Having left the Template Inventory after receiving the mission and now lying in bed, Haruto looked up at the ceiling of his now dim room with a frown.
"So what do I really want to do?"
"..."
Haruto closed his eyes to relax as the calm and serene scene of rolling hills with short but dense grass growing on them reappeared in his mind.
"I wonder if there are any places like that in this world?"
"It'd be nice if I could get a house in such a place and live my life in peace…no one would bother a random house in the middle of nowhere right?"
Haruto's head turned to the side, looking at the window blocked by the curtains, as if he could see past it all and towards the village on the other side.
He knew well that he wasn't a genius.
In his previous life, his academic scores were never great, and he wasn't the least bit interested in sports. Maybe watching Cricket, Jesus McDavid and Chess streamers, but it was mostly the blood-pumping action that made him hyped up for everything that happened in them.
His favourite hobbies were the usual, watching anime, reading webnovels, MTLS, and playing video games, preferably single-player RPGs, and sometimes attempting to make games if he had the time because he was motivated by a random 3 AM motivational short by a streamer who worked at Winterstorm and supported games getting worse.
The only times he ever studied were when he genuinely found a topic 'interesting' to learn about, for example, the chapter about how nature sustains a species and manages life cycles.
Typical teenage life.
Above all, Haruto was dead last in the ninja academy in this life.
The academy teachers hadn't taught him any jutsu yet, since he did not have enough brains to understand even the simplest jutsu in the school, nor had he inculcated the will of fire strongly enough according to the monthly tests.
All his once friends were now leagues above him in strength and had now promoted him to the position of 'friendless'.
"Do I even want to stay here?" Haruto asked himself another question.
"The Clan Genocide arc is close, after which the Konoha Crush plan will take place. Who knows how many will survive through all that? Then the Pain Arc, which is even more unlikely for an average person like me to tank."
"If I could get a desk job, I could just apply for a leave from whatever position I have during those times, and by mixing it with other frequent leaves, I could simply disguise them as ordinary vacations."
"Hmm…hold up…I might be onto something here. So all I have to do now is figure out if there are any desk jobs suitable for eight-year-olds like me. And then convince someone to let me apply for them?"
"Maybe my parents had a few friends who might take pity on me?"
"...And in the meantime…I could train in sec-" Haruto thought as his eyes narrowed, but then he stopped his thoughts there before they could end.
"No, I can't get my hopes up yet."
"Even though I'm not the original owner of this body and might not be as dumb as him-"
"-how am I supposed to show Megumin an explosion that will satisfy her?"
"Not like I can use the famed zero damage Fire Style Great Fireball Jutsu. That probably won't even make her bat an eyelid."
"Explosive tags then?"
"...I doubt they are cheap, so I'll need to earn a lot of money to buy them…or make them somehow..? But Fuinjutsu knowledge…"
Haruto closed his eyes for a second to focus on his acquired memories as he scanned through their vague forms to figure out if he knew anything about fuinjutsu.
"...I don't remember the academy teaching anything like that. But we were taught how to light up explosive tags with chakra…so I should be able to find something about in the library…"
"It'll probably take several weeks, if not months, for me to be able to figure out how to make explosive seals, given that I know from my memories that simply copying them with a pen by tracing them over doesn't work…But can I wait so long just to finish my first mission?"
Haruto closed his eyes again and sighed.
'This is starting to become a pain…'
"...desk job it is then."
"Surely Konoha has some part-time scheme for students, right? After all, I remember the academy teachers always trying to push children out of the academy as long as they weren't talented so that others could take their place from the lower-ranked classes…"
"Not that there's anyone ranked lower than me in the academy…but hey maybe a random civilian would do better than 'me' at this point."
With it all coming together in his mind, Haruto stood up and quickly folded the curtains and opened his window to greet the very village he'd shrank away from a few minutes prior.
All of a sudden, the dim smell of his room faded away, letting in the fiery smell of the village that was mixed with the calming smell of trees and wet mud.
Under the canopy of the starry night sky, Haruto gazed at the softly lit streets around him where the populous was mostly quiet since the shopping and entertainment districts were in a different direction from the residential area.
Haruto's eyes slowly shifted towards the sky, where he noted the different star constellations before eventually shifting towards the giant artificial man-made prison hanging in the sky.
"Kaguya…"
"I'll have to figure out something if I don't want to fight her…either I run away to another planet entirely or grow strong enough to either destroy the moon along with her or destroy everything she tries to do to get rid of me instead."
"But it's not like I can even stand in her presence right now, fighting or even running away is probably a long way off."
Haruto quickly fell asleep under the cool, comforting autumn winds brushing through the village, only to wake up earlier than usual the next day to take the steps he had decided were the best for his future career.
***
[Welcome to the Hayashi Haruto View Point System.]
Hashirama : Huh? What's this?
Mito : Hashi? Is that You?
Hashirama : OH! Mito!!!!!
Tobirama : Tsk…the Uchiha are inherently evil…
Izuna : What did you say you bastard!!!!!!
Minato : Lord First! Lord Third!!!
Kushina : Minatoo!!!!!
Minato : Kushi- KUSHINA!!! NOO!!!! Stop hitting me!!! Sorry I should've noticed you first!!!!
Izuna : Where's my brother! Why have you dragged me here!? Is this another one of your cursed Jutsus Tobirama!!!?
Tobirama : Evil Uchiha!!!!!!
[A few minutes later once a magical screen showed up in front of everyone in the enigmatic room.]
Mito : Huh…I see…so this place is an Omniscient View Point Box of the shinobi world from the eyes of a boy named Hayashi Haruto?
Hashirama : What a beautiful name…Is he from Konoha?
Tobirama : We can see right now.
Izuna : What's Konoha?
Hashirama : Ah…it's the child Madara created with me.
Izuna : Madara created wi- with you!!??
Izuna's face flushed all of a sudden but Hashirama didn't seem to notice as he continued 'bragging'.
Hashirama : Yes…truly…of all the things we created, it was the best thing we ever made together!
[Critical hit. Izuna faints from mental damage.]
Mito held her head in her hands before proceeding to ignore Hashirama who hadn't noticed Izuna lying on the floor foaming at his mouth and proceeded to turn to Tobirama.
"This is Kushina, my only student and the last princess of the Uzumaki clan." Mito said, moving to hold Kushina's shoulder and giving her a half-hug while introducing her to everyone else.
Tobirama's eyes widened, he was about to interrupt Mito's introduction, but Hashirama beat him to it.
"What do you mean, 'last'?"
An immense pressure swept through the enigmatic room that all of them were standing inside.
Seeing Mito fall silent with a sombre expression, the pressure instantly thickened.
Minato and Kushina almost collapsed but barely managed to hold on as Hashirama's gaze swept over to them instead of Mito when she fell silent as if reminiscing painful memories.
Seeing Kushina struggle to respond, Mito finally managed to reach out and hold onto Hashirama's shoulder.
"Let's talk about that later…Kushina here doesn't have anything to do with it…in fact she's just as much in pain as me, if not more. We have more important things to figure out, do we not? Don't you want to see how Konoha is right now?"
Hashirama's gaze instantly softened, and so did the pressure in the room. Minato's gaze was fearful only for a split second before turning reverential.
Tobirama, meanwhile, had calmed down much faster.
"You're the fourth Hokage?"
"Oh! Yes! Lord Second! But…how did you know?" Minato said, his eyes only growing with admiration.
Tobirama gave Minato an evaluating gaze before nodding to himself with a hint of approval as he spoke-
"Only a Hokage would be allowed to marry a jinchuriki." The simple line clearly explained the depth of Tobirama's intelligence, shocking even Kushina herself.
But before they could ask anything else, Izuna interrupted with a rather confused expression after waking up because of Hashirama's sudden overwhelming influence activating his battle instincts.
"What's a Jinchuriki?"
"Hmm? Junchuriki?" Hashirama said with a frown as if trying hard to put a complex idea into words, after a few seconds he clapped his fist on his palm and explained loudly!
"A jinchuriki is a person into whose body you put animals that are being naughty!"
Tobirama almost snorted. Minato choked on his own spit while Kushina tried helping him by hitting his head.
Mito gave both Hashirama and Izuna, who was buying the explanation Hashirama had given him, a short, pitiable glance before she ignored him and spoke out softly, "We are ready."
There was no direct response, but all of a sudden several couches sprouted behind them without any obvious assistance.
Tobirama immediately frowned, but Hashirama ignored their stares and quickly made himself comfortable with Mito on a two-seater couch.
Everyone else quickly followed, and the endless expanse around them dimmed before a large thin screen projected onto thin air hovered in front of them all, making the whole experience just like a rather comfy home theatre.
Everyone paid attention to the screen and the scene that had formed in it.
***
"Hello, what can I do for you today?" A pretty lady asked from behind her desk without even looking up at Haruto, whose head barely peeked over the tall desk she was sitting behind, after the last person walked away to a different counter.
"Mam, I would like to know if there are any jobs in the village?" Haruto asked, still calm even though it was clear that the person hadn't even realised he was a kid.
Except as the lady heard the high-pitched voice, she froze for a moment, pausing her paperwork before looking at Haruto, bending over a little to look at him properly.
'Is he…just short?'
Noticing the apparent question, Haruto responded.
"Yes, ma'am, I'm a child. I'm eight."
The woman's brows quivered with annoyance as she looked around to figure out if the kid was just lost or if his friends were waiting around some corner, waiting for the boy in front of her to run away after shouting, 'This is a prank!'
But seeing none and the resolute look in the boy's eyes, she asked softly with a sigh, "What do you want?"
"I'd like to know if there are any jobs in the village suitable for me, miss."
"...?" The woman's brows quivered further.
At this point, even the people in the line behind Haruto started to listen in on his conversation with the lady.
"Where are your parents, child?" The woman asked calmly.
"I can't see them anymore.", Haruto said, his expression taking on a soft, lost look as he remembered his family in another world.
The woman's expression faltered for a moment as she realised what was going on.
'Did his parents die on some ninja mission?'
'But what about the village's orphanage funds? They were given to children of all shinobi as long as they attended the shinobi academy.'
Although the woman hadn't asked if the boy was attending the Shinobi academy, she had assumed he did since most other children his age who were orphans would be unless they were disabled in some way.
"The village provides funds for orphans, doesn't it?" The woman decided to ask the boy about it directly, since the funds were delivered by a department managed directly by the Hokage himself and anything wrong with them could be fixed quickly and easily.
"I'm getting the funds, miss. But I don't wish to become a shinobi in the future. I know I have very little talent as a shinobi. I wish to contribute to Konoha in any other way possible."
"Ah…" The woman was quickly surprised by the mature answer from the young boy in front of her.
Most children of Haruto's age dreamed of going to the shinobi academy, even if they had no talent. To them, it was a magical place where they could learn to become like the powerful heroes in the storybooks read to them as kids, like the books about the Third Hokage.
In fact, several kids had to be actively discouraged and failed on purpose just to force them to see the reality and make them give up on being a ninja.
After all, bravado without actual strength to back it up would only cause chaos on the front lines or even simple missions.
As such, there were several other positions for graduated genins who wanted to drop out of the genin corps after learning the stubborn reality of the situation.
And so, since they were all graduated genin and had spent a considerable amount of time in the genin corps before giving up on their ninja career, most of them were about sixteen to eighteen years old.
Not as young as Haruto was.
Although the situation didn't break any protocols, the woman felt a slight hesitation in recommending the young boy without proper consultation.
'Is someone bullying this boy?'
'It's not normal for a child to think like this…is it?'
The woman's eyes flickered to the corridor behind her as she stared at a glassed office.
'But Hirakawa-san isn't here right now…'
'Hmm…I'll just tell the boy to come back later after giving him something to do in the meantime.' the woman decided.
"Young boy, what's your name?"
"My name's Hayashi Haruto. Written as the 'The bright spirit who rises from nature.'"
"I see. That is a good name Hayashi-kun. My name is Suzume Haruka. Here is a list of all the available jobs in the village currently. Take your time looking through it, and once you're satisfied with your choices, you can come back and we can figure this out together, okay?" Haruka said softly, handing Haurto a thin paper pamphlet.
Haruto, although surprised at the ease with which he got what he wanted, quickly grabbed the pamphlet and thanked Haruka with a deep bow and a few compliments about her natural looks before walking back to his home with his 'prize'.
***
"What's going on?" Hashirama asked with a slightly suspicious expression. "Why are kids being sent to become shinobi at such a young age Tobi?"
Tobirama looked surprised himself.
"The plan was to slowly raise the bar of entry and passing while extending the length of the schooling system so that children wouldn't be sent to the battlefield…did Hiruzen not follow it?"
Minato looked a little embarrassed when he heard the two former Hokage discussing Hiruzen and so defended him unprompted.
"Hokage-sama…I think it's because we had two great shinobi wars after your passing in very short succession and really needed someone to fight the hoards of enemies the other nations would thrust upon us."
"Great Shinobi Wars?" Hashirama asked, bewildered, but then quickly frowned. "Was this related to the destruction of Uzushiogakure?"
Tobirama was about to expand on the question, but paused when he saw Haurto's view shift from inside the building to Konoha itself.
***
Passing by the streets, Haruto saw several genin running around trying to complete missions like catching cats or clearing up the trash.
'At least genin don't immediately go to the killing missions during times of peace.' Haruto sighed internally.
'Are they all wizards, Hayashi-kun?' Megumin asked from inside Haruto's mind since she could see all that he could as long as he didn't close the Template Inventory Space.
'You aren't wrong technically. But the world here doesn't use mana, doesn't have skill points and there are no skills to learn using those points.'
'The people in this world use chakra, a universal energy modified by their body to create several 'magical effects' called jutsus.'
Just then, Haruto happened to be passing by an open training ground and found random kids spitting out fist-sized fireballs and waterballs while posing wantonly.
'They…remind me a little of home.' Megumin confessed, her voice a little soft.
'Home huh…the crimson demon clan?'
'Yeah…'
Haruto kept walking aimlessly for now, exploring the village.
He passed by the village gates, he even spotted several shinobi returning to the village with happy faces as they rushed towards the mission department to collect their hard-earned salary.
Eventually, Haruto's thoughts began to wander.
'What is the timeline of the world I am in?'
'I know the Fourth Hokage is dead.' Haruto thought while thinking about his parents, who had died in this world and looking at the Hokage Rock Monument.
'And that happened when I was three…I'm eight now, so about five years have passed?'
'When did Naruto join the academy again?'
'He graduated at twelve, right?'
'Did they even mention it?'
'I remember them mentioning he failed multiple times…so did he get held back?'
Suddenly, his eyes snapped back to reality as he noticed a fan-shaped emblem on the back of a patrolling shinobi.
'Yeah…there's the Uchiha massacre to think about too…'
'So…that happened in Sasuke's first year or something?'
'Bah..I still don't know when I am at.'
'But at least the Uchiha massacre hasn't happened yet, so I have about four or five years at the very least before canon begins…'
'Heee….'
'Can I actually get powerful enough to hold my own against everyone and get stronger than everyone in that time?'
Haruto glanced at the mission reward of his currently active mission and frowned.
'Megumin's Explosion Magic Level Fire Release Talent…'
'Could an explosion like that take down Madara?'
'It might hurt him a little if it hits normal him…but with Susanoo and the other bullcrap he gets after becoming the Sage of Six Paths version…probably not.'
'Didn't Megumin's explosion magic use light though?' Haruto thought before asking Megumin about it immediately.
The answer?
'$#@%&*%-' Megumin started but stopped with a slightly surprised expression.
Almost immediately, Haruto saw a warning flash on his mental screen.
[Ding! Potential System Rewards Cannot Be Pre-Obtained Through Characters Without Solving Equivalent Grievances.]
Sigh…
'So, even if I get Megumin's explosion magic level fire release talent, I'll have absolutely nothing to show for it? So I still have to learn normal jutsu anyway?'
'Am I going to be even more useless than Sakura?'
'I'm sorry Hayashi-kun.' Megumin said in a soft tone.
Haruto shook his head, 'It's alright. What's not under your control is not your fault. Either way, stop calling me Hayashi-kun. I'm older. Definitely much older than I appear to be. Just call me Haruto if you can.'
'Older?' Megumin asked suspiciously since Haruto only looked eight and she herself was about seventeen.
But Haruto didn't explain; instead, he unlocked his door once he reached home and quietly slipped into his room after dropping off the few groceries he'd picked up along the way.
"Let's see what I can do."
Konoha Administrative Officers Entry Positions
-> Konoha I.T. Databook Keeper
'A simple data entry job in the Info & Tech department? That's rather easy…why isn't this position open to civilians?' Haruto summarised.
-> Konoha Treasury Loan Relations Handler
'....a guy who goes around beating up people to collect back the owed loan money? Typical banker wording I guess…'
-> Konoha Public Health And Safety Inspector
'Seems pretty normal…but would anyone consider me for the job of a manager? Probably not…I'll make sure to ask about it though…'
'That Public Health And Safety Manager Mission seems suspicious..' Megumin sprouted with her opinions.
'Suspicious? How?'
'In my world, missions that have such flowery language are only used to trap newbie adventurers…if I'm not wrong that is likely a mission to clean sewers or something similar…'
Haruto immediately felt a chill run down his spine as the pamphlet in his hands suddenly started to seem like a minefield that he had to navigate carefully.
'Thank you, Oh Goddess in Crimson.'
'Kakaka~ Worry not my follower! This Crimson Megami will make sure you reach the highest position of her guardian angel!'
Haruto promptly ignored her.
The day mostly passed smoothly with Haruto going through several jobs on the pamphlet as he tried to simplify each one to see if it was something he could pull off while Megumin chimed in occasionally with her knowledge and experience as an adventurer.
In the meantime, in a special expanse hidden away somewhere in the world, Hashirama and Tobirama were discussing similar things.
"Although not ideal, it is alright for now brother…since only those who can handle the pressure are pushed forth while those that cannot are given a way out." Tobirama explained with a frown on his face.
Although not satisfied with what he was seeing, he was able to reason with himself about the system's necessity, for now.
Hashirama nodded.
"So are we supposed to change Konoha through this boy?" Minato asked with some confusion as he studied the various statistics about Haruto floating in front of him.
Mito quickly spoke up.
"It seems so. But these limitations are quite stringent. We can't just do whatever we want…we can only ever help him once in his life…and even then, the most we can do is to give him a single idea or inspiration which he could very well ignore."
"That only makes things even more precious." Tobirama explained calmly, "Perhaps there is an incident in the future that would allow us to change the outcome of whatever is about to happen with just a single well-placed idea."
"Tsk. Typical Tobirama, always thinking about manipulating people." Izuna quipped on the sidelines, feeling a little awkward since he was the only Uchiha while there were four 'enemies'.
"Oh, Izuna, come on, don't be like that. This is the village your brother built with me!!!" Hashirama started again, but Minato immediately froze up.
Noticing this, Tobirama looked at Minato with confusion, causing him to sigh softly before speaking up.
"The man who caused me and Kushina to die claimed to be Madara himself."
Minato's words froze the entire room, plunging it into a light stint of nervous silence.
"But I ki-" Hashirama started, but Tobirama interrupted him before he could finish.
"Are you speaking the truth?"
Minato quickly nodded as Izuna looked on with a mocking smile.
"Of course, I knew that Big Brother wouldn't stand for such a farce! He was definitely looking for the best opportunity to take down the most Senju's before he died!"
"No way!" Hashirama quickly shouted. "I killed him in the Valley Of The End!"
"You killed big brother!?" Izuna asked with harsh surprise, almost mumbling, 'After making a baby?'.
"Ignore them." Tobirama said before turning back to Minato.
Understanding the hint, Minato explained more, "Before Kushina gave birth to our son, we assumed that the Nine Tails might try to interfere with the seal and escape while she gave birth."
"Reasonable." Tobirama nodded.
"But with the downfall of Uzushiogakure and the lack of any other sealing master in the village who could be trusted with this information, I was present myself so that I could stop any unforeseen accidents from happening because I happen to know a little bit of sealing myself."
"But immediately after Kushina gave birth something completely unexpected happened."
"What!?" Hashirama asked with eagerness, his eyes burning with indignation towards Tobirama for allowing Minato to continue the story without him paying attention.
"A man claiming to be Uchiha Madara 'teleported' into the room out of nowhere."
"Huh!?" Izuna asked with surprise, his lips frowned for a second before he smiled mockingly, "Oh? So he used the very jutsu you created to destroy your own village, Tobirama!? Ha! How hilarious!"
"Shut up you worm that didn't even live past the Warring States-." Tobirama was about to lunge at Izuna but Hashirama managed to hold him back and quickly looked at Minato to continue the story so that everyone would calm down.
Minato nodded and explained.
"I don't think it was the Flying Thunder God Jutsu…I think it was a mangekyo technique."
"Impossible!" Izuna immediately countered.
"Big Brother has two unique abilities in his Mangekyo, the left eye has Chokkanryoku; The Eye Of Instinctive Perception, while the right eye has Hiharyoku; the eye that grants him The Hidden Right to Rule."
Minato looked surprised but, given his composure as a high-level shinobi, spoke quickly, "But it can't have been the Flying Thunder God Technique because I'd have immediately realised if someone was using it, since I'm an expert in it myself."
Tobirama frowned at this because he himself knew that even a beginner user, an expert in the normal sense of the Flying Thunder God technique, would be able to sense any other marks left by any other users in the area.
"Ha! That's just my brother's skill!" Izuna retorted, clearly pleased.
Minato then looked at Tobirama, his eyes conveying a clear question, "Is Izuna's intel valid?"
Tobirama nodded easily, "His Mangekyo techniques, while not known by many, were clear as day for brother since he spent a lot of time fighting Madara."
Everyone's eyes shifted to Hashirama, who sighed and nodded, "It's true. Madara did have those abilities in his eyes; it was one of the reasons why Tobirama was so against giving Madara the seat of the First Hokage or any position in power, for that matter. It fit too well with Madara's Mangekyo powers. Tobirama was afraid he'd do something to make use of the people of the village as sacrifices."
"Never!" Izuna quickly interrupted, but the intended recipient, Tobirama, picked his nose like it had fallen on deaf ears before spouting the same line that had infuriated Izuna several times before, "The Uchiha are inherently evil…"
"YOU!!!!!" Izuna screamed, lunging towards Tobirama, even Hashirama didn't stop him this time, knowing Tobirama had crossed a line.
Before long Tobirama and Izuna were fighting and arguing while everyone else set aside their differences as Hashirama looked towards Mito and Kushina and asked them a simple question with a resigned expression.
"What happened to Uzushio-?"
However, Mito changed the subject.
"This boy…have you seen his abilities?"
"Hmmm…" Minato frowned once he saw the pentagram denoting Haruto's stats.
"What's all this? I don't understand anything…" Kushina said with a soft teary gaze as she looked at Minato for help.
Seeing Kushina's helpless gaze, Minato's heart trembled as he quickly scampered to her side, pressing into her on the sofa, to explain everything he'd understood so far.
Mito on the side nearly burst out laughing.
"They're quite close, aren't they?" Hashirama said with a soft sigh while looking at the two of his juniors while slipping his hand around Mito's waist.
"Yes."
There was a soft silence before Hashirama quickly leaned in and whispered-
"Erm…what does all of this mean anyway?" he asked pointing at the pentagram floating on a screen in front of him.