A Six-Year-Old Uchiha

"Jobu, are you scared? If you are, stay behind me later. As your older brother, I'll protect you."

The speaker was Uchiha Madara, the most talented and powerful member of the Uchiha Clan's younger generation.

Forced to accept the truth that he had transmigrated, Jobu Uchiha knew this was the world of Naruto—and the cruelest Warring States Era at that. From the very beginning, he had prepared himself for the battlefield: either fight onward without retreat, or die on the field.

Maybe after he died, this dream would end. When he opened his eyes again, perhaps he would see the basement room he had rented.

"I'm not scared. It's just my first time facing enemies, so I'm a little excited."

Jobu Uchiha skillfully drew a kunai from his Weapon Pouch. He slipped his index finger through the ring at its end, held it horizontally before him in a reverse grip, and kept his other hand ready to form hand seals at any moment.

Izuna Uchiha said, "Move!"

"These scum dare attack the Uchiha!"

"Brothers, attack! Kill them all, then quickly transport the supplies back to the clan!"

"Fire Release: Great Fire Dragon Flame Technique!"

"Don't give the enemy a chance to use ninjutsu! Wipe them out in one go!"

Only a direct clash could demonstrate just how formidable the Uchiha Clan was. Every member of the Uchiha Clan was an elite ninja.

Jobu Uchiha had not awakened his Sharingan yet, and he had only just turned six. Before transmigrating, six was an age when he should have been enjoying his childhood at school. Instead, as a member of the Uchiha Clan during the Warring States Era, he had already been forced to take up a cold kunai and fight enemies in battles of life and death.

The enemies were a group of Rogue Ninjas. As the name suggested, they were wandering ninjas. They had no fixed place to rest and nowhere they could call home. Every day, they struggled to fill their hungry stomachs, and they could raise their blades against ordinary people for food.

"Brat! Die!"

A Rogue Ninja who looked around twenty rushed at Jobu Uchiha. A scar, left by some unknown sword or blade, ran across his face. One long blade slashed upward like a venomous snake, while another short blade swept across horizontally. The two blades crossed in an instant, forming a cross-shaped strike.

"Don't underestimate Uchiha ninja..."

"Even children can kill."

Uchiha blood flowed through his veins, allowing him to adapt to this kind of battle in an instant. Faced with the enemy's cross-shaped slash, he did not panic and flee backward. Instead, he gritted his teeth and drove the sharpest point of his kunai into the enemy's heart. Even if he had to take a slash himself, he would kill the man first.

"What?! Did he drop a loot box?"

Suddenly, a fist-sized wooden box appeared on the enemy's corpse.

Jobu Uchiha understood immediately. He reached for the box that had suddenly dropped, and a virtual interface visible only to him appeared beneath his eyes.

"Notice: Obtained Skill Fragment 'Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique (X1)'."

Besides the notification, he could open an inventory with twenty-four slots. Only the first slot contained anything: a ball of flame that seemed to be burning, with a quantity of one.

"So this is my cheat?"

There was no time to analyze it further. He still had other enemies to face, so Jobu Uchiha suppressed his doubts and charged another opponent. Taking advantage of his small body, he evaded the enemy's broad attacks and killed him with a shuriken.

Another box dropped from the corpse. It was still a wooden box. It seemed that killing these Rogue Ninjas only yielded boxes of this grade.

"Notice: Obtained 'Explosive Tag (X1)'."

After confirming once more that boxes dropped from the corpses of enemies he successfully killed, Jobu Uchiha understood that his golden finger was a monster-killing, loot-box-dropping cheat. He immediately became a kill-stealer, using Uchiha-Style Shurikenjutsu to snatch kills everywhere.

Against these Rogue Ninjas, whose strength was pitifully weak, even shuriken techniques could kill them with ease.

After killing every Rogue Ninja blocking their path and attempting to seize the supplies, he obtained more than ten kunai and gathered enough fragments for a complete ninjutsu.

Skill Fragments: Earth Release: Earth Spear (X10)

Ten fragments could be combined into one complete skill.

Skill: Earth Release: Earth Spear

Rank: C

Description: Creates sharp rocks from beneath the ground to attack enemies.

These Rogue Ninjas had thought that their numbers would let them overwhelm a convoy of barely more than ten people. Clearly, they did not understand that the name Uchiha represented invincibility in the Ninja World—a byword for strength.

Uchiha Madara said, "Not bad. I didn't expect you to do so well on your first encounter with enemies. You really are my cousin."

Jobu Uchiha gave a dry laugh. He did not know who had just claimed he would protect him, only to disappear the moment the battle began.

Izuna Uchiha pulled his blade from an enemy's chest. His face was that of a child barely eight or nine years old, yet there was not a trace of the fear one ought to feel at the sight of corpses covering the ground. Like a cold-blooded killing machine, he viciously gave the enemies who were not quite dead two more slashes.

To the other Uchiha clansmen, this behavior was perfectly normal.

Uchiha Hato said, "You brats aren't hurt, are you? Especially you, Jobu and Izuna. You two are the youngest here. Don't rush in when something like this happens. Leave it to us adults."

Uchiha Madara laughed loudly. "Don't treat us like ordinary children. I'm Uchiha Madara. You're not even stronger than me, so what right do you have to tell me to hide in the back?"

Izuna Uchiha said quietly, "My brother killed eleven. I killed three enemies in total. Uncle Hato, you only killed two, and Jobu killed more than you did too."

Jobu Uchiha had not counted how many he had killed, but his gains were clearly substantial. He had assembled a complete C-rank Earth Release ninjutsu, and his small inventory now contained many kunai and shuriken. He just had not gathered enough skill fragments for Fire Release yet.

He had originally thought that after transmigrating to this world, he had no cheat to rely on. The only thing he could depend on was the Kekkei Genkai possessed by the Uchiha Clan. Now, it seemed that he simply had not found the correct way to activate his cheat.

Killing enemies to make treasure boxes drop—that was the proper way to use his cheat.

Uchiha Madara had not yet become the Uchiha Clan's leader. The current clan leader was Madara's biological father, Uchiha Tajima, the only clan leader-level expert in the Uchiha Clan at present.

In the Ninja World of the Warring States Era, there were no ninja rank classifications such as Jonin, Chunin, and Genin. The only broadly recognized rank was clan leader-level.

Of course, clan leader-level referred only to the leaders of major clans.