Takeda Shuichi

In the early winter of Year 40 of Konoha, Takeda Shuichi stood inside his house and watched the fine snowflakes slowly drifting down outside the window, having already taken his transmigrated reality of arriving in Konoha Village of the Naruto World in stride.

Through the glass only the size of two human heads, Shuichi could roughly make out his childish face.

His hair presented a vibrant purplish-black resting on both sides of his forehead, and his bright, expressive large eyes reflected his delicate and tender young face.

Shuichi's past life could be said to have been that of a carefree youth, having grown up since childhood in Peng City, Linhai Province in southern China.

His parents were originally people from an inland village in Linhai Province, warm-natured and full of drive. Because of the opening up of Peng City, his ability to speak Cantonese, and his communication with Hong Kong merchants from across the strait, they already possessed a modest fortune in Peng City before the millennium.

Since some villages in Linhai Province still retained certain strong traditional Chinese customs, in his past life Shuichi had two older sisters, an older brother, and a younger brother.

His parents' education for him was more about setting a personal example for his conduct and behavior; they basically never inquired about matters of study, only demanding that he not stir up any major trouble within the school.

At home, Shuichi was a child of few words, but one who always knew how to think.

The two older sisters had married off early, and the older brother had started running around everywhere following their father right after graduating with a bachelor's degree to prepare to take over the family business.

Only Shuichi had consistently ranked near the top in his studies since childhood, and coupled with the family's surplus assets, he had studied abroad for many years right after graduating from high school.

A few days ago, because he had just completed the final exams of the last semester of his graduate studies, Shuichi felt a bit of confusion regarding the path ahead.

However, he himself was quite a cheerful and optimistic person, quickly casting these anxious and vexing matters to the back of his mind and starting a passionate League of Legends battle with his classmates.

"Urf mode is open again recently, shall we get a game going?"

"Nonsense, I just bought the newly released skin today, nobody better fight me for Ez!"

"Brother Xiuer, Brother Xiu, the invitation has been sent, hurry up and enter the room. Today, buddy specially found those two pretty girls from our group assignment back then. If you come along and get over 30 kills to carry them to victory, heh heh..."

Because he studied abroad, Shuichi had quite a lot of lonely time, and it could be said that he had transformed from a good child who used to study diligently into a somewhat secretly repressed homebody.

When he was young, animes like Naruto were only followed intermittently, but by now he had browsed through even the manga more than 5 times.

Shuichi himself had watched a great deal of anime, but only Naruto was his True Love.

In his spare time, Shuichi did not have many special hobbies, and he did not call for services to come party in his rental apartment like those overly unrestrained second-generation students.

Usually, he only occasionally exercised, played games, and watched anime, though with his extra disposable income he had actually bought quite a few Naruto figures.

"What's the rush? Carrying them to victory won't lead to anything anyway; in two months won't everyone go their separate ways? ...I'm in." Shuichi was quite calm.

"Goodness, are you that calm? Well, given your conditions, you won't lack chicks when you return to China. It's started, it's started!"

Of course, although he said that, Shuichi had a little annoyance today so he decided to play well.

Shuichi occasionally looked at some Naruto spin-offs recently, but he turned his nose up at Boruto.

He believed that this was Masashi Kishimoto cashing in through commercialization to sell nostalgia after Naruto ended, which felt a bit like an insult to his intelligence for someone who grew up watching Naruto.

Thinking of Naruto, he suddenly felt his hands itching, and the desire to play Ninja Heroes grew stronger and stronger.

Glancing at the hero list, he directly and instantly locked in Akali at the very front.

They quickly entered the game, perhaps stimulated by the girl's voice, or perhaps due to some melancholy of the graduation season, but today Shuichi appeared exceptionally aggressive.

He secured Mejai's Soulstealer at 4 minutes, and in less than 20 minutes he had already achieved 30 kills. He didn't even attack the towers, nearly trapping the opposing 5 players right inside their fountain.

The more he played, the flashier Shuichi's posture became. He leaned halfway back in his chair and stretched his feet forward, failing to notice that his big feet were about to poke right into the middle of the power strip's outlets.

Perhaps even Heaven couldn't watch any longer, as Shuichi suddenly pressed Flash a fraction of a second too late and was finally sanctioned by the opposing team.

Just as he wanted to slam the keyboard and unleash a torrent of abuse, the power outlet suddenly sparked with current, and Shuichi only felt his whole body instantly go weak and powerless, his vision turning pitch black before he knew anything more.

When he woke up, all parts of his body had an out-of-control, paralyzed sensation, and it took him a long time to barely manage to get up.

He discovered that he had turned into a child and was residing in a very old-looking wooden house.

The room had a thick Japanese-style layout, extremely similar to what he had seen in his past life on the Douyin app.

At first, Shuichi even thought he had been sent to a hospital and was dreaming.

As a result, memories resembling a first-person film recording kept popping up in his mind from time to time over the past few days, and he finally understood that he had transmigrated into Konoha Village in Naruto, becoming a 4-year-old orphan named Takeda Shuichi.

Takeda Shuichi's previous incarnation was born into a family where both parents were ninja.

His father, Takeda Kenta, was a Special Jonin of Konoha Village, and their ancestors were said to have included famous samurai long ago.

Yet in the era of the current Five Great Nations, they were merely descendants of villagers who had settled here out of admiration when Konoha was founded; reaching the level of a Special Jonin in under 30 years of time was already considered truly remarkable.

Meanwhile, Shuichi's mother was a Chunin originating from a similar family background, but she possessed a certain talent in Medical Ninjutsu.

She could be considered an old-time veteran ninja who followed Princess Tsunade to establish Konoha's medical system.

Precisely because of these conditions, Shuichi was not taken into the Konoha Orphanage after his parents died.

The village reclaimed his parents' original house and allocated him a dwelling very similar to the house Naruto had in his past life, yet slightly removed from the center of Konoha, situated right beside the Konoha Village reservoir.

Takeda Shuichi's original self could be considered a lively child, but after learning a half-month ago that both parents had perished, he first suffered from excessive grief, and upon moving to his current residence his whole person had remained listless and dazed as well.

A few days ago, Shuichi's soul transmigrated over, and he accepted this body completely without much hindrance—after all, being a 4-year-old child, his memories and such were also rather limited.

At present, the Shinobi World could hardly be called peaceful, remaining squarely in the late Second Shinobi War.

Yet Shuichi knew that the Second Shinobi War would end not long from now; his original body's parents dying during this period could only be described as supremely unlucky.

During his first few days here, Shuichi also found himself yearning for his parents from before his transmigrated life, since many things felt like nothing while one was accustomed to them, yet only once lost did one realize their preciousness.

Fortunately, my older brother, older sisters, and younger brother are all still around. I can only hope that when my parents hear news of me they won't be too heartbroken, and will be able to live happily, Shuichi thought silently to himself.

Through these days since his transmigration, Shuichi could only comfort himself that in this lifetime he must live well.

Although the Naruto portrayed in manga and anime was a passionate world, even with just a rough understanding of the plot's details, one could deduce that it was a cruel world filled with slaughter, schemes, and betrayal.

As for the reborn Takeda Shuichi, the first problem he had to face was his own future path.