How to Become Stronger
"How to become stronger…" — that was a question that required real thought.
Hiroki had agreed to Kushina's request without much hesitation, but the question kept echoing in his mind as they walked.
Even when they reached the ramen shop, he was still lost in thought.
The curtain lifted, and the rich aroma of pork bone broth enveloped them. Kushina instantly came alive — this was her battlefield. She confidently ordered the largest bowl of chashu ramen for both of them, then leaned forward on the counter, eyes shining, as if the steaming noodles ahead weren't food, but the key to becoming Hokage.
Hiroki sat opposite her, chopsticks in hand, thoughts slowly sharpening.
As the steam curled upward, he turned inward — to his secret, the golden-finger "system" that existed only within him, a network of endless data streams and digital folders.
How does one become stronger?
If it were just about himself, the answer was obvious: use the system.
As a former reader of these kinds of stories, Hiroki had once looked down on time-travelers who relied on cheat abilities. But now that he was one — living in a world where a wrong step could mean death — not using it would be beyond foolish.
There was no way he could compete with monsters like Naruto or those born into the Uchiha clan without it.
If he wanted to survive the chaos of the future — the Nine-Tails' rampage, wars, and all the rest — he had to rely on the system to rapidly become stronger.
And he already had some ideas.
Hiroki believed his "golden finger" worked on the level of pure information — reading, writing, and modifying data itself.Thoughts, jutsu, memories, instincts — all of them could be seen as programs.
His "Brain Overload Attack" had proven this.
If thoughts were data, they could be copied, multiplied, or even used as weapons.
During his fight with Jiraiya's clone, he had located the "cache folder" inside the clone's mind and flooded it with junk data, forcing a mental crash — a temporary blackout.
So theoretically, everything in the world might exist as part of this data system.
Ninjutsu, memories, chakra control — even the body's natural processes.If he could interpret the "code," he could rewrite it.
He'd already done it once.If he could modify someone's brain to crash… then in theory, he could also modify it to improve.
The logic was the same: changing files to create a result.An attack was just corrupted code; a buff was optimized code.
If a "brain overload" filled the mind with random data until it froze, what if he wrote a filter instead — something that kept only the thoughts related to training and focus?Wouldn't that create a perfectly disciplined state of mind?
From a programming standpoint, that was child's play.
And that was only the beginning.
What if he went deeper — beyond surface cache files — into the brain's core drivers, the ones responsible for perception and movement?
He could, theoretically, write an automated script.
For example: when the "visual driver" detects a fast-moving object matching the shape of a kunai, the script bypasses conscious thought entirely and triggers an immediate dodge command.
A real-time autoplay script.Aimbot for battle reflexes.
Reaction speed wouldn't depend on thinking — it would depend on system execution.
Then there were the physical systems — strength, memory, endurance.
If learning something was slow, that meant the data was stored but unindexed.So, what if he built an index file linking all related memories together? He could access any piece of knowledge instantly.
As for muscles — exercise triggered growth by sending biological "update requests."If he could access those growth scripts directly, he could simply toggle:[Muscle_Growth = ON]
No training, no fatigue.Just automatic optimization, 24/7, as long as he had enough energy — food as power supply.
It was the perfect route to becoming stronger. His own personal evolution path.
But then his gaze drifted across the table — to the red-haired girl happily devouring her ramen, cheeks puffed, eyes closed in delight — and another question surfaced.
How could she become stronger?
The logic should apply to others too, right?If his brain stored jutsu as data, could he just copy and paste that file into Kushina's system?
That was the theory he'd been toying with even before the exam.If he could transfer jutsu data directly, he could let her skip the hand-seal process entirely.In theory, he could spread techniques through the entire shinobi world — even implant self-replicating "virus programs" that activated on their own.
He could, if he wanted, become the god of the system itself.
But two major bugs stood in his way.
First — energy consumption.
He remembered using Lightning Release: False Darkness in the cave. The attack was devastating — but it drained nearly all his chakra in seconds, leaving him unconscious.
The strange part? According to the copied data, that jutsu wasn't supposed to cost that much.
So why did it drain him dry?
Was it a bug?
Did running a program not native to his own system cause massive inefficiency — a kind of "resource leak" that overheated his body and wasted energy?
Until he understood how energy converted into data execution, he couldn't risk experimenting with higher-level jutsu again.If a computer crashed, you could just reboot it.If he crashed… that might be the end.
The second issue was even trickier — installation and interface.
Even if he copied the Lightning Release file into Kushina's brain, how would she run it?
It'd be like giving someone a computer program without giving them a way to open it.They had no idea what a system interface even was.
No icons. No folders. No double-click.
Maybe they could activate it through mental energy — but how?
Even ordinary computers needed compatible drivers. In this world, different people probably had different "systems" entirely.Different chakra natures, different methods — like different operating systems.
For the same jutsu, one person might need forty hand seals, another four, another just one — and some none at all.
Were hand seals just command shortcuts? Was chakra the CPU power needed to run the program?
If her "hardware" didn't support lightning-style chakra, wouldn't that copied file just appear as corrupted data — or worse, crash her system completely?
Countless questions poured through Hiroki's mind like a flood of code.
"Hiroki! Your noodles are falling apart!"
Kushina's muffled voice snapped him out of his trance.
He looked up. The girl was pouting, pointing accusingly at his untouched bowl.
He blinked, then smiled faintly, picked up his chopsticks, and slurped down a mouthful.
The warmth spread through him — simple, comforting, grounding.
Alright.
Once he got home, before Orochimaru returned to the village, he'd start running experiments.Step by step, he'd analyze his system.Understand its rules.And find the path — the code — to becoming stronger.