Year 48 of Konoha.
Late at night.
In a cramped wooden hut on the edge of the Uchiha Clan Grounds.
Uchiha Shingetsu's eyes snapped open.
A violent pain erupted deep in his mind, as if someone had forcibly crammed an unfamiliar life into his memories.
"Konoha?"
"Uchiha?"
"The Nine-Tails Incident ended three years ago?"
Shingetsu sat up in bed, his expression slowly changing.
He had been reincarnated.
And he had landed in the world of Naruto.
Worse still, his new identity was that of an orphan from the Uchiha Clan.
Nine years old.
His parents had died in the Nine-Tails Incident.
No one to rely on.
No resources.
All he had was a rundown wooden hut and the small allowance the clan handed out each month.
That alone wouldn't have been so bad.
What truly made Shingetsu's scalp tingle was the current point in the timeline.
After the Nine-Tails Incident, the Konoha High Command's suspicions of the Uchiha Clan had become impossible to hide.
The Uchiha had been forced to the edge of the village.
The Police Force had been isolated.
The rift between clan members and villagers had grown deeper and deeper.
And in a few more years, the Night of the Clan Massacre, the event that would change the Uchiha's fate, would arrive.
When it did, the entire Uchiha Clan Grounds would become a mountain of corpses.
The elderly, women, and children—none would be spared.
Only Sasuke Uchiha would be left alive.
"So if I do nothing, I'll die that night in a few years, too."
Shingetsu took a deep breath, his gaze gradually turning cold.
Other people got reincarnated as geniuses or with Kage Level bloodlines.
He, on the other hand—
An Uchiha orphan from the start.
And a future clan massacre thrown in for free.
What kind of hell difficulty was this?
Just then, the faintest sound came from outside the window.
An ordinary person probably wouldn't have heard it at all.
But Shingetsu had inherited the body's memories of basic ninja training.
That wasn't the wind.
It was footsteps.
Someone was outside.
And there was more than one of them.
Shingetsu's body tensed at once.
He didn't get up immediately. Instead, he pretended not to notice, remaining seated at the bedside with his head lowered, as if lost in thought.
Outside the window.
Two shadows landed soundlessly on the courtyard wall.
They wore masks with no markings, their presence cold and their movements precise.
Root.
Shingetsu recognized them almost instantly.
The Konoha Anbu had their own way of operating.
Root was different.
They were more like tools stripped of emotion.
At this point in time, the only people who would sneak into the edge of the Uchiha Clan Grounds in the middle of the night and target an orphan were Danzo's men.
"Target confirmed."
"Uchiha Shingetsu, nine years old. Parents died in the Nine-Tails Incident. No immediate family."
"Sharingan not awakened."
"Average chakra reserves."
"Low recovery value."
"Should we take him?"
A hushed voice reached Shingetsu's ears.
Recovery?
A trace of coldness flashed in Shingetsu's eyes.
In Root's eyes, Uchiha weren't people.
They were experimental materials.
Eyes to be transplanted.
Future fodder for Izanagi.
Another Root ninja said flatly, "Lord Danzo ordered us to collect more samples. Tensions within the Uchiha Clan have been rising lately."
"The target has no family. Even if he disappears, it won't cause much of a stir."
"Take him."
As soon as the words fell, one of them climbed in through the window.
His movements were light; he made almost no sound as he landed.
But the instant he entered the room, Shingetsu lowered his head, concealing the killing intent in his eyes.
He wasn't a match for them right now.
At least, not on the surface.
The other man was a trained ninja.
He was only an Uchiha orphan who hadn't even graduated from the Ninja Academy.
A direct fight meant certain death.
But Shingetsu knew one thing for sure.
A ninja battle was never just about chakra and jutsu.
Information, the surroundings, and psychology could all kill.
The Root ninja stepped behind Shingetsu, his voice cold.
"Uchiha Shingetsu, you're coming with us."
Shingetsu slowly raised his head, wearing just the right look of alarm.
"Who are you?"
The Root ninja didn't answer.
He reached out to grab Shingetsu by the shoulder.
At that very moment—
Shingetsu suddenly fell backward.
The Kunai hidden in his sleeve slid into his palm.
Thud!
The Kunai stabbed straight into the man's wrist.
The Root ninja's pupils contracted.
He clearly hadn't expected a nine-year-old Uchiha orphan to fight back.
Much less to strike so decisively.
But his reaction was swift. His other hand immediately formed Hand Seals.
"You're asking to die!"
Shingetsu didn't hesitate for a moment.
The instant his attack landed, he kicked over the oil lamp he'd prepared beside the bed.
Crash!
Lamp oil spilled everywhere.
Flames burst to life.
The tiny room blazed with light.
As the Root ninja's vision was disrupted, Shingetsu had already slammed into the wooden cabinet beside him.
The cabinet toppled, spilling a mass of wire and Shuriken across the floor.
He hadn't prepared these on the spot.
They were things the original owner had accumulated while practicing Shurikenjutsu.
As soon as Shingetsu realized there was someone outside, he had already worked out how to use everything in the room.
Wire tangled around the Root ninja's ankle.
Shuriken flew out through the flames.
Clang, clang, clang!
The Root ninja deflected them with his blade.
But the next moment, his expression changed.
The Shuriken weren't aimed at his body.
They were aimed at the rafters.
Crack!
The rafters, weakened by the fire, snapped.
The entire roof came crashing down.
The Root ninja was just about to retreat when Shingetsu lunged at him.
He knew it.
He had only one chance.
If he let the other man get some distance and use ninjutsu, he was dead.
So he had to get close.
He had to go all out.
He had to risk his life to take the other man's.
"Madman!"
The Root ninja growled.
He had never seen a kid like this.
The boy was only nine, and pathetically weak, yet he fought with a viciousness that seemed inhuman.
A short blade slashed across Shingetsu's left shoulder, and blood poured from the wound.
But his expression didn't change in the slightest.
The pain of the wound tearing open only made him move faster.
The Kunai stabbed toward the man's throat.
The Root ninja sneered.
Too slow.
He tilted his head to dodge, then swung a palm at Shingetsu's chest.
But just then, Shingetsu's other hand suddenly opened.
A lit Explosive Tag drifted from his palm.
The Root ninja's pupils shrank.
"You—!"
Boom!
The explosion rang out in the dead of night.
Half the wooden hut was blown away.
Flames shot into the sky.
The other Root ninja on the courtyard wall turned pale and rushed into the blaze.
"Jia!"
As soon as he landed, he saw his comrade lying in the rubble, a Kunai stuck in his neck. He was already dead.
The Uchiha kid stood in the flames, covered in blood.
His left shoulder had been torn open by a blade.
His chest was blackened and charred.
But he was still alive.
Shingetsu lowered his head, breathing hard.
He had won that gamble.
The Explosive Tag hadn't been meant to kill his opponent.
It had been meant to force him to reveal an opening.
The real killing blow had been the final slash, delivered under cover of the explosion.
The Root ninja stared at Shingetsu, his voice cold to the extreme.
"You dare kill someone from Root?"
Shingetsu slowly raised his head.
Firelight shone on his face.
It also revealed the crimson glint slowly spinning in his eyes.
One Tomoe.
The Sharingan.
The Root ninja's body stiffened.
"The Sharingan?!"
At the same time, a cold voice rang out in Shingetsu's mind.
[Host detected to have altered his own cause of death.] [Causality Trait System successfully bound.] [Killed one Root Chunin. Obtained white trait: Basic Taijutsu Enhancement.] [First awakening of the Sharingan. Obtained blue trait: Mental Resistance.] [Current beginner rewards being distributed.] [Congratulations, host has obtained special trait: Causality Perception.]
Shingetsu looked at the Root ninja before him, the corners of his mouth slowly lifting.
He had been worried he wouldn't survive the night.
But now it seemed—
He wasn't the one who should be worried.
It was the people who treated the Uchiha as raw material.
The Root ninja drew his short blade, his killing intent erupting.
"Uchiha Shingetsu, you must die."
Shingetsu tightened his grip on his Kunai as the One-Tomoe in his eyes slowly turned.
"Is that so?"
"Then let's find out."
Amid the firelight,
the boy bared the fangs of the Uchiha for the first time.
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