Konoha Year 44

Get lost!

Before I decide to kill you.

Looking at Itachi, who had wet himself out of fear, Yu clicked his tongue in annoyance.

Although he hated people like him, he wasn't reckless enough to start killing people in the village.

Even in wartime, the Anbu's surveillance and the Uchiha Clan's Konoha Military Police Force weren't there for show.

"M-monster..."

Inazu looked at Yu in utter terror.

Then he hurriedly helped his brother, Itachi, to his feet.

Taking the other village brats with them, they scattered like frightened rabbits.

"Urushi."

"Your injuries aren't serious."

"I'm going to train now. I'll treat you when I get back tonight."

Watching Inazu, Itachi, and the other kids flee in a panic,

Yu silently turned to Urushi, who stood frozen beside him, and said a few words to him, Mayuna, Momoka, and the others.

He brushed down his slightly rumpled clothes and made his way into the small woods nearby.

"Yu..."

"Before I knew it..."

Staring blankly at the spot where Yu had disappeared into the woods,

Urushi murmured, "You've gotten so much stronger than me..."

Yu's slender figure seemed impossibly far away to Urushi now.

A year ago, when Yakushi Nonō had first brought Yu back from the battlefield,

Yu's abilities had been about the same as Urushi's—or perhaps even a little weaker.

But over the course of that year, the exceptionally gifted Yu had begun to reveal his talents.

Kekkei Genkai—an ordinary orphan like Urushi might not know the significance of that concept in the ninja world.

But after seeing Yu's strength and his monstrous display just now, even Urushi, with his ordinary aptitude, was beginning to realize the truth.

He and Yu had belonged to two different worlds from the very beginning.

Konoha.

The bustling streets.

The outbreak of the Third Shinobi World War had brought a tense, heightened state of alert.

But that did nothing to diminish the prosperity of the most powerful ninja village in the world.

"What a bunch of fools."

Walking down the street and watching the endless stream of people pass by,

Yu's troubled mood gradually lifted in the morning sun.

He had every reason to be angry.

Yakushi Nonō had sacrificed so much for the village, risking her life as she traveled from country to country and infiltrated other ninja villages to gather intelligence for Konoha.

Now she had given up everything and willingly stayed behind to run an orphanage on the outskirts of Konoha.

Yet the people who enjoyed her protection without even realizing it hadn't so much as thanked her. Instead, they'd kept pushing her around. What gave them the right?

What a load of nonsense—the Will of Fire.

What nonsense, that a true ninja was one who sacrificed themselves to secretly maintain peace.

Sorry, but as someone who'd been reincarnated, Yu couldn't agree.

An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. That was his way of the ninja.

"Forget it. No point thinking about it."

After putting his thoughts aside,

Yu gazed across the vast, bustling village of Konoha and couldn't help sighing. "This really is a world from a manga..."

"This village is every bit as big as an international metropolis back in my old world."

Yu wasn't exaggerating.

It really was just like in the anime.

The sprawling village of Konoha was enormous.

Ninja, villagers, and traveling merchants streamed through its streets.

Boundless forests stretched away on either side, while two great, ocher mountains rose to the front and rear.

On the cliff behind the village were three imposing faces carved into the rock—the Konoha Face Rock.

The First, Senju Hashirama; the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju; and the current Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi.

Of course, Yu knew that in a few years, another iconic face would be added to the cliff: the Yellow Flash, Minato Namikaze, Konoha's Fourth Hokage.

But that was still in the future. It was Konoha Year 44.

The year before, the Third Kazekage of Sunagakure in the Land of Wind had mysteriously disappeared.

The disappearance of the strongest Kazekage set off a chain of events that ultimately ignited the Third Shinobi World War.

And Yu, one year ago,

had been brought to Konoha by Yakushi Nonō and taken in after the Battle of Kikyo Pass during the Third Shinobi World War.

That year, the legendary Itachi had only just been born, a year or two earlier.

That year, Might Guy hadn't yet become a Chunin.

That year, Hatake Kakashi hadn't yet become the Copy Ninja.

That year, in Kirigakure, the Bloody Mist Village, Zabuza Momochi—the man known as the Demon—had made waves throughout the Ninja World.

During the graduation exam, where students were forced to kill one another, he had single-handedly killed every student in his class.

Because of him, Kirigakure changed the format of its graduation exam.

Lost in thought, Yu walked along the bustling street.

Many passersby turned to look at his delicate little face.

His moon-pale hair and handsome, boyish features drew plenty of admiring gazes.

Yu could even faintly hear a few girls and middle-aged women nearby chattering about how "kawaii" he was.

Yu lowered his head slightly and silently quickened his pace.

The soul of an adult still couldn't quite get used to being treated like a cute little boy.

"Excuse me, shopkeeper."

"Could I get two sheets of Chakra Paper?"

Ten minutes later, Yu arrived at an ordinary ninja tool shop.

There were many shops like this in Konoha.

Besides ninja carrying out missions, plenty of kids who dreamed of becoming ninja came by regularly.

"That'll be two ryō. Thank you for your business."

The shopkeeper, dressed in a Chinese-style martial arts uniform, brightened when he saw Yu come in.

He handed Yu two sheets of Chakra Paper and took the two-ryō note from the boy's small hand.

Ryō was the currency of the Naruto world. One ryō was roughly equivalent to ten yen.

A ninja could earn anywhere from five thousand to fifty thousand ryō for completing a D-rank mission.

"This shop..."

"Could this be the ninja tool shop Tenten's family owns in the future...?"

Taking the Chakra Paper, Yu looked at the shopkeeper in his Chinese-style martial arts uniform.

He wondered if the man standing in front of him might be the father of Tenten, one of the future Konoha 12.

After leaving the shop,

Yu pushed through the thronging crowds and made his way in the opposite direction from the Konoha Face Rock.

On the far side of the village, opposite the iconic Hokage Rock and the Fire Temple, lay an entire back mountain that had been cleared flat.

Dense forests and ravines surrounded the mountain. There, Yu found a good place to train.