(This is a story of seizing power without a system, a harem-style ensemble drama featuring multiple female protagonists.
If this genre is not to your liking, please do not read it.)
(The beginning is slow-paced.)
(Since the story begins in the Warring States era, original characters will appear.)
(I’m going to devour your brain, so reading this with your brain still attached is strictly prohibited.)
…
Before the founding of Konohagakure, the place was merely a small village known as Konoha.
The Warring States period was an age of relentless conflict.
Nations were constantly embroiled in wars and diplomatic crises.
Strong countries grew stronger while weak ones vanished.
Every society lived in perpetual upheaval and chaos.
From nobles to commoners, all existed in fear and anxiety, always at risk of being devoured.
In this turbulent world of endless war, morality and shame held no meaning.
Violence and slaughter were the only reliable paths to survival.
Natural disasters and famines ravaged many lands.
The clay-pot rice, cabbage mochi, and thinly sliced beef-and-offal dishes prepared for the starving and homeless were made exclusively with the finest ingredients—never adulterated, never faked.
It was at the very moment this era of fierce strife was about to enter an even more tense phase that the Senju clan and the Uchiha clan, both based in the Land of Fire, suddenly formed an alliance.
The entire chaotic world seemed to freeze in an eerie, deathly silence.
The Senju and Uchiha had allied?
The remaining ninja clans found the news utterly ridiculous.
Was this some new, boring joke set in the Warring States period?
Last year these two strongest clans had been locked in a death struggle—now they were suddenly allies?
Yet when the formal alliance treaty, signed under the name of the Fire Daimyo, was delivered to every nation, those who had been watching the situation fell silent.
Who had been the most powerful ninja clan in the Warring States era?
The Senju, possessors of the Sage Body, and the Uchiha, possessors of the Sage Eye.
On that day, the hearts of every daimyo and every ninja clan—large or small—exploded in every conceivable sense.
Without any prior agreement, fighting and slaughter ceased across the board.
Unease, fear, silence, and doubt filled every mind.
…
Night Kingdom
Located on the former border between the Land of Waterfalls and the Land of Crystal, Night Kingdom was a magnificent city that had suddenly risen more than ten years earlier, built on a foundation of wood and stone with an iron framework.
Every street, every residential district, and every public facility had been meticulously planned and neatly arranged—a sight that pleased the eye.
Roads had been gradually hardened so carriages could travel without jolting.
Merchants and travelers moved ceaselessly, bargaining and laughing with locals.
Store shelves displayed novel, eccentric trendy goods that infused the city with extraordinary vitality.
This scene of prosperity and peace felt completely out of place with the ninja world’s overall structure.
Everything looked as beautiful as paradise itself.
At the city’s center stood a vast complex surrounded by walls tens of meters high, constructed from enormous quantities of earth and timber.
Because of the high walls, only the upper portions of the tall buildings inside could be seen from without, yet their grandeur remained unmistakable.
Especially prominent was the enormous tower encircled by sturdy structures—like a palace floating above the clouds, belonging to another world.
Within the walled complex moved fully armed samurai carrying swords and clad in multiple layers of armor, alongside ninjas in black trench-coat uniforms who darted about like the wind.
These two entirely different violent professions—both special groups capable of using chakra in the Warring States era—had fused intimately into a single, unified force.
The largest contingent consisted of samurai, roughly one thousand strong.
Ninjas numbered fewer—around two hundred—but moved in perfect coordination with their samurai counterparts.
Together they patrolled the complex along pre-planned routes in a purely defensive posture.
At the heart of the complex rose a tall pavilion-like tower.
On its uppermost floor, Oda Yayoi stood with hands clasped behind his back, gaze locked on an enormous map hanging on the wall.
It was an extremely detailed map of the entire ninja world, mountains and rivers drawn everywhere.
Borders of nations large and small were accurately marked, along with the crests of the many ninja clans inhabiting them.
These crests were scattered unevenly across the various ninja nations’ territories, yet nearly half bore a red “×” mark—indicating those clans had been completely wiped out during the chaotic Warring States period.
The Land of Fire offered the most striking example.
In recent decades more than thirty ninja clans of various sizes had been expelled from that vast country.
At the same time, the Land of Fire still hosted more ninja clans than any other nation, which meant its wars had been far more intense.
But all of that was over now—because the two once-hostile powerhouses, the Senju and Uchiha clans, had reconciled.
Yayoi’s gaze swept across the map and settled on the two most prominent crests in the Land of Fire.
“Senju… Uchiha…”
A rare solemn, contemplative expression appeared on his face.
Memories from his previous life—familiar yet strangely distant—surged forward like a rising tide.
Recently, rumors of the Senju-Uchiha alliance had sent shockwaves through the world, signaling that the founding of the ninja village he knew so well—Konohagakure—was not far off.
The chaotic Warring States era was entering a new turning point.
This would be an unprecedented trial for countless nations and ninja groups, including the Night Kingdom he now ruled.
“Judging by the timeline, Konohagakure’s founding in the Land of Fire is inevitable.
The other four great nations will soon follow…”
The “one country, one village” system had become an unstoppable current.
Anyone who tried to resist it would be crushed by the flow of time.
Yayoi had never been arrogant enough to believe he could halt that current.
He was merely considering what advantages he could extract when the tide finally arrived.
His certainty did not stem from ordinary foresight but from an insight that transcended the era itself—an insight that had nothing to do with human cognition or wisdom.
It was simply that he already knew the future’s direction.
Yes.
Oda Yayoi was a time traveler.
In his previous life he still remembered graduating university and working as a laborer for three or four years.
Nothing extraordinary had happened.
One day he returned home from work, took a nap… and woke up reborn in the world of Naruto.
Unfortunately, he had not arrived in the familiar era but in the chaotic Warring States period about which he knew almost nothing.
It was a dark age in which even four- or five-year-old children could kill with knives and were forced onto battlefields.
Moreover, he had not been born into a ninja clan.
He was a pitiful orphan who owned only a single broken tea bowl and had to beg to survive.
Had a wandering ninja not taken him in, he would never have lived to see another day.
Fortunately, although he lacked prestigious blood, he possessed special talents comparable to bloodline limits.
Whether this was a privilege granted for living two lives or not, the chakra he refined contained a vitality ordinary ninjas lacked.
In short, his chakra possessed such powerful self-healing properties—even without any sealing—that it required no special shaping into jutsu.
Like the Uzumaki clan, he could transfer his chakra to others for healing.
This activated special chakra would gradually and subtly transform his body over time, comprehensively strengthening taijutsu, ninjutsu, and genjutsu alike.
It was precisely this advantage, combined with the chakra knowledge he had learned from his wandering-ninja guardian, the original manga, and his own unrestrained imagination as a reincarnator, that had allowed him to steadily climb in status within the chaotic world.
Tragically, when he was ten years old, the wandering ninja who had raised him died from wounds sustained during a bounty-hunting mission in the underground black market; Yayoi could not save him.
Once again alone, he returned to drifting through the black market.
His power grew, and so did his reputation.
Talented individuals began gathering around him.
Thus was born a mercenary organization destined to fight bloody battles in the shadows.
After six years of development, the group expanded from one man to twelve, then to hundreds, and finally into a massive mercenary army supported by tens of thousands of ordinary citizens in logistics.
On the border between the land of Taki (Waterfall) and Tetsu (Crystal) they constructed Night Kingdom—a city capable of housing tens of thousands.
With this core stronghold established, influence radiated outward.
Within the territories of the Land of Waterfalls and the Land of Crystal, the organization naturally acquired overwhelming power and influence, eventually monopolizing both nations’ war markets.
Naturally, this development caused deep anxiety among the daimyos and nobility of both countries.
Yet by then Yayoi had already accumulated sufficient strength.
Could he truly avoid becoming the primary target of suppression?
After two years of war he crushed the daimyo territories of both nations, suppressed every resistance faction, compiled lists, and systematically purged those named.
During those two years his forces transformed and expanded explosively, attracting ever more capable personnel.
Once resistance was eliminated, he seized military and political control of both countries with almost no further effort.
His subordinates were swiftly integrated into the bureaucracy, allowing governance to proceed smoothly.
Thereafter the shogunate was established.
The shogunate formally governed the former lands of Taki and Tetsu.
Both the Land of Waterfalls and the Land of Crystal vanished from the ninja world, and from their corpses the “Night Kingdom” was born.
Nine years had passed since the founding of the Night Kingdom.
Yayoi was now twenty-seven, at the very peak of his life.
After nine years of consolidation, remnants of the old regime had been almost entirely eliminated.
Every department operated smoothly and orderly.
The people lived and worked in peace and contentment.
They had grown weary of endless war and slaughter; even if old factions attempted revival, they could no longer stir any real disturbance.
Internal unity meant enemies would be forced to turn their spears outward.
Although the Night Kingdom was not viewed as fertile land in the ninja world, wolves still coveted it.
Four years earlier, the Hagoromo clan—defeated in the Land of Fire and driven into the Night Kingdom—had once set its sights here.
Yayoi had expended tremendous effort to eliminate that greedy wolf from the outside, ultimately destroying the Hagoromo who had migrated to his territory and acquiring many valuable items in the process.
This feat had firmly secured his position as Shogun of the Night Kingdom and deterred many other wolves from baring their claws.
While Yayoi pondered these matters, a knock sounded at the door.
“Come in.”
Yayoi kept his eyes on the map, still calculating his next move.
The door opened and a young man in his early twenties—roughly Yayoi’s age—entered.
A mask covered his face up to the eyes, revealing only eerie light-green irises.
“Lord Yayoi.”
“Ah, Kakuzu.
What is it?”
Yayoi turned his gaze to the newcomer, satisfaction flickering in his eyes.
This youth was Kakuzu—one of Yayoi’s greatest achievements over the years.
In the original timeline he had been one of Akatsuki’s immortal duo.
After failing to assassinate the First Hokage, Senju Hashirama, he had been mistreated by Takigakure’s leadership, stolen the village’s forbidden jutsu, and become a missing-nin.
Yet here, before any betrayal had occurred, Yayoi had recruited him early.
Kakuzu now served as a high-ranking member of the Night Kingdom—his right hand.
According to the later ninja ranking system, Kakuzu’s current strength was on par with an elite jōnin.
He excelled in both Earth and Water Release and possessed outstanding taijutsu.
In this unfamiliar, chaotic Warring States era, Kakuzu was one of the few acquaintances Yayoi possessed.
Because the timeline was so far removed from the story’s beginning, many famous ninjas who would later appear never surfaced here.
Most importantly, Yayoi had read the Naruto manga during his student days—specifically the Five Kage Summit arc where the one-eyed man “Uchiha Madara” revealed the Eye of the Moon Plan and declared the Fourth Great Ninja War.
After graduation and work, he had lost both time and motivation to continue following the series.
Moreover, because this was the Warring States period, many of the prophetic details Yayoi remembered did not apply, and there were powerful figures he had never even heard of.
In the Land of Wind there was a ninja named Retsudo capable of generating massive storms spanning dozens of miles with Wind Release.
In the Land of Earth, Ishikawa was literally a human earthquake machine whose Earth Release could shake heaven and earth; in his most famous battle he single-handedly crushed a powerful bloodline clan, collapsing multiple mountains in the process.
A of the Land of Lightning and Byakuren of the Land of Water were both renowned—essentially humanoid natural disasters.
Yayoi had reason to suspect these individuals might be the ones who would later be recognized as equals to the First Hokage, Senju Hashirama.
Otherwise, how could such a coincidence occur across all four other great nations?
“Lord Yayoi, the search team we dispatched has located the Seven-Tails you were seeking.”
Kakuzu organized his thoughts and delivered a concise report.
“Where?”
Yayoi’s mind sharpened.
Even in an era dominated by ninjas, the Tailed Beasts exerted enormous influence.
The Seven-Tails, one of the nine, still inhabited the former territory of the Land of Waterfalls according to all surviving records.
“In the Black Steel Forest.
It is as though the Seven-Tails has always been there and has never left.”
Kakuzu named the location.
…