In a small, cramped-up room, a young boy sat cross-legged on the worn wooden floor. A few loose strands of black hair stuck to his forehead, drenched with sweat.
His eyes were shut in deep concentration, his small hands steadily holding the Ram seal.
As minutes passed by, beads of sweat trickled down his cheek. Every now and then, faint traces of blue energy leaked from his skin—a clear sign of chakra going out of control.
Just like this, an hour went by before he finally opened his eyes, revealing pitch-black pupils that glinted in the evening light filtering through the window.
"This should be the last cycle for today," Obito said under his breath. His hand moved to his throbbing temples, gently massaging them.
At a thought from him, a blue panel materialized in his mind.
...
Name: Uchiha Obito
Age: 7
Physique: 6
Spirit: 10
Bloodline: Sharingan (One Tomoe)
Chakra: 158/499 —> 401/500
SKILLS
Chakra Control: Beginner (19/100) —> Beginner (20/100)
Cloning Technique: Beginner (98/100)
Substitution Technique: Intermediate (1/500)
Transformation Technique: Intermediate (2/100)
Ninja Tools: Beginner (11/100)
Taijutsu: Beginner (16/100)
Hand Seals: Beginner (30/100)
...
He let his eyes fall on the chakra numbers for a moment. Seeing that the limit had only gone up by a single point since morning, a weight seemed to be lifted off Obito's shoulders, and he let out a long sigh.
"This crazy growth spurt is finally slowing down…"
This past month could be said to be the most tense period of his life, both included if he ignored the fact that the second one had only begun over a month ago. He had basically been walking on a tightrope.
Right after crossing over, he experienced the baptism of memories, getting his mind stuffed with the original body's seven years' worth of memories in an instant, and fell straight into a coma.
When he woke up a few days later in a hospital and pieced together the fragments of memories in his mind, he realized he had transmigrated… into the Naruto world.
Yes. He was also shocked and speechless for a long time! But his surprise didn't just end there.
The person whose body he occupied was Uchiha Obito. His seven-year-old self, who had just enrolled in the Ninja Academy!
Moreover, he discovered that he had a system, though it was a stripped-down version that only displayed his stats and skills.
Transmigrating into an anime world with a system—wasn't that a common trope in fanfictions?
As a shut-in programmer in his previous life, he'd watched Naruto plenty of times and knew the series inside out.
It could be said that if six parts of the tragedies in the original series were caused by Danzo, then Obito was definitely responsible for the remaining four.
Of all the characters he could possess, why did it have to be him?!
But the worst part was yet to come. It seemed even something as mystical as transmigration couldn't suppress his innate misfortune. It followed him to this world as well.
Not long after being discharged, he felt something was wrong with his body. His chakra reserves were far higher than they should have been. The status panel also confirmed it.
He couldn't tell the exact reason. It might have been the fusion of memories, the awakening of the Sharingan, or perhaps both, but his spiritual energy had a sudden surge after crossing over.
And since chakra was formed from the fusion of both physical and spiritual energy, his chakra entered a period of rapid growth.
Normally, that would be a good thing—who wouldn't want more chakra as a ninja?
But it turned out it wasn't. His surge came almost entirely from the spiritual side, putting huge strain on his body, which was still that of a scrawny seven-year-old boy.
Obito couldn't stop it either. Chakra recovery was largely passive. As long as one ate and rested, it regenerated on its own. He couldn't just tell his body to stop producing it just because he wanted to.
But there was a catch. It wasn't infinite either. A ninja's daily output had a limit, after reaching which the recovery slowed down almost entirely.
Obito used precisely that to salvage his problem. Every day, he repeatedly used the only techniques he knew—the three basic body techniques—to drain his chakra.
Then he meditated to accelerate recovery, only to spend it again. Over and over, until his body simply couldn't produce any more for the day.
He'd kept this up for a little over a month. Only recently had the growth finally begun to slow down.
For the first time since waking up in this world, his thoughts felt clear.
Being Obito wasn't ideal—no question about that—but it could have been worse. He could have ended up as some random orphan or a civilian with no chakra at all.
At least he had talent. A clan. And a grandmother who genuinely cared about him.
Most importantly, he knew the future.
As long as he was careful, he didn't have to follow the same path as the original Obito.
For now, there was only one thing that mattered. He needed to get stronger.
It was Year 46 in Konoha's calendar. The Third Great Ninja War would start in a few years.
Though he was still a first-year academy student, it was almost for certain he would get deployed eventually. If he were too weak by that time, he'd be dead long before Madara ever came looking for him.
The surge in spiritual energy had caused plenty of trouble, but it hadn't been without benefits. His total chakra reserves were a lot more than someone his age, and since ninjutsu gave him a safe way to burn it off, his proficiency with it had also advanced rapidly.
Both Transformation and Substitution were already at intermediate. As for the Cloning Technique—
He glanced over the panel once more, then let it fade away. Straightening his back, he gathered the chakra inside him, feeling it stir, and his fingers moved through the seals—Ram → Snake → Tiger—in one smooth motion.
A month of constant repetition had carved the motions into his muscles. Now he could finish the sequence in just over a second.
A soft whoosh of smoke rose beside him. When it cleared, an identical boy sat there, legs crossed the same way.
Obito turned to study the clone, narrowing his eyes.
Maybe because of the increased spiritual energy, his senses felt sharper than they originally were. So much so that even without activating the Sharingan, everything looked crystal clear to him.
At first glance, the clone looked perfect. But the longer he stared, the more flaws were revealed.
The black hair was a shade duller. The skin looked a little rough and dry. The eyes were slightly too wide, the nose not quite the right shape, and the eyebrows thinner than his own.
He memorized each mistake, then released the clone in a puff of smoke and began forming the seals again.
And again.
And again.
The small room filled with quiet pops of smoke every few seconds.
An hour later, Obito was soaked in sweat. His fingers moved on instinct now, snapping through seals as he channeled the last bit of chakra he had left.
Whoosh.
The clone appeared with a cleaner, sharper sound this time. Its face looked natural. Its skin tone felt right, its features were crisp, and its eyes matched his almost perfectly.
When Obito slowly raised his hand, the clone copied the motion without hesitation.
For a moment, it felt like he was staring into a mirror.
He let the clone vanish into smoke and drew a deep breath, feeling exhausted. His hands still buzzed from all the seals, and his chakra pathways felt empty—but a small, satisfied smile appeared on his face.
With a thought, the panel appeared again. He checked the skills, and sure enough, the cloning technique had advanced by a tier.
Cloning Technique: Beginner (98/100) —> Intermediate (1/500)
All three of the academy basics—Clone, Substitution, and Transformation—were now solidly intermediate. He could pull any of them off without any error, and with decent speed.
In terms of ninjutsu, at least, it could be said that he had left most of his peers at the academy far behind, because the academy was still teaching theoretical knowledge of chakra and wouldn't begin teaching ninjutsu until the next academic year.
He closed the panel and leaned back on his palms, pondering what he should work on next.
"Obito! Dinner's ready, dear!" The soft, aged voice drifted up from downstairs.
"Coming, Grandma!" Obito called back. He wiped the sweat from his forehead with his sleeve, then stood up and headed down the narrow wooden stairs.