Within the Land of Fire, Konoha.
Minamoto Takuya, pale-faced, sat in Ichiraku Ramen, savoring the Hokage's iconic dish while listening to the surrounding chatter.
Beneath his unperturbed expression, a hint of emotion slowly surfaced.
The discussions in the ramen shop were chaotic, but the biggest topic recently revolved around Kakashi Hatake, the youngest Jonin.
While his promotion to Jonin had happened some time ago, such a young Jonin still sparked countless discussions and exclamations of awe.
However, the current discussions about Kakashi Hatake seemed to go beyond that, as he had returned from the war with the Stone Ninjas with a Sharingan that couldn't be deactivated!
It was said that Kakashi Hatake's left eye was injured, and he inherited the power of the Kekkei Genkai, the Sharingan, from Uchiha Obito, who died in battle!
That was the mark of the Uchiha Clan's Kekkei Genkai in Konoha, and even within the Uchiha Clan, those who awakened the Sharingan were by no means numerous. Moreover, even those who did awaken it usually only had a One Tomoe, let alone Kakashi Hatake's Sharingan, which was a two tomoe!
The Sharingan, combined with the historically most talented Kakashi Hatake—what kind of chemical reaction this would cause was the topic of heated discussion among the villagers.
Minamoto Takuya, sitting nearby, couldn't help but scoff at this. At this moment, who could have imagined that this Sharingan would not be a good thing for the incredibly talented Kakashi Hatake?
It wasn't that this Sharingan wasn't powerful, but rather that it wasn't suitable for Kakashi Hatake in his current state.
Because even though Kakashi Hatake was already a Jonin, it didn't change the fact that he was only twelve years old. At this age, Kakashi Hatake's body was far from fully developed, and his Chakra reserves were comparatively very low.
And he didn't possess the Uchiha Kekkei Genkai, so his Sharingan remained constantly active. With limited Chakra, having a Sharingan that continuously consumed Chakra undoubtedly severely hampered his growth.
Of course, the Sharingan was undoubtedly a good Kekkei Genkai, and it would definitely bring a significant boost to combat power; this could not be denied.
Therefore, the best option for Kakashi Hatake would be to seal this Sharingan first, and then unseal it when his Chakra reserves increased. This way, he could avoid hindering both his growth and the combat power of the Sharingan, perhaps only experiencing a slight decrease in proficiency with the Sharingan.
But given Kakashi Hatake's talent, this slight loss of proficiency would not be a major issue.
This point shouldn't be hard to consider, yet Kakashi Hatake didn't choose this path. He had Uzumaki Kushina, a master of Sealing Jutsu, as his teacher's wife, and Minato Namikaze, who had even further developed Barrier-type Sealing Jutsu under Uzumaki Kushina's tutelage, as his teacher.
He shouldn't be unable to complete the sealing. So, it was probably because this was a memento left to him by Uchiha Obito, and thus he refused to seal this Sharingan.
"Uchiha Obito's Sharingan, huh…"
Minamoto Takuya muttered, a hint of envy in his eyes. He actually really wanted this Sharingan with Kamui abilities.
Unfortunately, considering Uchiha Madara behind Uchiha Obito, and Minato Namikaze behind Kakashi Hatake, this idea could only be given up.
He was currently a Special Jonin of Konoha, and this identity still brought him convenience for many things, so he temporarily had no intention of abandoning it.
After shaking his head helplessly, Minamoto Takuya's eyes also showed a fervent glint. It wasn't that he had thought of another way to obtain Kamui, but because… "Finally… it's time?"
Minamoto Takuya looked at his pale face reflected in the clear soup in his bowl, his gaze distant for a moment. He had waited too long for this day.
Minamoto Takuya, a Special Jonin of Konoha, was now twenty-seven years old. Reaching Special Jonin at this age essentially indicated that his strength had reached its limit. Any further improvement would merely involve adding some special Ninjutsu, gaining some negligible enhancements.
It wasn't that he wasn't diligent; one could say his diligence was no less than that of Might Guy.
Of course, this wasn't referring to Taijutsu. He had tried to become stronger through Taijutsu, but the result was that his talent in Taijutsu was also very ordinary. He simply couldn't train like Might Guy, and forcing himself to train would only ruin his body.
After realizing his ordinary Chakra talent, ordinary Taijutsu talent, and the lack of a system or golden finger—essential for transmigration—Minamoto Takuya was stunned.
The world of Naruto was far from peaceful!
In his more than twenty years of life, he had experienced both the Second Great Ninja War and the Third Great Ninja War. Although he had survived, it could only be attributed to luck.
In such wars, ordinary Genin were cannon fodder, and Chunin were slightly stronger cannon fodder. As for Special Jonin?
That was just a fancier name for Jonin; in reality, their strength was that of elite Chunin, and elite Chunin were… elite cannon fodder?
Minamoto Takuya wasn't afraid of death; he just didn't want to die so inexplicably and meaninglessly.
In fact, he himself didn't know how he had arrived in this world. One moment he closed his eyes, the next he opened them, and he was a member of Konoha with memories of his previous life, without having suffered severe injuries from a truck.
Thinking about it now, perhaps the function of the truck wasn't just to inflict severe injuries, but also a way to distribute systems?
Minamoto Takuya shook his head. It was useless to dwell on these things now. If the system hadn't arrived by this point, it probably never would. At most, he could hold a glimmer of hope that the system would appear when the protagonist emerged or the plot began.
Did he have any outstanding qualities? Yes, he did.
That was his incredibly precise control over Chakra, but no matter how strong his control, it couldn't compensate for his very low Chakra reserves.
Even now, his Chakra reserves were only that of an ordinary Chunin. That's right, at twenty-seven years old, his Chakra reserves only reached the level of an ordinary Chunin, and they might even decrease with age… which was… quite absurd.
If it weren't for his decent talent in Ninjutsu, he might not have even gotten the Special Jonin identity!
Thinking of this, Minamoto Takuya felt a bit depressed. It was bad enough that he wasn't given a system, but not even enough talent was really a bit too much.
However, fortunately, every cloud has a silver lining; at least his memories could serve as his golden finger.
For instance, now, a Ninjutsu he had been eyeing, the Chimera Technique, finally had an acquisition channel.
Minamoto Takuya had been watching the Jonin named Hiruko for a long time. The reason he hadn't acted before wasn't that there was no opportunity, but because he wasn't sure if the other party's Chimera Technique had been successfully developed.
And this point in time was when the other party coveted Kakashi Hatake's Sharingan, even secretly moving to cast a puppet jutsu on Kakashi Hatake. At this point, it could basically be determined that his Chimera Technique was already complete, or mostly complete.
Subsequently, the other party would be exposed during the experiment and chased by the Sannin, leading him to leave Konoha to collect complete corpses with Kekkei Genkai. From his memories, this should be happening around this time.
And during this period, Hiruko would also cast a puppet jutsu on Kakashi Hatake. He just needed to quietly wait for the other party to leave that experimental base.
Minamoto Takuya took a deep breath, and his hand, not holding chopsticks, quietly formed a hand seal.
"Summoning Jutsu: Clairvoyance Technique."
The next moment, his gaze seemed to pierce through the Ichiraku Ramen shop, arriving above the very secluded experimental base.
On a large tree next to this experimental base, a crow was currently preening its black feathers with its beak while watching the movements below with its red eyes.
The crow was Minamoto Takuya's Summoned Beast. Originally, they were just ordinary crows, but later, Minamoto Takuya carefully nurtured them with Chakra, and they barely awakened their intelligence to become his Summoned Beast.
"Still no movement?"
Looking at the experimental base through the crow's eyes, Minamoto Takuya wasn't surprised. Not to mention whether the news had reached Hiruko, it wasn't suitable for the other party to act in broad daylight.
After observing Hiruko's experimental base for a while longer, Minamoto Takuya also released the Clairvoyance Technique.
Now, he just had to wait for his Summoned Beast to notify him. Unfortunately, his Summoned Beast was originally just an ordinary crow and couldn't perform the anti-summoning of those inherited Summoned Beasts, but it could still use Chakra to notify him within a certain range.
After a moment of thought, Minamoto Takuya had other crows gather around, scattering them around the experimental base, just observing from a distance.
After doing all this, Minamoto Takuya held the large bowl of Ichiraku Ramen, drank the remaining soup, and sighed.
As expected of the ramen that the protagonist never got tired of, the taste was indeed first-class.
"Owner, check, please."