Half-asleep, Kamiki suddenly smelled the scent of chalk dust.
He took a sharp breath, followed immediately by a violent cough. He coughed until tears almost came out. He slowly opened his eyes.
The sunlight right now was blinding. It illuminated the floating dust in the air clearly.
His brain felt heavy. Like a person with a hangover, or like someone had bashed the back of his head with a frying pan.
Suddenly, a large flood of memories that didn't originally belong to him poured into his mind.
Hidden Leaf Village. Ninja Academy.
Kamiki.
War orphan. Parents died in some unknown small-scale conflict; the pension wasn't much, barely enough to live on, but definitely not enough to live well.
Talent? None. Taijutsu? Garbage. Jutsu? Only knew the Substitution Jutsu of The Three Basic Techniques, and it only worked sometimes, often substituting with air.
Kamiki touched his own face. The skin was a bit tender, no stubble. Looking down at his hands, the palms only had a little callus from holding a pen, no marks left by holding a blade.
He actually transmigrated?! And into the world of Naruto?
"This is too ridiculous..."
I didn't expect this kind of thing to actually happen to me...
Just as Kamiki was in shock, a voice interrupted his thoughts.
"Hey, Kamiki, Iruka is staring at you."
Kamiki turned his head.
Golden yellow hair, messy like a bird's nest. Six whisker-like marks on his face, eyes full of schadenfreude, yet revealing a tiny bit of worry.
Uzumaki Naruto.
Kamiki's brain automatically popped up this name. Along with hundreds of episodes of anime from his past life that he hadn't finished watching, and those plots that had long become blurry.
"Forget it... if I transmigrated, I transmigrated. I can only accept it. But this is really too absurd..."
"You drooled while sleeping." Naruto pointed to the corner of his mouth, lowering his voice. "If you sleep again, you'll get thrown at with chalk. Last time you got hit right on the spot, your forehead was swollen for days."
Kamiki subconsciously wiped the corner of his mouth.
Dry.
He was tricked.
"Childish," Kamiki commented expressionlessly. The voice was a bit unfamiliar, belonging to a clear-sounding teenager.
Naruto froze for a moment. He didn't expect the usually submissive Kamiki to react like this. He immediately grimaced, like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, features scrunching together.
"Who are you calling childish! I am the man who will become Hokage! The future Hokage is reminding you, and you have this attitude!"
Kamiki didn't pay attention to him, but was slowly getting familiar with this body.
On the podium, a vein popped on Iruka's forehead.
He was still holding half a piece of chalk.
"Quiet!"
Iruka shouted.
"Tomorrow is the graduation exam."
Iruka's eyes changed. No longer that gentle look with a bit of helplessness, but serious.
"Some people are still sleeping! Some are still daydreaming! What do you think ninjas are? Playing house?"
He walked off the podium. Boots stepped on the wooden floor, making a dull thumping sound.
"Once you leave this village, no one will show mercy just because you are children. What does mission failure mean? It means death. Not just your own death, but dragging your teammates down too!"
His gaze swept across the class.
It finally stopped in the corner by the back window.
Kamiki and Naruto.
The class's famous "Dead Last duo."
Kamiki received this gaze. It wasn't sharp, more of a frustrated anxiety. Iruka was a good person, and because he was a good person, he was more anxious than anyone.
Kamiki looked down at his desk. Carved with messy graffiti, and a rusty Kunai.
Kamiki's fingers gently rubbed that rusty Kunai. The rough texture of rust transmitted to his fingertips.
Since he was here, he had to survive. And live comfortably.
In this world, power is everything. Without power, you wouldn't dare make a sound even if someone cut in line buying half-priced potato chips. Kamiki didn't want to live that kind of life for a single day.
"Today we review Transformation Jutsu."
Iruka walked back to the podium, clapped his hands, and pulled everyone's attention back.
"This is an E-rank Jutsu. The most basic, and a must-pass for the graduation exam. Don't blame me for not reminding you, if you can't even use Transformation Jutsu well, go back to farming early. Don't go be a corpse on the battlefield."
A wail rose from below the podium.
"Transformation Jutsu again..."
"I want to learn Fire Style. Breathing fire, how cool."
"Come on, you can't even light a match. Transformation Jutsu is hard. Last time I transformed, it scattered before three seconds."
Akamaru on top of Inuzuka Kiba's head barked twice, seeming to agree with his master's dissatisfaction.
Kamiki didn't make a sound. He was looking through memories.
Transformation Jutsu.
Covering the whole body with Chakra, changing appearance through imagination. The principle is simple, like shaping a balloon.
But this is just theory.
The difficulty of practical operation lies in details.
If you want to transform into a person, you have to know if they have moles, where the clothes wrinkle, if the eyes are dull, if they walk with feet splayed out.
Once the details are wrong, the enemy can see through it at a glance.
Feels a bit troublesome...
Kamiki frowned.
What is the use of this kind of formalistic Jutsu in actual combat, besides infiltrating to gather intelligence? Turning into a beauty to seduce enemies? That is Naruto's specialty, that so-called "Sexy Jutsu."
Kamiki rejected this flashy stuff.
Jutsu are tools. The purpose of a tool is to solve problems.
If I want to kill, why don't I just stab with a Kunai? If I want to hide, why don't I just dig a hole?
"Kamiki."
Iruka's voice suddenly sounded. Roll call.
The air in the classroom solidified for a second. Then a burst of laughter erupted.
"Let the Dead Last demonstrate?"
"Teacher just wants to liven up the atmosphere."
"Haha, last time he turned into a rock that was only half done, his butt was still sticking out."
Inuzuka Kiba laughed the loudest, lying on the table, shoulders shaking.
Haruno Sakura also covered her mouth and laughed; although the movement was ladylike, the contempt in her eyes couldn't be hidden.
Only Uchiha Sasuke.
He sat in the front row, hands crossed supporting his chin, looking out the window. He didn't even turn his head. In his eyes, this was just a waste of time. This level of practice was easy for him.
Naruto looked at Kamiki with some worry. He tugged at the corner of Kamiki's clothes under the table, quite hard.
"Hey, Kamiki." Naruto lowered his voice, a volume only the two of them could hear. "If you can't transform, just say you have a stomachache. I've used this move, it works well. Although you'll get scolded, it's better than losing face in front of the whole class."
Kamiki glanced at Naruto.
This kid was unexpectedly loyal. Even if he was an idiot.
"No need."
Kamiki stood up.
The chair made a harsh scraping sound on the floor. Screeeech—
This sound was very long.
All the laughter stopped for a moment because of this ear-piercing sound.
Kamiki adjusted his collar. His clothes were very old, cuffs frayed, but very clean.
He walked toward the podium.
Mocking sounds buzzed in his ears like flies. Kamiki didn't care. He was thinking about something else.
If Transformation Jutsu is to confuse the enemy, then why must one transform into a person?
The core of Transformation Jutsu is "deception."
It is visual interference.
As long as the goal is achieved, it doesn't matter what you turn into.
He walked up to Iruka.
Iruka looked at this student who was usually silent and had bottom-tier grades. There was no mockery in his eyes, only a bit of helplessness and expectation, plus encouragement.
"Kamiki, steady your hand seals." Iruka lowered his voice, as if giving private tutoring. "Ram - Boar - Bird. Remember the flow of Chakra, don't rush to release, circulate it in the body once first."
"Understood."
Kamiki nodded.
He was very polite.
"Thank you, teacher."
This thank you was sincere. In this world where the weak are prey to the strong, a teacher like Iruka who could still maintain patience was a rare animal.
Kamiki turned around.
Facing the whole class.
Dozens of eyes stared at him.
Those gazes were like searchlights, making one feel uncomfortable all over. Some joking, some bored, some waiting to see a joke.
Sasuke in the front row finally turned his head and swept a cold glance. His eyes were full of disdain.
Kamiki took a deep breath.
Then he slowly raised his hand.
Ram.
Fingers were a bit stiff. But the muscle memory of this body was still there; although it was memory belonging to a Dead Last, he had practiced countless times.
Boar.
Chakra flowed in the meridians.
It was a wonderful feeling. Like warm water rushing around in blood vessels, or like electricity flowing through fingertips.
Bird.
Kamiki closed his eyes.
What to transform into?
According to the textbook, he should transform into Iruka at this time.
But transforming into Iruka is too cliché.
And that horizontal scar on Iruka's face is hard to draw. Also the height of that ponytail, the number of pockets on that eternal Flak Jacket.
Too many details.
Once something doesn't look alike, it will cause laughter.
That is looking for trouble for oneself.
Kamiki didn't like trouble. He liked simple and direct.
Need a simple, huge, impressive thing.
Big things are good.
Big things don't need details.
Just like seeing a mountain, you won't count how many blades of grass grow on the mountain. You will only exclaim how high the mountain is.
As long as the silhouette is right, no one will fuss about whether the hair on it is split ends.
This is pragmatism.
Labor-saving, efficient.
At this moment, an image emerged in Kamiki's mind.
It was something that left a deep impression on him when watching anime in his past life. Also the most fearful memory of this village. Even now, when that name is mentioned, the adults' faces change.
Huge.
Red.
Full of destructiveness.
That is the embodiment of power.
Chakra began to boil inside Kamiki's body.
He felt resistance. That was the body's instinctive rejection, because the amount of Chakra he mobilized far exceeded the amount usually practiced.
But this body didn't seem as useless as the original owner thought.
Under Kamiki's conscious guidance, that Chakra which was originally a trickle suddenly surged like a flood bursting a dike.
"Transform."
Kamiki chanted softly.
His voice was very light, almost inaudible.
But the next second.
Poof.
Not the light sound like a fart when a Jutsu fails.
Nor the light smoke sound of a standard Transformation Jutsu.
It was a muffled sound.
Dull. Heavy.
Like the air was instantly squeezed and then exploded.
Boom!
A wave of air spread out with Kamiki as the center.
The chalk box on the podium was blown away directly. Chalk scattered all over the floor.
Iruka originally prepared to correct Kamiki's hand seals, but at this moment he took a sharp step back, arm subconsciously blocking in front of his face.
"This is..."
Iruka's eyes widened sharply.
He felt it.
Not just the flow of Chakra.
It was a palpitating oppression.
White smoke instantly filled the podium, thick enough not to dissolve.
And within that smoke, two huge, scarlet points of light slowly lit up.
Those were eyes.
Not human eyes.
But the vertical pupils of a beast.
Kamiki stood in the center of the smoke, feeling his line of sight rising crazily.
This feeling was weird. Just like you suddenly turned into a giant, and everything around you was shrinking.
The ceiling.
That originally high-up ceiling was now less than a foot away from him.
His body began to become heavy, but also full of power.
That power didn't come from muscles, but from the shell formed by Chakra.
Kamiki looked down.
Through the gradually dispersing smoke, he saw those ant-like people below.
The whole class had their mouths wide open.
And Sasuke, that genius who always maintained a high and cold posture, also revealed a surprised expression at this moment.
Kamiki didn't have the slightest fluctuation in his heart, and even wanted to laugh a little.
He just wanted to turn into a bigger thing to hide his incompetence.
Since he had to transform, then transform into the biggest one.
This is very reasonable.