"Where the leaves dance, the fire will burn. The fire's light will guide the village and help new leaves grow."
This line is the core of the Will of Fire.
It speaks of discarding clan biases, protecting one's comrades in the village, and burning like a flame—caring for the next generation with selfless devotion. It dreams of peace, and a future where everyone in the village loves and supports one another.
This ideology known as the Will of Fire was passed down from the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju.
Naruto understood that Grandpa Third—the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi—hoped he would one day carry this spirit as well.
And Naruto, who had always been cared for by Grandpa Third, genuinely hoped he could grow into someone like that, someone who loved the whole village.
But reality wouldn't allow it.
Naruto asked himself: had he done anything wrong? Yet nearly every villager treated him with cold glares, or worse—shouted, threatened, even tried to hurt him.
If it weren't for the protection of the Third Hokage, he might not even be alive right now.
And even with that protection, his life was anything but normal. Even with money in hand, no one would sell him a thing. Everyone ignored him like he didn't exist.
Under these circumstances, how could Naruto possibly believe in the so-called Will of Fire?
If you repay hatred with kindness, how will you repay kindness?
Naruto deeply resonated with that phrase from the Analects of Confucius.
Return justice for resentment, and kindness for kindness—that's the true path of a noble person.
Right now, Naruto didn't know what attitude he should take toward the villagers who treated him like garbage.
But one thing was certain—there was no way he could go around acting all warm and fuzzy like the Will of Fire suggested. He couldn't love them.
He set the Will of Fire aside and flipped through the rest of the books. Most of them were really interesting.
Compared to those stories from another world, the books about the history and geography of his own world fascinated Naruto even more.
But what really grabbed his attention were the books:
Chakra Refinement Explained, The Three Basic Jutsu, Taijutsu: Fundamental Training Methods, and Ninja Tools: From Beginner to Mastery.
These books held the knowledge of how to become a ninja.
Naruto lived in a village where ninja were everywhere, leaping across rooftops. Even the little kids around him played ninja games. It was impossible not to be interested.
"I still don't know what I want to do in the future," Naruto thought, "but becoming a ninja, having the strength to survive—that's gotta be the foundation of any dream. Grandpa Third did say he'd stop giving me an allowance once I graduate from the Academy."
With that in mind, Naruto opened Chakra Refinement Explained.
He hadn't entered the Academy yet, but he already knew chakra was the basic requirement for becoming a ninja.
"Chakra is a powerful energy formed by mixing the physical energy extracted from the body's 130 trillion cells with mental energy. It is the foundation of all ninjutsu and taijutsu. The method of refinement is as follows…"
Right from the first page, the book laid out the fundamentals of chakra.
It covered everything—meridians, pressure points, the nature of cells, how to boost chakra levels, and eventually, the specific methods to refine and control chakra.
As Naruto absorbed the knowledge, it was like a door to a whole new world opened in front of him.
He quickly became completely immersed.
By the time he looked up again, it was already evening.
Unusually, Naruto didn't go out that night. After quickly finishing dinner, he sat back down with Chakra Refinement Explained and kept reading.
By around 10 p.m., he had finally finished the entire book.
"Alright! Time to try refining chakra for the first time! Whether it works or not, I'll go to bed after this."
After brushing his teeth, Naruto climbed into bed and sat cross-legged. He hyped himself up a little, then closed his eyes and followed the book's instructions, entering a meditative state to begin his first attempt at chakra refinement.
And then...
He fell asleep.
His small body curled up under the blanket, his face relaxed, and his breathing slowly evened out.
The ANBU stationed outside, watching over him, shook their heads and thought, "Still just a kid. Sitting still and quietly refining chakra is just too hard for someone his age—even for a jinchūriki."
But while no one was looking, something earth-shaking was happening inside Naruto's body.
Tiny wisps of blue energy began to swirl through his chakra pathways, slowly gathering and flowing throughout his entire body. Soon, it had grown from a faint trickle into a steady stream.
And it kept increasing…
"Where is this...?"
Naruto had only just fallen asleep, but instead of ending up in the familiar place he'd named his "Naruto Uzumaki's Personal Study and Fun Zone" (a.k.a. his study space), he found himself in a dark, damp chamber.
He stood in front of a massive iron gate made of bars. A paper tag with the sealing symbol was slapped across the center. Underfoot was a shallow layer of water.
The dim lighting barely let him see the huge, mountain-sized shape looming just behind the gate.
That massive beast radiated a chilling, hateful energy from every inch of its body.
As if sensing Naruto's presence, the cold aura surged forward, seeping through the bars and wrapping around him.
Naruto shivered.
Suddenly, all of the terrible experiences from the past year flashed through his mind—everything he'd tried to forget came flooding back.
Then something inside him twisted.
From deep within, Naruto felt a wave of killing intent—dark, primal, a burning desire to destroy everything.
But it came and went quickly.
That murderous urge was swiftly pushed back. Or rather, it didn't disappear—it just couldn't shake Naruto's mind anymore. His will held firm.
From behind the bars, the beast let out a surprised grunt.
It hadn't expected this. For a jinchūriki barely over four years old, Naruto was shockingly unaffected by its chakra's negative influence.
Normally, even a faint leak of its chakra should've been too much for a kid like him to handle.
But it didn't give up.
"Hey, brat… don't you hate them?"
"Don't you want to destroy those people who treated you like garbage?"
"Come on. Stop fighting it. I can feel the darkness in your heart. Take my power. Use it. Wipe them all out. Make them regret everything they ever did to you."
The deep, growling voice echoed through the chamber, laced with an almost hypnotic persuasion.
And then, stepping out of the shadows—
A towering, snarling fox with burning orange fur, nine long tails whipping behind it like serpents, bared its teeth and appeared before Naruto.