Chapter 1: Being in the Ninja World, Starting with Reincarnation
In the dead of night, the clear surface of the water suddenly rippled.
A pebble cut through the silence, skipping toward the center of the lake.
Minamikawa Yuu stared at the pond ahead, his eyes unfocused, as if his thoughts were sinking deeper than the water itself.
Judging from his appearance, he looked about six or seven years old.
At that age in his previous life, he would have been nothing more than a child.
But this world was different.
Here, because of different physiology and the existence of an extraordinary power like chakra, even a child who still looked young could become a killing machine.
Of course, even then, six or seven was still far too early.
Minamikawa lifted his gaze and looked into the distance.
Memories surged up inside him one after another, and bewilderment flickered across his eyes from time to time.
"Konoha… ninjas… so it's this world."
He rubbed his head, a dull ache spreading behind his temples.
To be honest, it had already been several years since he transmigrated here.
It was just that before now, perhaps because of physical development or some other reason, his memories had recovered slowly. For a long time, he only felt an inexplicable sense of familiarity toward everything around him.
Not until this moment.
It was like he had been startled awake, like he had finally opened his eyes after a long dream.
Only now did he truly understand where he was.
"Konoha…"
He rose silently and stared toward the distant lights of the village. A storm of emotions flashed through his eyes.
"This is the world of ninjas."
For Minamikawa, changing worlds was not necessarily a bad thing.
In his previous life, things had not gone well, and the people he cared about were already gone.
Being able to move to a different place, a different world, was almost a kind of mercy.
If people in his old world knew transmigration was real, who knew how many would fight like mad just for a chance to come here.
Minamikawa did not let his thoughts drift too far.
Right now, his mindset was simple: take things as they come.
No matter what, life still had to go on.
But at this moment, a problem was sitting right in front of him.
The Third Ninja World War did not seem far away.
In Konoha, the White Fang was still alive, but rumors were already swallowing him whole.
During a mission, he had chosen to abandon the objective in order to save his comrades, and he had paid the price for it.
Gossip spread through the village like poison. Even Minamikawa, a first year at the Ninja Academy, had heard the whispers.
Which meant the White Fang's suicide was not far off.
And in Minamikawa Yuu's memory, it seemed that not long after the White Fang's death, the Third Ninja World War erupted.
In other words, war was approaching.
"The Ninja World War…"
Minamikawa thought quietly.
Once war began, countless people would die.
The stories he once viewed as background lore were not just distant setting details. They were real events that decided the lives of people by the tens of thousands.
When that time came, what could he do?
He stared into the distance, lost.
His current status was neither high nor low. He was just an ordinary student at the Ninja Academy, not even a genin.
In peaceful times, that status could be considered a safe corner, a way to avoid danger.
But in wartime, it was a death sentence.
Because when war came, no one would care whether you were still a student. As long as you had even a little combat ability and were stronger than a civilian, you would be shoved onto the battlefield with no hesitation and no room to refuse.
Which meant his time of peace was running out.
He had to do something.
As that thought rose, Minamikawa lifted his eyes and looked around at the scenery.
And the moment the thought settled in his mind, something changed.
The world in front of him seemed to peel away. The realistic scenery was stripped bare, leaving behind only a pure black and white image.
"This is…"
The sight left him dazed. He instinctively took a step back.
Boom!
It was as if something unseen in the void had begun to vibrate.
In that instant, Minamikawa understood.
He reached out, and he could feel a brand new essence awakening inside him.
It felt like something he had been born with, something that had only been waiting for the right moment to open its eyes.
"Could it be…"
His heart trembled. He tried to will it forward.
A new screen appeared.
[System: Name: Minamikawa Yuu.]
[System: Reincarnation Count: 1.]
[System: Reincarnation Points: 107.]
"It actually works."
As more information surfaced in his mind, joy burst across Minamikawa Yuu's face.
To be honest, transmigrating into this world had placed enormous pressure on him.
The ninja world, The history of the Ōtsutsuki descendants tearing each other apart.
Unlike his previous world, in this one, if you did not have some alien bloodline or wear some fancy contact lenses, you practically did not even have the right to be considered a person.
Before now, Minamikawa had been thinking about what he should do next.
Now, it was simple.
He could cheat.
With a smile, he began to study the panel in front of him.
"Reincarnation… what happens after that?"
He frowned in thought.
"Will it make me transmigrate again, or will I be reincarnated into someone else's body?"
Ideas flashed through his mind one after another.
Wanting to test it, he reached out and tried to select it.
In an instant, the screen changed.
[System: Please select your target identity for reincarnation.]
[System: 1. Commoner.]
[System: 2. Samurai.]
[System: 3. Servant.]
"I can even choose an identity?"
Minamikawa was genuinely surprised.
This panel felt almost too generous.
He stared closer and noticed an option that looked like "Add."
After hesitating briefly, he selected it.
[System: Consume 100 points to add a target identity?]
To test the function, Minamikawa chose to confirm.
The panel shifted again.
[System: 1. Commoner.]
[System: 2. Samurai.]
[System: 3. Servant.]
[System: 4. Daimyo.]
The first three options remained, but a fourth option had appeared.
"Is this a jackpot?"
Minamikawa stared at the new line, startled.
Compared to the first three options, this fourth one was obviously better.
A daimyo, even at the lowest rank, was still nobility. The starting line alone was far above the others.
After the fourth option appeared, his points dropped below one hundred.
The Add option dimmed, and he could no longer select it.
Out of caution, Minamikawa did not choose an identity on the spot. Instead, he returned to his residence.
In the village, he was an orphan.
There was no need to pretend that was rare.
In his previous life, being an orphan might have been unusual.
In this world, it was normal.
With war as a constant shadow, orphans might not be on every street corner, but they were never few.
Minamikawa's parents had both been ninjas who died in a previous Ninja World War.
Because of that, even as an orphan, he had a place to live and would not end up sleeping on the streets.
When he got back, he closed all the doors, shutting the world outside away. Then he took a deep breath and looked at the screen again.
[System: Begin reincarnation?]
Confirm!