Year 34 of the Konoha era. At the Ninja Academy in Konohagakure, it was once again the annual opening season. Third Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen was speaking on the stage. Following a speech that dragged on for nearly two hours, with lunchtime fast approaching, Sarutobi Hiruzen finally brought his address to a close with a lingering sense of self-satisfaction.
He concluded with the Will of Fire: "Wherever the leaves dance, the flame is ever-burning. The light of the fire will continue to illuminate the village, and allow new leaves to sprout."
Down in the audience, a student from the Uchiha Clan had been quite pleased to see the old man's speech finally drawing to a close, only for him to tack on such a sickening remark at the very end—it felt just like biting into half a worm while eating a bowl of spicy hot pot.
So, he added a silent retort in his heart: *You just want to burn us all to ashes to light the way for your four ruling clans, and then let your precious little twigs sprout. Sooner or later, I'll burn the lot of you to a crisp just to light my own way.*
Of course, Sarutobi Hiruzen before the Second Shinobi World War was not yet quite so bad; he still largely lived up to the title of the Professor, unlike the Third World War version of him, who had somehow completely evolved into a shameless bear. Yet this didn't stop Uchiha Chi from venting his grievances inwardly, for the man's speeches were truly insufferable.
Despite the curses running through his mind, however, his outward expression remained one of deep excitement—and, truth be told, that excitement wasn't entirely fake, seeing as dismissal time was nearly here now that the speech was finally over.
In the eyes of everyone else, his demeanor suggested he wholeheartedly agreed with the sentiment, and he joined the crowd in applauding to send off the departing Third Hokage.
With the Third Hokage gone, several teachers let out collective sighs of relief. They hurriedly went over the basic rules of the academy, and then took turns stepping forward to assign classes to each student.
Finally, after announcing that formal classes would begin tomorrow, they managed to announce the dismissal right on the dot, proving that the teachers at the academy were clearly seasoned veterans.
As the teacher dismissed the class, Uchiha Chi joined the flow of students heading out the school gates. Unlike most of his peers, who were greeted by waiting parents, Uchiha Chi walked home alone.
It wasn't that his family couldn't come pick him up; rather, with a mental age of over twenty, he simply wasn't used to being escorted. After all, he wasn't a real child—nor, for that matter, had anyone ever picked him up even when he actually was one.
At this point, it should be clear that our protagonist is a transmigrator, though not one who met his end by being struck by a truck or dying from overwork.
In his past life, crushed by overwhelming pressure from life and work, combined with an inexplicable gut feeling that something major was about to happen that day, Uchiha Chi had suffered from insomnia. Long past midnight, he was still tossing and turning in bed, unable to sleep. Out of sheer boredom, he opened his phone and watched videos for a while, but found them all uninteresting.
Then he searched for remedies for insomnia, hoping to salvage the night, and was surprised to find quite a few. Driven by a sudden surge of curiosity, and acting as if guided by some unseen ghost, he clicked on a video and watched it. Events proved that curiosity doesn't only kill cats; it can kill humans too.
When he opened the video, a very familiar-looking man in a suit had just begun explaining a method for falling asleep quickly through a crystal meditation technique. Ordinarily a man of little patience, his gaze fell upon the crystal shown in the video, and his attention was instantly hooked, compelling him to watch the entire piece.
Because the process was extremely simple, he remembered the whole thing after a single viewing and promptly decided to give it a try.
Since the technique required a crystal for assistance and he didn't have one on hand, he rewound the video slightly, paused it at just the right moment to observe it closely, and then began his meditation.
Step one: empty the mind of all thoughts and gradually calm the spirit.
Perhaps his innate talent happened to align perfectly with this meditation technique, or perhaps due to some other reason, the moment he began trying to practice it, he involuntarily immersed himself completely—or one could say he was swallowed up by it.
As time passed and his mind settled into stillness, he proceeded to the second step: outlining the shape of that crystal within his mind. Because the crystal in the video was of a very simple design, he successfully formed its shape in his head, completing the second step flawlessly.
Next, maintaining the mental crystal just as the video instructed, he continued to carve and refine it until it matched the real object entirely. It was said that once that stage was reached, the mental crystal would endure forever, just like a physical one.
Right as he was about to put the finishing touches on his mental crystal, the phone that ought to have been resting quietly on his bed—with its crystal image supposedly frozen—suddenly began to resonate with his mental crystal.
Amidst this mutual resonance, the mental crystal constantly perfected itself, growing increasingly similar to the crystal in the video. As the similarity increased, the intensity of the resonance grew as well, gradually forming a closed loop.
Finally, the moment his mental crystal achieved complete identity with the one in the video, the crystal on the screen vanished entirely. In the very next instant, it merged with his mental crystal and sucked his soul straight into it.
And that was the end of that; he instantly lost consciousness and transmigrated into this world.
What he could not see was that on that phone screen—where the image should have been paused—the man explaining the meditation technique had actually started moving again, a faint smile playing at the corners of his mouth, clearly quite satisfied with his handiwork.
Shortly after, a certain star-branded smartphone exploded, wrecking the room, while he himself became a cautionary tale used by the fire department in safety campaigns, urging people never to keep their phones next to them while sleeping and charging.
In the end, the crystal carrying his soul broke through the void, arriving in another world where it fused with the soul of a young boy whose life was slipping away.
The reason this particular boy was chosen was primarily because his soul fluctuations heavily overlapped with Lin Yan's. The moment his soul appeared in this world, it manifested right beside him.
Soon after, their souls began to merge amidst a high degree of resonance, and in the process of integration, a surge of soul energy was released. Driven by instinct, it began to heal the young boy's fatal injuries while simultaneously modifying his body—focusing mainly on his brain, so that the memories of both individuals could successfully integrate.Once the souls of the two finally completed their initial fusion, the released soul power was completely exhausted. However, the little boy's injuries were reduced to a severe state—while not fully healed, he was at least out of danger of dying. Lin Yan's consciousness naturally lapsed into a deep sleep; as for achieving a complete fusion, that would require a considerable amount of time.
When he opened his eyes once more, he found himself already in the world of Naruto, having become a nearly four-year-old boy of the Uchiha Clan in Konohagakure. The only reason he knew this was the world of Naruto was entirely thanks to the soul fusion and the inheritance of memories.
At the same time, he also learned the cause of his predecessor's death: while playing alone, the previous owner had fallen off the bed, struck his head, and lapsed into a dying state, which led to the subsequent soul fusion.
However, the direct instillation of an adult's memories straight into a young child's brain caused his head to begin throbbing violently, though fortunately, it was not fatal.
As his physical wounds healed and his body gradually began to adapt, his headaches eased, shifting from constant pain to intermittent aches, until by the age of four, he finally returned to normal.
Ultimately, Lin Yan absorbed the child's memories and discovered that he had transmigrated into an anime world—and a wildly popular one at that: *Naruto*. It was an anime he had started watching in elementary school and continued following all the way until he graduated from university.
Although a sequel had been released later on, he had only watched a few episodes because it felt so excruciatingly awkward that he simply couldn't continue. In the words of internet users, it was unburnable waste.
Upon learning this news, while immensely shocked, he wasn't entirely unable to accept it. After all, his past life was over, and he didn't have any other choice, did he?
Fortunately, he hadn't completely perished and was granted a chance at resurrection, allowing him to experience life all over again.
Thanks to the soul fusion, the moment he arrived in this world, he could understand its language, essentially picking up a foreign language for free—which was simply fantastic.
After growing somewhat accustomed to this world, he henceforth adopted the name of his original self, Uchiha Chi, pushing his past life deep into the recesses of his memory, to be recalled only when he was entirely alone.
At that moment, he finally understood the sentiment behind the Tang Dynasty poet Li Bai's famous lines: "Raising my head, I gaze at the bright moon; lowering my head, I think of my distant home." Perhaps he understood it even more profoundly than the poet himself, seeing as he was now far too far away from home.
Walking along while lost in these memories, he finally reached the clan compound and arrived at the doorstep of his own house. Before even stepping inside, the rich aroma of food drifted over to him. Having stood about all morning, he was already hungry, so he hurried inside to get ready for dinner.
Pushing open the door and stepping into the house, Uchiha Chi hadn't even finished changing his shoes when his mother's gentle voice drifted out from the kitchen: "Chi, you're back? Dinner will be ready in a moment. Go wash your hands and wait for me in the dining room."
The sounds of cooking resumed immediately afterward, and Uchiha Chi politely replied, "All right, Mother, I'm heading over now."
Uchiha Chi put away his school bag, washed up, and then walked into the dining room, sitting down properly to wait.
Because of the Uchiha Clan's very long history, there were quite a few strict rules. Uchiha Chi, having just transmigrated at the time, hadn't been very accustomed to them.
However, in order to avoid arousing suspicion from his family members, he made every effort to imitate his former "self." Thanks to his injuries, he had used that as an excuse right from the start to get through the adjustment period.
Once his wounds healed—perhaps due to the soul fusion—he had completely mastered the predecessor's life skills without a hint of awkwardness, as if they were things he had known all along, merely forgotten and now remembered anew.
Only his interpersonal relationships were a bit more distant. He began to "grow" taciturn and reticent so that no one would notice anything amiss, and as time passed, it naturally became a habit.
Before long, a very beautiful, long-haired black-haired young matron—Uchiha Chi's mother—arrived at the dining table carrying a generous platter of delicious sushi. Noticing that the other member of the household was absent, Uchiha Chi asked with curiosity, "Where's my sister?"
"You mean Mikoto?" Uchiha Chi's mother replied. "She went out to play with some friends and probably won't be back until tonight. Is there something you need her for?"
"No," Uchiha Chi answered. "I just saw she wasn't home and was wondering where she was."
"Is that so? Or did you want her to congratulate you on starting the Academy?" Uchiha Chi's mother smiled as she said, "Didn't you say you could handle going by yourself? What, seeing that she wasn't home waiting for you, you're disappointed?"
As she spoke, she gently tapped Uchiha Chi on the forehead with a hint of playful teasing in her smile. Having nothing much to occupy her time usually, her absolute favorite pastime was teasing her two children, though both of them were growing up and not as much fun as when they were little.
"No, you've misunderstood, Mother. Let's eat." Knowing he couldn't talk his way out of it, Uchiha Chi decisively changed the subject, pretending not to understand, and began wolfing down the sushi.
His mother chuckled casually and began to eat as well, leaving only the sound of two people dining to fill the room.
Uchiha Chi's elder sister was none other than Uchiha Mikoto, the future mother of the great filial son and Sunshine Aid. Upon first hearing this news, Uchiha Chi had been utterly shocked. He never imagined he would be born into the family of such famous figures, and that he would ultimately end up as the uncle of those two boys.
Yet Uchiha Mikoto's personality wasn't as gentle as depicted in the original work—not gentle at all, at least not toward him. She bore no resemblance to the other beauties of the Uchiha Clan.
She also frequently threatened Uchiha Chi. If he hadn't been quick to back down and surrender, there was no telling how many beatings he would have suffered. Of course, his swiftness in capitulating was largely due to his predecessor's painful memories, though his predecessor's goofy, husky-like personality was also a major factor.
At the same time, however, Uchiha Mikoto deeply cared for and protected him. In Uchiha Mikoto's own words: "Only I am allowed to beat my little brother. The rest of you better not even try laying a finger on him!"
Thanks to Uchiha Mikoto's formidable martial prowess, no one had ever bullied Uchiha Chi as he grew up. After all, she was a hardened badass who had already awakened a Single Tomoe, and her strength was exceptionally high even among Genin.
The talent she was currently displaying was not a whit inferior to that of her future eldest son. Her Single Tomoe had been awakened precisely at the sight of Uchiha Chi on the verge of death; that year, she had just been approaching the age of eight.