(Take this with a grain of salt if you want.)
The author may have missed a few details, and there will also be some original supplemental plotlines and settings.
(The story starts when Naruto is seven or eight years old; the earlier parts were written later. Also, at readers' request, Hanabi has been aged up by two years. Originally, Hanabi was five years younger than Hinata, but in this story, she is only three years younger.)
(Novels are for casual reading. Please store your brain here temporarily; it will be returned automatically when you leave.)
(Brain storage area.)
Konoha lay in an eerie hush beneath the weight of the snow. Streets that should have been lively and crowded now held nothing but the soft, endless whisper of falling flakes.
Thick snow, feather-light and dense at once, wove a white curtain over the village, wrapping everything in a hazy stillness. It was the kind of silence that swallowed sound and made even breathing seem too loud.
After finishing his afternoon training—twenty full laps around Konoha—Naruto Uzumaki wandered through the village alone. His boots sank into the snow as he trudged along a secluded path in the lower reaches of the Naka River.
Few people ever came this way. Even the snow here piled deeper than it did on the main streets.
His winter clothes did not fit him properly to begin with, and now the hems were soaked through with snowmelt, the damp fabric darkened in blotches. The cloth at his elbows and knees had long since worn thin, faded nearly white from overuse.
The wind slipped through his sleeves and pant legs like a thousand fine needles, raising goosebumps on his bare forearms and calves. Without thinking, he buried more of his face into his scarf.
Behind the wool plaid, his blue eyes gleamed through the gaps like two fish trapped beneath a frozen lake. Whenever he spotted villagers pausing beneath the eaves on the main road, white breath curling from their mouths, he would turn away and slip into a side street before they could notice him.
He still remembered what had happened in front of the fish shop three months ago. The woman had flung a basin of fish-washing water straight at him, and the way the corners of her mouth twisted as she spat out the words "bad luck" had been colder than the chunks of ice that slid down the back of his neck.
Naruto tightened his grip on the edge of his scarf until his knuckles turned red from the cold. If he was going to be rejected no matter where he went, then he might as well walk the roads no one else wanted.
By now, Naruto had long since gotten used to the fact that he had crossed into this world.
The crooked trail of footprints he left behind was quickly buried beneath fresh snow, as though he had never been there at all. It was just like the boy himself—always taking the long way around, always moving outside the living pulse of Konoha, walking his own path alone.
The sharp sound of shouting broke through the silence.
Naruto stopped. A noisy commotion was coming from an alley not far ahead.
Several children wrapped in thick cotton coats had formed a semicircle, boxing in a much smaller figure at the center. The tallest boy leaned so far forward that his finger was nearly jabbing the other child in the forehead as he yelled, "You're the Hyuga clan's daughter, right? Then show us your Byakugan!"
The one trapped in the middle was Hinata Hyuga.
The pale beige scarf wound around her neck only made her little face look whiter. Faced with the ring of pointing fingers and open malice around her, she looked like a startled fawn, lips pressed tight together, narrow shoulders trembling ever so slightly.
When she still did not answer, the other children immediately started jeering.
"If you won't do it, then stop looking this way!"
"Those eyes are creepy!"
A chubby boy folded his arms across his chest and sneered at her. The tall boy gave a scornful laugh and delivered the final, vicious verdict.
"Creepy? They're obviously monster eyes!"
And then all of them shouted the insult together, delighted by their own cruelty: "White-eyed monster!"
That chorus was the final straw.
The fear and humiliation Hinata had been desperately holding back in her pale eyes instantly turned into tears. She lowered her head, and her small body began to shake even harder. The tears gathering at the corners of her eyes finally grew too heavy and rolled down her cheeks, leaving shining wet tracks on her skin before the freezing air turned them cold.
She bit down hard on her lower lip to stop herself from making a sound. But somehow that silent crying was more painful to watch than loud sobbing ever could have been.
Before the echo of "white-eyed monster" had even faded away, a hard-packed snowball shot through the air like a cannonball and smashed straight into the tall boy's face.
Crack!
Snow burst apart across the bridge of his nose, scattering icy fragments everywhere. The hit cut off his words, and with a startled shriek he stumbled backward and crashed into the snow in a miserable heap.
Every head snapped toward the source.
Naruto Uzumaki stood not far away, his body still frozen in the aftermath of the throw. Snow clung to his right hand, and his blue eyes burned with a fury so hot it stood in complete defiance of the winter cold.
His chest rose and fell sharply. The breath rushing from him came fast and harsh, like an angry little beast baring its teeth.
"I'm talking to you idiots!"
His voice rang out bright and clear, packed with a rage none of them could ignore.
"What a pack of mongrels!"
Before the stunned children could react, Naruto bent down, scooped up another double handful of snow, and packed it tight between his palms. In almost no time at all, he had rolled it into a second snowball and locked it in his grip.
The children finally shook themselves out of their shock. The tall, thin boy he had hit first smeared the snow off his face, pointed at Naruto with a hand that trembled with both fear and anger, and screamed the words that shattered whatever courage they had left.
"It's the fox demon!"
Those words were colder than the wind. In an instant, the already tense air froze solid.
Naruto watched the tall boy shrink back, one hand still covering his face, and a flicker of contempt crossed his eyes. A coward who bullied the weak and feared the strong. Trash as a kid, and he would probably grow into trash too.
Ever since his soul had crossed over and taken the place of Uzumaki Naruto, he had not wasted his time the way the original Naruto might have. No cheat system had dropped from the sky to save him, and no miraculous power-up had fallen into his lap.
What he had instead was something far more valuable: a clear understanding of the future plot.
Once he confirmed that this body could handle chakra training, he had pushed himself much harder than fate ever would have demanded.
"Second one!"
Naruto barked the words low under his breath, and the snowball in his hand flew out in a clean, vicious line. It smacked straight into the chubby boy's face while the boy was still standing there in a daze.
"Uwah!"
The impact made the boy yelp and stagger, dizzy and disoriented. Before the remaining kids could even process what had happened, Naruto crossed his arms in front of his chest.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
A burst of white smoke curled into the air, and two figures identical to Naruto appeared at his sides. Their eyes were sharp, their stances matched his exactly, and their movements were perfectly synchronized.
This was not the basic Clone Technique taught at the Ninja Academy. It was the Shadow Clone Jutsu he had won from Kiba Inuzuka in a bet.
There were only two clones, but that was more than enough to deal with the three little bullies in front of him.
"Run!"
The only boy who had not taken a snowball to the face screamed first. A moment ago, the three of them had been swaggering around in triumph. Now, with three fierce Narutos charging them at once, every last shred of their courage collapsed.
They bolted like startled rabbits, too panicked even to grab the cotton hats they had dropped in the snow. In the blink of an eye, they were scrambling around the corner of the alley, leaving behind nothing but a trail of frantic footprints.
Naruto did not bother chasing after them.
Scaring them off was enough. Once the goal was reached, there was no need to overdo it.
If he actually beat them up, the old man on the Third Hokage's side would probably come knocking at his door tomorrow.
He formed another simple hand seal, and with two soft poofs, the shadow clones dissolved into white smoke and vanished into the winter air.
The snowfield fell quiet again, leaving only Naruto and Hinata in the alley.
Naruto brushed the snow from his hands, then turned and looked at the small figure still standing there with her head lowered. He did his best to smooth the edge out of his voice before asking, "Hey, are you okay?"
Hinata's shoulders trembled at the sound of him speaking to her. She hurriedly wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes with her sleeve, her small hands clutching nervously at the hem of her clothes. Her voice was so faint it was almost swallowed by the snow, and there was still a sob tangled in it.
"N-no... I'm fine..."
After a brief silence, she seemed to gather up all the courage in her body at once. She took one tiny step forward, then bowed deeply to him.
Her voice shook with excitement, but it came out unexpectedly clear.
"Thank you so much!"
"I'm Naruto Uzumaki," he said. "You're Hinata, right? We're in the same class."
He had tried to talk to Hinata in class before, but she had always seemed so shy that he had given up after a couple of attempts. She probably did not remember those moments at all. If he were not carrying memories no one else could understand, he might not have remembered them either.
"Yes... I'm Hinata Hyuga," she replied.