The sun was setting in the west; dusk had arrived.

Every day, the sun rises in the east and sets in the west—an unchanging law of nature.

However, during times of war, a cursed law governed even the once-prosperous village: every day, someone had to die.

While the entire village was shrouded in the haze of war, silently mourning the fallen heroes, a little brat who had had enough of the funeral atmosphere sneaked away and hid in the Nara Clan's deer farm.

"Damn it! I just wanted to download a mod for a mobile game, and I ended up transmigrating? Damn you, heavens! If you were going to send me to the Naruto world, couldn't you have picked a better time? The end of the Third Shinobi War, with the dark shadows of battle still lingering and the Nine-Tails attack looming ahead—do you have any idea how dangerous this is? People die here—a lot of people, you know?!"

After venting for a long time, the little brat finally calmed down. But just as he was about to feel a little better, his eyes landed on the strange marking on his right palm, and his mood instantly soured again.

His name was Nara Koshino. His name before transmigrating no longer mattered. What did matter was that he was now a member of the Nara Clan's branch family in Konohagakure.

Wait, what? The Nara Clan doesn't have a branch family?

Fine. As a die-hard Naruto fan, Koshino prided himself on knowing the series better than even Kishimoto himself, yet he had never heard of the Nara Clan having a branch family.

In the original work, it was clearly stated that the Nara, Yamanaka, and Akimichi Clans were allies across generations, their elite members forming the famous "Ino-Shika-Cho" trio and acting as steadfast guardians of the Hokage. But now that he had truly transmigrated here, he realized that the so-called generational guardianship was complete nonsense!

Take the mark on his palm, for example. At first glance, it looked like the Nara Clan's emblem, but in reality, it was a cursed seal placed by the successive Hokage to control the Nara Clan!

This seal functioned much like the Hyuga Clan's Caged Bird Seal. Any member of the Nara, Yamanaka, or Akimichi Clans had to receive this seal under the Hokage's supervision upon turning four. In simple terms, once the seal was activated, your life or death was entirely at the Hokage's discretion—resistance was futile.

The only "fortunate" thing about being in the Nara Clan's branch family was that the divide between the main and branch families wasn't as severe as in the Hyuga Clan. After all, whether main or branch family, they all lived under the Hokage's rule. With their futures controlled by the village leader, what was there to fight over?

Koshino had been in this world for three months now. He had already figured out his background and the timeline of the Naruto world.

As a member of the Nara Clan's branch family, his parents had died tragically in the Third Shinobi War shortly after his birth. The only thing they had left behind was a ninjutsu scroll, which was currently in the hands of his uncle, Nara Shikaku. Unfortunately, without enrolling in the Ninja Academy, he didn't even have the qualifications to look at it.

At this point, the Third Hokage had just stepped down, and the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, had taken over. However, the wartime policies remained unchanged—any child who turned five could enter the Ninja Academy.

This meant that Koshino, who had just turned four, only needed to survive a few more months before he could enroll and retrieve his parents' legacy from Shikaku.

But rather than feeling excited, he only felt more depressed.

Because in this world, he was probably the only one who truly understood that survival depended not on clan techniques or even hard work, but on plot armor!

Looking at the original story, so what if you were from the Nara Clan? Even the great noble Hyuga and Uchiha Clans weren't safe.

The Hyuga Clan? In the original, they barely even qualified as extras. Neji, the supposed genius, still died like it was nothing.

The Uchiha Clan? Even worse. In just a few years, they would be wiped out. If you didn't have the potential for a Mangekyō Sharingan, you might as well not even exist.

In the original story, only those favored by fate—like Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha, the reincarnations of Asura and Indra—had any control over their destinies.

Recalling all those tragic fates from the original, Koshino could only sigh at his bleak future. His only option was to embrace the "early bird gets the worm" strategy—train hard and fight against this damn fate!

"Sigh, overthinking won't help. What, just because I don't have a cheat, I shouldn't train? If I slack off now, I might not even last until the Nine-Tails attack! Training is my only way out—it's better than being cannon fodder on the battlefield!"

Shaking off his negative thoughts, Koshino turned toward the carefree deer in the farm, feeling a twinge of envy. Then, he clasped his hands together and formed a unique seal—the hand sign for the Nara Clan's secret technique!

"Shadow Imitation Technique!"

"Buzz…"

"Buzz…"

As he channeled chakra, his shadow stretched out under the sunlight, quickly connecting with that of a nearby deer. Without a doubt, this was the Nara Clan's signature ability, the Shadow Imitation Technique, which allowed the user to bind an opponent by linking their shadow, forcing them to mimic their movements.

If any Nara Clan members had been watching, they would have been shocked!

Even during wartime, a four-year-old wouldn't normally be able to alter their chakra's nature and refine it into the Yin Release chakra necessary for their clan's techniques. Yet, Koshino had managed to do it after only three months of training—a talent surpassing even Shikamaru from the original story!

Just as he felt the deer was fully restrained and was about to manipulate its movements—

"Snap!"

A sharp pain surged through his head, as if a nerve had snapped!

"Damn it, failed again?! I'm a transmigrator, and after three months, I still can't fully master the Shadow Imitation Technique? That's embarrassing!"

While others might marvel at his progress, Koshino wasn't satisfied. He knew just how many geniuses existed in this world!

Kakashi Hatake? Became a Genin at five, a Chunin at seven, and created an S-rank jutsu at ten—how insane is that?

Uchiha Itachi, his peer, awakened the Sharingan at eight and wielded the Mangekyō as a teenager!

Ever since he arrived, Koshino had aimed to surpass Itachi and Kakashi. He had even managed to convince Shikaku to let him glimpse his parents' scroll once, memorizing the Shadow Imitation Technique and chakra refinement methods.

He had been pushing himself to the limit, training obsessively, yet he was still stuck!

The problem wasn't effort—it was talent. His four-year-old body simply wasn't strong enough.

As he rubbed his aching head, he sighed while looking at the cursed mark on his palm. "If it weren't for this damn seal draining my physical energy, I might've already moved on to the next stage of training."

Ding!

"Dear player: Koshino, congratulations! Your energy depletion has reached 1000. The Accelerated Leveling APP has been successfully activated and is now binding…"

"…What?!"

Frozen in place, Koshino could only stare in stunned silence before breaking into a wild grin.

"A cheat! I finally have a cheat! This 'Accelerated Leveling APP'—hell yeah!"

Overwhelmed with joy, Yuye quickly calmed his excitement and asked the system, "APP, can I exchange for the Rinnegan here?"

"Sorry, this service is not available."

"APP, then can I exchange for ninjutsu? Flying Thunder God Technique, Shadow Clone Technique, I want to exchange!"

"Sorry, this service is not available."

"APP, then I want to do some weight training, surely you can handle that?"

"Sorry, this service is not available."

"Then what can you do?"

Asking repeatedly, getting disappointed each time, even the joy of obtaining a golden finger was doused for Yuye.

Just when Yuye was infinitely disappointed, feeling that relying on this knockoff APP was even less useful than training on his own, the Speed Level-Up APP finally gave him a little surprise!

"Player, APP binding successful, the instance you are currently experiencing is 'Naruto', energy consumption reward: Tree Climbing Training Card x1, Water Walking Training Card x1."

"Player, under the condition that requirements are met, you can freely modify the training progress of skills, would you like to proceed with modifications?"

"Yes!"

Finally understanding some of the APP's wonderful uses, after a burst of excitement, Yuye immediately said to the APP, "APP, I want to modify my physical fitness, just simply change it to Sage Body!"