Following the shady stone-paved path, Zongyan soon reached the academic affairs building.
The building was a chaotic crush of new students arriving to register and the parents accompanying them. The smells of ink, paper, and the hot sweat of children who had run all the way mingled in the air.
Buried behind a stack of files, the teacher handling registration flipped through a roster and called out names one by one. The procedure was little different from the school registrations Zongyan remembered from his previous life-verify identity, record information, collect supplies.
When it was his turn to step forward, the noise in the office noticeably subsided.
The Uchiha Clan Crest was far too conspicuous. The moment he stood before the desk, several gazes swept over like searchlights, carrying an expression somewhere between wariness and curiosity.
The middle-aged ninja handling registration pushed up his glasses and leafed through the roster, his delivery as flat as if he were reading a menu:
"Uchiha Zongyan, six years old. Your information checks out. Your textbooks and identification are here. Class 1-A. Find your classroom yourself."
Zongyan accepted the books and scrolls, tucked the student cloth band inside his clothes, nodded, and turned to leave.
It did fit the Uchiha Clan's arrogant manner. He had not said a single unnecessary word.
The Class 1-A classroom was far livelier than the office building.
A roomful of six-year-olds crowded together, chattering away. Some were already exchanging names and making friends, while others sat leafing through their new textbooks, their eyes full of curiosity.
The instant Zongyan appeared in the doorway, the hubbub abruptly dropped by half, as though someone had turned a volume knob.
Dozens of pairs of eyes turned toward him in unison, settling on the fan-shaped clan crest. Then that familiar, hushed buzzing rose into the air.
"...He's from the Uchiha Clan..."
"I heard his oldest brother is Itachi from the Anbu."
"Isn't he supposed to be a genius too? There were rumors in his clan before..."
Zongyan's expression seemed welded in place, his coolness carrying a touch of the standard Uchiha "can't be bothered with you." Under the entire room's gaze, he walked straight to the back row by the window, put down his books, and sat.
For the entire lesson that followed, he stayed by the window, staring outside without expression.
The teacher stood at the front explaining basic ninja knowledge, chakra extraction theory, and the ninja code. The children listened with fascination, occasionally raising their hands to ask questions.
Zongyan did not take a single word to heart-
He had heard all of this from Fugaku at home long ago. Later, he had gone on to learn chakra extraction, basic ninjutsu, and Uchiha Swordsmanship. The textbooks kept going over the same limited material, and none of it had been new to him for a long time.
The lecturing went on all day. Apart from eating the boxed lunch he had brought from home during the lunch break, Zongyan never left the classroom.
Sunlight slowly shifted across the window, changing from the bright white of noon to the warm yellow of afternoon, until the orange-red light of the setting sun covered his desk.
On the surface, Zongyan was studying his textbook in all seriousness. In reality, most of his attention was immersed in the pale blue system panel deep in his mind.
He went over the draw rules again and again, imagining one moment that he would draw some heaven-defying kekkei genkai, and the next that he would get a magical treasure from another world. The more he thought about it, the harder it became to sit still.
Only when the dismissal bell finally rang did he abruptly snap back to his senses, as though a wound spring had released.
The children noisily packed up and rushed out. Zongyan moved faster than anyone, gathering his textbooks and scrolls, stuffing the forehead protector band into his pocket, then pushing back his chair and heading out.
His steps were quick and urgent the whole way, as though something were chasing him. He crossed the streets, passed through the clan compound's gates, and plunged into his own courtyard.
Mikoto was playing with Sasuke on the veranda. Before she could ask anything upon seeing him return, Zongyan had already tossed out, "Mother, I'm home," and hurried straight to his room with his books in his arms.
"Big brother!-"
Sasuke called after him, his voice clear and loud, but Zongyan acted as though he had not heard.
He closed the door behind him and slid the wooden bolt into place.
He walked to the window and drew the curtains tightly shut, dimming the light to a soft, dusky yellow.
Then he tilted his head to listen outside. The veranda was quiet. Mikoto and Sasuke's voices sounded distant through the wall, their words indistinct, and there were no approaching footsteps.
Only after confirming it was safe did Zongyan let out a long breath, the anticipation he had suppressed all day finally showing on his face.
"...Home at last."
He sat cross-legged and called softly in his mind.
The pale blue, translucent system panel slowly unfolded in his consciousness once more.
His host information appeared line by line, with [Draws remaining: 1] standing out in particular.
"System, start the draw."
[Ding! Draws consumed ×1. Draw initiated!]
The panel abruptly changed, and a massive virtual wheel unfurled with a thunderous rush deep within his consciousness.
The wheel shimmered with flowing light, its spaces in nine different colors interspersed across it, spinning before his eyes in a dazzling display.
Zongyan gave it a quick scan-white, teal, blue, red, silver, gold, purple, ink-black, and amber.
Each color clearly corresponded to a different reward tier. The white sections were alarmingly large, some displaying nothing but a kunai and a roll of bandages. The teal sections were a little better, with ointments and basic scrolls, while the blue and red ones already looked somewhat more substantial.
But gold, purple, ink-black, and amber-those sections were as small as fingernails, scattered along the wheel's edge like isolated islands in a vast sea.
The amber space in particular looked certain to hold something extraordinary just from its color, but its tiny size practically mocked him.
"...Don't mess with me."
"If my very first draw only gives me a kunai set, wouldn't that be pushing it?"
Zongyan stared at the wheel, his heartbeat already accelerating.
His physical body was clearly sitting quietly in his room, yet in his consciousness, his whole body hung in midair, a thin sheen of sweat seeping into his palms.
At the center of the wheel, a silvery-white pointer began to turn.
It was slow at first, then grew faster and faster. The nine-colored spaces instantly blurred into a flowing rainbow mist, making it impossible to tell them apart.
The pointer whirled among the patches of light, and he could almost hear wind rushing past his ears.
Zongyan's nerves were stretched taut as a bowstring. All his attention was locked firmly on those colored spaces as he muttered soundlessly:
Right, right, right... Don't stop on white, don't stop on white...
Go higher! Slide toward gold, toward amber!
The pointer slowed little by little.
The spaces slid past his eyes one by one-the kunai set in a white space flashed past, followed closely by the ointment and scrolls in a teal space. His heart leaped into his throat:
Don't stop, don't stop, don't stop-
The pointer kept sliding, barely grazing the edge of the teal section before plunging into red, barreling past silver, and then-
Hum.
A vast, ancient presence, as though emerging from the depths of countless ages, suddenly spread from the center of the wheel, filling his entire mental space.
Zongyan felt something give his brain a gentle jolt, and his whole body shuddered.
[Ding! Draw complete! Congratulations, host, on obtaining a gold item: Fragmented · Bloodline Altar!]
He froze in place, unable to react for quite some time.
"...Gold?"
He repeated the word in his mind, then abruptly clenched his fists, unable to keep the corners of his mouth from lifting:
"...Gold on my very first draw? Isn't this luck a little ridiculous?"
Before you continue