[ Ken Shimura POV ]
Sweat pooled in the small of my back, soaking through the shirt as I stared at the glowing blue screen. The apartment was silent except for my breathing, each exhale visible in the cool morning air. My hands trembled, not from the cold but from the lingering shock of having two lifetimes crammed into one mind.
The memories of the childhood in Konoha, parents' deaths during the Nine Tails attack, years of mediocrity at the Academy. And underneath it all, my own memories of rejection letters, that orange juice can, the old man's cane pointed at my chest.
And now a floating screen promising me power if I played by its rules.
"Could be worse" I muttered, wiping sweat from my forehead with the back of my hand.
The screen pulsed once again with the glowing text before I could talk myself out of it.
[[ TUTORIAL QUEST: First Steps ]]
[[ Objective: Successfully perform the three basic Academy jutsu - Transformation, Clone, and Substitution ]]
[[ Reward: Zero Tier Gacha Pull x1 ]]
[[ Time Remaining: 23:47:33 ]]
I exhaled slowly. Three basic jutsu.
The memories supplied the context, he'd practiced these techniques until his fingers cramped, until the hand seals became muscle memory. His transformations sometimes missed details, sure, and his clones tended to look translucent enough that you could see through them, and his substitution had that damning half-second delay that would get him killed in any real fight.
But he could do them. Which meant I could do them, assuming this body still remembered what Ken had drilled into it.
This was like teaching a rookie how to work the controls before letting anywhere near the dangerous stuff. If I couldn't manage Academy basics, I had no business trying anything more complex.
"Alright" I said to the empty apartment, pushing myself to my feet "Never thought I'd be accepted as a ninja when I got rejected. Still better, I'd say"
The apartment was small, cramped in that way only poverty could create. Morning light filtered through the single window, painting stripes across tatami mats that had seen better decades. A low table sat in the center of the room, surrounded by thin cushions.
In the corner, a futon lay folded against the wall. Ken's memories told me Aunt Yuki would be at the hospital until afternoon, working the early shift treating injured shinobi. She'd taken him in after his parents died, gave him a home when she could barely afford one herself. The least I could do was not disappoint her.
I moved to the center of the room and shoved the low table against the wall with more force than necessary, clearing space. The tatami underneath had a worn spot where Ken had practiced hand seals over and over, grinding through repetitions that never quite made him better than average. I stared at that spot for a moment, feeling the weight of all those wasted hours, all that potential he had let slip through his fingers because he'd been content to coast.
The breakthrough is often a hand away.
I held my hands up and formed the seal for Transformation. Ram. The motion felt natural and foreign at the same time, Ken's muscle memory guiding my hands through positioning I hadn't consciously learned. But I was the one thinking through it now, checking each finger placement, making sure it was right.
Chakra responded immediately, and that sensation slammed into me like voltage through water. Energy I'd never felt before, warm and electric and utterly distinct, surged through pathways I hadn't known existed. It coiled in my gut like a serpent. The feeling was overwhelming—like every nerve in my body had suddenly woken up and started screaming. I gritted my teeth and forced myself to focus, to direct that energy the way my new memories showed me.
I completed the jutsu.
A smoke exploded around me in a dense white cloud.
When it cleared, I looked down at 'my' hands. The ones I'd had before the old man shot me. My perspective had shifted up, height redistributed in ways my brain wasn't prepared for. I stumbled, balance suddenly all wrong, and slapped my palm against the wall to keep from falling.
A small mirror hung near the door, the glass slightly warped with age. I crossed to it in two longer strides, legs remembering how to move with this height even if my mind lagged several steps behind. The reflection showed my old face staring back—twenty-something, tired eyes, the kind of face that blended into crowds at train stations and interview waiting rooms. Nothing special. Nothing memorable. Just me, the way I'd been before everything went to shit.
Something twisted within me, making me uncomfortable. Grief, maybe. Or nostalgia for a life I'd never get back, for rejection letters and orange juice cans and the simple misery of being unemployed but alive. That me had died on a Kyoto street corner while the old man's cane pointed at my chest. This me stood in Konoha, wearing a dead kid's body, trying to figure out how to survive in a world where children learned to kill before they hit puberty.
I released the jutsu. Smoke puffed around me again, and I snapped back to Ken's smaller frame. The shift in perspective made my stomach lurch, like stepping off a curb I hadn't seen.
The screen chimed softly, the sound somehow penetrating directly into my brain rather than my ears.
[[ Progress: 1/3 complete ]]
Clone Technique next.
Ken had always struggled with this one, his chakra control decent enough for physical exercises but lacking the focus required to split his chakra evenly for proper clones. I formed the seal—Tiger—and focused on the feeling of chakra gathering in my core. The trick was imagining it splitting, creating copies, making illusions real enough to fool at least the Academy instructors who didn't look too closely.
Smoke erupted around me as I completed the jutsu. Two figures materialized on either side of me, both identical to Ken in every way. Both looked back at me with the same dark eyes and messy black hair. Both were translucent enough that I could make out the wall behind them, see-through in that way that screamed "fake" to anyone with working eyes.
Classic Ken clones.
Technically functional. Practically useless in any real combat situation. But the system counted them anyway.
[[ Progress: 2/3 complete ]]
I waved my hand and the clones dissolved like smoke in wind. One jutsu left. Substitution Technique—the foundational escape jutsu every Academy student learned in their first year, the technique that had saved more shinobi lives than any other. The concept was simple: swap yourself with a nearby object in a puff of smoke.
Simple in theory.
In practice, it required split-second timing, awareness of your surroundings, and the ability to execute under pressure while someone was trying to kill you.
Ken could manage it. But there was always that half-second delay, that moment of hesitation while he formed the seals and gathered chakra. In a real fight, against an opponent who knew what they were doing, that delay meant a kunai in your throat or a fireball to the face.
I looked around the small apartment, searching for a suitable target. The futon pillow would work. I grabbed it, felt the weight in my hands, then tossed it across the room. It landed near the table with a soft thump, settling into place. I moved to the center of the cleared space, standing on that worn spot in the tatami, and took a deep breath.
Hand seals. Tiger. Boar. Ox. Dog. Snake. More complex than the others, requiring more precision. My fingers moved through the sequence and I could feel Ken's muscle memory helping, guiding my hands through motions he'd practiced thousands of times. But I was the one consciously directing it now, making sure each seal was perfect, each transition clean.
Chakra gathered in my core, more of it this time. The substitution required more power and precision than the other two jutsu combined. I fixed my intention on the pillow, locked onto its exact position in space, visualized the swap happening in my mind's eye.
Now.
The world lurched sideways like someone had grabbed reality and yanked it. My perspective jumped across the room in an instant that defied physics. Suddenly I was crouched where the pillow had been, balance shifted, weight redistributed. The pillow sat in the middle of the floor where I'd just been standing. Smoke dissipated in both locations.
Success.
[[ Progress: 3/3 complete ]]
[[ Tutorial Quest Complete! ]]
[[ Reward Available: Zero Tier Gacha Pull x1 ]]
[[ Claim Reward? YES / NO ]]
The screen waited patiently for my response, glowing softly in the morning light. I stared at it, at the YES and NO options floating there. A gacha pull. Random reward drawn from who knows what pool of possibilities. Ken's memories didn't include video games or anime, but my old life filled in those gaps easily enough. I knew how this worked—pull the lever, spin the wheel, get a random prize.
Sometimes amazing. Usually mediocre. Occasionally terrible.
But this was a Zero tier. Not sure if it's beneath Bottom of the barrel according to the system's earlier explanation. I shouldn't expect miracles.
I pressed YES before I could second-guess myself.
The screen flashed bright enough to make me squint. A wheel materialized in the air, divided into sections that spun too fast to read individual entries. Lights pulsed and swirled—blue and gold and silver bleeding together in a dizzying display that was probably designed to build excitement and anticipation.
It felt vaguely nauseous.
The wheel slowed gradually, sections becoming visible as the spin lost momentum. Most were filled with generic items that made my heart sink—kunai sets, basic scrolls, etc. A few glowed slightly brighter than the others, suggesting better rewards, but even those looked pretty mundane from what I could make out.
Click. Click. Click.
The wheel stopped.
[[ Reward : Stamina Enhancement (Minor) ]]
[[ Effect: Permanent +10% increase to physical stamina and endurance ]]
[[ Applying reward... ]]
Warmth flooded through my body, starting from my core and spreading outward. It wasn't overwhelming. Just warmth, like stepping into a hot bath after being cold for hours. It seeped into my muscles, my bones, my blood.
The sensation lasted maybe five seconds before fading, leaving me feeling... better. The mental exhaustion from using chakra hadn't vanished completely, but it had lessened significantly. My breathing came easier. The slight tremor in my hands from chakra use had steadied.
I stood up slowly, testing my balance, rolling my shoulders experimentally. Definitely felt different. Not superhuman or anything dramatic. Just like I'd gotten a good night's sleep and eaten a proper meal instead of surviving on instant ramen and stress. The kind of baseline improvement that wouldn't save me in a fight today but might one day.
Small gains are always better than no gains.
The screen rippled again, new text scrolling into view.
[[ Tutorial Completed ]]
[[ Regular Quests are now available ]]
[[ New Quest Available: Know Your Ground ]]
[[ Objective: Visit three major locations in Konohagakure and assess their significance. Choose from: Academy, Memorial Stone, Market District, or Hokage Tower ]]
[[ Reward: Bronze Tier Gacha Pull x1 ]]*
[[ Time Remaining: 8:34:12 ]]
[[ Accept Quest? YES / NO ]]
I read the quest twice, processing what the system was asking. It wanted me to explore Konoha, to get familiar with the village beyond memories provided to me. Memories were one thing—they gave perspective, background, understanding. But actually walking the streets, seeing the places with my own eyes, that was something else entirely. You couldn't truly know a place until you'd been there, felt the atmosphere.
And if I was going to survive in this world, I needed to complete the quest even if it's knowing Konoha inside and out.
I pressed YES and felt the acceptance settle in my gut like a weight. Eight hours to complete this. More than enough time, assuming I didn't get sidetracked.
But first, I needed food. My stomach growled on cue, loud enough to echo in the quiet apartment, reminding me that this body hadn't eaten anything.
Empty mind and stomach are quite troublesome to deal with.