NOVEL NEXT Chapter 3: 1. Death is just a Beginning… Right?
{Rock Lee: "Okay, if I can catch all twenty of those leaves before they hit the ground, then Sakura will fall in love with me. But if I cannot, then she will never return my feelings!" - Forest of Death, Chunin exams, Episode XXX}
In a vast expanse of nothingness, a peculiar sight caught the eye - a white figure lying on a bed. Upon closer inspection, one could discern a female humanoid-like being, her head turned to one side. Time seemed to stretch indefinitely, perhaps a moment or an aeon, until suddenly, another figure materialized beside the bed.
This newcomer was also humanoid, with striking white hair. He appeared to be in his early 20s, but his hair seemed drained of vitality rather than naturally coloured. Despite this, his athletic build gave him the appearance of a young man rather than an elder.
As he opened his eyes, they darted around, peering into the abyss of nothingness. A kaleidoscope of emotions flickered across his face - shock, disbelief, joy - in rapid succession before settling into a smug expression as his gaze fell upon the figure on the bed.
"So, you have actually come," the female spoke. Her beauty was paradoxical - easily seen as average by a regular mortal, yet those who could see beneath the surface would be shocked. Such a being looked perfect on many scales yet appeared unremarkable to the average person.
"So I have," the man replied briefly, his former smugness replaced by a serene look.
"You are an idiot, did you know that?" she asked, though the answer seemed foregone.
He responded philosophically, "The line between genius and idiocy is a blur. People like to give tags based on results, rather than process."
"Indeed," she agreed. "Even then, this is a different level of foolishness I've seen in a mortal in a long time - one who is neither naive nor ignorant."
"So, how do I address you? [Calculator]?" he inquired, a hint of curiosity in his voice.
The lady huffed, rolling her eyes. "Call me Ciel and cut that formality crap."
A smirk played on the man's lips. "Fine, not like I'm a fan of that either. I just presumed you were one of those stuck-up types who let power get to their head."
Ciel's expression remained neutral as she responded, "Having pride is very necessary, but letting it get to your head and cloud your judgment is just foolish." She paused momentarily before continuing, "Anyway, let's move on to the elephant in the room."
The man's eyes widened, and he glanced around the emptiness surrounding them. After a moment, he looked sheepish. "Right... It's been a while since I've interacted properly with another being, so I don't exactly know the meaning of that phrase. But seeing that there isn't an elephant as far as I can see, and calling this place a room is far-fetched, I'll assume you're talking about my reincarnation... or is there actually an elephant in the room that I cannot perceive?" He asked shamelessly.
The divine being's eyes twitched, but her expression quickly returned to normal. "Yes," she said simply.
A helpless expression flashed across the man's face, only to be replaced by another smirk as he nodded.
What followed was an awkward silence that stretched from moments into hours. Neither said anything, each waiting for the other to make a move. As the 100th hour passed, the man finally sighed. "You win," he said simply. A smug expression flickered across Ciel's face before vanishing as quickly as it had appeared.
"You really are patient for a mortal," Ciel remarked. "Anyway, it's been a while since I've seen a mortal causing their own reincarnation. I can't look into your past either... I checked your world to at least get an idea of your previous incarnation." She paused, noting that he didn't comment, then continued.
"Your world really was awesome for a mortal world. A Virtual World that felt as real as the real world for mortals, with a time dilation feature to accelerate human civilization's progress. NPCs that felt as real as real people. This is any otaku's wet dream. But what did you do? You actually used that time dilation function to improve your skills. Where everyone else was using it to... copulate for days, you were doing instinct training.
There's one thing to be an otaku, but actually, trying to copy one fictional character's skill? And for 500 years, no less! Tell me, are you really a mortal?" She seemed to have gotten emotional for some reason, but after a moment, she composed herself.
"This Virtual world was actually randomly generated after the initial design and was expanding at a fast rate every second of the day, creating new life forms, NPCs, languages, histories, ancient texts... The AI was created by mistake, but its capability surpassed any lifeform seen before in your world.
On one of your adventures, you found ancient texts and somehow started to decrypt them. After a while, you got information on reincarnation and briefly learned of my existence."
"It was probably fate that somehow that information got there, but you actually believed the randomness of an AI and decided to follow the ritual mentioned. And now you're here." She looked at him questioningly, clearly wanting to know his motives.
The man's response was casual, almost nonchalant. "I learned everything I wanted to and got bored of that world. I have a strong gut feeling that this thing is gonna work, plus my instincts generally don't betray me. Anyway, what's happening to that Virtual world? I feel like it's getting more real than the real world of that world."
Ciel's explanation was concise but profound. "Well, that Reality or 'Virtual World' is increasing the grade of its own level of Reality. Each idea has a grade, and after reaching a certain threshold, it merges into different layers of Reality. That 'virtual world' of yours is becoming a higher grade world than the 'real world' of your universe itself."
Before the man could continue his questioning, Ciel cut him off. "Now, let's move on with reincarnating. State your three wishes. Remember, one wish can't contain multiple wishes. I'm going to send you to a version of the Narutoverse."
The man's wishes were simple yet precise:
"1. I would like to be transmigrated with my memories.
2. I would be transmigrated into a boy of 5 years old.
3. The boy I transmigrate into shouldn't have any genetic or chronic defects or illnesses."
With a final "Sayonara," the scene shifted dramatically. The man found himself in a classroom, his new memories flooding in as an instructor concluded a patriotic lecture.
"...noble purpose of safeguarding Konoha from the shadows. Each one of you has the potential to reach the Jounin level, and I believe that you will become an excellent Ninjas. On that note, let's end today's class. It's all for Konoha!"
"All for Konoha!" the children chorused, including our protagonist.
As his memories settled, he grasped the situation: 10,000 children, 200 classes, all part of a secret program. 'This is insane,' he thought. 'I don't even have memories before I got into this institute. Probably everyone's memories were erased.'
The instructor, wearing a rat mask, continued, "Today we will start with the Leaf Concentration exercise. I expect everyone to get the basics down in at least 3 days." His expression changed ominously. "Those who won't get it will have to go through some resilience training."
"Also, we're going to start the point system I mentioned half a year ago. You can exchange them at shops or exchange centres to buy anything. First place gets 50 points, second 49, and so on. Any doubts?" When nobody spoke up, he gestured for them to follow.
The children were led to a large, enclosed room with artificial trees and lighting. "I believe that everyone can at least move their chakra in their body at this point," the instructor explained. "So you just have to move it towards your forehead and make the leaf stick. It sounds simple, but it's more practical than theoretical as it's the most basic level of chakra control."
"We've already gone through releasing chakra from main chakra points. In this exercise, that's the first step. After that, you have to visualize your chakra interacting with the leaf rather than dissipating in the air. Now everyone, take a leaf and start this exercise."
Kids ranging from 5 to 8 years old began the exercise. The first to complete it was an 8-year-old with blonde hair, who probably had done this before his memories were removed. After a few hours, our protagonist also completed the exercise, coming in 15th place and earning 36 points.
'Chakra is weird,' he thought to himself.
As the session ended, the instructor dismissed them. "Kids, today's session is over. We'll have conditioning after lunch. We'll also start your sparring sessions next week. Also, the earlier 3-day mark to complete this exercise is shifted to 2 days. Seeing so many of you have completed this, you're dismissed for now."
Our protagonist, an average-looking 5-year-old who didn't even have the advantage of being cute, started walking towards the cafeteria. He pondered the point system and its uses. Food, surprisingly, was the main attention-grabber. It was the primary reason everyone wanted to complete exercises quickly, apart from avoiding the euphemistically named "resilience training."
Food was divided into ranks, from F to S. F and E ranks were normal foods, but starting from D rank, foods included chakra. They had some effect on development, but the main difference was in taste - the gap between D rank and E rank was like the difference between heaven and earth.
A normal F-rank meal costs 1 point, E rank 5 points, and D rank a whopping 25 points. Surprisingly, or perhaps unsurprisingly, jutsus and training manuals were cheaper than foods of the same ranks.
As he savoured his D-rank fried rice, far superior to anything he'd tasted before, the boy contemplated his situation. 'I need to think about a goal in this ninja world,' he mused. 'Becoming stronger is a given, so that's a must. Maybe eating all different kinds of food in this world? Just this D-rank fried rice is comparable to the top meals I ever had!'
His thoughts turned to more pressing matters. 'But let's focus on the main problem now. I am definitely, or most probably, a Root trainee. If I'd known that being a Root trainee gives me access to such good food, I might have volunteered to be kidnapped! Anyway, I can't hide my progress here as there are CCTVs everywhere, even in bathrooms. Do these people like seeing kids take a dump?' He shivered at the thought.
'Even if I hide my progress, there will come a time when I'll be found out. In the worst-case scenario, my memories could be checked! That's the last thing I want. And that's even considering that I might be a genius or something. But am I really? No! Let's not get arrogant. I wasn't even first, even if this was my first time manipulating chakra. Plus, seeing that failure means getting tortured, I won't be surprised to see many kids who will keep up with or even surpass me. This is the best environment to produce quality shinobi quickly.'
He considered his advantages. 'My only edge is my ability to learn and my familiarity with fighting, plus the instincts I've honed. I can still feel those instincts in this body, so it's probably at a level where a soul can retain them.'
As he finished his meal, he steeled himself for the challenges ahead. In this ruthless environment designed to produce elite shinobi, he knew he'd need every advantage to survive and thrive. With determination, he headed back to training, ready to face whatever this new world had in store for him.
'Anyway,' he thought, 'time to go back to training.'