As Expected of Kakashi

Year 46 of Konoha.

On the main road through the Land of Fire, heading for the Hidden Leaf Village.

On a bullock cart,

a handsome, black-haired boy sat up, clutching his head and struggling.

"Ugh... my head hurts. Where am I?"

Yuzhen opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was a white-haired child in front, holding the reins of the cart.

As if sensing that his companion had woken up, the white-haired child turned around.

He looked at Yuzhen expressionlessly and said:

"You're finally awake. I thought you might not make it back to the village."

"Y-You... are you Kakashi?" Yuzhen pointed at the white-haired child.

Recognizing the somewhat familiar mask, he widened his eyes, trying to say something.

But a wave of pain hit his head, and he slumped back down.

"Hey! Why are you lying down again?" Seeing this, Kakashi hurriedly brought the cart to a stop.

He leaped down and landed beside Yuzhen.

Just then, a voice rang out in Yuzhen's mind.

[Beep~ The host has awakened his Past Life Wisdom. The Entry Extraction System has finished charging. Welcome!]

"Hm?"

"A system and Past Life Wisdom? Did I reincarnate?"

Suddenly, a wave of information flooded Yuzhen's mind.

A moment later, after absorbing it all, he understood everything.

He was Uchiha Yuzhen. In his previous life, after years of being worked to the bone, he had died in a mudslide.

A cheat called the Entry Extraction System had brought him to the Naruto world,

where he had been reincarnated into a good family and become an Uchiha.

He was twelve years old and an orphan.

However, before awakening his Past Life Wisdom, he had been just as untalented as he'd been in his previous life.

He had been utterly mediocre.

As a ninja clan, the Uchiha usually trained their own members.

Only two kinds of people were sent to the Ninja Academy:

true geniuses and those who were hopelessly mediocre.

Unfortunately,

he was like Obito. Before awakening the Sharingan, he was an utterly mediocre Uchiha.

After graduating, he had been assigned to a mediocre team.

Then, after one teammate had died a heroic death,

the village had assigned

Kakashi, who was now about as sociable as a rock,

to their team.

Then came this disastrous mission.

All his teammates had died.

Only he, gravely wounded and on the verge of death, and Kakashi, the genius, remained.

"So this is the Naruto world. Am I lucky or unlucky?"

"Fortunately, it's still the year 45 of Konoha. The Third Shinobi World War is two years away, so I have enough time to grow stronger."

"After this mission, with all my teammates dead, I should get some time to recover. I have to keep my head down until then."

Uchiha Yuzhen thought to himself,

having understood the current point in time.

His mind began calculating.

The information that had flooded his mind had given him a rough understanding of how the Entry Extraction System worked.

The system

could extract another person's affix just by making contact with them.

It could also raise the level of an affix by absorbing Combat Points.

At that moment, Yuzhen looked

at the panel provided by the system.

Host: Uchiha Yuzhen

Gender: Male

Age: Twelve

Strength: Genin

Affixes: [Uchiha (White)], [Fire Style (White)], [Wind Style (White)], [Uchiha Style (White)], [Yin Style (White)].

"Tsk... What a miserable panel. What do you even call this? The Five-White Hermit?"

Uchiha Yuzhen couldn't help feeling a little helpless.

The system had already told him

that affixes had six ranks:

White, Green, Blue, Purple, Gold, and Red.

White was the lowest, and red the highest.

Considering that, making it to twelve in the brutal Ninja World before awakening his past-life memories had been pretty lucky.

"The system says I can extract an affix just by making contact, though I can only do it once per person."

"But that ability is already incredibly powerful!"

"Combat Points are the energy used to level up affixes. In my current state, I can't get any, so I'll leave that alone for now."

"Right now, there's one thing I can test..."

With that in mind,

he decided to take action.

All those thoughts had taken a long time in his mind, but in the real world, they had passed in an instant.

Coming back to himself,

he pretended to clutch his head and slowly sat upright.

"Kakashi... give me some water."

At that, Kakashi hurriedly crouched down and pulled a water bottle from his ninja pouch.

As Yuzhen took the bottle, his hand touched Kakashi's.

In an instant, a rainbow of light appeared before his eyes.

Affixes of every color—gold, purple, blue, green, and white—appeared!

As expected of Kakashi!

He had affixes of every rank except the highest, red!

At that moment,

Yuzhen wanted nothing more than to extract and copy every single one.

Unfortunately, according to the system's rules,

he could only extract one affix from each person.

There was no need to think twice. He had to take the gold one.

With that thought, he silently called out: "System, extract!"

In an instant,

the golden light around Kakashi was copied and drawn into the system.

As Uchiha Yuzhen pretended to drink,

his heart raced.

On the panel that only he could see,

a new affix appeared: [Genius (Gold)].

[Genius (Gold)]: Super-Domain Amplification to comprehension, creativity, and adaptability.

Yuzhen was ecstatic.

"Comprehension should help with learning. Creativity explains Kakashi's knack for creating things, and adaptability goes without saying."

"That's how Kakashi earned the title of Copy Ninja."

"At a time when I'm not good at anything, this affix will be incredibly powerful!"

Kakashi Hatake really was a monster. No wonder he would later be able to fight Kaguya.

Thinking about how much this affix would help him, Yuzhen silently called out,

"System, install affix!"

Whoosh—

A rush of understanding filled Yuzhen's mind.

"So this is what it's like to be a genius?"

Uchiha Yuzhen found it hard to believe.

At that moment,

his control over chakra

and the Uchiha Style he had learned from his deceased parents

had both changed.

His understanding of

Shuriken, Nintaijutsu, genjutsu, Shurikenjutsu, the Clone Technique, and the Wire Manipulation Technique had all improved.

Things he hadn't understood before now made perfect sense.

The same went for elemental Ninjutsu.

His control over his body, mental acuity, and reflexes had also improved dramatically.

It was as if his shackles had fallen away. Even his thoughts felt much clearer.

"Before, I was mediocre. Now, I'm a genius."

"Then... could I get access to the clan's Ninjutsu resources during the recovery period?"

Now he had to prepare

to survive the Third Shinobi World War in two years.

Everything was for the sake of getting stronger!

He could forget about getting resources from Konoha.

Unlike Obito, even before awakening his Past Life Wisdom,

he had instinctively been immune to the Will of Fire's brainwashing.

The village leadership

would never invest resources in him.

That meant he would have to figure out how to get the resources he needed from the Uchiha Clan.

While Uchiha Yuzhen was thinking about his future,

Kakashi, convinced his companion was fine, had already gone back to driving the cart.

When he saw Konoha's distant walls,

he turned around, his eyes lifeless.

"Yuzhen, we're almost back to the village."

"Once this recovery period is over..."