Some people never reach Rome in their lifetime, while others are born there... This saying is especially fitting in the Naruto World.
In this world where talent and bloodline outweigh everything else, many things are predetermined from the moment of birth.
Uchiha En, ten years old this year, is a fourth-year student at the Konoha Ninja Academy. His grades are mediocre, and aside from a pair of one-tomoe Sharingan, he is completely unremarkable within the Uchiha Clan.
Speaking of that pair of one-tomoe Sharingan, Uchiha En was even more speechless.
The Uchiha Clan's Sharingan awakens when an Uchiha loses someone important they love or feels pain over their failure. Special Chakra surges into the brain, affecting the optic nerves and causing the eyes to change—this is commonly known as 'awakening.'
After Uchiha En learned that his parents had died on the battlefield during the Third Great Ninja War, special Chakra surged into his brain, but the volume of this Chakra was too great. Uchiha En's nerves couldn't handle it, and he immediately hit 'GG' (Game Over).
Meanwhile, Guo Yuan, who had died suddenly from overworking late nights, somehow transmigrated into the Naruto World, taking over this body and becoming Uchiha En.
In his previous life, Guo Yuan was an old-school otaku, and *Naruto* happened to be the work that got him into anime. However, since *Naruto* had been finished for so many years, the last time he watched it was several years ago.
Regarding *Naruto*, Guo Yuan only remembered the general plot.
But in Guo Yuan's memory, there didn't seem to be any Uchiha Clan member who hit 'GG' because they couldn't withstand the special Chakra surging into their mind when awakening the Sharingan, right?
Did he get the script for the 'trash-to-hero' trope?
But Uchiha En quickly realized he was wrong. He wasn't trash, though he certainly wasn't a genius either.
Uchiha En was similar to most Uchiha Clan children: a moderate amount of Chakra, capable of using the Great Fireball Technique (though not enough to kill anyone), and proficient in shuriken throwing. That was it.
Based on Uchiha En's many years of reading novels, the thing transmigrators feared most wasn't a trashy beginning—the rise of the trash is a standard wish-fulfillment trope.
Furthermore, according to the worldview of *Naruto*, the dead last is the strongest. Weren't Naruto, Obito, and Jiraiya all dead last?
As for starting as a genius, there's even less to worry about; you just steamroll the competition. If I have talent, who should I fear?
The scariest type was Uchiha En—the one stuck in the middle.
His grades were unremarkable, his social skills were unremarkable, and his appearance was un... Wait, that wasn't unremarkable; no one in the Uchiha Clan was ugly.
In short, Uchiha En was the type of person who would go unnoticed even if thrown into a crowd.
Fortunately, as a transmigrator, Uchiha En still had his cheat ability.
In Uchiha En's mind, there was a roulette wheel. As long as Uchiha En exercised for three hours every day, he would get one chance to spin the wheel and enter a text-based adventure game within the wheel.
Currently, Uchiha En had only received attribute point rewards from the text game. These attribute points could be allocated to five stats on the character panel.
The five attributes are:
Chakra Reserve
Constitution
Dōjutsu Power
Vitality
Nature Affinity
At the very bottom of the panel, there was a small progress bar. The current level displayed was Lv7, requiring a total of 10 experience points to upgrade, with 10 attribute allocations counting as the upgrade experience.
As of today, Uchiha En had been transmigrated for almost a month, but he still hadn't accumulated 10 points.
This wasn't because Uchiha En was slacking off, but simply because when he first transmigrated, his body was completely uncontrollable, whether due to nerve damage or some other reason.
If it weren't for the care of his fellow Uchiha Clan members, he would have starved to death long ago.
Many of these seemingly arrogant and aloof Uchiha Clan members were cold on the outside but warm on the inside, and they greatly valued their fellow clansmen.
When Uchiha En first transmigrated, he had already lost the ability to move; only his eyeballs could rotate.
In the Ninja World, especially now that the Third Great Ninja War had broken out, medical resources and personnel were severely lacking.
Yet, despite this, the Uchiha Clan chose not to abandon him. Every day, clansmen would come to look after him, feeding him water and food.
This gave Uchiha En a sense of belonging to the family.
After a full 20 days of recuperation, Uchiha En went from being completely immobile to being able to walk, then to simple running and jumping, and finally gaining basic control of the body.
After his body recovered, Uchiha En finally started exercising. Counting today, he had persisted in training for nine days.
In the previous eight days, Uchiha En had entered eight different text game worlds, but in none of them did he manage to die of old age.
Having just finished his exercise and earned the chance to spin the wheel today, Uchiha En eagerly spun the roulette in his mind.
Just like the previous times, Uchiha En's consciousness extended, and he sensed a mysterious fluctuation sweeping over his body, seemingly extracting something, yet feeling like nothing was lost.
Then his vision transformed. The roulette wheel instantly vanished, replaced by countless specks of light scattering around, like a brilliant meteor shower in the depths of the starry sky. The lights then re-aggregated into lines of text.
"You have logged into the One Piece World."
"Is it the One Piece World this time?" Uchiha En muttered to himself.
"The current year is Sea Calendar 1498. You, along with the great figures who will stir up trouble on the seas in the future, witnessed the execution of Pirate King Roger."
"You were drawn in by Roger's One Piece and decided to become a pirate and sail out."
"You stole money from the widow next door while sleeping with her, and used all your savings to buy a small boat."
"You set sail."
"Because you couldn't read the nautical chart, you deviated from the course and arrived at a Marine Branch."
"You decided to solo this Marine Branch to make a name for yourself."
Uchiha En's mouth twitched when he saw this line of text: "What the hell, this stupid game! What pirate who just set sail tries to solo a Marine Branch? I'm dead again today."
Sure enough, a few minutes later, another line of text appeared: "You were defeated by five Marine Branch soldiers. You died."
"Game Over!"
"Obtained Attribute Point x1."
"Another attribute point, this stupid game." Saying this, Uchiha En glanced at his panel:
Chakra Reserve: 19
Constitution: 12
Dōjutsu Power: 30
Vitality: 7
Nature Affinity: 3
Level: Lv7 (1/10)
Attribute Points: 9
During the training process, Uchiha En discovered that improving his strength wasn't just reliant on allocating points; attributes would also increase through hard exercise, but the increase was minimal.
Over these nine days, Uchiha En chose the most conventional physical training to quickly familiarize himself with the body.
After nine days of effort, Uchiha En's Constitution stat on the panel increased from 11 to 12.
Uchiha En was speechless at this rate of improvement. If he could only rely on training for increases, it would be torture. Fortunately, he had his cheat ability.
However, Uchiha En currently had no idea what level of strength the panel's level and various data points corresponded to in the Ninja World. The cheat ability didn't come with an instruction manual, so he had to figure it out slowly himself.
Uchiha En then hesitated for a moment before allocating all 9 points to Constitution.
This was because Uchiha En still felt a slight lack of coordination in his body, a feeling that would slowly ease with physical training, especially noticeable when his Constitution increased from 11 to 12.
Uchiha En believed that as long as his Constitution continued to rise, this feeling of incoordination would completely vanish.
Sure enough, after Uchiha En added 9 attribute points to Constitution, all the strange sensations in his body disappeared.
Uchiha En immediately performed a set of Burpees, and the feeling was incredibly smooth.
"I finally have complete control over this body!" Uchiha En exclaimed excitedly.
Uchiha En then planned to go outside and spend some youthful energy. Just as he was about to leave, he suddenly noticed the right side of the level bar on his panel was flashing.
Uchiha En moved his mind, touching the right side of the level bar, and a white gift box appeared in his mind.
"Holy crap! So my cheat ability doesn't just give rewards in games; there are also gift packages for leveling up!" Uchiha En thought to himself.
Looking at the white gift package, Uchiha En's evaluation of his cheat ability improved, and the corner of his mouth couldn't help but curl up slightly.
However, the next second, Uchiha En's smile vanished, because after he opened the gift box, there was only one exploding tag inside.
"Damn it! This..."
"Knock, knock! En, are you there?" A sudden knock on the door interrupted Uchiha En's sentence.
This voice was very familiar to Uchiha En. It belonged to Uchiha Hiroshi, his father's friend from the Police Force. Uchiha Hiroshi had been visiting him frequently lately.
"I'm here! Uncle Shin, please come in!" Uchiha En said while putting away the exploding tag.
Uchiha Hiroshi pushed the door open and walked in, his expression serious, holding a sealing scroll in his hand.
Uchiha En invited Uchiha Hiroshi to sit down, then brought over a cup of tea, saying, "Uncle Shin, my house only has Oolong tea left. Please make do with it!"
Uchiha Hiroshi thanked him, took a sip of the tea, and sighed, saying, "Ah, En. This is your parents' ashes and some of their inheritance. The Village helped collect and cremate their bodies. I apologize that we couldn't bring them back for you to see them one last time, but the clan will try its best to request more compensation from the Village."