Childhood

Airing late in Naruto: Shippūden and titled Nostalgic Days for its home release, this arc occupies four episodes between Kaguya Ōtsutsuki Strikes and the Sasuke Shinden adaptation. Every installment is built from two short vignettes, each looking back on a different character's early years.

The first pairing follows a young Naruto, shunned and blamed for the Fourth Hokage's death, who retreats to the woods to train until an evening beside a fire with Hiruzen leaves him with a wider view of his place in the world. Its companion half turns to Neji, charged by his father with guarding the newborn heiress Hinata, whose distaste for taijutsu he tries to talk her out of. After the tragedy that strikes the Hyūga, a weeping Hinata is comforted by Naruto, who walks her home.

Another episode remembers Sasuke pestering Itachi for attention, only to be brushed off with a poke to the forehead, then spending a rare day training and eating with his brother before waking to find him already gone on a mission. Opposite it, a self-conscious Sakura hides her forehead behind her bangs until Ino gives her a red ribbon and her first real friendship, a bond that later frays over their shared crush on Sasuke, who coldly claims not to know her.

Gaara's segment lingers on a lonely boy grieving his mother, feared by his village and disdained by his father, who finds a little peace playing with his uncle and staring up at the sky. It is paired with a lighter memory of Shikamaru and Chōji drifting through their Academy days, scuffling in class, snacking in the hall, and watching Naruto's antics unfold around them.

The final episode reaches furthest back, to Jiraiya's peeping schemes and the young Sannin sharing their dreams around a wartime campfire before Mist ninja force them into a fight. Its other half portrays a quiet, self-effacing Kakashi cooking, doing chores, and mourning his father, gradually drawing Obito, Rin, and a determined Guy into his orbit.

Because the arc is a string of standalone recollections rather than a single continuous narrative, it closes simply by handing off to the Sasuke Shinden: Book of Sunrise story that comes next.