In the month of February, the harsh chill of winter had already passed. Spring had returned to the land, and all of Konoha Village was full of life and vitality.
Inside a traditional Japanese-style wooden house, a boy about five or six years old sat listlessly, staring at the scroll in his hands.
Up close, though still young, his facial features were well-defined and delicate. From his youthful face alone, one could already tell that he'd grow up to be a pretty handsome guy—second only to the reader, of course.
Uchiha Hikaru stood up, set the scroll down, let out a yawn, and stretched his arms.
Bored out of his mind, he slowly walked over to the window, gazing into the distance at the Hokage Rock, and sighed, muttering to himself:
"Sure, I love Naruto, but that doesn't mean I wanted to be here experiencing it firsthand!"
That's right—Uchiha Hikaru wasn't a native of the Naruto world. He came from 21st-century China.
He had just graduated from university when he became a cog in the 996 corporate grind machine.
Whenever work wore him out, he would relax by watching Naruto. To him, it had been a companion growing up. No matter how many times he rewatched it, he still loved it.
But during one of those long overtime nights, a sharp pain suddenly tore through his chest—and in the next instant, he lost consciousness.
When he opened his eyes again, he was already in the world of Naruto, inhabiting the body of a five or six-year-old child.
Fortunately, upon transmigrating, he had inherited the original body's memories, which helped him understand his current situation.
There was no need to explain the significance of the name "Uchiha"—it was clear he had ended up in Konoha.
And for him, that was good news.
Being in Konoha meant he had more knowledge of the world compared to landing anywhere else.
From what he could tell, the main story hadn't started yet.
But he knew the personalities of the key characters, which meant he could get close to those who'd shine in the future—or at the very least, become a familiar face.
Right now was the tail end of the First Great Ninja War, and at his age, he had undoubtedly escaped the worst of it.
But the end of the war also meant the death of Tobirama Senju, and the rise of Hiruzen Sarutobi as the Third Hokage.
This Hokage—and his inner circle—weren't exactly friendly toward the Uchiha. To make matters worse, the original body's parents had both died in the final stages of the war.
The grief hit the boy too hard, and he passed away soon after—leaving the body open for Hikaru's arrival.
After sorting through the memories and confirming his identity, location, and time period, Hikaru handled the funeral arrangements for the original parents. In a way, it was his way of paying back the body he now inhabited.
Once everything was settled, he turned his attention to the more pressing matters of survival and security.
He began cleaning up the house and collecting ninjutsu scrolls and money.
Although Konoha provided a regular pension to war orphans, which covered basic living expenses…
Ninja training required gear, tools, and medicinal herbs—none of which came cheap.
The future of the Shinobi world was far from peaceful. Forget the Uchiha Massacre that would happen decades later—the Second and Third Great Ninja Wars were only about a decade away.
If he didn't want to end up as cannon fodder on the battlefield, if he wanted to live—he had to get stronger.
Which brought him back to the root of the problem: getting stronger required training, and training required money.
So, the first thing he did was comb through the house, hoping that the original body's chunin-level parents had left behind some resources.
After a few days of searching, he found several million ryo—enough to sustain years of training.
But scroll-wise, he only uncovered three ninjutsu scrolls, and all three were fire-style. One of them was Fireball Jutsu—a notoriously "kind" technique that couldn't even kill.
The Naruto world was nothing if not dangerous. While the money would last for a while, the lack of powerful jutsu was frustrating—and his lazy side quickly took over.
Standing by the window, Uchiha Hikaru looked out at the Hokage Rock and the bustling village.
'The Third Hokage's statue is already complete. I wonder if I'll end up being the butterfly that flaps its wings and changes the whole story.'
Just as Uchiha Hikaru was pondering his uncertain future, a cold, mechanical voice suddenly rang out in his mind.
Ding! Host has survived for three days. System binding in progress... 10%... 30%... 70%... 100%
Binding complete. Data generation successful. Would you like to view it?
The unexpected voice stunned Uchiha Hikaru for a moment—but then his face lit up in delight.
'A system! Of course a transmigrator gets a system—what took you so long?!'
Excited, he immediately began exploring the system's functions.
Recalling the system prompt, he focused his thoughts—and a personal status panel appeared before him.
Host: Uchiha Hikaru
Skills: One-Tomoe Sharingan (Green), Uchiha Physique (Green), Cooking (White)
Idle Slots: Empty, Empty
Power Level: 3 (You're not even at 5—absolute trash!)
The system's brutally honest commentary left him speechless, but the fact that he already had the One-Tomoe Sharingan was a pleasant surprise.
Thinking it over, he realized it must've awakened when the original host received news of his parents' deaths—grief so overwhelming that it triggered the eye's activation.
In the end, it had been too much, and the boy had died. Lucky for Hikaru, really.
With that figured out, he resumed examining the system.
It didn't take long for him to understand how it worked.
The system's full name was the Idle Training System, and its main function was simple:
You put a skill into one of the system's idle slots, and over time, that skill would automatically level up.
The system ranked skills by color: White, Green, Blue, Purple, Orange, Gold, and Rainbow—with ten levels per tier.
Once a skill reached level ten in its current tier, leveling it up one more time would cause it to break through to the next tier.
There were no restrictions on which skills could be trained. Even something like Cooking could eventually be leveled up to Rainbow tier, given enough time.
Currently, the system only offered two idle slots. More would unlock as the host grew stronger, and the speed of leveling was directly proportional to the host's power level.
In other words—the stronger he became, the faster the system trained his skills.
However, there was one important caveat: the system did not teach skills. Everything had to be learned or created by the host first.
Having absorbed all this information, Uchiha Hikaru wasted no time. He immediately placed the Sharingan and Uchiha Physique into the idle slots.
The system didn't disappoint.
Not long after inserting the skills, he felt a warm sensation spread through his body. A cool, refreshing feeling flowed through his eyes.
He guessed that not only did the system avoid the usual muscle soreness of physical training—it actually felt pleasant.