The morning sun spilled gold over the crumbling edge of Konoha's older districts, casting long shadows on rooftops blackened from a war not long past. Uchiha Yamato, worn boots crunching against gravel, tightened his grip on the satchel slung across his shoulder.
Inside it—notes, sketches, old scrolls, and a small metallic device the world didn't know existed.
He wasn't a genius, in fact it was the other way around. His chakra was weak, his combat iq only good until they grew up, he was extremely weak, chunin level cannon fodder. But in his little corner of the world, inside a half-buried cellar once used for war rations and now converted into a lab, he pursued something he believed even the greatesr ninja couldn't see.
Truth.
[System Notification: Milestone Progress 97% — "Foundations of Pre-Chakra Hominids"]
He grinned. That alone made his heart race. This would be his first paper, the culmination of months of digging through the Red Earth west of the Forest of Death. There, among charred bones and fused soil, he had found fragments of skeletons—too old, too primitive to belong to any known shinobi clan. And with his system's strange, glowing equipment—tools no one else could see—he was finally able to date and study them.
"Come on, just a little more," he whispered to himself as he reached the old iron door leading to his makeshift lab. With a creak and a push, the scent of ink, parchment, and something faintly metallic welcomed him.
Stacks of notes and stone fragments lay carefully labeled across wooden tables. In the corner, a faint blue cylinder pulsed with light—the system's scanner, analyzing a segment of jawbone unlike anything he'd seen in the academy archives.
"They had no chakra networks," he murmured, flipping open his notebook. "But their bones… they fused faster than expected. Environmental pressure? Genetic bottleneck? Or maybe... they weren't meant to survive the rise of chakra at all."
He sat down and exhaled. Just a few more lines. His fingers began to write.
---
The lamp above his desk buzzed faintly, casting a soft glow across yellowed parchment, bone fragments, and a pile of scrolls pushed to the side. Uchiha Yamato leaned over his desk, ink-stained fingers moving with quiet intensity and exhaustion as he scribbled the final paragraphs of his paper.
His system device hovered silently beside him—its scanning lens flickering blue, finalizing one last cross-section of a fossilized femur.
The paper's title was already etched at the top:
"A Study of Pre-Chakra Hominid Specimens: Implications for Human Origin"
By Uchiha Yamato
He dipped the brush once more and began to write:
Abstract:
This study presents findings from skeletal remains excavated west of the Forest of Death. Analysis using chakra-calibrated system instruments has dated the specimens at approximately 6.67 million years old, predating the rise of chakra-based life by an extremely significant margin.
Body Morphology:
The remains belong to an early hominid species, bipedal but possessing longer arms and shorter legs, suggesting partial arboreal adaptation. Muscle attachment points along the femur and scapula indicate significantly denser musculature, suggesting greater physical strength but less endurance compared to modern humans.
The braincase volume of the skull fragment is estimated to be around 350–400 cubic centimeters, far smaller than the average 1350 cc of contemporary shinobi. This supports the theory that early hominids were instinct-driven and minimally cognitive, relying more on primal behavior than reasoning or culture.
Notable Absences:
No evidence of chakra pathways (tenketsu or central coils)
No signs of elemental affinity, kekkei genkai, or DNA imprints connected to known clans
Tooth wear patterns suggest an omnivorous diet, consistent with early adaptive foraging
Conclusion:
The subject is an early form of humanity—pre-chakra, pre-tool, pre-language—suggesting that chakra is not intrinsic to human biology, but a later anomaly or modification. These remains provide direct evidence that humans evolved naturally over millions of years, and only within the last few thousand or even hundred years did chakra redefine what humanity.
Further excavation is recommended to determine whether this species coexisted with early chakra-bearing hominins or was entirely wiped out after the chakra revolution.
Yamato paused. He stared at the last line for a moment. He let out a breath that felt like the end of something.
Then, he set the brush down, cracked his fingers, and leaned back in his creaky chair.
"…That's it," he murmured, a small, tired smile tugging at his lips.
"All done."
He rolled the parchment carefully, tying it with a simple string, and tapped the side of his system tool.
[System Notification: Milestone Complete — "First Research Paper Published" (Pending Submission)]
[Reward Available Upon Confirmation]
Yamato stood, dusted off the dirt on his robe, and looked toward the corner where a single scroll tube—his crude version of a publishing delivery system—waited for use.
"Now," he said softly, "I just need to publish it."
As he walked outside his makeshift lab, now evening, he paused outside the door to his lab and glanced back toward the Uchiha district—distant, walled off, always watching.
They hadn't acknowledged him and his research. Thinking of it to be a waste of time, for them, he was embarassing, not at all worthy of being Uchiha.
Not that he expected them to. To them, he was the bloodless one. The boy who traded fire for fossils.
But his system didn't care. And neither did the truth buried in bones older than chakra itself.
---
The building stood between a tea shop and a stationery vendor—so nondescript it was easy to miss. A thin wooden plaque above the door read:
"Inkroot Publishing"
Uchiha Yamato stepped inside, parchment tube in hand.
The interior smelled like musty paper and lamp oil. Shelves sagged under the weight of forgotten books and unclaimed scrolls. Behind the front desk, a bespectacled man in his late fifties looked up, expression halfway between bored and polite.
"Submission?" the man asked, already reaching for a form.
"Yes," Yamato replied, unrolling his scroll.
The man skimmed the title:
A Study of Pre-Chakra Hominid Specimens: Implications for Human Origin
'Academic.' The man thought as his body relaxed slightly, and gave off a dull cadence of routine. "Intended audience?"
"Konoha Library," Yamato replied. "Public archives."
"No circulation royalties?" the man asked.
"Just credit," Yamato said quietly. "Uchiha Yamato."
At the name, the man's eyes flicked up briefly—then returned to his paper pile. He stamped the form with a chakra-ink seal, passed it over for a signature, and handed Yamato a carbon copy.
"Standard non-exclusive rights. Author retains credit. We forward it to the central archive. Four days for review and posting. No guarantees for republication."
Yamato signed without hesitation.
As he stepped outside, scroll tube now empty, the wind picked up slightly. He looked toward the distant Hokage monument, sunlight breaking through the clouds.
---
Four Days Later…
The crowd swelled around the gates of Konoha, cheering loud enough to shake the stone. Banners flapped above rooftops. The final war—at least for now—was officially over. The village's surviving forces marched through the gates to triumphant applause.
Children waved paper fans. Retired ninja threw flower petals. Among the crowd, the Sannin walked—Tsunade with her head high, Jiraiya grinning wide, and Orochimaru trailing behind with a faint smirk.
The village celebrated power, legacy, and blood.
---
Elsewhere…
Inside the Konoha Grand Library, a middle-aged archivist slid a newly received scroll into a labeled slot on the second floor.
> Author: Uchiha Yamato
Title: Pre-Chakra Hominids and Human Origin
Classification: Research
He gave the label a glance, raised an eyebrow at the topic, and then walked away.
There was no applause. No fanfare.
But for Yamato, sitting alone on a rooftop with a warm drink in hand, watching the parade from a distance—
It was enough.