Naruto: From Fake to Real, Deceiving the Ninja World.

"Extremely fragile."

The last four words, spoken softly by Hinata Aoi, were like the sharpest ice pick, piercing Hinata Higo's already crumbling psychological defenses with unparalleled precision!

A deathly silence fell over the living room.

The pale moonlight illuminated Higo Hyuga's face, which had instantly lost all color.

His facial muscles twitched and contorted violently as he stared intently at his daughter, his lips trembling, but he couldn't utter a single word.

What did he hear?

That damned Hinata Kumokawa!

That traitor from the branch family, whom he regarded as an ant!

How dare they threaten him so blatantly?

Using the lives of all those who have gone through the division, using such barbaric methods of mutual destruction and sacrificing one's integrity to bind one's own life?!

And then there's that phrase, "having nothing, utterly vulnerable"...

These eight words pierced through his glamorous facade as a clan elder, revealing his weak essence, riddled with holes from arrogance, and long since devoid of true power.

In an instant, a torrent of anger, shame at being exposed as a coward, chill, fear, and helplessness intertwined.

It made Hyuga Higo feel as if his heart was being gripped tightly by an invisible hand.

Then, squeeze hard.

"puff!!"

Without warning, Hyuga Higo suddenly coughed up a mouthful of blood.

Crimson blood mist bloomed under the pale moonlight, splattering onto the front of his dark kimono and onto the floor, forming a glaring scarlet!

Higo Hyuga's body swayed violently, one hand clutching his chest in excruciating pain, the other hand bracing against the coffee table to keep from falling!

He was hunched over, breathing heavily.

"Hyuga Kumokawa!"

A shrill roar filled with hatred and resentment erupted from the depths of his throat, its hoarse sound echoing in the empty living room.

"I will kill you!"

"I will kill you!!"

However, this murderous roar sounded so hollow and powerless in the empty living room, like the howl of a defeated dog, full of rage and shame.

Hinata Aoi stood quietly in the shadows of the entryway, watching her father's wretched state as he vomited blood and roared in agony, a complex emotion flashing in his white eyes.

She neither stepped forward to help him up nor offered any words of comfort.

He took one last deep look at the back of that figure, which appeared exceptionally old, weak, and frantic in the moonlight, then silently turned and quietly left the living room.

In the living room, only Higashika Higo's increasingly heavy breathing and the dark red bloodstains that were gradually congealing under the moonlight remained.

If Hyuga Aoi were still here, she would see Hyuga Higo's eyes gradually turn cold and sinister.

Those guys have no idea what being a caged bird means, nor do they understand what the main family really means.

The main family is actually a few branches that have been preserved from a long time ago and possess pure bloodlines.

As long as the main branches of the Hyuga clan continue to grow and produce offspring, and the person with the purest bloodline is selected from among the descendants to continue the lineage, it can be guaranteed that the Hyuga clan will never lose the Byakugan due to bloodline dilution.

However, if they continue to be gradually eroded by the division of the family, sooner or later the entire Hyuga clan will be reduced to the state of the Little Hyuga.

Despite possessing the bloodline of the Hyuga clan, it was so diluted that he couldn't even activate the Byakugan, and he completely disappeared from the history of the ninja world.

and so……

"No matter what, I will never allow Hyuga Kumokawa and those damned guys to continue to undermine the orthodox status of the main family!" Hyuga Higo thought coldly.

Even if they band together, what good will it do? No one can remain absolutely calm and rational in the face of death.

If a hunter kills enough prey in the same place, the lingering scent of blood will deter other prey from venturing in.

"All of this is for the Hyuga clan," Hyuga Higo murmured to himself.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

The next day, at dusk in Konoha.

The setting sun, like a giant bronze plate, slowly sank toward the western horizon.

The golden-red afterglow spilled onto the shimmering river surface, dyeing the flowing water into a flowing ribbon, and the trees on both sides of the river were also gilded with a layer of orange-red.

Far from the hustle and bustle of Konoha's center, a small figure is busy on the riverbank.

His fingers rummaged through the damp moss and fallen leaves, and soon he carefully picked several plump mushrooms and placed them in a small basket simply woven from vines at his waist.

However, anyone who could hear what he was muttering to himself would surely be puzzled.

"This mushroom looks beautiful!"

He looked at a mushroom with a pale green glow on its cap, but the surprise on his face was quickly replaced by disappointment. He muttered, "Hmm, can't I eat it either?"

"what about this?"

"Oh, is it poisonous too? It tastes so good..."

"Teacher, you know so much, you're much better than the big fox."

Without a doubt, the person picking mushrooms was Naruto Uzumaki.

Meanwhile, inside his sealed space, the Nine-Tailed Fox, lying on the ground with its head on its arm, was snoring as if it were sleeping with its eyes closed.

But upon hearing Naruto's words, its huge, furry ears twitched, and veins bulged on its forehead in a "well" shape.

As Naruto continued muttering to himself, it finally couldn't help but open its eyes and lift its eyelids to look at the top of its head.

"Hey," Nine-Tails said impatiently, "Can you shut up that nagging brat? Can't you let this old man get some sleep...?"

thump.

Before the Nine-Tailed Fox could finish speaking, its massive head was hammered into the sand, and its pointed fox mouth swallowed a mouthful of dirt.

"I said that."

The man sitting cross-legged on its head withdrew his hand from the nine-tailed fox, closed his eyes, and said calmly, "Don't refer to yourself as 'this old man' in front of me."

"puff."

Nine-Tails raised its head and spat out a mouthful of sand, looking aggrieved but not daring to utter a word in rebuttal.

There's no way around it; whether it's in terms of seniority or age, it really has no right to call itself "old man" in front of this guy.

Although this guy looks like a human in his twenties, who knows what kind of ancient thing he is that has lived for thousands of years.

Of course, seniority and age are secondary; the main reason is that this old guy would whip it with those strange thorns whenever he was dissatisfied.

At first, it was still being stubborn and argumentative, but after being slapped and howling, it became quiet.

Want face.

"Hey, old man," Nine-Tails said in a muffled voice, resting his head on his arm, "you've turned this place upside down, are you really planning to stay here forever?"

The "old guy" it refers to is naturally Hyuga Kumokawa, who is disguised as "Otsutsuki Kumoshiki".

However, he did not tell Kurama his name, only his surname.

With his knowledge of the Sage of Six Paths and ancient history in the story, he was able to fool this fox who had spent thousands of years eating and sleeping.

Moreover, the abilities he displayed were something even the Nine-Tails had never heard of before.

“Fox.” Ōtsutsuki Unshiki opened his eyes and said softly, “How long I stay here depends on that child. Modifying this place is just something I do as a side effect.”

Just doing it as it comes...

Nine-Tailed Fox's eye twitched involuntarily as it looked at the sealed space.

The sealed space has completely changed. It is no longer the dark and damp place it used to be, but has become a seemingly endless ocean beach.

The clear, transparent seawater lapped against the beach, making a soothing "splashing" sound. A sea breeze, carrying a slightly salty scent, gently swept by, and the sky and the sea merged into one.

The bright sunshine hung in the sky, and there was even a wooden house standing by the sea.

God knows how that old guy managed to turn the sealed space into what it is now.

"Are all members of the Otsutsuki clan as good at enjoying life as you?" Kurama asked tentatively, feigning disdain.

In fact, the old man told many stories to the nine tailed beasts during his lifetime, including those to the Otsutsuki clan, whom he called "people from beyond the heavens."

Nine-Tails still vividly remembers the old man's solemnity and apprehension at that time.

It's hard to imagine what kind of power this being, which even the old man fears, possesses.

But it never expected that it would actually encounter it.

This made it curious about what exactly the Otsutsuki clan was.

"Didn't Yu Yi tell you that curiosity killed the fox?"

Otsutsuki Kumoshiki glanced at it and said, "If I had a good relationship with those idiots in my clan, you would still be inside the Ten-Tails, and it wouldn't be Hagoromo's turn to become the Ten-Tails' Jinchūriki."

"Oh, no, if I had hardened my heart back then, you would be in my stomach now, along with all the life in the ninja world."

As he talked more and more, Nine-Tails lowered its head further and further, its body honestly shutting its mouth.

It heard it.

"This old guy must be from the same era as the Goddess of the Rabbit that the old man mentioned," Nine-Tails thought with a lingering fear.

It had heard some stories about the Divine Tree, the Ten-Tailed Fox, and the Goddess of the Rabbit from the Sage of Six Paths.

Although Kurama doesn't know why this old guy has become like this, he can sense that Kurama can now truly turn Kurama into chakra and swallow him whole.

The Yin Release aura within that soul was far too pure, even more exaggerated than the feeling it had given it back then, and this seemed to be just a tiny fragment of the other party's soul.

Transformation into nothingness.

The only person I've seen in all these years to allow the soul to exist independently without fading away over time is the old man.

Although we don't know the extent of his Yang Escape technique, this level of Yin Escape technique has already reached the level of Yin-Yang Escape.

This is also the main reason why Kurama (the Nine-Tails) backed down.

If this old guy wanted, he could completely extract its soul and turn it into a pure chakra.

So even with such a being sitting on its head, the naturally proud Nine-Tails didn't feel ashamed.

The only thing that puzzled Nine-Tails was why someone like him would pay attention to this human brat.

"This old guy doesn't seem to be coming for me," Kurama thought to himself. "Even I don't catch his eye, so is there something special about Minato Namikaze's son?"

Thinking of this, the Nine-Tailed Fox raised its head and looked up at the sky.

There, there is a round mirror, reflecting Naruto's vision.

This allows Kurama and Kumoshiki to see everything Naruto sees in the outside world, even though they are in the sealed space.

"Teacher, can we eat this mushroom?"

Naruto's voice entered the sealed space, and Otsutsuki Kumoshiki, with his eyes closed, said calmly, "With your physique, you can eat."

He did not ask Naruto to call him "teacher".

After witnessing his power in beating the Nine-Tails, she keenly sensed that he didn't seem to have any ill intentions towards her, so she boldly and shamelessly asked to learn ninjutsu.

In Naruto's simple mindset, it seems that as long as he becomes stronger, as strong as the Hokage, he can gain the same recognition as the Hokage.

Yunshi agreed, and Naruto, seizing the opportunity, immediately changed his mind.

Naruto Uzumaki wasn't actually a stupid fool; he just got into the habit of using slang to hide his alienation from others, pretending that he wasn't aware of everyone's rejection.

Although his thinking is extremely biased, unlike those who are truly foolish, he deliberately makes himself look foolish.

"Hehe, this is edible!"

At that moment, by the river outside, Naruto's face once again broke into a satisfied smile.

He carefully picked a few unassuming but plump, brown mushrooms, carrying the fragrance of the earth, and placed them in the small basket he had woven himself at his waist.

As night fell, the harvest in the small basket gradually increased.

"call!"

Finally, Naruto straightened up, looked at the setting sun on the horizon that was about to disappear, yet poured its last and most intense warmth onto the earth, and let out a long sigh of relief.