4 4. Friendship

For the next few days, Gold would train and play with Naruto. While his body was getting stronger, his friendship with Naruto seemed to have reached a bottleneck.

Priority Quest: Befriend Naruto

Difficulty: E

Description: It is quite easy to befriend the master of talk-no-justu. However, it is a little harder to become someone that he can completely rely on.

Completion Rate: 90%

Reward: Clone Technique

Failure: Miss out on many future interactions with Naruto

Turn in requirement: 50% Completion Rate

Turn in now?

'Why can't it go any higher? It's almost like he's purposely not allowing me to become his friend, but why is that?'

Gold had tried multiple things to increase his relationship with Naruto. He played with him every other day, shared toys with him, and even purposely led them to bullies to 'help' Naruto against them.

He contemplated why he couldn't 100% befriend Naruto. He sat for a few minutes and asked many rhetorical questions.

'Does he not trust me? Is there someone telling him rumors about me? Or wait, does he know I want to befriend him just for benefits?'

That's when the realization hit him. Naruto was the 9-tails Jinchūriki. One of his abilities is to sense the emotion of others. While he wasn't malicious against Naruto, he also wasn't sincerely trying to be his friend. Naruto sense this but was too desperate for a friend. He wanted a friend even if the only one he had was trying to use him somehow.

Gold instantly felt bad with his realization. He knew that his thought process was a little fucked up towards the lonely and parentless child.

'The next time I see him I should apologize. I just need to make up some sort of believable excuse to why I wanted to take advantage of him. Well tomorrow we did plan to hang so I'll worry about it then. Then lets start with training'

Gold did his normal routine of 100 sit-ups, 100 push-ups, 100 squats, and a 10 km run. While Saitama did the same exercises and gain infinite power, Gold did not achieve the same accomplishments. Gold not only did the routine for a lesser amount of time, but his sage body also had a higher limit than Saitama's normal human body. It would be nearly impossible for Gold to break the limiter of his sage body no matter what he tries.

After finishing his exercises and taking a shower, he headed to his room and checked his stats.

Gold Tokisaki

Combat Grade: F+ (above average civilian)

Age:5

Chakra Nature: Locked

Status: Blind

Physique: Sage Body (Locked)

Physical Strength: E+ --> D-

Chakra: C

•Control: E

•Reserves: B+

Techniques and Justus: None

His body had finally broken the limits of a civilian and entered the world of ninjas. While it was the same level as the weakest genins it was still an improvement.

'This is just the beginning of my journey, I won't be satisfied until I at least reach Jonin-level combat ability.

He then opened the quest tab to see his progression of unlocking the sage body. He knew that to fully unlock the body he'd need his body to be at an extremely high level.

Luckily for him, partially unlocking the body did not require his body to be too strong. Unfortunately, the quest to unlock the sage body did require him to fully unlock it. So while he will be able to partially unlock his sage body, he won't get the quest rewards for a long time.

To fully unlock his physique he needed to reach the body strength of a Jonin and to start partially unlocking it he needed to reach the level of a chunin.

After finishing up looking at his system, he decided to go to bed. He was slightly nervous about what will happen with Naruto after apologizing to him. But, he knew there was no use to keep thinking about it and finally fell asleep.

--Morning--

Gold got out of bed and did his morning routine before slowly walking downstairs. There he heard his mother placing food on the table with his father. Gold's father saw him and waved to him.

"Hey bud, nice timing. Were just going to go get you for breakfast."

"Hey dad."

Gold then found his chair and sat in it when he suddenly felt someone glaring at him. Suddenly, his mother lightly pulled on his ear and lectured him.

"You know your not supposed to go down the stairs by yourself. What happens if you fall? You know that it's too dangerous"

"But Mooo-"

Ayaka interrupted him and continued with the scolding. "I don't want to hear it, mister. Make sure to call one of us when you want to go down the stairs."

Gold sighed and nodded his head. The family then started to eat breakfast. Gold then remembered to tell his mother about going out.

"Mom, today Naruto is coming over and taking me to the park."

Surprisingly, Ayaka simply agreed and didn't even insist on someone watching him. She only smiled and rubbed his hair.

'Why don't my parents seem to care that I hang out with naruto?'

Gold's curiosity got the better of him and he asked his mother, "Mom, why do you let me go out with Naruto alone? Doesn't everyone hate him? "

Ayaka had a bitter smile and a face that seemed lost in reminisce. However, that only lasted for a second and changed back to a cheerful smile.

"You shouldn't judge people based on rumors. I've seen him hang out with you and he is a good kid. Like his parents, he's little mischievous but he's a good kid at heart."

Gold was confused about the last part and accidentally blurted something he shouldn't have.

"Wait you know who Naruto's parent's are?"

Gold's eyes widened a little bit and he instantly knew he fucked up. Luckily for him, he looked as if he was just shocked to hear what his mother said.

Ayaka looked sad and told Gold, "Naruto's parents are something we shouldn't talk about. Don't tell him that I know who they are as well. It won't be good for him if he keeps thinking about his parents." Gold nodded his head and continued to eat breakfast with his family.

After finishing breakfast and cleaning up with his parents, he heard a knock on the door. "GOLD! NARUTO IS HERE."

Gold quickly went to the front door and greeted Naruto. "Naruto! Let's go play!"

"Un!"

Naruto and Gold headed to the playground with each other. Naruto led the way to the park and Gold carefully followed him. After playing in the park for a few hours, they rested in the park. The park was empty because no one wanted to be Naruto and called preferred it like that. He didn't want anyone nearby when he apologized to Naruto.

"Hey, Naruto?"

"Yea Gold, what do you need?"

Gold twiddled his fingers together to gather his courage and at the same time come up with a good excuse. They sat for about one minute in awkward silence before Gold finally spoke up.

"Naruto, I want to apologize. At first, I only became your friend so that I could feel like better about myself. I couldn't be cooler than the other kids because I was blind. But because they called you a loser, I thought if I became your friend I'd finally be the coolest in my friend group. But I dont care ahout that anymore, I just want to be your friend."

After spewing some half believable bullshit to Naruto, Gold stared at him in silence waiting for him. Unexpectedly, Naruto just tilted his head and said, "Ok."

Gold was taken aback. He asked Naruto, "Why aren't you made at me? I was using you to make me feel better about myself. I didn't care about you."

Naruto smiled at him and put his thumb up. "It doesn't matter because now you're actually my friend. And when I become Hokage, I'll make you my right hand man!"

"Uhh, no thanks I just want live a peaceful life and settle down when I get older."

"Neeeee, your so boring!"

Gold smiled at him and shook his head. Then he stood up and said to Naruto, "Let's go play."

--Gold's house--

'I'm sorry Minato and Kushina. I couldn't do anything about the isolation of your child. However, he is growing up to become a fine man.'

Ayaka was in her bedroom holding a picture of a group of children. The photo was pretty old as you could see the wear from aging. The photo was a class picture containing the entire grade. In, the photo you could see Kushina and Ayaka standing together happily. In a different group, there were a few boys together. Notably, you could see Haruto and Minato standing together.

"I'm glad our children are getting along like us when we were child. But this time, there is no war. I hope they never have to see the horros we witnessed on the battlefield."

She had a tear sliding down her face as she thought of the many deaths of people she knew. Then, she heard the door behind her open. By the footsteps, she could tell it was her husband, Haruto.

"Are you still reminiscing about the past?" He then walked over to her and patted her head. "Stop looking at the past. It already happened. Look towards the future, there's alot of new shit we've yet to witness together." Haruto put his arms around her shoulders and kissed her cheek.

Ayaka smiled and instantly cheered up. She looked up at her husband and playfully glared at him, "When did you become so good with your words? Are you trying to seduce some young lady and make her your mistress?

Cold sweat poured down his face while he looked at his terrifying wife. "I-I wouldn't dare."

She smiled and said, "Good." Before walking down the stairs and leaving him alone. The man stood there and sighed before also reminiscing.

'Don't worry Minato. While I'm weak, I'll still do my best to make sure your son is safe.'

He then rushed after his wife down the stairs. "Honey, wait for me!"