This book adopts the Fourth Databook, the end of Shippuden, and a historical setting spanning a total of 68 years.
Cold, darkness, and an unspeakable crushing sensation.
Following closely was a sudden relief and a blurred light piercing delicate eyelids.
Liu Yu's consciousness struggled to surface from a realm of chaos, only to discover in terror that he could not control his body, and even the simplest action of opening his eyes became incomparably difficult. He felt himself being carefully supported by a pair of hands, surrounded by noisy, distant voices speaking a language he could not understand at all, yet the urgency and tension in their tones were clearly discernible.
A wave of intense exhaustion rushed over him, dragging his weak consciousness once more toward the dark abyss. Before losing consciousness completely, he caught a shrill, painful female wail, followed by even more panicked voices and footsteps.
He knew not how much time had passed again when he managed to wake up once more.
This time, he forced open a slit of an eye.
His blurred vision gradually focused, revealing a dim lamp seemingly lit with some kind of oil; its flickering light cast shifting shadows against the yellowish, rough rock walls around him. The air was filled with a peculiar scent mixed with dust and herbs.
He tried to turn his neck, but found he lacked even that strength. His body radiated an extreme sense of weakness, as if every tiny breath required a massive expenditure of energy.
Where... is this? he thought blankly. Wasn't I at work debugging the new production line?
The final fragments of his memory stopped at the reassuring roar of the automated machine tool and the scrolling code on the screen. As a thirty-year-old mechanical and automation engineer, working overtime was his norm; dreaming that one day he would save enough money and energy to build a large, fully functional Gundam model with his own hands was one of the few joys in his dull life.
And then? It seemed to be... overwork? Heart palpitations?...
Then came right now.
Reborn? Transmigrated? An absurd yet sole explanation for the current state of affairs popped into his mind. Could clichés running rampant in web novels actually be happening to him?
He forced himself to concentrate, perceiving his own body. Small, weak limbs, a body he could not precisely control... This was clearly an infant!
The start is already hell difficulty... Liu Yu, or as he should now be called, Shaye, smiled bitterly in his heart. He could even sense the frailty emanating from the deepest roots of this body; every heartbeat seemed so strenuous, as if it might stop at any moment.
"Chun Zi... Chun Zi..." A hoarse, choked male voice rang out nearby, filled with endless grief.
Shaye laboriously rolled his eyes, catching sight of a man wearing grey coarse clothing and a Sunagakure forehead protector tied around his head, kneeling not far away. The man's back was broad, yet his shoulders trembled violently; his forehead pressed against the crude edge of the bed, and his hands gripped a pale, lifeless hand devoid of any vitality.
Lying on the bed was a young woman with delicate features yet utterly drained of color, her eyes closed tight as if merely sleeping, but the faint scent of blood in the air and the pervasive sorrow explicitly told Shaye that his mother in this lifetime had just passed away to bring him into the world.
An inexplicable bitterness welled up in his heart; though his soul was unfamiliar, the instinct of this body and the connection deep within its bloodline made him feel an indescribable sorrow.
"Sigh..." An elderly sigh came.
Only then did Shaye notice a third person in the room. An older woman stood by the bed, looking solemn and exhausted. She wore attire different from the man's, carrying an authoritative aura, and her eyes revealed the wisdom of someone who had weathered many hardships along with a hint of helplessness. Shaye's gaze was drawn to the unwashed blood stains on her hands.
"Shaliu, mourn properly." The woman spoke, her voice steady yet carrying strength. "Chun Zi was a strong woman, and her final wish was for the child to live safely."
The man named Shaliu abruptly raised his head, his eyes bloodshot, tears mixing with dust to trace two trails down his resolute face. He looked at Shaye, wrapped in swaddling clothes, his gaze extremely complex—holding sorrow, love, and perhaps a trace of imperceptible, bewildered helplessness born from losing his beloved.
"Elder Chiyo..." Shaliu's voice was hoarse. "I..."
The woman called Chiyo stepped forward, carefully examining Shaye's condition, and frowned slightly: "Premature birth, congenital deficiency, weak foundation. This child will have a difficult future."
Her words struck Shaliu's heart like a hammer, and also sank Shaye's heart. As a mechanical and automation engineer, Japanese language and texts were quite familiar to him; in his past life, he had dealt extensively with Japanese heavy industry groups.
Chiyo looked again at the grief-stricken Shaliu, pondered for a moment, and said: "You cannot go to the ninja frontline for the time being. With such a state of mind and a child who needs care, going to the battlefield would only increase casualties."
Shaliu remained silent, offering no rebuttal.
"How about this," Chiyo made a decision. "The veteran squad leader of the logistics maintenance squad four retired before the new year, and the position has been vacant. You should go there. Serve as the squad leader of squad four, responsible for puppet maintenance. It's relatively safe there, and the schedule is more flexible, making it convenient for you to care for the child."
Chiyo's gaze swept over Shaliu and the infant Shaye, adding: "Come to think of it, Chun Zi was also a distant relative of mine. Publicly and privately, I hope this child can survive."
Shaliu looked at the child in his arms with weak breathing and a wrinkled little face, then looked at his wife sleeping forever, and finally nodded heavily, burying his endless sorrow and potential resentment deep in his heart. With rough fingers, he touched Shaye's cheek extremely gently.
"From today on... your name is Shaye." He spoke softly, as if promising his deceased wife, "I will raise you, I certainly will."
Shaye... Liu Yu muttered this new name in his heart. Shaye??? Sunagakure?
The Naruto world? That ninja world filled with frequent wars and extreme danger?
A massive sense of helplessness washed over him. When others transmigrated, they were either born into Konoha noble clans or had systems backing them up, dominating the heavens. And himself? A ruined starting hand! Reborn in Sunagakure, a place with virtually no significant achievements in the plot and an extremely harsh environment! His body was as weak as porcelain ready to shatter at any moment! His only relative was just a chunin, still immersed in the pain of losing his wife! His only "cheat" was perhaps those thirty years of science and engineering knowledge and craft hobbies from his past life...
No system, no bloodline, no cheat... and starting with a 'frail and sickly' buff gifted right at the start... Shaye felt unprecedented exhaustion washing over him again; his tiny body simply could not support him through too much thinking. We're done for, this is practically nightmare difficulty...
His consciousness began to blur again, the sounds of the outside world growing distant.
Before completely sinking into the sleep an infant required, his final thought was: Survive... First, I must find a way... to sur... vive...
The infant in swaddling clothes closed his eyes, his breathing weak yet steady, as if that brief mental activity had exhausted all his strength. Under the dim light, only his father Shaliu's suppressed sobbing and Elder Chiyo's silent sigh remained.
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