Ninjutsu Monopoly

But those good days did not last for many years.

Hanzo of the Salamander from the Land of Rain had no idea which screw had come loose—or perhaps he was simply too stubborn—but he actually took the initiative to start a ninja war, intending to stand alone against the Three Great Powers of the Ninja World.

Ōnoki, the Third Tsuchikage of Iwagakure, was a shrewd old fox. His political slogans were deafening, but all thunder and no rain; rather than directly sending troops into the Land of Rain, he merely stationed troops on the border.

Sunagakure, poor enough to piss blood, had long wanted to start a ninja war. It seized the chance to march into the Land of Rain, burning, killing, and looting all the way.

As the hegemon of the ninja world, Konoha could not possibly stand by and watch its friendly Sand Ninja neighbors grow bigger and stronger—ostensibly to preserve Ninja World Peace, though more likely to protect its own interests.

Thus, in the Land of Rain, an absurd scene took shape: a Three-Nation Ninja Melee between the Rain Ninja, Sand Ninja, and Konoha.

After initially feeding on the Land of Rain and recovering quite a bit, Sunagakure had its offensive stopped by Hanzo of the Salamander and Konoha, so it changed strategy and opened a new battlefield.

Sunagakure had coveted the Fertility of the Land of Fire for a long time. Now that it had an excuse to send troops, it decisively marched into the Land of Rivers, intending to invade the Land of Fire from the Eastern Front.

It was at this time that the original owner followed the main Konoha Ninja Army force to the Front Lines of the Land of Rivers to resist the Sand Ninja.

He held out on the battlefield for over half a year, but in the end, he could not resist the summons of the Pure Land of the Six Paths. A Sand Ninja Puppet Master struck him into a near-death crisis, and it was precisely this brush with death that brought him here.

Fortunately, when he had first transmigrated, he spent more than a week recovering at Leaf Hospital. Otherwise, sending a rookie like him, someone who had never even killed a chicken, straight onto the battlefield would have been no different from serving himself up on a platter.

Before transmigrating, he had merely been an ordinary 996 Corporate Slave born Under the Red Flag. Even his transmigration had been utterly unremarkable.

Exhausted from overtime work, he went to sleep, then woke up to find himself inexplicably transmigrated into Umino Sasuke.

He was not some Orphan of Konoha. Both his parents were alive, and he had a younger brother and sister, though he was currently the only ninja in the Umino Clan.

Having inherited the original owner's memories and emotions, he quickly mastered all of the original owner's Ninja Skills during this gap while recovering from his injuries.

Otherwise, with no Golden Finger and no Killing and Arson Skills, if he had gone directly to the battlefield, he probably would not have lasted even half a day.

After transmigrating, his mental strength had surged, his chakra had nearly doubled, and his Chakra Control was no weaker than that of some Medical Ninja.

But he came from an ordinary civilian family and possessed only ordinary Bloodline Talent. Chunin was already his limit.

Had he transmigrated a few years earlier, before consuming large amounts of Soldier Pills during his Rapid Growth Period, and had he not rushed for quick results but steadily tapped into his potential, he might still have had some chance of becoming a jonin through constant bloody trials in the ninja war.

Now, this body was already an adult, and its potential had basically been exhausted. It was almost impossible to greatly improve his Chakra and Bodily Functions any further.

Unless he mastered Snake Lady's core technology or mutated.

Although he had not finished watching Naruto in his previous life and had only made it as far as Shippuden, he still knew the general plot afterward.

Naruto was also known as Legend of the Eyes: Five Village Melee, My Six Paths Sage Father, The Thousand-Year Entanglement of Uzumaki and Uchiha, and Black Zetsu's Tale of Saving His Mother: Struggling Against a Cheating Bastard.

It kept shouting about hard work, passion, and changing everything, but in the end, How many floors can one sack of rice carry? It was all fucking Bloodline Destiny Ethics.

On the surface, it was a Hot-Blooded Anime; in truth, it was dark and brutal to the extreme.

Only after arriving in this real Naruto world did he truly feel it: not only did the Otsutsuki Clan of the Six Paths value bloodlines, but so did the Ninja Sect and commoners, while the nobility valued them even more.

Take Umino Ikaku, who came from the same background as him. They were both retainers of the Sarutobi Clan and came from the same small fishing village. Their ancestors had likely even shared the same declining samurai forebear.

But Umino Ikaku's family had been among the first Konoha Immigrants when the village was founded in the First Year of Konoha. Not only had they acquired a house from the Senju Clan at practically a giveaway price, it was in a prime location and had plenty of space. As Konoha expanded, its value had multiplied several times over.

Moreover, Umino Ikaku's father had caught a good era and become one of the First Generation Ninja early on. Of course, he had also met the Sage of Six Paths early in the First Great Ninja War. Still, thanks to his handsome face, he had married a teammate from a minor ninja clan before the war, improving the next generation's Ninja Genes and giving them at least a trace of Ninja Sect Bloodline.

As a posthumous child, Umino Ikaku naturally became a Second Generation Ninja and attended the Ninja Academy's Elite Class A.

Compared to Umino Ikaku, who had been born a Second Generation Ninja, he was undeniably a First Generation Ninja Entrepreneur from Commoner Background. The only reason he had been lucky enough to attend the Ninja Academy was that his entire family had poured all their resources into him, coupled with the political connections that came from being retainers of the Sarutobi Clan. Even then, he had barely gotten into the Ninja Academy's regular class.

Fresh out of the Ninja Academy, Second Generation Ninja Umino Ikaku had been led by a Konoha Jonin Captain on missions, while he could only follow a little Chunin captain, painstakingly taking on low-level missions and accumulating experience step by step.

Later, after grinding Soldier Pills and enduring numerous Life and Death Trials, he finally became a Chunin. It looked as if he had caught up, but in reality, the more he chased, the farther behind he fell.

Though they were now both Chunin, their status and future prospects were worlds apart.

Umino Ikaku was now a member of the Sarutobi Corps' Fire Release Brigade. Not only had he earned many merits, but he was also safe, belonging to the direct lineage of the Third Hokage's direct lineage.

His future was limitless.

If he survived this Ninja World War, becoming a jonin was practically guaranteed.

Once he accumulated enough merits and transferred out of the Fire Release Brigade, the Third Hokage would likely place him in one of the departments with real power. The Barrier Team or Ninja Academy would both be excellent choices.

Compared to him, a First Generation Ninja from Commoner Background like Sasuke would already need to burn incense in gratitude just to survive this ninja war. As for becoming a jonin, never mind solving his current Chakra and Bodily Functions problem—the Channels for Acquiring Ninjutsu alone had already firmly choked him by the throat.

In this brutal ninja world, ninjutsu meant power, and its methods of transmission were basically limited to blood, mother and child, and sexual transmission.

The ninja world was so brutal that even sexual transmission had nearly been eliminated.

All kinds of monopolies and Class Solidification were everywhere. Yet that was not the most terrifying part. What was terrifying was that almost everyone considered it reasonable.

If he had not been born in Konoha, he likely would not even have had the chance to risk his life for ninjutsu. That showed just how difficult it was to obtain ninjutsu and find a path upward in this brutal ninja world.

As a transmigrator who had watched Naruto, he did know the cultivation method for the Rasengan Series Ninjutsu. But the Rasengan was an A-Rank Ninjutsu. He was not Chaktonla, not even Chakjinla; his chakra was only slightly higher than that of a Standard Chunin, and even using an ordinary B-Rank Ninjutsu consumed more than half of it.

Learning an A-Rank Ninjutsu—especially an unsealed Pure Chakra Emission Ninjutsu like the Rasengan—with his current chakra reserves, if he truly forced himself to train it, he would probably end up with kidney deficiency.

It was common knowledge in the ninja world that B-Rank Ninjutsu were generally difficult enough for jonin to learn.

Even Kage-Level Experts usually fought using B-Rank Ninjutsu, keeping A-Rank Ninjutsu as their Trump Cards. As for S-rank Forbidden Jutsu, those were life-risking final cards.

Do not look down on B-Rank Ninjutsu or sneer at jonin. Obtaining even one B-Rank Ninjutsu was nowhere near easy, and becoming a jonin was even harder.

Elite Jonin, a rank slightly above jonin, were terrifying figures capable of commanding a front on their own in the other four great ninja villages. Only wealthy Konoha was an exception.

As for those minor ninja villages, Elite Jonin were basically at the level of village heads. In some places, even jonin could become village heads.

The political status of a ninja village head might not match that of the daimyo of their country, but it was not far off.

That alone showed how high a jonin's status was in the ninja world: unquestionably a superior being, truly on the level of powerful aristocrats.

Even in Konoha, where powerful people gathered like clouds, jonin were scarce.

Konoha Jonin possessed voting rights for the Hokage.

In Konoha, ninja clan disciples with Ninja Sect Bloodline possessed extremely generous resources and ninjutsu matching their bloodline. Yet what they strove for their entire lives was merely to become Elder Jonin; after all, Kage-Level Experts were exceedingly rare.

Even the Uchiha, Konoha magnates with Six Paths Bloodline, did not dare guarantee that they could become jonin, much less those from Ordinary Commoner Families.

For an ordinary civilian family, producing a ninja was already like becoming The Child of Others in Neighbors' Mouths.

Becoming a Chunin meant one had achieved something in one's studies, fulfilled the family's expectations, and realized one's own life value.

As for jonin, that was firmly in dream territory.

Becoming a jonin meant gaining Hokage voting rights and holding a Position Equivalent to a Minor Village Head. In his previous life, it was practically the equivalent of an ordinary nobody rising through personal effort to the level of a Leader of a Small Country. One could imagine just how difficult that was.

If a commoner family produced a jonin, it would not merely mean opening a new branch of the family tree. It would be on the level of a Founding Ancestor. If the family flourished, it might even directly establish a minor ninja clan like those great noble houses.

For most commoners, becoming Hokage was just a slogan.

Becoming a jonin was the real pursuit.

Not everyone was Orochimaru or Minato Namikaze. Most Commoner Families did not dream that big.

Only the residents of Konoha, this First-Tier City in the Land of Fire, had these so-called dreams. For the ordinary commoners outside Konoha in the Land of Fire, most spent their lives pursuing nothing more than food to eat and the most basic guarantee of safety.

If they truly had dreams, they were no more than hopes of becoming retainers to ninja clans or noble lords, or passing the civil service exam. But without connections or a special skill, they did not even have the most basic opportunity.

And that was only the treatment of ordinary commoners in the Land of Fire. For Commoners of the Land of Rain, life was even more precarious and cheap as grass. They probably dreamed every day of immigrating to the Land of Fire and becoming small citizens of a great nation.