Naruto

After bidding farewell to Kakashi, the five shadow clones who had been released by Naruto for various training and learning tasks also returned to their original bodies with a day's experience. The familiar fatigue and soreness came like a tide. But they had already gotten used to it.

During all this, he just moved his legs mechanically, ignoring the whispers of pedestrians on the street, and digesting the gains of the day's training and learning in his mind.

"Finally we're home." Naruto staggered to the door of the apartment, wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, and was about to take out the key to open the door, but the door was suddenly opened without warning. Naruto

The man mustered up the remaining strength, jumped back, and took out a kunai with his right hand from the pocket tied to his thigh.

"who!"

"Welcome home!" A red-haired girl was standing at the door, waving to him happily, while another pink-haired girl beside her was silently observing Naruto's mental state, frowning slightly.

frowned.

"Sister Xianglin, long time no see! Sakura, you're here too!" Naruto breathed a sigh of relief, inserted the kunai back into place, and took a step forward. As a result, his feet went soft and his body fell forward.

Fortunately, Sakura, who was being watched closely, rushed forward and helped her in time.

"You were a guy who advised me to train moderately before, but you ended up torturing yourself harder than anyone else." Sakura complained in a low voice as she helped the blond boy walk into the house.

"Thank you, Sakura. Every time I mess up, you are the one who helps me." A grateful smile appeared on Naruto's slightly pale face.

Sakura felt much lighter because of his affirmation, but she still said insincerely: "If you have anything to say, let's talk about it after we sit down."

Naruto coughed a few times, looked at Xianglin who was standing at the door, a little at a loss, and asked curiously: "Sister Xianglin, why did the task you did with Teacher Hong a few days ago take so long? Finally?

What was the result?"

Xianglin was slightly startled, and after a while he replied: "Actually, our original mission goal was to chase a bandit group called 'Badgers'. Later we found out that there were many ninjas in 'Badgers', so we followed them all the way.

"

"What's the result?"

"They fled along the path towards the Land of Thunder. When they were about to cross the border, they were caught up by Shino's bugs, and then they were immobilized by a large-scale illusion spell by Teacher Hong. In the end, they were basically massacred one-sidedly."

"Massacre? No one left alive? Have they done anything evil?" Naruto, who had been helped by Sakura to rest on a stool, asked in surprise.

"...This commission comes directly from Daming Mansion. 'Badger' once looted a village and killed all the villagers in the village, including the two-year-old child, in order to prevent the news from leaking out." Xiang Lin's eyes widened.

A look of disgust flashed through him.

"Then they didn't die unjustly." Naruto nodded clearly and commented lightly.

He didn't know when he started to become so indifferent to human life. There were also bloody scenes that were mosaicd on the Internet and TV in his previous life, but now he was becoming more and more accustomed to them.

The indifference to killing pervades the entire society of the ninja world. Can this really be corrected by him alone?

"We also found hundreds of thousands of taels of banknotes issued by the Kingdom of Thunder on their bodies." Xianglin adjusted her glasses and added in a low voice.

Is it funded by the Cloud Hidden Village? Or is it an underground organization with activities in the Kingdom of Thunder? Or is it just a false signal to mislead Konoha? When Naruto thought of these messy things, he felt the tiredness in his mind becoming increasingly difficult to resist.

"Haha——, let's leave this information to professionals for analysis. I'm going to bed first." He yawned, walked into the bedroom, took off his coat and fell directly on the small bed where he slept.

, within a minute there was a sound of snoring.

"This guy is not afraid of catching cold." Sakura pulled the quilt for Naruto and said softly.

She carefully looked at the peacefully sleeping face and the six whiskers that relaxed and relaxed with the rhythm of the purring sound. Suddenly she felt a little cute and couldn't help but reach out and touch it with her fingers.

"Don't...don't kick me in the face..." He

He turned over, clutching the edge of the quilt tightly with both hands, curling up like a frightened kitten, shivering.

Sakura retracted her outstretched hand as if she was electrocuted, and carefully observed the surrounding environment. It wasn't until her eyes fell on Naruto's face again the next second that she suddenly realized: "Is this a nightmare?

"

"Maybe I recalled some unpleasant experiences in my dream." Xianglin walked to Xiaoying's side and whispered.

"I didn't steal the thing... Why did you hit me..." Naruto whimpered from his throat, "Ugh... please let me go..."

Sakura has never seen such a fragile side of him. She is used to the smile that always hangs on his face, and is used to him being able to maintain an optimistic attitude no matter what kind of powerful enemy he faces. Until now, after he has taken off all the

Mask, after falling into a deep sleep, she truly saw for the first time the deep shadow hidden behind the bright sunshine.

At this moment, Xianglin walked to Naruto's side, put her hand on his back, and shook him gently: "Naruto! Wake up!"

"Don't..." Naruto seemed to have not heard her call at all, his body continued to shrink and he murmured in his mouth.

"Wake up!" Xianglin leaned into his ear and shouted.

"Ah!" Naruto shouted as if he had been frightened, and sat up straight, with a residual pleading look on his face.

"How are you?" Sakura held his left hand and found that his palm was extremely cold.

Naruto shook his head, woke up, wiped his face with his right hand, and whispered: "I haven't had such a nightmare for a long time."

Damn PTSD.

Five minutes later, the blond boy, who obediently accepted the physical examination by the two medical ninjas, put his hands behind his head and shouted angrily: "I just said I'm fine!"

Sakura and Xiang Rin both looked at him with worried eyes, which made Uzumaki Naruto who was reluctant to take the hard one quickly defeated and raised his hands: "Okay, okay, actually I know the reason.

of."

He scratched his head and said awkwardly: "To put it simply, I split into too many shadow clones during today's training. After returning to the main body, I was exhausted and lost my energy, and I remembered some not-so-good things.

Memories. I just took a rest and feel much better."

Sakura bit her lip and said, "But..."

Naruto spread his hands: "After I turned three years old and left the care of the nanny, people often used me as a punching bag for all kinds of ridiculous reasons."

"The most impressive time was when a box of candies was lost in a nearby grocery store. Some people said that I had stolen it. A group of adults pulled me into an alley without any explanation, beat me severely, and even kicked me.

My face."

"How could they do this? Didn't anyone stop them?" Sakura asked in disbelief, but Xianglin, who had had similar experiences, could guess the reaction of the onlookers.

"They didn't dare to beat me to death. They would just beat me while admiring my ugly appearance of begging for mercy - just like what you just saw, and then burst into laughter. Many villagers have always believed that I was the culprit who killed their relatives and friends.

, so no one thought anything was wrong." Naruto lay on the table and looked at the contents of the glass.

Zhan's tea leaves fell into memories, "I was beaten very badly that time. I was admitted to the hospital and alarmed the third generation grandfather. I don't know what method he used. Since then, such things have happened less often.

The last time was on my sixth birthday. After that, they couldn’t beat me even if they came together, haha.”

"Birthday..." Sakura thought of the cake her father Haruno Zhao specially prepared for her on her sixth birthday. At that time, she seemed to have disliked the cake as it was too heavy on the cream and not tasty.

She couldn't imagine what it would be like to spend her birthday surrounded by people beating her.

"But all this has passed a long time ago. Now most of them don't hate me anymore, and I don't blame them. There are so many happy things in this world. We can't always hold on to those unpleasant memories.

Don’t let it go, don’t you think?

"Naruto took a sip of tea and smiled peacefully.

If he really didn't care about this at all, why would he remember it so clearly? Sakura felt her heart aching from this sunny smile, and she mechanically stirred the hot milk in her cup.

"Yes, yes!" Xianglin, who was immersed in the painful memories of her childhood, was infected by his words, and her eyes suddenly brightened.

"Ah, yes, there is another thing. I was too sleepy just now to tell you. If nothing happens in the next two days, we can meet Sasuke." Naruto patted his head and summed up today's meeting with Tsunade.

The set policy for dealing with fugitives was told to the two of them.

"Sakura, haven't you always liked Sasuke? You must be very happy to have the opportunity to meet him this time, right?" Naruto narrowed his eyes and smiled.

Do I like Sasuke? She recalled a separate conversation she had with the adult Sasuke who traveled from another timeline.

"Sakura, give up your pursuit of me." Adult Sasuke said after being silent for a long time under Sakura's expectant eyes.

"Why?" Sakura was stunned for a moment, "Didn't I marry you in the future?"

"Our marriage was just a tool used by Konoha to tie me up as a rebellious ninja at the beginning. After the war, I never fulfilled my responsibilities as a husband, but kept wandering around. I feel sorry for you...

..." Sasuke's expression moved slightly, "I have never been in love."

"I have never been home since my daughter remembered. When we first met, I almost hurt her because I didn't recognize her." Adult Sasuke looked at Sakura's heartbroken expression, and a look of guilt appeared on his handsome face.

His expression said, "Later, our relationship got better because of our daughter, but this was all based on your huge sacrifice."

"I am a loner, not a good father, let alone a good husband. If you insist on being with me, you will only get hurt." The adult Sasuke put his one arm on Sakura's shoulder and said softly,

"What's more, in this world line, the young me will not really defect to Konoha, and the necessity of our marriage will naturally disappear."

"So, I don't want you to be obsessed with me all the time."

"...I understand, Sasuke-kun." The gentle words from the adult Sasuke brought more pain to Sakura, but they were far greater than any indifferent rejection when he was young.

When Sasuke saw her crying, he wanted to stretch out his hand to comfort her, but stopped abruptly midway. He looked at Sakura apologetically, walked to the window, and in a flash, sank into the depths.

In the deep night.

Sakura knelt on the ground, tears silently running down her beautiful face. The soft sobs quickly turned into painful cries, alarming Naruto who was concentrating on reading a book in the living room.

"Sakura, why are you crying all of a sudden?" Naruto hurriedly took out a pack of tissues and handed it to her.

"It's nothing, I just suddenly thought of something sad."

"Is it because Sasuke is leaving? Didn't I tell you that this is only temporary? You can continue to pursue him in the future." Naruto touched the back of his head and said in confusion.

"You idiot!" Sakura punched Naruto in the stomach as if to vent her anger.

"...I'm an idiot, I'm an idiot, please don't be sad anymore, okay?" Naruto endured the punch, comforted Sakura in a low voice, and took out a tissue to wipe her tears.

"What's wrong? Don't you want to see Sasuke?" Naruto's words interrupted Sakura's memories. She looked up and saw those eyes as blue as the clear sky, stood up, and said in a panic: "I

It’s time to go home.”

Naruto looked at the dim scene outside the window, stood up and said, "You are saying that your uncle and aunt should be worried if you haven't come home so late. Let me see you off."

Sakura pushed Naruto back to his seat and said in a stiff tone: "You need to have a good rest. I can find my own way back."

The blond boy was stunned for a moment, showed a warm smile, and waved gently to Sakura: "Thank you for the reminder. Let's see you tomorrow."