ตอน 4: Fear
Naruto finally confirmed one thing: he had indeed crossed over to another world.
It wasn't a dream. If it were a dream, he should have woken up by now. Moreover, it was impossible to continue sleeping within a dream, right? Dreams didn't follow such clear logic.
If this were a dream, he should have woken up already. Even if he were still within a dream, he wouldn't feel the intense hunger and wakefulness as he did.
Even within dreams, there were limits to how real things could feel, right?
Having affirmed that he had truly traveled to another world and wasn't dreaming, Naruto remained in a daze for the entire day.
It wasn't until evening when a nurse came to attend to him that he snapped back to reality. His little tummy growled audibly; he was hungry.
Babies couldn't speak, but they cried when they were hungry.
However, Naruto possessed the soul of an adult, having been an office worker before. He wouldn't burst into tears anytime and anywhere.
Throughout the entire day today, apart from the nurse feeding him a bottle of milk in the morning, he hadn't seen anyone else. Only now did the nurse appear.
His hunger became unbearable, and he began to cry out.
A young nurse entered the room, gazing at the expectant baby lying there. However, a hint of fear flickered in her eyes, causing her feet to halt.
In truth, she didn't know the identity of the baby. She only knew that Anbu from the Third Generation's team had delivered the infant last night. It was said to be an orphan found on the Nine Tails' battlefield.
But as she looked at the baby's chubby cheeks with three symmetrical lines resembling whiskers, the nurse recalled something that had been circulating secretly among the staff at Konoha Hospital today.
Some had boldly speculated that this baby of unknown origin might be the reincarnation of the Nine Tails demon fox.
Though the Nine Tails demon fox had perished, vanquished by the Fourth Hokage and his wife at the cost of their lives, there was now a concern that this baby, picked up from the battlefield, could somehow be linked to the Nine Tails' reincarnation.
In the ninja world, ordinary people remained blissfully unaware of the significance of tailed beasts and Jinchūriki. They had never even heard of these terms. It was as if the author hadn't established the right context in the earlier parts of the story.
Even in Shippuden, Haruno Sakura, a disciple of Tsunade, remained clueless about the true implications of being a Jinchūriki, let alone the dire situations Jinchūriki often faced.
So, naturally, a simple nurse like her had no idea either. Besides, the Nine Tails incident had only occurred the previous night. With countless casualties and severe damage to the village, the nurse was understandably terrified of the baby.
She ended up tossing a bottle of prepared milk powder somewhat haphazardly, causing it to land near Naruto. Then, she hurriedly made her way out.
Naruto felt a sharp pain in his shoulder. Still just a baby, he had no ability to dodge or resist. His fragile body could barely withstand the impact.
If that bottle had hit his head, he might have even lost consciousness.
With gritted "teeth" though he didn't have any yet, he tried to bear the pain.
Naruto Uzumaki pursed his lips, his young face already etched with dissatisfaction despite his orphaned status. His demeanor was chilling, a reflection of the harsh reality he faced as a nurse.
He was no stranger to the tales of Naruto's woeful childhood, but now, experiencing it firsthand, he couldn't help but be infuriated. Who would have thought that the very child who had valiantly defended Konoha Village the night before would become the vessel for the Nine Tails? Wasn't it their hope to safeguard the village's power that had led his parents, Fourth Hokage Namikaze Minato and Kushina, to sacrifice their lives?
Yet, here he lay, treated as little more than a burden. Naruto's frustration simmered beneath his cold, young visage as he struggled to raise his hand. But it proved impossible for a newborn, incapable of even lifting his neck, to do so.
The helplessness welled up within Naruto, and he fought back tears. Just a day prior, he had been an ordinary child, far from the crippled state he now found himself in. Yes, he was now just that – a helpless cripple. His mind understood the situation, but his feeble body refused to cooperate, leaving him utterly powerless.
As his empty stomach cried out in hunger once more, Naruto found himself alone in the house. He refused to resign himself to fate. Instead of crying out for help, he engaged in a silent struggle, pitting his determination against his physical limitations.
With great effort, he managed to turn his head slightly on the pillow, revealing a challenging sight – the baby bottle, but with its bottom facing him instead of the comforting nipple.
His frustration boiled over. "Don't deceive me like this," he muttered, though the words came out as incoherent babble.
But what could he do? Naruto could only gaze helplessly at the bottle, unable to fathom how to drink from it.
In the end, he lay there, defeated, his stomach still rumbling, but his spirit broken.
Time passed, and exhaustion overcame him. It wasn't just sleepiness; it was mental fatigue and the gnawing hunger he had endured throughout the day. Naruto's will succumbed to the encroaching darkness once more.
When he awoke, he felt a faint glimmer of hope, but also the dizziness of impending malnutrition. Just one day old, he had missed the opportunity to taste Kushina's breast milk, instead being fed a meager amount of formula by a nurse in the morning.
He knew he was at risk of starvation, but the room remained eerily silent, with no one to hear his cries or fulfill his needs.
Night had fallen, casting a shroud of silence over the world.
As Naruto lay there, his thoughts turned to his parents. "Minato, Kushina," he whispered softly. "I may never call you Mom and Dad, but you sacrificed yourselves to protect me. Even that title feels like a distant dream now."
"Is this the village you died for?" Naruto's voice quivered. "Is this the Konoha Village you protected? Did you ever imagine your child might starve to death?"
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