"Great-grandpa."
"Great-aunt."
"Put your brain here. You don't need one to read this book..." (Brain Safe)
[Dear great-grandpas and great-aunts, please leave plenty of comments and point out the author's shortcomings.]
[Please try to give it four stars, or the "system" might block you.]
[Let the storm come with all its fury!]
Shinobi World.
Konohagakure.
Kage Rock.
Leaden clouds hung low, and the dusk was as red as blood.
Three lightning rods pointed toward the gloomy sky. Beside them, a thin figure slowly raised his middle finger.
"Damned heavens."
His voice was hoarse, like sandpaper scraping rust.
"I, Uchiha Mu, refuse to accept this."
The Uchiha Clan boys passing by cast strange looks his way.
That good-for-nothing had kept at it for years. Did he really think a pheasant could become a phoenix?
As soon as he finished speaking,
BOOM!!
Lightning raced down the rod and poured straight into the boy's chest. He fell stiffly to the ground again, his body charred black and smoking.
Seeing this, the Uchiha boys scattered.
[Ping! System energy fully charged. Super Option System has successfully bonded with its host.] [Host: Uchiha Mu] (Current Status: Good-for-nothing)
"Come on, could you be a little less blunt?"
Uchiha Mu wiped the charred dust from his face. His white teeth stood out in the dusk.
"Isn't it your fault I'm useless?"
"Damn system, it took you ten years to activate."
[Ping! Host, you're a complete chakra dud. How dare you complain?]
"You're the one who's chakra-proof."
After training for ten years, he'd only managed to absorb that tiny bit of chakra.
If you hadn't harnessed the power of lightning these past few years, I wouldn't have been able to activate even if you trained for another ten.
I—
Forget it. I'm not going to argue with you.
[Ping! Host has reached adulthood. Issuing main quest.] [Option One: Get married and have children] Win over women of different ranks to obtain massive rewards and rapidly increase your strength. Given the host's youth and lack of experience, you may choose the second option. [Option Two: Collect the chakra of all nine Tailed Beasts] Collect over 50% of each Tailed Beast's chakra to obtain the Ten-Tails' divine power. The more you collect, the greater the reward. (Type unknown)
Hearing this, Uchiha Mu blew up.
"Why don't you just kill me?"
"I'm only twelve! You can ask me to get married, fine, but have children too?? Are you kidding me?!"
"And you just called me useless. Now you want me to capture the Tailed Beasts??"
"Are you sure you aren't sending me to deliver takeout to them?"
"One more thing: how am I an adult?!"
[Ping! The host's mental age meets the requirements.] [Do you want to surpass the Hokage? Do you want to become the Sage of Six Paths? Don't hesitate any longer.]
"No, System. I don't."
"In my previous life, I may have seen plenty of action, but in this life, I'm still a kid!"
"Look at me from head to toe. Aside from these nice teeth, what else do I have that's hard?"
[Ping! If you refuse to choose, your beginner's gift will not be issued.]
"..."
Uchiha Mu opened his mouth.
When a person was utterly speechless, they really were utterly speechless.
"Fine. I'll do it."
He took a deep breath, a fierce glint flashing in his eyes.
Either way, he was dead.
"Only children make choices—I want both."
[Ping! Dual options activated.] The host has chosen both quests. "No further main quests will be issued until these are complete." Quest Progress:
He rubbed his chin.
Honestly, the marriage quest sounded doable.
Form a bond, and he'd get chakra. The first successful attempt would give him double the reward. That gave Uchiha Mu a huge boost of confidence.
As for delivering takeout to the Tailed Beasts, he could put that off for now.
"System, are there any other ways to get stronger?"
[Ping! A major event may be randomly triggered, with a 0.1% probability. Rewards unknown.] [Ping! Uchiha Clan Massacre Night triggered. Countdown: 3 hours.]
Uchiha Mu stiffened all over.
Tonight??
He jerked his head up. The sun was sinking in the west.
Memories surged back like a tide;
(Shisui was dead.
Three days ago, the man known as "Body Flicker Shisui"
had been killed at the Naka River. The Uchiha Clan members said Itachi had done it,
because Itachi hadn't attended the gathering that night and had no alibi. The clan members had pressured Itachi and had even nearly attacked him.)
And earlier that day, Uchiha Mu had seen it with his own eyes.
Itachi had come out of the Hokage's office, his face as pale as a ghost.
The Third Hokage had stood by the window, smoking his pipe, his expression complicated.
Root shinobi under Danzo had appeared and disappeared around the clan compound.
The Konoha Military Police Force patrols had been three times more numerous than usual.
His father, Fugaku, (after his uncle died, Fugaku had adopted him as his godson)
had locked himself in the shrine and hadn't come out all day.
A coup.
A massacre.
The words exploded in Uchiha Mu's mind.
"System..." His voice was hoarse. "Why didn't you warn me the timeline had reached the night of the massacre?"
[Ping! The system has only just activated.]
"Damn."
"But I'm a nobody right now. What can I do on the night of the massacre?"
[Ping! Participate in the major event: Massacre Night] [1. Save the Uchiha Clan. Every person successfully rescued earns one skill point.] (Failure condition: more than half the clan members are killed or wounded.) [2. Abandon the Uchiha Clan and join in the killing, or ignore the slaughter and do nothing. Be heartless and cruel, but mentally resilient.] (Each person killed earns 1 skill point.)
Uchiha Mu fell silent.
Save them?
He was a cultivation-crippled good-for-nothing who didn't even have chakra. How could he save anyone?
Kill them? He was supposed to kill his own clan members?
It wasn't that he had some moral qualms about it. It was just about as bad as going to deliver takeout to a Tailed Beast.
He'd better see if the beginner's gift could get him off the ground.
[Ping! Beginner's gift opened.]
The moment the system finished speaking,
a jade box glimmering with light appeared in his hands.
Uchiha Mu steadied himself.
Become a dragon,
or a worm—
it all depended on whether this one shot hit the jackpot.
Click.
The jade box opened.
Three items appeared.
He touched the first one: "Kage-Level Replication Card." Duration: ten minutes.
Copy the full abilities of any Kage Level or lower, including their Kekkei Genkai.
"Now that's a trump card."
Uchiha Mu gripped the black card, his heart swelling with confidence. He was saved. His terrible starting point had been turned around by this card.
"But ten minutes... System, isn't that... too short?"
--- (The system was speechless, suspected the host was making a dirty joke, and ignored him.)
He slowly reached for the second item:
"Ultimate Idol Card"
A pink card.
Choose a target and transfer their love for another person to the host.
(Note: The higher the target's level, the lower the success rate.)
"There's a restriction?"
Uchiha Mu's mind raced.
The clan massacre was tonight, and he had one more trump card.
Who should he use this card on?
His gaze pierced the dusk, settling on the depths of the clan compound.
There, a lonely figure was heading home.
Uchiha Itachi. My dear big brother.
And following behind him was a girl whose eyes were full of nothing but him.
Uchiha Izumi.
Uchiha Mu's pupils contracted sharply.
Everyone in the Shinobi World knew how much Izumi loved Itachi.
If he... transferred that love?
Before you continue