"What is true strength, really?"
[Ding...]
[System processing...]
"The Strongest System Across All Worlds has crashed. Host, please explore on your own."
Tch...
As expected of a system so unreliable that one becomes accustomed to its failures—this response was no surprise at all.
Under the cool moonlight, Lin slowly lifted her head and gathered her long hair from the mountain spring, gently placing it into the wooden basin beside her.
Inside the basin was a simple small bundle made from lotus leaves, which contained common crushed hibiscus leaves.
After placing her long hair into the water, Lin began to knead the lotus leaf bundle until the basin was filled with foam seeping from the hibiscus leaves.
As a plant from the mallow family, hibiscus, like its relatives, contains abundant mucilage and saponins.
Its properties are similar to soap pods, but the downside of soap pods is their pungent smell.
Hibiscus leaves, on the other hand, are refreshing and fragrant, making them a more popular choice.
This isn't particularly profound knowledge, but as of now, probably only Lin knows this.
After all, this is the Warring States Period of the Naruto world—a chaotic time where lives vanish in an instant.
So much so that the idea of using hibiscus leaves to wash one's hair would be unknown to the common people of this era.
Historically, during this period, very few women could maintain long, beautiful hair.
Usually, they were either nobility of some nation or high-status princesses—not everyone had the means to grow and care for such hair.
This logic also applies to the world Lin currently resides in.
She evenly applied the foam produced by the hibiscus leaves to her hair, then spent quite a bit of time gently scrubbing, blending the strands with the foam.
Only after that did Lin gently rinse her long hair clean in the spring before her.
"Was that really necessary? Washing your hair has to be this complicated?" the system muttered quietly in her mind. "And why do you always connect something as simple as washing your hair to the topic of getting stronger?"
Lin didn't immediately respond.
She slowly wrung the moisture from her hair, took out an intricately designed ivory comb, and began to comb her hair, which flowed like black silk.
"Host, are you really planning to hide in this small place until the Warring States chaos ends?"
"I'm thinking about something," Lin replied, her voice as emotionless as ever.
The system asked curiously, "What are you thinking about?"
"Is your name—The Strongest System Across All Worlds—because of your glowing orb appearance?"
"?"
When the system popped out a question mark, it wasn't that it had an issue—it was that it thought the host had one.
"Host, are you insulting the power of 'The Strongest System Across All Worlds?'"
Lin replied flatly, "I'm insulting your intelligence."
"Intelligence? That's fine. I don't have intelligence."
"Obviously."
Even while bickering with the system in her mind, her gaze remained fixed on the reflection in the spring.
That was a beauty who, even by the harshest standards of aesthetics, could not be denied.
Delicate features composed of flawless skin and gentle contours, her form an exquisite harmony of grace and symmetry—every curve sculpted to perfection, from her slender waist and supple hips to the proud fullness of her chest—all exuding a dizzying allure.
Framing it all, her long hair cascaded down to her waist like a silken veil, elevating her otherworldly beauty to a breathtaking peak.
Though she wore only a simple garment suited for bathing, the statuesque beauty standing quietly by the mountain spring radiated a natural elegance and clarity, with her curvaceous figure faintly outlined beneath the light fabric.
However, a trace of unhidden coldness at the corners of her eyes and brows brought a slight sense of regret.
Like a snow lotus atop a lofty mountain, overlooking all beneath it.
As Lin gazed at the exquisite form, the reflection in the water returned her gaze in the same posture.
With those rare white eyes.
When their eyes met, the reflection became even clearer within the white pupils.
There was no caged bird seal on the girl's forehead, but instead a red flame-like fine mark.
This was a being with white eyes but without the caged bird mark—and also Lin's current new body.
Several years ago, when Lin first faced her new form—
Her first question was: how could someone like her survive?
This question filled her thoughts to the point that "becoming a woman" didn't even matter.
In that moment, she realized her choices were extremely limited—or rather, aside from becoming stronger, she had no other choice.
At this point, the system in her mind broke the silence.
"Host, there might be something I didn't clearly explain."
"Besides turning me into a woman with white eyes and giving me the mission to become the strongest in this world, what else do you have to say?"
Lin's reply was as cold as spring water.
"I remember you always avoided answering all my questions before, or acted like you knew nothing."
"Host, instead of asking what true strength is, let me ask you a more practical question."
The system posed its own question: "Do you know who the strongest in this world is?"
"The strongest?"
She silently repeated the two words filled with power.
In her previous life, Lin had limited interest in Naruto, and stopped watching after the Fourth Shinobi World War.
But she still learned through various sources that in the Naruto world, the strongest wasn't the Uchiha with Sharingan, nor the protagonist Naruto's Uzumaki clan, nor even the Senju clan of the First Hokage.
"Host, I'll be blunt—your true identity is actually a descendant of Hamura Ōtsutsuki."
The system dropped a bombshell. "You were secretly sent back to Earth by the lunar branch of the Ōtsutsuki clan, after learning in advance that the main faction was going to use the Tenseigan to wipe them out. You are a descendant of Hamura from the Moon!"
"Your real name—or rather, the name of this body's original owner—is Satsuki Ōtsutsuki."
"The legendary Ōtsutsuki clan?"
Upon hearing this information, her cold eyes didn't change in the slightest.
Lin—no, calling her Satsuki Ōtsutsuki was more appropriate now.
Her hand never faltered in tending to her hair, but her thoughts rapidly stirred through memories of her past life.
The Ōtsutsuki clan was the thread running through the entire Naruto plot.
In Satsuki's eyes, the Ōtsutsuki clan in the anime acted much like interstellar colonizers: invading a weak but potentially rich planet, and using the God Tree and Ten-Tails as tools to harvest the planet's energy.
Then, after a thousand years, they would reap the results, collect the planet's energy, and either return to the clan or move on to the next selected planet.
This gave Satsuki a sense of deja vu—perhaps in another timeline, the Ōtsutsuki clan had also once come to Earth.