Immortality

During the Nine-Tails' attack, Obito had pretended to be Uchiha Madara and unsealed the Nine-Tails while Kushina was giving birth, wreaking havoc in Konoha.

Although the Fourth Hokage and his wife had ultimately stopped him at the cost of their lives, the attack still caused considerable casualties.

Iruka's parents, Kurenai Yuhi's father, and other elite shinobi had all died that night.

On top of that, many homes were destroyed, causing civilian casualties.

One of those families was Kimura Takuya's.

That was when the soul of a modern man crossed over into the body of that baby.

The body, which had already completely stopped breathing, slowly came back to life.

The soul from another world clearly felt its new body gradually revive, and realized that he had arrived in the Ninja World. His name was Kimura Takuya.

One-year-old Kimura Takuya was rescued from the rubble and taken to the Konoha Orphanage.

After the attack, Konoha had lost both the Fourth Hokage and the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, two of its strongest assets.

It had also lost many elite shinobi, and its strength had been greatly diminished.

Naturally, life at the orphanage wasn't going to be easy.

That was the least of his worries. What troubled him more was that Konoha's dark forces were flourishing unchecked, reaching their peak during that period.

With the Hokage's faction weakened, Danzo took the opportunity to expand Root on a massive scale.

He gathered children of suitable age for secret training in Root, swelling its ranks.

The main source of those children was the Konoha Orphanage.

These civilian orphans, with no family to claim them, were selected and taken to Root. They were told they would become Konoha's roots, protecting the village from the shadows.

In reality, they were merely being raised like insects in a breeding pit and molded into killing machines loyal to Danzo.

First, their emotions were worn away; then, their individual will was erased. Finally, Sealing Jutsu was used to control them completely.

Especially that last Sealing Jutsu. Kimura Takuya wasn't naïve enough to think it was merely meant to stop Root shinobi from speaking ill of Danzo.

If a seal could trigger passively, how hard could it be to trigger it deliberately?

To avoid Root, Kimura Takuya deliberately displayed abysmal ninjutsu skills once he was old enough.

While others learned the Chakra Extraction Technique in a day or two, he deliberately took more than ten days just to extract a little chakra.

He was judged to have extremely poor talent as a ninja, so Root gave up on this "failure" and let him return to civilian life.

In reality, Kimura Takuya had felt he'd mastered the Chakra Extraction Technique after a single glance. He could sense every cell in his body dying and being reborn.

Just as he had when he first crossed over, inside that tiny corpse, he had felt every cell come back to life.

So controlling his progress and fooling Root's sensory shinobi during their examination was effortless.

That was how he failed Root's selection and was let go, but he couldn't return to the orphanage.

Hoping to stay at the Konoha Orphanage until he was eighteen?

That was pure fantasy.

Even Naruto, the protagonist, hadn't gotten that kind of treatment!

Only five years old, Kimura Takuya was forced to fend for himself.

Fortunately, shinobi were great at rebuilding infrastructure. The destroyed homes had long since been restored.

Though all his family's belongings were gone, at least they'd given him a house.

An empty little house—that was where Kimura Takuya's new life in this world began.

Oh, right!

There was also the Chakra Extraction Technique he'd gotten from Root for free.

It was common knowledge, but without a proper shinobi to teach them, civilians who got hold of it were still left completely baffled.

And then there was the ability he'd gained from crossing over.

Kimura Takuya called it Immortality, though he'd never tested whether he could actually die.

He'd only tested ordinary cuts and scrapes. An average person would take a week or so to heal completely, but Kimura Takuya could recover overnight.

His recovery wasn't especially powerful, but it was dozens of times faster than an ordinary person's.

If Root discovered this ability and word reached Orochimaru's ears—

Wouldn't he be totally screwed?

Although Orochimaru had already deserted the village, Root had in fact stayed in contact with him all along.

Afraid of being dissected for research, Kimura Takuya went straight to Konoha Hospital.

He did odd jobs there, sweeping and cleaning beds.

Sometimes, he also took jobs looking after patients.

That was how Kimura Takuya survived.

Within a year, thanks to his "meager" talent as a shinobi, he learned basic Medical Ninjutsu.

The acting director felt that although he was "slow" at extracting chakra, the fact that he could learn Medical Ninjutsu showed he had excellent chakra control.

Medical shinobi didn't need vast amounts of chakra; they needed even better control.

So the director recommended Kimura Takuya for the Ninja Academy. After graduation, he would be recruited by Konoha Hospital as a specialist and become a medical shinobi.

Kimura Takuya had no objections. After all, he was learning Medical Ninjutsu to conceal his abilities.

Besides, being a doctor was a good profession, in either life.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have gone to medical school in his previous life, even if he'd been "delivered" to the Ninja World by a strange truck just after graduating.

His medical knowledge was far beyond anything this world could offer.

So here he was, a medical student in his past life turned medical shinobi in this one.

He was practically a perfect fit.

But Kimura Takuya wasn't about to settle for that.

"Crybaby and failure, crybaby and failure!"

"Hahaha, what a pair you make! Birds of a feather, trash always sticks together!"

"Hey, crybaby, we've got a Taijutsu test this afternoon. Can you be my partner? I want to make sure I pass, hahaha!"

"And you, failure, you're pretty lucky. No ninjutsu test this time, just Taijutsu. By some miracle, you might actually graduate!

You're standing so close to the crybaby. Don't tell me you want to make sure you pass, too?

Ha, caught you! You're a sneaky one!"

What a bunch of brats.

The sixth-grade Class 10 at the Ninja Academy.

A group of civilian ninja with the worst talent.

Kimura Takuya looked around. Apart from Lee, they were all cannon fodder.

As for where Neji and Tenten were—

One was a genius from a great clan, the other a rich girl. Of course they were both in Class 1.

Just like the protagonists Naruto and Sasuke, along with the other promising kids in their year, were all in fifth-grade Class 1.

Come to think of it, Lee had been specially recruited into Guy's team.

As "cannon fodder" from Team 10, they wouldn't normally even get a regular Jonin as their instructor. They'd only get a Chunin.

At the Ninja Academy, expecting an elite Jonin like Guy to teach a tenth class was pure wishful thinking.

Facing this bunch of cannon fodder, Kimura Takuya couldn't be bothered to pay attention. He almost wanted to laugh.

He held back Lee, who was about to argue, and kept eating.

But while Kimura Takuya didn't want to deal with the cannon fodder, someone else was furious and dead set on beating them up.

"That's too much! Shut up! Tuoye can take on all ten of you by himself!"

Ino stood at the classroom door with her lunch box, insisting on charging in to beat up the cannon fodder.

But Shikamaru and Choji held her back.

"Ino, don't be rash. They may be in Class 10, but they're a year ahead of us. And we're outnumbered, too. Calm down."

"Crunch, crunch. Yeah, don't be rash. Crunch."

Shikamaru held back the furious Ino with a deeply exasperated look on his face.

Choji helped hold her back, too, though his other hand was still pouring chips into his mouth.

"Hey, you little brats. Think you can look down on the Five Tigers of Class 10? Are you looking to get yourselves killed?"