My Name Is Uchiha Shin

My name was Lu Xuan, and I'd never imagined I would transmigrate to another world. And not just any world, but one this messed up.

My parents in this life had been killed on the battlefield not long after I was born, leaving me an orphan.

My name now was Uchiha Shin. I was three years old and had been adopted by my uncle. I had a cousin named Uchiha Madara, and another kid my age named Uchiha Izuna. Besides them, there were three younger boys: Uchiha Fei, Uchiha Hen, and Uchiha Liang.

Uchiha Madara always wore the expression of some arrogant protagonist. At least, I'd never seen him smile. Whenever he saw me, he had just one question: "Have you trained today?" He asked it as often as people in my previous life asked, "Have you eaten?"

Train my ass. Did he think everyone was a training maniac like him? I was only three! High-intensity training could kill me, for crying out loud.

As for Uchiha Izuna, I didn't know why, but we'd never gotten along. We fought every other day, come rain or shine. Of course, I was just a little stronger, so he was the one who got beaten every time.

The trouble was, whenever he lost, he'd go get help. And Uchiha Madara was a hopeless little-brother fanatic, so in the end, I was always the one who got the short end of the stick.

Beside a gently flowing river, a three-year-old boy sat with his knees hugged to his chest, watching the clear water drift by and lamenting his miserable fate.

"Fire, war, the Uchiha—are they trying to get me killed?" Shin tossed a pebble into the river, his face creasing with worry.

Before I transmigrated, I'd watched Naruto and knew the story fairly well. But that was all set decades after Konoha was founded, and had nothing to do with now. At this rate, even surviving that long was in doubt.

The original story barely touched on the Warring States Period, aside from what came up in Senju Hashirama's memories.

But no matter how little the original story said about the era, one thing came through loud and clear: it was brutal, with an incredibly high death rate. Even children were sent to the battlefield.

In the original story, when Uchiha Madara met Senju Hashirama, he said he'd once had five brothers, but only one remained. That one was obviously Izuna.

Wait...

At that thought, Shin suddenly jolted, remembering a question he'd overlooked all this time.

He'd always assumed that, as a transmigrator, he didn't count among Uchiha Madara's brothers. With Izuna, Fei, Hen, and Liang, that made five brothers besides Madara, so he'd never thought much about it. But now that he considered it carefully, something didn't add up.

In the original story, Madara had said, "I once had five brothers." That meant he hadn't counted himself among them. In other words, including Madara, there had been six brothers.

A cold sweat broke out across Shin's back. There were five brothers, but now only four remained. It was obvious that in the original story, Madara had had an adopted cousin like him, and that cousin had already died by the time Madara met Hashirama. He hadn't even left a name behind.

Taking a deep breath, Shin forced himself to calm down. After all, he had the soul of an adult; he wasn't going to panic over a guess.

"If my guess is right, then according to the original story, Madara first met the Senju when he was around eight or nine. He's already six this year. If I assume the worst, my predecessor will probably die sometime in the next two years."

Shin's eyes gradually turned cold, and his irises became bloodred. A single tomoe slowly spun in each, reflected on the surface of the river.

He'd awakened these Sharingan when he was one, and no one but him knew. In the Warring States Period, when human lives were worth less than grass, it was hard to survive without a hidden trump card.

The Uchiha Clan's Sharingan grew more powerful the earlier they awakened. In the original story, Itachi, a genius of the Uchiha Clan, awakened his at eight and was hailed as a once-in-a-century prodigy.

As far as Shin knew, most Uchiha in the Warring States Period didn't awaken theirs until their teens. Anyone who awakened before ten was considered a genius. Uchiha Madara had awakened his at five and was called the hope of the Uchiha Clan. Someone like Shin, who'd awakened his at one, was unheard of. If word got out, who knew what kind of uproar it would cause?

Seeing his Sharingan put him at ease. Ever since I awakened them two years ago, I've been stuck at One-Tomoe because of my chakra. I'll probably reach Two-Tomoe next year. If Uchiha Shin dies within the next two years in the original story, I'll have to train even harder.

Ding!

"The Behind-the-Scenes Boss System is starting. Binding host: Uchiha Shin."

"What?" Shin suddenly felt a sharp pain in his head as a flood of information poured into his mind. It took an hour for it to finally subside.

"Binding complete. World identified: Naruto. Main quest issued: Become the ultimate boss of this world and unite the entire world. Reward: ownership of the Naruto World! Time limit: until the story ends. Failure: elimination!"

"Hey, don't just go issuing quests on your own! I haven't even figured out what's going on yet." Shin clutched his head and roared inwardly.

"This system is only responsible for issuing quests, not explaining them. Please figure things out on your own."

Shin gritted his teeth and began sorting through the information in his mind. Put simply, this was a system designed to turn someone into a boss. It had all sorts of functions and could exchange for anything in the Naruto World, provided you had enough points. The system would issue various quests to earn those points.

Once he'd finished sorting through everything, Shin couldn't help feeling overjoyed. This was basically a transmigrator's cheat! Sure, it had taken three years to show up, but at least it had finally arrived. What more could he ask for?

With a thought, Shin opened the exchange menu to see what he could get. The very first item made him suck in a sharp breath.

Rinnegan, item grade: SSS, cost: 1,000,000 points.

Sage Body, item grade: SSS, cost: 1,000,000 points.

Eternal Mangekyo, grade: SS, cost: 500,000 points.

After checking the zeros on one item after another, Shin's mouth twitched. Was he supposed to save up until the end of time?

"Hey, don't you have any kind of beginner's benefit?" Shin asked inwardly.

"Since the host asked, the first-time benefit can be either one C-Rank Ninjutsu or one Sharingan upgrade. Please choose."

Shin's eyelids twitched in irritation. What did "since the host asked" mean? If he hadn't asked, were they just not going to give him the reward?

There was no need to think about the C-Rank Ninjutsu. He didn't want it. The Uchiha were a major clan in the Ninja World. Maybe they couldn't hand out S-Rank Ninjutsu, but as long as you were strong enough, you could get as many C-Rank techniques as you wanted.

"Upgrade my Sharingan once."

As soon as Shin spoke, a surge of warmth welled up inside him and flowed into his Sharingan. His eyes burned. About a minute later, he hurriedly leaned over the river. In his reflection, the Two-Tomoe were clearly visible.