"Bah, how unlucky you are, you bastard!"
After getting up from the ground, the short, yellow-haired guy with sea-blue eyes and six whisker-like marks on his cheeks—who looked like a little fox—couldn't help but curse.
Huh! After seeing this guy, Yūki couldn't help but tremble all over and immediately planned to slip away quietly.
Some people can imitate his face, some can imitate his figure, but few can imitate those six whiskers. So, Yūki instantly recognized who this kid was.
The Child of Prophecy, the Seventh Hokage, Uzumaki Naruto, known as the strongest dead-last in history! To actually run into him here!
"Brat! How dare you run!"
But just as Yūki was about to quickly run away, wanting nothing to do with the "Child of Prophecy," several figures suddenly surrounded the two of them, trapping them in the corner of the alley!
"Yo ho? Brat, you've even got a companion."
After spotting Yūki standing there, the leading young man among the pursuers spat on the ground nearby in a foul tone, his eyes filled with rising anger.
This young man had long pink hair and looked a bit timid, but his youthful face was putting on a fierce act, which came off as somewhat strange.
"No, I actually don't know him—"
"Brother! Brother, you can't abandon this little brother!"
Before Yūki could distance himself, Uzumaki Naruto, the five-year-old dead-last beside him, hurriedly ran over and hugged Yūki's leg, speaking with tears in his eyes.
Huh? Hearing this, Yūki's mind was filled with galloping horses. After all, he had no idea when he'd become this troublemaker's older brother.
"Come on, man! You look like someone important. They probably wouldn't dare to lay a hand on you. Please help me out."
At that moment, Naruto immediately spoke to Yūki in a voice only the two of them could hear, simultaneously flashing a snot-nosed grin.
Frankly, Naruto's smile looked a bit naive, but it actually gave Yūki a warm, sun-like feeling.
Is it because I already knew his identity that I'm overthinking it? Or does he just naturally have such strong appeal?
Sighing inwardly, Yūki reached out, grabbed Naruto's arm, and moved his hand away from his leg. Then, he said to the three adults behind them, "Forget it. What did he do wrong, anyway? Can you tell me first?"
"Hmph, our family runs a ninja tool shop. This brat stood at the door of our shop and told customers we sell counterfeit goods. Isn't he asking for trouble!"
Perhaps seeing Yūki's calm expression made him a little wary, the leading man snorted coldly and explained why they were chasing Naruto.
Cutting off someone's livelihood is like killing their parents. If what the leading man said was true, then it was no surprise they came after Naruto shouting and screaming—at the very least, a beating was inevitable.
A ninja tool shop? Naruto said they sell fakes?
"That's right! The stuff your family sells is fake!"
Before Yūki could figure out the situation, Naruto had already shouted with his trademark loud voice.
"You brat! How dare you—"
"Hold on. How do you know their ninja tools are fake?"
As if ignoring the three adults yelling fiercely beside him, Yūki asked Naruto curiously.
If he wasn't mistaken, the five-year-old Naruto should be enrolling in the Ninja Academy at the end of the year along with Yūki. And because the Fourth Hokage died early, the Third Hokage didn't dare to look after him too closely, so the five-year-old Naruto probably didn't know much about the ninja world.
In other words, Naruto right now didn't even know how to throw a shuriken properlyachev, let alone judge whether ninja tools were real or fake.
"I heard it when I was playing behind their shop yesterday! The big guy in the back told the boss inside that a new batch of parallel-imported ninja tools had arrived, and they'd mix the parallel imports with the genuine ones to sell during this period!"
However, even under the threat of those three big men, Naruto still told Yūki what he'd heard without hesitation.
"Oh? There's such a thing? Then why didn't you—never mind, pretend I didn't ask."
Yūki originally wanted to ask why he didn't report this to the authorities, but halfway through, he remembered that Naruto was only five years old now, almost no one in the village liked him, and no one would believe his words.
Even in the original story, the only ones who believed in Naruto early on were Iruka and the Third Hokage. At this point, he hadn't met Iruka yet, and the Third Hokage probably hadn't had much contact with him because he was too young, so this kid was indeed a bit unpopular...
"Hey, you three, is what he just said true?"
After hearing Naruto's words, Yūki turned to look at the trio of strong men over there.
If what Naruto said was true, then this matter was no joke. After all, a ninja going out on a mission was risking their life.
"How could it be true! You brat! If you keep slandering our 'Passionate Ninja Tool Shop,' don't blame me, Tobio, for being rude!"
It was precisely because he knew the seriousness of the matter that the leading man, Boss Tobio, quickly denied it.
He couldn't help but tremble when he heard Naruto's words just now. His speech was halting, and his eyes kept darting around—it seemed there might be some truth to it.
At this point, Yūki couldn't help but sigh. After all, compared to Naruto's completely unconvincing words, Tobio, the "passionate" boss himself, seemed a bit guilty.
"Whether it's true or not, it's fine for someone to check it out, right? 'Passionate Ninja Tool Shop,' wasn't it?"
Seemingly too lazy to say more to this guy named Tobio, Yūki grabbed Naruto's shoulder and walked toward the other end of the alley.
You had to know he was the eldest son of the Hyūga clan. In terms of connections, Naruto was no match for him. Having someone investigate that ninja tool shop would be a matter of a single word.
"Wait a minute, you brat. You think you can just leave after saying that? Where does that leave our dignity?"
But before Yūki and the others could take a step, Tobio and the two clerks he brought had already formed a triangle, surrounding them, as if they had no intention of letting them leave at all.
"What? Want to get tough? I don't mind, but you'd better think carefully before making a move. Otherwise, you might not know who'll end up unlucky."
Even though surrounded by three adults in the alley, there wasn't a trace of panic on Yūki's face. In his opinion, these three were just ordinary people who were a bit stronger—they didn't even have chakra. Why should he be afraid of them?
"Wait a minute, Boss, this guy seems to be from the Hyūga clan."
But at that moment, the stocky, short guy named Bessie, with his head of green hair styled like a broccoli floret, suddenly noticed something.
Although there were many important people and clans in Konoha, the Hyūga clan was probably the easiest to identify. After all, cataracts to that degree weren't common among ordinary people. If it were a real blind person, they wouldn't be out walking around like this.
"Bessie, you need to wise up. Didn't you notice such an obvious thing earlier?"
Hearing Bessie's slightly wavering words, the other clerk next to him—a man with short blond hair wearing a dark spiderweb-patterned outfit—said helplessly.
"Oh? So you still dare to make a move even though you know I'm from the Hyūga clan?"
"So what if you're from the Hyūga clan? This is a corner even the Konoha Police Force won't come to. The disappearance of a mere five-year-old kid—isn't that kind of thing pretty common?"
As if realizing the situation was already beyond repair, Boss Tobio's eyes flashed with murderous intent. He then made a throat-slitting gesture to Prosciutto and Bessie beside him!
"Hey, hey, hey! They seem to be planning to get serious! What do we do?!"
"Shh, stay here and don't come out. Just wait."
Naruto, only five years old, had never seen such a situation before. Feeling the obvious murderous intent, he was almost crying, but Yūki directly pushed him into a corner and stuffed him into a trash can.
After putting the lid on the trash can and piling a large bag of non-burnable garbage on top of the lid, Yūki turned to face the three adults and, without hesitation, made a "bring it on" gesture.