A Mountain of Ninjutsu Fragments

[Pressure System binding complete]

[Congratulations, host]

[Binding successful]

[Earn pressure points by putting pressure on others or indirectly influencing them. Pressure points can improve ninjutsu proficiency.]

[Plus a mountain of ninjutsu fragments!]

"A mountain of... ninjutsu fragments?"

The word "fragments" struck a nerve with Amamiya Maki.

His mind immediately flashed back to the terror of being at the mercy of the pity system in a mobile game he had played in his previous life.

He had played for three years and spent eight thousand. Every event page advertised "a mountain of rewards," but when he clicked through, all he found were fragments.

What kind of dismemberment freak had started making games? He had never even seen anything whole.

And the few whole things he got were basically great big piles of crap.

And how the hell did you put "a mountain" and "fragments" together, you bastard system?

Doesn't that just translate to: you get jack shit?

A moment later.

Having transmigrated into this world, Amamiya Maki finished absorbing the information in his head, then fell into a long silence over his situation.

Amamiya Maki had been an orphan since childhood.

He had neither a special surname nor an illustrious background, and his eyes had no fancy colored contacts, either.

He was one of the most ordinary civilians in Konoha.

He was practically born into the class of kneeling pawns.

Even if someone tossed him into Root as cannon fodder, they would consider training a kneeling pawn like him a waste of resources.

Get to the back of the line.

Other people's systems offered instant godhood, plus ninety-nine upgrades, and a free Dragon Slayer Saber right from the start.

Not only did this system skimp on freebies, but even its rewards were "a mountain of ninjutsu fragments."

"Hey, you bastard system, can't you give me some beginner freebies? A Sharingan or a Byakugan, maybe?"

He was not even going to dream of a Rinnegan or Tenseigan.

But any bloodline with fancy colored contacts would have been nice.

[Ding! Distributing a mountain of beginner rewards!]

[Mangekyō Sharingan (Kamui) fragment ×1]

Amamiya Maki stared at the word "Kamui" as it flashed across the virtual panel, freezing on the spot.

Could it be-

Kamui.

The practically game-breaking Mangekyō ability of Obito's eyes.

A top-tier space-time ocular technique with both offensive and defensive capabilities. Later on, it could even twist off the Ten-Tails' arm.

His fingers trembled with excitement. Then he took a closer look.

[Mangekyō Sharingan (Kamui): 1/2000]

Amamiya Maki closed the panel again.

Now he fully understood what "a mountain of fragments" meant.

Two thousand fragments. He had received one, leaving him nineteen hundred and ninety-nine short.

Did the system expect him to live until Kaguya's era and slowly save up with his pension?

Fortunately, the beginner rewards finally stopped making a monkey out of him.

Some normal items started coming through next.

[Earth Release: Earth Wall Technique (C-rank), Fire Release: Small Fireball Technique (D-rank), Water Release: Wild Water Wave (C-rank), one-thousandth of a Kakashi's worth of chakra]

[Accept?]

[Yes!]

Cursing the bastard system was one thing.

But if the village really started handing out gold bars, he would still come running back.

A white light flashed, and Amamiya Maki immediately felt power flood his body.

The method for forming hand seals seemed to be engraved in his mind. Even with his eyes closed, he could picture the technique's entire structure.

Chakra flowed from his lower abdomen up through his chakra pathways, reaching the release point precisely as his fingertips completed the final seal.

Still, as far as this Earth Release: Earth Wall Technique and Kakashi's version went, "identical" was not the word.

"Completely unrelated" would have been closer.

Kakashi's could block ninjutsu, and it was a B-rank technique.

When he had nothing better to do, Kakashi could even waste chakra carving a dog's head into it.

Of course, that was not beyond Amamiya Maki's abilities.

If he wanted, he could carve a dog's head into his earth wall, too.

As for what purpose that would serve, probably giving himself an amusing gravestone.

"Well, if it isn't Amamiya Maki. Why are you spacing out here? Missing those parents you've never met again?"

A taunt in Konoha's signature bullying style came from nearby.

Amamiya Maki looked up.

Several boys from the next street were sitting on the swings.

At their feet lay picture books they had swiped from the library.

The Konoha Orphanage stood right under the Hokage's nose, in the village's model district.

As a showcase for the superiority of the will of fire, it was not somewhere anyone dared cut corners under his watch.

Its facilities were therefore quite comprehensive.

Climbing frames, swings, seesaws, and even a small library.

But as luck would have it, the entire neighborhood had its eyes on the place.

Local children with parents and homes came over every few days to monopolize the facilities.

The orphanage's own children had become the outsiders instead.

Why? Because those other kids had parents. Because they had someone to back them up.

Hiruzen Sarutobi's intentions were good, but for every policy handed down from above, someone below found a way around it.

The children of Konoha's villagers thought it was unfair that these orphans got such nice things when they themselves had living parents and received no such treatment.

Thanks to this entitled mindset among Konoha's residents, many of the facilities built for the village's orphans

were occupied year-round by neighborhood children who had mothers and fathers.

Naturally, these children were different from those in the orphanage.

The difference was probably that they were all entitled little Konoha brats with impeccable local pedigrees.

And they had people teaching them how to be that way.

He recognized the leader. His name was Jiro Matsumoto, and he was the general store owner's son.

The other two were called Takeshita and Hirano.

They had apparently begun bullying this body's original owner last year. But being an orphan had left the boy deeply insecure, so he had swallowed the abuse in silence.

After that, Jiro had to run his mouth whenever he saw him.

After all, although they were both Konoha civilians, having parents already put Jiro far above these orphans.

Besides, bullying others was one of the Konoha villagers' "fine" traditions.

As an outstanding graduate of that tradition, Jiro Matsumoto had naturally inherited it in full.

Amamiya Maki sneered. "What about you?"

"Why do your parents raise you like a stray dog, letting you run around everywhere? And now you've started biting people?"

[Host detected inflicting mental pressure on "Jiro Matsumoto"]

[Pressure points +8]

Amamiya Maki paused.

Then the corners of his mouth curled up a little further.

It seemed he had no choice but to become an obnoxious bastard himself.

But just because Amamiya Maki intended to become one did not mean he would make peace with the other obnoxious bastards.

As far as every obnoxious bastard other than himself was concerned,

everyone above him was equal, and everyone below him belonged in a strict hierarchy!

And the ones in front of Amamiya Maki now were no ordinary obnoxious bastards.

He would have to hit them hard!

"What did you say?!" Jiro Matsumoto's face flushed red, his fists already clenched.

"You fucking orphan! Say that again!"

"Why should I say it just because you tell me to?"

Amamiya Maki rose leisurely and brushed nonexistent dust off his trousers.

He was actually half a head shorter than Jiro Matsumoto.

Yet he looked at Jiro Matsumoto as though he were a maggot wriggling in a cesspit.

"I'm just saying... some people have both parents alive and plenty to eat, but still come to an orphanage to steal the swings."

"With a family like yours, what are you after? Is our food that good?"

"Or do your parents think you're such a useless waste that they want to send you here to get used to the place in advance?"

[Host detected inflicting mental pressure on "Jiro Matsumoto"]

[Pressure points +12]

[Host detected inflicting mental pressure on "Takeshita"]

[Pressure points +5]

[Host detected inflicting mental pressure on "Hirano"]

[Pressure points +5]

Three at once! Amamiya Maki nearly burst out laughing.

Area attacks counted, too.

Jiro Matsumoto's expression stiffened. He clearly had not expected such a fierce response.

Normally, when they bullied Amamiya Maki, all he could do was flee like a stray dog.

But today's Amamiya Maki was very strange.

Instead of running away from their taunts like before, he had actually fired back.

Jiro Matsumoto opened his mouth. The two boys beside him were waiting for his next move, but his mind was completely blank.

Amamiya Maki snorted inwardly.

In his previous life, he had pursued advanced studies abroad in the wilds of Tieba.

Taking down a few kids who could barely string an insult together was child's play.

"Your dad runs a general store, right? Last time I passed by, everyone lined up outside was from the orphanage, collecting relief food."

"So the orphanage is basically keeping your family's business afloat, and you still have the nerve to come steal our swings?"

Jiro Matsumoto's face had turned a deep, purplish red.

Beside him, Takeshita and Hirano exchanged a glance and both took half a step back.

They had come to help, not to get insulted.

Besides, Amamiya Maki seemed to have something of a point.

The Matsumoto family's general store did supply the orphanage year-round.

His father went to Director Yuki every month to get the paperwork signed.

"You... just you wait!" Jiro finally squeezed out those words, then slunk off with his two followers, climbing over the orphanage fence.

Takeshita even missed his footing as he climbed over.

He fell flat onto the sandy ground, scrambled up, and ran off without looking back.

Amamiya Maki sat back down beneath the corridor.

He opened the system panel and looked at his freshly credited pressure points: thirty.

Three small fry had contributed thirty points. Not bad.

He pulled the unfinished half of an apple from his pocket, took a bite, and realized it had already browned from oxidation.

He turned the apple over and kept eating, picking out the parts that had not changed color yet.

The bastard system's fragment mechanic was fundamentally no different from that mobile game in his previous life.

Both forced him to suffer endlessly between hopeless drop rates and a long, grinding accumulation.

But at least earning pressure points was a better deal than a double-reward first purchase. The latter cost money; the former only required him to open his mouth.

Konoha lacked plenty of things, but people who deserved a tongue-lashing were not among them.

Of course, it had no shortage of people who mouthed off at others, either.

Thinking of it that way, the pressure system did not seem so bad.

He had earned thirty points today with just a few remarks. Granted, Kamui required two thousand fragments.

But if someone like Jiro Matsumoto came knocking every day, then maybe... He did the mental arithmetic and realized it would probably take a very long time.

But that was fine.

Once he entered the Ninja Academy and mixed it up with the original story's main cast, the pressure points would naturally keep flowing.

Thinking about it now, he was actually getting a little excited!

An entire school full of little brats, each a potential obnoxious bastard in training, each a reserve supply of pressure points.

He suddenly remembered how this body's original owner had only lowered his head and said nothing when he was bullied at the Ninja Academy.

Now that he had taken over, those little brats would probably regret having ears.

In Konoha, if you did not fight, you had no place to stand.

He finished the apple.

He tossed the core into the trash, stood up, and headed toward the dormitory.

He had to get up early tomorrow. Director Yuki had told them to gather in the hall at seven sharp.