“Is he the one Jiraiya mentioned?”
“Yes, Lord Hokage.
Lord Jiraiya found him in the Land of Bears.
The boy’s parents have both passed away.
After Lord Jiraiya vetted him and confirmed he is an orphan of the Uzumaki Clan, he ordered this subordinate to escort him back to the village.”
Inside the Hokage’s office, an ANBU knelt on one knee to report.
Behind him stood a red-haired boy of about six, idly surveying the furnishings of the room.
“Did Jiraiya say when he’d be back?”
“He did not, Lord Hokage.”
“Mm.
You may go.”
“Yes, sir!”
Swish!
The half-kneeling ANBU shinobi abruptly vanished.
Only then did the red-haired boy react, staring intently at the spot where the ANBU shinobi had disappeared, as if curious about where he’d gone.
Heh… a child after all, still at the age of being fascinated by shinobi.
So thought the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi.
He rose from his chair, slowly strolled out from behind the desk to stand before the boy, then crouched down so his eyes were level with the child’s.
“Child, what is your name?”
“My name is Uzumaki Genshin, Lord Hokage.”
“Haha… a fine-sounding name.
How old are you this year?
And your parents—what are their names?”
“I’m six this year.
My father’s name is Uzumaki Ashima, and my mother’s is Uzumaki Natsu.”
“Uzumaki Ashima… is this how it’s written?”
Hiruzen Sarutobi stood and walked to the desk, took up a brush, and wrote the characters for “Ashima,” holding them up before the boy for confirmation.
“Yes, Lord Hokage.”
“Good boy.
Go sit over there and rest for a while.”
Having the red-haired child sit on the sofa to one side, Hiruzen Sarutobi returned to his desk deep in thought and sat down, absently picking up the pipe resting there.
First, in Hiruzen Sarutobi’s estimation, the odds of this child being a spy were very slim.
Every great shinobi village treasured the Uzumaki Clan bloodline—naturally suited to become Jinchūriki—like a priceless jewel, let alone would any of them dispatch such blood as a spy.
Even to a minor shinobi village, the Uzumaki Clan’s constitution held immense value.
Second, the name Uzumaki Ashima rang a bell for Hiruzen Sarutobi—he was the great-grandson of Lord Ashina Uzumaki.
When the Land of Whirlpools was destroyed, the flames of the Second Shinobi World War had been at their fiercest.
At that time Konoha’s forces were stretched thin; even freshly graduated Genin were being sent to the front lines, and there was simply no way to send reinforcements across the sea to the far-flung Land of Whirlpools.
Back then, Hiruzen Sarutobi had gritted his teeth and scraped together a small mixed detachment of ANBU and Root, sending them by name-list to search for the direct bloodline of the Uzumaki Clan—but sadly, they’d searched everywhere and come up empty.
So this child is from the Uzumaki chieftain’s line, then.
And it just so happens that lately Root has been reaching its hands out too far… and since this child is also of the Uzumaki Clan, perhaps…
Hiruzen Sarutobi took a deep pull on his pipe, a plan forming in his mind.
Tap tap!
He rapped the desk lightly twice with his pipe.
“Lord Hokage.”
A figure appeared out of thin air—an ANBU wearing a beast-face mask, kneeling on one knee.
The sudden commotion made Genshin jump.
Pushing a slip of paper with an address written on it to the front of the desk, Hiruzen Sarutobi signaled the beast-masked ANBU to take it.
“Arrange a residence for him at this address.
I’ll personally bring him over shortly.”
The beast-masked ANBU glanced at the paper.
“This address is… Understood.”
Swish!
The ANBU shinobi vanished.
“Child, from now on you may live in Konoha with an easy mind.
I’ve already arranged lodging for you; you needn’t worry about food, clothing, or daily needs.”
“Your father was a friend of Konoha Village.
We will not mistreat his child.”
“Yes, thank you, Lord Hokage.”
Uzumaki Genshin thanked him obediently.
…
That night.
Uzumaki Genshin sized up the furnishings of the room.
His lodging was on the second floor of this residential building—quite large for a single-person apartment, with a spacious one-bedroom, one-living-room layout.
One side had been set aside as a dedicated training room, the other was the bedroom.
And most crucially of all—the one living upstairs was Prince Naruto.
When the Third had first brought him here, Genshin had recognized it: this was the very building where Naruto lived.
Once the future prince took office as Hokage, the property value here would, conservatively, double.
Setting me right beneath Naruto—is he hoping I’ll get on good terms with the two Uzumaki cubs, Naruto and me?
Or is it so that, while checking in, he can brainwash us both with the Will of Fire at once?
But none of that mattered for now.
What mattered was that I finally had a damn place to rest properly.
On the road to Konoha, Genshin had been on the move for a full week, and now that he finally had a proper place to settle, he could have wept.
Just as everyone’s guessed—Uzumaki Genshin is a glorious transmigrator.
Originally he’d been an ordinary office worker at some bank, but unfortunately, the job carried enormous stress.
Late one night, after a long stretch of 996 grind, he’d made it home before eleven for once and, on a whim, revisited a certain old anime—only for the sheer exhaustion to trigger a heart attack.
His vision went black and he lost consciousness.
Damn… does dying at home even count as a workplace injury…
That was the office worker’s final thought.
When he opened his eyes again, he’d arrived in the Land of Bears in the Shinobi World, reborn as a newborn baby of the Uzumaki Clan.
It wasn’t until his parents died in his sixth year that Genshin gradually recalled his memories of his past life.
With no one to rely on, Genshin wandered for a long time before he finally pieced together the current timeline.
At this point, three years had passed since the Nine-Tails’ Night—which meant Prince Naruto had only just turned three.
So for my Uzumaki Clan bloodline to develop, I’ve got to get to Konoha no matter what…
Genshin was still puzzling over how to sneak into Konoha on the strength of a head of red hair, when he was spotted by some passing white-haired old fellow wearing a forehead protector marked with the character “Oil.” The conspicuous red hair let Jiraiya deduce almost instantly that this child was an Uzumaki Clan cub.
Upon learning that Genshin was all alone due to the war, the two had a friendly chat and reached a consensus: an Uzumaki cub belonged in Konoha.
And so Jiraiya summoned a toad to notify the village to send ANBU and ship Genshin back to Konoha, packaged and delivered.
And that was how Uzumaki Genshin came to Konoha Village.
What’s more… there was an interesting coincidence.
He walked to the mirror and looked at himself in it.
Aside from the striking red hair, this face was identical to his own as a child in his past life—handsome of feature, with a warmth and resilience in his brows and eyes.
Genshin touched his own face, and suddenly thought of something—there was something extra in his memories.
Perhaps it was a transmigration gift package, or perhaps the influence of the old anime he’d been watching right before transmigrating—”An Aspiring Youth Dio Outwits a Rich Playboy”—but as his memories gradually returned, Genshin discovered some extra knowledge lodged in his brain: it was the Hamon Breathing cultivated by the protagonists of Parts 1 and 2 of “JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure,” complete with various training methods and techniques.
Hamon Breathing is a cultivation method that controls blood circulation and manipulates the body through a special breathing technique.
It was originally created by its inventor as a breathing discipline for self-cultivation and the pursuit of the sage’s path—using breath to manipulate the body, generating life energy from within and harnessing it.
Put plainly, it’s like the internal energy of wuxia novels, and Hamon energy is essentially internal force.
Like internal force, the Hamon can strengthen bodily functions, manipulate the human body, strike an ox across a mountain, and detect life; trained to great heights, it can even slow aging and foresee destiny.
It also carries the Sun attribute, making it highly effective against horror-film creatures like vampires and zombies.
Sounds badass, right?
But here’s the problem…
This is the freaking Shinobi World!
Even if you trained the Hamon to death, you’d be Captain America at best—am I supposed to have Captain America fight an Uchiha dance master in the future?
That’d be hilarious.
Give me a Demon Slayer world to transmigrate into instead… at least the Hamon would be professionally on-point there, wouldn’t it?
I could even use the Hamon to bring a smile to Muzan.
Genshin sighed.
Fortunately, looking at this head of vivid red hair, at least he was an Uzumaki Clan cub, so his floor wasn’t too low—the Uzumaki Clan’s Sage Body guaranteed that his future would be “Cha-ton-ra” rather than mere Chakra.
For now Genshin didn’t even know how to cultivate Chakra, so after thinking it over he decided to practice the Hamon first—at the very least, the Hamon could strengthen the body!
And as a modern man who believed in science, Genshin was naturally full of curiosity about supernatural power, and now he wanted to test just what this Hamon business was all about.
Let me see how to do this first.
Mm, according to the memories in my head…
Breathe in this rhythm—exhale… inhale… exhale… inhale…
Just as tossing a stone into water sends up Hamons, this breathing technique made Hamons form within the blood, thereby generating Hamon energy in the body.
Hummm—
Genshin looked at his hands before him.
A faint golden halo shimmered at his fingertips, while tiny currents of air spread outward in ring-shaped Hamons.
It worked!
The moment Genshin got excited, his breathing fell into disarray, and the halo on his hands dispersed along with it.
Tch, got careless.
One more time!
Following the breathing rhythm from just now, Genshin made both his hands light up with the halo of Hamon energy.
So this is the Hamon.
Full of enthusiasm, Genshin maintained the breathing technique, letting this energy circulate gradually through his blood vessels and throughout his whole body along with his breath.
The instant his entire body brimmed with the Hamon, Genshin felt his body grow light, yet the moment he clenched his fist, he felt it full of power.
At the same time his senses became extraordinarily sharp.
A light tap of his toe against the floor sent out Hamons that fed back information about his surroundings.
There’s one person living upstairs… judging by the Hamon’s feedback, it seems to be a child—must be Prince Naruto.
And there’s another reaction on the rooftop.
This feeling—it’s the beast-masked ANBU from the daytime.
Here to protect or surveil Prince Naruto?
Maybe protecting me on the side too?
Anything farther away he couldn’t sense.
Genshin estimated the range of his perception—roughly thirty meters in diameter.
Next came physical abilities.
Genshin methodically tested them one by one, until at last, worn out and unable to sustain the breathing technique, he sprawled spread-eagle on the floor, gasping for breath.
From this rough test, with the Hamon active he was basically a Captain America.
Even discounting the Hamon’s special abilities—energy attacks, penetration, high heat—by pure flesh and bone alone, splitting stone tablets and scaling walls was no trouble at all.
In his past life this would’ve been badass, but this was the Shinobi World.
Just think of Hashirama, that cheat, with his Wood Release: True Several Thousand Hands towering into a Buddha—a single punch nearly a hundred meters across.
With a frail little frame like Genshin’s, one punch and he’d be off scouting which world to transmigrate to next.
Might as well transmigrate to Demon Slayer next time—I’m professionally on-point there, I’m begging you.
Genshin, his imagination running wild, reined in his thoughts, because he’d also noticed something interesting—the intensity of the Hamon was off.
Feeling the endless stream of abnormally high-temperature Hamon energy in his hands, this body—only six years old—seemed to have, on its very first extraction, already surpassed the first- and second-generation protagonists of the “JoJo” original in both Hamon intensity and volume.
Was it the influence of the Uzumaki Clan’s Sage Body?
The Hamon is the energy of life, and the Sage Body possesses the most formidable life force in the entire Shinobi World.
It seemed only reasonable that a body like this would produce a Hamon of such intensity.
“Hoo-ahh—”
Genshin yawned.
It was ten o’clock now, and his body told him it was time to sleep.
A six-year-old’s body was, after all, nothing like his past life’s all-nighter-champion body.
Eat your meals one bite at a time, cultivate one step at a time.
I’m only six—I’ll work hard again tomorrow!