Yamashiro Aoba Appears

Year 41 of Konohagakure

Ninja Academy

Jiang Ming looked at the very last name on the bulletin board--Yamashiro Aoba.

He incredulously took off his red-rimmed sunglasses and rubbed his eyes hard to make sure he had not misread.

"No way, I didn't even take the test, and this shit still gets me in, there's gotta be a conspiracy..."

Jiang Ming opened his mouth, but reason kept him from speaking the last words aloud.

Even if it was a supplementary admission list, it still attracted quite a few people to come and look, and goodness knows if there were Anbu members among them...

Uh~

There honestly might be.

He was already most likely under "surveillance".

As for hiding or anything like that, he had never even thought about it, truly believing those Anbu weren't just sitting around eating rice.

Infiltration and camouflage were compulsory subjects at the Ninja Academy, and being able to enter the Anbu made someone a cut above the rest.

You could doubt the Anbu's strength, but you couldn't question their professionalism.

At least until his strength hadn't reached the level where he could say "I don't eat beef," he shouldn't say things detrimental to unity.

"Well, although I was already prepared to be 'noticed', I didn't expect to be shoved into the academy first. Should I say as expected of Lord Lord Third, haha~"

Jiang Ming, no, right now he was called Yamashiro Aoba.

He had time-traveled, or rather, awakened memories of his past life.

Ever since his predecessor's parents died in the line of duty two years ago, the forced extraction of chakra had awakened his past-life wisdom.

The good news was that this was a world whose plot he knew.

The bad news was that this was the Naruto World.

Moreover, he had transmigrated at a rather dangerous point in time; right now was shortly after the Second Shinobi World War.

One had to know that the Third Shinobi World War would begin in just a few years.

And cannon fodder died most of all in the shinobi world wars.

Fortunately, he hadn't transmigrated as some unknown extra character.

Not only did he have a name and surname, but he also survived to the Fourth Shinobi World War, and in the end didn't even need to fight the Ten-Tails, heading to Turtle Island to team up with the protagonist before finally ending up doing odd jobs in the rear.

It could almost be said he won by lying down.

This point made him very satisfied indeed.

Of course, the most important thing was that Yamashiro Aoba didn't look bad when he grew up, possessing ninety percent of his past life's good looks.

Thinking of it that way, that "guy" actually seemed pretty decent too.

Oh right, that guy was called Jason something or other.

"Dimensional Transit Vanguard, Spacetime Cycle Master, the Great God of Realm Heavy Trucks--Lord Jason Welton, Your Excellency Aoba."

Just as he was thinking, a mechanical voice sounded in his mind.

"Alright, alright, you don't need to recite that guy's full title every single time."

Yamashiro Aoba had a bit of a headache over this; recently, every time he complained about that guy, the system would pop out to defend him.

Of course, this "system" wasn't the kind that could pull various magical items out of thin air or let the host master heaven-defying skills.

This system was an auxiliary chip from the future.

Its initial name was the CTB-9527 Auxiliary Spirit, but Aoba felt it was better to just rename it: System.

As for his transmigration, it was completely an accident.

He got hit by fortune.

Mm, that was meant literally.

He was hit by a fortune-dispensing heavy truck.

Could you imagine, just going downstairs to pick up a delivery, and right as he stepped out of the stairwell, a heavy-duty truck drove straight at him.

The moment before he lost consciousness, he was wondering if he had done something heinous to run into something so absurd.

After losing consciousness, Aoba met that heavy-duty truck once again in a patch of void, and then the truck transformed into human shape right before him like a Transformer.

Jiang Ming in his spirit state was completely dumbfounded; what kind of weird development was this?

And in this form, the big truck possessed even greater oppressiveness.

Then it introduced itself, saying its name was Jason Welton, the God of Realm Heavy Trucks specialized in transporting transmigrators to other worlds.

Of course, whether it was a god remained to be seen, but its transmigration ability was real.

Hitting him was completely an accident; normally it sent people off on major roads, but this time its coordinate calculation errored, and it actually teleported right into a city residential complex just as he happened to be walking downstairs.

The impact was never meant to have brakes; its purpose was to send the transmigrator to another world in an instant, allowing them to leave without any pain.

The people it hit were generally bottom-rung beasts of burden, corporate slaves, and cogs in the machine—the kind of solitary souls with no family whose sudden disappearance wouldn't even be noticed.

Someone like Jiang Ming, a successful single aristocrat, didn't belong on its list at all. It was a mistaken hit.

A mistake was a mistake, though; Jason Welton only expressed a bit of verbal pity. As for resurrection, that was out of the question.

Not only had too many people witnessed the whole process firsthand, but there were also over a dozen surveillance cameras, and the information had already been transmitted to the nation's upper echelons. It could perform localized modifications on internet data and the memories of the ordinary bystanders at the scene.

However, modifying the memories of the higher-ups was difficult, and the cost was a bit too high.

So it simply went with the mistake, treating this "transmigration" as a free gift to him.

Jiang Ming's face flickered between green and white as he listened, but the current situation was stronger than him, and after a rapid whirl of thoughts, he had no choice but to accept it.

"Mhm, not bad. I like talking to smart people the most."

Jiang Ming rolled his eyes in anger and then pointed at his own mouth.

Jason Welton's mechanical red eyes emitted a beam of light that swept over Jiang Ming, and the latter found that he could speak again.

"Compensation!"

Jiang Ming cut to the chase, making his demands concise and to the point.

"Very reasonable, but it can only be within the rules."

"Rules, huh."

Jiang Ming silently committed that to memory.

After that, the two "people" went through a round of negotiations, settling on a film, television, or anime world that he knew.

His requirements were: soul transmigration, human, male, preferably starting from childhood, and not too ugly (this point was very important).

Jiang Ming explicitly laid out his demands because these were the "rules."

Lastly, he wanted a golden finger, but Jason Welton's system quotas had already been used up, and since he didn't belong to the transmigration sequence, he couldn't apply for a system allotment.

These were all within the "rules," and it had to operate within the "rules."

Yet as a transmigration deliveryman, Jason Welton had quite a few goods from various "systems" in his hands.

Things common in novels like spiritual roots, saintly constitutions, bizarre talents, psychokinesis and other superpowers, and even all sorts of magical items.

After carefully looking through them, Jiang Ming uniquely chose the "Auxiliary Chip" from the future.

"Are you sure you want this? You should know this is merely a chip for future human assisted learning; it isn't a system."

"Mhm, yes, I know it's only an auxiliary chip, and its learning function is precisely what I need."

"Learning? Then why not choose talents like [Three-Inferences], [Flash of Inspiration], or [Accelerated Thinking], or even those special constitutions? They can acquire knowledge directly, whereas the auxiliary chip cannot directly make you master things yourself."

Jason Welton offered a "well-meaning" reminder.

Only at this moment did it make Jiang Ming feel that the figure before him was indeed an intelligent lifeform, rather than some pre-programmed mechanical intelligence.

"Bestowed talents, no matter how good, are never truly your own, and they even breed dependence. That's not what I want. Only knowledge will never leave me."

"Knowledge, you say?!"

A terrifying smile appeared on Jason Welton's mechanical face.

"As you wish. Contract established!"