Deep within a dense, silent forest, a white-haired child sat among the roots of an ancient tree. At a glance, he looked no older than four years old.
In his small hands, he held a slightly worn book whose title read:
"Chakra Refinement Technique."
His name was Ōtsutsuki Shima, and he had been living in the world of Naruto for exactly four years.
When he was barely six months old, his parents died during the Nine-Tails' Rebellion—the catastrophe that forever scarred Konoha. Like many others, Shima was orphaned before he could even remember their faces.
However, his parents had been ninjas, and they died fighting to protect the village. Because of that, Konoha did not treat him with disdain. At the very least, he would receive a basic pension and the full inheritance that rightfully belonged to him, safeguarded until he was old enough to manage it himself, without a single cent being stolen.
Unfortunately, his parents were neither outstanding ninjas nor members of a powerful clan. There were no great fortunes or secret techniques waiting for him.
The only things he inherited were common jutsu:
the Basic Chakra Refinement Technique, the Three Body Techniques, Ninja Tool Throwing, Body Flicker, the Shadow Clone Technique, and the Konoha Flow Technique.
…
Many would have chosen to reincarnate as an Uchiha, a Hyūga, or even an Uzumaki. But Shima—someone who had seen both the anime and the manga—understood better than anyone a cruel truth of that world:
This was a world ruled by lineage.
And the purer it was, the better.
That was why he had made his original decision: to reincarnate as an Ōtsutsuki—specifically as the twin brother of Ōtsutsuki Toneri.
Unfortunately, something went wrong at the last moment.
The process failed.
Instead, he was informed that he would reincarnate as a civilian of Konoha, retaining only the name and appearance of the Ōtsutsuki clan. As compensation, the responsible deity granted him several "gifts."
Well… it could be said those gifts were quite generous.
Among them, Shima received an excellent kunoichi: Chino Chinoike.
A girl who appeared only in filler and in some novels of the Naruto universe.
According to the deity, unlike Shima, Chino had been summoned directly. Her clan did not exist in this reality, and thanks to that same deity, she had obtained a legal identity within Konoha.
At that moment, Chino—also four years old—was leaning against him, watching him study in silence.
"Chino, I don't have time to play with you right now," he said without taking his eyes off the book.
Chino puffed out her cheeks when she heard that. Her face turned slightly pink, and her childish expression clearly showed her displeasure. Her puffed cheeks made her look especially adorable.
"You used to play with me all the time… now you ignore me," she complained.
Her eyes began to moisten, as if tears might spill out at any moment.
"Chino, I'll play with you later. I need to practice now."
Unlike the carefree Chino, Shima was a true transmigrator.
From the moment he realized he had reincarnated into a dangerous world—where he could die, or even the entire village could be destroyed—and moreover as a mere civilian, desperation took hold of him.
Fortunately, although he was a civilian, he was not completely defenseless.
Shima stopped paying attention to Chino for the moment and focused on refining chakra.
Chakra refinement sounded simple: combining physical energy and spiritual energy.
But in practice, the process was far more complex.
How to properly extract physical energy from the body.
How to channel spiritual energy.
And, most importantly, how to fuse them without damaging the organism.
Each of those steps contained multiple techniques and subtleties.
That difference marked the gap between the chakra refinement of a ninja clan… and that of a simple civilian. It also determined efficiency, the amount obtained, and the strain placed on the body.
Fortunately, among his gifts was an advanced chakra refinement technique.
Over these four years, Shima had not only learned to read and write in the language of this world, but had also studied its history and basic knowledge. He never neglected his body.
The mandatory training of every transmigrator.
Though, unlike certain bald heroes, Shima trained in moderation.
He closed his eyes.
He extracted physical energy.
He extracted spiritual energy.
The two converged, mixed… and the reaction completed itself.
A strand of chakra was born within his body.
The entire process took less than two minutes.
After finishing, Shima returned home together with Chino. Upon arriving, he went straight to his room and quickly took out a summoning scroll from his inventory.
Although he did not possess a system, he did have a special inventory where all his gifts were stored. The only drawback was that he could not place ordinary objects inside it.
Although Chino belonged to Shima, she possessed her own thoughts. The only absolute thing was her one-hundred-percent loyalty to him.
Shima stared at the scroll for a few seconds. Then he shook his head and put it away again.
It was not time yet.
Instead, he took out a different scroll.
He sat down on a chair, unrolled it calmly, and spoke in a firm voice:
"Ultimate Summoning Beast… you will be my summoning beast."