Lucas died at 16, shot by a drone during WW3 while minding his own business. He woke up again as a random Chunin.
He'd thought he'd get another shot at a possible legendary status.
But reality hit harder. He was, essentially, a nobody surrounded by threats bigger than he'd probably ever be.
At first, he was relieved he wasn't reincarnated as a newborn or a 12-year-old Academy student. He had a solid base to start from plus he woke up at his own age and avoided the puberty crash- out.
He mastered Tree and Water Walking. His Taijutsu and Shuriken/Kunai throwing skills were decent, and his physical conditioning was above average for a Chunin. He was, of course, not even close to Jonin level but he could hold his ground against most seasoned Chunins in term of brute strength.
Other than that nothing else really stood out. There was absolutely nothing special about him. In his previous life, he'd have enjoyed that fact, thrived in it as he was the lazy and relaxing type of people, but in a world full of world-destructing aliens ?
Becoming one of the strongest was mandatory to ensure he'd live.
He had no special ability, clan, bloodline, or gamer system. It was just him. Plan old Lucas, well now it's Kenta but it's all the same.
He spent his first week gripped by panic, crying himself to sleep, globally fearful and anxious about dying again haunted by how close death felt in this dangerous world.
Chakra amazed him. Letting it flow through his body calmed and trained him. It was hard at first, but after three months, controlling it felt like a second nature.
Kenta tried everything to gain power, he truly did.
He first shouted for a system, yelling, "Gamer Panel!" or "Inventory!" to no avail.
After three days of shouting and thinking about every possible trigger, he gave up and tried something else. He tried to activate a secret Dojutsu he could've unlocked but dropped it after a day.
Once he accepted staying average unless he stepped up, he didn't deter and tried to pursue other options.
He started with Genjutsu. The Art of Illusions. After trying it he felt more confused himself than his target so he just gave up. Plus, without Sharingan, it was mostly useless junks to latter levels of power. It couldn't be relied as a main power source at least.
He was decent with throwing weapons like Kunai but lacked any unique techniques or real expectations for their usefulness later. He wasn't Itachi, throwing dozens of them in a perfect circular movement whilst hovering in the air upside down.
Itachi was the true Aura Farmer for real. What a freaking badass.
He learned Shunshin, excited by the fact that he'd be able to find a way and teleport left and right like he saw Shisuis doing it in the anime, but it made him dizzy after two attempts without Sharingan.
'It feels like everything is tied with those freaking red eyes' He thought frustratedly as he sighed
Still, he tried the options that most fanfics gloated about.
First, Iryojutsu, or Medical Ninjutsu for non-Japanese people, was the first on his list. After reading thousands of pages on anatomy and weak points, on how to sip your Chakra into your target without damaging his coils, he learned he'd need to memorize 20 more of what he'd tried to cram in his head in a month, and realized he'd need at least three years he didn't have to learn the basics of the art.
And that was before he felt lost when he couldn't even grasp the next book as he wasn't even able to understand the freaking introduction.
Iryojutsu was like combining med school's deep knowledge with chakra and top it with chakra coils system since it would be way too easy without it, right ?
His respect for Sakura and every other medic character he'd mocked for being useless before whilst looking at the anime skyrocketed as the level of smarts and dedication it needed wasn't something he could imitate.
So, now that Iryojutsu was out of the equation, the only hope he had left was Fuinjutsu.
At first Fuinjutsu seemed promising. Its versatility and usefulness, like Hiraishin, made it seem ideal for a talentless civilian like him. He'd be the next Minato or something.
But life had other plans for him. He can't even understand how a freaking Storage Seal works, let alone the infamous Hiraishin.
He even found a book since learning the Storage Seal wasn't a secret. It was one of the few Fuinjutsu seals available without needing a personal teacher or stealing it. For example, unlike the Storage Seal, the Explosive Seal Tags formula was kept secret because it was, in fact, a recipe for creating C4 with just a bit of paper and ink.
The military of his previous world would've a field day just examining those.
Still, even after an entire month spent day and night trying to understand the most basic seal ever created, he saw no progress.
Fuinjutsu felt like programming, calligraphy, art and chakra – which added another layer of difficulty, of course. The thing is, he sucked at programming and art whilst his calligraphy and chakra manipulation was decent but nowhere near enough to compensate his other lacunes.
He was screwed. A cold, bleak hopelessness settled in as it suffocated any sense of possible survival for him in the upcoming years unless he'd be extremely lucky or fled any major village and lived like a renegade with no one to make his life worthwhile.
It took 2 weeks to finally accept his new predicament. His only options were now learning how to use a weapon and Taijutsu, and unless your name was Guy or Lee and you know how to open the 8 Gates, or you possess a Byakugan to target Chakra pathways, Taijutsu wouldn't make that much of a difference.
He kept training in Taijutsu and bought Chakra Weights since the first week and he'd made pretty good progress on that front but he knew it would never be enough.
He was stuck at Chunin, lacking a Sensei to guide him, with no special talent nor funds and unable to use the 8 Gates.
He considered stealing the Forbidden Scroll, which he knows it would happen anywhere in the next 2 months. How did he know that ? Because he knew Naruto and his classmates would graduate soon.
But the thing is, he knew that if he'd tried that, Hiruzen Sarutobi - the Third Hokage - would just see this through his stupid ball of crystal and then summon his ANBU to kill him when he'd try to escape. It was a suicide move.
His only hope was that by working hard with his Elemental Affinity, he could create something special, something that would truly make a difference. Like that, even if he can't cheat his way to power like how most fanfics depicted it to be, maybe effort could still set him apart from being just another Chunin.
He glared at the blank chakra paper, hands shaking, silently wishing for a miracle.
He hoped that at least he'd get 2 affinities or even 3, and not something like Earth.
Earth sounded cool in some aspect, but it had too many defensive options rather than offensive.
Fire was 'meh'. If he could find a way to coat his hands in fire without hurting himself and punch people whilst burning them, then maybe it would be cool, but that's a big maybe.
Water was alright he guessed. Great offense and defence, and maybe he'd learn a way to materialize water out of thin air as Tobirama Senju did, create Water Swords that cut down anyone's throat and all that shit.
Lightning. Now that could maybe be the best option. He could maybe replicate the Raikage's Lightning cloak and save himself from most people with it and even find a way around the Chidori and Raikiri without those damned eyes 'Those red stupid eyes again' he thought exasperatedly, just like Kakashi did in Boruto with his lightning attack thingy.
Maybe he could even supercharge his body to get a temporary lightning speed or something.
And finally, Wind. He had mixed feelings about Wind. The only thing it was used for in the anime was cutting things, but if he could somehow learn how to fly or how to take people's oxygen out of their mouths, as that crazy motherfucker did in Avatar Korra, then maybe it would be worth it.
Plus, he already knew the first two steps of wind thanks to the anime so he wouldn't need a tutor which fit his predicament perfectly right now.
And, as if the world had heard him, when he finally put a tiny portion of his chakra into the paper, and closed his eyes, he felt the paper fall out of his hand as he opened his eyes to see the paper on the ground, sliced in half.
Wind.
"Huh," he muttered, a stab of disappointment twisting inside him at gaining no bloodline and not even a second Elemental Affinity like he'd hopped.
Still, he forced himself to focus on any positives he could find.
"Wind, or Air more specifically, is everywhere" He said as he took the sliced papers in his hand and crumbled them before throwing it in the nearby trash can "If I can find a way to fly with this then it will be 100% worth it" He chuckled to himself as an idea came "Or maybe replicate what the Raikage did with his Lightning Cloak and create my own Wind version" And then added "And even a Wind Chidori, one that will be sharper and silent unlike that chirping stupid sound"
"Plus," He finished with a smile, "As I said before, I already know how to perform the first two steps of Wind and can combine it with the Rasengan later on." He frowned as a problem rose, "I'll probably to find an excuse or have to hide from most people that I know how to do this jutsu because it would draw too much attention" He said as he looked around "Better be safe until I'm way too strong to be messed with."
He took a leaf in his hand, letting it rest in his palm while his other hand covered it, and closed his eyes.
The first step was to cut a leaf in half using his Chakra.
He tried to sip his chakra into a thin line to cut it clean. It didn't work, of course, it would be too easy, but the more time and Chakra he put into it, the more he felt like he was progressing, something he hadn't been able to do for the longest of time.
All in all, he was still stuck in his own mediocrity - a fact that left him restless and impatient, but now with a fragile sense of hope for the future that he clung to stubbornly.
In his previous life, he died in a moment of bad luck. A drone attacked the camp where he and his parents stayed as civilians. The last thing he heard and see was the buzzing sound coming from above before it was too late to escape.
His high school life already shattered by the war, he'd used his small skills in sprinting to survive the first year of the war before he was killed.
He'd already watched from the sidelines once, totally powerless. Getting killed for it had left a permanent ache of regret.
This time, he'd make sure he had enough power to choose his own fate instead of just surviving.
Anyway, as he strolled around the village, he closed his eyes in pure focus, trying to cut the leaf by magic as he focused his Chakra on its centre.
The leaf did not budge but he could feel that he was making a tiny bit of progress as he tried to call on his chakra to respond to his request.
He sighed. Times to train, he guessed
|~-X-~| WIND |~-X-~|
So, what do we think ? Let me know