Here Is the Naruto World?

(Brain deposit area)

(Detoxification pill collection area)

"Menma! You're sleeping in class again!!!" Along with a roar and a sharp pain in the head from a flying piece of chalk, Fang Yan woke up in a daze.

"What's going on? Didn't I work overtime all night? It's already dawn just from resting my head down for a little while?

Damn it, the budget hasn't been put together yet, and Old Zhang is going to chew me out again if he finds out..."

Fang Yan rubbed his face hard with the heel of his palm, yawned, and opened his eyes.

The moment he opened his eyes, Fang Yan froze, finding himself sitting in a large tiered lecture hall surrounded by a bunch of eleven- or twelve-year-old kids.

At the front of the classroom was a white-haired young man wearing a green director's vest, pressing his hands on the lectern and glaring at him with bulging eyes.

"What's going on? How did I get here? Where's my computer? Where's my workstation? Where's my budget?" Fang Yan muttered in a daze, completely baffled.

The surrounding kids looked at Fang Yan, and after a moment of silence, they suddenly burst into uproarious laughter.

The white-haired young man on the lectern grew even more furious, body-flickering to Fang Yan's side in an instant, grabbing him by the collar and roaring, "Menma, go stand in the corridor and reflect on yourself!" With that, he dragged Fang Yan to the classroom door and tossed him right out.

Fang Yan stood leaning against the wall in the corridor, his mind in complete chaos.

He desperately recalled his previous memories, trying to analyze his current situation. Suddenly, a wave of both strange and familiar memories flooded into his mind: "My name is Menma Namikaze, my dad is Minato Namikaze, and my mom is Kushina Uzumaki..."

"Oh crap! I time-traveled, I time-traveled into the world of Naruto!" Fang Yan—no, the boy who should now be called Menma Namikaze—stood there dumbfounded, an expression of utter disbelief on his face.

"Wait, something's not right though. Shouldn't my name be Naruto Uzumaki? How did it turn into Menma Namikaze now?

And besides, shouldn't Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki be dead by this point in time? Why are my memories telling me they're still alive and well?" Menma Namikaze was completely perplexed.

Suddenly, a flash of golden light went off in his head, and he thought of a possibility: "Could this be the plot of the movie Road to Ninja? Did Naruto get caught in the Limited Tsukuyomi and travel to a parallel world?"

No way, how is this even playable?

He had been living his life just fine when he suddenly transmigrated into the Naruto world.

Well, since he transmigrated, he would just accept his fate. With the memories of his past life, he could always manage to make something of himself and stand out.

But now they were telling him he'd transmigrated into the world of the Limited Tsukuyomi, meaning all his advantages as a transmigrator who knew the plot inside and out were completely gone?!

"Right, a transmigrator! I'm a transmigrator. Based on my experience reading novels before, don't all transmigrators come with a golden finger? Where's mine?"

At this thought, Menma Namikaze's expression turned eager, and he began chanting silently in his heart:

"System?"

"..."

"Golden finger?"

"..."

"Main God?"

"..."

"Xiao Ai classmate?"

"..."

"Zhazhasi zhazhasi, nastanalu zhazhasi?"

"..."

Fine, no cheat. Menma tried dozens of different addresses, but none of them activated the legendary cheat, so he scratched his head in disappointment.

After being dejected for a moment, Menma pulled himself together and began pondering his current predicament:

"First, I cannot let anyone discover my identity as a transmigrator, or Danzo might haul me in for genjutsu interrogation and Orochimaru would slice me up for research.

Fortunately, I've accepted Menma's memories. If I'm a bit careful in my daily life and no one targets me on purpose, I shouldn't be exposed.

Second, I must work hard to build up my strength. You can be on guard against thieves for a thousand days, but you can't be a thief yourself for a thousand days. I can't rely on wishful thinking and pin my hopes on Danzo never noticing my anomalies.

Only by increasing my strength can I react when I encounter unfavorable situations and pull off a counter-kill!

Third, gather intelligence. The world of the Limited Tsukuyomi has a different storyline from the orthodox Naruto world, so past knowledge about the plot of Naruto is no longer useful, and I need to mentally prepare myself.

At the same time, I must sort through my past-life memories and the memories of this body to avoid any mix-ups and having my flaws exposed.

Fourth, put self-preservation above all else in any action. Lay low, lay low, and lay low!

Fifth,..."

In one breath, Menma rattled off dozens of future behavioral guidelines. To put it in a single sentence: insist that personal life is above all else, and build a sound, stable, long-term mechanism for development with the goals of safeguarding personal safety and minimizing property loss.

"Ring-a-ling...", as Menma pondered, the class-ending bell rang. The white-haired young man packed up his teaching materials, called out class dismissed, and the kids in the classroom noisily left their seats to play and frolic in the classroom and corridor.

"Menma, because you were sleeping in class earlier and disrupting classroom discipline, the teacher punished you by making you stand in the corridor.

However, because you were being punished, you missed the knowledge the teacher was teaching just now, so come to the teacher's office after school and the teacher will give you a make-up lesson. Understood?"

The white-haired young man walked up to Menma, squatted down, and said to him with an amiable expression.

"Understood, Mizuki-sensei," Menma said with his head lowered, giving a sheepish smile.

That's right, the teacher who spoke with eloquent fluency on the podium and was gentle and responsible off it was none other than Mizuki, the chunin villain mob who appeared in the very first episode of the original Naruto and went in to pick up the soap!

I wonder how Mizuki's ending will turn out in this world, and whether he will be bewitched by Orochimaru to become a vessel for that trashy cursed seal?

Or will he walk his own Road to Ninja, like in some fanfiction?

Whatever, what does that have to do with me? I'm just a big extra anyway. Menma thought to himself as he strolled into the classroom.

According to his memories, it was currently the noon break. The children who lived close by had already gone home for lunch, while those who lived farther away brought bento boxes to eat in the classroom.

Menma walked over to his seat and sat down, pulling his bento out of the desk drawer. He had just opened the lid and hadn't even had time to eat when a pair of chopsticks suddenly reached out from his left side and snatched the tempura from his bento.

Menma turned his head to look and saw a pale-eyed, purple-haired little girl sitting with her legs crossed, her left hand resting on the back of her chair and her right hand holding chopsticks, chewing on the tempura she had snatched from him. Got a problem, Menma? Keep looking at me with that rude gaze and I'll beat you up!

Was this girl Hinata? No, my Hinata couldn't possibly be a bossy big sister!

Ugh...

But come to think of it, was I, Menma Namikaze, really going to marry a Hinata with such an aggressive personality in the future? No way, I could already foresee domestic violence scenes after marriage!

Damn Obito, give me back my gentle and kind sweet-girl Hinata!

Hinata (Ninja Academy era)

Although Menma's mind was racing with all sorts of chaotic thoughts, his hands didn't slow down at all. Before Hinata's chopsticks could reach over again, he shoved all the rice in his bento into his mouth, chewed it haphazardly a couple of times, and swallowed it down.

After finishing lunch, Menma packed up his tableware and chatted idly with Hinata to fish for information. Hey hey, Hinata-san, why didn't you go home for lunch today? I remember the Hyuga Clan estate isn't far from the school.

"I refuse to go back. The old man is a total pervert, and the moment I go back he grabs me to do embarrassing things," Hinata muttered, curling her lip in disdain, completely unconcerned about the psychological impact such wild words had on Menma.

Was Hyuga Hiashi in this world some kind of psycho? Hm, this was crucial intelligence; I needed to write it down in a little notebook!

"Don't believe Lady Hinata's words. If you're wondering why, it's because the whole of Konoha knows the Hyuga clan head is simply a dotting father." A gloomy voice suddenly came from behind, startling Menma and making him spin around immediately.

Sitting behind him was a boy wearing a hood, his messy, long black hair combining with the shadow of his hood to obscure most of his face, while purple face paint seemed smeared on the cheeks vaguely visible beneath.

Even strangerer, the boy was holding a small black puppy in his arms. The puppy seemed very timid and covered its eyes with its tiny paws.

"You're... Kiba?!! When did you get here???" Menma thought for a long time before he could match the boy in front of him with the person in his memories. But was this really Kiba or Shino, and why had he become so gloomy?

"...I've been behind you the whole time, Menma. Did you really not notice me at all?

I'm very sad, but it doesn't matter. If you're wondering why, it's because my presence has always been so low that everyone frequently ignores me. I'm already used to it."

Upon hearing Menma's words, Kiba lowered his head slightly, appearing even gloomier, and a faint aura of black energy seemed to radiate across his entire body.

"...There there, don't sweat the small stuff, Kiba. Look at it from another angle—you'll definitely become an excellent intelligence-gathering ninja in the future!" Menma grinned, scratching his cheek with his finger as he offered an awkward comfort.

Fortunately, the afternoon bell rang at that moment, and Menma breathed a sigh of relief, preparing for class.

The afternoon lessons were ninja tool throwing practice and taijutsu sparring. Menma followed his classmates to the training ground.

On the training ground, Chunin Mizuki was already standing beside a wooden target with a grade recording sheet in hand. After leading the pack of brats through a warm-up exercise, he began the ninja tool throwing practice.

"We will now begin shuriken throwing practice. Is anyone willing to volunteer to throw first?" Chunin Mizuki asked the class of brats, holding the recording sheet in one hand and a pen in the other.

"Me! Me!" An exceptionally hyperactive voice rang out. Menma looked toward the sound and saw a boy wearing sunglasses, raising his hand and jumping up and down at the very front of the crowd, looking extremely conspicuous.

"Alright, Shino Aburame, you're up first!"

"Hai!" Shino Aburame shouted loudly, then trotted out of the crowd, came to a stop in front of the target, and declared, "Now, experience the terror of being dominated by the Aburame Clan's Shuriken Manipulation Technique!"

"Hah!" Accompanied by a loud cry, Shino Aburame pulled four shuriken out of his back pockets, gripped two in each hand, and then started... striking poses??!

Amidst the "whoosh-whoosh" sounds coming from his mouth, after performing a bunch of messy, flashy, yet completely meaningless movements, Teacher Mizuki finally couldn't help a cross-shaped vein bulging on his forehead as he roared at Shino:

"Idiot! What are you doing? Throw the shuriken already!"

With a few "swish-swish-swish" sounds, Shino, startled by Teacher Mizuki, finally threw the shuriken. With two "thud-thud" impacts, two struck the target and two missed.

"Accuracy five points, power six points, throwing technique two points—fail! Aburame-san, why didn't you throw them immediately, and instead do those pointless movements?"

Teacher Mizuki recorded Shino's score and roared loudly at him.

"Well you see, since Chunin Teacher Mizuki was fooled by my movements and didn't know when I was going to throw the shuriken,

then enemy ninjas surely wouldn't know either. Doesn't that serve to confuse the enemy?" Shino Aburame explained with his hands on his hips, looking immensely pleased with himself.

"Idiot! While you're doing all those poses, an enemy would have enough time to kill you a hundred times!"

Unable to take it any longer, Teacher Mizuki used a Body Flicker Technique to flash right in front of Shino, clenched his hand into a fist, and delivered a fierce, heavy blow right to Shino's head.

"Run five laps around the training ground once shuriken throwing is over!"

Shino's mishap cracked up the rest of the children, and the air was filled with an atmosphere of merriment.

"Enough, all of you knock it off! Next, Menma Namikaze!" Teacher Mizuki shouted.