This Is Where You Can Leave Your Brain for Safekeeping. Please, Esteemed Readers, Deposit Them Here.
Konoha Year 34.
The battlefield in the Land of Rain.
The Second Shinobi World War was a regional conflict that had dragged on for five years and was gradually losing steam.
Hanzo of the Salamander rose to power. To make it clear that the Land of Rain was his territory, he successively warned elite ninja from other countries who entered the Land of Rain, including those from Konoha, Sunagakure, Kumogakure, and Iwagakure.
The battle that made him famous also earned the Konoha Sannin their humiliating title.
The Land of Rain had been on the verge of collapse, but this gave it a chance to catch its breath. Hanzo also won the recognition of his people, and his title as a demigod spread throughout the Ninja World.
Konoha Ninja encampment in the Land of Rain.
A forest thirty kilometers to the north.
In a crater left by an explosion, a figure stirred.
"Who am I?"
"I'm Senju Nawaki!"
Senju Nawaki opened his eyes. Pain throbbed through his body, and he was growing colder by the moment. His head felt heavy, leaving his thoughts increasingly muddled.
"Where are my legs?"
He surveyed the surroundings and his own body.
The area was a wasteland. Stones and trees had been blown apart, their charred blackness mingling with crimson. He was in a huge crater, covered in blood.
The lower halves of his legs were gone, reduced to bloody pulp scattered among the rocks.
At least the most precious thing was still there.
The stench of blood and the acrid smell of burning filled his nose.
He reached down to touch his legs, and felt something thick and sticky. He understood why his body was so cold: blood was still pouring from the stumps.
The vivid crimson on his fingertips seemed to flip a switch.
The haze in his mind vanished, and a fierce wave of pain surged through him, swallowing his thoughts.
"Kh... kh..."
His eyes widened. Blood spilled from his mouth as he gasped for breath.
Memories collided in his mind like tens of thousands of steel needles stabbing into his brain.
Fragments of memory began to blend together.
His previous life.
He'd been a top-tier academic workhorse, stuck with a terrible advisor. His program had involved joint supervision across eight universities. [Three years, eight colleges, nine cities. Now he was in his third year of grad school. He'd done plenty of research, but the old bastard had never given him first authorship. Somehow, he'd even become a candidate for dean?]
With graduation drawing near, his advisor had arranged for him to be held back. Who would pass up a top-tier workhorse?
But the old bastard wouldn't give him so much as a blade of grass or a grain of rice! He'd wrung him dry.
He'd gone from two hundred pounds to a hundred, worked to death.
He recalled the final scene.
He'd been doing an experiment that required a PCR machine.
[A PCR machine amplified specific DNA sequences. It was used to map genetic diseases, diagnose infectious diseases, clone genes, and more!
By precisely controlling temperature cycles and reaction times, it could manipulate gene fragments and rapidly amplify DNA.
High-temperature denaturation, low-temperature annealing, then extension at a suitable temperature.]
Unfortunately, the old bastard was too stingy to buy a PCR machine, so he'd hauled in three induction cooktops to imitate the techniques of the early days of the People's Republic.
What he hadn't expected was that the induction cooktops were shoddy knockoffs too.
An accident occurred, and the lab equipment exploded.
His final memory was of the lab's decrepit equipment—the pipettes were freebies from a sales rep and needed calibrating every week.
Not a single graduated cylinder or beaker had an intact rim, and all the markings had faded.
Every now and then, they'd dig up reagents from 1948, older than the country itself.
At least the experimental materials proved the old bastard had been around a long time.
"In my next life, I won't be a workhorse again. Especially not a poor one!"
A memory flashed by, bringing him to this life.
He'd been transported to the world of Naruto and become Senju Nawaki. Now, he was at death's door.
He didn't have Senju Hashirama's strength, but he'd inherited his foolishness.
On top of that, his damnable grandfather Senju Tobirama had disbanded the Senju Clan. Nawaki had received no special treatment—not even as much as Konohamaru, the Third's grandson.
They called it "training."
He'd relied on himself to [barely] graduate from the Ninja Academy, then joined the Second Shinobi World War to broaden his horizons.
Now he was on the battlefield in the Land of Rain.
Just two days ago, he'd turned twelve.
Tsunade had given him the Senju Clan's heirloom necklace, making him the clan's true head.
But that morning, the naive boy had been talked into a so-called patrol mission in this perilous forest.
He'd unknowingly stepped into a trap, and a chain of explosions had blown him into this sorry state.
Only one thought remained in his mind.
"Was it really an accident?"
With a new soul inside him, Senju Nawaki wasn't as naive as before.
Countless inconsistencies surfaced in his mind.
First: whether he was a newly graduated Genin or the heir to the Senju Clan, he shouldn't have been sent on a mission to scout an unknown area. This place wasn't even within the patrol route.
Second: the Explosive Tags had been far too powerful. Now that he thought about it, they'd detonated on the companion patrolling with him. It was similar to the forbidden technique recorded as Mutually Multiplying Explosive Tags.
[Sakura Haruno had taken an Explosive Tag point-blank and survived. There was no way Senju Nawaki should have been blown to pieces.]
Third: according to his memories, some kind of control had prevented his body from dodging, forcing him to take almost the full force of the explosion. Stranger still, no one had come to rescue him.
The tangled clues crossed and recrossed in his mind, but he couldn't find the answer he wanted.
Through the haze, he reached one conclusion: someone wanted him dead.
"Heh."
He gave a bitter laugh.
"Damn it, they're screwing their own grandson! Someone doesn't want the war to end yet. Is this person losing out on their interests, or just not getting enough?"
The conspiracy theories from his previous life came to mind. Combining them with his current situation, he quickly pieced together some hidden truths.
Konoha had to be involved.
When Senju Tobirama declared that the Senju Clan would abandon its name and merge into Konoha, the clan stopped being one of the people sitting at the table and became a dish on it.
As the heir to the Senju Clan, he was a thorn in their side.
Everyone who kept the Senju name had become an outsider.
War was politics by other means, a way for interest groups to redistribute power and profit.
He'd once had a royal flush in his hand, but his two damnable grandfathers had turned it into a pair of threes.
Like a Celestial Dragon who'd given up his status in the world of One Piece.
His situation wasn't as good as he'd imagined. The first problem he faced was how to survive and break the fate that had him dying here.
In an instant, he understood.
Buzz—
His mind trembled as a familiar sensation washed over him. His body was no longer under his control.
It was the same feeling he'd had when he walked into the trap.
His soul had slipped free of his body and been locked in a cage. He couldn't control himself.
"The Yamanaka Clan's secret technique! Mind Transfer Jutsu!"
Senju Nawaki knew the answer now. Someone really did want him dead.
It was a secret technique that used powerful mental energy to enter another person's body and control their actions.
Senju Nawaki's mental world was pitch-black.
Whoosh—
A face appeared before his soul. The figure held a short sword and slashed at Senju Nawaki.
He couldn't dodge in time and lost an arm.
"The Yamanaka Clan jōnin who announced the mission this morning—Yamanaka Shuichi."
Senju Nawaki recognized the soul that had invaded his mental world. He recalled the other two "companions" who had gone on the mission with him: one from the Nara Clan and one from the Akimichi Clan.
Weren't these the three loyal clans of the Third?
The mastermind had revealed himself?
The Third's "credentials" just kept growing.
A flicker of fear appeared in Yamanaka Shuichi's eyes, but he quickly suppressed it.
The secret he wanted to hide absolutely couldn't come to light. Fortunately, it would all be over soon.
He snatched the severed arm of Senju Nawaki's soul, and black energy began to emanate from him.
Senju Nawaki's soul grew disoriented.
"What is he trying to do?"
The moment the question crossed his mind, the Soul Space began to flicker. He immediately understood what the other man was doing.
This technique was meant to alter his memories.
The Yamanaka Clan excelled at mental techniques, and its strongest members could even alter people's memories.
Yamanaka Shuichi was using the severed arm of Senju Nawaki's soul as a medium to change his memories, making his death look like an accident.
He was erasing all trace of the one who'd controlled him.
"Guarding against outsiders is easy. It's the traitors at home who are hard to stop. Senju Tobirama deserves to have his clan wiped out." Senju Nawaki even cursed himself in his mind. "You think you can run wild in my soul?"
After cursing, he saw something that shocked him.
Three enormous induction cooktops had appeared inside his Soul Space, buzzing away.
"Aren't those the three induction cooktops that blew me up? No, they're hand-built PCR machines!"
A screen flashed into view.
[Bloodline Completion System (Mother Earth Loves Me Most Event)] [Name: Senju Nawaki (...)] [Attributes: Yang Release (medium), Wind Release (low), Earth Release (low), Water Release (low), Fire Release (low), Lightning Release (low)...] [Rank: Genin] [Chakra: 357] [Bloodline: Incomplete Sage Body] [Kekkei Genkai: Incomplete Basic Wood Release] [Skills: Clone Jutsu (intermediate), Ninja Tool Throwing (beginner), Basic Taijutsu (beginner), Earth Release Ninjutsu (novice), Water Release Ninjutsu (novice), Wind Release Ninjutsu (novice)...] [Passive: Scientific Keenness (high)] ... [Warning!!! Bloodline completion material detected: Yin Release Chakra]
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