Chapter 1: Konoha

In a small, somewhat shabby courtyard somewhere in Konaha...

"Natsuro, today is your first day of school, so don't cry, okay?" The boy's mother teased him as she held his hand.

"Don't worry, Mother, I won't." The boy named Shindōkawa Natsuro replied with a hint of helplessness. He looked at his mother, who was holding onto his clothes tightly and wouldn't let go. When had he ever cried before?

Well, Natsuro thought for a moment—he actually had cried once. That was right after he was born, when he was confused and cried after being smacked. However, as a 'distinguished' youth from the 21st century, although he wasn't entirely sure of the exact reasons, he knew that a newborn baby had to cry. If he didn't, people could think there might be something wrong.

So, from birth until now, Natsuro had cried only that one time, and that was due to unavoidable physical reasons. You couldn't just hold it in, even if Natsuro could, the medical staff wouldn't allow it.

Shindōkawa Shinai looked at her son with a bit of reluctance. After all, the two of them had depended on each other since he was young, which wasn't easy. Thankfully, her son had been independent from a young age and often helped with some light household chores, which eased her burden.

But there was one slight disappointment—her son didn't have the childlike qualities that other children had, which made it difficult for Shinai to fully feel the experience of being a mother. She also wanted her son to act a bit more spoiled in front of her while he was still at such a cute age.

"Come home early after school." Shinai said with a bit of resignation.

"Alright, Mother. You should let go now, or I'll be late on the first day."

In the end, Shinai let go of his hand. Originally, she had planned to take a day off work to accompany Natsuro to school on his first day, but Natsuro had firmly refused.

However, Shinai wasn't too worried. Natsuro had always liked wandering around the village since he was little, and most importantly, he'd never gotten lost before. He had already been to the Ninja Academy many times.

Since Natsuro was off to school, she had to go to work today as well. After all, it was just the two of them, and she was the only one who could earn a living.

...

Shindōkawa Natsuro was six years old, born into a single-parent family. His father, reportedly a Chunin, had died on a mission. According to his father's teammates, Natsuro's father had taken on more and more missions to earn money for baby supplies since his mother was pregnant. Eventually, due to exhaustion, he had an accident during a mission, leaving behind Shinai, who was still pregnant.

Shinai had been a ninja as well, but only a Genin. After getting married, she voluntarily gave up her ninja status. After giving birth to Natsuro, she began working to support their family. Fortunately, having been a ninja, she had abilities that were above average among ordinary people, so finding a job wasn't too difficult. With Natsuro being unusually mature for his age, the toughest days were only at the beginning. Now, their lives had become relatively stable.

As for Shindōkawa Natsuro, he was, of course, a transmigrator—a soul who had traveled from another world. He had grown up in this new world, starting from the womb. When Natsuro realized that he had transmigrated into the world of Naruto, he didn't feel particularly concerned.

After all, in his previous life, he hadn't started a family and didn't have much to miss. It was just a pity that he hadn't fulfilled his filial duties. As for Naruto, Natsuro had indeed watched the anime, though he admitted that he hadn't paid full attention to the plot. There were many flashbacks that he found too tedious to watch, so he had skipped a lot of them. But watching it even casually still gave him an advantage nonetheless.

And then there was the matter of his golden finger, the special ability many transmigrators receive. After six years of searching, Natsuro had to reluctantly admit that he didn't have the typical golden finger. All he had was his memory of some plot points, which could still be considered a type of golden finger.

Oh, there was something else that could be considered a golden finger—his spiritual power might be stronger than average. Natsuro found that he could remember things more easily than in his previous life. Although he hadn't reached the level of photographic memory, it was still quite impressive.

Finally, there was his bloodline. From what Natsuro could observe, he was just an ordinary person with no special bloodlines like those of the Uchiha, Uzumaki, or Senju clans.

This gave Natsuro a bit of a headache. He definitely wanted to become a ninja. After all, having come to this world, he had to try out its unique aspects. If he only wanted to survive, he might as well marry into a ramen shop family—joining a noble clan was out of the question, but a ramen shop might be doable.

But on the bright side, he wasn't an Uchiha. After all, during his explorations, Natsuro discovered that he was the same age as Naruto, the protagonist of the series. If he had transmigrated into an Uchiha and didn't have a golden finger, he might have met an early demise.

Although Natsuro didn't have the special abilities, bloodlines, or unique traits that some others had, he was content. At least he didn't have anything worth coveting.

Over the past six years, Natsuro hadn't been idle. Even though his body couldn't extract chakra yet and he couldn't learn ninjutsu, he knew that physical training had to start early.

However, Natsuro was cautious about not overtraining due to his young age, so he didn't push himself too hard. He focused mainly on training his fingers.

Even though ninjutsu without hand signs would become common later on, in the beginning, the speed of forming hand signs was crucial. Quick hand signs required flexible and agile fingers, and with a clear goal in mind, Natsuro started training his fingers from infancy.

If he continued with this routine, Natsuro believed he might achieve the fastest hand signs in the future. Even if he didn't reach the absolute fastest, he could still be among the top.

Currently, his hand sign speed was almost three signs per second, although this was without chakra, which naturally made it faster. But this served as a baseline. Once he became familiar with chakra, he should be able to reach that speed again.

Before he realized it, Natsuro had arrived at his classroom. He took a deep breath, knowing that he had done everything he could up to this point. The upcoming time at the Ninja Academy would be a period of accumulating strength, but it required even more effort than before. As an ordinary person, the only chance to become a powerful ninja was through hard work, and he had a very important goal during this time!

At this moment, the teacher hadn't arrived yet. Natsuro glanced at the familiar faces in the classroom and smiled. Fortunately, he had been placed in the familiar class, the one with Uzumaki Naruto, led by Iruka.

Natsuro scanned the classroom without specifically seeking out familiar faces and casually sat down in an empty seat.

As he observed the noisy classroom, where some children were even crying, Natsuro placed his hands below the desk and began casually forming one hand sign after another.

Just then, a figure walked into the classroom. He had short, blonde hair and fox-like whiskers on his face. His eyes scanned the room, and finally, a look of joy appeared on his face.

He had spotted Naruto.