Splash.
Moonlight flowed like water, settling over the stream below.
In the reed beds downstream from the Naka River, rustling came from the bushes.
Splash.
"Oh yeah, awesome! I finally got a bite!"
Amid a spray of water, a little yellow-haired boy beamed with delight.
Right in front of him,
a saury he had just caught was wriggling restlessly.
Water splashed everywhere.
Quite a bit of it even landed on the yellow-haired boy's head, soaking his hair.
The four-year-old was drenched, his dirty little face set with vivid blue eyes.
But he wasn't angry in the slightest. In fact, he grinned even more happily. "Hehe! This must be half a catty! I can finally eat my fill today!"
His smile was simple and innocent, with not a trace of the misery of hunger in his eyes.
Only longing and anticipation for the things he wanted.
Crackle, crackle.
As the campfire caught, its reddish glow slowly roasted the cleaned fish until it turned golden and crisp.
The aroma gradually drifted outward, too.
Crackle.
But just then, footsteps sounded outside.
They weren't loud, but by the riverside, where only the fish had been roasting, they stood out.
"Who's there!"
The yellow-haired boy sprang up at once, raising his arms in front of him in a defensive stance.
At this time of day, the only ones who usually came near him were those nasty kids from the village.
When they saw him, they either threw stones or hurled insults at him.
But he hadn't done anything wrong.
Rustle, rustle, rustle.
This time, though, he waited a long while, and the person opposite him didn't throw any stones.
They simply emerged slowly from behind a tree.
He was a head taller than the boy.
His long black hair was tied behind his head, and his handsome features were gentle. He didn't look at all like the people who usually gazed at the boy with disgust.
His clothes also seemed somewhat familiar.
They looked like the clothes worn by one of the village's major clans.
"Big b-big brother... who are you?"
After hesitating for a moment, Naruto's wariness made him keep his eyes fixed on the boy.
"So it really is you... Naruto."
The newcomer was Uchiha Jin.
After getting the news from Itachi at nightfall, he had left a clone behind in the clan.
His real body had come out to loot a corpse.
A Cloud Shinobi's corpse.
The character was destined to die in the original story. What difference did it make whose hands he died by?
After he finished looting the body and sensed someone pursuing him, he had planned to leave immediately.
But then he suddenly sensed that someone seemed to be by the river.
Among all the kids in Konoha, there seemed to be only one who would be alone by the river at this hour—
the Protagonist, Naruto.
"You know me, big brother?"
Hearing someone call his name seemed to excite little Naruto.
His small face flushed red.
Then his orange eyes darted around. As if he had made up his mind, he scratched his head and said,
"Big brother, have some fish! Hehe!"
At that moment, the excited and happy boy didn't know how to respond to someone knowing who he was.
He simply instinctively shared the thing that mattered most to him.
Grr—
But as soon as he finished speaking, his stomach rumbled.
Clearly, four-year-old Naruto was already starving.
"Just having someone know your name is enough to make you this happy?"
Seeing Naruto's expression, Jin shook his head.
If that man, who had even considered his son in the moments before his death, knew that his child had ended up living like this—
would he still have been able to leave so peacefully?
Unfortunately, the Uchiha Clan had been under the village's close watch from early on.
Jin had tried more than once to meet and speak with Naruto.
But whenever he approached Naruto's home, he immediately felt as though a thorn were pricking his back.
Clearly, the Anbu keeping watch had stepped up their surveillance.
Ever since the Nine-Tails' attack, the Anbu—or Root, rather—had been keeping an eye on him.
It was obvious that none of the village's higher-ups wanted the Uchiha to have anything to do with the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki.
There was nothing he could do. Jin could only give up on approaching Naruto for now.
He didn't want the village to truly start keeping a close eye on him this early.
"Yeah... it really isn't that tasty. I don't have many seasonings yet."
Seeing Jin shake his head, little Naruto thought he disliked the fish.
He lowered his head sadly.
He looked like a big quail, tucking his head down.
"Hehe, that's not what I meant. I just haven't... How about this? Let's eat together."
"Really?! Okay!"
At once, a light shone in the eyes of this lonely child.
Little Naruto seemed to have endless things to say.
With every bite of fish, he could talk for ages.
Jin didn't bring up anything else. He simply sat with him and ate, occasionally responding with a word or two.
If Sasuke saw this, his jaw would hit the ground.
Since when had his chatterbox older brother become so quiet?
As time passed, Jin finally saw some of Naruto's traits.
[Conversation Target: Uzumaki Naruto.] [Talk for Ten Minutes to Copy Traits: Talk no Jutsu (Black), Child of Destiny (Rainbow), Nine-Tails Jinchuriki (Gold), Chakra Ton (Gold), Agile (White).]
A rather sparse set of traits.
Aside from the ones he had been born with, the only one he had gained in four years was Agile.
At least he'd had a somewhat different childhood, right?
Jin murmured to himself, but he was even more excited.
Fewer traits meant fewer possible traits for him to copy.
Among five traits, four of them were bug-level!
That meant an 80% chance of copying a good trait!
Wasn't that a good thing?
Jin smiled, then looked forward to the System's prompt.
[Copy successful. Congratulations, host, you have obtained the ordinary trait Agile (White).]
Jin: ...
Was that 80% chance a lie?
A flicker of regret crossed his eyes.
But it soon faded, and he returned to his usual calm.
Meeting Naruto had been a pleasant surprise in itself. What was there to lament if he had managed to copy a trait?
Without another word, he said, "System, merge it into the Swift Shadow trait."
[Merge successful. Swift Shadow (Blue) has increased slightly.]
A familiar warmth, more familiar than ever, swept through him.
Jin could clearly feel his limbs—
and... nothing had changed.
The increase wasn't much.
Or rather, this proportion didn't amount to much.
The elite trait Swift Shadow (Blue) had been upgraded from Light as a Swallow after years of feeding it the Agile trait.
The improvement it brought was considerable. At the very least, when he deliberately controlled himself, he could walk without making a sound.
Combined with his rainbow-grade trait Weak Presence, it was nearly a perfect fit.
Of course, over the years, Jin had fed more than just this one trait.
He stirred, chatting as he instinctively looked at the little figure before him and checked his attributes.
[Name: Uchiha Jin.] [Chakra: 1000025.] [Traits: Seven-Year Itch (Black), Golden Body of Light (Rainbow), Weak Presence (Rainbow), Flying Thunder God Technique (Gold) Lv. 4, Distinguished Background (Purple), Sharingan (Purple), Byakugan (Purple), Adamantine Sealing Chains · Remnant (Purple), Cloud Style Body Technique (Purple), Lightning Release Mastery (Blue), Fire Style Affinity (Blue), Swift Shadow (Blue), Dynamic Vision (Green), Eight Trigrams Palm (Green)...]
He had quite a few traits.
But his age limited how much he could strengthen his body.
He knew that precocious children were prone to burning out early.
Besides, in his previous life, he had watched so many child actors who loved martial arts, and most of them never grew very tall.
That also reflected one thing: the body shouldn't be overtaxed.
Muscle could restrict bone growth, too.
After musing for a while, he focused his attention on Flying Thunder God.
That was another trait he had kept feeding for the past four years!
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