Ryuen Kakeru or Shall I Say Uchiha
I had died. At least, that's what I thought had happened, yet in this exact moment I found myself sitting in a dimly lit room with only the crackles of fire and constant drips of water to accompany me.
Strange.
I never believed in reincarnation or an afterlife for that matter yet this very situation proved my beliefs wrong and now I was inhabiting the body of a child. Probably around the age of 6 or 7
Yet a small part of me couldn't help but feel a tinge of excitement.
My past life could be described with many words yet to summarise it in one, the word I would choose is stale. Yep. It was boring, stationary, dull, tedious, repetitive. I mean, come on, I died at the age of seventeen, living a life that centred only around school and nothing else. So it only made sense that a small part of me craved a bit of amusement.
A slight smile graced my lips as I analysed my current situation.
Another chance to live. A more exciting life, a life where I could be free.
Escaping my thoughts, I decided that it would be a good idea to make sense of my surroundings before enveloping myself in a newfound existentialist spirit.
Now back to the room. The room was small. Smaller than a queen sized bed if I had to guess. The walls were made up of hard slabs of stone and the door consisted of wooden planks with a rusted metal keyhole.
Yikes, this place is pretty rundown. Not the prettiest way to start a new life but i'll live.
My eyes turnt towards the bed I had been sitting on but calling it a bed would be disservice to all the other beds out there. Rather it was strange combination of wood and straw. The previous host of this body probably died due to the uncomfortability of laying on this monstrosity.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
My eyes turnt back to the water that hadn't stopped dripping from the ceiling as it now formed a small puddle.
Quite convenient.
I stood and knelt over the puddle to examine my new face.
Blond hair, blue eyes and aristocratic features. Hmm. I can work with it, not too terrible. Quite useful if I ever needed to charm my way out of something.
Anyway let's focus on escaping this damn dungeon.
Standing up from the straw bed, I approached the door, putting my ear against it. There seemed to be no sound on the other side, which fed into my prediction of this place being abandoned. That wasn't my only indication though; I noticed a small crevice invetween the wooden planks and looked through it. No signs of any other person in this place apart from me. Steeling myself, I grabbed the metal handle.
Here goes nothing. The start of my new li-
The door didnt budge. I pulled the handle again yet it amounted to no luck. My eyes wondered back to the keyhole and came to the realisation that it was probably locked.
That made things a little trickier but I still had two options. I could either burn the door with that fire torch that hung on the wall or I could try breaking it. I'll go with the easier option- rather not accidentally burn myself.
This is probably going to hurt and leave my hand messed up but eh, it'll be alright.
I riled my hand back in preparation to punch the door and exhaled heavily. My fist shot through the air and impacted loudly with the plank. Retracting it quickly, I hissed in pain as I observed my hand.
Only a bit of blood on my knuckles, nothing serious.
I had aimed for a small hole in the door and by the looks of of it, the hole got slightly bigger so atleast my attempt wasn't unsuccessful. Riling my fist back once more, I exhaled slowly once again before punching the door again.
Before my fist made contact with the wall, I felt a strange foreign sensation within my body. The sensation travelled along my arm till it coated my fist in an azure blue; Without time to even question the speculation, my fist impacted with the door, shattering it easily.
Wow.
I stared at the broken pieces of wood that layed on the floor in shock. How was that possible? The strength of a seven year old couldn't possibly break apart this door. That 'strange sensation' could it have been some sort of power?
In an attempt to uncover what had just happened, I closed my eyes and tried to reconnect with that sensation yet it amounted to nothing.
What was that? Some sort of power, a power strong enough to let me brake a door in a single punch. Guess this life isn't going to be as straightforward as I thought.
…
Walking over the broken pieces of wood, I had entered a larger room with 5 doors on each side, one of which I had just broken. There was also a large table in the centre of the room. Approaching the table, my eyes caught sight of something that would be eternally useful - a map. A map with the title, Elemental Nations. And with that I managed to decipher something crucial about this new life of mine.
I was reborn into the Naruto World. As in the Shinobi world where killing was the norm and children were sent to war against other countries just for the sake of it… Great. Just great. Well, to be fair, I did ask for a bit of thrill and well here it was - in the form of superpowered ninjas.
"How lovely." I said aloud with a sigh, sarcasm laced into my tone. Shaking my head, I refocused my attention on the map: A pin along with the label you are here marked itself into the centre of the Land of Forests.
Perfect. Not too far away from Konoha. Yes, I guess I could also go Kirigakure but from what I remember that place was a wartorn state with a caste system and a ruler controlled by Uchiha Madara's Sharingan. Yeah, I guess i'll pass on that. Would rather Danzo.
Grabbing the map, I rolled it up and placed it into a backpack I found laying on the table along with a compass. My eyes then shifted to the further side of the table which held an abundance of scrolls that would probably be useful.
Grabbing the nearest one to me, I unraveled it and began to read it's contents. It was a factfile. A factfile of me.
[Name: Ryuen Kakeru
Age: 7
Date of Birth: 2nd of November, Year 65
Status: Dead
Kekkei Genkai:None
Kekkei Tota: Plasma Release
Reports: Stage 1, Unsuccessful yet Advantageous. The boys body readily accepted the Hashirama cells yet no signs of Wood Release. However, his vitality and regeneration factor has become exponentially high. Stage 2, Successful. The Sharingan has been assimilated into his system and the boy is able to turn them on and off at will without expending any extra chakra, exactly like an Uchiha. Three tomoes have been unlocked on each eye. Stage 3, Unsuccessful. My early manufacturing of the snake seal. Deciding to try it on the boy with such a high potential, yet it backfired and killed him. A shame.
Last updated: Year 72 ]
My eys widened in disbelief as I had finished reading the scroll. I was a prized experiment of Orochimaru in which he attempted to use my body as a vessel. He even gave me a fully functioning Sharingan along with Hashirama cells.
Looks like I wont be dying anytime soon. A smile found its way onto my lips as I innately thanked Orochimaru for his service. My eyes trailed back to the Kekkei Tota line and reread it.
Plasma Release eh? That would come in handy. Now back to the more important matters.
The factfile was last updated at Year 72, and I'm assuming Orochimaru is using Konohas Timeline so that means the massacre has already occured.
How do I know that? Well I was an avid fan of Naruto back in my old life. Probably reread it around 6 times. Best manga of all time if you ask me.
…
I attempted to reconnect with that strange sensation, which I could now name Chakra, once again however this time I succeeded. Grabbing a hold of it, I slowly guided it towards my eyes till I noticed a stark change in my vision.
Everything's clearer. Like much clearer. And I could see lines of chakra emitting from some of the scrolls laid out on the table.
I turned around and looked at the nine remaining doors when I noticed a darker more sinister chakra leaking out of each room.
Seems like Orochimaru dealt with them before abandoning this place. Probably felt they were worthless as his secret weapon, aka me, had died.
I stopped the chakra flow to my eyes and moved towards the other scrolls and read through them thoroughly.
Some Jutsus. These will be useful.
[Wind Style: Great Breakthrough]
[Flame Style: Great Fireball]
[Lightning Style: Lightning Clone]
[Subsitution Jutsu]
Packing them into my backpack, I gave one final look over at the hideout.
Well, time to get on the road.
…
It's been a week since I left Orochimaru's hideout and I'm nearing the border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Forests but I still need to pass by one more town which was probably an hour away. One would've thought that a journey through forests would allow me to get a feel of nature but in a world like this, that was far too unrealistic.
"Just come out. No point hiding." A moment of silence passed by after I said this before three bandits revealed themselves from their hiding spots. One with a red mask, another with a blue mask and the other with a green mask.
"Seriously? Sneaking up on a kid? Do you guys not have shame?" I laughed out and watched as they growled in irritation. Red mask, seemingly angered by my provocation, charged at me with a kunai.
I met his overhead kunai slash with my own kunai before we both jumped back. He threw his kunai towards my head to which I responded with a head tilt. Attempting to catch me off guard with his speed, he dashed at me again and threw a punch towards my head.
Grabbing his arm, I pulled him in using his own momentum against him and slashed his neck with my kunai. Warm blood splattered over my face as I watched the man fall to his knees grasping his neck before falling to ground.
Dead. One down. Two more to go.
The other two looked unfazed by their comrades death, almost expecting him to die. Their lack of reaction left me with a slight annoyance. Over the past two weeks, I had grown accustomed to the Shinobi World's Kill or Be Killed doctrine and even killed some bandits myself. Yet the sight of their shocking indifference just- you know what let me stop yapping.
The two charged at me at once, blue mask coming from the right with a sword in hand whilst green mask approached from the left with brass knuckles as his preferred weapon.
Activating my Sharingan, I planted my feet into the ground, readying myself, before ducking under a sword strike. Taking note of his now vulnerable torso, I enhanced my fist in chakra and punched the blue masked man sending him stumbling back a few metres.
A punch came from my left to which I sidestepped and kicked the green masked man in the rib. He slid back and landed next to his comrade yet before the pair could even regain their balance, I weaved through a couple handsigns before blowing out a large fireball.
Their response was an earth wall. Impressive for bandits to actually know a jutsu, let alone weild chakra.
As I was currently out of their sight, I cast another jutsu Lightning Style: Lightning Clone. The clone ran towards them as they stepped out from behind the earth wall and threw a punch at the green masked man which he dodged and retaliated with his own punch. With that impact, the clone shattered into lightning, leaving green mask in a state of shock.
Instantly taking note of my opportunity, I threw my kunai towards his head, effectively killing him.
Two down. One more to go.
The blue masked man ran towards me at a pace faster than earlier, clearly being the most competent fighter in the trio of bandits, however his attack was short-lived as he met his end with a kunai to the head.
"That's enough of that." A voice appeared from behind a bush. "I would've let you handle him but I just can't stand watching a kid have to battle for his life." A tall and well-built man with waist length, spiky white hair appeared in my vision.
Jiriya, the Toad Sage. One of the Legendary Sannin.
"What's a kid like you doing out this far into the forest? It's dangerous out here you know." And it was true. It is dangerous to travel alone in this sort of world.
But for a man of his power, it was nothing but a walk in the park. Perhaps I could ask him to take me to Konoha himself.
"I'm on a journey."
"Journey to where, if I may ask?"
"Konohagakure. My parents told me to get there as fast as I could." An air of sadness enveloped me. "To get away from that man that killed them.. Orochimaru."
With the mention of that name, Jiriya let out a gasp before a noticeable guilt plagued his features.
"They told me to run or he would take my eyes." I continued, whilst activating my Sharingan, the red hue emanating from my eyes before settling and revealing a pattern of three tomoe.
"Your an Uchiha?" Jiriya asked in disbelief. The Uchiha, they were massacred by Itachi Uchiha with only his younger brother left alive yet it seems another appears before my very eyes. I must take him to the Hokage.
A look of confusion appeared on my face as he mentioned the name. " Ah, I'm sorry, you probably don't know anything the Uchiha Clan. They are one of Konoha's Great Clans and possess the Sharingan Dojutsu." Jiriya informed with a low tone. He stepped closer to me, " Tell you what kid. I'll escort you to Konoha. My name's Jiriya." He extended his hand out. I extended my own hand and embraced his in a manly handshake.
"Ryuen Kakeru."