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Megumi opened his eyes in a familiar white room he had been to before.
"Haha, damn you, Obito!"
Megumi raged, not even pausing to investigate how he was alive. One thing was on his mind: cursing Obito.
"You never learn anything. Now that's the real you I like," a man's voice came from behind him.
"Huh?"
Megumi pulled himself together and looked back to see the old man he always swore at.
"It's youuuu!"
"Hahaha, did they cut your tongue? You're always so lively."
This was the same old man who had reincarnated him as an overpowered NPC in Naruto.
"I knew you would die, and I'm even surprised you grew to this level. You deserve a medal."
The old man kept provoking him, wanting to hear his response.
And he took the bait.
"Why did you bring me here? Is it to mock me? Now I remember now why did you give me that imposter as a system? Why didn't I get all the packages we agreed on? You almost got me killed twice before that motherfucker simp killed me!"
Megumi wasn't playing the good boy anymore. Now he saw the architect of his downfall.
There was silence in that room. The old man and Megumi stood facing each other like chess rivals in a world championship tournament.
"Hahahaha, you're still shameless," the old man in white garments broke the silence, wiping fake tears from his eyes. "Once a shameless man, always a shameless man."
"Okay, you didn't even greet this old man, and you should ask one question at a time." The being said with a smile, rage-baiting him again.
Megumi could now see that this man was rage-baiting him. He gritted his teeth and clenched his fists, but he couldn't do anything.
"Why is your system acting like it's my boss?"
"You have the system in your body, and now you're complaining," the being replied. "And I don't remember forcing the system on you. That's not my creation it's your desire to own a system. Why blame me?"
Megumi calmed down because he remembered that he had traded his system for a plundering one-time skill.
"And I released everything we agreed on that time. It was your fault, not mine," the being added.
"Then tell me, where did the system come from?"
"I don't know," the being said, raising his hands. "Maybe it's your luck, but you blew it."
Megumi realized he couldn't believe he'd been played by a system that wasn't even meant for him.
"Okay, tell me why was my shadow clone stronger than me, the main body?" he asked again.
"Oh, that was because of the system. You should know that you weren't bound by the system, so the system couldn't restrict the power of what wasn't its creation. And I saw from your memory that the system was restricting you that's why you couldn't create techniques. It thought it was even helping you, rather than controlling you like some other systems you read about in your previous world."
"Gulp." Megumi swallowed hard, then sighed.
"Why am I here? What do you want?" Megumi asked.
He knew he was dead, so there was no need to keep acting like an NPC.
"Oh, right. I have three pieces of news for you. One is good news, the other two are bad news," the being said.
"I'm already in a bad mood, so tell me the bad news first. Then I'll use the good news as pain relief."
"Okay, the first bad news is that your mother and teacher are dead," the old man said bluntly, as if it were nothing.
He then proceeded to show him a clip of Kaede's death.
Kaede was just going home late that night like it was a normal routine, since she couldn't sense any surveillance watching her anymore.
Just then, the Nine-Tails appeared out of nowhere.
"ROAR!" The beast's roar alone put Kaede in the shock of her life.
"Isn't Megumi with the Nine-Tails jinchūriki?" She started panicking, but what caught her attention was that the fox's eyes had Sharingan in them.
"Wait, the Uchiha are attacking the village?"
She gritted her teeth and started rescuing the few people she could help while the beast was wrecking the village buildings.
She had saved many, but still, a lot died in her presence, giving her flashbacks of how her incompetence as a leader had cost her seniors and teammates their lives.
She moved the people to an underground zone where they could hide in case of war.
With the support of both the Divine Dogs' senses and Nue's flight, she could have been called a hero if she had survived.
"Thank you for saving my daughter!"
"Thank you for rescuing my baby!"
Many people were commending her as a hero of the day.
Even Kurenai and Anko, who sat in one corner, couldn't believe what they were seeing.