Golden Legend, Asura's Chakra

Time: May 18, Year 54 of Konoha, 3:30 PM.

Location: Ninja Academy playground, first-year training grounds.

More than a month after the school term began, the first-year students had finally welcomed their first test.

Shuriken Throwing had just ended, and now it was time for a Taijutsu match.

The students stood or sat in a circle, watching two figures fight in the open space.

Both figures were tiny, their chubby baby faces making them look only five or six years old.

One had blond hair and the other silver hair; one had blue eyes and the other red eyes.

The blond child kept attacking the silver-haired child, but his completely unstructured "Turtle Fist" was easily defused by the silver-haired child.

A straight punch thrown with too much force left the blond child's stance unsteady, his body tilting slightly forward.

Seizing the chance, the silver-haired child ducked close to the blond child, grabbed his arms with both hands, and sent him flying with an over-the-shoulder throw.

As the sound of a heavy body hitting the ground rang out, Iruka, acting as referee, immediately announced the result. "Naruto Uzumaki is down. The match is decided—the winner is Ryusuke!"

"Both sides, form the Seal of Reconciliation!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the blond child slowly climbed to his feet and said unwillingly, "Damn it, I almost won."

Iruka's forehead instantly filled with black lines.

Every move you made was seen through. Where did you get the nerve to say you almost won?

Still, he did not say anything to discourage Naruto. After all, having only recently untied the knot in his heart, his attitude toward Naruto had already changed.

"Hey... Ryusuke, what are you spacing out for? Are you looking down on me?"

When Naruto walked up to Ryusuke and held out his index and middle fingers, he suddenly noticed that the opponent who had defeated him was spacing out. He immediately shouted in dissatisfaction.

Ryusuke came back to his senses and instinctively said something hurtful. "Sorry. That throw didn't hurt you too badly, did it?"

Naruto instantly bristled. "Damn it, you really are looking down on me! Just wait—I'll defeat both you and that stuck-up Sasuke sooner or later!"

"Then you'd better work hard. I'm not going to let you catch up."

Ryusuke suddenly flashed a toothy grin.

That confident smile left Naruto slightly stunned. It also left Iruka and the watching students beside them slightly stunned.

Why did Ryusuke suddenly seem so much more cheerful?

Yet his adorable, baby-fat-filled face—already showing just how handsome he would become as he grew up—made that smile devastatingly effective. Quite a few girls blushed, and some even squealed.

"Ryusuke-kun is so handsome!"

After forming the Seal of Reconciliation with Naruto, Ryusuke returned to the crowd. As he perfunctorily responded to his classmates' praise, he stared fixedly at the Virtual Panel visible only to him.

If not for his strong mental fortitude, Ryusuke would have been trembling with excitement by now.

If this had not been the wrong setting, he might have been unable to stop himself from shouting to vent his emotions.

After transmigrating six years ago, he had finally awakened his cheat ability!

Ryusuke was a transmigrator, six years old this year.

Unlike those transmigrators who possessed someone else's body and lived on using their body and name, or those whose bodies traveled to another world, Ryusuke was a "native" born in this world after his mother carried him for ten months.

Unfortunately, he had been born on the same year, month, and day as Naruto.

The moment he was born, he encountered the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox's Attack. His mother was gravely injured while protecting him and did not survive, while his father, a Konoha Chunin, was instantly killed by Nine-Tails' AOE attack while supporting the Third Hokage alongside his captain.

He had become all alone right after transmigrating. Ryusuke had been dumbfounded.

This is way too cliché!

Had he become the protagonist of some novel?

But as he grew older, Ryusuke realized he had been overthinking it.

He had transmigrated into the bloodline-supremacist world of Naruto, and he was a civilian orphan without even a Kekkei Genkai. Such a beginning destined him to be nothing but cannon fodder.

If he was lucky, perhaps during the Fourth Great Ninja War, Madara Uchiha would grab him by the throat and ask, "Do you want to dance too?"

To earn a compliment from Madara like, "I would call you the strongest," one had to be a genius who had reached the pinnacle of some field.

Otherwise, no matter how hard one worked or how talented one was, Kage-level would be the limit.

Being the same age as Naruto and Sasuke, he was destined to remain in Konoha until he was twelve. His chances of defying fate were nearly zero.

After several years passed and he realized that he truly had no cheat ability, Ryusuke decided to become a minor character and start slacking off.

He no longer fantasized about reaching the pinnacle of the Shinobi World. He only hoped to survive the Konoha Crush, Pain's Assault on Konoha, and the Fourth Great Ninja War. He would be satisfied if he could marry a pretty, big-breasted supporting heroine.

Yet the goddess of luck seemed to be deliberately playing a joke on him.

Just now, when Ryusuke defeated Naruto—

A flash of golden light had suddenly appeared on Naruto's body. Then, a golden beam flew out of him and landed nearby, forming a floating golden orb.

It was this orb that had left Ryusuke frozen in place.

A few seconds later, the golden orb automatically flew toward Ryusuke, just like an automatic pickup in a game.

After the orb entered his body, this Virtual Panel automatically appeared before Ryusuke.

The Virtual Panel displayed Ryusuke's personal information.

Host: Ryusuke

Age: 6

Kekkei Genkai: None

Space Backpack: Asura's Chakra (Gold)

That was Ryusuke's extremely brief information. There was also a portrait of Ryusuke to the left of his name.

Below it was a game-like Space Backpack with a 5x5 inventory grid.

Inside the first slot was that very golden orb.

But when Ryusuke saw the information displayed by the golden orb, his breathing caught slightly, and his heart filled with both excitement and fear.

What excited him was that this thing was one of the few things in this world capable of allowing someone to defy fate.

The reason Naruto and Sasuke could become saviors was because they were both reincarnations of the Six Paths Sage's sons.

Asura's Chakra and Indra's Chakra bestowed upon them the ultimate powers of Yin and Yang.

Those who possessed Asura's Chakra would possess the true Sage Body inherited from the Six Paths Sage.

Those who possessed Indra's Chakra would likewise possess the Sage Eye inherited from the Six Paths Sage.

When one side developed their Sage Body or Sage Eye to its limit, then fused a little of the other side's Chakra, they could awaken one of the supreme ocular techniques capable of destroying and creating worlds... the Rinnegan!

Madara Uchiha was the best example.

What frightened him was that Asura's Chakra was part of the Six Paths Sage's contingency plan.

Every generation of Asura and Indra's reincarnations was one of the Six Paths Sage's trump cards for dealing with his mother's resurrection.

Had Naruto dropped this thing in its entirety, or had he only lost a portion of it?

Or was it like a game, where this was merely a dropped material that had no effect on Naruto at all?

Of course, the most important question was whether fusing with this thing would allow Otsutsuki Asura to influence him—and whether it would draw the Six Paths Sage to his door.

Ryusuke did not know.

He only knew that he was incredibly tempted!

Sasuke Uchiha craved power for revenge. Some people craved power to save or destroy the world... Ryusuke craved power because he had only been an ordinary person in his previous life.

He could not gain superpowers in his previous life, but in this life, he had the chance to touch such extraordinary power. Even knowing that his ultimate fate might be to become cannon fodder, even knowing that he would face life-and-death crises in the future, Ryusuke had still chosen to become a ninja.

And now, an opportunity to go from cannon fodder to someone with cheats lay right before him.

If you're going to be so timid, you might as well hang yourself!

At that thought, Ryusuke's gaze suddenly became resolute.