"Akira, wake up… you're going to be late!"
The repeated shouts stirred Akira Sato awake from where he had slumped over the classroom desk in deep sleep.
In front of him were two boys — one chubby, one thin — and they were all inside a bare, empty classroom.
"Did you forget? Today's the graduation exam!"
The chubby boy's eyes were full of helplessness.
Graduation exam?
Akira suddenly remembered.
Today was the day of the graduation test. He quickly stood up.
"Takashi, Koji, let's go!"
With that, he strode quickly out of the classroom.
"Wait up!"
The two boys hurried to catch up behind him.
Yes, Akira Sato was a transmigrator.
He had crossed over into the world of Naruto — the world he used to watch only as anime before.
Except this was no cartoon — it was a real, vast, and far more terrifying world.
In many ways, when you thought carefully, it was downright horrifying.
And right now, they were in the center of this world.
The Hidden Leaf Village — Konoha!
Not a bad starting point, all things considered.
Successfully transmigrated, handsome, and from a good family — under normal circumstances, this should have been something to celebrate.
But transmigrating into a ninja world? That was just absurd.
Because this was a world where human lives were as cheap as grass. Ninjas here were sent to the battlefield as children, cutting people down, with death rates so high it was terrifying.
Faced with such a dangerous world, Akira — who had been here for two and a half years and didn't have a "system" or any cheats — naturally chose to lie low.
And honestly, what choice did he have?
If he'd dared to shout something like, "I control my own fate!" he'd have ended up in the interrogation room faster than you could blink.
Ninjas were razor-sharp when it came to sensing information. If they even suspected something was off, they would act — no hesitation.
And with all the secret techniques and interrogation methods, not even death could keep your secrets safe. That's why ninja bodies had to be disposed of carefully after death.
Thrown into such a brutal, dangerous world, how could Akira not resign himself to lying low?
And today was his final chance.
If he could fail the graduation test, he could finally step away, live a peaceful civilian life, and sponge off others.
Once you became a ninja, you were just a tool for the village. Even if they sent you on a mission you knew would kill you, you'd have to go. Trying to leave the village? That was treason — they'd hunt you down.
Only by becoming an "ordinary person" could you escape this cruel ninja system.
So, from the moment he arrived in this world, Akira had been scheming.
Now, the opportunity was here.
As long as he performed badly enough today, he might finally get his wish to "lie flat."
Thinking this, Akira and his two best friends walked toward the training grounds.
The chubby one was Takashi Honda — he dreamed of becoming the greatest merchant in the ninja world.
The cold-faced one was Koji Yamakawa, from a minor ninja clan, dreaming of restoring his family's lost glory.
Yeah, after two and a half years of careful social maneuvering and subtle manipulation by Akira, the three of them were now basically brothers, even without shared blood.
As a transmigrator who'd watched the Naruto anime, Akira had also met some of the future main characters.
But his attitude was always: stay respectful, but stay far away.
Because in this dangerous ninja world, the people who died fastest were the ones standing next to the protagonists.
Without their protagonist-level luck, getting too close was just asking for death.
Akira, with his scrawny body and no special skills, had no business getting involved.
Survival was victory.
Take Obito, for example — when he was lying low, his cool factor was sky-high; the moment he jumped out into the open, he lost all his mystique and died.
Or Madara — the ultimate master of hiding. Invincible while lurking, but the second he emerged, he got stabbed in the back by a certain dutiful son.
And let's not forget the grandmaster of lurking from the Pure Land — a true innovator of survival, and ultimately the big winner.
All these examples taught the same lesson:
"Stay low, and you can win."
With such excellent "role models," no wonder Akira was determined to keep his head down.
The more you jumped around in this world, the worse your death.
For the past two and a half years, Akira had been the undisputed underperformer.
Not like Obito, who was only temporarily at the bottom due to a few flukes — Akira's weakness was the real deal.
Before long, the three of them reached the training grounds.
But something felt off.
There were too many people!
Standing on the walls, on the trees, on rooftops — they were surrounded by the figures of important people from the village.
The most eye-catching presence, of course, was the figure standing in one corner of the grounds, surrounded by attendants, wearing a Hokage hat and long robe.
The Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi!
The top boss of Konoha.
But Akira's gaze shifted to the figure beside him — a man with his right eye and right arm wrapped in white bandages, leaning on a cane.
Danzo!
Bold, ruthless, cold-blooded, selfish — that was the most generous description you could give him.
You could risk offending the "gentleman's sword" Hiruzen, but you never wanted to offend Danzo.
Akira had always kept a wide berth from Danzo, terrified of drawing his "attention."
Luckily, Danzo only cared about geniuses.
For someone like Akira, a genuine bottom-of-the-class failure, he had no interest whatsoever. Otherwise, Akira might have been plotting his escape long ago.
When he'd first arrived in this world and realized he was in Konoha, Akira's first instinct had been to run.
But unlike the anime, where even a Genin (looking at you, Sasuke) could come and go as they pleased, the real village was tightly guarded.
Under such strict defenses, not even a Jonin could escape, let alone an ordinary person.
And once Akira learned the full truth about this world, he gave up the idea of running.
Outside Konoha, human life was truly worth less than a dog's.
Ordinary people didn't have enough food — they ate grass, sometimes even resorted to cannibalism. They used straw to keep warm; blankets were luxury items. If they got sick, they just had to tough it out. Bandits and war were everywhere.
It was basically hell on earth.
Average life expectancy? Not even thirty.
By contrast, Konoha was relatively safe, with a decent standard of living. That's why so many villagers would rather die than leave.
For outsiders, moving to Konoha was nearly impossible — you'd have to be a fool to want to leave.
Besides, Akira had already latched onto a "rich connection."
But to keep living this relaxed life, he needed to screw up the graduation exam and lose his ninja qualifications.
Once you became a ninja… congratulations!
You'd spend the rest of your life under village control.
No base salary (unless you had a position), no pension, and early retirement only came if you were dead or crippled.
The death rate among ninjas was staggeringly high!
That might also explain why people started dating in school and married so young — because they died too soon and too fast. If they didn't hurry up and leave descendants, the ninja profession would have died out long ago.
While these thoughts ran through Akira's mind, the other students were finishing their exams one by one.
It was a combat assessment — facing off against a Chunin examiner to determine whether you passed.
The playful, kiddie-style graduation tests seen in the anime probably only came later, in peaceful times.
Right now, it was Year 42 of Konoha. War was already brewing, and the village needed more cannon fodder. Naturally, they weren't going to make the passing rate too strict.
So, honestly, graduating was pretty easy.
But your future depended on your performance.
If you were a genius, the clans and top teachers would fight to recruit you.
If your grades were poor, well — enjoy a life of grunt work and cannon fodder missions.
That's probably why everyone with even a scrap of talent fought so hard to stand out as a "genius."
Because yes, the title made you a target, but it also came with real benefits.
Of course, none of that applied to Akira.
If he were a "genius," Root would have already come calling.
For one simple reason — his last name was Uchiha.
That's right, the famously tragic, emo, edgy, and ridiculously powerful clan.
Although his surname had only been added later — originally, he hadn't had one.
Marriage by arrangement.
If you know, you know.
In other words, he was basically mooching off someone else.
The original Akira had hated this, constantly struggling to break free from that status — which ultimately got him killed and gave the transmigrated Akira his chance to take over.
But from Akira's perspective, the guy clearly hadn't been beaten down by reality enough.
What was wrong with having a sugar connection? Didn't he see how many people wanted that and couldn't get it?
Akira, for one, was enjoying the soft life — and fully intended to keep enjoying it.
Even if the relationship eventually ended, he could probably squeeze out some kind of "breakup compensation." Either way, he wouldn't lose.
"Akira Sato!"
The homeroom teacher standing in the training grounds — Sarutobi Chokawa — loudly called his name.
"Go get 'em!"
"Don't let anyone look down on you!"
His two best friends cheered him on. Even the usually stone-faced Koji Yamakawa managed to force out a small smile.