Uchiha Itachi (Ninja Prodigy)

Late March, Year 42 of Konoha.

It was the start of the school year, and the bulletin board outside the main gate of the Ninja Academy was already packed with people.

A list was posted right in the center, densely packed with the names of this year's incoming students. Parents stood on their tiptoes to peer at it, while children darted through the gaps in the crowd, creating a noisy, bustling scene.

"Hahaha, I told you my kid wouldn't have a problem!"

"If that guy in the green spandex can get in, there's no reason I can't!"

"As expected of the White Fang of Konoha's son; Kakashi's grades are ridiculously good."

"Akiyama Shun's grades are excellent, too."

"I see him training by himself every single day; with that kind of effort, his grades were bound to be good."

"..."

A sudden commotion erupted on the outskirts of the crowd.

Two oddballs wearing green spandex were hugging each other tightly, wailing at the top of their lungs, snot smearing all over each other without a hint of disgust.

"Guy!!! To celebrate your successful enrollment, we shall run five hundred laps around Konoha!"

"Yes! Father! If I can't finish, I'll do one thousand laps of handstand walking!!!"

"Good! As expected of my son, Might Duy!!!"

Once the father and son finished shouting, they actually took off running, their green figures vanishing around the street corner in the blink of an eye.

The surrounding parents looked at each other, tacitly stepping back three paces in unison.

Standing beside Hatake Sakumo, Kakashi witnessed this scene and didn't know what to say. Was this the "formidable rival" his father had spoken of?

Noticing Kakashi's gaze, Hatake Sakumo didn't say anything, merely chuckling twice before patting Kakashi on the shoulder.

On the other side, Yuhi Kurenai was standing on her tiptoes, scanning the list line by line, muttering to herself.

"Aki... Akiyama..."

"Shun! Your name is here! All A's! That's amazing!"

When Yuhi Kurenai saw the name "Akiyama Shun," she was even more excited than when she saw her own. She hurriedly pointed at the name on the list and tugged at Akiyama Shun, who was standing beside her, her face full of joy.

Akiyama Shun: "I saw your name, too."

"We'll be in the same class from now on! I'm going to go tell my fathe..."

Before she could finish, Akiyama Shun reached out and covered her mouth.

Yuhi Kurenai widened her eyes, letting out a few muffled "mm-mm" sounds.

Akiyama Shun knew what she wanted to say—nothing more than asking her father to arrange for them to be in the same class. After all, Yuhi Shinku was a Jonin, a member of the elite class; doing such a thing would be easy and normal, but it wasn't the right place to say it out loud.

One had to realize that the people surrounding them were Konoha commoners. They wouldn't treat you differently just because you had power or status; they would only make you experience the "local customs" of Konoha village.

Akiyama Shun wasn't afraid of them, but he was worried about the impact it might have on Yuhi Kurenai.

"Let's talk about it when we get back."

Akiyama Shun let go of his hand and ruffled her small head.

Yuhi Kurenai blinked at him and didn't say anything more. Her father always said Akiyama Shun was very smart and that she should listen to him whenever she didn't understand something. If he said not to talk about it now, there must be a reason.

Akiyama Shun looked up again, his gaze landing on the list, a smile appearing on his face.

Perfect!

All these years of hard work hadn't been in vain. Ever since he learned to walk, he had been training the moment he opened his eyes. Finally, his efforts had paid off!

Now, he just had to wait for the official enrollment, and his "rank" would officially enter the Apprentice stage, allowing him to collect his monthly welfare check!

Akiyama Shun looked at the transparent panel that only he could see.

[Name: Akiyama Shun]
[Ninja: None]
[Summoning Beast: None]
[Secret Scroll: None]
[Artifact: None]
[Rank: None]
[Gold Coins: 225]

That's right, he was a transmigrator. The process of his transmigration had been simple and brutal: he was used as a speed bump by a massive transport truck.

When he opened his eyes again, he was already in this world. His parents were just ordinary Chunin who had died in the line of duty, leaving him a small inheritance that was barely enough to survive on. He had an ordinary identity, no background, and no special bloodline—only a plain, unremarkable golden finger.

Akiyama Shun was quite familiar with this golden finger; it was very similar to a Naruto mobile game he had played in his previous life that claimed to be "truly immersive."

He was also familiar with how to use it: spend gold coins to draw prizes, 160 per pull, with a pity system every ten pulls that guaranteed fragments of A-rank or S-rank ninjas. The prize pool included all the secret scrolls, summoning beasts, artifacts, and ninjas from the Naruto mobile game.

There were two ways to obtain gold coins, one of which was by increasing his "rank." As long as he became an "Apprentice"—that is, a student at the Ninja Academy—he would receive a reward of 800 gold coins every month. The higher the rank, the greater the reward.

Next is the daily sign-in. The rewards are not fixed and scale with your rank. Currently, Akiyama Shun doesn't even qualify as a "Novice," so not only is there no monthly stipend, but he only receives 1 Gold per daily sign-in. However, once he reaches the "Novice" rank, the daily sign-in reward will skyrocket to a staggering 30 Gold!

That means ten draws every month!

Every time he had obtained Gold previously, Akiyama Shun would immediately spend it. He had already pulled ten times and hit the pity threshold, resulting in the following:

[Secret Scroll]

[Wood Style: Cutting Technique Fragment x1 (1/5)]

[Earth Style: Rock Fall Fragment x4 (4/5)]

[Fire Style: Ghost Lantern x1 (1/5)]

[A-Rank Ninja]

[Hidan Fragment x4 (4/40)]

[B-Rank Ninja]

[Ebisu Fragment x6 (6/40)]

[C-Rank Ninja]

[Yamanaka Ino x2 (2/10)]

The 4 Hidan fragments were from the pity pull, and Rock Fall was still one fragment short of synthesis. To put it bluntly, he hadn't gained anything useful before, just a pile of fragments.

Looking at these items in his inventory, Akiyama Shun felt a headache coming on. Although he used to drop over three hundred pulls at a time to hit the pity cap when playing the Naruto mobile game, that was just a game; this was the result of five years of saving in reality.

Akiyama Shun looked at these items with a throbbing head. If he had just pulled something usable, he wouldn't have to work so hard.

Akiyama Shun adjusted his mindset and took a deep breath.

The cheers around him continued; Might Guy and his father had already started running laps around the school, the laughter of parents and the noise of children blending together.

With such a lively atmosphere and a successful enrollment today, his luck shouldn't be too bad!

He had endured for so long; it was time to reward himself with a pull!

Maybe he would even get that last Rock Fall fragment?

"Draw!"

As Akiyama Shun confirmed the action in his mind, his 225 Gold immediately dwindled to a pitiful 65 Gold.

The moment Akiyama Shun saw the reward, his pupils constricted. Today really was a good day; although he didn't get a Rock Fall fragment, he got something even better: a full Ninja card!

While S-Rank and A-Rank ninjas must be synthesized from fragments, B-Rank and C-Rank ninjas have a chance to drop as full cards!

And this time, it was a C-Rank ninja that Akiyama Shun had particularly loved using back when he played the mobile game!

On the screen was a smiling ninja with tear troughs under his eyes, wearing cat-ear ornaments on his head and posing like a kitten.

[Uchiha Itachi (Ninja Rookie)]