The worst decision Qingyu had ever made was sneaking into Naka Shrine to steal the offerings before the Chunin Ninja Exams.
The Chunin Ninja Exams were just around the corner, and he'd thought all the Uchiha were dead.
But there were people inside? What kind of joke was this?
It was all because in his previous life, while playing Naruto, he'd gotten insanely lucky with a crazy Izuna and his ultimate move.
Now he'd transmigrated and become the bottom-ranked graduate of the Konoha Ninja Academy: Uchiha Qingyu.
And today, he'd decided to go to Naka Shrine and eat every single one of Izuna Uchiha's offering cakes!
Izuna! I've literally transmigrated straight to your grave to greedily steal your offerings!
Under the misguided principle of "better to eat candy before an exam than cram at the last minute," he'd finally decided to sneak into the shrine and steal some offerings to get a sugar boost.
A bitter start didn't guarantee a sweet ending, but a sweet start was definitely sweet for a while.
But he'd forgotten one thing: beneath Naka Shrine was the entrance to the Uchiha Clan's secret underground meeting room.
He'd also forgotten a second thing: today happened to be the day of their monthly secret meeting.
And he'd forgotten a third thing: he should've first checked whether there was anything strange about this world...
So when he crept into the shrine and had just picked up a Red Bean Paste Pancake, the floor beneath his feet suddenly gave way.
"Waaah!"
Qingyu fell into a pitch-black space, pancake and all. He landed on his butt and grimaced in pain.
Before he could even react, pairs of scarlet eyes lit up all around him.
More than twenty pairs of Three-Tomoe Sharingan stared at him, the uninvited guest.
At the front, Clan Head Fugaku Uchiha's face had turned livid. "Qingyu?"
"Fugaku?... Clan Head?..." Qingyu tried to explain, but crumbs from the Red Bean Paste Pancake fell out of his mouth first.
Once he'd recovered enough to react, Qingyu immediately begged for mercy:
"Ghosts, don't kill me! I didn't kill you! I really don't know anything!"
Those twenty-odd Sharingan appearing out of nowhere had nearly scared Qingyu to death.
Please don't hypnotize me and trigger some special CG!
"Meeting adjourned." Fugaku rubbed his temples.
"Yashiro, take him out. And if word of what happened today gets out..."
"I won't say a word! I swear!" Qingyu hurriedly raised his hands.
"I just came to... to pay my respects! Right, pay my respects!"
As Yashiro Uchiha dragged him out of the chamber by the collar, Qingyu kept shouting, "I came to pay my respects! Don't kill me!"
"Clan Head, I can explain... I came to exorcise the place! I came to help you all rest in peace!"
"I'm not dead yet!" Yashiro Uchiha ground his teeth in anger.
Behind him, he could faintly hear the elders murmuring, "There's something strange about this kid's chakra..."
"I heard his parents researched that forbidden jutsu back in the day..."
"Damn that old fossil Tobirama Senju! He left behind this secret technique to poison the Uchiha's younger generations!"
Qingyu paid no attention. It wasn't as if these old guys blaming the Senju Clan was anything new.
For all he knew, they'd yell, "Damn the Senju Clan!" if they went to the bathroom without toilet paper.
Honestly, that was just an essential part of being Uchiha!
Looking around at his surroundings, all he wanted now was to find a crack in the ground and crawl into it.
How were you guys not dead?!
After being dragged out of the chamber and tossed outside the shrine, Qingyu dusted himself off and looked up at the sky.
The moonlight was lovely, and the stars shone bright.
His mood was utterly bleak.
This was so embarrassing...
"Go back and prepare for the exams." Yashiro left him with those words, then turned and went back into the shrine. The floor closed up again, as if nothing had happened.
If not for the sweet taste of Red Bean Paste Pancake still in his mouth, Qingyu would've almost thought it was all a hallucination.
"I'm done for..." He slumped onto the stone steps in front of the shrine.
"That's it, everything's over. I've embarrassed myself in front of the Clan Head and every elder. How am I supposed to show my face in the clan now? I might as well ask to graduate and get posted to a border outpost for the rest of my life..."
But fate clearly had no intention of letting him off so easily.
The real "surprise" was still to come.
That night, Qingyu tossed and turned in bed.
On one hand, the aftermath of today's public humiliation was still tormenting him. On the other, there were the Chunin Ninja Exams in three days: the Forest of Death, a scroll-grabbing battle, and five days of survival.
With his current strength, he'd most likely be walking straight into a slaughter.
"Maybe I should... fake an illness?" He stared at the ceiling and muttered to himself. "I'll say my Bloodline Disease flared up and I'm bedridden..."
That night, as Qingyu lay in bed tossing and turning over the Chunin Ninja Exams the next day and the humiliation he'd suffered, a crack suddenly appeared in the ceiling.
It wasn't a metaphor. It had really cracked.
Two completely different energies poured out of the pitch-black fissure: one as hot as fire, the other as cold as ice.
They tangled and collided in the air, then suddenly shot into Qingyu's forehead, as if they'd found their destined home.
"Guh... Aaaah!!!"
Pain! It felt as if someone were stirring his brain with a red-hot poker and an ice pick at the same time.
Countless Memory Fragments exploded into view:
Flames, a battlefield, the Uchiha Clan Crest, the silhouette of a man with wild, long black hair...
"Brother..."
Water, a laboratory, Senju markings, a stern-faced man with white hair...
"Big Brother..."
Two voices, two lives, two utterly opposite ideals, all crashing through the depths of his consciousness.
[Warning! Warning!] [Abnormal soul energy detected!] [Analyzing... Analysis complete: Izuna Uchiha (soul fragment), Tobirama Senju (soul fragment)] [Attempting expulsion... Expulsion failed! Energy has fused with host!] [Initiating emergency protocol: constructing a framework for coexisting consciousnesses... Complete!]
When the pain finally subsided, Qingyu found himself standing in a pure white space.
On his left floated a mass of dark red flames, within which the faint silhouette of a stern young man with black hair and eyes could be seen.
On his right floated a mass of pale blue water, within which was the faint silhouette of a serious-looking young man with silver hair and red eyes.
The two souls glared at each other, palpable hostility filling the air.
"Sen...ju...Tobirama." The young man in the flames spat out each syllable, his voice brimming with murderous intent.
"Uchiha...Izu...na." The young man in the water gritted his teeth just as fiercely.
Then they both turned to stare at Qingyu, who was trembling between them.
"Kid, where is this?" Izuna asked, his Sharingan—which was only a phantom—slowly turning.
"Explain the situation. Now." Tobirama folded his arms, his tone like that of an interrogator.
It took Qingyu a full half hour to get the two Warring States-era "big shots" to understand the situation: it was now Year 54 of Konoha.
The Warring States period had ended more than sixty years ago, and the Uchiha and Senju had founded Konoha together.
And the two of them, supposedly, had died—one struck down by the Flying Thunder God Slash,
and the other killed in an ambush by Kinkaku and Ginkaku while covering the retreat.
Now they were living in the mind of a twelve-year-old Genin, in the form of soul fragments.
"So," Izuna narrowed his eyes,
"the Senju and Uchiha... formed an alliance? And built a village?"
"Unbelievable..." Tobirama frowned.
"Big Brother... actually did it?"
"Wait..." Tobirama suddenly thought of a question. "You're saying I killed Izuna, but I don't remember any of it..."
"The last thing I remember was the Flying Thunder God Slash..."
The air fell silent.
Two seconds later.
"If you hadn't ambushed me!" Izuna immediately shot back first.
"Do you think a Flying Thunder God Slash coming at you is cool? You information-gap white-haired bastard!"
"Your Uchiha broke the treaty first!" Tobirama retorted after zero seconds of thought.
"Do you think your purely stat-based Sharingan takes skill to use? You wheelchair-bound Uchiha!"
"I'm laughing. You think your Flying Thunder God takes any skill? You just throw Kunai around!"
"The Senju white-hair has no right to say that!"
"Shut up, you evil Uchiha brat!"
Qingyu clutched his head, feeling as if the pain was about to start all over again.
Don't make your bro Yu laugh. You're both wheelchair-bound.
[System Notification: Consciousness conflict detected. Mediation protocol initiated.] [Current status: Izuna Uchiha soul fusion rate: 17%, Tobirama Senju soul fusion rate: 19%.] [Host permissions: Highest. You may forcibly place both parties into silent mode (10 minutes each time; 1-hour cooldown).] [Newbie mission issued: Pass the first round of the Chunin Ninja Exams.] [Mission reward: Depending on performance, unlock some of the two souls' memories or skills.] [Special note: Guidance from the two souls will influence the host's development. Please choose carefully whom to listen to.]
There's a system, too?
Qingyu looked at the translucent interface in front of him, close to tears.
There were even higher-level players?!
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