faces fell and they scurried away as if fleeing the plague. As they hurried past, Naruto could hear them whispering behind his back: "demon fox," "monster," and the like.
Naruto was baffled. If his memory served him correctly, he had already killed the Nine-Tails himself. True, he had been in a frenzy at the time, but that had merely been a storm of emotion — his memory remained intact. He clearly remembered falling into a deep sleep after beating the Nine-Tails to death. So how could he have become the Nine-Tails' jinchūriki again?
And over the past three years, whenever no one was around, he had examined himself carefully — there was no seal mark on his stomach at all. How could he possibly be a Nine-Tails jinchūriki? And since he wasn't, why did everyone insist on pinning that label on him? Had the Third Hokage lost his mind, or was something wrong with Konoha's higher-ups?
Lost in these vexing thoughts, he reached the market. It was around nine in the morning, and the place was packed — the crowd stretched on with no end in sight. At the sight, Naruto's head began to ache. Even if he squeezed his way in, at his height he would see nothing but the backsides of the shoppers around him. If he couldn't even see the vegetables, how was he supposed to buy them?
Forget it. He would just squeeze in and see.
He had barely stepped toward the crowd when, to his surprise, the shoppers parted around him, clearing a space as if he were the plague itself. Wherever Naruto walked, people deliberately made way, and before he knew it, he had reached the very center of the market without the slightest effort.
He couldn't help feeling a little pleased. His reputation as the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox was good for something after all — he never had to jostle through a crowd to shop, because people cleared a path wherever he went.
He looked up and found himself before a vegetable stall piled high with every kind of produce. Naruto was about to step inside when a woman blocked his way at the door — a stout woman in her forties, fan in hand, shooing him away as if he were a fly.
"Shoo, shoo! You're not welcome here! Get out, and be quick about it!"
Naruto felt a little helpless. Fine — if they wouldn't let him in, he wouldn't go in. He would simply find another shop.
He tried several more stalls, but was driven off at every one. The ones that merely turned him away had been the polite ones; some shopkeepers cursed him outright, and with truly filthy words.
Naruto frowned. He hadn't even set foot inside their shops — who were these people to curse at him?
Just then, a rotten vegetable leaf came flying out of nowhere and smacked against the back of Naruto's head before he could react. That one leaf was like a fuse. Rotten leaves and rotten eggs rained down on him from every direction, and within minutes he was covered in filth and stench.
Wiping the egg from his head, Naruto felt fury flare in his eyes, and his fists clenched without his realizing it.
No. He had to endure this. He couldn't lose his head!
Seeing that the monster didn't resist — didn't even talk back — the villagers around him suddenly felt emboldened. Their curses grew louder and uglier, and a few were already bending down to pick up stones.
But this Naruto was only a "fake" Nine-Tails jinchūriki. There was no tailed beast sealed inside him, and the Third Hokage had no Anbu watching over him. If this had been the Naruto of the original story, Anbu would have appeared by now to disperse the crowd and let him escape. But no Anbu lurked near this Naruto, and so no one came to his rescue.
As the stones began to strike his body, Naruto could barely suppress the urge to kill rising in his heart. These people had gone too far! He hadn't provoked a single one of them, and yet they were pelting him with stones — did they truly intend to kill him? Did they not realize he was only a three-year-old child, and a fellow villager of Konoha at that?
Just as his rage was about to reach its peak, a commotion broke out at the entrance of the market.
"Where's this troublemaker you mentioned?"
"Right there — that's him!"
Following the voices, Naruto saw the middle-aged woman who had chased him from her stall, now returning with three police ninja in tow. No sooner had she reached the market than she pointed at Naruto and declared, "He's the one making trouble here! Arrest him, quickly!"
The three ninja of the Konoha Military Police — all of them Uchiha — fixed their eyes on Naruto. They had, of course, heard of this demon-fox brat, but the prideful Uchiha were not the sort to show mercy just because the other party was a jinchūriki.
Uchiha Eitetsu, the leader of the three, walked up to Naruto and demanded, "So you're the one causing trouble here?"
Forcing down his anger, Naruto retorted, "Do I look like a troublemaker to you?"
Uchiha Eitetsu frowned slightly. He was disgusted by the boy — that tone of his was utterly disrespectful. Why, the brat hadn't even used an honorific when addressing a shinobi! Just what was this little devil so cocky about? With that kind of attitude, refusing to speak politely even to a ninja of the Military Police — truly unpleasant.
"Brat," Uchiha Eitetsu said, his face dark, "you're coming with us."
Naruto's anger flared. These very people had been pelting him with vegetable leaves moments ago! Gesturing at the crowd, he demanded, "And what about them?"
Uchiha Eitetsu stepped forward, reaching for Naruto's collar — then withdrew his hand, disgusted by the filth covering the boy. In an icy tone, he said, "What does it have to do with you, disrupting people's business like this? Come along now. Don't waste our time."
Confronted by a police ninja like this, Naruto suddenly went quiet. The anger in his eyes vanished, replaced by indifference. He didn't resist — he simply followed the Uchiha ninja out of the market, where a few people hurled stones at his back. He paid them no mind and kept walking.
Watching the bedraggled little brat from the corners of their eyes, the three Uchiha ahead of him snickered.
"Look at this kid — what a fool. Beaten like that and he doesn't even dare fight back. He had it coming!"
"Ha! Doesn't even use honorifics when talking to a ninja — no wonder he got hit. Let's toss him in the Military Police cell and starve him for a few days. Then we'll see if this brat still dares talk to us like that!"
The three spoke without the slightest shame, and Naruto, walking behind them, caught every word.
When they reached the police headquarters, they didn't take Naruto inside. Instead, they made him stand in the doorway and wait. Then, pinching their noses, the three hauled out bucket after bucket of water and dumped them over Naruto's head. They only stopped after the fourth bucket, and only then did they allow the drenched boy inside the station building.
Seated in the interrogation chair in the interrogation room, Naruto looked up at Uchiha Eitetsu, who was handling the questioning. "Talk," the man said, his face gloomy. "Why were you causing trouble at the market? Who put you up to it? A spy from outside the village?"
Seeing the trap clearly — every accusation a noose meant to make him hang himself — Naruto said nothing, staring back at Uchiha Eitetsu with the dead eyes of a corpse.
That look grated on Uchiha Eitetsu. He shot to his feet, strode over to Naruto, and slapped him hard across the face. "Look at me like that again," he snarled, "and I'll gouge out your eyes!"
BOOM!
An immense pressure exploded from Naruto's tiny body. Standing before it, Uchiha Eitetsu felt like a small boat in a raging gale — helpless, tossed this way and that by the wind.
Naruto tore himself free of the interrogation chair he had been bound to, rose onto the seat, and looked down at Uchiha Eitetsu.
"Very well, then. I'll gouge out YOUR eyes — right now!"