A flash of golden light vanished in an instant. Naruto watched the sea of people rushing toward him and immediately activated the Flying Thunder God Technique, taking Satsuki with him as he "teleported" directly back inside the small apartment where he used to live.
He chose the old apartment instead of his new home based on a quite reasonable deduction: since the Village entrance was crowded like that, his new home, which was practically the "Former Residence of the Fourth Hokage"... going back there would be tantamount to walking right into a trap.
After his feet touched the ground, Naruto took a breath, still feeling shaken. He truly hadn't expected that the revelation of his background would trigger such... a fanatical reaction.
What made him feel even more subtle was that in the crowd gathered just now, there weren't just ordinary villagers, but also many Konoha Ninja wearing Chunin and even Jonin vests.
Many of them hadn't hurled abuse at him or shown discrimination like some villagers in the past years. Without guilt, was it really necessary to go this far?
He glanced at Satsuki beside him. The situation had been urgent, so naturally, he had brought her along during the transfer. At this moment, he clearly saw that Satsuki's exquisite face was furrowed in a frown, the coldness and impatience that had almost overflowed from her eyes back at the Village entrance not yet fully dissipated.
Her right hand was even still in a posture slightly reaching toward the Ninja tool pouch at her waist. Clearly, if the crowd had pressed any closer, or if someone had attempted any overly intimate gestures, she probably wouldn't have just settled for putting some distance between them.
"Tsk..."
Satsuki muttered under her breath, her voice full of undisguised annoyance, "A bunch of sycophants... what a disgusting reaction."
Naruto didn't reply. He quietly walked to the window, lifted a corner of the curtain with his finger, and cautiously peeked outside. With just one look, he almost slammed the curtain shut again.
The street below the apartment building was also packed with people! Although it wasn't as exaggerated as at the Village entrance, it had formed a sizable crowd of onlookers. Many were pointing at this plain, unremarkable apartment building, their faces filled with curiosity, excitement, and even... an expression similar to "paying respects"?
"Don't these villagers... have to work?"
Just then, lowered voices came from the corridor outside the door. The sound was very close, as if someone was right at the entrance.
"Finally, it's our turn! Make sure to take a good picture!"
"Of course! This is the place where the son of the hero used to live... The Third Hokage was really quite excessive."
Naruto hadn't fully understood what "take a picture" and "excessive" referred to, but Satsuki beside him had already been completely infuriated by the boundary-less discussion outside the door.
She took a sudden step forward, reached out, and with a "whoosh," pulled open the apartment door, speaking to those outside with no courtesy in a sharp voice.
"Hey! You few! What are you trying to do, skulking around here?!"
"Wah?! Someone?!"
"Who are you?! How dare you just barge into..."
Standing outside the door were two Genin who looked slightly younger than Naruto, probably having just graduated not long ago. They were holding a portable camera, clearly preparing to take pictures.
They were startled by Satsuki suddenly opening the door and instinctively wanted to question her. But when their gaze fell upon Satsuki's face, which was outstanding in both temperament and appearance, the questioning words instantly got stuck in their throats, and their momentum unconsciously weakened.
Taking advantage of this gap, Naruto also poked his head out from behind Satsuki. This time, he finally saw clearly that on the wall next to the door, a brand new, and even arguably "exquisite" wooden sign had been nailed up at some point, with the following engraved in neat characters — [Former Residence of the Hero's Suffering]
Naruto: "..."
After a brief moment of being stunned, the two young Genin looked past Satsuki and finally focused on Naruto. Their eyes widened instantly, and the expressions on their faces turned from astonishment to excitement.
"Na, Naruto-sama?! You, you're actually here?! Please... please give me an autograph!" One of them was so excited that he became incoherent, scrambling to find a pen and notebook on his person.
"Me too! I want one too! Can we take a photo together?!" The other one immediately followed suit.
The exclamations of these two Genin instantly shattered the atmosphere in the hallway that had been relatively restrained. Below the stairs, those villagers and Ninja who were queuing up to "visit and take photos" immediately became restless.
"What? Naruto-sama is upstairs?!"
"Hurry! Hurry up!"
"Let me see! I want to see the son of the hero with my own eyes!"
Messy footsteps and excited shouts immediately surged from the stairwell, and the crowd began to rush upward uncontrollably.
Naruto's scalp tingled. Without time to think, he grabbed Satsuki's wrist. "Whoosh!" The light of the Flying Thunder God Technique shone again. In the very instant before the first batch of zealots rushed up the stairs, their figures had completely vanished from this "Former Residence of the Hero's Suffering," leaving behind only the door and the two young Genin outside holding cameras, looking dazed and disappointed.
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