“Yoruha, your turn.”
Inside the classroom of the Konoha Ninja Academy, Iruka Umino looked down at the roster in his hand and called out calmly.
The noisy classroom gradually quieted.
Yoruha rose from his seat without expression and walked toward the examination room beside the classroom.
Today was the graduation exam.
Like every class before them, they were required to perform one of the Three Basic Techniques.
This year’s test was the Clone Technique.
For most students, it was merely the final hurdle before officially becoming shinobi.
For Yoruha, it determined whether he would survive in this world.
Because he was not originally from here.
He was a transmigrator.
Twelve years ago, he had awakened in the world of Naruto Uzumaki with the memories of another life intact.
Unfortunately, unlike the protagonists in stories, he possessed no overwhelming bloodline, no monstrous talent, and no clan support.
His aptitude was painfully ordinary.
No matter how hard he trained, his results remained mediocre.
Not terrible.
But nowhere near exceptional.
Compared to monsters like Sasuke Uchiha, who could master techniques after seeing them only once, or prodigies like Itachi Uchiha who graduated at an absurdly young age, Yoruha was nothing remarkable.
At best, he could become a Chunin after years of effort.
And in the world of Naruto, average shinobi died in batches.
The examination did not last long.
Soon, Yoruha emerged from the room holding a graduation form stamped clearly with the word:
Pass.
No one paid much attention.
Several girls immediately rushed toward Sasuke again.
Other students celebrated loudly with friends.
Yoruha quietly returned to his seat and sat down.
“Graduation…”
He lowered his head onto the desk.
“From now on, I officially become a ninja.”
“A profession with one of the highest mortality rates in this world.”
There was no joy on his face.
Only exhaustion.
He had trained desperately for years, yet the ceiling above him never moved.
The cruelest thing in the ninja world was not laziness.
It was talent.
Bloodlines.
Destiny.
The difference between ordinary people and monsters was larger than the distance between heaven and earth.
“Maybe this is enough.”
“At least I already lived twelve extra years.”
“To transmigrate once is basically dying once already.”
A faint bitter smile appeared on his lips.
Then—
A voice suddenly echoed inside his mind.
“Boy… are you planning to accept that fate?”
Yoruha’s pupils contracted.
Before he could react, his consciousness abruptly sank downward as if dragged into an endless abyss.
Darkness swallowed everything.
The classroom disappeared.
The noise disappeared.
Even his body vanished from perception.
When Yoruha opened his eyes again, he found himself standing within a vast crimson space resembling flowing magma.
The heat distorted the atmosphere.
At the center stood a tall man wearing a white Marine coat draped over his shoulders.
On the back of the coat was a single enormous kanji:
Justice.
The man slowly turned around.
A stern face.
A square jaw.
A terrifying oppressive aura.
Yoruha’s breathing stopped for a moment.
“…Akainu?!”
The man before him was unmistakably Sakazuki.
The Fleet Admiral of the Marines.
The man who possessed the Mag-Mag Fruit, a Devil Fruit with the highest offensive power among Logia abilities.
Akainu gazed at him coldly.
“Your talent is poor.”
His voice was like volcanic rock grinding together.
“But that does not matter.”
“Power is not decided by talent alone.”
“I will entrust everything I have to you.”
“Do not disgrace my strength.”
Yoruha’s mind became chaotic.
Dream?
Genjutsu?
Hallucination?
Before he could think further, Akainu raised both hands and placed them firmly on Yoruha’s shoulders.
BOOM.
A heartbeat echoed through the crimson world.
Then another.
Then another.
Like war drums.
An unimaginable torrent of power exploded into Yoruha’s body.
Magma.
Domineering Haki.
Combat instincts.
Battle experience.
Physical strength refined through countless life-and-death battles.
Everything poured into him violently.
Yoruha’s eyes widened.
Veins bulged across his body.
“Ghh—!”
His consciousness nearly shattered from the overwhelming force.
Akainu’s figure gradually faded.
“Inherit it.”
“Then show me… how far this power can evolve in another world.”
The crimson space collapsed instantly.
Back in the classroom, Yoruha remained slumped over his desk motionlessly.
From the outside, it looked as though he had simply fallen asleep.
But inside his body—
Everything was changing.
His cells continuously broke apart and regenerated.
Bones strengthened.
Muscles compressed and expanded repeatedly.
His chakra pathways widened violently under the pressure of overwhelming energy.
Pain beyond imagination surged through every nerve.
Yet not a single scream escaped his mouth.
Not even sweat appeared on his forehead.
Because along with Akainu’s strength came terrifying willpower.
The spiritual force of a top-tier Haki monster was absurdly powerful.
Meanwhile, chakra inside his body began increasing at a horrifying speed.
Chakra was born from the combination of physical energy and spiritual energy.
Now, both had undergone monstrous enhancement.
His body alone far surpassed ordinary taijutsu specialists.
Even shinobi like Might Guy, who specialized in extreme physical conditioning, would not possess such overwhelming raw vitality in base form at this age.
And spiritually—
Akainu’s Armament Haki and terrifying iron will elevated Yoruha’s mental strength to an outrageous level.
The combination caused his chakra reserves to explode exponentially.
The amount continued rising.
Growing.
Expanding.
Transforming.
By the time the graduation exams ended, the chakra inside Yoruha’s body had already reached an utterly terrifying scale.
At last, he slowly opened his eyes.
The classroom was nearly empty now.
Students were leaving excitedly while discussing team assignments.
Yoruha silently stood up.
The moment he moved—
He almost crushed the floor beneath his feet.
His pupils shrank slightly.
“This…”
He could clearly feel it.
The strength flowing through every muscle.
The surging magma-like energy within his body.
The overwhelming chakra circulating through his pathways.
It was real.
He truly inherited Akainu’s power.
Not merely the Mag-Mag Fruit.
Everything.
Combat experience.
Physical strength.
Haki.
Willpower.
Battle instincts.
Even his body had begun adapting toward the level of a Marine monster capable of fighting for ten days straight on Punk Hazard.
Yoruha inhaled slowly.
The surrounding air felt unusually fragile.
Even breathing seemed hotter.
“My chakra…”
He narrowed his eyes.
“It’s already absurd.”
At this point in time, Naruto Uzumaki possessed enormous chakra reserves for a child due to being an Uzumaki and the influence of the Nine-Tails.
However, most of Kurama’s chakra remained sealed by the Eight Trigrams Seal left by Minato Namikaze.
The chakra Naruto could actively use was only a fraction of the beast’s full power.
Yoruha, meanwhile, possessed chakra reserves already approaching the level of a tailed beast in human form.
And this was only the beginning.
The terrifying thing about Akainu was never merely destructive power.
It was growth through relentless combat.
Yoruha clenched his fist slightly.
The skin of his hand instantly reddened from heat before returning to normal.
His eyes gradually became calm.
The anxiety that had haunted him for twelve years disappeared silently.
Before today, he constantly worried about surviving the future.
The Chunin Exams.
Orochimaru’s invasion.
Akatsuki.
The Fourth Shinobi War.
Madara.
Kaguya.
Every future disaster felt like an unavoidable death sentence for an ordinary ninja.
But now—
Everything had changed.
Yoruha slowly walked out of the academy beneath the setting sun.
For the first time since arriving in this world…
He no longer feared survival.