His name was Folken.
He was a half transmigrator.
Why "half"? Well, that was a long and complicated story.
Inside a small, ordinary apartment, a black-haired boy lay on his tatami bed and slowly opened his eyes, as if waking to a second life. He lifted his hand and removed the virtual reality helmet from his head.
Once again, for the record, his name was Folken, and he was a modern-day man.
Reality had been harsh, pushing him deep into online games. Until one day, he activated a hyper-realistic VR game built around the world of Naruto.
That was when he awakened the system.
From that moment on, he could not leave his room. The system automatically refreshed food inside the apartment. He would never go hungry and, in theory, could survive without ever stepping outside. It was every shut-in's ultimate dream.
But the system had no intelligence and never explained whether leaving the room would count as failure. Which meant that the moment he opened the front door, his "challenge" might be over.
This was a challenge that would determine his future.
The game offered only one life.
If his character survived until the end of the Shippuden storyline, he would be given two choices.
First, he could remain in this world and receive a legally valid noble black card loaded with one billion in liquid assets.
Second, he could obtain his character's peak strength and travel to a world of his choosing, or stay in the Naruto world to continue living.
Who would ever turn down a deal like that? If he had to pick an ideal world, it would be something like Detective Conan's, where life had a bit of excitement but never became unbearable. With combat abilities and an extended lifespan, it would practically be a vacation.
After all, he had consumed the ability of the "Perfect Surgery Fruit," granting him a body with no weaknesses.
He opened the refrigerator, grabbed a newly refreshed can of beer, downed the icy drink in one go, and tossed the empty can into the ordinary trash bin that the system would automatically clean. Then he turned on the television.
On screen, a news report from half a month ago showed a man infected with rabies rampaging through a street and biting passersby.
The fact that his television still had power and signal when it should not have had either spoke volumes about the system's capabilities.
Folken picked up a handful of sunflower seeds from a snack tray and began crunching on them while planning his next step to ensure maximum survival and a successful clear.
"I already agreed, so there's no point hesitating."
"If I reject the Naruto world now, it'll completely break the persona I've maintained all this time."
Even if the space he lived in was absolutely safe, and even if the game paused with no time limit, a person left alone long enough might still go insane. And once insanity crept in, who knew when he might impulsively open the sealed windows or the front door, untouched for a month.
Before all this, he had only been an ordinary unemployed young man living in a one-bedroom rental, drifting through life.
Then one day, this game appeared. The system urged him to keep all doors and windows shut, which was why he had spent the last month sealed inside, running the air conditioner nonstop, transforming into a full-time shut-in. Although, even without the AC, the air would still circulate, and it never felt suffocating. Temperature, however, seemed affected by the outside. Some days it was unbearably hot.
Returning to his room, he glanced down at his equipment. Through the glass window, he could see what was happening outside.
"Help… help me!"
A dying man screamed in Folken's direction, but he received no rescue. Instead, a swarm of zombies pounced on him.
Not long after, the window above Folken shook. Something heavy slammed against the neighboring door. A corpulent man living upstairs, in desperation, tried to escape through the window. Folken faintly remembered this man was that useless jerk living above him. The man thought that if he could jump down into Folken's apartment, maybe he could find food and clean water. That would mean survival.
But the moment he held onto the wall and dropped down, he saw a grotesque zombie inside Folken's open window. Terrified, he slipped and fell straight into the horde below.
At that moment, Folken was wondering whether he was still human or had already become a zombie who simply had not realized it yet.
After all, this was not the first time he had frightened someone.
But thinking too much was pointless. Forget the apocalypse. What mattered was survival. As a normal human, he could never live through a world like this. His only path out was the "virtual world" inside the helmet, the path to transferring his real consciousness.
Time flowed differently inside the helmet's world. Six years passed in that world, while only half a month passed outside.
Folken did not believe it was a mere simulation. It might be a parallel Naruto world, and he was the main character of that parallel world. Or, as he often joked, the troublemaker dropped into the plot.
The next morning, students from the graduation class of the Ninja Academy sat in their classroom, quietly waiting to learn who their future instructors would be.
Some of them came from clans and already knew they would be assigned to jonin teachers. Others eagerly hoped for a famous shinobi or even one of the Hokage's disciples. Yet reality was quick to shatter their expectations.
"First squad. Senju Nawaki. Instructor: Orochimaru."
Nawaki lifted his chin proudly. The other children looked confused about why the first squad had only one person and quickly asked their teacher.
The chunin instructor held the papers, sighed inwardly, but answered patiently. "Nawaki's situation is special. Don't let it distract you. Next, second squad: Yamanaka Taiji, Akimichi Yumi, Nara U, instructor Sarutobi Shinnosuke."
"Wow, someone from the Sarutobi clan," the slightly chubby, red-haired girl Akimichi Yumi said excitedly, her bun-shaped hair bobbing with enthusiasm.
Beside her, Nara U rested his chin on his hand and internally mocked her. She had definitely known this in advance, yet she still acted surprised.
The instructor continued reading through the names. A long-haired Uchiha girl, who had not yet heard her squad assignment, began to grow visibly anxious.
"Team Eleven."
"Uchiha Mikoto, Yakushi Nonoyu, Might Duy. Instructor… Folken."
"Folken?"
With a loud scrape of her chair, Mikoto shot to her feet. She had given up the chance to train under her clan's jonin and had chosen to remain in the Academy to accept whatever assignment she was given. Yet she was being handed a teacher she had never even heard of.
"I've never heard the name, but maybe he's not too bad," Yakushi Nonoyu muttered, glancing once at Mikoto before losing interest. Then her expression changed as she realized she had heard the name of a genin she did not recognize.
The chunin teacher steeled himself. He had rehearsed explanations a thousand times in his mind, especially for the Uchiha clan, but there was no escaping it. Before he could speak, Nonoyu raised her hand.
"Teacher, who is Might Duy? I don't think I've heard of him."
As a child from a humble chunin family, now an orphan, Yakushi Nonoyu was never a popular figure. Her question drew several glances. Most looked only briefly, but the children of the major clans watched with thinly veiled amusement.
Nara U mentally groaned. A squad consisting of a failed sixth-year genin, an Uchiha prodigy, and a quiet, unnoticed girl. And now paired with an instructor who was practically a mystery. Was the village deliberately provoking the Uchiha?
Of course, he would never say that aloud. Too much trouble.
The chunin teacher scratched his cheek. "He is a genin who graduated a few years before Folken."
"Then why has a genin like him failed to advance to chunin?" Mikoto frowned, an uneasy feeling rising within her.
The teacher sighed. "He relies solely on taijutsu and cannot properly use even the most basic substitution, transformation, and clone techniques. Without that foundation, he cannot pass the exam."