Chapter 1: In Konoha with a Kizaru Template
His head was buzzing, as if someone had jammed him into a broken electric fan.
Uchiha Saku opened his eyes. His first sensation was pain, the kind of pain where his entire body felt like it was falling apart.
His second sensation was bewilderment. This blood-soaked battlefield before his eyes, along with the tattered flak jacket on his body... what was the meaning of this?
Wasn't he grinding away in front of his computer, rushing to finish a project proposal? How, after just closing and opening his eyes, was he lying in this ghost of a place waiting to die?
"Saku! Make a sound if you're still fucking alive! On the left!"
An altered, furious roar exploded right next to his ear.
With great effort, Saku turned his head. He saw a young ninja with a blood-stained face and a frantic look in his eyes, trembling as he threw shuriken in his direction with terrible aim.
Fragments of memory flooded in-the Third Shinobi World War, a Konoha Genin, an Iwagakure ambush, the squad leader biting the dust... Well, he was done for. He had time-traveled, and with a hellish opening to boot.
Just as he tried to move, a tearing pain flared in his chest. Looking down, his clothes were seeping blood; he figured several ribs were broken.
The five surrounding Iwagakure shinobi looked at them no differently than they would look at dead men.
"Konoha's tender shoots, it ends here." The leading Iwagakure shinobi sneered, his hands clapping together, "Earth Release: Rock Lodging Destruction!"
The ground and the mountain rocks on both sides began to rumble and shake, with rocks of all sizes pelting down like rain, sealing off the only remaining retreat path. That teammate next to him, Kentaro was his name, right? His face was as white as paper, and he couldn't even hold a shuriken steady.
He was dead for sure.
The thought was frighteningly clear. Just arriving, without doing a damn thing, and he was about to be pounded into minced meat by falling rocks? You've got to be kidding me!
He wasn't resigned! He damn well wasn't resigned!
Right at the peak of that thought, a voice-devoid of emotion, sounding like a synthetic electronic voice, yet ringing directly inside his mind-sounded:
[Host's intense 'survival' (and 'unwillingness to go to work') intent detected... matching-degree scan...]
[Beep-high-matching template found: 'Marine Admiral Borsalino' (Codename: Kizaru).]
['Imitation is Power' system forcibly binding... binding successful.]
[Novice mission slapped right on your face: In a life-or-death moment, imitate that adult's demeanor. Success brings rewards, failure... care to guess?]
What the hell? A system? Kizaru? Saku's brain was even more scrambled. But there was no time to be scrambled; the shadow of the largest boulder overhead had already cast down over him.
Imitate? Imitate Kizaru? Right now? Imitate what about him? Imitate punching in and clocking out!
In a split second of life and death, his mind instead went blank.
The image of that smirking, slow-talking, yet devastatingly fierce perverted uncle became inexplicably clear.
First was the attitude. Even if the sky fell, one had to express a sentiment first.
Saku inhaled a breath of cold air laced with the smell of blood, suppressing the froth of blood in his throat, and with all his might tilted his head a fraction to the side, fixing his eyes on the hand-sealing Iwagakure shinobi.
Then, he twitched the corner of his mouth, trying to produce that gooey, dawdling voice with a slightly upward-curving ending:
"Getting hit by so many rocks... how scary, yo~"
His voice wasn't loud, and it was hoarse, but that tune, that defiant urge to throw in a "yo" even in the face of death, left all five opposite Iwagakure shinobi momentarily stunned.
Kentaro looked over as if he had seen a ghost.
[Ding! Novice mission complete!]
[Speech and action imitation: 'How scary, yo~' (form similar, spirit slightly lacking)]
[Reward credited: Imitation Points +10.]
[Passive unlocked: 'Preliminary Light Particle Activation'-your cells are starting to find 'light' rather friendly.]
[Active trial ticket unlocked: 'Flash Movement: Prototype' ×1 (maximum displacement ten meters, using it too much causes dizziness, only this one left for today).]
Almost simultaneously as the prompt sounded, that fatal boulder smashed into the exact spot where he had been lying a moment before with a loud crash, sending dust billowing upward.
And Saku?
He only felt his body lighten with a "hum"-not the chakra burst of a Body Flicker Technique, but rather like... being dismantled on the spot by something and instantly reassembled in another place.
A flash of golden light appeared before his eyes-truly just a flash, so brief it felt like an illusion-and then he found himself sprawled atop a protruding rock slightly above and to the side.
His position was awkward, almost causing him to slip off, and the wound on his chest was tugged, making him gasp in pain.
"What the hell?!"
"What kind of jutsu was that? I didn't see him weave hand seals!"
The Iwagakure shinobi were shocked. This completely exceeded the range of abilities a Genin should possess.
Saku sprawled on the rock, coughing up blood, panicking to high heaven inside, but keeping a tight grip on his composure outwardly. With trembling fingers, he raised one hand and pointed his index finger.
There was no chakra flowing through his body, but there was a very faint, very novel sensation, as if he could hook onto a tiny bit of invisible "light" in the air. At his fingertip, a golden speck of light the size of a grain of millet glowed stubbornly, flickering on and off.
Power? It probably couldn't even compare to a firecracker.
Yet his posture couldn't falter!
Desperately recalling that unruffled, slightly mocking deadpan demeanor Kizaru wore before unleashing a major move, and enduring the agonizing pain, he forced out what was likely a very hideous smile toward the Iwagakure shinobi staring up at him from below:
"Speed is weight..." He panted, his voice intermittent, but breathed out that final line of dialogue in a whisper: "Have you... ever been kicked at the speed of light?"
The scene fell utterly silent.
Only the wind howled through the valley, and now and then loose stones clattered down.
A few Iwagakure shinobi exchanged glances, hands poised in seals. For a moment, they didn't know whether to keep attacking or first ask if the little Konoha brat had been hit in the head by a rock.
That tone, that pose, paired with his current sorry state and those tiny lights that were utterly useless...
The incongruity was off the charts! And yet, for some reason, it made them feel a little uneasy.
"Kentarō!" While they were stunned, Saku used his own voice again and rasped, "Throw your shuriken! Hit the one on the left who's standing there dumbfounded!"
The shout jolted Kentaro back to his senses. Whatever was going on, staying alive came first! He flung all three of the shuriken he had left.
At the same time, Saku silently thought, Move! To the mouth of the valley! The farther away, the better!
Flash Movement: Prototype, activate!
There was that faint "buzz" again, and a brief golden afterimage in his vision. He appeared five meters away, at the edge of the valley's mouth. His legs gave way when he landed, and he dropped to one knee, his vision going black.
"Get him! Don't let him escape!" The Iwagakure leader came to his senses, furious and humiliated.
Saku braced himself against the ground and tried to get up, but failed. He turned to look at the enemies charging toward him and, with the last of his strength, tossed out another classic line, dragging it out in an even more irritating tone:
"Honestly... what a troublesome bunch of people~"
[Beep! Speech and conduct imitation: "What a troublesome bunch of people~" (Fits the situation; the essence is beginning to emerge)]
[Imitation Points +5.]
[Current Imitation Points: 15/100 (Level: First Steps)]
[Helpful reminder: Imitation Points can be used to exchange for ability fragments or upgrade existing abilities. Please keep working hard at "playing your role." This system looks forward to you becoming the brightest... wage slave in another world.]
What the hell, a wage slave!
Saku grumbled to himself, but the pursuers were already close. He exchanged a glance with Kentaro, who came scrambling over, and without a word, they supported each other and staggered into the woods beyond the valley.
They didn't know how long they ran. Once they could no longer hear anything behind them, the two collapsed like lumps of mud beneath a large tree. Kentaro panted hard and looked at Saku as if he were a monster. "Saku... you... what was that just now? And the way you spoke..."
"Don't... don't ask..." Saku waved a hand, grimacing as pain flared in his chest. "If you have to ask... I just... wanted to crack a joke... before I died..."
He closed his eyes, but the translucent system interface in his mind was crystal clear:
[Host: Uchiha Saku (Status: Seriously Injured; Recommended to slack off and recuperate as soon as possible)] [Current Template: Kizaru (Borsalino)] [Imitation Points: 15 (Pauper)] [Available to Unlock/Upgrade:] [1. Light-Speed Kick: Faint Spark (50 points)-Might be enough to kick a hare unconscious.] [2. Ama no Murakumo: Phantom (100 points)-A shiny toy dagger. Pretty good for lighting things up.] [3. Aura Enhancement: Basic Languor (30 points)-Makes you look more punchable in everyday life; Imitation Points gained +10%.]
Leaves rustled overhead, and a few shafts of sunlight slipped through, wavering across his face.
Did he have to imitate Kizaru to survive and grow stronger?
Saku licked his cracked lips, feeling the faint but unmistakable, wondrous connection to "light" within his body.
He also remembered his performance just now-cowardly yet putting on airs-and couldn't help the slight tug at the corner of his mouth.
"Fine..." He spoke to the air in a voice only he could hear, mumbling in that same tone, "Looks like I have no choice but to clock in for this 'shift'... Tsk, what a bother~"
In the distance, in the sky over Konoha, a familiar signal arrow seemed to rise into the air.