Chapter 1:

A cold shiver ran across my body as I slowly opened my eyes. “What the hell happened…” I mumbled, my words slurred. I felt weak, really weak.

I turned my head to the side and took in my immediate surroundings. Freakishly tall trees loomed all around me—I was in some kind of forest. My body was buried a few inches deep in wet mud, explaining why I felt so cold and weak. I pushed myself up and shook my head, sending clumps of mud flying from my hair.

I tried to remember what happened. How did I wind up in the forest? Were there even woods this thick anywhere near campus? The last thing I remembered was going to sleep in my dorm room last night.

If this isn't a dream, then that means…

“Is this actually happening!?” I asked myself out loud before pausing. “Wait—my voice sounds different!” I hadn't noticed it earlier. I sounded younger, with a higher pitch and a slight accent I didn't recognize.

It wasn't just my imagination—I felt shorter. A glance down at my arms and legs confirmed it. My limbs were shorter and thinner than they should be. I wasn't a total gym rat, but I was a woman who liked to keep in shape.

All the evidence pointed to the insane theory that popped into my head.

I wasn't in my own body…

I let out a sigh. “Well, shit…”

First things first, I needed to find out where I was and what was going on. I woke up in a new body, halfway buried in mud, in the middle of the woods. That wasn't a good sign. In fact, it pretty much sounded like the start of a generic murder.

And what’s with these weird clothes I’m wearing? I looked like a Naruto cosplayer. I reached up to my neck and felt something hanging there. I pulled it off to get a better look.

It was a headband—a Leaf Village Ninja headband.

I didn't think I was wearing cosplay anymore. I was pretty sure this was all very real!

…I needed to get out of the forest. Whoever owned my new body before me was obviously a ninja—or kunoichi, I suppose. A young kunoichi, no doubt, but a kunoichi all the same. Whatever killed her sure as hell would be able to kill me.

I wrapped the headband back around my neck and tied it tightly. Picking a random direction, I started my trek through the muddy forest floor.

My exhaustion wasn't making things easy. It was strange—my body felt alright, but I was completely drained of energy for some reason.

*Negative Status Effect Detected: Chakra Exhaustion! 1 hour penalty enforced!*

Floating text sprang up in front of my face out of nowhere! I was so caught off guard that I stumbled and almost collapsed face-first in the mud again.

I steadied myself against a tree trunk and took a calming breath. My eyes widened as the text changed and more information appeared on the floating screen. “No way…” I muttered in disbelief. Was this really happening!?

*System Message: The Ninja System has finished installing! Welcome to your new life!*

Name: Kasumi Hayabusa

Stat Points 0

Perk Points 1

Level 1 (0 / 1000 XP)

Chakra Points 0/100

Body 1 / 20 (+) (0/1000 XP) Ninjas need to be strong and fast. This Stat influences your strength, speed and durability.

(+Click here to view available Body Perks+)

Spirit 1 / 20 (0/1000 XP) Ninjas have to have heart, but more than that–they need chakra. This Stat influences your chakra capacity and chakra based abilities. 

(+Click here to view available Spirit Perks+)

Mind 1 / 20 (0/1000 XP) Dumb ninjas don't last very long in this world. This Stat influences your intelligence, learning speeds, and mental capacity.

(+Click here to view available Mind Perks+)

Tech 1 / 20 (0/1000 XP) What makes Ninja’s special? Their wide variety of techniques! This Stat influences your arsenal and proficiency in Kunoichi techniques and Jutsu.

(+Click here to view available Tech Perks+)

Luck 1 / 20 (0/1000 XP) Bad luck has been the death of many talented Ninjas. This Stat influences your overall fortune in this world.

(+Click here to view available Luck Perks+)

*Administrator Message: Good luck in your new life, and try not to die. There’s no restarting in this game…*

This was all unbelievable! This wasn’t a dream. I was really in a completely different world with my own system. I knew I should have been mad at whoever or whatever abducted me and stuck me here, but all I felt was excitement!

…

Three hours later, that excitement had faded a bit…

I had been trudging through the forest for what felt like hours. I was completely lost. Picking a random direction might not have been the best move in hindsight. I probably should have taken the time to properly search for some footprints in the mud. That would have given me a proper starting direction—although I probably still would have ended up lost in the end.

My chakra exhaustion cleared up once my Chakra Points started to slowly recover. I didn't have an exact timer, but I estimated that I recovered 1 Chakra Point every minute. Once the 1-hour penalty expired, the bar slowly started to refill until it was full again.

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Unfortunately, my recovered Chakra did nothing for my aching muscles at this point. My legs were burning from all this annoying hiking through the woods. I quickly learned that I absolutely hated ninja sandals. My toes were NOT well protected, and I had stubbed all of them multiple times during this long hike. If I ever made it back to Konoha, I would immediately buy some actual shoes.

*+100 Body XP for pushing past your physical limits!*

“I wish I knew how to actually use my Chakra,” I lamented to myself while carefully stepping over a series of thick tree roots. The trees all around were far too freakishly tall for me to attempt climbing with just my already aching muscles. Other than my poor toes, I had managed to mostly make it so far without getting injured. I hoped to keep it that way…

“Grrrrrrrrrrrr!” And that was the sound of my smooth journey so far coming to an end…

“...Fuck.” A wolf just emerged from the bushes directly in front of me.

I did my very best not to scream. That would only make things worse. I'd never seen a full-grown wolf in real life before, but I didn't think they were supposed to be this big! Did Naruto have direwolves, or was this a chakra beast? This thing was the size of a grown horse!

Spit dripped from its jaws as it bared its fangs and snarled at me. It moved closer with every step I took backward.

“Nice doggy… You don’t want to eat me…” I said while slowly backing away. There was a pouch on my hip that contained a few kunai. I grabbed one of the knives and gripped it tightly in my hand.

The wolf didn’t seem to like me pulling out steel! It opened its jaws wide and lunged at me! I threw both my arms in front of me in a panic. My kunai was knocked out of my hand. I couldn’t do anything! I had never screamed so loudly as I did when the massive beast sank its fangs into my left arm. I could feel its teeth clash against my bones!

This was it, I was going to die. They say your life flashes before your eyes, but all I could think in that moment was how sad and pathetic a gamer I was. I was basically an isekai protagonist now, and I was going to die to some random dumb beast.

The wolf started thrashing its head back and forth, trying to tear my left arm off! I let out another scream of agony.

“Kasumi! Get off her, you filthy mutt!”

I heard a man scream a name—my new name, I think. Then came a squelching noise followed by the wolf howling in pain. A second later, its jaws slackened, and the wolf slumped over next to me, dead. A shinobi dressed in black, holding a bloody katana, stood over the corpse. His lower face was covered by a black mask, but his green eyes were filled with concern.

Relief flooded my being. I think the blood loss was starting to get to me, though. I heard my rescuer call out my name once more, but I didn't have the strength to respond. My eyes rolled back, and I passed out…

…I woke up later to the steady beeping of a heartbeat monitor. It took me a moment to remember everything that had happened to me. When I did, the monitor started beeping frantically!

I'd never been in such a terrifying situation. I almost died…

“Kasumi! You're awake…”

My mental state was such a mess that I didn't even notice someone sitting next to my hospital bed until they spoke up.

I sat up and glanced over at them. It was my savior, except he wasn't wearing his lower face mask. He looked to be around 20 years old, with Asian features, dark brown hair, and bright green eyes.

“Hi…?” I said to him.

He smiled at me fondly. “I'm glad you're okay, Kasumi. I don't know what I would have done if I lost you too,” he said.

Shit… this guy obviously knew the previous ‘me.’ That was going to make the next words out of my mouth painful for him to hear.

“Who are you…?”

His eyes widened in shock. “What? Kasumi, it's me. I'm your brother, Ryu! Don’t you recognize me?”

I shook my head. “I'm sorry… I don't remember anything.”

He gaped at me for a moment before he stood up and quickly ran out of the room. I could hear him shouting for a doctor down the hallway. He returned shortly, practically dragging a medical ninja into the room with him.

“Fix my sister!” Ryu ordered the man. “There's something wrong with her memories!”

The doctor did his best, but I doubted there was anything he could actually do. If I hadn't gained any of Kasumi’s memories yet, then I doubted I ever would. Watching him perform multiple diagnostic and healing Jutsu up close had been pretty cool, though. In the end, he shook his head at my brother in defeat.

“I'm sorry, Hayabusa-sama. There's nothing more I can do. I doubt any other doctors will have any success either. Your best chance might be to try a Yamanaka.”

Ryu scowled. “Absolutely not! I'm not giving that clan complete access to Kasumi's memories and potentially our clan secrets. It's bad enough that one of their members is constantly hanging around her…” With that, Ryu decided to take me back “home”—back to the Hayabusa clan compound.

It took me longer than I want to admit to connect the dots. I blame my Mind stat, which is currently sitting at a measly 1 Point…

Ryu Hayabusa…the main character of the Ninja Gaiden series. Somehow, he was in Naruto, along with his little sister Kasumi…me. I suspected he was also kind of a big deal because everyone we passed in the hallway stopped to give him a respectful nod. That wasn't exactly a surprise, considering how freaking OP Ryu was in the games. He cut down monsters, demons, and gods like they were nothing.

We exited the hospital, and I finally laid eyes upon it for the first time.

I was really here.

Konoha, the Hidden Leaf Village! 

I could see dozens of shinobi and kunoichi hopping across the various rooftops. The famous Hokage mountains were clearly visible in the distance. It was all so surreal. 

“Come on, Kasumi, let's get you back to the compound,” Ryu told me kindly as he started leading me through the streets of my new home.

I followed behind him with a big grin on my face. Despite getting mauled and almost eaten a few hours earlier, I was incredibly excited to begin my new life as a kunoichi. I was the sister of a legendary shinobi, but I knew with my System, I would catch up to him someday.

…

My bedroom was about what I'd expect for a teenage girl, even one training to be a Kunoichi. The walls were covered in posters for movies I'd mostly never heard of from this world. I did recognize a few Princess Gale posters, though, which meant all the Naruto movies were probably canon here.

I flopped onto the bed face-first and let out a long sigh. I’d just finished a very long conversation where Ryu had tried his best to jog my non-existent memories. I felt bad taking over the body of the sister he clearly adored, so I promised myself to try and be an even better little sister! That shouldn’t be too hard since the previous Kasumi was a little shit…

He didn’t actually use those words, but I could read between the lines.

Kasumi Hayabusa graduated from the Konoha Ninja Academy two weeks ago. She was assigned to a Jonin-sensei with two other Genin teammates.

According to Ryu—and he seemed like a guy who was brutally honest—I should not have passed the Jonin’s test. I should have been sent back to the academy because I was not ready to be a real Kunoichi.

Nepotism won out, though. My Jonin-sensei didn’t want to be known as the guy who failed Ryu Hayabusa’s little sister. My brother was known as Konoha’s most lethal Shinobi—no surprise there, and no one wanted to piss him off. Our team became official, and we started going on missions.

The old Kasumi would apparently come home every day and complain to her big brother about all the terrible D-Ranks. She hated painting fences or walking dogs!

I gasped when I heard that second part! I love dogs! Big puppers, small puppers, it doesn’t matter to me. “Every doggo is the best doggo! As long as the dog isn’t secretly a wolf, of course…” Ryu definitely looked at me strangely when I announced that, but I wasn’t going to hide my true thoughts and pretend to be a girl I wasn’t. That would have been impossible anyway. I wasn’t that good of an actress.

I don’t know if it was Kasumi’s complaining or if her Jonin-sensei simply wanted them to get a taste of real ninja life, but today had been their first official C-Rank mission. It was nothing special—they were just supposed to deliver a scroll to the closest outpost before returning to the village. In total, it shouldn’t have taken more than a couple of hours, and the team was supposed to be back by noon.

When two o'clock rolled around and Kasumi wasn’t back yet, Ryu decided to “trust his gut” that something had gone wrong. He decided to head out himself into the forests to look for his little sister and her missing teammates.

I’m really glad he did because I’d be dead if he was even a few seconds later. Kasumi’s team was still missing when he found me and brought me back to the village. That’s all I knew for now. I honestly hoped they were alright, but I didn’t suspect that to be the case. There was a reason I woke up in her body in the middle of the forest, after all. If the old Kasumi had been killed, then her team might have been as well…

I shook my head and dispelled those negative thoughts. There was nothing I could do for now anyway. Worrying about people I’ve never even met won’t do me any good. I should stick to being productive.

“What should I do next?” I wondered out loud before catching a whiff of myself.

I stank… a lot.

The nurses had scrubbed out most of the mud and blood when I was unconscious, but I could still feel some of it in certain… places. I glanced down at my bedspread and grimaced. It was going to need to be washed as well. “Note to future self, don’t hop on your bed right after a mission.”

Thankfully, my room had its own connected bathroom.

A bit later, I was clean and in the process of drying my hair with a towel. I finally got a look at myself in the mirror. I could definitely see the family resemblance with Ryu. I had long brown hair that trailed past my shoulders, but I didn't have the same bright green eyes he possessed. My eyes were regular brown. As for my face, it wasn’t bad looking by any means. My features were definitely Asian, bordering on what I would refer to as a “Bishoujo,” actually.

I wondered if I was popular back in the academy?

“KASUMI! I'M BACK!” I heard Ryu call out to me from downstairs. He had left to go get dinner for us. “I’ve got ramen from Ichiraku!” he added.

I perked up hearing that. The most famous ramen in all of anime!? It was the perfect meal to top off the end of my first day in this world!