"I woke up from hunger. Honestly, in my previous life I had experienced hunger before, but I had never felt anything like this. Half-asleep, I actually thought that even eating bricks wouldn't be such a bad idea. After somehow pulling myself together, I remembered my death, the conversation with my unexpected benefactor, and began looking around, trying to figure out where I had ended up.
— I can't tell, am I in the slums or a pigsty?
No one was in a hurry to answer me, so I moved on to examining my body. What can I say? A skinny body, maybe seven years old. A human child, which is already a good thing. Male, though at that age it doesn't really matter. Having sorted out my gender identity, I took another look around the small room, cluttered with all sorts of trash and dirt. Yes, yes, cluttered with dirt, into which the piles of garbage had partially turned.
Okay, the situation is clear enough. I need to get out of here and go find something to eat. I'll figure out the rest later. By the way, if this is a game, maybe there are levels here too?
— Status! I summon the system! Stats!!! Nothing's working. Well, screw it. What's there to eat?
Searching the apartment turned up a refrigerator with one pack of instant noodles inside. Nearby were a sink full of dirty dishes and a grimy electric stove with a kettle. Well, at least some technology exists here. After eating quickly, I made it to the bathroom, where I found a grimy mirror.
— We-ell... something about this feels familiar...
Looking back at me from the mirror was a kid with blond hair, blue eyes, and clearly visible horizontal whisker marks on his cheeks.
— I'm Naruto!
As soon as my new name popped into my head, a flood of childhood memories washed over me. Yeah, now I get why this place is such a mess. The kid was put up in his own apartment at age five. Now I'm eight, and tomorrow I start at the Ninja Academy, where I'll be goofing off for the next five years.
What was it that being told me? Surpass my limits? Screw that! No, I'll go a different route. But first, let's go find something else to eat. My memory tells me the monthly stipend gets issued tomorrow evening after class, and right now I don't have a single yen. That pack of noodles was an emergency stash my predecessor kept.
By the way, there's no trace of any other consciousness in my head. Just fragments of memory, lightly settled in my mind. But how much memory does an eight-year-old kid have anyway? The main thing is knowing the language and the area. I'll figure out the rest. Especially since I know the canon of this story.
It was early morning outside, but there were plenty of people around. Everyone was rushing somewhere, but every person I passed felt it was their duty to at least glare viciously in my direction. That's it, I've had enough! For those looks, I'll raze this village to the ground. Shinra Tensei!!! Damn, not working. But I'll remember those looks.
A tour of territory led me to a simple conclusion: if you can't earn it, steal it; if you can't steal it, die. My stomach was so twisted with hunger that I was staggering from one lamppost to another . Where's that chakra? Kurama, hello! If you don't share some chakra right now, I'm going to collapse and die of hunger right here. If the passersby don't kick me to death first. Or the rats don't eat me.
I watched a rat scurry past with hungry eyes. Hell no! I'm the future Hokage! Time to levy tribute from my vassals. I got my bearings and headed toward Ichiraku Ramen. Naruto sometimes ate there with meal tickets, but they only gave out five a month.
— Hello, Teuchi-san.
— Hello, Naruto. Here for a bite?
— No. The Hokage stole all my money, so the most my finances can afford is to smell your ramen from a couple meters away.
— What are you saying, Naruto? The Hokage couldn't have stolen anything from you.
— Uh-huh. Which is exactly why, out of the five thousand ryo stipend I'm supposed to get, I receive only two thousand every month. And I don't care whether the Hokage personally stole that money or one of his lackeys did it on his orders. I get my money at the Hokage's office, and he is personally responsible for what happens there.
Naruto realized he was being cheated when he was six. But by then, the clerk handing out the stipends had gotten used to the extra padding in his salary, so he simply laid down the law for the kid: either sign the document and take what's given, or get nothing at all. A three-day hunger strike made the kid agree to this outrage.
Teuchi shook his head and placed a large bowl of noodles in front of me, smelling deliriously of fried pork.
— Here you go, Naruto. It's a gift.
— Thank you, Teuchi-san. I said, falling upon the divine nectar. Within just a few minutes, the noodles and meat were in my stomach, which finally purred contentedly and began digesting the offering. — When I become Hokage, I'll exempt you and your heirs from taxes. I declared importantly, putting on a dignified air. Teuchi just smirked at that. — And those who steal from orphans, I will burn alive in the main square of Konoha. My companion's eyes widened, and his smile faded. — Have a nice day.
I hopped off the stool and ran down the street toward the mountain with the faces of the four Hokage carved into it. I spent the whole day sitting atop Hashirama Senju's head, since getting up there wasn't a problem at all. There was a small observation deck there, accessible by a narrow staircase carved into the nearly vertical rock face.
My deliberations led me to one clear conclusion: I need to get out of here. Not "to where," but "to whom." I mean, screw everyone. All of them! Why do I need this mess with shinobi wars and all those Akatsuki? If I'm going to struggle and overcome, I'll do it in a big way. I'll kill everyone and be the only one left. But to achieve that result, I need to master the local magic—chakra. Fortunately, I have knowledge from Earth, where the Chinese, Indians, Jews, and Native Americans dug up all sorts of stuff about developing inner power, and then posted it all on the internet, where I read it.
Someone might say, "You're not the only smart one." If someone came up with something, surely the locals should have figured it out by now. But that kind of talk is heresy worse than universal equality. No one just figures things out for no reason. For example, knowledge about chakras came from India; nothing like that existed in Europe. Same with basic qigong, Kabbalah, or nuclear physics. Such knowledge can't appear without centuries of research. In this world, no academic research is being done. And lone scientists like Orochimaru are persecuted by everyone. So my knowledge gives me a big advantage, which I intend to use.
The next day, I went to the Academy, where three hours of my time were wasted listening to a speech from the Hokage and an even longer, more boring speech from Iruka. They were, of course, about the Will of Fire, and therefore contained no information—just propaganda. So I focused more on my surroundings, observing my classmates. What can I say about them? Kindergarten. Only the Uchiha and Hyuga tried to act serious. The rest were chatting, making faces, and passing notes despite Iruka's best efforts to keep order.
As soon as the introductory lesson ended, everyone ran home, and I went to explore the park adjacent to the school grounds. There were many mini-training grounds for future shinobi, and around the park ran a crowd, where I saw a group of second-year students being drilled. I even spotted Rock Lee among them, not yet sporting his signature green jumpsuit.
Finding a quiet spot in the bushes, I began meditating, trying to feel chakra. I had seen several different jutsu used today, and I felt like I'd sensed something. When your stomach is trying to digest you from the inside, it's much easier to detach from the material. You could call it learning via the Brazilian method: either you focus on the spiritual, or you experience the wild torments of the physical. In short, the method worked, and by around three in the afternoon, I could feel the flow of energy within me. But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't control it. Oh well, Rome wasn't built in a day.
Having achieved the necessary state of savagery, I went to the Hokage's office, where I loudly announced to the clerk that if he continued to steal my money, the moment I became a genin, I would rip out his guts and hang all his relatives on them. The level of craziness in my voice reached such heights that an ANBU in a mask immediately appeared beside me, whom I promptly enlisted as a witness to my receiving the money. Under direct observation, the greedy bureaucrat didn't dare cheat me and, grinding his teeth, handed over all the money down to the last ryo.
That evening, I had a feast, blowing nearly five hundred ryo—a tenth of my monthly stipend. Or a quarter of what my predecessor had lived on. And I wasn't eating for three; I was slowly and mindfully chewing my purchases. But even so, the hunger only disappeared after I had completely cleared out the now-full refrigerator. Maybe it's a reflex? The true student's motto: never leave for tomorrow what you can eat today; and never do today what you can put off until tomorrow.
I spent the next month training. Actually, the only thing that could really be called training was a two-hour run every morning before school. Then came four hours of classes, and I consistently skipped the last two lessons, heading to the park I knew so well. The last classes were usually history, math, and a pointless waste of time... I mean, penmanship, aka calligraphy. I wasn't interested in any of those subjects, so I preferred more useful activities.
All my other free time was spent meditating. I went through all the practices I knew, trying to find what would yield the best results. And I have to say, there were results. Within a week, I could concentrate chakra in the area of the Ajna chakra (what heresy...), and then materialize it in the external world. It was like teleporting energy. I imagine the Uchiha eyes work on a similar principle when they inject energy into a victim's brain for genjutsu. I tried transmitting energy through my eyes too, but the efficiency was almost zero, not to mention the strain on my eyesight.
The first thing I could use chakra for was telekinesis. The efficiency was low, but I could lift a leaf or a small twig. Attempts to control physical energy using qigong weren't very good. There were results, but the chakra in my physical body's channels moved very reluctantly. It would take long training sessions to develop the whole system. And honestly, I was lazy. I didn't sign up to jump and run around the clock in the name of the Power of Youth, just to be able in five years to do what I could achieve in six months by directly controlling energy through the Third Eye. And I'm not exaggerating.
I think local ninja develop the method of releasing chakra through the physical body from childhood. And that method conflicts with using the Third Eye. As a result, most shinobi are incapable of mentally controlling magical energy. And those who do, like the Yamanaka and Nara, can't boast outstanding physical abilities. So I decided to go the pure mage route, not trying to pretend I'm a paladin or battle cleric. The morning run, I think, will be enough to maintain basic physical fitness. All the rest of my time should be spent on spiritual development.
Naturally, no one taught me any ninjutsu techniques, and coming up with something from scratch on my own is pretty hard. So I decided to "level up" only one skill: transmitting energy over distance and... reading information using that energy. This was achieved simply through meditation, concentration on an object, and attempts to "comprehend" its essence. After another month, I could quite clearly determine the chemical composition of any object, its shape, size, softness, density, and so on.
The next step was " analysis" living creatures. Or not-quite-living, because the first test subjects—birds and rats—quickly died as soon as I focused on them. I could consider that a success and some cool skill, a hundredth-level "Death Gaze," except that it only worked on creatures without their own chakra circulation system. Even ordinary people didn't feel my gaze, let alone shinobi.
Life fell into a well-worn rut, and nothing special or outstanding happened to me. But daily practice yielded results, and after six months, I learned to penetrate other people's minds. Not shinobi yet, just ordinary civilians, but even that was a success. At first, naturally, I wanted to learn to kill with a glance, but remembering my plan, I didn't let myself get distracted by trifles and continued developing only one ability: reading information.
My goal was simple: learn to read shinobi's minds to extract all their secrets, techniques, and locations of hidden treasures. The latter became my constant source of income. I scanned passersby's memories, and if I discovered they had money stashed in hiding spots outside their apartments, I'd go and clean out that "safety deposit box." Surprisingly, storing money in hoards rather than banks was quite common. And I don't need much. Just for food and clothes. True, I eat ten times as much as a grown man two meters tall, but I'm growing. Plus I have a demon inside me. And apparently, he's the one eating for nine. Corresponding to the number of tails.
Besides targeted scanning, my exercises developed my overall sensory abilities, so I could sense the presence of chakra sources in the vicinity. These were shinobi and stationary seals. I sometimes studied the latter but didn't delve too deeply into fuinjutsu. Not least because I couldn't figure out the seals by brute force.
But I did learn to detect the presence of ANBU observers nearby. They watched me sometimes, mainly during my morning runs and walks around the city. Apparently, my meditations didn't cause much excitement among the overseers. No one ever even asked me something like, "And what are you doing there?"
The next epochal event in my life was the Uchiha Massаcre. That's right, with a capital M. Because after that, a big uproar started in the city, and I even had to stop plundering local merchants' hiding spots for a couple of weeks, as the ANBU followed me openly from morning till night, and then stood guard under my windows all night. But after a few weeks, the uproar died down, and Konoha again resembled a rotting swamp.
My relationships with my classmates were nonexistent. What common interests could a grown-up future Hokage and juvenile delinquent murderers have? So my only somewhat close relationships were with Nara Shikamaru, with whom I bonded over laziness and attitudes toward lessons. Both he and I could answer almost any teacher's question, but most of the time, we saw no need to.
Sasuke, after his clan's death, started to resemble a wild animal, just waiting for a chance to bite the hand that tried to pet him. I didn't bother him, but responded to all his snorts and grunts with total moral annihilation. After all, an adult consciousness and experience provide far more opportunities to make a juvenile delinquent look like a juvenile idiot. This only made Sasuke angrier, but for a while, he'd stop even looking in my direction, which was what I wanted.
The beginning of my second year in the shinobi world was marked by my first significant breakthrough: I managed to penetrate a shinobi's mind. Specifically, a child shinobi's—my classmate's. The reason for my previous failures was simple: to read a shinobi's thoughts, I needed to render them unconscious. For example, put them to sleep. During a particularly boring history lesson, I noticed Inuzuka Kiba openly sleeping, hidden behind a book from the teacher. Out of boredom, I decided to use my mind-scanning ability, which I tried not to flaunt in front of shinobi. And suddenly, I easily penetrated the dog-boy's mind and watched his entire day.
Realizing the potential, I began intensively training to penetrate others' minds, simultaneously looking for places where I could most often find a sleeping shinobi. Within a week, I had gathered a decent amount of knowledge on using ninjutsu and began analyzing and classifying the information. Of course, most of the shinobi's knowledge related to using chakra with hand seals and the chakra circulation system, but some jutsu they performed using pure control, and from there it was just one step to using Third Eye energy.
Now I trained not only in scanning others' brains but also in basic techniques. Henge, illusions, substitution—all these techniques were quite complex, but shinobi used them without thinking about the content. Make the hand seals, supply energy in a specific sequence, and boom—the technique works. I, of course, could do that too, but besides that, I had far better control over the process of using jutsu and could thus understand the principles of how they worked.
I spent my entire second year under the motto "Learn, learn, and learn again." I developed my ability to penetrate others' minds by breaking the process into two stages. First, I'd place an imperceptible marker seal on the victim's body, then at night, I'd wait for them to fall asleep and explore their memories. I could place the marker from a distance of ten meters, without any circus tricks with hands and fingers. And for reading the information, the distance between me and the victim didn't matter at all. The only drawback was that the marker's integrity lasted no more than a day. But that was enough for me.
Over the year, I mentally gutted almost all the strong shinobi in the village, including Hiruzen, Kakashi, and Danzo. I saw the latter only once, and during the marker's active period, he slept only a couple of hours, but that was enough to figure out what kind of person he was, his goals, and his methods of solving problems. I didn't even have time to look at the techniques he used because Danzo represented the greatest threat to me. If he so much as suspected I could read minds, he would have destroyed me the same day, regardless of losses.
A couple of months later, I finally started working on proper ninjutsu. The first interesting discovery was that using Yin chakra, you could transform it into any element without limitations. Yin chakra was what I used in my Third Eye technique. Yang chakra, however, remained in the body, further strengthening the imbalance I had toward the Yang component. I had to train the ability to "expel" excess Yang chakra from my body. My control was almost zero, so this chakra simply dissipated into space, making me literally shine in the eyes of sensors.
In short, of the combat ninjutsu, I mastered weak techniques of the basic "elements"—fire, water, earth, wind, and lightning. Of course, these weren't really elements, just ways of visualizing chakra's effect on the physical world. Even "mastering" a new element simply meant focusing consciousness on its "manifestation," then making the chakra manifest with the same special effects. So if a shinobi wanted, they could master the "elements" of sound, steam, gravity, radiation, light, darkness, shadow, and all sorts of other crap.
There was only one problem: the body's ability to channel chakra with the necessary properties. If a person didn't have an "affinity" for a particular element, their body would quickly break down when they tried to use that technique. This, by the way, explained how talented shinobi could master all elements without having an affinity for them. Long, daily training increased the body's resistance and regeneration. After that, all that remained was to learn to use the element with Yin chakra and gradually transition to using Yang chakra.
I, on the other hand, could transform Yin chakra into the desired element in the Ajna chakra and instantly teleport it into the external world, giving it the necessary configuration. As long as the chakra maintained resonance with my mind, I could control it freely. And by constantly feeding the chakra construct with new portions of energy, I could maintain this synchronization for a long time.
After mastering the basic techniques, I set my sights on the juiciest technique available to me: Shadow Clones. The only problem was that creating them required a large amount of Yang component. Without it, the clones were incorporeal, though capable of "independent" activity. To be more precise, the clones didn't possess any consciousness. A much trickier trick was at play here, called... schizophrenia.
Exactly! When creating a clone, a subpersonality was created in the shinobi's mind, which controlled its projection's actions. And when the technique was interrupted, the invisible "barrier" around that personality dissipated, and its memories became available to the original. When I figured out this technology, I laughed for a long time. After all, the canonical Naruto's constant use of multiple clones fragmented his consciousness so much that the main personality turned out to be exceptionally stupid, which, combined with mental conditioning, turned it into a transmitter of positivity and the Will of Fire. That explains why the dead-last loser was practically given such a great technique.
After a month of experiments, I gave up on the original technique and remade it for myself. Now they were Illusory Shadow Clones. They barely interacted with physical objects but could freely use ninjutsu. Their own energy reserves were small, but they could constantly draw power from me. And most importantly, the resulting subpersonality wasn't fully autonomous. I could observe each clone in real-time, give "valuable instructions," or completely take over control.
It was through my clones that I practiced all my techniques, conducted experiments, and even found sleeping shinobi to dig through their minds. Of course, the illusory clones were easily detectable by sensors or the Hyuga, but I tried to ensure all their activities took place as far from me as possible. And because the clones contained only the Yin component, their energy signature didn't resemble mine at all, so I wasn't afraid of anyone linking the mysterious ghosts to the foolish jinchuriki surrounded by an aura mixed with Nine-Tails' chakra.
Speaking of which. Kurama showed no signs of activity, only dutifully supplying poisonous chakra to my system. However, I managed to subjugate the Yang chakra and direct it toward regenerating my body. Subjugate not in the sense that I learned to move it, but in the sense that now this chakra performed some useful work. Moreover, switching my body to "chakra nutrition" significantly reduced my food needs. Instead of pointlessly converting food into energy, I now used that same food to develop muscles, strengthen bones, and so on. Essentially, I achieved the dream of all the Nara: developing my body not through physical exercise, but through effortless meditation, lying on the grass and watching clouds. Super!
By the beginning of my third year of study, I could call myself a Doctor of Chakra Sciences. At least, the arsenal of jutsu available to me was so diverse that Hiruzen looked like an insect next to me. But in terms of combat effectiveness, I didn't even measure up to a genin's level. The problem was that the only ability I had trained for a long time had no combat application, as it only worked on sleeping people. And all my other techniques required considerable concentration and lots of preparation time. If I had trained just two or three of the most effective techniques, the result would have been different. But why would I need that? You don't win through training; you win through proper application of your brain.
What's the most important thing for a beginning ninja? Super cool techniques, of course. Having even one such technique and practicing it until it's automatic, you can defeat everyone around you... unless they have their own super cool technique. Like the canonical Naruto's clones. It doesn't matter if you're a chunin with twenty years of experience; a thousand clones will kick you into bloody mincemeat simply because you'll get tired before they run out.
I intended to stop all shinobi wars, all those political machinations. But unlike my protagonist, I decided to apply a much more realistic approach. The best way to preserve peace is nuclear weapons. And no, not as a deterrent. But precisely as a result of their direct use. If you destroy all the enemy villages, you can rest easy for thirty, maybe even fifty years, without fearing their attacks. And then, who knows, you might take over the world and rule in peace until a ripe old age.
So, I had set my next goal. Now only a small matter remained: create nuclear weapons. And here I could boast "secret knowledge" about how atomic and thermonuclear bombs work. I decided to go with the latter, as it produces much less radiation, the explosion's power is much higher, and besides, I wouldn't need to find uranium deposits.
What do I know about how to mine uranium? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. If someone brings me some, then I could try to enrich it and turn it into a bomb, since chakra is always at hand. But if they don't, I'd have to run around the world like an idiot looking for who knows what. Since I have no uranium sample.
With a thermonuclear bomb, it's much simpler. Its base is lithium-6 deuteride. Under sufficient temperature and pressure, and neutron irradiation, lithium decays into helium and tritium, and the latter reacts with deuterium, again producing helium and a neutron. I can provide pressure and temperature using fire jutsu and barriers, and the neutron source can be lithium-7 or even the deuterium itself.
In short, the bomb-making technology is straightforward. And obtaining thermonuclear fuel is no problem at all. Seawater contains enough deuterium and lithium salts that you don't have to worry about finding deposits on the mainland. All you need is to invent an atomic separation technique that separates matter into atoms and sorts them by isotope. My " analysis" ability allows me to clearly see the difference between different chemical elements. And the Earth element, which works with inanimate matter, is perfect for extracting the substances I need from water. So what if water is liquid? Element is a much more abstract principle than the simple phase state of matter.
In short, while my physical body was playing the fool in Konoha, my clones set up a small laboratory on the seacoast and began experiments on extracting lithium deuteride. And here, my broad academic knowledge of chakra theory, chemistry, physics, and Kabbalah came in handy. Not that I was a great scientist in my past life, but knowing that lithium is an alkali metal with atomic number three allowed me to learn to identify it. And deuterium is self-explanatory.
Here, by the way, a question arises for all those Mary Sue critics. Why didn't the local ninja figure out for themselves that they should kill enemies with atomic weapons? It's elementary—mine uranium, enrich it, drop it on the enemy's head, and detonate it. Why didn't those stupid shinobi figure out such a simple thing? The same question can be asked about my Third Eye techniques. Who would have figured out how to develop that third eye, how to teleport energy and control it? The very fact that humans have an Ajna chakra and its functions is unknown here. All of this is the result of applying secret knowledge from Earth, which the locals wouldn't figure out in a thousand years. So I am quite capable of overshadowing Rikudo, Hashirama, and Madara combined with my greatness.
Of course, I didn't achieve the desired result right away. It took three months to complete the jutsu that filtered water and extracted the chemicals I needed. After that, I spent another week creating a submarine powered by shadow clones, which I set to cruise the seas, collecting the coveted lithium deuteride.
The next step was finding an uninhabited island where I began experimenting with detonating the bomb's charge. The idea was quite simple. Create a pyramid-shaped barrier and fill it with lithium deuteride. Then cut the pyramid into many thin layers using weaker barriers. Finally, direct fire chakra into the very tip of the pyramid, concentrating it there until critical temperature and pressure are achieved.
The essence of this idea was concentrating fire in the smallest possible volume. I only needed to "ignite" a tiny portion of the thermonuclear charge; the reaction would then become self-sustaining. However, this operation was clearly beyond the capabilities of the human mind. So I had to study fuinjutsu to create a detonator mechanism. And the amount of chakra needed for a single explosion is hard to even describe. Day after day, month after month, I worked on developing the detonator, trying many ideas and using all my knowledge of nuclear and non-nuclear physics. The first explosion that could be called caused by a thermonuclear reaction occurred only after seven months. I got a more-or-less ready bomb another two months later. But by then, I had accumulated fifteen tons of lithium deuteride, more than enough to destroy all potential enemies.
I spent the fourth year further studying chakra techniques, spying on nuclear targets, and planting thermonuclear charges in pre-prepared locations. The biggest problems were locating the Akatsuki and Orochimaru's hideouts. But overall, my plans for world domination were approaching their final phase. Still, I was in no hurry.
My chakra circulation system gradually developed, and I could now use weak techniques without worrying about energy expenditure or sufficient concentration. But B-rank ninjutsu required a couple of dozen seconds of preparation, making them practically useless in battle.
Toward the end of my fourth year in this world, the Nine-Tails began to stir. Occasionally, there were massive surges of his chakra, and people around would be overwhelmed by his malice. I tried to enter the inner world described in the anime, but I had no success. This technique had no overlap with any spiritual development methods I knew, and doing it blindly yielded no results.
Another option was to ask someone to put me under genjutsu, but there was another problem: the Yin chakra in my head was so concentrated that no genjutsu worked on me. On the contrary, when someone tried to "transmit" chakra into my brain, it would flow backward under pressure, rendering the genjutsu user unconscious and liquefying their brain with biju chakra inclusions. A couple of Root ANBU died trying to hypnotize me, after which all attempts to get into my head ceased.
Danzo was somewhat concerned about my lack of progress at the Academy, but his concern wasn't yet strong enough for him to personally condescend to me to try to steer the "village's weapon" onto the right path. Hiruzen was also concerned, but much less so. He was quite satisfied with the prospect of making me a nominal genin and leaving me in the village as some kind of carpenter.
My fifth and final year at the Academy, I decided to devote entirely to my inner demon. And no, it wasn't greed, it was Kurama. Since I have an infinite chakra battery, I should learn to use it. To solve this problem, I had to sacrifice Jiraiya. I mean, sacrifice him to science. I had long since learned not only to read people's minds but also to put them under genjutsu. Alas, there was one small problem: no one taught me genjutsu, so everyone I practiced on turned into vegetables after a while. It would seem, what's the difference between injecting chakra into the brain to read thoughts or to control them? But as soon as I tried to subjugate someone to my will, something in their mind would break, and within minutes, all brain activity would cease. I could never figure out the cause of this anomaly. After all, my method wasn't quite analogous to the genjutsu techniques used by ordinary shinobi.
I waited a long time for the right moment, and finally carried out the operation: I ambushed Jiraiya in a small village, broke into his mind, and forced him to summon the toad that guards the key to my jinchuriki seal. Then the toad was captured, gutted, and the stored seal was extracted. Jiraiya met the same fate as all my previous genjutsu victims. After disposing of him and all witnesses, I returned to Konoha. Naturally, I used Hiraishin, which I could handle quite confidently.
Then came experiments with opening my seal. It turned out that the "inner world" wasn't a world in my mind, but the world inside the jinchuriki's seal. It was a sort of virtual space in which a very real biju was sealed. I could enter this space by creating something like a shadow clone. An important difference was that the clone was created by the seal itself, so the technique was unsafe for me.
I spent the whole year studying Kurama. Alas, I couldn't perform an autopsy, but my scanning technique served as a substitute, allowing me to study the demon's nature. The source of his power was nine sources of demonic chakra. Most importantly, these sources were part of his soul, so killing the biju didn't deprive him of his power; it only sent him back to the hellish dimensions, from which he had to return with great effort.
Toward the end of the school year, I decided to make the fox an offer he couldn't refuse. As usual, I went to bed, got comfortable, activated the technique to enter the seal's world, and found myself right in front of the cage where the Nine-Tails was imprisoned.
— Hey, tailed beast. Don't you want to get out, stretch your legs?
— Grrrrrrr!!! Yes! Open the cage and let me out.
— That's easy. But not for free. I need something from you in return.
— What do you want? The fox asked after a few minutes of intense thought.
— Your tail.
— What?
— I want one like that. And you've still got nine anyway. To emphasize my words, I put on a henge that gave me a big, fluffy fox tail and fox ears.
— No!!! He roared. — You'll get nothing!
— Are you sure? Look, I'm asking nicely now. But I can do it the hard way. I'll start experimenting on you, come up with sadistic ways to chop you into pieces, and then take all your tails for myself. Do you want that? This way, I guarantee I'll free you from the cage, return the half sealed in the Shinigami's stomach, and release you into the outside world on a distant island with no shinobi. No one will find you there.
Kurama looked at me with a gaze full of hatred.
— And how will you prove you won't deceive me? He asked after a few more minutes of thought.
— We'll make a contract. As extra compensation, I can teach you shinobi techniques. I think if you can use ninjutsu, with your power, you'll never again be subjugated by a human.
I didn't hear another word from the Nine-Tails that day. Or the next. But on the third day, he spoke to me and agreed to the terms. Of course, it wasn't just an agreement, but a mutual oath, sealed by higher powers. I learned about such rituals from the Uzumaki clan's inheritance from Uzushiogakure. It was techniques like these that gave rise to entities like the Shinigami or Jashin in this world.
The day of the Genin Exam was to be fateful for me. That was when I planned to set all my plans in motion.
In the morning, as usual after my run, I arrived at the Academy, where the exams were about to begin. Entering the classroom, I greeted Shikamaru and Choji and sat down in my rightful seat—in the back row by the window. Because that's where the main characters of anime always sit. And the nerves I spent getting Sasuke away from that spot! Ah, good memories. Especially because I wasn't the one getting the most upset; he was. Hahaha.
The bell rang, and the examiners—Iruka, Mizuki, and an unnamed ANBU in a mask—entered the classroom. First came the written exam, which I, of course, passed with a D-minus. Then, one by one, everyone was called into the next room to demonstrate their ability to use the Clone Technique.
When my turn came, I stood before the examination committee, and Iruka began his solemn speech:
— So, Naruto. For five years, you've studied the art of being a ninja. Now it's time to show what you've achieved. To earn the rank of genin, you must demonstrate the Clone Technique.
I focused, strained, and used the technique at the very limit of my abilities. After all, I performed it strictly according to the instructions, using the chakra circulation system I hadn't even bothered to develop. The resulting clone immediately collapsed to the floor and turned into a pile of bloody guts. Seems I focused too much on the clone's internal structure rather than its appearance.
— I call this technique, the Terrifying Bloody Clone! I declared proudly, surveying the results of my work.
— Naruto, you failed. I can see you just couldn't create a normal clone. Iruka began scolding me.
— Can't we just pass him on this exam? Mizuki tried to defend me. — After all, the guts are depicted realistically enough.
— No. He needs to show the academic technique, not invent his own. Naruto, you didn't pass. You are unworthy of the rank of genin.
— Oh, like I even wanted it. I snorted, heading for the exit. — I've already arranged to be a guard at a brothel.
— What?... Naruto... Iruka's indignant cry was cut off by the closing door. No one followed me, so I went home with a clear conscience, flopped onto my bed, and waited. It was time to implement my world domination plan.
First, I activated the sleeping clones near the planted thermonuclear charges and sent them to check for the presence of targets in the blast zones. The targets were all the hidden villages, the Kage, the jinchuriki, and Akatsuki. The last ones required a bit more work, but fortunately, they were all currently in their hideouts, awaiting orders. Even the elusive Obito and Zetsu were discussing something with Nagato. Danzo was also in his hideout, essentially sitting right on top of my bomb. I had placed a very small charge there, meant to destroy only the Root lair. I couldn't have asked for a better moment. I'd deal with Hiruzen later.
Through my clones, I activated the detonation seals, and the Shinobi World bloomed with nine thermonuclear explosions, eight of which had enough power to literally vaporize a small island in the ocean. That had been my last full-scale test of the technology. My bed shook from the underground explosion in the Root hideout, but the house held. I activated the remaining observer clones and confirmed that all targets had been consumed by nuclear fire. There were no longer any shinobi in this world capable of opposing my plans. After that, I posted guard clones and went into the inner world to see the Nine-Tails.
— Hey, tailed beast. The hour of reckoning has come!
— What? Already?
— Yes. I'm fully ready to fulfill my part of the contract. Once I receive your tail, I'll open the cage, summon the Shinigami, and shake Minato's soul out of him. Then you'll merge with your other half, and I'll release you in the Land of Earth. Let our Contract be fulfilled!
Speaking the verbal formula, I activated the long-developed tail transfer ritual. It was to become part of my soul, so that after death, I wouldn't lose the ability to create chakra. Given my involvement in some kind of game, it was plausible that this wouldn't be my last life. So I needed aces up my sleeve.
The process of receiving the tail felt blurry. That part of the contract was executed by Kurama himself under the control of the ritual and a special fuinjutsu seal. It was the riskiest part of my gamble, but after a while, it was over, and I came to my senses. Still inside the seal's inner world, I activated my chakra tail and confirmed that the demon had done his part. Well, now it was my turn.
I approached the cage and tore off the seal covering the lock. A slight mental effort, and the lock began to open.
— Naruto, stop! Minato's ghost appeared before me. The lock stopped opening, and the paper seal returned to its place.
— Don't interfere. With a mental push, I threw the clone of my body's ancestor aside and tore off the seal again.
— What are you doing? Minato shouted, unsuccessfully trying to approach the cage.
— I have a contract.
Finally, the lock clicked, and the giant grate opened. The Nine-Tails partially emerged and stared at me with an intense gaze. I still had to fulfill a few more conditions of the deal.
But then, events began to unfold differently than planned. Space was torn by a wide crack, from which the Shinigami emerged.
— How dare you?!!! He wailed, advancing on me while carelessly ignoring Kurama. I exchanged glances with the fox, and his eight tails rushed forward, binding the unexpected guest. I had originally intended to use the demon's help to force the Shinigami to share his meal, so his interference only slightly changed the order of events and saved me the trouble of messing with the Shiki Fujin mask. — You broke the rules of the game! The god of death continued to shout, not yet fully realizing what was about to happen to him. I focused and activated another fuinjutsu seal, pre-installed on the wall of the chamber.
Glowing inscriptions burst from the seal upward, binding the Shinigami. One of them conveniently gagged him, saving us from his angry shouts. Then the main part of the seal activated, and the god of death was literally torn to pieces. Of course, an entity of that level isn't so easily killed, but I hoped he had an unforgettable experience.
Minato's soul flew out of the torn entity's stomach, and a moment later, it merged with his clone. I was about to move to the next step when I was interrupted again in the most brazen manner. Space was torn in half again, and another figure emerged from the rift.
— You miserable pawn! How dare you set me up like this? I was surprised to recognize the voice of that Being who had stuffed me into Naruto's body.
— What? What are you talking about? I asked, surprised.
— You-ou-ou-ou!!! My interlocutor was bursting with rage. The waves of power emanating from him made even Kurama shrink back. — You broke the rules by destroying other people's pieces before the official start of the game! Couldn't you wait one day? The game was supposed to start tomorrow morning!
— Don't yell at me! I snapped back. — You didn't tell me anything about the game or its rules. You just told me to surpass my limits. So I did. You have only yourself to blame for your loss.
— Vile creature! I'll turn you into an insect. I'm taking him. The last phrase was clearly directed at the Shinigami, whose shreds had managed to gather into a semblance of a figure. The Being, who still hadn't introduced itself, reached out its hand, and I felt my soul literally being ripped out of the body I had come to consider my own.
— I have a Contract! I shouted, urgently activating all the remaining parts of the ritual enhanced with divine energy, which managed to stop even the Being for a second.
Another fuinjutsu seal, the third in a row, activated, grabbing the stunned Minato. His soul was also torn to shreds, and the second half of the Nine-Tailed demon was released. It immediately rushed toward the Kurama in the cage, and I activated a special shadow clone, into whose memory I had embedded my knowledge of ninjutsu techniques and how a creature like a biju could use them. The last point was important because tailed beasts' chakra control wasn't the best, not to mention their intelligence. The clone rushed to its target, and a moment before I was pulled into the rift, I confirmed that my side of the Contract had been fulfilled.
The chakra tail now fully and finally belongs to my soul.