Inside the room.
Haruki slowly regained consciousness, his gaze sweeping across the surroundings, filled with confusion.
"Where... am I?"
As soon as this thought surfaced, a flood of fragmented memories rushed into his mind.
"Ninja... Konoha... Uchiha..."
Haruki quickly sorted through the memories in his mind. Familiar yet unfamiliar terms gradually helped him piece together his current situation.
There was no doubt about it—he had transmigrated.
According to the memories, the original owner of this body shared his name but was a member of the Uchiha clan in the Hidden Leaf Village.
This Uchiha Haruki had just turned ten years old and was currently in the fourth year at the Ninja Academy.
And the reason he could take over this body was fairly simple—the original Haruki had just gotten out of school that afternoon when he received the tragic news that his parents had died in battle.
Overwhelmed by grief, he accidentally... passed away.
And now, Haruki had become the new owner of this body.
But that wasn't the point.
What truly mattered was—this world was the famed ninja world. Not only that, but it was currently in the middle of the Third Great Ninja War.
One word summed up this period perfectly: carnage. Lives were as fragile as grass.
Not just ordinary civilians—even high-ranking ninjas lived each day unsure of whether they'd see the next.
This made Haruki feel incredibly insecure.
Even in the Hidden Leaf, the most powerful village, no one was truly safe.
To make things worse, the original body belonged to the Uchiha clan—a clan with a dark future. After the war, they'd be on the brink of annihilation. It was a case of misfortune on top of misfortune.
"Ugh... I thought dying from overwork was bad enough, but now I've ended up in this mess too…"
Haruki couldn't help but feel bitter.
What's that? You're wondering about supernatural powers?
Please—he already checked. Despite the original body experiencing such a massive emotional shock, he still hadn't awakened the Sharingan.
That kind of talent couldn't even be called poor—it was garbage.
As for chakra?
Sure, there was some.
But so what?
In the end, the ninja world is all about bloodlines. The closer your blood is to Ōtsutsuki Kaguya, the higher your potential ceiling.
Otherwise, you're just like Might Guy—brilliant for a moment, then gone.
Haruki had no ambitions to save the world.
He was very self-aware.
Maybe he had a bit of ability, but just a bit. Taking a path like Orochimaru's—carving out his own way—was basically impossible.
"If only I had a cheat ability or some kind of golden finger..."
After thinking for a long time and still coming up with no solutions, Haruki sighed helplessly.
But just as his words left his mouth, a translucent light-blue panel suddenly appeared in his vision.
[Name: Uchiha Haruki]Age: 10Body: 5Mind: 7Chakra: 60 (125)Bloodline: Sharingan · Unawakened (51/100)Skills: None]
"Is this… a system panel?!"
Haruki sat up straight with a jolt, all the gloomy thoughts in his mind vanishing instantly.
He was never someone who gave up easily. It was just that the earlier situation had felt hopeless, so he naturally became discouraged.
But now…
Even though he didn't fully understand what this panel could do, at least there was hope, right?
His eyes swept over the panel. Name and age weren't worth mentioning—basic info.
But the Body and Mind stats—those were interesting.
The Body stat represented his physical potential.
That included everything related to his physical body—regeneration, nerve response, muscle density, bone strength, and so on.
The Mind stat measured his mental potential.
The average person would score about 3 points in each stat. Surpassing 3 meant you had the potential to become a ninja.
His current Body was 5, and Mind was 7. That might seem decent, but…
At this age, 5 points in Body was impressive for an ordinary student, sure—but don't forget, the original owner had the Uchiha clan's bloodline. That score was too low.
As for 7 points in Mind—
That was definitely high. Haruki suspected it was because his own soul raised the stat when he transmigrated. Otherwise, it would probably be around 5 too.
That also explained why the original Haruki hadn't awakened the Sharingan.
There was no way the original didn't love his parents—he died from heartbreak the moment he heard the news. If that's not deep emotion, what is?
And still—the Sharingan's awakening progress was just barely over halfway.
There was no other explanation—this body's talent was simply awful.
Now, this burden had landed on Haruki's shoulders.
After thinking it through for a while and getting nowhere, Haruki decided to set that issue aside.
His gaze turned to the Skills section of the panel, which was completely empty.
Logically, since he had inherited the original's memories, there should be some basic jutsu, right?
Yet the panel showed nothing.
The original Haruki's talent might've been bad, but he still knew the Three Basic Jutsu—this puzzled Haruki.
If he couldn't feel chakra flowing through his body right now, he'd think the memories were fake.
"Wait... could it be because I haven't personally used them?"
Thinking this, Haruki stood up. Following the steps from memory, he slowly gathered chakra and formed the hand seals Ram → Snake → Tiger—trying to perform the Clone Technique.
Chakra was consumed—but nothing happened.
Wait—
Haruki's eyes narrowed as he glanced at the panel again.
The Skill section flickered slightly before a new line appeared:
Clone Technique: Lv0 (1/100)
"So I need to personally perform the technique to unlock it…"
Haruki muttered under his breath, then turned his attention to the numbers next to it.
If his guess was right, that number represented proficiency.
With that in mind, he gathered chakra again and repeated the same sequence of hand signs.
As expected, he failed again.
But Haruki didn't look frustrated at all.
Why?
Because the panel now showed:
Clone Technique: Lv0 (3/100)
That confirmed it—this was a skill proficiency system.
Why had he gained 2 points this time instead of 1?
Haruki guessed it had to do with the original's residual memory—since he was essentially reclaiming a once-possessed ability, the proficiency gain fluctuated.
Testing this would be easy.
Haruki took a deep breath to calm himself, then tried to perfectly mimic how the original Haruki practiced the Clone Technique.
A few seconds later, a puff of chakra mist appeared—then vanished just as quickly.
The jutsu had failed again.
But—his proficiency increased by 3 points.
Clone Technique: Lv0 (6/100)
Clearly, his guess was spot-on.
This meant he could quickly restore the original Haruki's abilities and cover up his abnormal behavior.
After all, the ninja world had many jutsu that could read minds or detect lies. If he slipped up, Haruki didn't think he'd survive an interrogation by the ANBU.
Even if the chance of being noticed was small—it never hurt to be cautious.