Reborn as an Uchiha, Starting in a Bottomless Pit

[Please add this to your bookshelf. It tastes even better if you toss out your brain first~]

Konoha Ninja Academy, enrollment day.

The school gates were packed with people. Children from the major clans were ushered inside, heads held high and chests puffed out.

The Uchiha children were especially arrogant.

They all wore dark blue high-collared uniforms, with the red-and-white fan crest embroidered on their chests. Even their walks seemed to carry the wind.

The parents stood outside chatting among themselves, their eyes full of pride.

"My child could use Fire Release when he was three."

"That's nothing. My son has already awakened a one-tomoe Sharingan." "That blond one seems to be called Minato Namikaze. I hear he's a little genius!"

Only one child stood alone at the edge of the crowd.

Messy black hair fell over his forehead, his left eye hidden by his bangs while his right was as dark as ink. His clothes were faded from washing but clean, and his ninja shoes were so worn that his toes were nearly showing.

No parent accompanied him.

No one spoke to him.

His name was Uchiha En.

An orphan from an ordinary Uchiha family.

His parents had died on a mission when he was nine. Not even their bodies had been brought back.

The clan had given him a meager pension, dumped him in a dilapidated shack at the very edge of the clan grounds, and never cared about him again.

"What sins did I commit in my previous life?"

En shoved his hands into his pockets and watched those haughty children of his clan walk past him, his lips twisting into a self-mocking smile.

Just like in the vast majority of fanfics, he was not a true "native."

His name was Li Yan. He had lived to twenty-six in his previous life, an utterly ordinary office drone. A diehard One Piece fan, he had followed Naruto from its first episode all the way to Boruto, from his school days to his working years.

Cause of death—sudden death from overwork.

When he woke up, he had become an Uchiha orphan.

At that moment, he had nearly laughed out loud.

Transported into the world of Naruto? And into the Uchiha clan? Sharingan, Susanoo, Amaterasu, Tsukuyomi... wasn't this the ultimate starting hand?

The timing was good too. It was Konoha Year 39, after the Second Shinobi World War, after Tsunade and the other two received the title of "Konoha's Three Ninja"; after Sakumo Hatake, the White Fang of Konoha, committed suicide over a mission controversy; and after the Land of Whirlpools had been destroyed. Every nation was still badly weakened. He had five years to develop before the Third Shinobi World War.

Then reality slapped him across the face twice.

First, his parents were dead. He had no one to back him up.

Second, this body's chakra talent was so awful, it was like it had been personally forsaken by the Sage of Six Paths.

Since coming here,

he had tried practicing the Clone Technique. What he created looked like a lump of dough that had been stepped on.

He had tried practicing Fire Release. The sparks he spat out were weaker than a lighter.

His chakra control was an absolute mess. He could not even climb a tree steadily.

A transmigrator?

Heh.

What a pointless transmigration. Still, at least he had figured out the original owner's "cause of death." (Without a cheat, there was no way he could survive.)

"Let's go in. I'll try taijutsu later." En muttered to himself as he headed toward the school gate.

"Yo!"

A piercing voice came from the side.

"Isn't this the 'genius' who can't even make a proper clone?"

En stopped walking. (Sigh! When Heaven is about to entrust a great task to a man, it must first torment him before he can rise up!)

A boy half a head taller than him blocked his path.

Uchiha Yashiro.

The son of Uchiha Yan, a squad captain in the Konoha Police Force. A textbook spoiled rich brat, always followed by four or five lackeys and used to throwing his weight around in the clan.

En glanced at him.

This guy would be cut down by Itachi in a little over ten years.

He would die on the night of the Uchiha massacre.

The kind of death that would not even leave behind a whole corpse.

But that was more than ten years away.

For now—

"I heard your parents died on a mission?" Yashiro grinned crookedly, while his lackeys laughed on cue. "Tsk, tsk. Trash breeds trash. No wonder—"

En lowered his head and said nothing.

He was far too familiar with this kind of scene.

An office drone ostracized at work in his previous life, an orphan bullied by his clan in this one.

He had crossed into another world only to get bullied all over again.

Where was the promised protagonist script?

"I'm talking to you! Are you deaf?"

Yashiro reached out and shoved him.

En staggered back two steps—and bumped into someone.

"You okay?"

A hand steadied his shoulder.

En turned around.

Golden hair, azure eyes.

A smile as bright as sunlight, so clean there was not a trace of shadow in it.

A boy half a head taller than En stood there, one hand lightly resting on his shoulder before turning to Yashiro.

His smile did not change, but his tone was serious.

"It's wrong to push people."

Yashiro froze for a second, then snorted.

"Minato Namikaze? A commoner dares to meddle in Uchiha business?"

Minato Namikaze.

En's pupils contracted slightly.

The future Fourth Hokage.

The Yellow Flash.

The user of the Flying Thunder God.

Naruto Uzumaki's father.

—The man who would die alongside his wife protecting Konoha on the night of the Nine-Tails attack.

Now, this man destined to become a legend was only twelve years old. Dressed in cleanly washed commoner clothes, he stood behind En and shielded him from a spoiled brat.

"It has nothing to do with whether I'm a commoner." Minato's tone was neither humble nor overbearing. "Pushing people is wrong."

"You—"

"The teacher is calling everyone to gather." Minato cut him off, taking hold of En's sleeve. "Come on, let's go in together."

En was pulled along for a few steps before looking back.

Yashiro stood where he was, his face livid, but he did not chase after them.

His lackeys looked at one another.

"...Thanks," En said quietly.

"No need to thank me!" Minato's eyes curved into crescents as he smiled. "I'm Minato Namikaze. What's your name?"

"Uchiha En."

"En? That's such a cool name! Is it the En for flame?"

"...Yeah, the En for blazing heat."

"Then you'll definitely become an amazing ninja someday! Flames are really powerful!"

En looked up at those clear blue eyes.

What an idiot.

Didn't he know? The Uchiha clan lacked nothing when it came to Fire Release.

But no matter how powerful Fire Release was, could it burn away the malice in people's hearts? (Of course, there was also the kindest ninjutsu of all, Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique.)

But he did not say it aloud.

Because this was the first time since he had transmigrated that someone had spoken to him as an equal.

Entrance test.

Inside the large academy classroom, the new students sat in sections divided by clan.

The examiner stood at the podium with an evaluation sheet in hand.

"Next is the basic Three Body Techniques test. Come up in roster order."

Minato Namikaze was third.

Transformation Technique—he perfectly copied the examiner's appearance, even reproducing the scar at the corner of his left eye.

Clone Technique—three clones at once, each clear and complete without a single flaw.

Substitution Technique—clean and crisp. A log appeared where he had been, while Minato was already standing in the corner of the classroom, spinning a shuriken in his hand.

The examiner's eyes lit up.

"Minato Namikaze, full marks in all three."

A wave of astonished murmurs swept through the classroom.

A child from a commoner background had surpassed every single clan heir.

Then it was Uchiha En's turn.

He stood before the podium and formed hand seals.

Clone Technique—

"Pfft."

A crooked, misshapen thing appeared beside him.

It barely counted as humanoid, with a blurry face and an unsteady body, like a scarecrow about to fall apart.

The classroom fell silent in an instant.

Then laughter erupted.

"HAHAHAHAHA!"

Yashiro laughed the loudest, slapping the desk. "That's it? That thing deserves the Uchiha name?"

His lackeys joined in.

Even the children from the other clans could not help showing mocking smiles.

The examiner frowned and wrote two words on the evaluation sheet:

Unqualified.

En stood on the podium, looking at the wavering clone.

The laughter in the classroom stabbed into his ears like needles.

His expression did not change at all.

After being mocked for so many years in his previous life, he had long learned one thing—

When you had no strength, any anger was a joke.

En stepped down from the podium and returned to his seat.

Minato leaned over from beside him.

There was no mockery, no pity.

He simply handed him half a rice ball.

"Want to eat together at lunch? I made too much."

En looked at him.

"...You cook for yourself at home?"

"Yeah! I live alone." Minato scratched his head with a smile. "But I'm a really good cook!"

Lived alone.

Born a commoner, with no clan to rely on, also alone in the world.

En accepted the rice ball.

He took a bite.

It was a little salty.

But it was warm.

After school.

As En walked back toward the clan grounds, one question kept circling through his mind.

He knew every future event in this world.

The Nine-Tails would attack Konoha in nine years.

The Uchiha would be massacred in eighteen years.

Pain would destroy Konoha.

Obito would launch the Fourth Shinobi World War.

Kaguya would be revived.

He knew it all.

But what good did knowing do?

What use were those memories to an orphaned waste with utterly terrible chakra talent?

Even if he ran to the Third Hokage right now and said, "The Uchiha will be massacred in the future," who would believe a twelve-year-old kid?

Danzo might even set his sights on him and have him killed outright.

"Survive first."

Yan gritted his teeth and walked into the rundown little house.

"As long as I'm alive, there'll still be a chance."

What he didn't know was—

That chance would come far sooner than he imagined.