Chapter 3

"Sakura, how did you come here alone?" Ino sat next to Sakura, curious.

"My parents asked me to go out and find some friends to play with, but I couldn't find anyone my age to play with, so I had to hide here!" Sakura's face was full of helplessness. "I can't play with those childish kids!"

"Childish?!" Ino suddenly had a few black lines on her forehead. How did she see her friend's shadow in Sakura?!

"Eh? Are you talking about Nara Shikamaru from the Nara clan?"

Hearing Ino say that she looked like one of her friends, Sakura instantly realized who she was talking about. It was Nara Shikamaru, the genius strategist of the Nara clan, who later became the advisor to the Seventh Hokage Uzumaki Naruto and the brother-in-law of the Fifth Kazekage Gaara in the original story.

"You know him too?" Ino looked at Sakura in surprise.

"I've heard of him!" Thinking of Shikamaru's personality in the original story, Sakura couldn't help but laugh. Perhaps it was because of his high intelligence that Shikamaru always gave people a feeling of being lazy and unmotivated, but in fact, he was a very reliable person.

"Well, that guy always looks lazy. Whenever Yoshino-sama asks him to go out and play with kids, he always says that kids his age are too childish to play with!" Ino laughed. "Although Yoshino-sama always forces him to go out!"

The two four-year-old girls sat on the grass and started chatting. Perhaps it was fate, but even though they had just met, their relationship felt like that of old friends. Sakura didn't feel any rejection towards this kind of relationship.

"Hey, what's that over there?!"

While they were chatting, Sakura suddenly turned her head towards the river. She could feel a living being floating in the river, and judging from the strength of its soul, it was definitely not a fish or shrimp in the river.

"It seems like someone is floating down from upstream..."

Ino looked closely and was suddenly horrified. "Are we encountering a corpse?!"

"It's not a corpse, I can feel that his soul is still alive!"

Sakura stood up and ran towards the riverbank. The Soul Gem could control souls, so she could naturally sense them. Although her sensing range was relatively small at the moment, she could still clearly sense the person floating in the river.

When she reached the riverbank, she saw a small, thin figure with golden hair floating in the river. Sakura raised her right hand, and a red light flashed in her green eyes. The power of the Reality Gem was activated, and an invisible force pulled the figure out of the water.

"Huh?!"

At that moment, many souls suddenly appeared around her, making Sakura feel confused. Half of these souls were filled with killing intent, giving people a feeling of murderousness, while the other half were lifeless, as if they had no emotions at all.

"Naruto?!"

However, when she put the person on the ground and saw his face, Sakura instantly understood what was going on with the extra souls. It was the ANBU Black Ops who monitored the Nine-Tailed Jinchuriki, and... Root?!

The ones filled with killing intent were probably the ANBU Black Ops controlled by the Third Hokage, who carried out various assassination missions all year round, so it was normal for them to be filled with murderousness. As for the other half, that lifeless feeling, it should be Root, which was controlled by Danzo Shimura.

But these people were really too much! While she was trying to save Naruto, Sakura shook her head secretly. Although she didn't know how Naruto ended up drowning, it was too much for these people to not come to his rescue. It was understandable for Root to have no emotions, but the ANBU Black Ops were not supposed to be like that. They could watch Naruto almost drown and not do anything about it. This kind of behavior was really unacceptable to Sakura.

Naruto was the child of the Fourth Hokage, a hero who sealed the Tailed Beasts in his body. However, he was hated by the entire village and grew up in such an environment, but he still maintained a bright heart. It was no wonder that so many people were moved by him in the original story. Rather than saying that Naruto's mouth was too powerful, it was more accurate to say that his firm heart made them empathize with him.

"Should we take him to the hospital?" Ino asked nervously.

"No need, it's better if we treat him ourselves!" Sakura shook her head. Everyone in Konoha was saying that Naruto was a demon fox, so even if they took him to the hospital, the doctors and nurses probably wouldn't help him.

"Why?!" Ino asked in confusion, but after Sakura pointed to Naruto's face, she instantly understood.

As a person with a family heritage, Ino naturally wouldn't believe in the nonsense of Naruto being a demon fox. If he really was a demon fox, how could they stand there and accuse him without any harm coming to them?!

After some unprofessional first aid and with Sakura secretly using the power of the Reality Gem to help, Naruto soon woke up.

"How do you feel?"

Sakura took out a handkerchief and handed it to him, indicating that he should wipe the water off his face.

"Thank you for saving me!" Naruto took the handkerchief and lowered his head to wipe the water off his face. His tone was very light, as if he was afraid of scaring Sakura and Ino.

"How did you fall into the river?" Ino asked in confusion.

"Well... I... I went to the river to catch fish to eat, but I accidentally got pulled into the river by a fish..." Naruto scratched his head and said embarrassedly. The merchants in Konoha refused to sell him anything to eat, so he had to catch fish himself. But he didn't expect that he would almost lose his life.

"What a fool!" Sakura looked at Naruto's thin body and felt a little sorry for him. He was a boy, but his body was even thinner and weaker than hers, which showed how his daily life was. If he didn't have the strong vitality of the Uzumaki clan, he probably wouldn't have been able to hold on for so long.

"Ah, sorry..." When Naruto heard Sakura's words, his body trembled uncontrollably. His golden hair became dull and lifeless.

"Why apologize?!" Sakura picked up Naruto's chin with her finger and made him look up at her.

"Look, fox spirits are supposed to be very charming. If a fox spirit looked like you, it would probably be out of work!" Sakura said with a smile.

"Really? I... I'm not a fox spirit?!" Naruto asked hesitantly, his eyes full of expectation.

"You're not a fox spirit at all."

Sakura took out a white paper with many characters with fox ears and tails drawn on it. However, without exception, these characters were dressed in a very cool way, and their poses were particularly charming, and their figures were particularly hot.

As soon as the white paper was taken out, Sakura felt that many people in the hidden ANBU Black Ops around her began to have large fluctuations in their minds. Even the members of Root had some mental fluctuations.

"I'm really different from them..."

Naruto was still very pure at this age. After seeing the picture Sakura took out and comparing it with himself, his eyes lit up. It turned out that he really wasn't a fox spirit.

"Ah, Sakura, why do you have this kind of thing on you..."

Ino blushed, and her precocious mind was not as pure as Naruto's. When she saw this picture, she couldn't help but have some wild thoughts.

"Come on, Ino, it's just a few pictures. Is there a need for such a big reaction?!" Sakura said innocently. Almost all of these were characters related to foxes that she had seen in anime or games in her past life. Well, although there were also a few pictures of certain unspeakable adult content, there was no need to have such a big reaction.

"But, this, this..." Ino didn't know how to say it with a red face.

"Cough, anyway, Naruto, you see, they are the ones who can be called fox spirits. As for you, you don't have fox ears or a fox tail, so how can you be called a fox spirit?!" Sakura coughed lightly, put the paper in her pocket, and secretly used the power of the Reality Gem to destroy it instantly. She didn't want Naruto and Ino to see too much. If they were led astray, it wouldn't be good.

"Is that so? I'm not a fox spirit. I'm not a fox spirit..." Naruto suddenly hugged Sakura and cried. As a child, he had to endure the mental violence and even physical attacks of the entire Konoha village every day. His heart was naturally very depressed, but Sakura's words seemed to shine a light on his soul. This moment became the most memorable scene in Naruto's memory.

"That's right, you're Naruto Uzumaki of Konoha Village, not a fox spirit..."

When suddenly hugged by Naruto, Sakura was stunned for a moment, but after she came back to her senses, she smiled and patted Naruto's hair, saying, "From today on, I'm your friend. Let me introduce myself. My name is Haruno Sakura, and you can call me Sakura!"

"And me, I'm Yamanaka Ino. You can call me Ino!" Ino also introduced herself with a smile.

"Well, my name is Naruto Uzumaki, and you can call me Naruto!" Naruto wiped away his tears and smiled brightly, like a small sun.

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