A Slacker's Postwar Plans

At the far edge of the Uchiha Compound stood a shabby little two-story building.

This was the nest Jin Uchiha had made for himself here.

To be fair, one thing had to be said.

Shabby as the house was, its location was pretty good, right near the Hidden Leaf's shopping district.

The Nine-Tails incident had yet to happen, and the Uchiha Compound had not been relocated.

They were one of the clans that had founded the Hidden Leaf, after all. Naturally, the land they had claimed was prime real estate.

As Jin Uchiha ambled home, plenty of his clansmen rolled their eyes at him, picked fights, and hurled insults.

He had long since grown calluses against that routine. With a slack expression and a yawn, he opened his mouth and gave up without a fight.

"Yep, yep, you're absolutely right. I'm a useless loser."

"You're amazing. You're the best in the whole clan, gods for all eternity. Happy now?"

Honestly, when he first transmigrated, he had gotten angry about it. It had really eaten at him.

But now?

He was completely numb, and his skin had grown thicker than a city wall's corner.

If anything, he found these clansmen pretty funny—and pretty pitiful.

They clung to the rotten signboard of "the Hidden Leaf's foremost clan," unaware that they had already been laid out on the chopping block.

They lacked the strength to dominate the Shinobi World.

They had never learned how to play political games with the village leadership, either.

In the end, all they guarded was their pathetic scrap of pride.

If people like that did not die, who would?

He could not be bothered to hang around idiots.

After turning a few thoughts over in his head, he pushed the door open and stepped into the silent house.

He casually swept away some dust, then flopped onto the bed on his back.

His whole face relaxed.

In the past, he might have put in some extra training.

But who would bother with that now?

With the Lie-Flat Slacking System, why the hell would he train?

Wasn't lying flat much more comfortable?

His chakra went up by thirteen points.

His Fire Release gained sixteen points.

His Lightning Release rose by eleven points.

His taijutsu gained thirteen points.

His Yin Release jumped nineteen points.

As the system notifications sounded in his ears, a smile slowly spread across Jin Uchiha's face.

This felt damn good.

Without lifting a finger, his strength climbed all on its own.

The system really was a god for all eternity.

After savoring the feeling with narrowed eyes for a while, he opened his panel and scanned his stats.

The host was listed as Jin Uchiha, with his chakra reserves at 1062.

The note made it clear: adult Kakashi's benchmark was 1000.

His Fire Release proficiency stood at 168 out of 400.

His Lightning Release was still at the beginner level, just reaching 32 out of 100.

His taijutsu was also at the proficient level, at 121 out of 400.

His Yin Release had reached the intermediate level, at 36 out of 200.

His Sharingan had awakened Three-Tomoe Sharingan.

The skills listed below included Body Technique, Six Powers, Great Fireball Technique, Phoenix Sage Fire, Fire Dragon Flame Bullet, Great Fire Annihilation, and Storm Release: Gale Style.

His overall assessment gave him the title of Jonin.

After reviewing the stats, Jin Uchiha felt quite pleased.

Even measured against the whole Shinobi World, his abilities were only somewhere below second-rate.

He did not care.

At least he should be able to grind his way through the coming Third Shinobi World War without going under.

He had always believed in keeping his head down. He had never stood out at the academy, and everyone regarded him as useless.

That left him with no value as a prospect. No one in the Uchiha clan gave him a second glance, so naturally, he belonged on the cannon-fodder roster.

It took no thought at all to figure out that the teammates assigned to him would probably be fellow expendables.

The instructor leading their team would be a Chunin at best.

A Jonin?

Dream on.

Those were reserved for the top students.

When cannon fodder like him went on missions, the enemies they faced would probably be ordinary grunts, too.

Even if his luck turned rotten and he ran into Orochimaru or Danzo, the Blamekage, who insisted on assigning him a bait mission and forcing him to his death, it would not be a big deal.

At the end of the day, he was cannon fodder.

However strong the enemies he could lure out were, there would still be a limit.

Even if Danzo really wanted an Uchiha like him dead, he probably would not be willing to trade a Jonin's life for a "good-for-nothing" like him.

No, that was getting ahead of himself.

Someone high up in the clouds like Danzo would not even spare a second glance for a nobody who, as far as anyone knew, could not awaken a single Sharingan.

Why?

He could not be bothered to waste the time.

What use would capturing him serve? He did not even have a Sharingan.

"Yeah, not bad."

"I should be fine if I keep my head down through the whole Third Shinobi World War."

"From now on, there's only one thing to do: slack off."

"I won't stand out at all. Even if I'm forced into a dead end, I'll keep my fists firmly under wraps until every last one of my 'teammates' is down."

"Once I survive that dead end, I'll make up some excuse on the spot. Say the enemy got struck by lightning."

"Believe it or don't. I believe it, anyway."

"Worst comes to worst, if I can't make the story work, that's easy too. I'll just go 'missing' on the battlefield."

"After the war ends, I'll sneak back to the Hidden Leaf and insist I was badly injured and saved by civilians. I won't even have to worry if the Yamanaka Family wants to check their memories. I have a Three-Tomoe Sharingan, after all. Planting a fake experience in an ordinary person's head would be a piece of cake."

"Yep, solid."

Jin Uchiha muttered to himself, his eyes darting rapidly as he mapped out the whole plan in the blink of an eye.

His face was all smiles.

For a survival-first player like him, laying down his life for the Hidden Leaf held no appeal.

If there had been a single peaceful place anywhere in the Shinobi World, and defecting did not mean being hounded endlessly, he would have bolted long ago.

He had also considered following the paths of Orochimaru and Itachi Uchiha.

But after thinking it through, he discarded the idea.

Orochimaru had been able to flee with so little trouble because Hiruzen Sarutobi had deliberately let him go, unable to bring himself to kill his beloved student.

Hadn't Jiraiya pursued him too? He had still held back.

They had been fellow disciples, after all, and he had never truly intended to kill him.

As for Itachi Uchiha, he had defected too, but he had gone to the Akatsuki as an undercover agent.

Who the hell am I?

Unless he really went all in and joined the Akatsuki, defecting would be no different from seeking death.

He might have the strength of a Jonin now, but there were plenty of people in the Hidden Leaf who could crush him like an ant.

Without a single powerful backer, defecting would be pure idiocy.

He could hide, sure, but he could not hide forever, could he?

Living out in the wilderness was bad enough. With his nerves stretched taut as a bowstring all day, nobody could endure that life.

Join the Akatsuki?

Ha. Forget it.

A faction whose downfall was already written into the script, with Nagato, Black Zetsu, Obito, Madara, and the rest all lurking inside...

Good lord. That tangled stew of schemes within schemes? I'd have to be insane to get involved.

Otherwise, he would die without even knowing what killed him.

After weighing it all up, he decided that staying holed up in the Hidden Leaf was still his best option.

He would wait until the night of the massacre to run. At worst, he could hide somewhere in the Shinobi World for a few years, wait for Tsunade to become the Fifth Hokage and the Six Paths of Pain to smash the Hidden Leaf to pieces, then shamelessly return while the village was weak.

Let's think this through first.

Tsunade did not have Hiruzen Sarutobi's disposition.

By then, Danzo, the Blamekage, should be about ready to kick the bucket too.

Besides, he had never truly shed the blood of anyone from the Hidden Leaf. He would only have defected to escape the blades on the night of the massacre.

More importantly, the Hidden Leaf would be desperately short of powerful fighters by then.

With his Uchiha name and Tsunade's personality, there was a seventy-percent chance she would agree.

And isn't there still Sasuke?

With the Uchiha wiped out, if Sasuke finally found another surviving clansman, would the Hidden Leaf dare turn him away?

If Sasuke made a fuss, would Naruto just stand by and watch?

Once he returned to the Hidden Leaf, he could go right back to slacking off forever.

Absolutely. Perfect.

With the rest of his path all worked out, he sprawled across the bed and fell peacefully asleep.