The first thing I felt wasn't the legendary power of a ninja. It was the biting chill of a drafty wooden floor and the faint, lingering smell of cheap miso ramen.
My eyes snapped open. This wasn't my apartment.
I stared at a ceiling made of aged timber. Sunlight filtered through a small, grimy window, illuminating dust motes dancing in the air. I tried to sit up, but my body felt heavy—not from injury, but from a strange lack of muscle mass. I looked down at my hands. They were small. Calloused. These were the hands of a child who had spent too much time gripping a wooden sword.
"What the hell..." My voice was a dry rasp.
Suddenly, a transparent blue interface flickered into existence, hovering a few inches from my face. It didn't flash or make a grand sound; it just appeared, cold and functional.
[Extraction System Initialized.]
[Status: Soul Synchronization at 98%.]
[Host: kaito (Academy Student)]
[Current Location: Konohagakure - Hidden Leaf Village]
Konoha? The name hit me like a physical blow. I wasn't just in another country; I was in a world that shouldn't exist. A world where teenagers were trained to be assassins and gods walked the earth with eyes that could rewrite reality.
I scrambled to the window. Outside, the view confirmed my nightmare. In the distance, four massive faces were carved into the side of a mountain. The Hokage Rock.
"I'm in Naruto," I whispered, the realization sinking in like lead. "And I'm an orphan."
Being an orphan in Konoha was practically a death sentence if you weren't the protagonist. I didn't have a fox sealed inside me. I didn't have a clan. I was just... kaito.
[Ding! World Event Syncing...]
[Warning: The Uchiha Clan Massacre will commence in 168 hours.]
[Objective: Survive.]
The red text of the warning throbbed in my vision. Seven days. In seven days, one of the strongest clans in the village would be wiped out in a single night of blood and madness. If I was caught in the crossfire—or if the village went into lockdown—a nameless Academy student like me would be nothing but a footnote in the casualty report.
[Extraction Function Available.]
[Rule: Maintain physical contact with a target for 5 seconds to extract a random trait (Bloodline, Jutsu, or Chakra).]
I looked back at the Hokage Rock. Survival in this world wasn't about hard work; it was about heritage. You were either born a god, or you died a peasant.
A slow, cold grin spread across my face.
"Maintain contact for five seconds, huh?"
If the world was built on stolen power and genetic luck, then I was going to be the biggest thief of them all. I didn't need to be a hero. I just needed to touch the right people before the world went to hell.
I grabbed a worn-out ninja pouch from the table and headed for the door. The Academy would be starting soon, and the Uchiha kids would be there.
It was time to see if I could steal a future for myself.