Chapter 3
A pang of shared sorrow welled up in Xuanming's heart.
He too had once been an abandoned infant, left at the gates of a Daoist temple.
According to his master, that day he had cast a divination and seen a destined master-disciple bond, so he took Xuanming in.
He even petitioned the Dao Ancestor in advance to bestow a Dharma name upon him.
When school age arrived, the old Daoist arranged for him to attend the small primary school at the foot of the mountain. Classmates bullied him, calling him the parentless little Daoist boy, whispering behind his back, excluding and isolating him.
The young Xuanming ran back up the mountain in tears, asking his master why he had no parents, saying the things he'd overheard hurt so much inside.
His master didn't answer directly. He waited until the crying stopped, then led him to the scripture storage room and posed a question:
"Your classmates deliberately bullied you—but isn't what they said simply the truth?"
When wind blows, the bell rings. Do you blame the wind, or the bell?
Gossip and slander are merely that wind.
If a bell hangs in your heart, the wind will make it chime.
Your pain doesn't come from the clamor of the wind—it comes from the bell in your heart waiting for the breeze.
With that, his master took several new copies of the Scripture of Clarity and Tranquility, the Yellow Court Scripture, and the Daodejing from the shelves and handed them to Xuanming.
From this moment, he said, you are formally beginning cultivation after accepting me as master.
When you reach the state where you see only the wind passing and hear no bell ringing, the烦恼 will naturally vanish.
Xuanming flipped through the pages, solemnly put them away, bid his master farewell, and headed back down the mountain to school.
Before leaving, he remembered his master's final instruction:
"If you truly can't figure it out, follow your original heart first. Ask your true inner feelings, then decide whether to restrain them."
And so, after school that day, Xuanming beat up every one of the ringleaders who had cursed him.
Raised in a Daoist temple, though he hadn't formally begun cultivation, his body had already been tempered far beyond his peers'. They stood no chance.
Only after venting his anger did Xuanming, with a suddenly clear mind, truly understand his master was right: facts don't change.
The noisy wind never stops. Without cultivating the heart, the bell keeps ringing endlessly.
Later in life, the calm, detached personality he developed through cultivation made it hard to fit into ordinary society.
When it came to the loneliness of being rejected by the secular world, he understood it all too well.
The difference was: he had chosen it actively—choosing to elevate his mind and ignore the world's clamor.
But Uzumaki Naruto bore it passively—as a jinchūriki, subjected to endless blame, curses, and hatred funneled toward him, destroying what should have been a happier childhood.
Still… it didn't matter.
Since he had become the Nine-Tails, he was inevitably tied to Uzumaki Naruto.
He still didn't know why he had come to this world, or how he had fused with the Nine-Tails.
But since he was here, he would settle in. The path of heart cultivation was always about following one's true nature, realizing one's real self, restraining what must be restrained, then returning to natural harmony.
And since he had arrived, he wouldn't let Naruto live the same lonely life as in the original story.
While thinking this, Xuanming walked up to Hiruzen Sarutobi, confirming the old man truly couldn't see him.
He reached out toward the sleeping face of Uzumaki Naruto. His hand passed through, yet holding the position felt almost like real contact.
The tightly shut eyes suddenly opened. Blue pupils blinked curiously at the figure before him.
In a daze, the tiny hand reached out and grasped Xuanming's finger. The little nose wrinkled—half on the verge of tears, half seeming to smile.
In that instant, the purified trace of Nine-Tails chakra sustaining the invisible human projection could no longer hold.
It dissolved into pure chakra, flowing along the finger and being absorbed into Naruto's body—becoming part of his strength.
Back in the seal space, the Nine-Tails fox—Xuanming—who had been feigning sleep, opened his eyes as the projection vanished.
Outside, Kushina's life had ended. The Adamantine Sealing Chains binding him in the cage began to melt away like wax.
Moments later, the golden chains disappeared completely. Xuanming's body was finally free to move.
He was still caged, but no longer forcibly restrained—far more comfortable.
Xuanming lay down in the prison, his pupils piercing through the red gate into the darkness, gazing out through the seal at the real world.
Minato and Kushina's bodies were sealed into scrolls by ninja and carried away. Anbu would soon arrive to erase any remaining traces at the site.
Hiruzen wrapped Naruto in swaddling clothes and carried him back to the village, placing him in a house near the Hokage Tower under the covert protection of a dedicated Anbu team.
As the Nine-Tails, Xuanming could clearly sense flickers of malice from those guards.
Even these loyal Anbu, having just survived the Nine-Tails' rampage, couldn't help the shift in their emotions when assigned to watch over the jinchūriki.
After settling Naruto, Hiruzen headed to the Hokage Tower to convene an emergency meeting with the elders.
With the Fourth Hokage gone—dying alongside Kushina—the village was in chaos. Konoha needed a leader to take control quickly.
Xuanming slowly closed his eyes, calming his mind, methodically grinding away the resentment embedded in the chakra.
"You are Uzumaki Naruto. This time, whether your dream is to become Hokage or not—it doesn't matter. I will be here, accompanying you as you grow."
With him present, Naruto would undergo… no, would certainly undergo earth-shaking changes.
......
Three years later—Konoha Year 54.
Before dawn had fully broken, Naruto was already awake.
"Fox Sage! Look! It's snowing!"
He pressed his whisker-marked face against the apartment's cold glass, breath fogging into white mist.
Outside, snowflakes drifted down over the village. The old snow hadn't yet melted before a fresh layer began to fall.
The rooftops, streets, and distant Hokage Rock were once again blanketed in white.
The golden-haired, fox-eared Daoist projection—Xuanming—hovered freely beside Naruto. Following the boy's gaze, he gave a soft "Mm."
"It's snowing again… Can we go out and play now?" Naruto repeated, blue eyes wide and round.
"Let's build snowmen! One of me, and one of Fox Sage!"
Uzumaki Naruto raised both arms excitedly, ready to jump up.
Xuanming chuckled, then floated straight through the window into the falling snow. Flakes passed harmlessly through his form; the crimson Daoist robe stood out vividly against the white.
"Have you finished morning practice?" Xuanming deliberately put on a stern face, pretending to be upset.
"Night retreats, day approaches. Yin qi lingers, yet yang qi is rising. Right now is the moment to sit and breathe in the first breath of 'true qi' at the division of yin and yang. Miss this timing, and the next session won't feel the same."
Naruto nodded half-understandingly, then turned to rummage through the cabinet.
"Wait." Xuanming stopped him. "What are you looking for?"
"My coat! If I'm going to breathe fresh air, I'll sit on the roof. Isn't the air fresher up there?"
Uzumaki Naruto grinned at him with a toothy, innocent smile, dropping a world-shaking piece of logic.
"Sit down properly!" Xuanming shot down the idea.
"Sitting meditation and breathing aren't bound by form or place. The key is settling the mind. As long as you can calm down, the effect is the same anywhere. How many times have I repeated this simple truth?"
"Besides, it's snowing outside. Sitting out there would be cold—you'd catch a fever easily."
Naruto obediently returned to the cushion, crossed his legs, straightened his back and head, and skillfully formed the standard Daoist "Zi-Wu Hand Seal."
It had taken Xuanming two full months to teach him—not because it was hard, but because the kid was simply too hyperactive to stay still.
Then, following Xuanming's recitation, Uzumaki Naruto read the morning scripture line by line.
"Fox Sage…" Naruto sneaked one eye open. "My stomach's growling."
Growing children get hungry fast. As always, morning practice ended in a hurry.