Rebirth

Brain storage---＞(...)

We read books purely for fun, please don't be so full of hostility, thanks!

27th year of the Hidden Mist.

In the southern part of the Land of Water, an extremely remote little fishing village.

By the lake in the distance of the village, a young boy in white sat quietly, staring blankly at the water's surface with empty eyes and a bitter expression, the picture of melancholy.

Actually, it could not quite be called spacing out; the boy was simply sorting through some memories that had suddenly appeared in his mind.

A day ago, an 8-year-old boy named Qing Si was practicing the world's power known as chakra as usual, when a large amount of memory fragments suddenly surged into his mind.

Having suddenly received a massive amount of information, the boy passed out directly. When he woke up again, he found that his mind contained many memory fragments of various kinds that he had never witnessed before.

Taking more than half a day, Qing Si browsed through all the memories that appeared in his mind, gaining a clear understanding of his situation.

As it turned out, he was not a native of the Shinobi World, but a genuine transmigrator.

Eight years ago on the Blue Star, 24-year-old Si Qing had just graduated with a master's degree, and on his way to an interview, was hit head-on by a speeding delivery truck that ran a red light, dying on the spot.

Coming from an orphanage, Si Qing had managed to grow up smoothly thanks to the charity and relief of kind people along the way. Perhaps his first half of life had been too bumpy and bogged down by hardship, so under the effect of some mysterious force, his soul completed a transmigration, arriving in the Naruto world and being born into an infant later named Qing Si.

Although the Shinobi World possessed extraordinary powers known as chakra, the soul of an ordinary adult was simply too massive compared to an infant's tiny body. Thus, the transmigrated soul of Si Qing instinctively sealed the vast majority of its own soul deep within his mind, only unsealing it a day ago.

Having sorted out the memories of his past life, Si Qing—or rather, Qing Si as he should now be called—felt the joy of living another life, but even more so, anxiety about his current situation.

The good news was that the world he had come to was the Naruto world he knew; the bad news was that he had never watched Naruto in its entirety, having only occasionally scrolled past various edited high-burn clips while mindlessly browsing short videos in his spare time.

Straightening his thoughts, Qing Si shook his head helplessly and smiled bitterly.

The Naruto world! There are struggles everywhere! Qing Si sighed.

Failing in a political struggle and being expelled from his clan, exiled to the remote southern region of the Land of Water, a father with lingering injuries, a mother who died early from depression, and a harsh living environment—for a Qing Si who had read quite a few fantasy novels in his past life, this was practically the quintessential protagonist template.

Although he did not know the detailed plot of Naruto, Qing Si did know the finale of Shippuden: Kaguya Ōtsutsuki, Black Zetsu, Madara Uchiha—one stress-inducing name after another flashed across his mind in succession.

Lowering his gaze to look at the lake, the water reflected Qing Si's face.

His fine facial features exuded a hint of delicacy, his smooth, fair face revealing angular and cold-handsome lines, coupled with two red dots dotted between his eyebrows, his handsome face betraying a sense of nobility and elegance.

Looking closer with narrowed eyes, Qing Si actually had two horns growing from the sides of his forehead. Yet this did not ruin Qing Si's overall facial structure; on the contrary, matching Qing Si's features, it gave off an unusual, enchanting beauty overall. (For visual reference, think of Hagoromo Otsutsuki and Hamura in their youth)

This was perhaps the only good news for Qing Si. Having seen the introductory segments about the starry-sky Otsutsuki clan in the unburnable transfer, he knew very well that what he had inherited was not merely the bloodline of the Kaguya clan passed down by his parents, but rather a case of atavism.

The horns on his forehead were the mark of an authentic Ōtsutsuki bloodline. Although his bloodline was still very thin at present and he had not awakened the hallmark Byakugan dōjutsu, he already possessed the foundation to evolve toward a complete-body Ōtsutsuki.

Gathering his composure, Qing Si decided not to cultivate today.

Having awakened his past-life memories and acquired a wealth of information, he decided to give himself a holiday first, to properly sort through his abilities with the aim of surviving in this dangerous world.

Standing up, Qing Si strolled leisurely by the lakeside while thoughts continuously churned in his mind, the memories of his past life and his present life alternately flashing past in his mind.

Eight years ago, due to power struggles within the Kaguya clan, coupled with the twin horns on the sides of Qing Si's forehead at birth that differed from all other Kaguya clansmen, Qing Si's father, Kaguya Genji, was refused recognition as a clansman of the Kaguya clan by his older brother—the current Kaguya clan head, Kaguya Musashi—under the pretext that Qing Si was a mutated monster who had not inherited the Kaguya clan's bloodline. Qing Si's family of three was expelled from the family and exiled to this remote, border-region hamlet that could not even be found on the map of the Land of Water and lacked even a name.

Before being expelled from the Kaguya clan, Kaguya Genji could basically be said to be the absolute strongest of the Kaguya clan. Genji had awakened the supreme taijutsu-type bloodline limit, Dead Bone Pulse, at a very young age, and was viewed at the time by the entire clan as the hope for reviving the glory of the Kaguya clan's Warring States period.

And Genji lived up to his genius reputation, growing rapidly through combat and becoming an elite Jonin of the Hidden Mist Village at the tender age of 14. Moreover, his strength ranked near the top among the crowd of elite Jonin, forging a resounding reputation throughout the shinobi world.

Yet perhaps the heavens were always jealous of geniuses. At the age of 20, near the end of the First Shinobi World War, Genji followed the Second Mizukage Gengetsu Hozuki to launch a surprise attack on the Land of Earth, only to encounter the Second Tsuchikage—the bandage-wrapped man Mū, who had already received intelligence and set up an ambush—at the border. After a fierce battle, the two Second-generation Kage perished together and fell, while the Hidden Mist forces broke out in separate directions, ultimately leaving only Genji and seven others to return heavily injured.

Under the conditions of that era, when medical ninja had not yet formed an institutional establishment and development was extremely backward, Genji suffered incurable trauma to his body after returning to the village from this breakout. The chakra pathways within his body were shattered into pieces, and the flow of chakra within him was restricted, leaving him able to display only strength close to that of an ordinary Jonin.

Within the Kaguya clan, which placed extreme importance on martial might, Genji's right to speak plummeted rapidly as he lost most of his power.

Originally, according to the clan's agreement, Genji was supposed to smoothly succeed as the Kaguya clan head after returning to the village following his victorious campaign alongside the Second Mizukage. However, this was postponed due to his heavy injuries and regression in strength. His older brother, Kaguya Musashi, seized the opportunity to join forces with several elders to instigate trouble, ultimately succeeding in ascending to the throne of the clan head and repeatedly suppressing Genji within the clan.

And after becoming clan head, Kaguya Musashi's strength experienced even more rapid growth. Over the span of three years, he grew from a Jonin whose combat power was originally considered quite ordinary into an elite among Jonin. Furthermore, under the enhancement of the Dead Bone Pulse, his strength was exceptionally formidable among the elite Jonin; although his combat power was still not as sharp as Genji's had been back then, he gradually secured his position as clan head.

Even though Kaguya Genji was frequently targeted by Kaguya Musashi within the clan, after all, he had once been the top combat power of the Kaguya clan. Although his strength never progressed further after his severe injuries, he still possessed the strength of an ordinary Jonin. Within a bloodline limit clan that placed supreme importance on bloodlines, Genji—who had awakened the Dead Bone Pulse early and developed it to an extremely profound degree—still remained a prize catch.

The Kaguya clan's Dead Bone Pulse was an extremely powerful bloodline limit, providing exceptionally potent enhancements to the physical body and close-quarters combat capabilities, while also possessing long-range attack ninjutsu such as Ten-Finger Bullet.

Yet power also meant difficulty in awakening. A total of only eight clansmen in the Kaguya clan had awakened the Dead Bone Pulse, and the only person capable of using the legendary ultimate dance, Shikotsumyaku: Dance of the Clematis, was Kaguya Genji before his severe injuries.

Therefore, when Genji was 24 years old, for the sake of passing down the Dead Bone Pulse bloodline limit, Genji was favored by the sixth elder—who had likewise awakened the Dead Bone Pulse—and was wedded to the elder's second daughter, Kaguya Yukiko, giving birth to a son in the year following their marriage whom they named Qing Si.

Not long after Qing Si was born, the sixth elder went missing during a mission, which caused Genji's voice within the clan to weaken further, subjecting him to restrictions everywhere at the hands of his clan-head older brother, Kaguya Musashi.

Later on, when Qing Si was roughly 7 to 8 months old, under the pretext that Qing Si's bloodline had mutated and that he grew protruding horn-like objects on his forehead, they intensified their efforts by driving the family of three out of the Kaguya clan and exiling them to the borders of the Land of Water.

Enduring successive blows of losing his father, being expelled and exiled by his clan, coupled with living conditions that could only be described as abysmal, the physical condition of Qing Si's mother, Kaguya Yukiko, deteriorated at a rapid pace.

Stranded in a remote borderland and kept under strict guard by people sent by Musashi, denying her timely medical treatment, Yukiko ultimately departed for the Pure Land in the year Qing Si turned 3.

Genji, reduced to a semi-crippled state capable of wielding at best Jonin-level strength, faced the two Jonin sent by Kaguya Musashi to keep watch over them. Without resorting to life-risking forbidden techniques, he could not handle two opponents alone; and if he burned his life force to use forbidden techniques, the family of three might not survive at all. With no other alternative left to him, Genji could only watch helplessly as his wife left him behind.

A broken body, a severely battered mental state—every single day tortured this once most dazzling genius of the Kaguya clan. The departure of his wife could be said to be the final straw that broke the camel's back; Genji completely collapsed. If not for the lingering attachment of having a child like Qing Si to worry about, he would have long since wished to end this muddled existence.

The afterglow of the setting sun gradually dissipated. Qing Si stopped in his tracks, bringing an end to the memories within his mind.

Lifting his head to briefly identify the direction, Qing Si turned around and slowly walked toward home.