First Appearance

On the desolate, remote grounds, the proctor and his team of ninjas began to patrol the area, conducting the final tally.

"Hiss."

"How is this possible!"

"This is terrifying... were they all killed?"

What lay before them was a hellish, blood-soaked world. The ground was littered with corpses and severed limbs, while eyes frozen in death and expressions of incredulous rigidity revealed to the ninjas the sheer horror these youths had endured before their demise.

Even the proctor in charge of this exam drew a sharp, involuntary breath; he had overseen these tests for many years, yet he had never encountered a situation like this.

"Search the area! Find any survivors! We must determine exactly what happened here!" the proctor commanded. Was this merely a slaughter born of the exam, or the work of enemies of Kirigakure?

His reason told him that in a place with such tight security, the idea of someone infiltrating silently just to massacre a group of students was too absurd, and yet—

"Who could be so cruel? This incident will surely shake the village to its core."

Before long, the ninjas scouting the perimeter returned one by one, bringing news that chilled even the proctor to the bone.

"None."

"They are all dead."

"No survivors."

Finally, a young Chunin brought back useful information; he arrived with a masked youth in tow, carrying an unconscious child on his back.

"I found a survivor here," the Chunin said with some hesitation, slowly lowering the child from his back, an action that drew everyone's attention.

In truth, he didn't think the masked youth should be called a survivor; "the murderer who slaughtered everyone" would have been a more fitting title.

"One is the person behind me," the Chunin said, stepping aside to reveal the masked youth, whose eyes radiated a deep, indifferent chill.

"And the other is him," the Chunin added, pointing to the child on the ground with a frown.

"Hmph!" The masked youth's gaze swept over the child on the ground, and he let out a disdainful snort, muttering to himself, "To think he survived my blade? Impressive!"

What an arrogant brat, the proctor thought to himself. He pulled out the roster, quickly flipped to a page, and compared the image to the person standing before him.

"Zabuza Momochi, is it?" The proctor narrowed his eyes, lost in thought.

Under normal circumstances, the name Zabuza would not have garnered even a shred of his attention. But this world was cruel; having completed a god-like massacre, Zabuza had rightfully earned the recognition and even the awe of outsiders, forcing even a Jonin like the proctor to take note of such names.

Zabuza, as the name implied, meant "never cutting twice"—to kill without ever needing a second strike. What an arrogant name to bear.

Compared to him, the child who had seemingly survived only because of Zabuza's carelessness was clearly inferior. The proctor had already located his file.

"Kanna."

The proctor didn't care much for Kanna's file, but soon, his subordinate reported something that left him feeling both amused and helpless.

"Ah, I see. It's a rare case of dextrocardia!"

"What a lucky lad."

A medical ninja briefly treated Kanna's wounds. In this profession dedicated to combat, their treatment of trauma was far beyond what Kanna had known in his previous life, reaching an almost unscientific level. A man in a white robe knelt down, covered Kanna with a white cloth inscribed with unknown incantations, and began to weave hand signs. After a few breaths, the blood seeping from Kanna's wounds surged toward the center of the cloth, where a string of crimson seals naturally spread out. A faint, weak sound of breathing began to resonate.

"He can be saved," the medical ninja said calmly, his expression unchanging even when faced with Kanna's mangled, penetrating wound.

Dextrocardia is a rare phenomenon where the heart is positioned in the right side of the chest rather than the left. Zabuza had slaughtered all his peers single-handedly, and his prowess and pride were self-evident; in such a state, he would not have bothered to check if a boy he had impaled through the left chest—where a normal person's heart would be—could possibly survive. This was the only reason Kanna had managed to live.

"Take him to the hospital," the proctor ordered, then turned to Zabuza, forcing a smile.

"Zabuza, right? I'll be blunt," the proctor mused. "Although you haven't violated the village's rules, you must understand that the death rate for this exam was far too high. Expect someone to come looking for you later—perhaps for a routine investigation, or perhaps to cause you trouble."

"It doesn't matter!" Zabuza replied coldly. "You don't need to tell me these things. Or do you think I lack the resolve to face such matters?"

The proctor's lips curled, and he sighed inwardly, saying no more.

In the decades of Kirigakure's history, a youth as vicious as this Zabuza was truly a rare sight. This fellow would undoubtedly become a major figure in the future!

Meanwhile, Kanna, who had narrowly escaped being cut down by Zabuza, was sent to the Kirigakure hospital while still unconscious.

"Your heart is a true case of dextrocardia, distinct from situs inversus or simple cardiac displacement..."

A week later, in a room in the Kirigakure hospital thick with the pungent smell of medicine, a doctor in a white coat was explaining something to a youth.

"I know, I know," the youth waved his hand impatiently, interrupting. "You've said it many times, Doctor Pu Jie. Can we talk about something else?"

Doctor Pu Jie smiled faintly and said, "Very well, let's talk about something you might care about. As for your injuries, the initial estimate is that you'll need to be hospitalized for at least a few months. Don't worry about the costs; the village will cover them. However, news has come from your school: as the only survivor among this year's candidates, what are your thoughts on your future assignment?"

At this, Pu Jie leaned in, adopting a mysterious air, and whispered in Kanna's ear, "No wonder everyone says you're a lucky kid. Do you know that graduates from previous years often have to beg for favors and pull strings just to secure a decent position? Tsk, tsk, tsk... but you're different. Since only you and Zabuza survived this year, you can choose whatever you like, aside from a few special mission posts."

"Zabuza, huh... he..." Kanna hesitated.

"That kid? I heard he chose the Anbu. What a battle-hungry maniac!" Pu Jie said readily, as if he knew exactly what Kanna wanted to ask.

"Heh." Kanna smiled, showing none of the depression, lingering fear, or hatred that Pu Jie had expected.

It was strange; shortly after being hospitalized, Kanna had regained consciousness due to the excellent treatment. What had surprised the doctors and nurses was that a few minutes after he woke up that afternoon, a suppressed yet relieved laugh had echoed from his room, as if something particularly exciting and satisfying had happened to him.

This Doctor Pu Jie was the one assigned to treat Kanna. He was a chatterbox who loved to talk to Kanna when he had free time. Despite his talkativeness, Kanna didn't find him frivolous; on the contrary, he found Pu Jie to be quite steady.

Seeing Kanna distracted and silent, Pu Jie naturally assumed he was tired and bid him farewell so he could rest in peace.

"Truly incredible..." Lying on the bed, Kanna couldn't help but smile again.

The reason he could still smile after being wounded to such an extent, nearly losing his life, was because on the very day he had regained consciousness, Kanna had discovered an inexplicable thing inside his own body.

We won't discuss Kanna's past life. In short, he was more go-with-the-flow than most people, more accepting of reality. So, after experiencing initial confusion, surprise, and even doubting if he'd fallen under some illusion, he finally confirmed it and named the thing "System."

It wasn't very original, but it fully expressed the thing's function in words.

And the first function Kanna discovered was the reason he could almost wake up laughing from his dreams.

Every dawn, Kanna would randomly receive a ninjutsu. According to the system's subtle guidance, these were only the lowest-tier ninjutsu. Kanna could also choose to exchange three chances for one chance to draw a higher-tier ninjutsu. If he had even more patience, he could exchange nine, twenty-seven, or even eighty-one chances.

The limit was two hundred and forty-three. That is, if Kanna waited that long, he could obtain a top-tier ninjutsu. Or, to put it another way, the time required to go from the lowest D-rank ninjutsu (actually, according to the original work, there was E-rank, but here we'll just consider D-rank the lowest) to the highest Super S-rank—ninjutsu that completely broke convention and was unimaginable for ordinary people—was from a minimum of three to a maximum of two hundred and forty-three. Every threefold increase in chances allowed for a one-rank upgrade.

Here, we must also mention Kanna's personality. He was a very patient person, usually calm and unhurried. So, if you asked him to wait calmly for over two hundred chances to obtain a Super S-rank ninjutsu, he would still find it acceptable.

But the problem was, ninjutsu obtained this way wasn't like in video games, where you could use it with a single click. Take the current situation: Kanna had obtained seven ninjutsu: [Transformation Technique], [Fuma Shuriken: Shadow Windmill], [Clone Technique], [Shuriken Manipulation Technique], [Shuriken: All-Out Throw Technique], [Substitution Technique], and [Sexy Technique]. Kanna could currently only use [Transformation Technique], and that was only because he had received the memories of the original owner of the body "Kanna."

The ninjutsu obtained through this lottery-like method consisted entirely of jutsu formulas, chakra circulation techniques, usage methods, and other related information, all presented through text or diagrams. They were comprehensive, accurate, and error-free, but Kanna had to learn them one by one.

If the system stopped there, Kanna would certainly be mixed with disappointment amidst his relief. He wouldn't be in his current state of excitement, with his tail almost wagging. The reason for this was that the system had another function.

(PS: For the first few ninjutsu, the beginner's package, let's stick to the original versions. Yes, I still remember the Flying Thunder God Technique and Shinra Tensei. That was really good luck, drawing those two S-rank ninjutsu, the most powerful and practical ones. So don't accuse me of cheating. This wasn't something the author deliberately gave the protagonist; it was just good luck. Back then, I could only use what I drew, so I couldn't help it.)