Chapter 2: The Civilian Ninja
If I had transmigrated earlier, Sasuke thought, a bitter taste in his mouth, even without some golden-finger cheat, I wouldn't be in a situation this precarious, would I?
Other transmigrators were reborn with the bloodline of the Sage of Six Paths, or at the very least, as tender young kids just entering the ninja academy, with plenty of time to grow and develop. But him? He'd had the "good luck" to arrive just six months ago, dropped into the body of a twenty-year-old, cannon-fodder chūnin on the verge of death.
He'd gained a few years of life in the process, but according to the average life expectancy of a shinobi, he was practically a veteran. An old man with a high-risk job on the front lines of the Second Great Shinobi War. He could be buried at any moment.
When he first arrived, he'd heard someone call out his name and thought he'd transmigrated as Uchiha Sasuke. Unfortunately, he never found his good friend, "Naruto."
Later, he learned his name was Umino Sasuke. The first thing that came to mind was Konoha's beloved teacher, Umino Iruka. He assumed he must be a relative, perhaps from a quiet but respectable ninja family.
If he couldn't have the bloodline of the Sage, a proper ninja family would have been nice. Being born into a ninja family in Konoha wasn't the same as being born in Rome, but it was a hell of a head start over the civilian-born mules and horses.
Unfortunately, things didn't turn out as he'd hoped.
Sifting through the fragmented memories in his mind, he realized there was no Umino ninja clan to speak of, and he had no relation to Iruka at all. He did, however, have a deep connection to the Sarutobi clan. In fact, he owed his entire existence as a Konoha ninja to them.
His ancestors, for three generations, had all been commoners—vassals, tenant farmers, and servants to the Sarutobi. Though the Sarutobi weren't a top-tier clan like the Senju or Uchiha, they were still a powerful second-rate clan with vast industries across the Land of Fire. His grandfather, Kaino Dairo, had been promoted to help manage their fisheries in the Akihabara area. It wasn't a high-status position, but it was enough to keep from starving.
When Konoha was founded, many of these vassal families, including the Kaino, followed their lords and became villagers. His family, now renamed Umino to reflect their trade with the sea, opened a small fish stall in the market. They weren't powerful, just lowly fishmongers. Aside from the basic necessities, they could barely make ends meet. The only reason they survived was because they could eat the rotten fish and dead shrimp they couldn't sell.
It was by the effort of that entire, frugal family that his predecessor, a common boy with no genetic mutations to speak of, had been raised into a glorious Konoha ninja. They had even named him "Sasuke," not after the Uchiha, but after the Third Hokage's father, Sarutobi Sasuke—a Kage-level powerhouse from the First Hokage's generation.
With that, the Umino family had made another leap in class, from lower-class civilians to the esteemed ninja class. Even if they were still at the bottom rung, they now had privileges. At the very least, they no longer had to pay protection money for their fish stall—a fee that used to be higher than their actual profits.
His predecessor had graduated from the academy at age ten, in Konoha Year 28. It was the longest period of peace the ninja world had known, a lull of more than a decade between the First and Second Great Wars. He had been lucky.
Even in peacetime, missions carried risks. After several life-or-death situations, he finally became a Konoha Chūnin just before reaching adulthood. His income multiplied, and the family's status saw a substantial leap. He was no longer a disposable genin; he was the backbone of Konoha.
Invisible benefits opened up to him: access to the ninjutsu exchange, low-interest loans for housing. In less than a year, he moved out of the low-rent housing built by the Senju and bought a house with a loan. Two years later, the mortgage was paid off, and he even bought a small fish shop for his family.
No wonder every villager in Konoha wanted their child to become a ninja. It wasn't just about the Will of Fire; it was about the promise of a better life.