After Waiting Three Years, I Finally Lasted

The Land of Fire, Konoha.

It was already late at night. The sky was as black as spilled ink, without a single star in sight.

"Whoosh!"

In a wooden hut on the outskirts of Konoha, a figure dressed in black ninja clothes leaped out of the window.

After carefully checking both sides and making sure no one had seen him, he quickly ran out of the village and plunged into a dense forest.

The figure was named Lin Mu.

Tonight, he was going to do something that would affect the rest of his ninja life.

He was going to obtain the key that would unlock his golden finger. He had waited three whole years for this day!

That's right, Lin Mu was a transmigrator. He had arrived in this Naruto World three years ago, and like all transmigrators, he had received a golden finger called the Naruto Template System.

But what frustrated Lin Mu was this:

The templates in the system required a "key" to unlock, or else he had to pay an exorbitant number of system Gold Coins to buy a template character.

The body Lin Mu had transmigrated into belonged to a child of only six or seven. The tasks issued by the system were simply impossible for a child to complete.

With his meager strength, forget the vicious rogue ninja outside the village—even a slightly ferocious beast in the forest could kill him!

"Today, I'm definitely getting Hashirama Cells!"

Lin Mu steeled himself, determination showing in his eyes.

His figure flickered as he slipped into a forest near Konoha.

Hidden in this forest was one of Orochimaru's secret bases, and Hashirama's cells were stored inside!

If not for the system's guidance, Lin Mu would never have believed that Orochimaru had been bold enough to build a secret base right under Konoha's nose.

But perhaps the most dangerous place was the safest. The secret base had been there for who knew how long, and Konoha's ninja still hadn't discovered it.

Although Lin Mu had known for a long time that the key to activating the system was hidden here, he hadn't acted rashly.

As a devoted Naruto fan, he knew the entire Naruto World very well. He was also well aware of Orochimaru's cunning and cautious nature.

After careful thought and planning, he had settled on tonight.

The Chunin Ninja Exams were underway, and more than half of the exams had already passed.

According to his memory, during these Chunin Ninja Exams, Orochimaru would impersonate the Kazekage and lead the Land of Wind and Otogakure in an invasion of Konoha, plunging the village into chaos.

And now was the eve of Orochimaru's full-scale invasion—the perfect opportunity for Lin Mu to obtain Hashirama Cells.

Following the system's guidance, Lin Mu weaved through the forest, his dark figure flickering in and out of view in the night.

The forest was only a few miles from Konoha. Lin Mu hadn't been idle over the past few years, either; he had long since familiarized himself with the terrain. Getting to the secret base was now second nature.

Lin Mu moved quickly, soaring and leaping between the trees.

When he was only a few hundred meters from Orochimaru's base, he abruptly stopped, found a large boulder to hide behind, and warily scanned his surroundings.

His experiences over the past few years had taught him that even the area around Konoha wasn't safe.

After watching carefully for a while, Lin Mu breathed a sigh of relief. He crept out from behind the boulder and slowly approached a large tree a few hundred meters ahead.

All the while, he kept glancing around. At the slightest disturbance, he would abandon the plan at once.

Once he reached the tree, Lin Mu circled it a few times, then carefully compared it with the map in the system prompt that he had studied countless times.

"That's right. This tree is the entrance to Orochimaru's secret base shown on the system map, but how do I get inside?"

Lin Mu scratched his head and examined the tree again. Suddenly, he spotted a hollow on one side of the trunk.

His heart leapt. Lin Mu quickly climbed the tree and jumped into the hollow.

"So this is it!"

Inside, he found that the tree had been hollowed out, with a passage leading straight underground.

Amid his excitement, Lin Mu couldn't help marveling at Orochimaru's intelligence.

The tree looked completely ordinary among the others in the forest, and hollows were everywhere. No one would ever imagine there was a secret base underneath it.

Taking a deep breath to suppress his excitement, Lin Mu climbed down through the hollow. Once he landed, he quickly looked around and only relaxed after confirming there was no immediate danger.

He hurried forward and cautiously pushed open a door. A laboratory spanning more than a hundred square meters came into view!

Once he got a good look at the lab, Lin Mu couldn't help sucking in a sharp breath. He marveled again, "Orochimaru really is the greatest scientist in the entire Naruto World!"

The entire laboratory was packed with all kinds of precision instruments, and the air was thick with the smell of chemicals.

Along the walls stood enormous glass tanks, each about two meters tall and one meter wide, filled with dark green liquid. When Lin Mu stepped closer for a better look, his scalp began to tingle.

Inside was a monster that was neither fully human nor fully beast. It had to be one of Orochimaru's test subjects.

As if it sensed Lin Mu's gaze, the monster abruptly opened its eyes, bared its fangs, and slammed against the glass tank in a frenzy, as though it wanted to burst out and devour him whole.

The sound of repeated thuds rang out, and the monsters in the other glass tanks began to stir, too.

Lin Mu jumped in fright and hurriedly backed away.

"What are these monsters? I can't believe this lab is so dangerous even when no one's here. I'd better find the Hashirama Cells quickly."

Lin Mu steadied his breathing and began searching the laboratory.

"But I don't know what Hashirama Cells look like. How am I supposed to find them?"

As Lin Mu pondered the problem, his wandering gaze caught sight of a glass bottle in the corner. A flash of inspiration crossed his mind.

"Given Orochimaru's cunning nature, he'd never leave something as precious as Hashirama Cells out in the open. He probably wouldn't lock them in a safe, either. So..."

With that, Lin Mu strode over and picked up the glass bottle.

"Ding! Hashirama Cells detected in the host's possession. Would you like to use them as a key to fully activate the Hokage Choice System?"

"Yes!"

Lin Mu was overjoyed when he heard the system prompt. He hadn't expected to get it right on his first try.

"Ding! The Naruto Template System is activating. Estimated time: ten minutes."

As soon as the system prompt ended, the glass bottle in his hand suddenly shattered. A small piece of what looked like flesh shot toward Lin Mu and vanished into his chest.

Lin Mu froze for a moment, but he didn't have time to think about it. Now that he had obtained the Hashirama Cells and activated the system, there was no reason to stay.

After all, every extra minute he spent here was another minute of danger!

With that thought, Lin Mu turned and quickly retraced his steps. He climbed out through the hollow and returned to the forest.

Breathing in the fresh forest air, Lin Mu could no longer contain his joy.

He had planned for this moment for three whole years. The system was finally going to activate!

Before he could come down from his excitement, his ears suddenly twitched. He heard a noise in the woods nearby.

"Someone's coming!"

Lin Mu was alarmed, but it was already too late to run!

His eyes swiftly swept over the surroundings, then he ducked without hesitation into the bushes beside the tree that concealed the base's entrance.