On the rooftop of an unfinished building.
The sporadic hisses of beer cans being opened went on without end.
A man tilted his head back and poured the beer in his hand down his throat with great gusto. The person beside him did not cheer, merely opened a can and handed it to him.
"Brother Kitahara, now that you've got some free time, what do you want to do? I'll see if there's anything I can help you with..."
"Me..." The man glanced at the desolate outskirts. Several pitch-black crows cawed as they flew into the sky. Those birds... were symbols of death.
"I really want to be a crow... Even if everyone avoids it as an omen of misfortune, it can still live freely and happily..."
"..."
The brother beside him choked on his words.
"After I came here, Brother Kitahara, you helped me so much, but I've never been able to do anything for you..." The brother took a gloomy swig of beer, and nonsense began spilling from his mouth. "If you really want that, it's not like there's no way..."
He sounded serious.
He raised his head and extended his right palm. Golden light drew Kitahara's gaze in despite himself.
Kitahara was a little dazed. He suddenly remembered that this brother had always been earnest in both word and deed. That was why Kitahara had looked after him all these years.
Once Kitahara woke up, he nearly broke down. Good brother... why did you always have a way when it came to this kind of ridiculous thing?!
Kitahara turned his head and surveyed his surroundings. The forest here was dense, and the air was incredibly fresh.
Except... he really had become a crow.
Kitahara fell silent for a moment, then flapped his wings and flew to a small river, looking at his reflection in the water.
What could possibly be different about a crow? Plenty.
Its feathers were utterly black, a pure ink-black, as though... some terrible designer had simply used black to fill in the entire body.
The model and design were both incredibly slapdash.
The only bit of color was illogical... those eyes were red, like a student had added too much water while mixing paint, leaving the red far from vivid.
Was this a model designed and painted by a kindergarten kid?!
The crow flapped its wings and took flight. Kitahara intended to find someone to demand a refund from. He had not actually wanted to become a crow.
After all, born human, who would truly want to become a beast?
"Scrape... scrape..."
A piercing noise rang out, catching his attention.
Kitahara raised his head and saw a little boy falling down a cliff... He gripped two sharp blades in his hands, continuously scraping them against the cliff wall in an attempt to slow his descent.
The flock of crows in the forest was startled. They swarmed over, circling above the little boy's head, waiting for him to fall so they could feast.
Kitahara swiftly swooped down beside the boy. Humans would not stand by and watch their own kind die; that was why they formed communities.
Even though he was a crow now...
His claws tightly gripped the little boy's arm as he desperately flapped his wings, trying to halt their descent.
The problem was, whether because the child was too light or because he, this crow, was too strong, he actually lifted the little boy into the air...
This made no lo—he had become a crow already, so what the hell was logic?!
"Are you... trying to save me?"
The little boy looked up at the black shape overhead, then suddenly gave an adorable smile. "Thank you!"
"Caw?"
But when he opened his beak, only crow calls came out...
Kitahara tossed the little boy onto the grass and prepared to fly off to look for the brat's parents. Though he looked mature for his age, a child of three or four definitely had parents taking care of him.
Yet a sentence from below nearly made Kitahara fall out of the sky...
"Thank you!" The little boy happily waved his little hand from the ground. "My name is Uchiha Itachi!"
Uchiha... Itachi...
Uchiha... Itachi...
Kitahara flew back down, spreading his wings as he hovered before Uchiha Itachi. "Caw?"
"Do you have a name?" The little boy narrowed his eyes as he stroked Kitahara's feathers, his smile warm.
Along with his movements, a burst of scorching power entered Kitahara's body. Almost instantly, even greater power erupted from within Kitahara and forced that energy back out.
The overwhelming force sent Uchiha Itachi flying in an instant!
The child lay half-reclined on the ground, his eyes wide with surprise. "This Chakra..."
Kitahara instinctively grew familiar with the power inside his body. His soul was extraordinarily powerful, allowing his mind to easily control this body.
Though he did not understand it, he still knew what it meant for an animal to possess Chakra!
He, Kitahara, was not an ordinary crow.
He was a... Ninja Crow that wanted to become human again.
Kitahara considered how his so-called good brother had turned him into a Ninja Crow with Chakra and sent him to the world of Naruto.
For more than a decade, that guy had seemed like the most ordinary person imaginable. Kitahara had never had any reason to suspect his identity.
Besides, with how honest and simple he was, he truly did not seem like someone with status or strength... Kitahara pondered bitterly...
"When I learn the Summoning Technique with my father, I'll come find you and sign a Summoning Contract with you. Is that okay?"
The gradually approaching Uchiha Itachi spoke cautiously. The Summoning Technique he mentioned instantly awakened a forgotten corner of Kitahara's memories.
Boar—Dog—Rooster—Monkey—Ram!
What the hell?!
Why did he know the hand-sign sequence for the Summoning Technique?!
Kitahara's wings even swiftly reached before his chest and overlapped to form hand signs... In the end, he slammed them hard against the ground, causing a summoning inscription to appear on the earth...
Yet nothing appeared.
Kitahara had not signed a Summoning Contract. In truth, he could not sign any Summoning Contract... He still wanted to become human.
He thought through every ninjutsu he could recall: Clone Technique, Transformation Technique, Shadow Clone Technique...
The hand signs and Chakra circulation methods for all kinds of ninjutsu awakened within him, but Kitahara could clearly sense that there were some techniques he could not use.
He now possessed all sorts of knowledge about Chakra and ninjutsu, yet could not use even a single technique... as though... they needed to be activated.
Like the Summoning Technique... the one Uchiha Itachi had just mentioned.
This cheat was top-tier, wasn't it?! And one that let him succeed so easily without needing to work hard... Other than being a crow, there seemed to be nothing to complain about...
Uchiha Itachi stared in astonishment at the crow before him forming all sorts of hand signs. Naturally, he quickly memorized them as well... But a crow forming hand signs... even for a Ninja Crow, that was far too surprising!
Kitahara stopped. The little boy also stopped moving. Their eyes met, and Kitahara's beak opened. "Caw?"
Uchiha Itachi clearly could not understand crow language. He could only tilt his head in confusion and blink his big eyes. "Caw?"
Learning ninjutsu was one thing... but had you gone stupid from copying a crow's call too?
Noticing Kitahara's gaze, the little boy Itachi's face visibly reddened a little. "Sorry, I didn't mean to imitate you."
Even though he was only four years old, he knew it was wrong to spy on someone else learning ninjutsu.
Kitahara made a gesture with his wing, telling him to extend his arm. He then rose into the air, landed on the boy's arm, and stretched out his wing to point toward the distant village.
"Caw!"
"..."
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