Time has passed, and it has now entered the middle of January since Naruto and the girl parted. Because of the geographical terrain, Naruto's village is now experiencing a harsher winter than elsewhere.

With the map handed to him by the girl in his hand, after many twists and turns, he finally found the familiar name and found the village.

But the panic and frightened anger caused by the accomplices who were suspected of being monsters, and the thatched hut pierced by the ice spear, clearly told Naruto that he was a step too late.

Finally, by virtue of the identity of the owner of the hut as a 'distant relative who came to visit', the people of the village let down their guard a little and gained the right to mourn, and walked through the aisle of the crowd into the already empty house through the broken door.

No, that doesn't seem right, to be precise, Naruto should have walked into a room where there were no living people. The plurality of people were pierced by sharp ice spears, and it was evident from the large holes in the corpses that the ice spears did not stop growing after piercing them, like a blooming lotus of death piercing through the house.

In the center of the lotus, a small semicircle leaned against the wooden wall and was surrounded by ice spears, through which Naruto seemed to be able to see how frightened and desperate the young figure was.

In the opposite direction of the semicircle, complex expressions of fear, pain, relief, and relief appeared on the face of a man frozen in ice at the same time, probably, this man is the owner of this house.

Naruto had no intention of judging whether he was right or wrong for those who had already died, and it took him half a day to melt the ice that had wrapped around him, and to cremate him with the only female corpse lying on the opposite side of the door where he had entered, and to cremate him outside the house.

The ashes of the two were collected and put into a box, and with half of the remaining money on their bodies, they finally obtained the consent of the village and buried them in a place outside the village. I dug a small earth grave, put the bone box in my hand, engraved the names of the two people on a wooden plaque, and erected a simple tombstone for them.

I hope they can be happily together in a world where there is no fighting.

After doing all this, Naruto bowed to them and left the village. There is not much time left, and if you don't find it first, then all your efforts will be in vain. With this in mind, Naruto once again quickened his pace.

With this village as the center, Naruto began to search all the nearby gathering places. Whenever he saw Naruto, a child about 6 years old, thinly dressed, and wandering alone, he would come up and ask. It's just that maybe he didn't find the right direction, or maybe he wanted to go further, but he never found it.

The first month has passed, and it seems that I know that my time is short, but the cold of winter is becoming more and more rampant, and the howling cold wind ruthlessly robs the body temperature of pedestrians, making people feel that even if they are hugging a ball and pulling their clothes tightly, it is not enough, and the white snow will not stop, and it will not be able to accumulate a thick layer in a while.

In the shadow of the corner, from time to time, you can see several half-grown children leaning against each other to keep warm, and for them, the only ones who can rely on each other and snuggle up to each other are each other.

Although it was a village, it was not much smaller than a smaller town, and it was located in a traffic fortress, surrounded by open plains, and there were many pedestrians, but no one looked at the children and turned a blind eye to it.

Excess compassion is better than saving it for tomorrow's rations, and the long civil strife has made the hearts of the people of the Water Country cold, and the lonely children are left to fend for themselves.

Thanks to the blessing of the girl, she was able to survive the cold winter without worrying about food and clothing along the way, but even if the padded jacket was added, the exposed skin felt cold and stiff, not to mention those unclothed children, how many of them could see spring.

Giving them the food in his hand in their surprised eyes, Naruto, who was considered self-satisfied, walked towards the bun shop in front.

As long as the civil strife in this country does not end, children like them will continue to appear, Naruto can give his food to these children in front of him, but not to all those children who are in the same situation and are eager to get help, and the only way to save these children is to fundamentally change the country.

But this is something that one person can't do, and Naruto doesn't have that awareness, as a human pillar force, he is exhausted just trying to save himself in the future battle.

All the grief was caused by the lack of ability of the person concerned, and I can't remember who said it, but Naruto felt that there was some truth to it.

Let's practice hard when we go back. The decision was made, and he took the steaming hot bean paste buns from the smiling shopkeeper and stuffed them into his mouth to chew.

"This little guest, we still have hot red bean soup here, do you want one?"

The owner's aunt recommended the store's products to Naruto with a smile that made people feel enthusiastic even in winter.

Rejecting the owner's 'kindness' and feeling a little tired, Naruto prepared to go back to the inn to rest for a while.

"Go away, you stinky little ghost, don't get in the way of my mother's business!"

Not far away, the shopkeeper's fierce voice came from behind him. With the same posture as the two of them just now, he picked up a broom to drive away the poor ghost who was lying in front of the door, and chattered to the embarrassed figure.

Thinking about this scene, it happens from time to time, and the aunt's swearing not only did not arouse the disgust of the surroundings, but received a lot of praise.

Seeing the farce play out, Naruto continued to walk towards the inn where he had stayed before.

If you can't find it tomorrow, go to the next town. Thinking in his heart, out of the corner of his eye, he found a gray figure shrunk in the corner.

The clothes that had long been worn out in many places were clinging to his body, his young body was curled up in a ball to prevent the loss of heat, and his hands and feet were cold and blue, and only the shaking that could be seen from time to time proved that he was still alive.

Putting down the food in his hand, he walked into the narrow alleyway, and came to the figure, the aroma of the food made the empty eyes glow with a hint of greed.

"What's your name?"

Although the child in front of him was younger than himself, it was obvious that his identity was very different from his own, and Naruto, who was wearing a padded jacket, was quickly classified as a 'rich boy'.

Therefore, even though the food in front of him was quite tempting, the curled child used the remnants of his reason to suppress his desires with the power of fear.

Keita...... My name. ”

"Yes."

There was an indescribable disappointment in his tone, and in the ecstatic eyes of the other party, he handed him all the remaining buns and walked out of the alley.

"Stop!"

The way out was blocked by a figure much taller than himself, and the face of the comer could be faintly seen by the light coming from outside.

"You have a lot of money, just hand it over!"

Relying on the advantage of height, he looked at Naruto in front of him condescendingly, with a slightly crazy smile on his distorted face.

"I don't know you, and there's no reason to give you the money."

I didn't expect the other party to be so ignorant, is it a child after all, and I can't see the current situation clearly. Now there are only the two of each other in the alley plus another little ghost with a shrunken head, as long as he blocks him here and snatches the money, then even if he goes home to find the adult, it will be too late.

"Soon you'll have a reason to give me the money!"

Shouting and waving his arm to send his fist to Naruto's face, the corners of the boy's mouth grinning into a smug smile that he was about to win.

If you can't get a favor from the shopkeeper, you hit the idea on someone weaker than yourself, it's a good choice, but the boy chose the wrong person. For a teenager who has not undergone systematic training and begging for a living, picking out any child in Konoha's family can defeat him, although Naruto does not have a family inheritance, but the experience of his previous life can bring him more, and with the power of bloodline inheritance, it is impossible for Naruto's strength to lose to the boy.

Sideways to avoid the incoming straight punches, he used his toes to knock down Naruto's leaning forward weight, grabbed the boy's right arm with his backhand and stepped on his joint with one foot, and used the pain to crush him to the ground.

"Ah——!h

The extreme pain in the shoulder joint made the boy think that his hand would be broken several times, and he could only cry out in pain when he cut off all the sounds in his throat. The sheep who originally seemed to be weak and deceitful was actually a man-eating tiger, abandoning all his dignity and begging the demon behind him to take his life around with tears in his eyes.

glanced at the figure in the alley who had been lowering his head and now lowered his head, and dispersed the meaningless strength.

Left this narrow alleyway with the pure white longing in his heart.

For the whimsical young Naruto, it was only a little punishment, and it didn't really break his hand, and although it might take several days to recover, the pain quickly dissipated a lot.

After the intense pain, the boy who had failed for the second time once again targeted the figure deeper in the alley, and walked in step by step with a hideous smile and shrugged arms.

The curled figure shrunk even more, like a jiggling ball.

After the boy approached, he found that the reason for the shaking was because the other party was quickly stuffing the bun in his hand into his mouth, and the bulging mouth had obviously reached the limit but still did not stop, which made the boy even more angry.

"Hand it over to me!"

Picking up his intact left hand, he slashed his head and covered his face and beckoned to the other party, even using his own feet, but the other party grabbed the rest of the food more tightly and swallowed the contents of his mouth hard.

"You damn little ghost!"

Swallowing the bun that fell to the ground and the other party was unable to protect it, he slurred his words, and used his own weight to drag the other party to the ground, entangled and scuffled......

The boy's roar came out of the alleyway and into the ears of Naruto, who was not far away, but Naruto had no intention of turning back.

Passing through an alleyway again, he once again saw a huddled figure of about the same size, and Naruto, who felt exhausted, let the figure pass by him......