Arrival

"If only I could do some wall-crawling and roof-leaping!" Qi Shuang sighed, looking at the crowded street ahead.

The apartment he rented wasn't far from his company, only about a ten-minute walk. But every day during rush hour, the street would be packed with guys like him heading to work.

A ten-minute commute was stretched to twenty because of the sheer number of pedestrians.

If he could scale walls and leap across roofs, he could take shortcuts and wouldn't have to worry about being late for work all the time.

Suddenly, he felt a pat on his shoulder.

He turned his head and saw a slightly immature face appear in his vision.

It was a child, not even ten years old, retracting his hand from Qi Shuang's shoulder. It looked like the kid had just slapped him.

"At this time of day, why is there a kid here?" Qi Shuang wondered, a bit confused.

"Wait!"

"Something feels off around here!"

He noticed a bunch of other kids, about the same age, behind the first child. More importantly, the ground beneath the first child's feet was paved with wooden planks.

He'd walked this route to work countless times and didn't remember any section paved with wooden planks!

Snapping back to reality, he immediately scanned his surroundings and realized he wasn't on his usual commute route at all. Instead, he was in a vast hall, brightly lit by numerous large lamps that shone like stars, illuminating the entire space as if it were daytime!

"Wait! Why can't I see the top of his head?" Qi Shuang discovered an even stranger problem.

Although he wasn't particularly tall himself, just average height for an adult, he should have been able to look down on a child under ten.

Yet, his gaze was level with the child's.

This meant he had likely shrunk!

He then looked down and found his feet were more than a size smaller, and even his clothes had changed.

"How could this happen?" he asked, raising his own childish hands in panic.

The abnormalities made him realize he was probably no longer in the world he'd been rushing to work in, but had arrived in an unknown world.

Even more terrifying was that his body had become smaller, or perhaps it wasn't his original body at all!

"Hey, Xiao Lin! What's wrong?" Seeing his strange expression, the child asked in surprise.

"Xiao Lin? Who's Xiao Lin?" Qi Shuang looked up sharply, only to find the child staring intently at him.

Just then, the name "Xiao Lin" seemed to trigger a crucial nerve in his body, and a flood of memories surged into his mind.

"Ah—"

Qi Shuang cried out, clutching his head and squatting down in pain.

The sudden influx of memories felt like a nail being forcibly driven into his brain, causing him excruciating pain.

"Teacher! Xiao Lin seems a bit off, could you come take a look quickly!" Seeing his pale face, the child immediately called out to two adults standing at the edge of the hall.

They were wearing grey light armor and headbands with four wave-like markings.

"These brats are never easy," one of them grumbled, clearly reluctant to go over.

The other curled his lips and said helplessly, "Be grateful! We're training these little ones back here and haven't been sent to the front lines. That's already the greatest luck!"

"I heard the front lines have suffered countless casualties! With our meager skills, we probably wouldn't last three days!"

He then walked over.

"I know what you mean, but dealing with these kids every day just doesn't make me happy!" the other man shook his head and followed.

"Hey! Kid, what's going on with you?" one of them asked Qi Shuang, who was still squatting with his head in his hands.

"My... my head... it hurts... it hurts a lot!" Qi Shuang managed to squeeze out through gritted teeth.

"Headache?"

The other man scratched his head and said to his companion, "Try using your Healing Technique on him. He was fine just a moment ago, it shouldn't be a big problem!"

"Yeah!"

His companion responded, placing his hands about a fist's distance from Qi Shuang's head. A faint green light then emanated from his palms.

"Wow... is that Healing Technique? It's so convenient! I want to learn it too!" Seeing this, one of the children around them exclaimed with admiration.

"Mhm! Me too!" The other children chimed in.

"What are you looking at! Are you all bored? The Ninja graduation exam is coming up soon! Are you ready? Do you want to die in the exam hall!" another man with a headband shouted at the children.

Hearing the word "die," the children's faces turned ashen, and they all warily eyed their companions.

Some even openly displayed naked killing intent!

The children who had been cheerfully playing together moments before now looked like enemies who could turn on each other at any moment!

"That's more like it!"

Seeing this, the man nodded with satisfaction and continued, "As ninjas, you must always remain vigilant!"

"Especially in the upcoming Ninja graduation exam, the person who kills you might be your best friend right now!"

"Therefore, all the candidates here are your enemies!"

"When facing enemies, you must maintain a high level of vigilance! Cut off all distracting thoughts, and only then can you successfully pass the graduation exam!"

Upon hearing this, the entire place fell silent, but among the children, the atmosphere of slaughter grew even thicker.

"How do you feel now?" The green light on his hand dissipated, and the person immediately asked Qi Shuang.

"Thank you, Teacher, I feel much better!" Releasing the head he was holding, Qi Shuang slowly stood up and replied with a smile.

With the help of the person just now, he had finally digested the sudden surge of memories.

He finally knew where he was.

This was the Hidden Mist Ninja Village, and he had arrived in the world of Naruto!

That extremely famous anime world!

And he, or more accurately, the body his consciousness now inhabited, was about to face the ninja graduation exam.

The problem lay precisely here.

If his consciousness had possessed a child from any of the other four great villages, it would have been fine. But unfortunately, it had possessed a child from the Hidden Mist Ninja Village.

Because, he learned from the memories, the Hidden Mist Village's ninja graduation exam had an extremely bizarre and cruel rule.

One must kill a fellow examinee from the same testing ground to graduate successfully!

For a person from modern civilization, killing was an extremely heavy burden.

He didn't know if he could bring himself to do it.

More importantly, once they officially entered the testing grounds, it wasn't certain who would kill whom.

If it were the original owner of this body, it would be fine. Although not old, he had at least received proper ninja training and was an apprentice ninja.

Fighting against examinees of the same age would have a fifty-fifty chance of success.

But he had only just arrived in this world. Even though he possessed all the memories of this body and mastered all the abilities "he" owned, there was still a difference between knowing and being proficient.

After all, it was Qi Shuang's own consciousness controlling the body now.

Knowing how to do something was one thing; being proficient was another.

Going into the testing grounds so hastily meant there was a ninety-nine percent chance of being killed!