Reincarnating as Itachi in a cultivation world!

Itachi woke up feeling dazed. His head felt as though it were stuffed with clouds, and his body was sluggish, weighed down by an invisible force.

His limbs ached faintly, and his muscles screamed in protest when he tried to move. He couldn't remember the last time he had felt this weak.

The last thing he remembered was standing up, sword in hand, prepared to head to the Xiao Clan estate to investigate the brat called Chen.

Realizing something was wrong, he immediately crossed his legs and sat upright in the lotus position. Closing his eyes, he focused his attention on his dantian. His spiritual qi should have been circulating smoothly, brimming with vitality after his recent breakthrough.

Instead, there was… nothing.

His heart sank. His throat felt dry as he gulped in panic. No, no, this can't be right…

He checked again, circulating his internal energy to search for any trace of qi. But once again, there was nothing but emptiness.

Before he could fully process what was happening, his eyes suddenly burned. It wasn't sharp or excruciating, but it was enough to make him flinch and instinctively shut his eyes. The burning sensation wasn't normal—it was as if someone had poured molten liquid into his eye sockets.

"Damn it!" Itachi hissed, raising his hands to his face.

But just as suddenly as it had started, the burning began to mellow. The pain gave way to a soothing chill, like cold water splashing over sunburned skin. Slowly, he opened his eyes, squinting cautiously.

To his surprise, his vision wasn't blurry. In fact, it was better than ever. The faint details of his room—the texture of the stone walls, the specks of dust floating in the dim light—were sharper than he'd ever seen before. Even in the near darkness, he could see with absolute clarity.

His body might have felt sluggish and weak, but his vision was now razor-sharp. So at least one thing was working well.

But that didn't matter at the moment.

"What is going on with me…" Itachi whispered to himself again.

Eyes burning? This shouldn't happen—not to a cultivator of my level. 

The faint light filtering through the cracks in the curtains told him it was already morning. Despite the heavy, oppressive feeling in his body, Itachi forced himself to focus. Closing his eyes again, he attempted to circulate spiritual qi once more.

And there it was again—emptiness.

Not a trace of spiritual energy flowed through him. His dantian, which had been full of qi the night before, now felt as barren as a dried-up well. His 15 years of cultivation, that he spend years perfecting going through life and death ordeals to climb up the rank. All gone as if it never existed.

Itachi's lips quivered as a chilling thought crept into his mind. A immediate suspect that he had interacted with earlier. Did that Xiao Chen… somehow poison me?

But he shook his head almost immediately. No, taking someone's cultivation is completely different than breaking it. Breaking my dantian would've been easier if he wanted to cripple me permanently. But my dantian is fine.

In fact, it wasn't just fine—it was too fine. Perfectly intact, as though he'd never cultivated a day in his life and was starting anew.

Could Xiao Chen… really have a technique that vacuums away someone's entire cultivation by getting through their dantian without even being physically present? The more he thought the more absurd it sounded, Is there even a way to fight someone like that?

Itachi sighed heavily, rubbing his face in frustration. Lamenting his sudden fall from a rising cultivator to a mere mortal, his anger bubbled to the surface.

"Fuck this shit!" he shouted, punching the ground in frustration. "I've worked my butt off cultivating, trying to survive in this fucking world where people kill each other for looking at them the wrong way!"

"But even given a life like this, I didn't complain! I adapted—I did everything I was supposed to! And now all of it, fifteen years of hard work, just vanished!"

He gritted his teeth, glaring at the ceiling as though the heavens themselves were mocking him. "I didn't even ask for much! I didn't whine about not getting some special ability or bloodline! I didn't cry for a system, for god's sake!"

As if the universe had been waiting for this very moment, a soft chime echoed through the room.

Itachi froze, his rant cut short as a translucent screen materialized in front of him.

"System successfully activated!" a cheerful voice declared.

"Welcome to the Shinobi Shop System, where you can shop all that you desire of the Shinobi world! I am Scroll, your friendly guide to the system!"

A small, animated scroll with doodle eyes floated into view, beaming at him.

Itachi stared blankly at it, his lips twitching. "Can you… see me?"

"Of course, I can!" the scroll chirped, its cartoonish eyes gleaming with enthusiasm.

Itachi blinked. Is this real? Have I gone mad? He reached out cautiously, half-expecting his hand to pass through the floating object. But no, it felt real—he could feel the faint energy radiating from it.

Did it seriously just appear out of thin air because I said the word 'system'? he wondered, his thoughts racing. Wait! Did I go all this time not knowing that? No, I've used the word system, plenty of times before. Why now?

Shaking his head, Itachi sighed. There's no point questioning it right now. At least it came at the right time.

"System—no, Scroll," he corrected himself, "can you show me my stats?"

The scroll's eyes narrowed slightly, almost as if it were annoyed. "The Shinobi Shop System doesn't have that functionality," it replied, its tone making Itachi feel like an idiot. "It's called the Shop System, S-H-O-P, not the Stat System. Think of it as… wait, a moment...oh yes, a shopping site from your home world! You use me to buy something and that is all."

"…I see," Itachi said, nodding slowly. What kind of half-assed system did I get?

The scroll coughed—or at least, it made a sound resembling a cough. "But I can tell you this much: there's nothing physically wrong with you. You're a perfectly fine mortal," the scroll said cheerfully.

"But I am a cultivator, though!"

"Hmm... I don't sense any spiritual energy in you. So you're a mortal at the moment of course."

Itachi rubbed his temples, trying to contain his frustration.

"Let's get on with it," the scroll continued, ignoring his exasperation. "The Shinobi Shop System allows you to buy anything from the shinobi world—ninjutsu, dojutsu, weapons, and more! You can even purchase Tailed Beasts and contracts! And of course, the powers are scaled to match your cultivation. The stronger you are, the stronger your abilities will be. Balance is key, don't you think?"

Despite his current situation, Itachi couldn't help but nod. The explanation made sense, in a way. According to what the scroll said, the techniques were tied to his spiritual energy rather than chakra, so of course, their effectiveness would naturally depend on his cultivation level. If it was just a low-level technique that could only work against the lower realm, it would be useless in the future when he grows stronger, what would even be the use of it?

As the scroll spoke, the translucent screen changed, transforming into a storefront-like interface. Itachi's eyes widened as he scrolled through the items.

It contained everything from what you could imagine, from the smallest thing like varieties of Ichiraku Ramens to Kunais and Shuriken...and then as he scrolled further a list of ninjutsu, taijutsu, and so on appeared... and then came the dojutsus—Sharingan, Byakugan, and even the Rinnegan.

Itachi's heart raced as he couldn't help but daydream about him soaring through the cultivation world, destroying his enemies with a couple of hand signs and screaming Almighty Push! But his excitement faded as he noticed the price tags.

"Five hundred thousand SEP for the Rinnegan?" Itachi muttered, tilting his head. "That's insane…"

"But what the fuck is a SEP?"

"SEP stands for Spiritual Energy Points," the scroll explained. "You'll need to use the spiritual energy you gather through cultivation to make purchases. And since everything has a cost, you'll need to work hard to earn it!"

"So I have to sacrifice cultivation to gain power," Itachi murmured. "A fair trade… an equivalent exchange."

"You're not as dumb as you look," the scroll said smugly nodding in acknowledgment for the first time as Itachi smiled smugly.

"Of course, I am a reincarn-"

Itachi's word got stuck in his mouth as his face darkened. He had come to a certain realization...

"Hey, scroll... why did you only pop out now?"

The scroll ignored his sunken look, grinning mischievously. "I only activated this late, because you finally gathered enough SEP to unlock me! Lucky for you, You seem dreadful, it seems I've appeared at the right time."

"…Say that again, you fucking bastard," Itachi growled, his eye twitching.