After berating his deeply unsatisfying circumstances for a while, Hachiman finally went to sleep.
Waking up the next morning, he felt thirsty, tired, hungry, and pissed at the scam of a system that couldn't get him a better spawn, but he knew he had to do with what he had, and at least the Naruto world had the potential to be nice and shouldn't be that dangerous yet.
By the time he reorganized his thoughts, he had already eaten the shady leftovers he had found yesterday and got himself some water, next, he needed to decide whether to stay here waiting for someone to pass by or risk exploring the unknown woods until he found someone.
Thankfully, before long, he saw smoke rising to the sky from the direction of the village–he immediately picked up the the rusty hatchet he had found outside the village and followed the smoke, as he approached, he could make out the figure of a black haired young man with yellowish pale skin, short spiky hair, and a look on his face that screamed laid back.
Hachiman immediately thought of the Nara clan, but the young man looked more like a sickly Saitama with hair after a more careful assessment, even though he clearly wasn't a cartoon character, and everything else also looked normal, there was this uncanny and indescribable feeling in his mind that told him the things in this world were supposed to be a drawing.
As he approached, the young man clad in a worn out light brown robe and linen clothes with a conic straw hat lying next to him looked over, and his face immediately lit up as he yelled, "Hey, kid! Come seat in the fire, I was about to make a stew, wanna join me?"
Hachiman looked around, finding that the young man seemed to be alone, and seeing that he only had a dagger and cooking utensils together with an honest man's looks, he decided that for the sake of getting a free meal, there seemed to be no reason not to trust this guy a little, so he said, as if he were not a little kid, "Hey, there, young man, I'm actually lost here, so I'll gladly join you, it'd be great if you could take me out of here with you or point me in the direction of a town around here."
The young man in his early twenties found it weird for a kid that looked to be around ten years old to actually call him young man, but being used to seeing many things in his travels, he quickly dismissed it and said with an endearing smile, "Sure, have a seat, we can travel to the next town I'm going together. I'm Koyanagi Nobu, a wanderer, by the way, what's your name, kid?"
Hachiman, being reminded that he was a kid, was a bit embarrassed of playing the elder, but he wouldn't let something so simple get to him, he immediately responded, "My name's Minamoto Hachiman, my mom had to move with me after my dad passed away with an illness, but she also ended up sick and died along the journey, now I'm all alone, so can I call you Nobu-nii and follow you around at least for a while?" Not feeling the slightest bit embarrassed, Hachi immediately played the part of an orphaned child, which was true anyway, and considering this random guy was the only person he'd found and seemed like a decent person, he immediately tried to make him his big brother.
Nobu was surprised by the change of attitude, but he thought of it as the kid opening up, so as he unsuccessfully tried to look friendly and responsible, he said "Sure! I can be your big brother if you want, I'll call you Hachi then, I can't guarantee much else, but I can at least cook some good food for us, my life-long dream has been to open a barbecue restaurant!" Nobu declared proudly.
Hachiman was a little surprised, not because of his dream, it was because a barbecue chef was using meat to make stew instead of barbecue for some unknown reason, but he didn't dwell on it and said "That sounds awesome, Nobu-nii, please take care of me in the future!"
The two ate the prepared stew and started introducing themselves, since Hachiman was just a kid that lost his parents, the bulk of the conversation was Nobu talking about his life and travels.
When he talked about his childhood, he was surprisingly open with the painful parts, as if venting about it, he told Hachi that he grew up in the Land of Tea–which already existed at this time, together with most bigger countries found during the Naruto storyline, the main difference was the sheer amount of existing small countries found now that had already been assimilated by others at the time of the original story, Nobu and Hachi were currently close to the southern border of the Land of Fire.
Nobu then went on to describe how in his home, due to his sick and weak body, he would have been abandoned as a child if it wasn't for his only grandmother forcing his parents to take care of him along with her, sadly, with his parents neglecting both of them and giving them little food, they simply didn't have enough to eat.
Thankfully, there was a girl only a couple of years older than Nobu that lived in the neighbouring field near his house, and she often came to meet him, after learning of his struggles, started secretly bringing food to help Nobu and his grandma get by.
It was at this point of the story that Nobu started getting worried for what would happen, since Nobu was now a wanderer, something clearly went very wrong at some point in his life, and Nobu's next words proved him right.
"The days I got to spend with Hana-nee and Grandma were the times I was happiest, but it all ended after Grandma died. You know what the worst thing was? My parents were tired of supposedly taking care of the burden they found us to be, and because I had doubled their burden, they actually couldn't wait more than a couple of years after they found out my health was hopeless, so they fed my grandma poison, just so she could finally die and they could kick me out liked they had always wanted to!"
At this point, Nobu was visibly emotional, even though Hachiman still didn't know why he was telling him so much, he also found it weirdly heartwarming that this Nobu guy seemed to be a good and open person that immediately accepted him as close to an actual brother, but this realization only made him sadder for the tragedies Nobu went through.
Nobu went on, saying "So, what happened was that after I came home from meeting Hana one day, I saw my parents there, waiting for me, just to say my grandpa died of old age and it was time for me to get out of the house after I buried her. Yeah, they didn't feel like burying her, my piece of shit mother couldn't even make the effort to bury the one that gave birth to her."
"Later, when I went to find my grandma, I immediately realized something was wrong, she looked so lively just the day before, and even with her age, her death seemed to come out of nowhere, and touching her dead body, it felt burning hot, I immediately realized my parents must have done something to her, so after I went to bury her far away, I also prepared myself to leave that place forever, because I needed to kill those disgusting bastards... After being so pathetic for their whole lives, they just had cross a line they never should've even thought of crossing."