His name was Kaito.
A half–transmigrator.
Why "half"?
That was… complicated.
In a small, ordinary one-room apartment, a black-haired young man opened his eyes—eyes that carried the weight of a second life. He lifted his hand and removed the VR helmet from his head.
His name, once again: Kaito.
A modern-day human.
Reality had been harsh. So harsh that he had drowned himself in online games—until the day he activated a full-immersion Naruto VR game.
That was when the system awakened.
From that moment forward, he could no longer leave his room.
The system restocked food automatically.
He never went hungry.
For a shut-in, it was the ultimate paradise.
But the system had no AI, no instructions, and no guarantee of safety outside.
If he opened the front door… the "challenge" might fail.
—A challenge that determined his fate.
The game gave him only one life.
If he could keep his character alive until the end of Naruto Shippuden, he would earn two choices:
Option 1:
Stay in the Naruto world and receive a noble black card holding one billion ryō—legal, unrestricted wealth.
Option 2:
Obtain the peak strength of his character and choose to:
enter another world, or
remain in Naruto with full power.
Who could refuse such a deal?
To a normal person, the ideal destination would be somewhere like Detective Conan's world—daily surprises, mild danger at best. With combat power and a longer lifespan, it would basically be a luxury vacation.
And Kaito… was someone who had eaten a Op-Op Devil Fruit with no seawater weakness.
He opened the fridge, grabbed an auto-restocked can of beer, drank it in one gulp, and tossed the empty can into the self-cleaning trash bin before turning on the TV.
The screen displayed month-old news: a man bitten by a stray dog contracting rabies, then going rabid himself and attacking passersby in the street.
The fact that the TV still had power, despite the outside world collapsing, said everything about how strong the system was.
Kaito picked up a plate of sunflower seeds, cracking them open one by one while thinking about how to survive long enough to clear the game.
"…Fine. I'll accept."
"Rejecting the Hokage now would ruin the persona I've been maintaining."
Even in a perfectly sealed "safe zone," time alone could drive a man insane.
And then, one day, he might open the window or door out of impulse—and everything would be over.
Before all this, he had been nothing more than an unemployed young man living in a tiny rented apartment, wasting away in boredom.
Then he discovered the VR game. The system urged him to seal every window and door.
So for the past month, he lived with the air conditioning running, turning into a total shut-in—though even without AC, the system kept the room breathable, if occasionally too warm.
Returning to his room, he glanced at the transparent window.
Outside, he could see everything.
"Help… help me!"
A dying man screamed in Kaito's direction, but no rescue came. Instead, a swarm of zombies pounced on him.
Not long after, he heard the sound of shattering glass upstairs.
A heavy thudding followed—someone trying to break down a door.
Seconds later, a huge man attempted to escape through the window.
Kaito recognized him—the upstairs neighbor.
The man jumped, hoping to land on Kaito's balcony. Maybe there would be food.
Maybe water.
Maybe hope.
But the moment he looked through Kaito's open window, he saw a snarling zombie inside the room.
He screamed, lost his footing, and dropped straight into the horde below.
Kaito didn't react.
Instead, he wondered—for the thousandth time:
Am I still human…? Or already one of them—just dreaming it all?
After all, it wasn't the first time he had scared someone like that.
But thinking about it changed nothing.
The world outside was already destroyed.
His only hope—his only path to survival—was through the "virtual world" within the headset.
His only escape: transmigration of the real body.
#
Inside the VR world, time passed much faster.
Six years in the Naruto world equaled barely half a month outside.
Kaito no longer believed it was a "game."
More likely, it was a parallel world within Naruto—and he was its "protagonist."
Or, in his own self-mocking words, its professional shit-stirrer.
The Next Morning
In the Academy, the graduating class waited anxiously to learn the identities of their future sensei.
Some were clan heirs who already knew their instructors were elite jōnin.
Others hoped for a famous ninja—perhaps a disciple of the Hokage.
Reality crushed those fantasies quickly.
"Squad One: Nawaki. Instructor—Orochimaru."
Nawaki lifted his chin proudly.
The other students questioned why a whole squad had only one member.
The chūnin instructor sighed and explained as gently as possible:
"Nawaki's case is special. Don't worry about it. Next—Squad Two: Yamanaka Taji, Akimichi Yumi, Nara U. Instructor—Sarutobi Shinnosuke."
"Wah! A jōnin from the Sarutobi clan!"
Akimichi Yumi—round-faced, red-haired, with a bun on top—nearly jumped out of her seat.
Beside her, Nara U rested his chin on his hand, quietly judging her theatrics.
She already knew. Now she's just pretending to be surprised…
The teacher continued calling out names.
A long-haired Uchiha girl grew more and more tense as her name still hadn't been announced.
"Squad Eleven."
"Uchiha Mikoto. Yakushi Naono. Might Duy. Instructor… Kaito."
"Kaito?!"
With a sharp noise, Mikoto shot up from her seat.
She had given up being placed under a clan jōnin.
She had chosen to follow the Academy's assignment system, believing she would still get someone competent.
But she had never heard of this "jōnin."
"Never heard of him," Naono murmured. "But it shouldn't be too bad."
She then froze.
Had the teacher just said… genin?
Did he really assign us a genin teacher?
The chūnin teacher swallowed. He had prepared a thousand explanations, but none sounded good enough.
Before he could speak, Naono timidly raised her hand.
"Teacher… who is Might Duy? I don't think I've heard of him."
Naono, an orphan from a chūnin family, rarely drew attention.
This time, her question immediately made the room stir.
Most students looked at her briefly before looking away.
Only the clan heirs seemed amused—clearly expecting drama.
Nara U nearly groaned internally.
A squad led by a genin, assigned an Uchiha prodigy, a quiet nobody, and a man who's failed the chūnin exam six times…
Konoha higher-ups, are you trying to pick a fight with the Uchiha?
Of course, he only thought it. Saying it aloud would be way too troublesome.
The teacher finally answered:
"H-He's… a genin several years older than Kaito."
"Then why hasn't this genin been promoted to chūnin?!"
Mikoto demanded, brows tightening.
Something felt very wrong.
The teacher scratched his cheek awkwardly.
"He specializes only in taijutsu. He can't use the basic Three Body Techniques properly… so it's impossible for him to be promoted."
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