Civilian Ninja

"If only I had transmigrated earlier. Even without a cheat, I wouldn't be living such a precarious life right now, would I?"

Others transmigrated into the womb with Six Paths Bloodline, or at the very least, as fresh-faced toddlers just starting at the Ninja Academy, with plenty of time to develop.

He, on the other hand, transmigrated half a year ago and became a critically endangered, twenty-year-old Cannon Fodder Chunin.

At the prime age of twenty, it seemed like this transmigration had gifted him several extra years of life.

But in reality, considering the average lifespan of a ninja is only in their teens, he was now a seasoned, elderly ninja.

Especially now, during the Second Great Ninja War, on the front lines in the Land of Rivers.

He was both elderly and in a high-risk situation.

The kind where he could be six feet under at any moment.

When he first transmigrated, he heard people calling him [Sha Shi Gai] and even thought he had transmigrated as Uchiha Sasuke. Unfortunately, he never found his good buddy [Naruto].

It was only later that he learned his name was [Umino Sasuke]. His surname was Umino, and he was a Konoha Ninja. His first thought was of [Konoha's Old Mother] Umino Iruka, and Iruka's Parents: Upper Ninja Umino Ikaku and Umino Kozue, who both perished during the Nine-Tails' Rampage.

Sharing the same surname, Umino, he initially thought he was a relative of Umino Iruka. With two Upper Ninjas in the family, he figured the Umino Clan must be one of those slightly awesome but very low-key ninja clans never mentioned in the original story?

If he couldn't get the Six Paths Bloodline, being born into a Konoha Ninja Clan would have been good.

Being born into a Konoha Ninja Clan was indeed advantageous. It wasn't quite being born in Rome, but at the very least, his starting point would have been streets ahead of those civilian laborers.

Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned.

Based on the fragmented memories in his mind, he realized that Konoha had no such thing as the Umino Ninja Clan. He wasn't even related to Umino Ikaku or Umino Kozue. Instead, he had deep ties to the Sarutobi Clan.

His ability to become a ninja, and even a Konoha Villager, was entirely thanks to the Sarutobi Clan.

His ancestors for three generations were civilians, vassals of the Sarutobi Clan, purely from the tenant farmer servant class.

Although the Sarutobi Clan wasn't a top-tier clan like the Senju or Uchiha, they were a second-tier ninja clan. They even maintained a Fire Release Brigade and owned considerable assets in the Land of Fire.

The Sarutobi Clan's main business was being ninjas. While many members without ninja talent chose to manage the family's assets, there weren't that many. To completely manage such vast assets was naturally beyond the capabilities of one person, so promoting house-born servants to assist in managing the assets became the preferred option.

His grandfather, Umino Tairou, was promoted by the ever-expanding Sarutobi Clan due to his handsome appearance and basic literacy. He was tasked with assisting the Sarutobi Foreign Affairs Members in managing the fish ponds and mines in the Akihabara area.

His status wasn't high, only slightly better than those tenant farmers who could only scratch a living from the soil. But at least he wouldn't starve to death and could have a few more children.

During the Warring States Period, human lives were as cheap as grass. Being a vassal of a powerful clan and finding a place to settle was something many people dreamed of.

When Konoha was founded, to bolster its population, many of these clan vassals naturally followed their main clans into Konoha to settle and become Konoha Villagers.

The Umino Clan, though they missed the first major wave of immigration during Konoha's founding, caught up during the village's expansion.

After Hiruzen Sarutobi became the Third Hokage, Konoha Village underwent another expansion. Who would be more reliable than house-born servants for rootless refugees?

Thus, the Umino Clan responded to the Sarutobi Clan's call and became the second batch of immigrants, moving into Konohagakure.

They gloriously upgraded from tenant farmers and servants to independent urban dwellers, and not just any urban dwellers, but those in a top-tier city in the Land of Fire, achieving a certain degree of social mobility.

However, at that time, the Umino Clan had no backing within the Sarutobi Clan. The competition for servant positions in the Sarutobi Clan was fierce, and they ultimately couldn't compete with the older generation of immigrants, nor with those who had already sent their children to secure patronage. They perfectly missed the opportunity to continue receiving the Sarutobi Clan's provisions.

They could only reluctantly become ordinary villagers of Konoha, serving to bolster its population.

Living in Konoha is not easy.

Konoha, though called a village, is in reality a large city with a population exceeding one hundred thousand and extremely high prices.

Housing prices and rent are outrageously expensive.

A bowl of ramen, even before the price inflation of the Naruto and Sasuke era, cost fifty to sixty ryō.

Regarding housing, ninjas and war orphans generally have basic guaranteed housing. Ordinary villagers, on the other hand, can only rent or spend a huge sum to buy a house.

It can only be said that ninjas are indeed high-income earners; everything is expensive.

If the Umino Clan hadn't already managed fish ponds for the Sarutobi Clan and possessed skills in raising and selling fish to make a living, they would have gone bankrupt long ago, been expelled from Konohagakure, and become refugees whose lives were as cheap as grass.

The Umino Clan's second venture was to become fishmongers in Konoha's fish market. However, they were not Gao Qiqiang; they were just bottom-tier fish sellers. Apart from food, clothing, housing, and transportation, they could barely maintain a basic livelihood, earning a meager wage for their hard work.

This was even with the ability to eat some of the unsold rotten fish and dead shrimp, which significantly reduced their food expenses. Otherwise, for a bottom-tier civilian family like his, it would have been impossible to raise someone like the previous owner, an ordinary child without any genetic mutations, into a glorious ninja through the efforts of just one generation.

The fact that the previous owner was renamed [Sasuke] by his parents in childhood shows how much the Umino Clan hoped to nurture a powerful ninja.

The name [Sasuke] did not refer to Uchiha Sasuke, but to Sarutobi Sasuke, the father of the Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi, a Kage-level powerhouse from the same era as Senju Hashirama.

Naming him Sasuke was not about wanting to be Hiruzen Sarutobi's father, but rather a special sentiment and respect.

More people in Konoha were named [Hashirama], and those with names containing [ma] were even more numerous than stars.

Heaven, in the end, did not fail the determined.

The entire family scrimped and saved, pouring all their nourishment into one person, and finally managed to train a ninja.

The Umino Clan, naturally, welcomed another leap in social status, from a bottom-tier civilian to the ninja class.

Although ninjas were no longer considered nobility like samurai of the past, they possessed all the privileges they were entitled to.

At the very least, their fish sales no longer had to pay a commission. This commission was higher than their original profit from selling fish. Before, they were purely working for others, only earning a hard-earned wage.

Of course, if the work wasn't hard and the profit wasn't low, their family wouldn't have had the chance to sell fish in the first place.

Ever since the previous owner graduated from the Ninja Academy and became a Genin of Konoha, the Umino Clan had undergone earth-shattering changes.

The previous owner graduated from the Ninja Academy at the age of 10. It was Konoha Year 28, a period of the longest peace in the ninja world.

The First Great Ninja War had a peace period of more than ten years before the Second Great Ninja War, which started last year.

Perhaps thanks to the political influence of the Sarutobi Clan, he entered the Ninja Academy just as the First Great Ninja War was ending. His aptitude test score was just barely above the line, but he wasn't weeded out and luckily got into the regular class of the Ninja Academy.

By the time of graduation, he had perfectly missed the First Great Ninja War.

Ninjas are a high-income group. Even for genin, their income during peacetime is quite considerable.

High income comes with high risk.

Even during peacetime, unexpected events can occur during missions.

It's very rare for a normal C-rank mission to turn into a B-rank mission, but it's not impossible.

After several unexpected missions and surviving several life-or-death trials, it took him six years. Just before reaching adulthood, he finally managed to become a Konoha Chunin.

Upon becoming a Chunin, his income didn't just increase severalfold; the Umino Clan finally experienced another significant leap in social status.

Genin are expendable, but Chunin are the backbone of Konoha.

Various hidden benefits also gradually became available to him, such as exchanging Mission Merit Points for ninjutsu and low-interest loans for housing.

The ultra-low-interest housing developed by the Senju Clan had long been sold out, but the Sarutobi Clan's earth-style ninjutsu infrastructure was also quite skilled. The housing they developed, although more expensive with higher interest rates and not located on main roads, had the advantage of being in a first-tier city in the Land of Fire, with definite future appreciation potential.

After less than a year as a Chunin, he moved out of the Senju Clan's low-rent housing and successfully purchased a home with a loan.

After working for another two years, the mortgage was completely paid off. During this time, he even managed to buy a small shop in the fish market for his family.

No wonder Konoha Villagers aspired to become ninjas. It wasn't about the Will of Fire; it was because the ninja profession truly had a lucrative future.