[Late at night, Konoha Village, Uchiha Clan Compound]
["You have obtained 70 soul fragments. Do you wish to perform the first Stand draw?"]
Tinnitus mixed with distant noise echoed in Ryosuke's ears.
Ryosuke sat blankly in a pool of blood. The penetrating wound in his chest was slowly healing, and the gravel in the courtyard was a bit uncomfortable against his butt.
He touched the blood on his chest.
It was still warm.
Ryosuke's face was blank, thousands of thoughts condensed into one word, "Huh?"
Chaotic fragments of memory surged into his mind.
Uchiha Ryosuke, 18 years old, idle and lazy, ignorant and incompetent, expelled from the ninja academy, living on family welfare, known as the shame of the Uchiha.
Earlier that night, the moonlight was bright, and the previous body was drinking and admiring the moon when he saw someone squatting on a utility pole.
Then... Ryosuke logged in.
"I traveled through time? And into the world of Naruto?"
"Naruto", Ryosuke had heard of it.
Just heard of it.
Ryosuke was from a small town, a typical exam grinder, who from childhood threw himself entirely into studying, rarely watched anime, and knew very little about Naruto.
He only knew some of the more famous events, such as, Naruto had the Nine-Tails sealed in his belly. Sasuke's "Amaterasu."
And... From a certain website starting with P, he learned about Tsunade, Ino, Sakura, and so on.
As for the actual story details, Ryosuke knew nothing at all.
Crossing into an anime world, but not knowing the plot.
How was he supposed to play this?
["You have obtained 70 soul fragments. Do you wish to perform the first Stand draw?"]
While thinking, the tinnitus gradually faded, and Ryosuke once again heard the cold, unfamiliar voice.
He let out a breath, grinned, and said, "There's a system, huh."
Ryosuke opened the system interface.
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[JOJO Stand System]
[Derived from "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure," it includes all the Stands that appeared in it. You can obtain Stands through a card-draw system and cultivate them.]
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JoJo series—Ryosuke had also never watched it.
Perhaps the system knew this, so in the corner of the interface it left a feature called "Story Review."
Ryosuke could view parts 1–8 of the manga.
No rush to read the manga yet, Ryosuke opened the card-draw interface.
So-called Stands are manifestations of the user's spiritual power, possessing all sorts of mysterious abilities, capable of fighting, defending, and scouting on behalf of the user.
Since they are manifestations of spiritual power, once a Stand is injured, the user also suffers severe injury.
The two are tightly linked, two sides of one coin.
On the card-draw page were many silhouettes of Stands, with two options below: single draw and ten consecutive draws, and a description beside them.
[Normal draw pool: can produce 4–5 star Stands, Stand upgrade materials, special items, etc. 10 soul fragments per draw.]
[Four-star Stands: Stone Free, Emperor, Hermit Purple, Silver Chariot...]
[Five-star Stands: Crazy Diamond, Metallica, Star Platinum (without time stop), White Snake...]
Many and varied, densely packed.
Ryosuke focused on the first sentence.
"This is a normal draw pool. That means there's also a special pool?"
The system did not respond to his question.
It only popped up the draw suggestion again and displayed a message on the draw screen:
[First draw: Ten consecutive draws guarantee at least one five-star Stand.]
This was bad news.
This pool didn't even have a proper guarantee system. Who knew how much you'd have to invest to get a good result?
The killer who murdered the previous body might still be nearby. If he could first pull a five-star Stand, Ryosuke would at least have a way to protect himself.
He glanced at the upper right corner balance.
[Soul Fragments: 70]
10 fragments per draw, so he was still short 30 soul fragments.
Not enough for one ten-draw pull.
[Ways to obtain soul fragments: three kinds:
Defeat powerful enemies, alter the worldline, mortgage one's own soul.]
The first two were easy to understand, basically killing monsters and changing the storyline.
But the last one—mortgaging the soul—
[Mortgage your own soul to exchange for soul fragments. If you repay the mortgaged amount within 24 hours, you can redeem your soul; otherwise, you permanently lose the mortgaged portion of your soul.]
[Current soul mortgage value: 500 soul fragments]
'500, that's 50 draws.'
Ryosuke complained in his heart.
'What happens if you lose part of your soul?'
Ryosuke didn't know. And didn't want to know.
He absolutely would not take a loan for gacha.
Ryosuke stood up from the pool of blood, making plans for the future, hide.
With Uchiha bloodline and the Stand system, secretly grow stronger, and later when there's a chance, pull a powerful Stand, then live a life with no overtime, no suffering, some spare cash, and a girl in his arms.
Just the thought made the corners of his mouth rise.
"Big Brother Ryosuke, help... help me..."
A faint call from inside the house broke Ryosuke's thoughts.
'Someone's still alive?'
Ryosuke frowned slightly, pushed open the door, and stepped inside.
On the tatami lay a four- or five-year-old little girl with two pigtails. A scarlet wound on her belly was bleeding out.
She reached her hand toward Ryosuke.
Ryosuke held her hand, cold, trembling, tiny, and memories about her surfaced in his mind.
Her father died in the war, her mother drank in grief, and when drunk, beat the child.
The previous body, though a loser, was kind to the village kids, often using welfare money to buy them candy.
The little girl didn't dare go home, so she clung to Ryosuke every day, coming to his house to play games and snack.
("When I grow up, I want to marry Big Brother Ryosuke.") This was what she often said.
Tonight her mom drank too much again, so she came to Ryosuke.
"Big Brother Ryosuke... I don't want to die..."
The joy from getting a system quietly faded.
Ryosuke said nothing, scooped the girl up, and ran out.
'Doctor! Find a doctor!'
Ryosuke ran out of the yard holding her, then remembered he still had the system.
He recalled some Stands had healing abilities, if he could pull one, he could save her.
"Hang on, just a moment more..."
He couldn't finish the second half of that sentence.
The girl in his arms, her eyes turned gray, life gone.
She was dead.
Ryosuke didn't know her, and the previous body's memory fragments were broken and scattered.
But as a modern person, seeing a living, soft little life die before his eyes, there was no way his heart would feel nothing.
The previous body was Uchiha, a piece of trash, a waste of resources, someone got fed up and killed him.
Ryosuke couldn't agree, but he could understand the logic.
But what wrong did a five-year-old child do?
"Caw! Caw!"
The croaking of crows drew Ryosuke's attention.
One by one, crows circled in the air, the night sky utterly black.
Ryosuke sniffed.
After stepping out of the courtyard, the smell of blood grew stronger.
The evening wind blew the dark clouds aside, moonlight spilled again, and Ryosuke saw it.
Corpses.
Everywhere.
Old people, young people, children.
Not a single survivor.
Ryosuke's scalp went numb. "What's going on? Did the devils raid the village?"
He stood in the street.
Behind him, the brightly lit Konoha village; ahead, the blood-soaked Uchiha compound. The night wind brushed against him, and his heart turned cold.
First came fear, but after fear came rage.
Not because of the fragments of emotion from the previous body.
Purely the anger of an ordinary man, educated in modern values, who believed life is precious, at such a massacre.
In the world of Naruto, there's no shortage of fighting and killing, it's a hot-blooded manga; people dying is normal. But, killing old people whose hands trembled?
Killing kids who could barely babble?
What kind of human does that?!
Beasts. Only beasts could do this.
"Ahhh!!!"
A sharp cry came from not far away, a child's voice.
'A survivor.'
Ryosuke instinctively took a step, then suddenly froze.
The killers who slaughtered the entire Uchiha clan, clearly incredibly strong.
Konoha hadn't come to help, so likely someone was backing the killers, clearing the field for them.
The killers had power, influence, and a plan.
Rushing over, risking his life to save a strange child, was it worth it?
The second that question appeared, Ryosuke took the next step.
'What do you mean worth or not?'
He crossed over, this life was a bonus, and he had a system as well.
Hide?
If a grown man doesn't even have this much courage, then he's worse than a dog.
Ryosuke strode forward, the fierce wind blowing his hair wild, but his gaze unwavering.
In the depths of his pupils, a golden spark ignited. In the night, like a blazing sun.
———
Uchiha Itachi looked down coldly at Sasuke, who had fallen to the ground, his eyes showing madness.
Masked Obito stood beside him with arms crossed, watching like a spectator.
At that moment, they faintly heard footsteps approaching from afar.
The steps... no, not even real steps.
Breath ragged, not like a ninja at all. Just an ordinary person's level.
From around the street corner, Ryosuke burst out.
He saw a small, crying Sasuke, and opposite him, Uchiha Itachi and Obito.
"A fish that slipped through the net?"
Obito glanced at the blood on Ryosuke's chest. "Itachi, are you that tired? Killing people sloppily now? Want me to finish him?"
"No need."
Uchiha Itachi drew his blade and said coldly, "Didn't expect I'd have to kill you again."
He knew Ryosuke.
The shame of the Uchiha, professional welfare case.
During the Third Ninja World War, most of the Uchiha clan participated.
Only Ryosuke, at a prime age, was so weak that even a child younger than him was stronger, knew no ninjutsu, not even qualified for logistics work, he lay at home through the entire war.
So useless he was famous.
Seeing it was Ryosuke, the hope in Sasuke's eyes extinguished again.
Ryosuke spat on the ground. "Beast, don't act familiar with me."
He caught his breath, stepped forward, and lightly patted Sasuke's small head.
"Go, squat over there."
Ryosuke looked straight at Uchiha Itachi and Obito, and gave the system an order, 'Mortgage my soul, then...'
'Ten consecutive draws!'
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