[TIMESKIP: 6 MINUTES LATER]
Yuta lay on the floor, chest heaving, staring at the ceiling.
Everything hurt.
No—that wasn't accurate.
Everything felt wrong. Like his body was a suit that fit perfectly but was made of entirely different material than what he was used to.
He could feel the chakra now. Coiling in his gut, flowing through invisible pathways, humming with potential energy.
It was intoxicating.
And terrifying.
"System," he croaked. "Status check."
[INTEGRATION COMPLETE.]
[GENETIC STRUCTURE: MODIFIED]
[CHAKRA SYSTEM: ACTIVE]
[DOJUTSU: MANGEKYO SHARINGAN (BOTH EYES)]
[BLOODLINES: UCHIHA + UZUMAKI]
[CURRENT CHAKRA RESERVES: ....]
"And my... pupil techniques?"
[MANGEKYO ABILITIES WILL MANIFEST UPON FIRST ACTIVATION.]
"Meaning I won't know what they are until I actually use them."
[CORRECT.]
Yuta slowly pushed himself upright, wincing at the residual aches.
His reflection stared back at him from the darkened window.
His eyes—previously blue-gray—now held the faint red tint of activated Sharingan, though currently dormant. His hair however was a different story.
The pitch black hair now sported a vibrant red with streaks of black at the edges.
That alone meant he looked... different. Drastically different. Perhaps he can pass it off as dyeing his hair.
'I'm sure kids do that here. Right?'
Mom was definitely going to ask questions.
He'd deal with that later.
For now, he flexed his fingers, feeling the chakra respond. It was sluggish, unfamiliar, like learning to use a phantom limb.
But it was there.
"Alright," he muttered. "Let's see what I'm working with."
He focused, pulling chakra to his eyes.
The Sharingan activated.
Three tomoe spun into existence, and suddenly the world became sharper. Every detail jumped into crystalline clarity—the individual fibers in his carpet, the dust motes floating in the air, the faint vibration of the refrigerator in the kitchen.
It was overwhelming.
And incredible.
He pushed further, feeling the Mangekyo pattern trying to surface— —and immediately staggered, clutching his head as a spike of pain lanced through his skull. The tomoe flickered, struggling to maintain even the basic three-tomoe form.
[WARNING: MANGEKYO ACTIVATION REQUIRES SIGNIFICANTLY MORE CHAKRA. CURRENT RESERVES INSUFFICIENT FOR ACTIVATION.]
"Yeah," Yuta gasped, deactivating the Sharingan entirely. The world dimmed back to normal, and he felt the drain immediately. "I noticed."
His chakra had dropped noticeably from that brief five-second activation. Maybe 30-45% of his total reserves, just from maintaining the basic Sharingan.
'I really am Kakashi. Worse than Kakashi, even.'
[THAT IS ACCURATE. KAKASHI HAD YEARS TO ADAPT TO HIS SHARINGAN'S DRAIN. YOU HAVE MINUTES.]
"Gee, thanks for the pep talk."
[YOU'RE WELCOME.]
Yuta rubbed his temples, feeling the lingering ache behind his eyes. "So what now? I assume you have some kind of training regimen or—"
[MY FUNCTION IS COMPLETE.]
He froze.
"...What?"
[POWER ALLOCATION: COMPLETE. INTEGRATION: SUCCESSFUL. BLOODLINE STABILIZATION: ACHIEVED. MY PRIMARY DIRECTIVE HAS BEEN FULFILLED.]
"Hold on—"
[I WILL NOW ENTER HIBERNATION MODE UNTIL REQUIRED FOR FUTURE DIMENSIONAL CORRECTIONS OR SYSTEM UPDATES.]
"Wait, you can't just—"
[GOOD LUCK, YUTA AKUTAMI. TRY NOT TO DIE.]
"SYSTEM!"
The interface flickered once, twice, then vanished entirely.
Yuta stared at the empty air where the translucent blue screen had been floating.
"...You absolute asshole."
Silence.
He waited.
Still nothing.
"System? Hello? SYSTEM?!"
Nothing.
"Oh, come on!" He threw his hands up. "You give me powers I can barely use, drop a 'figure it out yourself' and then fuck off into hibernation?! What kind of customer service is this?!"
The apartment didn't answer.
Yuta stood there for a long moment, then let out a laugh—sharp and slightly hysterical.
"Unbelievable. Un-fucking-believable." He dragged both hands through his newly red hair. "Cosmic placement error, my ass. I got isekai'd by the bargain bin reincarnation service."
He took a deep breath.
Then another.
'Okay. Okay. It's fine. I've got powers. I've got knowledge of the timeline. I've got...'
He looked down at his hands, flexing his fingers. Chakra stirred sluggishly in response.
'...about three weeks of training before I need to actually use this stuff.'
He walked over to his desk and pulled out his notebook—the one with all his MHA timeline notes. He flipped to a fresh page and started writing.
IMMEDIATE PROBLEMS:
Chakra reserves are pathetic - Can barely hold basic Sharingan for seconds
Zero combat experience - Knowing jutsu ≠ knowing how to fight
Can't use Mangekyo at all - Not enough chakra to even activate it
Mom will notice the hair - Need a cover story
School is in 12 hours - Need to look normal
Sports Festival is in ~2 weeks - Major plot event, possible opportunities
OPPORTUNITIES:
U.A. Sports Festival - Showcase abilities? Scout competition? Avoid entirely?
Hosu Incident - 1 month away, chance to confront Stain
USJ Attack - Already happened. Skip.
Shigaraki And All For One? - Not my problem right now.
Training montage time - I've got knowledge, now I need skill
TRAINING PRIORITIES:
Chakra capacity - Meditation, chakra control exercises, lots and lots of exercise.
Chakra control - Tree walking, water walking, leaf exercises
Physical conditioning - Uzumaki healing means I can train harder
Sharingan stamina - Need to hold it longer than 5 seconds
Basic taijutsu - Can't rely on jutsu if I run out of chakra. Also, how do I even learn Jutsu? There are no scrolls.
Figure out Mangekyo abilities - Can't test them yet, but need to plan
He stared at the list.
This is going to take weeks. Months, realistically.
And I've got one month before Hosu.
His hand tightened around the pen.
It'll have to be enough.
____
[THE NEXT MORNING - U.A. HIGH SCHOOL]
Yuta had exactly three hours of sleep. He'd spent the rest of the night recollecting every scrap of knowledge he could remember from the Naruto franchise about Chakra control, training methods and usage.
The jutsu, the hand seals, the training methods for Team 7. First on the list was Tree walking followed by water walking and Leaf concentration exercise.
The rest would be spent trying to figure out how to use the hand seals he remembered from the series to actually perform Jutsu.
He could do this.
'If I don't pass out in class first.'
He stepped through the U.A. gates at 7:45 AM, hood pulled up to hide his hair. He'd considered wearing a hat, but that would've drawn more attention. Instead, he'd gone with the "mysterious transfer student" aesthetic and hoped nobody cared enough to ask questions.
Naturally, someone immediately asked questions.
"Yo, Yuta!" Tanaka jogged up beside him, grinning. "Dude, did you dye your hair? That's sick!"
Here we go.
"Yeah," Yuta said casually. "Figured I needed a change. You know how it is."
"Hell yeah, I know how it is! My mom nearly killed me when I tried to bleach mine last year." Tanaka squinted at him. "Wait, is that natural red or did you—"
"Box dye. Cheap stuff from the convenience store."
"Looks expensive, man. Like, professional-grade."
Because it's genetic modification, not hair dye, but sure.
"Got lucky, I guess."
They walked into the General Studies building, and Yuta immediately felt the stares. Apparently, red hair was uncommon enough to be noteworthy but not weird enough to be concerning.
Good. Blend in. Don't stand out.
"Hey, Yuta!"
He turned to see Kimura waving from across the hallway.
"Nice hair! Going for the protagonist look?"
Yuta forced a grin. "Something like that."
"Well, it works. You look way cooler now."
Cooler. Right. That's definitely the goal here.
Class started, and Yuta spent the first thirty minutes trying not to fall asleep. Nakamura-sensei was droning on about Quirk law and ethics, which would've been interesting if Yuta's brain wasn't still recovering from having his entire genetic structure rewritten.
He pulled out his notebook and started sketching a training schedule under the guise of taking notes.
"Unlike the Hero Course students, I don't have a lot of free time to hone my abilities. General studies don't have any baffle practicals Of anything, they're above me in terms of physical fitness index and I'll have to put in the work just to catch up."
WEEK 1:
Chakra control basics (leaf exercise)
Physical conditioning (endurance running, bodyweight exercises)
Sharingan activation practice (goal: 30 seconds sustained)
WEEK 2:
Tree walking
Combat theory (watch hero fights, analyze with Sharingan if possible)
Increase Sharingan time (goal: 2 minutes)
WEEK 3:
Water walking
Sparring practice (find somewhere discreet)
Mangekyo attempt (if chakra allows)
WEEK 4:
Hosu prep
Finalize combat strategy
Scout Stain's likely locations
___
It was aggressive. Maybe too aggressive.
But he didn't have time to take it slow.
"Akutami."
Yuta blinked and looked up.
Nakamura-sensei was staring at him.
"Yes, sensei?"
"I asked you a question."
Shit.
"Could you... repeat it?"
She sighed. "I asked what your opinion was on the Hero Public Safety Commission's recent policy changes regarding Quirk regulation in private spaces."
Yuta's mind raced. Okay, think. What would sound smart but not too smart?
"I think..." He paused. "I think it's a necessary measure given the rise in villain activity, but it could also set a dangerous precedent for government overreach. If they can regulate Quirk use in private spaces, what's to stop them from expanding that authority further?"
Nakamura-sensei raised an eyebrow. "Interesting take. And what would you propose as an alternative?"
Why did I open my mouth?
"Community-based oversight instead of federal mandates. Local hero agencies working with neighborhood councils to establish guidelines that fit specific areas, rather than a one-size-fits-all approach."
She nodded slowly. "Not bad, Akutami. Keep that kind of critical thinking up, and you might just make it into the Hero Course yet."
If only she knew.
The class moved on, and Yuta went back to his training notes.
The thing about General Studies was that Mrs. Nakamura's encouragement—while well-meaning—was basically a polite fiction. Almost every kid in this class was here because they couldn't crack U.A.'s brutally competitive Hero Course entrance exam.
Forty slots. Four reserved for recommendations. That left thirty-six spots for thousands of applicants.
Sure, there was technically a path forward. Show enough promise at the Sports Festival, catch a teacher's eye, maybe—maybe—get transferred into the Hero Course. It happened. Rarely.
Shinso Hitoshi from Class 1-C had managed it, though that was more Aizawa taking pity on a kid with a villainous Quirk than any systematic process.
But for everyone else? Empty promises. Delusions of grandeur.
If you were truly impressive enough to stand out at the Sports Festival, you wouldn't be in General Studies to begin with.
Unless you had something nobody knew about.
Yuta glanced down at his hands, feeling the faint pulse of chakra beneath his skin.
Yeah. Let's keep it that way.
___
[LUNCH - U.A. CAFETERIA]
Lunch Rush's food was, as always, absurdly good.
Yuta sat with his tray—katsu curry, rice, miso soup, and some kind of perfectly seasoned vegetables—and had the traitorous thought that it might actually be better than his mom's cooking.
Of course, he'd never tell her that.
"Dude, you gonna eat that or just stare at it?" Tanaka asked, already halfway through his own meal.
"I'm savoring," Yuta replied, taking a bite. "Unlike you, I appreciate craftsmanship."
"It's cafeteria food."
"Made by a Pro Hero cafeteria chef. There's a difference."
Across the table, Kimura snorted. "You're such a food snob."
"I'm cultured. There's a difference."
The third member of their usual lunch group—Hana Mori, a girl with a plant-manipulation Quirk that let her grow flowers from her palms—rolled her eyes. "You two are exhausting."
"You love us," Tanaka said with a grin.
"I tolerate you. Barely." U.A's academic year had barely begun a week ago. The vast majority of first year students came from different high schools and as a result, didn't know each other.
Nevertheless,
It didn't stop teenagers from making new friends. In the few days of U.A's opening, Yuta had carved out his own small social circle of casual friendship that didn't require much effort.
It was exactly what his mom would want for him.
'Shame I'm risking everything as a soon to be vigilante.'
"So," Tanaka said, leaning forward conspiratorially. "Did you guys hear about that explosion kid from Class 1-A?"
Kimura groaned. "The one who told everyone he's gonna crush the Sports Festival?"
"Yeah! Bakugo something. Apparently, he straight-up said he'd beat everyone and become number one."
Hana raised an eyebrow. "That's... tactically stupid. Why would you make enemies before a competition?"
"Maybe he's got a death wish," Kimura offered.
"Maybe he's a hothead who doesn't understand tactics."
"Or he's just that confident," Yuta said, pushing rice around his plate. "I heard he got first place in the Hero Course entrance exam. Combat score off the charts."
Tanaka whistled. "Damn. So he's got the skills to back up the talk."
"Doesn't make it any less dumb," Hana muttered. "You don't paint a target on your back unless you're really sure you can handle it."
"Or unless you're an idiot," Kimura added.
Yuta smirked faintly. "You'd be surprised how far idiots get in this world."
"Sounds like personal experience," Hana said, sipping her juice.
"Something like that."
He checked the time on his phone. Lunch period was halfway done.
Yuta fell into thought, contemplating whether to leave early and head to the library.
There were a dozen things he could be doing right now—training, meditating, testing his limits were at the top of his priorities—hence his decision to go to the library to research ancient history on Ninja's, Hand Seals and Chakra Theories?
Why?
Well, he had run into a problem.