Late September in Tokyo.
Technically autumn, but the air hadn’t gotten the memo — there was still enough summer heat hanging around to make you sweat.
A gust of wind swept up a few half-turned red leaves and carried them through a half-open glass window into the student council room.
“Hey, President.
What do you think people are even living for?” Uchiha Ayato was leaning against the windowsill, watching the leaves drift down, and just casually lobbed that question at the pink-haired girl sharing the room with him.
He used to have such big plans.
Back when he’d first been reincarnated as a member of the Uchiha clan, he’d genuinely believed he was the chosen one — destined to knock Menma off his high horse and shake the entire ninja world to its core.
And then?
On that night, five-year-old him had been cut down by Uchiha Itachi.
When he opened his eyes again, he was in this world.
Starting from zero.
Again.
He’d grown up in a government care facility, then clawed his way into this middle school on grades alone, becoming vice-president of the student council, the star ace of the football club, and — at some point — everyone’s favorite go-to guy, “Our Ayato.” He’d even worked alongside this president for three whole years.
Man…
life really doesn’t pull its punches, does it?
Having died twice now, Uchiha Ayato had exactly one goal left in life — Get strong enough to protect everything that mattered.
Then live quietly ever after.
“…Huh?” Chihaya Anon had been buried in a pile of paperwork.
The question made her pen freeze mid-stroke.
She looked up.
Her pretty face was written all over with what on earth is this guy on about, her eyes full of genuine confusion.
“Ayarin, you literally sound like one of those old men who get hit by autumn feelings and start getting all philosophical.” Anon stood up, hands on her hips, the smug little grin she could never quite hide dancing all over her face.
“Stop moping around!
We’ve all got bright futures ahead of us, especially this president…” “I’m going to England for high school!
England!” “The second I get there, I’m gonna make a whole bunch of blonde, blue-eyed foreign friends, have afternoon tea by the Thames on weekends, and post it on Insta for a few thousand likes!” Ayato had long since gotten used to being called Ayarin — arguably the girliest nickname anyone had ever stuck on him.
He just lazily sank back onto the sofa, a slow smile creeping up one corner of his mouth.
“England, huh…” “Nice place.” He said it completely casually.
“But Anon, with that Japanese-accented English of yours where you pronounce apple like ah-pu-ru…
you really think you’re gonna hold a conversation over there?” “I can already picture it.
You try to order fish and chips, and the guy behind the counter thinks you’re chanting some ancient Far Eastern curse at him.” “Being able to write it and actually speak it are two very different things, you know?” Chihaya Anon’s smile froze on her face.
Uchiha Ayato poured more fuel on the fire, somehow making the most punchable words sound perfectly pleasant: “A few months in, and a certain attention-seeking president will probably be sick to death of fish and chips, completely lost in translation with zero friends, crying into her pillow all alone — and finally tucking tail and crawling back to Tokyo in the dead of night.” “UCHIHA AYATO!” Anon’s cheeks went scarlet in an instant.
She stormed over to the sofa and glared down at him, tiny fangs just barely peeking out from between her lips.
But then something seemed to occur to her.
Her eyes shifted, and against all odds, a smug little smile crept back onto her face.
“Oh, I see what this is.
Ayarin, you’re just being a tsundere~” She leaned down, and suddenly the distance between them was a lot smaller than it had been.
“You’re saying all this horrible stuff, but deep down you’re just gonna miss me when I’m gone, aren’t you?” “Like those immature little boys who pull a girl’s hair because they don’t know how to say they like her?” She deliberately dropped her voice, eyes locked onto his deep dark gaze.
“Listen up, okay?
If you like me, you can just say so, you know~” “I’m not heartless, you know, I’m Chihaya Anon~” “…” Uchiha Ayato just smiled and said nothing, his eyes drifting to the glowing little text floating in front of him — [Daily Mission (3/3): Bully Haruno Sakura once.] [Status: Complete] [Reward: Chakra +500] Don’t flatter yourself, pink hair.
You’re just a stepping stone on my road to power.
After reincarnating, beyond his Sharingan’s three base abilities — observation, replication, and hypnosis — all massively enhanced, Uchiha Ayato had also woken up to a little golden gift: The [God of Shinobi] System.
Its main job was to hand him missions and dish out rewards.
The three daily missions it cranked out like clockwork mostly gave piddly little Chakra bonuses or basic ninjutsu — crumbs, honestly.
But the event missions that popped up occasionally?
Those had some seriously juicy rewards.
As a bonus, it also doubled as a power-level scanner.
Not that anyone with eyes couldn’t tell the system was at least a little bit broken.
Ayato had no idea how it had decided Chihaya Anon was Haruno Sakura.
Probably because they were both pink-haired and both, uh…
lacking in the chest department.
Whatever.
As long as the rewards came in.
When a buggy piece of software is somehow running fine, you don’t go hunting for the broken line of code.
“Hey, what are you smiling at?!
I’m seriously waiting for your confession!” Anon stomped her foot, irritated.
“You snooze, you lose, you know!
This is a limited-time offer!” “Pfft——” Uchiha Ayato finally couldn’t hold it and let out a quiet laugh.
“President, I think you might have some kind of romantic misunderstanding about what we are.” He raised one hand and lightly tapped his fingertip against Chihaya Anon’s forehead.
“You want me to play at romance with you?” “I have no reason to like you, and no reason for you to like me.” “If you really want to hear me confess, want to see me go red in the face and beg you not to leave…” “My suggestion is that you go to bed early tonight.
Maybe order a couple of books on lucid dreaming first.” “Go experience it in a dream.
You can have anything in there — a line of people who like you stretching around the globe, world’s most beloved girl, the whole package~” “YOU——!!!” Chihaya Anon shot to her feet, her whole body shaking.
“I hate you!
I hate you so much, Uchiha Ayato!” Her eyes had gone a little red.
Her tiny fangs were biting hard into her lower lip.
A second later, she whirled back to her desk, swept both arms across it, and launched the entire stack of thick documents straight at Ayato’s chest.
Paper exploded everywhere, sheets raining down all over the floor.
“Check the rest yourself!
I quit!” And with that, Chihaya Anon was gone — not a glance back, straight out the door of the student council room.
She slammed it hard enough to rattle the walls.
Ayato sat there hugging the scattered documents, looked down at the A4 sheets covering the floor, and sighed.
Then he slowly crouched down and started picking them up one by one.
“Might’ve gone a bit too far there…” “Guess I’ll apologize tonight~” “But there’s really no helping it.
What’s coming next — she’d be terrified if she saw.” Uchiha Ayato set the papers back on the desk, turned, and let his gaze drift back to the window.
Deep in those dark pupils, something stirred.
Scratch…
scratch…
A faint sound — like a hard-shelled insect scraping its legs against glass.
On the outside of the window, pressed flat against it, was a chunk of flesh roughly half the size of a person.
It had the twisted face of a human infant and the compound eyes of a bug.
Its barbed, segmented limbs scraped rhythmically at the glass surface, dragging a thick, reeking, half-transparent trail of slime across it in the afternoon light.
“This world’s got a lot going for it.
No living day-to-day on the knife’s edge, no blood and guts every waking moment, actual video games exist…” “The only downside is that disgusting things like this keep popping up.” Uchiha Ayato got to his feet and walked toward the window.
His empty hand was no longer empty — somewhere along the way, he’d closed his fingers around a ninja blade that caught the light like a sliver of cold moonlight.
Author’s Note: New writer, new book — please be kind!
Why stitch in characters from other series?
Simple: the female cast of Jujutsu Kaisen does nothing for me, and I love to write harem stories, not a single female-lead-free story.
So I stitched some in.
Also, some timeline details in this book may not match the source material — that’s intentional.
The timeline serves the plot, not the other way around.
Forcing a rigid fit would just tie my hands.
To be continued…