One Piece: I Awakened the Ninja Template System - Chapter 1
Chapter 1: Ninja Template System
[Naruto Template System activated.]
[Establishing connection with Host…]
[Connection successful.]
[Welcome, Host.]
The emotionless voice rang inside Jack’s head.
His eyelids trembled.
Warm sunlight pressed against his face while something cold and wet crawled beneath his right hand. A moment later, another wave swept across the shore and washed over his legs.
Jack jolted awake.
He sat up so quickly that the world spun around him. His heart hammered against his ribs, and for several seconds, he could only stare at the endless stretch of blue before him.
The sea.
There was an actual sea in front of him.
Waves rolled toward a pale beach, breaking into white foam before retreating across the sand. Seabirds circled in the cloudless sky, their cries echoing over the water. A warm breeze carried the strong scent of salt, while somewhere behind him, leaves rustled inside a dense forest.
Jack blinked.
Then he blinked again.
“What the hell?”
His throat felt dry, and his voice came out hoarse.
He pushed himself onto his knees and looked around. There were no buildings, roads, cars, or people. He couldn’t even see a distant boat on the horizon. On one side was the seemingly endless ocean, and on the other stood a thick wall of unfamiliar trees.
This definitely wasn’t Delhi.
His last memory returned piece by piece.
He had been attending a cosplay party. It was one of the largest events of its kind held in Delhi, and the entire venue had been packed with people dressed as characters from different anime, movies, and games.
Jack himself had worn an Akatsuki cloak.
It had been a cheap one ordered online, but under the colorful lights, it had looked good enough. He remembered posing for photographs with someone dressed as Naruto and arguing with a Madara cosplayer about whether Hashirama could defeat the entire Akatsuki alone.
Then he had stepped outside.
Someone had shouted.
“Move!”
Jack remembered looking up and seeing a massive advertising billboard breaking away from the building above him. Its metal supports had twisted with a terrible screech.
After that…
Nothing.
“No way.”
Jack slowly raised both hands and touched his head. There was no blood, no wound, and not even the slightest pain. He checked his arms, chest, and legs next. His clothes were still the same ones he had worn beneath the Akatsuki cloak, although the cloak itself had disappeared.
His phone was gone too.
“So a billboard fell on me, and now I’ve woken up on a deserted beach?”
He stared at the sea with a strange expression.
There were only a few explanations for this situation, and most of them weren’t particularly comforting. Perhaps someone had rescued him, kidnapped him, and dumped him on an island for reasons that made absolutely no sense.
Or perhaps he had fallen into a coma and was dreaming.
But that voice inside his head…
[Naruto Template System successfully activated.]
[Would the Host like to receive the introductory information package?]
Jack froze.
A translucent blue panel appeared in front of him.
He leaned away from it instinctively. However, the panel followed his gaze, remaining at a fixed distance from his face.
“A system?”
His confusion lasted for only a moment before excitement erupted inside him.
A mysterious notification. An unknown world. A system appearing after his supposed death.
He had read enough web novels to recognize this situation.
“I’ve been reincarnated.”
The words sounded ridiculous when spoken aloud, but everything around him supported the idea. He had died on Earth and awakened in another world with some sort of special ability.
Jack stood and brushed the wet sand from his clothes. His nervousness didn’t disappear, but excitement quickly began to overwhelm it.
If this really was an anime world, where had he arrived?
Was this the world of Naruto?
Perhaps he had landed somewhere near the Land of Water. The beach and forest would fit that possibility. If he could obtain a powerful bloodline from the system, he might become a legendary shinobi.
He could master ninjutsu, learn Sage Mode, and perhaps even build his own hidden village.
Or maybe this was some completely different world.
That possibility didn’t frighten him as much as it should have. He possessed something called the Naruto Template System. Even if he had entered a dangerous universe, the system would give him the strength to survive.
At least, that was how these situations were supposed to work.
“Send the information.”
[Request accepted.]
Before Jack could prepare himself, a stream of knowledge poured directly into his mind.
He staggered and pressed both hands against his temples.
The process wasn’t painful, but it was overwhelming. Rules, explanations, and countless images flashed through his thoughts. It felt as if someone had taken an entire instruction manual and forced him to memorize it in a single instant.
When the flow finally stopped, Jack remained motionless.
The first thing he learned was that the system’s true name was the Ninja Template System. Everything it offered was based on people and creatures from the Naruto universe.
Its most important function was exactly what the name implied.
It allowed him to select character templates.
Theoretically, Jack could select the template of anyone who had ever existed within the Naruto world. He could choose an ordinary academy student, an elite jonin, or one of the legendary figures who had stood at the peak of that universe.
Hashirama Senju.
Madara Uchiha.
Hagoromo Otsutsuki.
Even Kaguya Otsutsuki was available.
Jack’s heartbeat accelerated.
Obtaining a template meant inheriting the genetic abilities and natural potential of the chosen character. If he selected Madara Uchiha, he could receive the genetic foundations of Madara’s Sharingan and other powers that truly belonged to him.
If he chose Hashirama, he could gain the Sage Body and Wood Release.
If he chose Kaguya…
Jack’s eyes gleamed.
The Byakugan. The Rinne Sharingan. Immense chakra. Dimensional abilities. Extraordinary regeneration. The power to reduce entire armies to nothing.
Why should he waste time slowly growing stronger?
He could choose the most powerful template immediately and become a god in this new world.
Jack raised his hand toward the floating panel.
“System, select Kaguya Otsutsuki’s template.”
Instead of obeying him, the system continued transferring the remaining information.
The excitement vanished from Jack’s face.
Templates did not provide battle experience.
They did not instantly teach him how to control every inherited ability. The system could place information about compatible techniques inside his mind, but understanding a technique was not the same as mastering it.
Every skill had to be learned and practised by Jack himself.
More importantly, all energy consumption came from his own body.
That final rule changed everything.
Two people could possess the same ability and still display completely different levels of power.
Hashirama Senju, Obito Uchiha, Danzo Shimura, and Yamato could all use Wood Release, but comparing their achievements would be absurd. Hashirama had changed entire landscapes and restrained tailed beasts. Yamato struggled to control Naruto when only a fraction of the Nine-Tails’ power escaped.
The bloodline created an opportunity. It didn’t guarantee equal results.
Nagato was another example.
He had possessed Madara’s Rinnegan and managed to master its Six Paths techniques. He had destroyed most of Konoha with a single attack, yet the burden of those eyes had ruined his body. Using their power at its highest level had left him emaciated and fragile.
The eyes were powerful.
Nagato’s body simply hadn’t been their ideal vessel.
Jack finally understood the danger.
If he selected Kaguya’s template right now and tried opening a portal into another dimension, his tiny reserve of energy wouldn’t magically increase to Kaguya’s level. The technique would consume everything he had.
He might die before the portal even formed.
Likewise, selecting Madara and recklessly attempting to summon a Perfect Susanoo would kill him just as easily.
A priceless weapon was useless if its owner couldn’t lift it.
“Then what exactly am I supposed to do?” Jack muttered. “Spend twenty years training before I use anything interesting?”
[Templates grant the natural talent of the selected character.]
Jack paused.
That was the first piece of good news he had received since the restrictions appeared.
He might not gain Hashirama’s battle experience, but he would receive Hashirama’s talent while using his template. Techniques that would take an ordinary person years to learn might require only days or months.
The same principle applied to every compatible ability.
It was still an incredible advantage—just not the instant path to godhood Jack had imagined.
He dismissed the floating panel and rubbed his temples.
“This is way too complicated.”
Only a few minutes ago, he had believed he could casually select Kaguya and become invincible. Now he knew that choosing an overwhelmingly powerful template might be the fastest possible way to commit suicide.
The sound of the waves slowly calmed him.
Jack took a deep breath and forced himself to think logically.
He was stranded on an unknown beach without food, water, shelter, or information. He didn’t know what world this was, what dangers existed here, or whether civilization was nearby.
Complaining about the system made no sense.
Even with its restrictions, it was his greatest chance of survival.
“Open the panel.”
The translucent screen returned.
—
Template: [Select]
Level: 0 (0/1)
Status: Ordinary Human
Skill: None
—
Jack studied the simple information.
His first priority was choosing a template that gave him strong vitality and enough potential to grow quickly. Offensive power was meaningless if using it destroyed his body.
After thinking for a moment, he made his decision.
“Select Hashirama Senju.”
[Template selected.]
[Hashirama Senju Template equipped.]
A powerful sensation spread through Jack’s body.
It began in his chest before flowing into his limbs, bones, and organs. His blood felt warmer. His breathing became deeper, and even the exhaustion caused by waking on the beach faded slightly.
At the same time, information about numerous techniques appeared inside his mind.
Wood Release.
Earth Release.
Water Release.
Medical ninjutsu.
Barrier techniques.
Sage Mode.
Jack could perceive them like distant stars scattered across a night sky. He knew they existed, and he understood the basic principles behind some of them, but he couldn’t reach any of them yet.
His level was still zero.
He possessed no chakra.
Jack looked down at his hands.
Hashirama was the reincarnation of Asura and possessed an extraordinarily powerful Sage Body. His life force had been so strong that his cells remained valuable long after his death.
If that physical talent now belonged to Jack, perhaps exercise would produce a different result than usual.
“Experience points have to come from somewhere.”
He considered running along the beach, but exploring while still powerless seemed unnecessarily risky. Push-ups were another possibility, although the wet sand would make them irritating.
Squats were simple.
Jack planted his feet firmly in the sand and lowered himself.
The movement felt strange.
Here he was, possibly reincarnated into an anime world with access to the power of Hashirama Senju—and the first thing he was doing was squatting alone on a beach.
“If anyone is watching me,” he muttered as he rose, “they probably think I’m insane.”
He completed another squat.
Then another.
His legs initially felt ordinary, but his movements soon became smoother. Hashirama’s physical talent didn’t give him instant strength; it allowed his body to adapt to training with astonishing efficiency.
Jack continued counting.
“Fourteen… fifteen… sixteen…”
He completed the seventeenth squat.
[Training requirement fulfilled.]
[Experience gained: 1.]
[Level increased.]
Jack straightened as a sudden pulse of energy emerged from deep within his body.
It wasn’t heat, electricity, or physical strength. It was something different—an invisible current that flowed through pathways he hadn’t possessed moments earlier.
Chakra.
He closed his eyes, focusing on the faint energy. It moved through his body like a newly formed stream, weak but unmistakably real.
The panel opened automatically.
—
Template: Hashirama Senju
Ability: Sage Body Lv. 6, Wood Release Lv. 5
Level: 1 (0/3)
Status: Ninja Academy Student
…
HP: 10/10 [Recovery: 6% per minute]
CP: 5/5 [Recovery: 6% per minute]
…
Skill: None
—
Additional information followed.
HP represented his health and physical condition. CP represented his available chakra. Both would increase as he levelled up, while their natural recovery speed depended heavily on his current template and its abilities.
Jack clenched his fist.
His body felt healthier, but the chakra inside him was pitifully small. Five points meant nothing when compared with the amount required by Hashirama’s famous techniques.
For a moment, he imagined creating a tiny wooden branch from his palm.
He immediately abandoned the thought.
His Wood Release was powerful because the template came from Hashirama, but activating a high-level bloodline ability with the chakra reserves of an academy student was almost the same as trying to power a warship using a phone battery.
Even a careless experiment might empty his chakra and knock him unconscious.
He needed more information before taking such risks.
“Remove Hashirama’s template. Select Itachi Uchiha.”
The vitality filling his body faded.
Another change followed. His physical energy weakened, but his mind suddenly felt sharper. The world seemed strangely clear, as though his thoughts had become better organized.
The panel transformed.
—
Template: Itachi Uchiha
Ability: Sage Spirit Lv. 5, Sharingan Lv. 4, Amaterasu, Infinite Tsukuyomi
Level: 1 (0/3)
Status: Ninja Academy Student
HP: 10/10
CP: 5/5
Skill: None
—
Jack stared at the differences.
“So this is the gap between people chosen by destiny and everyone else.”
Calling Itachi ordinary would be ridiculous. He had been one of the greatest geniuses in shinobi history. He graduated from the academy at seven, awakened the Sharingan at eight, became a chunin at ten, and joined the Anbu at eleven.
Yet Itachi wasn’t a reincarnation of Indra.
His spiritual talent was extraordinary, but his physical foundation couldn’t compare with Hashirama’s Sage Body.
Jack briefly considered testing Sasuke’s template. As Indra’s reincarnation, Sasuke’s final potential should surpass Itachi’s.
However, he wasn’t looking for the strongest Uchiha yet. He wanted to understand how templates influenced experience gain.
He began doing squats again.
Ten passed.
Then twenty.
No notification appeared.
Jack continued. His legs grew heavier, and beads of sweat formed across his forehead. Under Hashirama’s template, the movement had felt increasingly natural. With Itachi’s template, his body adapted far more slowly.
He crossed thirty.
Then forty.
By the time he completed his fiftieth squat, his thighs were burning.
[Training requirement fulfilled.]
[Experience gained: 1.]
Jack exhaled heavily.
“So Hashirama’s template really does help me level up faster.”
He switched templates again.
“Select Madara Uchiha.”
A cold, powerful presence seemed to awaken inside him. Jack checked the panel and noticed that several abilities associated with the legendary Uchiha were missing.
There was no Rinnegan.
There was no Wood Release.
Even the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan wasn’t included as a natural ability.
The reason became clear once the system supplied the relevant explanation.
A template only provided powers that genetically belonged to that character.
Madara had obtained the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan by transplanting his brother’s eyes. He awakened the Rinnegan only after implanting Hashirama’s flesh into his body and combining the chakra of Indra and Asura.
Those were acquired powers, not Madara’s original genetic abilities.
The system wouldn’t provide them through his basic template.
Jack resumed his squats.
His exhaustion remained, even after changing templates. The system didn’t erase the strain his muscles had already accumulated.
He endured the discomfort and kept moving.
Once again, he needed fifty squats to gain a single experience point.
“So Madara’s physical growth rate isn’t better than Itachi’s at this stage.”
That made sense. Madara possessed monstrous combat talent and immense potential, but the strength of his body had never been his defining advantage before he acquired Hashirama’s cells.
Jack wiped the sweat from his forehead.
“Select Hagoromo Otsutsuki.”
The moment the template changed, his body recovered some of its earlier vitality. A vast spiritual potential also appeared within him, making the energy provided by Itachi’s template feel almost insignificant by comparison.
Jack performed another set.
On the seventeenth squat, the notification arrived.
[Training requirement fulfilled.]
[Experience gained: 1.]
Exactly the same physical training efficiency as Hashirama.
Jack’s breathing quickened—not merely from exercise, but from curiosity.
He now understood the general pattern.
An ordinary ninja possessed a level-one Sage Body. Talented individuals and members of certain bloodlines could reach level two. Uzumaki and Senju clan members generally possessed level-three or level-four Sage Bodies.
Hashirama stood far above them with a level-six Sage Body.
Surprisingly, Hagoromo also possessed a level-six Sage Body. His greatest advantages came from the balance between his body and spirit, along with the many abilities derived from his Otsutsuki bloodline.
But neither of them represented the system’s highest rating.
Jack swallowed.
“Select Ten-Tails.”
The instant the template activated, every instinct in his body screamed.
The sensation wasn’t painful, yet it felt utterly inhuman. His vitality became deep and heavy, like an ocean trapped inside an ordinary vessel. His chakra capacity didn’t increase beyond what his current level allowed, but the quality of his physical and spiritual potential changed completely.
The panel revealed the reason.
The Ten-Tails possessed a level-ten Sage Body and a level-ten Sage Spirit.
It was the highest natural foundation available within the system.
Even the Nine-Tails possessed only a level-nine Sage Body.
Jack lowered himself into another squat.
His muscles were already exhausted, but the Ten-Tails template responded to the training with terrifying efficiency. Each movement seemed to push his body toward improvement.
He completed the tenth squat.
[Training requirement fulfilled.]
[Experience gained: 1.]
[Level increased.]
Energy surged through Jack again.
His muscles trembled as his body crossed another invisible boundary. The chakra inside him expanded, still small but noticeably stronger than before.
Jack remained crouched for a moment, breathing heavily.
He had gained three experience points through his experiments and successfully reached level two.
More importantly, he had discovered how to accelerate his future growth.
The level of the Sage Body determined how efficiently physical training converted into experience. A strong Sage Spirit would presumably influence mental exercises and chakra-related training in a similar way.
That made the Ten-Tails the best template for growth.
Its powers would be far too dangerous for him to use at his current level, but merely keeping the template active gave him the greatest possible training talent.
Jack straightened and looked at the updated panel.
—
Template: Ten-Tails
Ability: Sage Body Lv. 10, Sage Spirit Lv. 10
Level: 2 (0/6)
Status: Ninja Academy Student
Skill: None
—
He stared at his status.
A first-year academy student.
After accessing templates belonging to gods, legendary shinobi, and the most powerful tailed beast in existence, he was still weaker than a Genin.
According to the system, level twenty-one was the minimum entry point for that rank.
In other words, Jack wasn’t merely weak.
He was helpless.
The realization cooled his excitement.
A system had given him limitless potential, but potential wouldn’t protect him from a wild animal, a bandit, or whatever monsters existed in this world. If he encountered a trained fighter right now, his journey could end before it truly began.
Jack dismissed the panel and looked around the beach again.
The sun remained high, but he had no idea how many hours of daylight were left. He needed drinking water before anything else. After that came food, shelter, and information.
Staying on the open beach made him easy to spot.
The forest behind him was dense, its interior dark beneath layers of overlapping leaves. Thick vines hung between enormous trunks, while clusters of unfamiliar plants grew close to the ground. He couldn’t identify which fruits were safe to eat, and there could be predators hiding inside.
Still, remaining beside the saltwater wouldn’t solve anything.
He needed to find a freshwater stream. If people lived on this island, signs of civilization were also more likely to be found inland.
Jack picked up a sturdy piece of driftwood from the sand. It was hardly a weapon, but holding it made him feel slightly less defenceless.
He approached the edge of the forest and stopped beneath the shadow of the first tree.
The excitement of reincarnation had faded enough for reality to settle in.
He didn’t know where he was.
He didn’t know what kind of world this was.
And despite possessing the Ninja Template System, he didn’t yet have a single usable skill.
Jack tightened his grip on the driftwood and listened for movement among the trees.
Then Jack walked into the forest carefully, because he know he is weak. And anyone can kill him.