Village
"Ding ding ding..."
At 7 AM, the alarm clock began to ring.
Slowly, the sound grew louder, yet the child curled up in bed remained asleep, burying his brown hair under the covers.
"I want to sleep a little longer... Mom, please wake me later..."
A soft, muffled voice came from beneath the blanket as he pouted, wanting to stay in bed. After a while without a response, his mind began to clear, and the desire to sleep faded away.
Suddenly, the blanket was thrown off. A small child, around four or five years old, emerged.
"Mom..."
With a slight pout, tears welled up in his large brown eyes.
"Mom is gone."
After a moment of sobbing, he remembered today was the day he would start at the ninja school. He wiped his tears and climbed onto a stool to retrieve clothes from a tall wardrobe.
This child's name was Tsunayoshi Sawada.
He arrived in this place called Konohagakure three months ago.
Tsunayoshi had no idea why he was here; in his memories, he had been holding his mother's hand while walking down the street, happily discussing dinner plans for that night.
His mother was particularly cheerful to see his father return from a business trip after a long absence. Tsunayoshi felt happy too.
His father had been busy and hadn't been home for a long time. This time, he returned with a kind old man whom Tsunayoshi learned was his father's boss—a concept he didn't fully understand but assumed was important.
Not long after, a group of men in suits surrounded them. They knocked him and his mother unconscious and tied them up. Fortunately for Tsunayoshi's young age, they didn't harm him severely.
They needed him alive for some purpose of their own.
Because the kidnappers were gentle with him, Tsunayoshi regained consciousness much sooner than his mother.
When he awoke, he found himself in a pitch-black place. Overwhelmed by fear, he forgot to cry. Memories of comforting his mother replaced all his terror in an instant.
At that moment, he heard rough voices outside the door.
"Vongola's..."
"To ensure your wife returns unharmed, you must..."
The man spoke at length, but young Tsunayoshi couldn't grasp much of it.
However, he could piece together that these men kidnapped him and his mother to obtain something from his father.
Tsunayoshi lost track of time in that dark room; the oppressive darkness blurred his sense of duration completely.
Tsunayoshi's heart sank deeper into darkness as his mother remained unresponsive, amplifying his fear.
Eventually, he only remembered that after a long time, the outside grew chaotic, with explosive sounds echoing, followed by the sight of orange flames rising before him.
He was terrified and then fell unconscious.
When Tsunayoshi awoke again, he found himself in a place called Konohagakure.
Before him stood a middle-aged man claiming to be the Third Hokage.
The Hokage said to Tsunayoshi, "I'm sorry. By the time we found you, you were the only one left in your home."
"Rest well; from now on, Konoha will be your home."
The busy Hokage soon left, and it took Tsunayoshi a long time to grasp the meaning behind his words.
"I'm the only one left..."
"Mom..."
Though young, Tsunayoshi understood death.
His parents... were they gone?
It took him a full month to accept this reality.
Their departure left him with profound discomfort.
Each night, he struggled to sleep—either crying until exhaustion took over or staying awake until his body couldn't bear it any longer.
Simultaneously, the overwhelming strangeness of his surroundings made it hard for him to adjust. This place called Konohagakure was nothing like the memories he held of his previous home.
At such a tender age, Tsunayoshi's understanding of the world was limited; he couldn't fully comprehend the implications of this difference. He believed he had been taken away from his original home by those men in black.
During this time, Tsunayoshi learned just how difficult life could be.
Previously, his worries revolved around why his mother wouldn't let him sleep in longer or being tricked into eating vegetables he despised.
Now, every aspect of life fell solely on his shoulders.
After waking up and washing up, no one was there to prepare a warm breakfast for him. In this unfamiliar Konohagakure, he didn't know where to buy breakfast. Lunch and dinner also had to be prepared by himself. Lacking experience with a gas stove, his only options were instant foods: bread and instant noodles.
For Tsunayoshi, the hardest part of the day was likely bathing at night.
When he was younger, he once fell into a river while fishing with his father, which left him somewhat afraid of water. Now just a small child with short limbs, he couldn't reach the faucet. Honestly, even at this age, he still begged his mother to bathe him.
However, the most challenging task came after bathing—cleaning his clothes.
Tsunayoshi had never done such chores before. At his age, he shouldn't have had to worry about these things. Moreover, he had only a vague idea of how to wash clothes.
After nearly flooding the bathroom, he barely managed to clean his clothes.
Due to his lack of knowledge about daily life, Tsunayoshi spent nearly all his time familiarizing himself with the dorm assigned by the Third Hokage. He had no time to learn about anything else.
Even when school started was something he learned only when the Hokage visited him yesterday and casually mentioned it.