Minato, Your Friend Isn't Useless Anymore

That night.

A dilapidated cabin at the edge of the clan grounds.

En sat on the bed, staring at the ceiling.

Moonlight seeped through the cracks in the broken window, drawing streaks of white across the floor.

He closed his eyes.

His consciousness sank into his mind.

The system panel lit up.

A simple translucent interface floated in the darkness, its white text neatly arranged.

[Host Status]

Name: Uchiha En

Age: 12

Sharingan: Unawakened

Magma-Magma Fruit Evolution Progress: 0%

Observation Haki: Lv. 1 (Perception Radius: 50 meters)

Armament Haki: Unawakened

Conqueror's Haki: Unawakened

--

[Evolution Path]

Three-Tomoe Sharingan (?%) → Mangekyo Sharingan (?%) → Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan (?%)

Note: The Uchiha bloodline is highly compatible with the Magma-Magma Fruit. Sharingan evolution will trigger mutations in the Fruit's abilities. Further details pending unlock.

--

[Achievement System]

Achieved: None

Unachieved: ??? (More achievements pending unlock)

En opened his eyes.

The corner of his mouth curled upward.

"Evolution path... Sharingan mutation..."

He murmured, raising his right hand.

His will moved.

Dark-red glowing patterns emerged beneath the skin of his right palm.

The temperature rapidly rose.

Then—his palm turned into magma.

Scalding dark-red lava replaced flesh and blood, flowing slowly.

He controlled the magma, condensing it into a fist-sized ball of lava in his palm.

The sphere's surface was extremely hot, warping the air around it.

A drop of magma fell onto the wooden floor.

Sizzle—

A fist-sized blackened crater appeared.

"Fuck."

En hurriedly withdrew the lava ball, and his right hand returned to normal.

He looked down at the hole in the floor and winced for a second.

"My control is awful. I need to practice."

He did not dare continue experimenting indoors—this rundown house would go up in flames at the slightest spark.

En closed his eyes and activated his Observation Haki once more.

His perception spread out.

The presence of every living thing within a fifty-meter radius clearly entered his awareness.

Thirty meters to the left, a stray cat was rummaging through a garbage pile.

Forty-five meters to the right, the lights were still on in an Uchiha home. Two adult presences, and one child.

Directly above—

Someone was lying on the roof.

En's heart tightened.

That presence was incredibly faint, nearly blending into the surroundings.

Without Observation Haki, he would never have detected it.

ANBU.

Had someone already sent people to monitor him?

En's expression did not change.

He lay back down on the bed, closed his eyes, and breathed evenly.

Pretending to sleep.

His mind began calculating rapidly.

The sensing unit had definitely detected the abnormal energy fluctuations from the Nanga River. Even if those brats led by Yashiro did not dare talk, they could not keep it secret. The Third Hokage would certainly investigate.

And his current identity—an orphan from an Uchiha branch family, a chakra good-for-nothing.

Suddenly unleashing an "unknown" power.

What would that mean in the eyes of Konoha's upper ranks?

A treasure? Or a threat?

En remembered a name.

Danzo Shimura.

The leader of ANBU Root.

An extreme utilitarian who equated Konoha's interests with his own will, and "uncontrollable" with "must be eliminated."

If Danzo set his sights on him—

At his current strength, he could not even defeat a random Root member under Danzo.

If possible, he really did not want to expose himself, but today had been an accident. He had no choice.

"I need to get stronger quickly."

En silently clenched his fist in the darkness.

"And—I can't let anyone know my progress."

--

The next day.

The Ninja Academy.

En entered the classroom as usual.

Sat down.

Opened his textbook.

And pretended nothing had happened.

Yashiro was absent.

Apparently, he had "taken sick leave."

The four lackeys came, but the moment they saw En, they turned their heads away as if they had seen a ghost. They did not dare look at him for the entire day.

A child sitting beside one of the lackeys quietly asked, "What happened to Yashiro? What did you guys do yesterday?"

The lackey's face went pale. "N-Nothing! We didn't do anything!"

The rumor that "Uchiha En is a monster" began spreading within a small circle.

But most of the children merely took it as exaggerated boasting between kids.

Minato sat beside En as usual and grinned as he handed over half a rice ball.

"I added pickled plum today. Want to try it?"

En took it and bit down.

Sour.

"Your cooking is still terrible."

"Huh? Didn't you say it was good last time?"

"I said it was edible."

"Isn't that the same as good?"

"...Whatever makes you happy."

Minato noticed that En had changed into a different outfit today.

"New clothes?"

"Old ones. I washed them so I could rotate them."

Minato nodded without asking further.

But his gaze lingered for one extra second.

On En's right hand.

That hand held the rice ball, looking completely normal.

--

After school.

En did not return to the clan grounds.

He took a long detour and shook off the ANBU tail—Observation Haki was practically a cheat code at times like this. The other party thought their concealment was flawless, but within En's perception range, they stood out like a torch in the night.

After circling around for a full forty minutes and confirming there were no more unusual presences within his perception range, En slipped into the edge of the Forest of Death.

It was the most dangerous training ground around Konoha, infested year-round with poisonous insects and ferocious beasts. But precisely because of that, the ANBU surveillance network was least dense here—no one would think a twelve-year-old child would come to a place like this.

Somewhere on the edge of the forest, Uchiha En did not dare go too deep.

En stood before a giant tree more than two meters in diameter.

He took a deep breath.

His right fist turned to magma.

A dark-red glow spread from his shoulder all the way to his fist. Lava flowed as its temperature soared.

"Lava Punch."

He threw a punch.

The instant his fist touched the trunk—

Sizzle—!

The tree trunk instantly began carbonizing at the point of contact, then the entire tree snapped in half.

Its upper half crashed to the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust.

Thick smoke still rose from the edges of the break, and the magma's residual heat had left dark-red scorch marks across the severed surface.

"The power is enough."

En withdrew his fist and looked at the fallen giant tree.

"But it's too crude."

Melting through part of a tree with one punch was not difficult.

The difficult part was precise control.

What he needed was not merely the ability to use this power, but the ability to wield it exactly as he pleased.

For the next hour.

En practiced repeatedly in the depths of the forest.

Turning his entire right arm into magma—success.

Turning only his left hand into magma—success.

Turning both hands into magma at once—success, but it consumed a great deal of stamina.

Creating a fist-sized lava ball in his palm and maintaining its shape—required intense concentration, but he could do it.

Throwing the lava ball—success, but the accuracy was poor. It missed by three meters.

Elementalization—turning part of his body into magma so physical attacks passed right through—

He picked up a stone and threw it at his magma-transformed right arm.

The stone passed through his arm.

By the time it hit the ground, it had become a puddle of melted debris.

"Elementalization... Physical attacks are ineffective."

En's eyes lit up.

This was the most absurd aspect of a Logia Devil Fruit.

Without Haki, physical attacks were completely useless against an elementalized body.

And in this ninja world—

No one had Haki.

That meant—

As long as he had sufficient stamina, his body was theoretically already close to invincible.

Of course, ninjutsu was not purely physical. Whether chakra-based ninjutsu could harm an elementalized body would still need testing.

But at least—

Ordinary punches and kicks, shuriken, and kunai were no longer effective against him.

En looked at his hands.

His left hand was normal.

His right hand was lava.

One cold, one hot.

"From today onward."

He spoke to himself, his voice soft, yet every word carried unquestionable weight.

"I will decide the rules of the future."

He turned around, ready to continue training.

At the same time.

Beneath Konoha.

At the end of a dark corridor.

Inside a windowless office.

Danzo Shimura sat behind his desk, his one eye fixed on the report before him.

The report read—

"Uchiha En, age twelve, orphan of the branch family. Extremely poor chakra aptitude. Three days ago, an unknown energy fluctuation appeared at the Nanga River, with this individual suspected as its source. The nature of the ability is unknown and does not belong to any known Fire Release mutation. It is tentatively presumed to be a bloodline limit. Witnesses, including Uchiha Yashiro and five other children of the same age, stated that his 'right arm turned into magma.'"

Danzo set down the report.

His bandaged right arm twitched slightly.

"Not a known chakra nature..."

He murmured under his breath, a gleam flashing through his lone eye.

"Interesting."

He raised a hand.

From the darkness, a masked figure appeared without a sound.

"Go make contact with that child," Danzo said. "Use the third plan."

"And if he refuses?"

Danzo fell silent for a second.

"Then use the seventh."

The masked figure vanished.

Danzo leaned back in his chair and closed his one eye.

"An aberration among the Uchiha..."

"If he can be controlled, then control him."

"If he cannot be controlled—"

A cold curve formed at the corner of his mouth.

"Destroy him."