It was a quiet night in Konoha.
In a house, Yamato Kazuhiro was sleeping.
He was a prodigy and one of the village's most promising ninjas. He sat up fast, breathing hard.
A memory hit him hard, fragmented, but clear enough.
Nagata Megumi was walking down the sidewalk, manga volume in hand. He was at the good part, the beginning of the Fourth Shinobi World War. Madara's name had just been dropped. Armies were being mobilized. He was so locked in that he didn't notice he had drifted off the curb.
A horn blared.
He looked up.
A truck.
Then nothing.
End of flashback.
Yamato Kazuhiro clutched his temples.
"Ah... My head hurts like hell," he groaned. "What's happening? Wait, where am I?"
Then, a new pair of memories rushed in, those of Yamato Kazuhiro. He saw flashes of the Academy and the day he became a ninja. He had earned his headband at just eight years old, partly due to the war, but mostly because of his talent.
Then the memories stopped.
....
In the silence, he heard a footstep echoing through the empty house.
His body was on edge, ready to react to any threat.
Soon, a figure in a mask and dark clothes appeared in his room. Yamato Kazuhiro recognized that outfit. He remembered being at the training ground when a guy in that mask approached him. The stranger talked about an organization called Root. Said his "Lord" wanted Yamato Kazuhiro to join. Yamato had refused. After that, he went back to training and soon decided to sleep, not knowing what would happen.
He hadn't even finished watching the Naruto anime. But now he was actually in it.
Out of habit, he had tucked a set of kunai under his blanket. That habit was about to save his life.
When Nagata Megumi/Yamato Kazuhiro saw the masked figure, his body moved on its own. He reached for the hidden kunai. Threw them with lethal precision.
In a second, the Root agent was struck down.
Yamato Kazuhiro's heart was racing. Panic set in. This was his kill.
The reality hit him: he was reincarnated in the world of Naruto.
There was no time to celebrate. He had been attacked by Root, Danzo's group. They were one of the threats in the Leaf. More agents would be coming.
He had to move.
He knew he couldn't stay in the village. The thought made him feel a wave of sadness. Konoha was where legends like Minato and Hiruzen were from. If he really was a prodigy, he could have been like them.
"Sigh... Why is it that whenever I get a chance, it has to be ruined?"
He tried to sound calm; however, he was hurting inside. He knew from all the web novels he'd read that there was no going back. He already missed his grandmother very much. He didn't know what might happen if he stayed here without her for decades upon decades.
"Right," he whispered. "I guess it's time to go."
He looked around the room, feeling bad for Yamato Kazuhiro. The boy was an orphan. Now, Nagata Megumi had to abandon everything his parents had left to him.
With a heavy heart, he prepared to vanish.
However, there was a problem.
How do I get out?
Wait, I have it. I'll sneak up on a guard, knock them out, and transform into them. But first, I need to test something.
As he thought it through, more of Yamato Kazuhiro's memories about village codes came to him. He filed them away and kept moving.
He formed the hand signs for the Transformation Jutsu, and it activated perfectly without hesitation. Then he tried the Clone Jutsu right after. It worked just as smoothly. Phew, the muscle memory from Yamato Kazuhiro's body was still fully intact.
"Okay, good. My basics are solid. Now let's go."
He made it to the outer wall and stayed in the shadows, looking for a target. It didn't take long to find a guard, a young man in dark clothes with the white fan insignia on his back.
An Uchiha.
Doubt flickered. Knocking out a Uchiha wouldn't be easy.
He picked up two stones and threw the first one away from him.
Kyochi heard a clack and turned immediately. His suspicion rose.
Yamato Kazuhiro took the opening. He moved through hand signs in a blur.
Substitution Jutsu. Yamato Kazuhiro reappeared behind the Uchiha. Kyochi sensed him and spun around. He froze when he saw Yamato Kazuhiro's face.
Wait, isn't this Yamato Kazuhiro? Why is he attacking me?
Yamato Kazuhiro smiled. It was a trap.
Another Yamato Kazuhiro appeared behind Kyochi. How does he know the Shadow Clone Jutsu? was Kyochi's thought.
The clone's kunai plunged deep. Kyochi fell silent.
Yamato Kazuhiro felt like he was going to throw up. He forced it down.
I will never get used to killing. It hurt to take a life. He didn't have a choice.
He used the Transformation Jutsu to look like Kyochi and headed for the main gate. He saw two guys standing there, Izumo and Kotetsu. Two characters he knew from the anime.
Before they could ask why a wall guard was at the gate, Yamato Kazuhiro yelled, "Code 17! Code 17!"
Izumo and Kotetsu snapped into alert. That code meant a disturbance was spotted and required permission to leave.
They stood aside.
Yamato Kazuhiro bolted through the gates. Vanished into the dark.
The plan worked.
He was finally outside.
Safe, from Root.
He slowed down enough to breathe, already trying to figure out what to do next.
Chapter 1 End