From the Third Hokage On

"Lord Third..."

The Anbu knelt on one knee, cautiously reminding him.

He had been kneeling there for over ten minutes since entering the office to report on his mission.

Yet the Third Hokage seemed lost in thought, his gaze unfocused as he remained out of it for a long while.

Normally, the Anbu was patient enough to wait half a day without a single complaint.

But Lord Third seemed to be in an unusual state.

"Lord Third..."

The Anbu called out again.

"Uh?"

At last, the Third Hokage seemed to come back to himself.

A glint returned to his eyes as he surveyed what lay before him.

The spacious office, scrolls piled high, and the Hokage's seal resting on the desk.

"All right..."

The Third Hokage waved a hand, his expression returning to normal.

"You may go."

The Anbu hesitated. He wanted to say, Lord Third, you haven't even heard my mission report yet.

But out of respect for the Hokage who had served—and held power—longer than any other, the Anbu decided not to say more.

He quietly placed the mission scroll on the Hokage's desk, bowed to the Third Hokage, then vanished without a sound using the Body Flicker Technique.

Once the Anbu had left, the Third Hokage seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. The imposing aura he had just projected faded away.

In its place was a hint of the impulsiveness and curiosity usually found in young people.

Sarutobi Hiruzen first surveyed his surroundings.

Then he looked at the familiar yet strange pipe in his hand and took a puff, guided by the body's instincts.

"Phew."

After exhaling a long stream of smoke, the nicotine spread through his lungs, and the torrent of memories in Sarutobi Hiruzen's mind finally began to settle.

"Other people transmigrate and become handsome guys like Yan Zu or Ting Feng."

"How come I ended up as a man over fifty..."

Sarutobi Hiruzen—or rather, Yuan Fei, who had come from another world—sighed.

"The legendary strongest Hokage..."

A self-mocking smile tugged at Sarutobi Hiruzen's lips.

"But he's destined to die in the story..."

"Still, when in Rome, do as the Romans do."

In an instant, Sarutobi Hiruzen accepted the fact that he had transmigrated into the Third Hokage.

At least he hadn't arrived at the start of Shippuden. He had come more than a decade earlier.

If he had transmigrated as an old man right before facing Orochimaru at full strength, he really would have been crying out with no one to answer.

"Too bad Orochimaru has already defected."

Sarutobi Hiruzen searched through his memories.

Not long ago, Sarutobi Hiruzen had let Orochimaru escape and branded him a rogue ninja.

In other words, Orochimaru's path of revenge had already begun. Even if Sarutobi Hiruzen wanted to bring him back, Orochimaru was too good at hiding for him to find.

Thinking of this, Sarutobi Hiruzen took another puff from the old-fashioned pipe.

The body's smoking habit had already become part of its subconscious. Even a new soul couldn't erase it.

"Just goes to show, being a Ninja is something else."

"Even a body beginning to age is frighteningly strong..."

Sarutobi Hiruzen felt the toxins in the tobacco enter his lungs. Instead of lingering there like they would in an ordinary person, they were quickly broken down by some powerful energy: the source of a Ninja's power, Chakra.

"Or maybe this body's strength is among the best even for a Ninja."

Sarutobi Hiruzen could feel that this aging body still held enough power to split mountains and shatter stone.

It was an explosive strength he had never felt in his unhealthy body in his previous life.

"Putting everything else aside..."

"The Third Hokage was at least gifted as a Ninja, more so than almost anyone."

"Even among all those eye-power cheaters, he could still be considered the peak of ordinary people."

Sarutobi Hiruzen continued to console himself.

If there was any perk to becoming the Third Hokage, besides getting to be a father to someone else's child, it was the genuine strength of a Kage.

The current timeline was still more than a decade before Shippuden began. Sarutobi Hiruzen still had a chance to change things.

"Fortunately, I have a cheat of my own."

Sarutobi Hiruzen called out softly in his mind.

System!

Host: Sarutobi Hiruzen,

Current World: Four-Star World—Naruto.

Space-Time Source Energy: 1350

World Mark: None.

Sarutobi Hiruzen looked at the rudimentary system before him and instinctively took another puff.

"Phew."

After the smoke came Sarutobi Hiruzen's question.

"Give me an introduction, System."

"What can you do?"

The answer came not in words, but as a stream of information transmitted directly into Sarutobi Hiruzen's mind.

The system wasn't all that powerful, but it was undeniably simple.

Its main function was to collect Space-Time Source Energy and let Sarutobi Hiruzen travel to other worlds.

"Other worlds..."

Sarutobi Hiruzen nodded, fairly satisfied.

The system couldn't directly make him stronger, but traveling between worlds was the greatest cheat of all.

After all, the Heavens and Myriad Worlds were full of opportunities and adventures. Even a tiny bit could let him dominate the weak in the Naruto world.

The system collected Space-Time Source Energy by erasing or changing Space-Time Nodes.

"Space-Time Node" might be hard to understand.

But if he thought of them as the characters in each world's story, it became much easier.

According to the system, killing a story character or changing their course of action could alter a Space-Time Node and earn Space-Time Source Energy.

"Simple enough..."

Sarutobi Hiruzen understood.

"So the Space-Time Source Energy I have now is the reward for taking over Sarutobi Hiruzen?"

The system confirmed it, and Sarutobi Hiruzen nodded.

The moment he took over the original Third Hokage, the man's fate had already been completely changed.

It was almost no different from killing him.

"The Third Hokage was an important supporting character. How did he only give me a little over a thousand Source Energy?"

Sarutobi Hiruzen couldn't help wondering.

Was this system a miser from the start?

According to the information the system had sent him, an important supporting character in a Four-Star World was worth at least three thousand points of Space-Time Source Energy.

But Sarutobi Hiruzen had gotten less than half that.

The system's explanation came at once, and Sarutobi Hiruzen was somewhat satisfied.

'Taking over Sarutobi Hiruzen without any side effects still comes at a cost...'

That was true. It would have been impossible for Sarutobi Hiruzen's will, shaped in a peaceful era, to contend with the murderous will of the Third Hokage.

The system had borne that cost for him, allowing Sarutobi Hiruzen to take over the Third Hokage perfectly.

He had inherited all the man's strength and memories without being significantly influenced by his original personality.

Just as Sarutobi Hiruzen was about to study the system's functions in greater depth—

"Bang!"

Suddenly, the door burst open, its sound ringing sharply through the quiet Hokage Office.