In the world of the Hidden Leaf Village, the light of the setting sun fell across the Ninja Academy, filling the place with a serene calm.
But among all the students, one child seemed out of place.
"Clone Technique!"
Poof!
A puff of white smoke appeared—yet no clone formed.
"Failed again, huh…"
A faint, bitter smile crossed Yuya's face.
It had been several years since he arrived in this world.
This was a world of ninjas. Yuya had once dreamed of becoming a prodigy, someone who would astonish the ninja world and stand above all.
Reality, however, was cruel. His body struggled even to extract chakra, let alone perform ninjutsu.
His chakra reserves were a fraction of his peers', and he couldn't master even the most basic techniques. No matter how much effort he put in, the result was always the same.
"Sure, even someone who only trains their body can become powerful with techniques like the Eight Gates, even rivaling the Six Paths Madara. But I don't want a fleeting burst of glory—I want a brilliance that lasts forever." Yuya gazed at the sky, his expression slightly resentful.
Heaven, why must you toy with me like this?
"Sigh… in just two more years, the Second Great Ninja War will erupt. By then, even Chūnin and Jōnin might struggle to survive, let alone Genin."
Yuya sighed again. The time he had transmigrated into was right before the Second Great Ninja War—a terrible era to be born in.
He was only eight years old.
And time was running out.
If he didn't gain enough strength within two years, he would be nothing but cannon fodder when the war broke out.
Yuya had no desire to die like that.
"Forget it. No point overthinking. I'll just keep training my taijutsu. Even if I can't use ninjutsu, I can't give up so easily."
Shaking his head, Yuya cleared his thoughts, stood up, and headed toward the forest behind the school.
On the way, other academy students cast him strange looks.
"I heard he still hasn't mastered a single ninjutsu."
"He probably won't even pass the graduation exam."
"Figures. A kid from a small village could never compare to us, born in Konoha."
Mocking whispers and disdainful glances followed him, but Yuya ignored them.
A bunch of brats. Once the Second Great Ninja War starts, they'll learn what real fear is.
Still, he couldn't deny his bad luck.
It would've been fine just to live as an ordinary Konoha ninja. He never asked to be a Senju or Uchiha—he would've settled for a normal family.
But reality was harsher than that. He didn't even have a family.
Yuya hadn't been born in Konoha. He was from a small shinobi village.
That village had been wiped out by Sunagakure, one of the Five Great Nations. Yuya might've been the sole survivor, later found and brought back by Leaf shinobi.
Outsiders, even children, were rarely welcomed in Konoha. He was used to the cold stares.
At the back of the academy, Yuya arrived in a small forest and stood before a wooden training post.
The top of the post was indented—a mark carved by countless side kicks and punches over the years.
Even with no talent for ninjutsu, Yuya had never once thought of giving up.
He looked down at the bandages wrapped around his hands and ankles, took a deep breath, and kicked.
"One, two, three… thirty-five, thirty-six…"
Sweat poured down his face.
Fatigue set in quickly, a dull ache spreading through his legs, especially around the ankles.
But Yuya didn't stop. He gritted his teeth and kept going.
As darkness fell, alone in the forest, Yuya trained relentlessly. If ninjutsu was beyond him, then taijutsu would be his path. That meant working dozens of times harder than anyone else.
Huff… huff!
His breathing grew ragged. Sweat soaked his clothes, dripping to the ground.
Finally, when his legs went numb and he could barely stand, Yuya stopped.
"Break time. Next, five hundred straight punches… then two hundred side kicks."
He sat beside the post, catching his breath as he watched the sun's last glow fade behind the trees.
If only life could stay this simple—training, watching sunsets. But with the Second, Third, and Fourth Ninja Wars looming, peace was impossible.
After resting, Yuya prepared to stand again—then froze.
Something strange caught his eye.
As the last sliver of sunlight disappeared, a peculiar shadow appeared deep within the forest.
What was that?
Curiosity flickered in his eyes. The shadow was small, round—like an apple. Were there wild fruits in this forest?
Intrigued, Yuya walked toward it.
The sky darkened completely. He pulled out a ninja tool for light and continued forward.
When he reached a patch of grass, he stopped dead, his face going slack with disbelief.
Clatter!
The lamp dropped from his trembling hands. Darkness swallowed the forest.
"T-This is…"
He crouched, fumbling for the lamp, relit it, and shone the light on what he'd seen.
His expression froze again.
Carefully, Yuya reached down and lifted it.
It was a strange-looking fruit. To anyone in the Naruto world, it would seem poisonous and worthless. But to Yuya, a former anime fan, it was unmistakable.
A Devil Fruit.
"How… how could this exist in the Naruto world?!"
He stared at the ornate, impossibly detailed fruit in his hand, dumbfounded.
There was no logic to it.
Could it really just be some random poisonous fruit that happened to look like this?
The thought crossed his mind, but he quickly shook his head.
No—this resemblance was too perfect. There was no mistaking it. It couldn't possibly be fake.