The Nine-Tails incident brought countless losses to the Hidden Leaf Village.
If compared to the Shinobi World War, the destruction from the Nine-Tails attack was equally devastating.
If it hadn't been for the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, sacrificing himself to seal the Nine-Tails, the village might have been completely annihilated.
Many families were affected and were left homeless.
Countless ninjas lost their lives in this chaos.
Almost half of the houses in the village were destroyed.
As night fell, the flames caused by the Nine-Tails gradually subsided. Smoke rose from the collapsed buildings, and the ground was stained red, soaked with blood.
The village seemed to fall into a deep silence, with people quietly tending to the injured and clearing the rubble.
That night, two monsters appeared in the village.
One was Uzumaki Naruto, the Fourth Hokage's son and the host for the sealed Nine-Tails.
The villagers, filled with sorrow and anger over the destruction of their homes, directed their fury at this infant who had barely seen a full moon...
The other was a boy named Li Zhenwu, born in an ordinary family during the Nine-Tails incident.
Neither of his parents were ninjas, and he had no special bloodline.
However, this child was born inexplicably silent, and behind him, he had a tail.
In the chaos of the Nine-Tails attack, countless families were displaced, and some villagers blamed Uzumaki Naruto for their misfortunes.
Others believed that the child with the tail, Li Zhenwu, also represented an ominous fate.
Three years after the Nine-Tails incident, in the 51st year of the Hidden Leaf Village.
Children who had yet to start school were running around everywhere.
In the open square of the village, kids were playing joyfully.
A child with golden hair and whisker marks was enviously watching the other children play, and even trying to join them.
"Get lost, monster! We won't play with you!" A group of children, all around three or four years old, spoke harshly, raising their hands to shoo him away, causing the golden-haired boy's expression to darken.
"What's so fun about a bunch of little brats?" A lazy voice came from the nearby swings.
The owner of the voice, a boy with black hair and black eyes, was lazily lounging on one of the swings, which gently swayed back and forth.
Behind him, a brownish-black tail flicked lightly.
"Monsters! You two should just play together!" The group of children scoffed loudly, mocking the golden-haired child and the boy with a tail.
The golden-haired boy was Uzumaki Naruto, seen by the village as an ill omen, and the term "monster" referred specifically to the Nine-Tails sealed within him.
The black-haired boy, on the other hand, was the genuine monster—a tail that looked nothing like a human's, causing many villagers to regard him as a true harbinger of misfortune.
This black-haired child was Li Zhenwu.
He was the one who had traversed into this world during the Nine-Tails incident.
However, due to carrying the 'Saiyan System', he was born with a tail on his backside, causing the villagers of the Hidden Leaf to view him as an ill omen and label him a monster.
A group of children picked up stones and mud from the ground, clearly about to throw them at Naruto, when suddenly a voice filled with righteous energy and a hint of laziness called out.
"Hey, have you had enough?"
"Don't you dare bully my cousin!"
"Oh, useless Lee is here, let's get out of here."
The newcomer was dressed in green, with hair resembling watermelon rind and prominent eyebrows.
Seeing him, the children quickly dispersed.
As they left, they whispered, "That Lee is going to the ninja academy, but he has no ninja talent and can't use ninjutsu."
"True, but he can be tough, and dealing with him could be a hassle."
"Yeah, let's keep our distance. Let the monsters and the useless one play together."
"Speaking of which, Rock Lee and his cousin—one's useless, the other's a monster."
"How pathetic."
The children walked away in groups, leaving the forlorn Naruto, the indifferent Li Zhenwu, and the newly arrived Rock Lee behind.
"Cousin, are you okay?" Rock Lee, with his watermelon-like hair and bushy brows, approached with concern.
Zhenwu couldn't help but sigh.
In this life, after being transported here, he never expected to become Rock Lee's cousin.
His current name still was Li Zhenwu, but because of the 'Saiyan System', his body was gradually transforming toward becoming a Saiyan.
That's right; Li Zhenwu was not yet a true Saiyan but was in the process of transformation.
Thus, over the past three years, there had been numerous full moon nights, but Li Zhenwu had never lost control or turned into a giant Ape.
Facing Rock Lee's concern, Zhenwu slightly curled his lips.
"Those little kids? Even if they all teamed up, they wouldn't be enough for me to handle with just one finger."
It was true that Zhenwu had not yet transformed into a genuine Saiyan, but he was nearing that stage.
So right now, his naturally growing strength far exceeded that of many adults.
"Zhenwu, let's play together!" Naruto chimed in, excitedly approaching. He thought it would be perfect for two 'monsters' like them to hang out.
Zhenwu rolled his eyes lazily and replied, "No way. You little kids are too childish."
"It's not like you're older than me or something." Rock Lee, who turned four years old this year, replied seriously.
"Cousin, you can play with Naruto and be friends."
"Sigh." Zhenwu sighed again, "We are already friends."
"Really? We are friends?" Naruto exclaimed with delight upon hearing this.
Suddenly, Zhenwu paused and jumped down from the swing.
"I have something to do; let's talk later!"
"What? Why do you run off as soon as I arrive?" Rock Lee grumbled.
Meanwhile, Zhenwu was sprinting home.
The 'Saiyan System' in his mind had suddenly rebooted since he crossed over to this world.
"Ding! System activated! The Saiyan System is now officially initialized, and the transformation to Saiyan physiology is complete!"