Year 50 of Konoha. Inside a bandit den somewhere in the Land of Fire. Uchiha Yorin swung his shinobi blade, cut down the last enemy, then drew a deep breath.
At this moment, the Third Great Ninja War had ended not long ago.
Eight years remained until the Night of the Uchiha Massacre.
One year remained until the Nine-Tails' Rampage and the death of the Fourth Hokage, the Yellow Flash, Namikaze Minato.
And there were five, four, three, two, one until Uchiha Yorin's system finished loading.
[Senju Revival System at your service]
Uchiha Yorin: "Wait—what the hell?"
[Senju Revival System at your service]
As if afraid Yorin hadn't understood, the system repeated itself.
Uchiha Yorin: "No, I mean—did you mess up?
Look at my Sharingan, look at my clan's fan crest, and look at my fire-nature chakra.
I'll give you one more chance to phrase that. Which family are you here to revive?"
[Host identified with Senju bloodline. Senju Clan Revival System—booting!
Please complete Stage One main objective: be reborn from the ashes and rebuild the Senju!]
All right, Yorin gave up. This was definitely a dumb system. I'm an Uchiha, and you want me to rebuild the Senju?
These days the Senju have all erased their names and disappeared. The only Senju active in the open is Princess Tsunade, that gambling drunk.
How am I supposed to rebuild anything? Rebuild what, exactly? Can't be done. Please find someone else.
After waiting eighteen years for a system only to get this "genius," Uchiha Yorin nearly laughed in anger.
[Stage rewards: Mangekyō Sharingan, free attribute points, Yang Release chakra]
Yorin: "On the other hand, the Senju did great service to Konoha. And they were lifelong allies of us Uchiha—heh. Restoring what's fallen is an act of benevolence."
…
He wasn't drooling over the rewards—mostly it was thanks to peer comparison.
Give it a few years and that weasel will slaughter his own clan. With three Mangekyō Sharingan in hand and a stack of jōnin—god-tier opening—somehow they'll still throw it all away.
Though Yorin was a transmigrant, after his parents died the clan raised him, and elders carefully taught him ninjutsu, genjutsu, taijutsu, illusions, even arithmetic… No favoritism, but no neglect either. The clan hadn't treated him badly; of course he should try to save them.
The problem was—how?
Right now he was just a perfectly average two-tomoe Sharingan user. Some passable Fire Release, plus swordsmanship learned from Kakashi's father—good enough to count as a jōnin.
To ordinary people he'd "made it," but to monsters, this wasn't much different from cannon fodder.
To change a tragic future and punish that filial paragon, Uchiha Itachi, he needed power.
To save more people and change more fates, he needed more power.
Unrivaled power.
"Once I'm back in the village, I'll talk to Tsunade." He thought, "Wonder if she'd mind a younger-man, older-woman romance."
With a sigh, Yorin noticed a hidden door in the bandit den.
He opened it—it was the dungeon where the bandits kept hostages.
A boy lay in a pool of blood, flesh mangled by torture, which drew Yorin's pity.
"Kid, can you move? You're safe now. I wiped out the bandits—hurry home."
Uchiha Yorin spoke, and the boy's eyes lit up. "Saved… Are the bandits all dead? …You—"
Yorin: "No need to thank me, I—"
The kid's expression twisted and he shouted at Yorin:
"—Why didn't you come earlier?! If you'd come earlier, my mom and dad wouldn't have—"
The next second, Yorin's kunai pierced his throat.
Damn bandit—pretending to be human to trick me! Despicable!
In a foul mood, Yorin followed up with a Great Fireball Technique to destroy the corpse, then stowed his kunai and left the den.
A small group of bandits—just a C-rank mission. A few tens of thousands of ryō wasn't enough to fill the gap in his teeth. Even after looting the den, there wasn't anything valuable.
Originally, Yorin only had to feed himself. Not anymore. Now he had to work hard for Tsunade—and a million other wives.
"Gotta line up ways to make money, and track down lost clansmen… What a hassle. Maybe I should talk to the clan head about changing the fan to an abstract tree branch, and change 'Uchiha of Love' to 'Senju of the Forest.' Round it up and—revival accomplished, right?"
Okay, just a thought. He wouldn't actually propose it. Otherwise, he'd be beaten to death by everyone in the clan long before the massacre.
Yorin: "So, what should I actually do?"
Yorin's judgment wasn't bad. In his previous life, before transmigrating, he'd read all sorts of Naruto fanfics and distilled a few routes for reforming the shinobi world.
But after fate smacked him across the map and he landed in the real thing, it was different.
It's easy to critique from above. In the thick of it, with every side tugging at you, reform is easier said than done.
Most crucially, even if you're right—even if your plan and route are sound—why should anyone listen to you, follow you, and act according to your plan?
Yorin admitted he didn't have Naruto's talk-no-jutsu or Yahiko's charisma.
Which means—
Power.
The key to solving everything was still power.
If I laugh like a proper Uchiha right now, will my Sharingan pop to three tomoe?
He pondered, then decided—no.
He didn't lose to anyone in effort. He was a notorious training maniac in the clan. But talent is talent.
With the Sharingan the Uchiha take pride in, two tomoe had been his limit. With Fire Release, another point of pride, his chakra was too shallow; the power was just so-so.
Fortunately, Yorin was flexible. If ninjutsu and genjutsu talent were lacking, he'd make it up with taijutsu.
No strong taijutsu users among the Uchiha right now?
No problem—go learn from those who have it.
The Hyūga won't teach an Uchiha? Fine—minor clans or even civilians will do.
Will that hurt the Uchiha's face?
What good is face if you're dead?
And so, the famed Konoha White Fang, Hatake Sakumo, received a disciple from the Uchiha. In turn, the Uchiha gained a swordsman known as Konoha's Flame Claw.
See? Every drop of sweat Yorin shed paid off.
Have you seen Konoha at four in the morning?
Uchiha Yorin had—more than once.
After eighteen Rock Lee–style years, it was time to enjoy the thrill of a cheat.
He thought so as he looked at the [Submittable Tasks] option:
[Stage Task 1: Increase clan members +1. Reward: pupil power up]
That "added clan member" was Yorin himself. The dumb system's task logic was… touching. But if it helped him, this dummy was kind of cute.
[Stage Task 1 complete. Reward delivered.]
He hit submit, and his ocular power surged—rising, spiking, exploding.
As it grew, his Sharingan, glowing deep crimson, spun faster and faster, then advanced from two tomoe to three.
Feeling the overwhelming feedback, Uchiha Yorin's mood soared. The corner of his mouth curled; he pressed one hand over his eye and finally let out the standard Uchiha laugh:
"Haha, haha, hahahahahaha kyakyakyakyakya…"
Dance!
On a whim!
Stand atop the sky!