Different Paths

Konohagakure, Land of Fire.

Ninja figures had already begun moving through the streets, while the faint sounds of kunai slicing through the air and training shouts drifted from the direction of the training grounds.

Minamoto Takuya stood before his home, spreading open his still-small palm as his gaze settled on the distinct lines running across it.

His brows furrowed slightly. An indescribable sense of dissonance had always lingered in his heart, as though an invisible membrane separated his soul from this body, or as though the laws of this world held some subtle rejection toward him.

He focused, trying to trace the source of that strange feeling, yet as his thoughts churned, everything seemed to return to a preset "normal" track.

The state a child born and raised in Konoha for six years ought to be in.

He shook his head helplessly and let out an almost inaudible sigh.

Six years.

It had been exactly six years since the meteor called "transmigration" had struck his life and thrown him into this conflict-ridden world known as Naruto.

Over those long two thousand-plus days and nights, he had spent countless sleepless nights praying with utmost sincerity for the arrival of that light representing a "cheat"—the legendary "system."

He had imagined a cold mechanical notification sounding in his mind, imagined a status panel visible only to him appearing before his eyes, imagined the surprises brought by a beginner's gift pack...

That was practically the standard entry ticket for every protagonist in a transmigration novel, his greatest hope for settling down and surviving in this perilous ninja world.

Yet reality was cold as iron.

Even now, even at this very moment, the "system" he had long awaited remained nowhere to be found, without even the faintest trace of its existence.

Forget tangible help—he had