Just like the school bullying in Japan in his previous life, the Naruto World, itself a product of Japanese 2D culture, was equally rife with bullying.
The emperor's grandson had been bullied in his previous life, and the Naruto World was no exception.
Those who were unconventional and withdrawn, or handsome and academically gifted, were easily bullied by classmates and upperclassmen as long as they did not fit in.
And Konoha's rabble did not care about one's background at all.
Whether one was a civilian or the child of a ninja clan, they would be bullied all the same.
Whether it was Uzumaki Kushina, who was to become the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki and had Uzumaki Mito and Tsunade protecting her while receiving special attention from the Third Hokage and the Anbu, or Hyuga Hinata, the eldest daughter of the Hyuga Clan's main family—a clan that would become the foremost ninja clan in Konoha and the Ninja World after the Uchiha Clan's destruction—they had both suffered bullying at the Ninja Academy.
Furthermore, neither their clans, their backers, nor the academy would intervene.
Likewise, when others were bullied, their clans and the academy would not step in either.
They even condoned and encouraged bullying!
In this war-torn world, where even apprentice ninjas only a few years old would be sent to the battlefield when manpower ran short, it was better to be bullied into dropping out and going home to live as an ordinary person than to die at the enemy's hands.
Without the courage to fight back, how would they face bloodshed and assassinations in the future?
What was a piece of trash doing trying to become a ninja?
Less than a week after entering the academy, Gojo Yoru understood this. He deliberately fashioned himself into a cold and aloof loner, then picked a conflict with an upperclassman. With his mature mindset and the ninja fundamentals he had mastered in advance, he beat down an upperclassman who had advanced to sixth grade, becoming famous in a single battle.
In the eyes of the academy's teachers and certain others, Gojo Yoru was already a civilian genius.
With both parents being jonin and himself a descendant of martyrs, his future looked bright.
His only flaw was that he did not fit in.
That was likely due to the trauma of losing both parents in childhood.
As long as that issue could be resolved, he would very likely become one of the village's pillars in the future.
To unravel Gojo Yoru's inner knot, he needed an opportunity.
So would that opportunity come in the form of a person, or an event?
Walking into the classroom, Gojo Yoru took a seat at the second desk in the last row.
The Ninja Academy's desks seated three students each.
Yet Gojo Yoru sat alone.
Of course, it was not because he had driven his desk mates away. After passing the entrance exam, students still had to undergo a period of observation.
During that period, if a student still could not refine Chakra, it meant that although their Physical Energy and Mental Energy met the standard, they lacked the aptitude to be a ninja and could only be persuaded to withdraw.
Every first-year class had cases like that.
Class One had also dismissed three students, including Gojo Yoru's two desk mates.
The moment Gojo Yoru entered, the previously noisy classroom immediately quieted down considerably.
At the very least, the students around him did not dare speak loudly and could only whisper among themselves.
The students in the row ahead of Gojo Yoru kept their heads lowered and did not even dare speak.
Only the girls who liked Gojo Yoru's face and strength continued to steal glances at him, though they likewise did not dare approach him.
That was a good thing. At least no one came to bother him.
Gojo Yoru propped his chin up with one hand and spun a pen with the other. He appeared to be killing time, but in truth, he was already thinking out of habit.
Ever since awakening his Space-Time Ninjutsu, Gojo Yoru had stopped updating the Game Guide and rarely entered the basement.
With a power no less formidable than Kekkei Mōra, Gojo Yoru no longer needed to follow the original Game Guide and turn himself into some stitched-together monstrosity.
Thus, Gojo Yoru had discarded most of the guides meant to acquire power.
However, he had retained certain guides.
One of them was the beginning of the Game Guide—intercept Uzumaki Kushina!
Namikaze Minato's rise in the Original Work had depended not only on talent, but also on two benefactors.
One was Jiraiya, who gave him connections and the Flying Thunder God Technique. The other was Uzumaki Kushina, who brought him Tsunade's support and the Uzumaki Clan's Fuinjutsu.
With the help of those two, Namikaze Minato had effectively gained the approval of two of the Sannin and the Hokage. Once Uzumaki Kushina became a perfect Jinchuriki, he would also have Konoha's strongest as his backer, leaving Shimura Danzō powerless against him.
It was just like how certain people in his previous life soared to great heights the moment they married a good wife.
As long as he could intercept Uzumaki Kushina, Gojo Yoru, as a transmigrator, was fully confident that he too could soar to great heights.
If his talent had not been good enough, if his background had been lacking, or if he had not been in the same class and of the same age as Namikaze Minato, Gojo Yoru would not have dared entertain such thoughts.
But after discovering that he was in the same class as Namikaze Minato, Gojo Yoru knew this was an opportunity to defy fate and change his destiny.
For that reason, he gave up on befriending his peers and becoming close friends with the children of ninja clans, instead crafting the persona of a genius who did not fit in.
Only bonds could resolve his inner knot.
Uzumaki Kushina, whose clan had just been destroyed, was his kindred spirit. They were each other's cure.
With that groundwork laid, Gojo Yoru believed that Sarutobi Hiruzen and Uzumaki Mito behind him would never stop him from getting close to Uzumaki Kushina—unless Namikaze Minato was Sarutobi Hiruzen's biological father, and Uzumaki Kushina had been sent by the latter to show filial devotion to his father.
If that were the case, Gojo Yoru would accept it.
Otherwise, Uzumaki Kushina was his for the taking!
Gojo Yoru's weaknesses were obvious: Chakra control and the amount of his Space-Time Chakra.
As a transmigrator, he had long mastered tree climbing with his feet and walking on water. His Chakra control was already strong, better even than that of newly graduated genin.
Yet even this level of Chakra control was still insufficient to use Space-Time Chakra to perform ninjutsu.
The fact that Space-Time Chakra could manifest outside the body meant it could definitely be used to cast techniques; it was simply extremely difficult.
How could he further improve his Chakra control?
Gojo Yoru had several methods.
The first was to train in the Rasengan. This hand-signless A-rank ninjutsu developed by Namikaze Minato was not only the pinnacle of Shape Transformation, but also an advanced form of Chakra control.
It was also the only ninjutsu in the Original Work with its complete training method revealed. Gojo Yoru remembered it with perfect clarity, and once his hands and feet could move, he had immediately written down the training method.
If his Chakra reserves and Chakra control had met the requirements, he would have begun training long ago.
The second was Medical Ninjutsu. If he could master the Chakra Scalpel, Gojo Yoru's Chakra control would not only improve, but his hands might even become Black Blades.
The third was Fuinjutsu. It was the pinnacle of Chakra control and, like Space-Time Ninjutsu, a power with absurdly high floors and ceilings.
Fuinjutsu was utterly unreasonable. Even the Mother of Chakra had fallen to it.
Gojo Yoru was very curious whether the Yin Seal could solve the problem of his Space-Time Chakra being locked at a fixed amount.
If it could, Gojo Yoru would gain another trump card to protect his life.
That thought had occurred to Gojo Yoru the moment he discovered the "bottleneck" within his body.
And it only made him more determined to intercept Uzumaki Kushina.
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