Chapter 1: The Warring States Period
(Please everyone deposit your brains here.)
(A statement here regarding Kishimoto's own retcons: the author will have some original headcanons. Regarding the controversy between the manga and anime, the author mostly adopts the anime: setting-wise, Mangekyō Sharingan exists, the Asura lineage is complete, and a three-tomoe can activate Susanoo. The setting of the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan requires two pairs of eyes to be completely fused together to form the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan, which is done to complement the genes. Indra has the Mangekyō because I am following the anime here. As for other questions, when readers bring them up later, I will dedicate a chapter to explain them.)
(Also, the first 15 chapters are foreshadowing and the protagonist's mindset shift. From chapter 15 onwards, the protagonist will officially begin trying to change fate. If you want to read tactical battles, faction development struggles, and the like, please skip directly to chapter 15.)
"The Warring States... the Warring States Period in Naruto, this is trying to make me die," six-year-old Uchiha Takashi scratched his hedgehog hair and muttered in distress.
He was originally a super otaku from Earth, whose usual hobbies were watching anime and playing games.
Having not stepped out of his house for 800 years, he suddenly felt a whim to go outside one day, and as a result got hit by a truck and reincarnated into Naruto.
As a casual fan who only watched the anime adaptation of Naruto, his understanding of Naruto was not deep; he only knew most of the main storyline, and as for anything else, he really didn't understand much.
Moreover, the time point of his transmigration was not around the main storyline at all, but rather very early in the main storyline-you could say it was a background-board timeline: the mid-Warring States period.
At this time point, Madara Uchiha and Hashirama Senju were probably still hundreds of years away from being born, and the Uchiha Clan was currently fighting to the death with the Senju Clan.
Indra and Asura were also still engaged in constant reincarnated struggles.
Hundreds of years... how long he could live was already a question.
In the brutal Warring States period, children had to go to the battlefield when they turned eight, and those who survived were all elites.
Moreover, in this era, death was a normal state; the average age was mostly thirty or forty, and reaching fifty was considered a ripe old age.
Uchiha Takashi did not think he had the ability to live that long, and the plot did not record a person like him-to be precise, the Warring States period did not record many people at all.
Millennia of Warring States conflicts were glossed over in both the manga and anime plots, ending everything with a single phrase: the brutal Warring States period.
Yet when Uchiha Takashi truly transmigrated over, he could tangibly experience the weight of such a sentence.
The chaotic Warring States period had various major clans operating independently, with lives hanging by a thread, and any slight carelessness meant life would slip away.
In this era, the fragility of life could be said to have been vividly and thoroughly displayed.
Uchiha Takashi himself was not sure on which day he might be ambushed and pass away.
However, come to think of it, at least everyone in this era seemed to have a protagonist template, given that parents were dead and there were plenty of households with only one person left.
What Uchiha Takashi needed to consider right now was not the plot or future events at all, but rather how he should survive in an era like the Warring States.
"According to Madara Uchiha, the survival rate of their Uchiha Clan at that time was very, very low. If I go to the battlefield, can I still survive?"
Uchiha Takashi squatted on the ground, deep in thought. In two years, he was going to the battlefield; not just him, but all the eight-year-old children of his age had to don armor, pick up ninja blades, and fight the Senju Clan.
Yet the problem lay in the fact that Uchiha Takashi had neither awakened his eyes nor knew many jutsus. All he knew in his hands were two or three large and small Fire Styles, so once on the battlefield, he would probably be farmed as a mob.
"Takashi, what are you doing here? Let's go over there and practice throwing kunai," a voice suddenly rang out behind Uchiha Takashi.
Uchiha Takashi looked back; it was his peer companion, Homura Uchiha. The two were both six years old and met while receiving teachings from the elders within the clan.
Unlike Homura Uchiha, Uchiha Takashi's parents had died early on the battlefield, and Uchiha Takashi was raised single-handedly by an elder in the clan.
As for Homura Uchiha, he was raised by his mother; although Homura Uchiha's father also died on the battlefield, at least his mother was still around, right?
After the two got to know each other, Homura Uchiha particularly liked to come find him to train in the training ground.
True to being an Uchiha who valued emotions, even though Homura Uchiha was very full of himself and tsundere, Takashi could still feel the affection he held for him.
"Alright, let's hit the training ground," Uchiha Takashi slowly stood up, casting the problem he had just been pondering to the back of his mind.
What he needed to do right now was to try hard to survive in the Warring States period rather than thinking about the future. If he couldn't even survive, how could he talk about the future?
Besides, loafing and slacking off in the Warring States period? Are you kidding? If you dared to slack off in training, and ended up being ambushed and killed by someone, dying because your skills were inferior and you got hammered to death, nobody would avenge you.
"Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique!" Upon arriving at the training ground, Uchiha Takashi heard a familiar voice executing this technique of failing to kill people right here.
However, that was all just a meme; during the Warring States period, this technique had already been developed and utilized, renowned for being able to spew high-lethal fireballs with a small amount of chakra.
It was extensively used on the battlefield to force the opponent's positioning and inflict a certain degree of lethality.
Moreover, during the Warring States period, the battle results achieved by the Great Fireball Technique were truly remarkable, at least killing many members of the Senju Clan.
If the Great Fireball Technique really was like how it was portrayed in the manga-incapable of killing people-how do you suppose the Great Fireball Technique could have been passed down?
"Aka, practicing here alone?" Homura Uchiha spotted the other person and hurriedly went up to greet him.
Hearing the voice, Aka Uchiha turned his head back and nodded toward the two. "Takashi, Homura, you guys are here. I've recently learned quite a few jutsus, do you want to take a look?"
Uchiha Takashi waved his hand. "I'll pass; I'm not very good at ninjutsu, you should look for Homura instead."
Homura Uchiha scratched the back of his head. "Well... the jutsus I know aren't much either. Why don't... the two of us spar a set with you?"
Aka Uchiha said with vexation, "What are you guys talking about? All three of us are just Genin. With two of you fighting one, how am I supposed to fight?"
Although it was the Warring States period, a systematic framework for rank divisions was already in place.
At the very bottom were Genin who had just become ninjas and did not know many jutsus yet. The number of Genin was actually not large, but it served as the entry threshold for ninjas.
Next came Chunin, slightly stronger in strength, knowing more ninjutsu and Taijutsu. At the same time, their numbers were the largest, mainly because Genin could easily grow into Chunin.
Well, in the current Warring States period, you threw Genin onto the battlefield to train for two days, and when they came back they were Chunin. As for those who couldn't come back? Those who couldn't come back died there.
Then came the elites among ninjas, Jonin. Reaching this rank meant one could already be counted as an elite within a clan.
Of course, above Jonin there were even higher-level Elite Jonins, while the higher Kage were referred to in the current Warring States as Clan Head Level.
Super Kage... sorry, there was no such concept. The most powerful ones currently were only at the Clan Head Level, likely because nobody had ever witnessed anything beyond that.