NOVEL NEXT Chapter 1: Yasu
The Third Ninja War was almost over, with just over a year left to end, as Yasu remembered. After all, Yasu and Kakashi were 12 years old, and Kakashi should have been 14 or almost 15 at the time of Minato's death during Naruto's birth.
Since Minato was not yet Hokage, Yasu must have been right despite the known differences between the actual timeline and the ages of the characters in the Naruto anime.
Since Yasu had not interfered with anything in the Naruto world, it was certain that things would continue as they were supposed to happen. Therefore, Yasu didn't have to worry about the Third Ninja War.
And why was that? Because Yasu hadn't even managed to become a genin or graduate from the ninja academy. Meanwhile, Kakashi was shining in the Third Ninja War alongside Minato and would soon become a jonin.
Even the worst academy students besides him, like Guy and Obito, had already graduated. Obito and Rin were already chunin by then.
Yasu had fulfilled his dream of coming to the Naruto world. He always read the manga, watched the anime, and imagined himself living in this world. Despite knowing he was an orphan and a civilian, this didn't discourage Yasu.
Yasu used a determination he had never had in his past life and trained as much as possible, pushing himself to exhaustion for many years to become a better shinobi, like Guy, even though he was a civilian.
But unfortunately, as the years went by, Yasu realized that his body, as a civilian, was worse than that of other shinobi children—worse even than other civilian shinobi.
Fortunately, what gave Yasu hope was that he had a small amount of chakra. His body was different from normal humans in his previous world. But even with more effort than most, Yasu was always the weakest in taijutsu battles.
His chakra control was also poor, so Yasu was doomed to become the worst shinobi in the ninja academy, aside from the students who had already given up.
Because of this, Yasu couldn't become a genin, and living in the Naruto world, Yasu knew that the greatest sin he could commit was to be weak. Soon, the Nine-Tails would attack the village, and Yasu knew he could die, even knowing what was going to happen.
Guy was one of Yasu's best friends. After all, Yasu never doubted him or thought that Guy was less talented than Kakashi. Since Guy had few friends and saw Yasu's effort, they soon became friends.
Guy respected Yasu greatly for his dedication to training, and he was the most surprised to see that Yasu's training wasn't yielding results. Yasu's lack of strength, even after so much training, went against everything Guy believed about hard work.
After the first few years of ninja academy, Yasu's small progress dwindled even more. He couldn't even engage in friendly sparring with Guy or the other academy students because his body was too weak.
Even knowing this, Yasu didn't give up on his daily training, which lasted until he nearly collapsed from exhaustion. Now, Guy was out of the village, as were most of Yasu's peers who had been sent to war.
The only good thing about lacking talent was that Yasu could still live in the village and not die, like half of his academy classmates who had already perished in the Third Ninja War.
Unfortunately, Yasu still had to work even in this world. He couldn't take on missions as a ninja, and as an orphan with unknown parents, Yasu didn't receive a stipend from the village. He was lucky not to be sent to the orphanage, allowing him to train.
"I can't give up. I have to keep training so I can at least use the basic ninjutsu and become a chunin to defend myself," Yasu thought.
With this conviction, Yasu kept training. But after being in this Naruto world for six years, Yasu's luck finally began to change.
Yasu, who was training, began to notice that something was different in his body. Something seemed to be awakening and changing within him. Yasu could feel his chakra increasing dramatically, and within seconds, it had multiplied several times over. His body also visibly strengthened.
"What is happening to me?"
[DING]
[Congratulations to the host for successfully awakening the system!]
[In this system, all of the host's hard work will be rewarded. As an initial gift, your body will be strengthened, and your chakra will increase as compensation for all your training over the past six years.]
Yasu heard this and was initially stunned. Then, he sat down on the ground and began to cry tears of joy. Despite trying to stay optimistic, Yasu had been suffering from the pressure of daily life since arriving in the Naruto world and realizing that he had no talent and couldn't improve no matter how much effort he put in.
Now, feeling his body strengthen dozens of times over and his chakra multiply just as much, Yasu felt that he finally had a chance to survive in this world and even make a difference.
Yasu was even happier to have a system to help him become a stronger shinobi. After all, even if the system only rewarded him with improvements based on his efforts, it was enough for Yasu to feel confident in becoming as strong as Guy.
After some time, Yasu was shocked to realize just how much his chakra had increased. He didn't know if he had been incredibly weak before or if he had now become incredibly strong. However, if he could compare, he would see that his chakra level had reached that of a low-ranking chunin.
But just a few minutes before the system appeared, that level had been Yasu's ultimate goal for surviving in the Naruto world. And now, that goal had already been achieved—even though he was only 12 years old.