Chapter 1: I Have So Many Golden Fingers
"Please, when can I leave?"
"Wait for ANBU's investigation."
"Don't ANBU usually question the person involved during investigations?"
"Wait for ANBU's investigation!"
After saying that, the cat-masked ANBU fell silent. No matter how much Uchiha Yoichi asked afterward, the operative ignored him completely.
Seeing this, Uchiha Yoichi had no choice but to give up. Now he could only wait for ANBU to release him on their own—or for someone from the clan to come bail him out.
But with Uchiha Fugaku's somewhat soft personality, he'd probably just negotiate a bit with the higher-ups and then wait for ANBU's investigation results.
Thinking of this, Uchiha Yoichi couldn't help but sigh inwardly. His teammates' heavy casualties weren't his fault—it was Konoha's intelligence that failed. A C-rank mission turning into an encounter with one jonin, one chunin, two genin, and a group of bandits? Bringing back even one surviving teammate was already impressive.
Fugaku should have latched onto the intelligence failure and bitten down hard on how the mission assignment department screwed up—nearly getting him, a mid-level chunin of the Uchiha clan, killed.
When would the Uchiha finally get tougher?!
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Uchiha Yoichi was a transmigrator who had only crossed over to the ninja world a year ago.
The original body's talent was quite strong: graduated early, became a chunin after two years, and even awakened the Sharingan—though only one tomoe, it was still rare among the Uchiha.
He had the makings of a powerhouse.
But after the transmigration replaced the original, things got awkward. Yoichi wasn't the original person. While he inherited the memories, his combat experience was basically like watching a movie replay in his head.
Right after transmigrating, Uchiha Yoichi decisively requested a six-month leave from the clan to submit to Konoha. No missions for half a year—he needed to master his own strength first.
He knew how to refine chakra, how to form seals and release ninjutsu, and he could use the Sharingan.
He just needed to turn those into real, personal abilities. So Yoichi trained hard in the clan compound for those six months.
He made great progress during that time, fully mastering the ninjutsu and chakra control from the memories and completely inheriting the original body's strength.
And he suffered through a lot from his "golden fingers" too!
Speaking of Uchiha Yoichi's golden fingers: the Superpower Roulette. This cheat stood out for being "endlessly variable"!
Every month, it randomly refreshed a new superpower. Some were ridiculously overpowered; others were so useless even a dog wouldn't want them.
For example, in this latest mission, as an ordinary chunin with three genin, he managed to survive—and wipe out—an enemy jonin, chunin, two genin, and a bandit gang. That was all thanks to today's superpower.
[Empty-Handed Blade Catch]: When you swing your sword, your main target will unconditionally drop to one knee and catch the blade with both hands. They won't let go until you pull the sword back—but once you do, they'll be completely drained of stamina.
Yoichi used this trick, teaming up with one genin to kill that enemy jonin.
There was also that one time his ninja squad got wiped out. During a border patrol mission, they ran into two elite squads from Kumogakure crossing the line.
If his superpower at the time hadn't been perfect, Yoichi would have reported to the afterlife just six months after transmigrating.
[Turn Enemy to Friend]: Instantly boosts the favorability of anyone hostile toward you to 99—but you must keep smiling, flattering, and buttering them up for three full hours. Otherwise, favorability drops to -99.
Thanks to that skill, Yoichi survived and even turned those two elite Kumogakure squads into his best buddies. He hung out with them for hours, got all their mission intel, and even arm-in-arm led the squad on duty to a nearby town for drinks—where he casually got one of the squad leaders to spill the training method for Lightning Release Chakra Mode.
Another mission squad didn't have any deaths, but the four members (except Yoichi) all took a collective bad fall—broken legs and arms for the other three. After they recovered, the team mysteriously disbanded.
In half a year, he'd broken up three mission teams. So when Yoichi returned to the village this time, ANBU immediately dragged him in for "investigation."
But calling it an investigation felt more like they were just restricting his freedom.
He'd been locked up for four or five hours already. All they gave him was two onigiri and a cup of water in the middle—no other food. And this was right after a brutal fight!
His chakra was heavily depleted; he needed a proper meal to recover.
He didn't know how much time passed. Yoichi even fell asleep in the holding cell. In a daze, he heard knocking on the door from ANBU.
"Uchiha Yoichi, you can come out now."
The cat-masked ANBU said that and directly opened the cell door.
"Your efficiency is impressive. I thought I'd be stuck here a month, but after just a few hundred minutes, I'm free?"
Yoichi couldn't resist the sarcasm, but the cat-masked ANBU didn't respond.
Soon after leaving the cell, Yoichi saw Uchiha Inabi waiting outside—the division captain of the police force and a well-known Uchiha jonin.
"Yoichi, let's go home."
"Thanks for coming to get me, Inabi-senpai."
Yoichi replied, then glanced at the sky—it was pitch black. He'd been detained at least six or seven hours.
"Inabi-senpai, what's the deal with this mission? When ANBU released me, they didn't tell me the outcome."
Uchiha Inabi didn't answer right away. He led Yoichi away from the Ninja Academy building before speaking: "No final decision yet. The higher-ups' opinions aren't unified. Some suggested having the interrogation unit do a mind probe on you, but the clan head refused."
"This mission was really suspicious. A C-rank turning up a jonin and chunin? The mission desk won't admit it was an intel error. They're bringing up your past record—but luckily, you brought back that Iwa jonin's head. After checking, they confirmed it was a coincidence."
"That Iwa scout team was probably gathering intel on the daimyo's capital movements and just got interrupted by your group. That's also why the clan head opposed probing your mind."
"So I'm a hero now? Then what the hell are the Konoha higher-ups doing?"
Even with Yoichi's good temper, he almost cursed out the higher-ups' family tree. He continued: "I risked my life to bring back intel for Konoha, and they want to probe my brain? Inabi-senpai, doesn't that seem completely unreasonable? I'm the guy who killed an Iwa jonin!"
Mission escalations like this were way too common anyway. Look at Kakashi's team with Naruto—their first C-rank jumped straight to A-rank or even S-rank. If Zabuza hadn't had a soft spot, Kakashi's squad would've had at least two more orphans.
"It is unreasonable. The police force clansmen were furious when they heard. But the clan head just took over recently—you have to understand him a bit."
Uchiha Inabi sighed. The clan head wanted to develop the Uchiha his own way, and as clansmen, they could only support him.
"But Yoichi, how exactly did you kill that Iwa jonin?"