My Transmigration Wasn't Quite Right?

A dazed night passed, and Lu Ziyuan fell asleep amid that atmosphere.

In his dream, a spiky-haired brat kept picking fights with him, seemingly trying to fight over something important.

Anger surged within Lu Ziyuan, and malice rose in his heart. You think I'm going to put up with that?

In just a few moves, he beat that half-grown little brat to the ground.

The next morning, Lu Ziyuan began shouting feebly again:

"I'm starving to death!"

"I'm going to starve to death!"

Sure enough, that same horse-faced guy from yesterday soon came over with food. That horse face seemed to be called Ueki or something?

He always took the chance to touch Lu Ziyuan's body while he was eating. One day, he would have to get Madara to quietly kill him. How could there be such a pervert among the medical staff?

"Phew... that felt good."

Although the dishes they delivered always had a strange old-pickle-jar smell, maybe that was a specialty here in Naruto's world.

Huh?

Lu Ziyuan suddenly discovered that his mind contained many unfamiliar yet familiar memories. They seemed to belong to the body's original owner.

"But why did they only merge after so long? How strange."

Lu Ziyuan adopted the mindset of a citizen from the great Celestial Empire: since he was here, he might as well make the best of it. Naruto world it was, then.

Besides, as an old webnovel reader, he knew plenty of transmigrator predecessors had already come to this place.

Wasn't it simply his turn now?

"Heh heh, those harem-starting, sign-in-at-the-start, system-mission, commoner-rise-to-power types... today, let's see what kind of start I've got."

"System! Activate!!"

Half an hour passed.

Lu Ziyuan stared wide-eyed at the ceiling, but the system's response never came.

"Huh? Where's my golden finger?"

When the system still refused to appear, he began to feel uneasy.

"It can't be, right? What kind of transmigrator doesn't have a golden finger these days? If I have nothing at all, wouldn't that be the ultimate trash opening?"

"What century is this? The useless-protagonist genre went out of fashion ages ago. I definitely have one... definitely."

"Inventory? Space! Guardian spirit? Stand? Sign-in? Awakening..."

At noon, with the sun high in the sky, blazing sunlight streamed through the wide-open window and fell across Uchiha Yuan's lifeless face.

His eyes were dull as he lay spread-eagled on the bed, like a salted fish.

"Hahaha, little brother, I heard you woke up yesterday? As expected of Uchiha Izuna's younger brother. You recovered so quickly from such serious injuries."

Uchiha Izuna laughed wildly. At only twelve or thirteen, he looked like a miniature adult as he strode into the room with his hands behind his back.

But upon closer inspection, his younger brother did not seem to be in very good condition.

"Third Brother? What's wrong? Why do you look like you've lost your soul?"

Uchiha Yuan's mouth hung slightly open as he turned his head and glanced at this body's brother. That spiky hair was incredibly conspicuous, and he looked just like Sasuke.

The sense of familiarity was too strong. Uchiha Yuan's mouth twitched, and he continued basking in the sunlight.

Seeing that his brother ignored him, Izuna found it rather strange. Could he be in a bad mood?

"Third Brother, why do you look like something's troubling you? Tell Second Brother about it and I'll give you some advice."

"...It's nothing. I'm just... tired."

Izuna scratched his head. Catching sight of Uchiha Yuan's pale little face, he suddenly had an idea. Right! His brother was recovering and needed plenty of nutrition.

"Little brother! Do you want fish? There's a big river not far from our Clan Land. We used to train there often. I remember grilled fish made by Eldest Brother used to be your favorite."

Uchiha Yuan shook his head without saying anything. He was in no mood to eat.

"Then... little brother! Once you recover, how about I teach you a new ninjutsu? Fire Dragon Flame Bullet, a technique that can rival Water Dragon Bullet! Do you want to learn it?"

After saying that, Izuna looked expectantly at his brother, hoping for some kind of reaction.

The morning slowly passed like that. Izuna patiently coaxed Uchiha Yuan with all kinds of words, occasionally telling cold jokes. Uchiha Yuan did not laugh, but Izuna himself was thoroughly amused.

In the end, helplessly, Uchiha Yuan agreed to discuss it once his injuries healed. After repeatedly insisting that he was merely in a bad mood, he finally sent the chattering Uchiha Izuna away.

"Uchiha it is, then."

Sigh...

Since he had obtained this body, he would naturally have to shoulder everything that came with it.

Besides, after hearing so much from Izuna just now, he could tell that the concern in his words was genuine. Izuna truly regarded him as his younger brother.

That warmth of family made him feel somewhat relieved.

"Fine, it's time for these old bones of mine to have some youthful vigor."

His original body had been over thirty and in suboptimal health. Even doing a few push-ups had been difficult.

Uchiha Yuan sat up and sensed the strength of this body. Although his head had been injured, because his soul had transmigrated into it, his soul power had strengthened, feeding back into his body and significantly improving his recovery ability.

Moreover, people in Naruto's world had one hundred and thirty trillion cells, three or four times as many as ordinary modern humans.

So this minor injury would take no more than a week to heal.

"This is Chakra?"

Uchiha Yuan could feel a warm current within his body that he could manipulate freely, flowing through various channels to every part of his body.

"With this amount, I wonder whether it counts as much or little. It probably isn't weak."

Without anything for comparison, Uchiha Yuan had no idea what level of strength he possessed. But since he could go to war, he was at least Genin level.

Now that he knew he had no golden finger, he needed to prepare early. The first step was to examine his own potential and talent.

The second step was to find a way to survive until Konoha was founded. In the future, he would avoid the battlefield whenever possible and keep every danger at bay.

The third step was to use his memories to obtain more power for himself. At the very least, he had to reach Kaguya Otsutsuki's level of strength.

Otherwise, things would get troublesome when Infinite Tsukuyomi happened.

Infinite Tsukuyomi was a Six Paths technique activated through the moon. It covered the entire world, and hiding anywhere would do no good.

He got out of bed and looked down at his little feet. They were quite tiny.

"Right, I'm only twelve now, and Madara is only eighteen in these memories?"

Recalling the plot from the anime, Madara and Hashirama had both been nearly thirty when Konoha was founded. That meant there was still time?

"About ten years left! That should be enough time to grow."

He put on his shoes and walked out of the wooden house.

The buildings around him were sparse and widely spaced, but there were quite a few Uchiha clan members coming and going, most of them dressed in white.

"Looks like this place is meant to house injured clan members."

Comparing himself with those clan members, he found that he was rather short. Most of them were at least a head taller than him.

At thirteen, that height seemed rather short in Naruto's world. Uchiha Yuan had noticed before that his nominal second brother, Izuna, seemed to be around 1.7 meters tall.

They were clearly biological brothers, so why did he seem malnourished? Had someone been skimming his food rations?