I Don't Want to Make a Mistake!

"50, 51, 52, 53, 54..."

Beneath the blazing sun, a black-haired boy worked up a sweat, lowering and raising himself in push-ups. Though his arms were trembling, he gritted his teeth and kept going. To keep himself from getting so tired that he passed out, he counted as he exercised.

"Brother Li!"

A little girl, slightly smaller than the boy, came running over on her short legs, panting as she called his name. When she reached him, she took a moment to catch her breath, then straightened up and watched him continue his push-ups. Pouting unhappily, she asked, "Brother Li, why do you do this weird exercise every day? You never play with me!"

At her words, the boy stopped doing push-ups and lay down on the ground. He squinted slightly as he looked up at the blazing sun. It was hard to believe, but he really had been reborn—and it had already been five years. No, rather than being reborn, it would be more accurate to say he'd been reincarnated. Of course, that wasn't the unbelievable part. The truly unbelievable thing was that he'd been reborn into an anime he'd watched in his previous life, Naruto. At first, he'd wondered if he was dreaming, but every detail of the past five years had been crystal clear. He still got hungry and sleepy, and he still felt cold when the weather was cold and hot when it was hot. Who could have such a realistic dream?

What was more, he remembered all too clearly that he had died. Li remembered the agony of that death vividly.

His name now was Mirai Uchiha, and he was still an orphan. Of course, he'd only recently become one. It was now Konoha Year 33, the second year of the Second Shinobi World War. When he was four, in the first year of the war, Li's parents had followed the clan head to the front lines, where they were ambushed by the enemy. They had died heroically while protecting the clan head. Afterward, out of gratitude, Uchiha Hao had taken in the four-year-old Li and become his adoptive father. That was the general outline of Li's situation.

"Brother Li, what are you thinking about? Why aren't you answering me?" the little girl asked, pouting as she waved her small hand in front of his eyes, trying to get his attention.

"Mikoto, stop messing around. I'm listening to you," Li said helplessly, moving Uchiha Mikoto's hand aside. That was right: the little girl was Uchiha Mikoto. She was still just a kid, and she often ran around after him.

"Then answer me. Why do you keep doing this weird exercise every day?" Uchiha Mikoto was still throwing a childish fit. She insisted on getting an answer.

"Why...? Well..." Li let out a quiet breath and closed his eyes. The woman's face appeared in his mind, and her words continued to echo in his head. After a long silence, with Uchiha Mikoto growing impatient, Li sighed and said softly, "I just don't want to make the same mistake again."

Every injustice happened because a person lacked the ability to prevent it. That lack of ability was a mistake in itself. It had not only brought him death, but had also made someone else carry the burden of killing him.

"If you don't want to make mistakes, you don't have to do this weird exercise every day. Look at me and Fugaku—we haven't made any mistakes either!" Uchiha Mikoto was still too young to understand what Li meant. Frowning, she asked in confusion.

Li came back to himself and looked at the little girl in front of him. He shook his head helplessly, then asked, "By the way, why did you hurry over to find me?"

"Oh, right! I almost forgot what Uncle Hao asked me to tell you!" Uchiha Mikoto slapped her little head in frustration, immediately forgetting their earlier conversation. She hurriedly said, "Uncle Hao said to go home and get ready. You're starting the Ninja Academy tomorrow!"

Although it was wartime, Konoha had plenty of capable people. Even while facing attacks from several villages, it wasn't short on manpower, so children this young weren't being sent to the battlefield. Li was now five, and Uchiha Mikoto was also five. There was one other child their age in the Uchiha Clan: Uchiha Fugaku. That's right, the father of Uchiha Sasuke in the original story, and the future husband of the adorable girl beside him.

"Mm, I know. I'll head back now. Go tell Uncle Hao first," Li said with a nod, trying to send the little girl on her way.

"Hmph, no! I'm waiting here so we can go back together. Why do I have to be the one running errands?" Uchiha Mikoto refused, sitting down beside Li with a pout.

Compared to the virtuous wife and mother she would become in the future, Uchiha Mikoto was still far too mischievous. But that made sense—she was only five, after all!

Li didn't mind. He'd gotten used to having Uchiha Mikoto around over the years.

"Ding! Checking host's physical condition. Ding! The host's meridians have stabilized and are suitable for binding. Would you like to bind the Dimension System?"

They hadn't been quiet for long when a voice as cold as a machine suddenly rang out in Li's mind. He was startled, but quickly recovered. In his previous life, he'd lived in an age of rapidly advancing technology and information, and had read countless online novels. System stories were everywhere, so he knew he'd probably encountered something like that himself.

Come to think of it, just before he died, something seemed to have fallen from the sky amid a flash of lightning. At the time, he'd been completely disheartened and hadn't paid much attention. Looking back now, perhaps that thing had been this so-called system.

Closing his eyes as though no one else were there, Li sent his consciousness into the system. Of course, he was only trying a method he'd seen in novels. He had no idea if it would work, but fortunately, his attempt succeeded. He had indeed entered a virtual world, one like the internet, filled with countless white network lines. At their center floated a white object whose shape he couldn't make out. Still, Li knew it was most likely the core of this so-called Dimension System.

"Are you the Dimension System?"