Takama-ga-hara (Supplement)

At the thought of something pleasant, Kanna smiled once more. He pulled down his collar to take a look.

Beneath his slightly gaunt collarbone lay layers of white medical bandages, through which traces of blood were faintly visible. As Kanna focused his attention, a semi-circular, tattoo-like pattern on the bare skin between his collarbone and the top of the bandages seemed to sense his summons, manifesting from nothingness into existence.

It was a dark red circular mark with intricate patterns along its edges. If one were to unwind the bandages completely, they would see a perfectly circular tattoo.

This thing, of course, was not something the original Kanna had tattooed on himself, but rather another function the current transmigrator "Kanna" had acquired after awakening his system. Perhaps it could be understood as a skill slot.

A skill slot—as the name suggests, this circular tattoo was specifically designed to house a certain ninjutsu. Its effect was somewhat similar to a summoning technique used by Uchiha Sasuke: the Lightning Sword Manifestation. Do not be misled by the name; this was not a ninjutsu that applied lightning release to a blade to create a sword of light, but rather a simple means of summoning weaponry. By engraving a storage formula onto a wrist guard, one could instantly summon ninja tools with a mere touch of the "seal" on their hand. The "skill slot" tattoo Kanna had obtained functioned in much the same way.

According to Kanna's hypothesis, since storage ninjutsu formulas could be engraved on wrist guards, other ninjutsu should theoretically be achievable in the same manner. In fact, there were many ninjutsu in the ninja world that utilized external spell seals, such as the Second Hokage's Mutually Multiplying Explosive Tags or Orochimaru's Cursed Seal; these were all ninjutsu that could take effect independently of the caster. Thus, this "skill slot" was not hard to understand—it was merely a matter of breaking down a ninjutsu's seal, engraving it step-by-step, and simplifying the sequence of "initial seal—chakra circulation—guiding seal—terminal seal" until it was as streamlined as a video game, allowing him to cast a skill with a single thought.

This function undoubtedly provided Kanna with immense help. As a newcomer, even though he had tried his best to digest the memories of this body, the clash between two different scientific worldviews made it impossible for him to manipulate chakra skillfully. Up to this point, he had barely managed to master the Transformation Technique. With the help of this "skill slot," he could directly input certain ninjutsu that he found impossible to analyze or execute, allowing him to use them directly via the system.

Come to think of it, this function was quite interesting. At first glance, it seemed only useful for helping Kanna through the transitional phase of being unable to use ninjutsu flexibly as a beginner. After all, Kanna was confident that as time passed, he would eventually grow accustomed to and proficient in ninjutsu. Would this skill slot become useless then?

Kanna vaguely sensed that this skill slot was not so simple. If ordinary ninjutsu could be parsed, what about certain bloodline ninjutsu? Or space-time ninjutsu? Theoretically, any ninjutsu could be performed using basic seals and various chakra manipulations. Kanna was prepared to experiment once he acquired certain special ninjutsu, to see if he could bypass various casting restrictions through the skill slot and use them directly.

Kanna was very satisfied with this setup. The only factor limiting his progress was chakra, because this skill slot did not exist out of thin air; it was attached to his physical body and could be viewed entirely as a spell seal. Just like now, the pitifully small amount of chakra in Kanna's body was almost entirely supplied to the circular "seal" on his chest. As long as he wished, he could choose one of the seven D-rank ninjutsu he had already acquired and implant it. In that case, the series of processes required for casting that ninjutsu—the corresponding chakra circulation—would no longer be triggered through Kanna's body, but would unfold directly within the "skill slot" seal. It was as if Kanna had gained an extra organ for casting ninjutsu, which was truly miraculous.

Kanna gave this "skill slot" a rather profound name: Highland.

Highland is the upper world where the gods reside in Shinto mythology. To Kanna, this "skill slot" capable of bearing ninjutsu was like the Highland that carried the gods, and it also represented his encouragement to himself and his outlook on the future.

Becoming a man who carries "gods" within his physical body—that wouldn't be too bad, would it?

As the days passed, Kanna's heart gradually calmed, no longer as restless as it had been at the start. During this time, aside from his body's parents and a few ninjas who came under orders to console the surviving examinees—Zabuza was currently making a name for himself in the Anbu—and incidentally record the events, no one came to disturb him.

Come to think of it, Kanna's friends—the childhood acquaintances from his class or others—had all been slaughtered by Zabuza in one go. Fortunately, Kanna had claimed not to know those people; otherwise, this story might have turned into a Kanna revenge saga like Obito's or Nagato's.

After sorting through his memories and seeing his "parents" in person, Kanna felt that the people in this world were truly strange. At first, he had assumed his identity would be that of an orphan or a child from an ordinary family, but he hadn't expected "Kanna's" parents to be anything but ordinary.

His father, Kanna Tokiomi, was the aide to the current Third Mizukage, equivalent to Danzo's position relative to the Third Hokage or Killer B's to the Fourth Raikage. Known as "Merciless Kanna," he was extremely strict, but because he championed justice and equality and acted with reason and evidence, never favoring his own interests, he was both feared and respected. In Kanna's memories, this kid was terrified of his father, never daring to reveal his identity at school and feeling inferior because of it—a miserable youth who had developed psychological trauma due to high-pressure parenting.

His mother was not quite as extreme by comparison. Kanna Morishita Mai, originally named Kunikusa Morishita Mai, had taken the Kanna surname after marrying his father. She was a Jonin of Kirigakure who had resigned from her post after giving birth to Kanna. Like the Jonin of Kakashi's generation in Naruto's era, she accepted missions as she pleased and spent her days at home handling chores and raising her son, living quite freely.

It could be said that Kanna's parents held great expectations for him. Unfortunately, the boy was not naturally strong-willed—to put it bluntly, he was a disappointment. Because he had nearly been hacked to death on the spot during this exam, Kanna Tokiomi had been so angry he wanted to strike him dead right there. Consequently, he hadn't visited him many times over these days, nor had he allowed his wife to visit, seemingly truly heartbroken by Kanna's performance.

It makes sense; if the one who had slaughtered everyone in the exam had been Kanna instead of Zabuza, Kanna Tokiomi would likely have been smiling in his sleep. One only had to look at Zabuza's current status to see: although the parents and relatives of the victims wanted to tear him to pieces, every person in the village gave a thumbs-up at the mention of Zabuza's name, praising him as a "genius." Look at Kanna—who remembered him? If his heart hadn't been positioned slightly off-center, his corpse would have turned to ash by now.

One has to admit that the people of this world, or rather this village, were quite obsessed with martial prowess. Kanna estimated that if he had died in the exam hall, his father might have looked a bit better. Of course, he also knew that Kanna Tokiomi was just venting his frustration for the moment, much like Sasuke's father with him and Itachi—seemingly favoring the older brother, but actually loving both sons deeply.

With his friends and acquaintances all slaughtered and his parents in a cold war, Kanna found himself with plenty of leisure time. He had only barely grasped the Transformation Technique out of the seven basic ninjutsu, so he wasn't in a rush to redeem the others. He decided to save them up and, once he was familiar with this world, pull off something big!

Of course, before that, he needed to refine more chakra. After all, maintaining a "Highland" capable of parsing only D-rank ninjutsu was already quite a strain. If he wanted to construct a more advanced Highland, chakra was something he could never have enough of.

(PS: I admit the updates are slow because my ideas haven't fully opened up yet, and the background is unfolding slowly. Also, no one knows when the Third Mizukage's reign was or what his name was, so I'm setting this period as his reign. Soon, the Third Great Ninja War will break out, followed by the Fourth Mizukage Yagura's succession and Obito's control over him. In my view, using Kirigakure as a starting point during the 40s of the Konoha calendar is best, as there's a lot going on here.)