'If only I had been reincarnated earlier... Even without a special advantage, I wouldn't be in a situation as precarious as this, would I?'
Others were reincarnated with the lineage of the Six Paths or, at the very least, as babies just starting at the Ninja Academy, with plenty of time to develop. But he wasn't so lucky. He had arrived in this world just half a year ago, waking up in the body of a twenty-year-old chūnin who was the very definition of cannon fodder.
At twenty years old, it might seem like he'd gained two decades of life for free. But in reality, considering the grim average life expectancy of a ninja at war, he was already a veteran. To make matters worse, he was on the front lines of the Second Great Shinobi War, in the Land of Rivers. A place where a ninja of his age and caliber could be buried at any moment.
At first, when he heard someone call him "Sasuke," he thought he had been reincarnated as Uchiha Sasuke and instinctively looked around for a loud, blond companion named Naruto. Unfortunately, he never found him.
Later, he discovered his name was Umino Sasuke. Hearing the surname "Umino," the first thing that came to mind was the kind Academy teacher, Umino Iruka, and his parents, both jōnin who died during the Nine-Tails' attack. He assumed he had to be a relative, that the Umino family was one of those discreet ninja clans never mentioned in the original story.
'If I can't have the lineage of the Six Paths, at least belonging to a Konoha ninja family would be fine,' he thought. Being born into a ninja clan, even if not an elite one, meant having a massive head start over civilians from the very beginning.
But reality was disappointing.
Sifting through the memory fragments in his mind, he realized there was no Umino "clan." He had no relation to Iruka, but he did have a deep, albeit humble, connection to the Sarutobi clan. The fact that he could become a ninja, and even a Konoha villager, was all thanks to them.
His ancestors, for three generations, had been commoner vassals to the Sarutobi clan: simple farmers and servants.
Although the Sarutobi clan wasn't a powerhouse on the level of the Senju or Uchiha, they were still a top-tier clan with considerable influence and numerous industries in the Land of Fire. Their main business, of course, was being ninja. To manage their vast properties, they often promoted the children of their most loyal vassal families.
His grandfather, Kaino Dairo, was one of those lucky ones. Thanks to his intelligence and basic literacy, he was promoted to help manage the Sarutobi's fishponds and mines in the Akihabara area. While his status wasn't high, it was better than starving in the fields.
When Konoha was founded, many of these vassals followed their lordly clans to become the first villagers. The Kaino family missed that first wave but arrived during the village's expansion under the Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen. Answering the clan's call, they moved to Konoha, gloriously ascending from servants to urban residents.
However, by then, competition for servant positions within the Sarutobi clan was fierce, and they lost the opportunity to remain under their wing. They became ordinary Konoha villagers.
And life in Konoha is not easy.
Though called a "village," it's a militarized city with over a hundred thousand inhabitants and sky-high prices. A bowl of ramen cost fifty or sixty ryo. Ninja and war orphans received affordable housing, but ordinary civilians had to rent or buy at exorbitant prices. Sasuke's family, now using the surname Umino, survived because his grandfather had learned the fish trade. They opened a small fish stall in Konoha's market. They were hardly kingpins of the market; they barely made ends meet, and only because they could eat the fish they failed to sell, thereby reducing their expenses.
If not for that, it would have been impossible for a civilian family to raise a ninja.
His parents named him "Sasuke" not in honor of any Uchiha, but after Sarutobi Sasuke, the Third Hokage's father, a legend from the same generation as Senju Hashirama. It was a name that reflected their deep desire for their son to become a powerful ninja. In Konoha, there were many children named Hashirama, and even more named Madara.
And their efforts paid off. The entire family lived frugally, investing everything in one person, and finally, they succeeded. With a ninja in the family, the Umino made another leap in social class. At the very least, they no longer had to pay the high fees for their market stall, an expense that had previously consumed almost all their profits.
The original Sasuke graduated from the Academy at age ten, in Konoha's 28th year, during the long period of peace between the First and Second Great Shinobi Wars. He was lucky; he entered the Academy just as the First War was ending and graduated long before the second began.
Being a ninja is a high-income profession, but also high-risk. Even in peacetime, missions can turn deadly. After six years of missions and several near-death experiences, at sixteen, he was promoted to chūnin.
That was the real jump. A genin is an expendable pawn, but a chūnin is the backbone of Konoha.
The benefits multiplied: his income skyrocketed, and he gained access to privileges like trading mission merits for ninjutsu and obtaining low-interest housing loans. Although the affordable homes built by the Senju were long gone, the Sarutobi clan was also skilled with Earth Style construction. Their properties were more expensive and not in the best locations, but they were still an investment in the most important city in the Land of Fire.
Less than a year after his promotion, the original Sasuke bought a house with a loan. Two years later, he had paid off the mortgage completely and even bought a small fish shop for his family.
It's no wonder everyone in Konoha wanted to be a ninja. It wasn't about the Will of Fire; it was because the ninja profession was, quite simply, very promising.