Knowing that I could do something in a given time frame did not mean that I should.
Despite having spent the rest of my first day of freedom, or at least until the sun had set, practicing my Leaf Concentration Exercise, I had decided to massively downscale my efforts over the following days to ensure I never spent more than four hours a day on it.
My reasoning had been that the difficulty of the exercise was the strain it put on the body, rather than the mind, as despite my knowing exactly what I wanted to do and activating the correct nodes, my body was not used to such precise control over my chakra and fought me every step of the way.
I knew that theoretically, my chakra was part of my soul and could not harm me lest I actively bid it to, but part of me had still been worried about chakra poisoning, as the cause of my issue with the exercise was that my body was not used to my chakra.
Chakra poisoning was a medical condition where one's body was assaulted by someone else pouring malicious chakra into their system. It was the reason why medical techniques were so difficult to achieve and required perfect chakra control, the medic needing to modulate their chakra until it flew in perfect synchronization with their patient's, a single fluctuation being enough to severely worsen the situation, rather than help.
Rather than risk becoming the first ever recorded case of unintentional self-chakra poisoning, I decided to schedule my days in a more structured manner where the majority of my time would be spent outside of my home, either exploring more of the village, scoping out where the important characters spent their time or internalizing more of the stack of books I still had to go through.
Another thing I would not be compromising on now that I lived alone was cleanliness. I had been disgusted with how dirty the orphanage's children were and I knew I could never tolerate myself reaching that level of filth, especially not now that I could shower daily.
Food was already no longer an issue as I made sure to eat my vegetables at every meal I cooked for myself, refusing to be a scrawny short-stack like the real Naruto had been neglected into becoming prior to his three years with Jiraya.
Still, I needed to behave myself, as I was aware there were probably ANBU observing my every move, even as I ate my breakfast the next day, but I preferred not thinking too hard about it.
It being extremely creepy notwithstanding, I knew that if the entire world had been accepting of the government spying on them and their digital communications in my previous life, there was no way in hell anyone would share my outrage if I complained about my right to privacy being infringed upon by superhuman assassins following the orders of the village leader.
Today, I had decided would be spent scouting the commercial district of the village, mostly to see whether the villagers' hatred of me was a reality in this life too, or if it was simply isolated towards the no clan orphan that was the fictional character of Naruto Uzumaki and not the real me.
Beyond that, however, I had no doubt it would prove beneficial for me to get an idea of the pricing situation in Konoha and how far my allowance could take me in this village, especially since my clothes-making plan was still one I thought regularly about; I might not yet want to wear any easily recognizable clothing I made myself, but that did not mean the idea lacked merit. It would cost me less to buy fabric I could reuse whenever I outgrew the clothes I made in a few months as I hit growth spur after growth spur like children usually did, rather than buy real clothing from price-gouging merchants.
As I had feared it to be, my walking, alone, into one of the main streets of the village was a noticeable enough event for many eyes to settle on me and some mutterings to be heard.
I understood now why Kakashi had avoided the largest and most frequented boulevards when showing me around.
Still, I did my best not to tense up and kept walking as if I had not noticed all the stares on my back, even as I heard the words 'demon' and 'monster' be repeatedly whispered behind me.
If I were to be honest, such little mistrust did not bother me much as nobody had yet approached me by the time I had made my way towards the closest clothing shop.
The Hokage's damage control had not been enough to counteract the rooted fear and pain they were reminded of by my presence, but that was okay for now. So long as my life was not in danger, I did not care much whether I was disliked or not by civilians, and with the knowledge that ANBU agents were constantly tailing me, there should be no need for me to tense or be too apprehensive about meeting a sudden end on my stroll through the streets.
Not from the civilians at least...
The first boutique I had entered was a disappointment, barely one look at the owner's scowl and I was already making my way back outside, knowing I was not welcome but also due to my own desire to not financially support anyone that despised me for no reason.
The second one I visited proved itself a similarly inhospitable location for me, while the third, despite being more welcoming if the lack of reaction to my presence was any indication, unfortunately sold items of a much higher quality than I was willing to purchase for now.
Disappointingly, the lack of fabric for sale meant I had left that store empty handed, but rather than feel down about it or keep simplemindedly focused on finding another business, I took my time, enjoying my outing as much as possible, taking the experience of walking through a busy street, appreciating the smells and sounds of conversations shared by so many people at once.
These experiences were still somewhat overwhelming for me, having for so long expected movies to be my sole source of such stimuli.
Luckily, just like I had not cared about the looks of others on me, my presence too was quickly fading away from public consciousness after the novelty wore off and it became evident I was just another child on a stroll around the village, not causing a scene or doing anything unexpected.
Sure, some adults still stared at me with weary eyes, but for the most part, people seemed willing to ignore me as long as I did not cause an incident, which was exactly what I had hoped for.
I was not the real four years old Uzumaki Naruto. I was mature enough to know there was nothing wrong with me as a person and had no issues of self-confidence or feelings of inadequacy to be aggravated by a lack of acknowledgment or the others' refusal to accept me. Not from strangers I did not care about, at least.
Loneliness was a thing I had learned to deal with on a daily basis since my first birth, but it was no longer crippling and for the most part, I knew it was a conscious choice of mine not to meet up with children my age until it was time for the academy. I had no doubt about my being able to be as charming and polite as any toddler had ever been in the history of children.
It was important to keep in mind that my future classmates were only four years old. I really didn't care if they were on the level of Kakashi Hatake, I would never be bested by children who still peed the bed half the time.
I definitely had more important things to do than to waste my time worrying about not having friends, chief of all the fact that I would at some point hold the fate of the entire world between my hands, probably dooming all of humanity if I did not rise to the challenge and become strong enough to prevent the Kaguya-pocalypse from occuring.
A walk down the aisles of fresh produce and meat allowed me to send furtive glances at the prices on the outdoor market stalls, which made it clear I could easily feed myself like a king for as little as 85 Ryo a week, or about 350 Ryo a month, which would leave me with a good chunk of money for non-essential needs.
It was promising for my financial future. Especially when compared to all the other children whom had more expenditures than I did.
It was easy to understand why the stipend for academy students was barely large enough to cover rent, utilities, food and a little more for clothing, commodities and equipment, and leaving very little room for savings and forcing the money to be immediately reinvested back into the economy of the village.
It was a brilliantly evil budgeting move from the leaders, both from a short-term perspective, but also in the long haul as well, especially as the funds would have to be paid back in full once the pupil exited the education stage of his life, whether they graduated or dropped out...
The village would always collect its dues.