The roar of the colossal beast and the death screams faded, replaced by a deafening silence. The world, which just a moment ago was shaking from a battle of kaiju proportions, froze.
I was being held by hands. Rough hands that smelled of stale tobacco and dust. Voices drifted over me—one low and elderly, others sharp and youthful.
They were speaking a language I didn't know. Not a single word. It was an indistinguishable, guttural abracadabra, devoid of any meaning.
Panic, previously muffled by the adrenaline of the battle, began to pierce me with icy needles. I wasn't just in another world, in another body.
I was in a vacuum. Deaf and mute. My encyclopedic knowledge of the canon—my only advantage—was useless if I couldn't understand what the hell people were saying.
"Is this a bug? A glitch?"
And then, right before my mind's eye, a saving blue window unfolded. The text on it, thank the gods, was in English.
[SYSTEM ALERT]
[Critical Debuff Detected: Linguistic Barrier]
[Current Language Pack: NOT INSTALLED]
[Auto-translation: DISABLED due to low Intelligence stat.]
"Hardcore mode?" I mentally howled. "This isn't even hardcore. This is a sadistic mod written by a psychopath!"
I tried to focus. Panic wouldn't help. I needed data.
"System, open Status," I commanded mentally.
A character sheet popped up in front of me.
[STATUS WINDOW]
Name: Naruto Uzumaki
Level: 1 (Exp: 0/100)
Title: [The Jinchūriki], [The Pariah]
HP: 15/15 (Fragile)
CP (Chakra): LOCKED (Coil maturity: 0.1%)
STR: 0.5
AGI: 0.3
INT: 9 (Adult Soul Bonus applied)
VIT: 1.0 (Uzumaki Lineage Bonus applied)
"0.5 Strength... 0.3 Agility..." I was horrified. "I'm not even a zero. I'm a rounding error! A gust of wind could crit me!"
My spiraling thoughts were interrupted by new sensations. I was carried somewhere and dumped onto a hard surface.
The hands that did this were female, but cold and rough. I felt a wave of unconcealed hatred radiating from this woman. It was thick, heavy, almost suffocating.
She hissed something in her alien tongue.
"System, what did she say? Translate!" I begged.
[Insight Check: SUCCESS]
[Translation (Approximate):] "Filthy demon brat. You should have died with your parents."
[Reputation with Target: HATED (-1000/1000)]
The System's sneering tone was infuriating, but the information was priceless. So that's how my curse works. It's not just a number in the status; it's a real, tangible attitude.
I was left alone in a creaky crib. It was almost pitch black, but my infant vision, enhanced by the faint embers of chakra, allowed me to make out shapes.
I was in a large room with rows of identical cribs. An orphanage. My base of operations for the next few years.
I needed to do something. Crying and waiting for a miracle wasn't my style. I decided to interrogate the System fully.
"System, let's get this straight. What about this language barrier? How long until I learn it?"
[Calculating...]
[Estimated time for natural acquisition: 3-4 Years]
"Years?!"
"Okay... Stats. How do I raise them?"
[Method 1: Level Up]
[Method 2: Physical Training (Grinding)]
[Method 3: Stop asking stupid questions and start moving, maggot.]
"You're not a System, you're an insult generator!" I thought, annoyed.
I sighed deeply... or rather, mentally sighed. Arguing with it was useless. It was my only companion, my window into this world, and, coincidentally, my personal troll.
There was one last question. The most important one.
"Chakra. I feel it. It's there. How do I control it?"
This time, the System's answer was serious, without the mockery.
[WARNING: Chakra coils are immature.]
[Attempting manipulation at this stage will result in: PERMANENT CRIPPLING or DEATH.]
[Unlock Condition: Body Age > 4 Years.]
That was a punch to the gut. My last hope for any active defense was taken away.
I was trapped in a helpless body. In a room full of enemies. In a world where I didn't understand the language. And my only ally was a sarcastic blue screen.
I lay in my crib, staring at the ceiling. For the first time in both my past and current life, I felt absolute, crystalline despair.
But despair is non-constructive. Sure, I could lie there and pity myself, but that wouldn't raise my stats, and my diaper certainly wouldn't change itself.
Wait. The diaper.
A sudden, uncomfortable warmth spread below my waist.
"Oh no."
[ALERT: HYGIENE CRITICAL!]
[New Quest: The Dignity Protocol]
[Objective: Force the hostile NPC to change your diaper.]
[Time Limit: 10 Minutes]
[Failure Penalty: -1 to DIGNITY stat (Permanent). Diaper Rash (DoT effect).]
"Dignity stat?" I mentally groaned. "Are you kidding me?!"
Ten minutes. That was the timer. I felt like an action hero trying to defuse a bomb. Only instead of a bomb, it was... me.
I started with a quiet whimper. Zero reaction. The "Warden"—the thin, angry woman on duty—didn't even turn her head.
Timer: 8 minutes.
I switched to a louder cry. Same result. She demonstratively adjusted another baby's bonnet.
Timer: 5 minutes.
Panic began to rise. I didn't want to take permanent damage to a stat that this snarky interface just invented!
I gathered all the air my tiny lungs could hold and screamed. A scream that would make a Banshee proud.
It was a cry full of pain, despair, and a demand for justice.
And it worked. Not because she pitied me. But because I started waking up the other mobs—I mean, babies.
Grimacing as if she had a toothache, the Warden approached me.
"Shut up, will you, demon?" she hissed in her language.
I didn't understand the words, but the emotional aura the System helpfully highlighted was eloquent enough. She snatched me up, threw me onto the changing table, and did her job with disgusted roughness.
[QUEST COMPLETE!]
[Reward: Clean Diaper. +10 EXP. Dignity Saved.]
Despite the humiliating situation and the System's sarcasm, I felt a pang of grim satisfaction. I snatched this victory. I forced a hostile NPC to do what I needed.
It was my first successful manipulation in this world.
I lay in fresh swaddling clothes, feeling something akin to hope. Yes, I was weak. Yes, everyone hated me. But I had my Intelligence. And I had this crazy System.
Meaning, I had a chance.
I closed my eyes and focused on the voices behind the wall. I needed to learn. I needed to learn so that one day, I could answer this "Warden" in her own language.
Weeks passed. My world was still limited to the walls of the orphanage, but I stopped perceiving it as a prison.
Now, it was my personal Sandbox. A training ground. I was the protagonist in the shittiest, yet most important tutorial level.
Progress in learning the language was slow but steady. I began to distinguish individual words and even simple phrases.
"Ohayou" — the nurses said in the morning.
"Oyasumi" — at night.
"Urusai" — they shouted when I demanded a diaper change too loudly.
My vocabulary grew, and the System noted it.
[Skill Progress: Language (Japanese) - Lv. 2]
[You can now understand simple commands. Keep grinding, nerd.]
In parallel, I was "leveling" my body. Every action turned into a workout. I learned to roll over and lie on my stomach for long periods, strengthening my neck and back muscles.
For this, the System granted me the skill [Head Control (Passive)] and awarded me one point of Strength. I was immensely proud.
But the real fun began when we, the grown-up larvae, started being released from our cribs onto the large carpet in the center of the room.
This was the Arena. A Colosseum for toddlers. Real dramas unfolded here. Children collided, stole toys from each other, cried, and laughed.
And I was in the center of this chaos.
My [Pariah's Curse] debuff worked here too. Other children instinctively avoided me. If I crawled toward a pile of kids, they scattered like NPCs avoiding an aggro zone.
I was a lonely island in a sea of diapers. But the System didn't let me reflect on this for long.
[NEW QUEST: DOMINANCE]
[Objective: Seize the Rubber Ball from the Target (Fat Kid).]
[Reward: +50 EXP, +1 Charisma.]
Fifty experience points and a buff to my pathetic charisma! The game was worth the candle.
My target was a chubby boy who was enthusiastically gnawing on the aforementioned ball.
I began to crawl toward him slowly, like a shark in shallow water. He noticed my approach and froze.
I stopped at a safe distance and applied the "Hypnotic Stare" tactic. I just looked at him. Unblinking. Channeling the full power of my Level 9 Intelligence into my gaze.
The boy whimpered. He felt the threat but couldn't understand where it was coming from.
[Skill Triggered: Intimidation (Lv. 1)]
[Target status: Demoralized.]
[System Note: bullying babies? Classy.]
I continued the offensive. I crawled closer and emitted a low, threatening sniffle. I didn't know how it worked, but I decided it had to work.
The boy looked at me, then at the ball, and his face crumbled into a crying grimace. He dropped the ball and crawled away to a nurse, sobbing.
Victory!
I triumphantly crawled to the ball and grabbed it. It was rubbery and smelled pleasantly of another child's drool. Magnificent.
[QUEST COMPLETE!]
[LEVEL UP!]
A level up! I almost squealed with delight. This was a breakthrough! I immediately dumped all five stat points into Intelligence.
Right now, that was paramount. Strength and Agility would come with time, but the ability to analyze and plan was needed here and now.
I sat on the carpet, clutching my trophy. The other children gave me a wide berth. The nurses cast hateful glances at me.
But I didn't care. For the first time, I didn't feel like a victim, but like a Player. An active participant, not a passive observer.
I looked at my tiny hands, then at the hateful bars of the playpen.
This is just the beginning.
A small, pathetic, but nevertheless real step on the path to the top. I would learn to walk. I would learn to talk.
And one day, I would walk out of these walls. And then, the real game would begin. But for now... for now, I could gnaw on this ball.
The taste of victory was delicious.