1 CHAPTER - 1 - THE BEGINING
Night
Unknown Forest
In the densely packed forest, sounds of bugs buzzing around and swaying of the branches from the wind, this was the same pattern as any other day.
Crack!
Crack!
Bang!
Suddenly the space above the trees began to crack for a few moments before finally shattering, revealing nothing but pure darkness inside.
"AAAHHHHHH!"
Suddenly a young man's voice came out, screaming at the top of his lungs.
"SHIT! I'm GONNA DIEEEE!" Was the first words that came out of his mouth, though he was glad that he saw light but was quickly replaced with fear as at the speed he was going at he knew he wouldn't survive.
He closed his eyes waiting for the pain to come, though after a while nothing happened.
As he wondered what happened he slowly opened his eyes and was rendered speechless.
His face was mere inches from touching the ground but was somehow floating in midair, which shouldn't be possible, defying the laws of physics like it was nothing just doesn't happen.
By all accounts and at speeds rivaling terminal velocity there should be nothing left of him intact.
"What the hell?" as he tried to figure out what was going on…
Though he didn't have to long to ponder on the matter.
THUD!
"Ophhh (OWCH)" he muffled in pain as the floating effect wore off, as he face planted on the ground.
As soon as the pain subsided he quickly lifted himself up off the ground and looked at the surrounding woods.
"Where am I?" as he tried to remember nothing else came to mind.
"Though it's not like I have amnesia, I still remember everything else prior to that" as he tried to remember everything that happened.
Flashback
The young man was Haru Hayashi, an orphan, at the age of six was adopted by the Hayashi family as their only son.
Both his parents never could have a child themselves, so instead they adopted Haru and raised him as their own.
He counted himself as lucky, being raised by such caring parents, so he strove to be the best son he could be to them, not trying to any problems for them. Though even as a kid he had his faults, not that they blamed him in the least, to which he honestly felt lucky for having such wonderful people.
His Mom worked as a nurse at a hospital in the inner city, it seemed she really liked helping people and the people she treated had nothing but praises for her outstanding work.
She also deeply cared about her family and spoke with her mom, cousins, uncles and aunts nearly everyday despite how busy she was. She treated her friends and those close to her like family, a tradition that's been passed down in the Hayashi family for generations.
This belief was also instilled in him and he felt happy to be able to carry it on, and then one day pass this along to his family too.
She seemed so happy and satisfied with her life, and that made Dad happy as well.
His father worked as a professional photographer, he had nearly 20 years of experience in the field. Since back in the day he worked from black and white negatives to modern day digital imagery and photo editing techniques.
There were frames scattered all across the house with pictures of him and his parents, along with others that he took with during his early days as he traveled to exotic locations like volcanoes, remote villages and other countries, some of which even took him overseas.
Over the years his Dad told him stories about the places he visited and the people he met there, though most of it was telling him about the shenanigans that happened to him and his friends during those trips, some of them he still stays in touch with to this day.
He actually met Mom during one of his trips and the two immediately fell in love with each other, in a few months it would actually be their 20th anniversary.
You can't imagine how excited Mom is for this, since Dad already made all the preparations for such a special occasion.
But that's not important, so let's get on track shall we?
Haru was turning fourteen this year, nearly six years have gone by since they adopted him, he didn't care about his biological parents nor was he interested in finding out the reason they abandoned him. In his opinion his Mom and Dad were his true family, not those bastards who left him at the front door of a run down orphanage.
Always have, always will.
He had short black hair and eyes with his hair slightly disheveled, most likely his hair was messed up, he also had a few moles on the side of his neck, which if connected were like a square.
His face wasn't half bad given his age, there also weren't any blemishes or dark spots on him which just add to his natural charm.
As he walked along the side of the road, he currently wasn't paying much attention to his surroundings. He was also wearing a standard school uniform consisting of a pair of khaki colored pants with a black belt holding it together tightly, a navy blue short sleeved polo shirt printed with the school's logo, and a brown leather school bag in his right hand.
The reason for the school uniform is because it was mostly influenced by western culture rather than by Japanese standards, the school he went was built by the previous Headmaster and founder who visited America and was inspired by them, creating the uniforms you see today.
Of course the same applied to the girls, gender equality at its finest everyone.
Though in his opinion he wondered what was going through the Headmaster's head at the time?
Anyway, he was currently a second year middle school student.
His grades were at least above average, he was in particularly good with History and English reading since his parents spoke three languages: English, Spanish, and Japanese.
His parents had been travelling all over the world, it's only natural that they picked up another language or two, to which they then proceeded to beat into him by switching from English one week to Japanese in another at home.
Though after nearly four years of study, listening to his parents, and trial and error he eventually became fluent in all three in both reading and writing each language.
He was walking down the street looking at his phone while, though he had a pair of earphones plugged in but only one was actually in his ear, the other was hanging his neck to keep it from dangling side to side.
Not too far from school he was watching the latest episode of Naruto on his phone.
"Not bad, though in all honesty it feels as if they're just stretching the plot way too thin with all these filler Arcs" as he talked to himself.
The current Arc he was watching the In Naruto's Footsteps: The Friends Paths Arc, which was focused on the Konoha 11 tackling the Chunin Exams, right now he was watching the episode where they explained the Second phase of the Exam taking place in the Demon Desert.
Though to be honest he just wanted to know what happens next after Naruto collapsed from having the Nine Tails extracted from him and Sakura keeping him alive.
He refused to read the manga though, preferring to follow the anime and not spoil for himself what comes next.
Though these filler arcs are really starting to become annoying to watch, but at least this one isn't as boring the rest have been to him, though that's just his opinion.
As the episode wraps up he puts away his phone and earbuds and begins to focus on walking back to school.
A few minutes goes by in silence, a few people passing by and going about their daily lives. Not long after he arrives in front of a construction site, they were currently building a new apartment complex for low income tenants, this project started nearly half a year ago, so only the foundation and the skeleton of the building were completed.
Heavy machinery littered the area, from cement trucks and cranes, down to jackhammers and drills used by the construction crew.
Right now they were in the middle of working, as loud banging noises and sounds of drills echoed throughout the neighborhood, making Haru wonder how the neighbors felt about this.
As he looked over to the entrance he saw what looked like a kid standing in front of the entrance.
It seemed the boy was mesmerized at the sight before him, probably dreaming about becoming one of these big strong men when he grows up. Not that it mattered to Haru as he was about to go on hos way.
Twang!
"...What was that sound"
As he looked around he couldn't help but wonder what it was.
Twang!
Snap!
"There it is again" as he looked around once more but found nothing.
Twang!
Creak!
Snap!
As he looked around and kept on hearing more noises, he wondered if perhaps he was going insane.
Since he didn't find anything around him that could be the source, he looked at the only place he could think of.
As he tilted his head upwards, he immediately found his answer.
Up above there was a high rise crane, carrying several steel I- beams high above the ground and being pulled by several cables.
Though it appeared that some of those cables had already hanged loosely on the sides.
"Ohhh, so that explains the noise from earlier" as he soon came to the realization.
It seemed like they were in the middle of moving them when the cables were starting to give out, most likely from the strain.
As he looked down below it just happened to be hanging over the little kid from earlier.
"Watch out!" yelled one of the workers
"They're gonna fall!" someone else announced
"Everyone, clear out" yelled one of the other men as people scrammed to safety so as to not get caught up in the aftermath.
Just as the last few cables snapped all at once, no longer being supported by anything the I-beams soon fell off and were quickly accelerating due to Gravity right towards the kid.
"SHHHHIIIITTTT" as Haru yelled out, his body moved before even realizing.
As he ran straight towards the boy, not even caring for his own safety.
As the beams headed straight for the poor boy,, Haru arrived just a few seconds beforehand, though there wasn't enough time to grab the boy and run.
Instead he did the only thing he could to save the boy, and that was shoving him out of the way.
Using both of his hands he managed to push the child out of harm's way, though given the time he couldn't do so gently as the kid rolled off to the side and just outside the area.
As he saw was the kid looking at him in shock, he couldn't think of anything else but to smile at the young boy.
"Mom, Dad. I'm sorry" was the last thought that went through the Haru's head before he heard a loud crashing noise and his vision turned to black.
Present
Yet here he was now, without a scratch on him, nothing of what happened made sense to him no matter how hard he tried.
As soon as he regained consciousness, "Where am I?" "Am I dead?" "Someone out there?" were the first things that came to his mind. At first he tried looking around, to see if he was in a hospital or something.
But what he found next was unlike anything he ever imagined.
Instead he soon realized that he had been floating around in an endless expanse of darkness for who knows how long.
It was a literal void without anything in it, he soon concluded that he was probably dead and that this was the afterlife. He called out to anyone in all three languages hoping for at least some sort of response.
Instead he was only met with silence, cold and uncaring.
As he tried to think about what felt like years to him was happening, he soon saw something out of the corner of his eye after being in this darkness for who knows how long.
...
In this Infinite Void, light had pierced through this Illusive & Obscure Dream
...
"...Light!" he called out in an almost desperate voice, soon followed by joy on the boy's face despite the seemingly hopeless situation.
Not a moment later he soon found himself being pulled towards that spark of light. As he reached out and got closer he soon found out something horrifying.
He wasn't being pulled towards the light, he was falling straight towards it.
All this time he had actually been falling, plummeting towards the ground without notice, and as the light quickly grew bigger and brighter he immediately realized that he was free-falling at breakneck speeds.
As soon as the approaching light became brighter and brighter, he had no choice but to cover his eyes.
Next thing he knows he can feel the wind on his face and breathing fresh air, though the look of shock on his face immediately disappeared as the ground quickly approached him and soon started screaming once more.
Which finally led to everything coming back full circle.
As he finished recalling everything that happened he first took in a deep breath and tried to think rationally, though even that was a challenge since everything happened way too suddenly.
"For know I need something to drink, try to keep my head on straight and not panic" as he opened his school bag he had with him, he pulled out a silver canteen filled with tea from earlier, which was still surprisingly warm despite the exceedingly long time he passed in that void.
Soon the moon came out from behind the clouds, illuminating the area even more, as he looked at his reflection on the canteen he was shocked to his very soul.
...
...
...
His eyes were no longer black but instead blood-red in color, and inside each of them was a single inverted magatama.
"... No. Freaking. Way!" was all he could say but in his mind he screamed "Sharingan! It's an actual Sharingan! This has to be a dream, I'm in a dream!" as he panicked and began pulling his cheek.
PA!
"Ouch!" Haru screamed in pain as his cheek burned from pinching it.
"Okay, definitely not dreaming, definitely not. Nope,Nope, Nope. This isn't a fuc…"
BZZT!
BZZT!
BZZZZZTTTTT!
"AGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!" as Haru dropped the canteen and fells to his knees as he yelled at the top of his lungs.
A sudden wave of immense pain shot straight through his head, as he felt like his head was about to explode and his ears started to ring.
His body followed shortly after, as he felt like something was crawling under his skin and trying to reach every inch of his body, he soon curled himself into a ball and started twitching from the overwhelming amount of pain he was in.
It felt as if someone was directly stabbing all of his pain receptors at once with a sharp knife, though there was nothing he could do but lay down and take it, because whatever was apparently doing this was making sure he didn't pass out from the pain.
He could feel like something was trying to force its way in.
Ding!
[Host Found, commencing scan...]
"What, who's doing what, come on AGGGHHHHHHHHHH" as he roared out in pain once more.
[Scanning…]
[Scanning…]
[Scanning…]
A few minutes of this goes by and Haru screaming bloody murder as the pain seemingly never ends.
[Scanning complete, host is confirmed to meet all the requirements]
[Naruto System binding successful, host Haru Hayashi]
As soon as the voice died down Haru finally felt the pain had started to subside, as his nonstop suffering had finally come to an end. His entire body was covered in sweat from the terrible experience. A few more minutes of this and Haru slowly regains some sense of sanity, taking in a few deep breaths before slowly getting off the ground and on to his feet.
"Who's there? Whoever's hiding, come out now" yelled Haru in unfettered rage towards the woods, only to be met back with silence.
At least for a moment.
[Do not panic host, I am merely the administrator of the 'Naruto System'. Surely, host has heard of it before.]
"Wait a moment… are you talking about thatone, from the web novel?"
[Indeed.]
Responded the system, though Haru was left in shock at what he just heard, he had been reading quite a few novels and watched all kinds of anime, so he considers himself to be quite the otaku, of course that included Naruto and that web novel, having watched the former since he was a kid while the latter he had read over a year ago, he was utterly fascinated by them, though the web novel was a little too rushed towards the end, though that was merely his opinion.
Over the next hour or so was spent trying to regain his sanity and mental focus, though in that time the system appeared to be silent, waiting for Haru to recover.
"Alright, I've calm down now, system?"
[Yes host?]
"Then why did this system appear in my body?"
[It is your reward from the heavenly laws, though concrete details are unknown]
"Sigh~...Of course it is, not like they explained it in the novel either" as he thought about it he couldn't but feel like he was expecting that to happen. Though he might not know why it appeared but since it did, then that can only mean one thing…
"Looks like I somehow arrived in another world, though this is probably one where strength is going to be necessary to survive" is what he was able to gleam from the information he had available. Though it might not exactly be the same as in the web novel, you must always be prepared for the unexpected.
As he tried to think about his next course of action…
[Host, please concentrate your mind, then you will be able to see the system.]
As he decided to head the system's advice, he tried to focus his mind on the system.
Not a moment later it appeared in front of him, though it was quite different from what he was expecting.
In front of him seven scrolls popped into reality, when he touched one of them the scroll unraveled, revealing the contents.
"So it's like a game menu, that makes it easier for me, at least compared to using a laptop" as he thought to himself before moving on
As he opened each one of them they appeared as followed:
Blue-Green-Red-Yellow-Black-Silver-White
Ninjutsu System
Store System
Doujutsu System
Summoning Beast System
Mission System
Hunter System
System Locked
It looked pretty similar to the one in Naruto, except for the two new ones at the end, but it appeared there was no other differences so far as he recalled what each of them was.
The Ninjutsu System covered all ninjutsu, genjutsu, taijutsu, forbidden, and hidden jutsu from the Naruto world. There weren't any requirements other than having the strength and chakra reserves it can be learned at any time.
The Store System had from what he briefly looked at hundreds if not thousands of different ninja props ranging from kunai, shuriken, paper bombs, smokescreens and so on. Even all the different outfits from Naruto and the Akatsuki, down to special tools and weapons like the blades of the Seven Ninja Swordsman of the Mist.
The Doujutsu System was for the exchange of the Mangekyo Sharingan, which included all other forms that were previously known, with the exception of Madara's since apparently not even the System knew what it was.
The Summoning Beast System covers all types of beasts in the Naruto World, which included Manda, Katsuyu, Gamabunta, otherwise known as the Three Way Deadlock. All the Tailed Beasts were there as well, from One Tail Shukaku to the Nine Tails Kurama.
The Mission System provided missions for the host to choose from, completing these missions rewards system points and other props, and unlike in the web novel this system was already unlocked. There's also forced missions that are accepted unconditionally, failure to complete them will result in severe penalties but completing them gives more favorable rewards.
However, like mentioned before there were no requirements in the Ninjutsu System but every other system required system points to unlock.
Up to this point he was familiar with, and considering the Kekkei Genkai wasn't available in the Store means he has to upgrade the system at some point.
Then there's the remaining two… the ones he had never seen or heard before.
"System? What's up with the last one being locked?"
[Host currently has not fulfilled the requirements to unlock this system, when host has fulfilled these requirements then this system will become available.]
"I see, no use worrying about it for now, then what's this Hunter System about?" asked Haru
[Yes Host, Hunter System will allow you to hunt beasts from this world, defeating these beasts will allow you to earn system points, the more difficult beast you slay the more system points you earn. You can also earn them from killing other human beings and other precious items.]
[Host has currently 100 points for bonding with this system]
"That will be helpful, I'll try that out later, for now I should find a place to stay?" as he decided his next course of action.
Ding!
[Host has triggered a main mission.]
[Explore the New World: Mission Requirements:Find shelter.]
[Requirement for mission success: Search for a place to live and train while gathering information on this new world]
[Failure: -1000 system points and Sharingan sealed for 1 year]
[Rewards: 500 system points and Basic Training Set]
[Time Limit: 3 Days]
[This mission is forcibly accepted, cannot be refused or given up. In addition, due to host not having enough system points, should the mission fail the system points will be deducted and remaining system points will be in the negative]
"My god, it's just as ruthless as I imagined it, barely started and already I'll have the Sharingan sealed for a year?!" as he read the mission details Haru almost fell down in shock from the system's ruthlessness.
Though the reward was pretty decent, so for the moment he'll just focus on the mission.
As he began wandering the woods searching for people.
Two Days Later
"Fuck, how have I not run into anyone yet?" yelled Haru, which only echoed into the distant mountain ranges.
It had been two days since Haru arrived in this new world and so far he has yet to meet a single person, much less any sort of civilization. He had even climbed up to one of the hills overlooking the area and saw nothing but a vast forest as far as the eye could see.
Since then he's been wandering around aimlessly and has been growing more and more worried about completing the mission.
Luckily the system had Food Pills which could be exchanged for 2 system points each, so he bought a few along with a lighter to start fires and keep himself warm and fed at night.
As he keeps walking through the forest "at this rate I'm gonna fail the mission" as he looked around there was something out of the corner of his eye that he noticed.
"Is that a… house?" as he tried looking through he spots what appears to be a small house built out in the middle of nowhere.
"Let me get a better look" as he muttered he closed his eyes and tried to focus.
"Sharingan!" he called out in his mind, as he opened his eyes showing scarlet eyes with a single tomoe present in each of them.
As he feels that his eyesight has gotten sharper and can see better he can clearly make out what appears to be a small cabin and with all the trees in the area made it look like it there was nothing else in the world.
As Haru walked closer to it he also caught sight of what appeared to be a dojo next to it, but decided to look inside the cabin first.
"Hello? Is anyone here?" yelled Haru, though no response came back. As he approached the door he found it was unlocked, and hesitated for a moment before entering.
The inside was simple, there were a few chairs and a table, along with a kitchen, bedroom, and surprisingly a working bathroom, though it looked like there wasn't any electricity and dust had been accumulating for at least half a year.
"Looks like no one's been here in a while" determined Haru as there wasn't anything in the fridge either.
"Let's check out the dojo then" determined Haru as he left his backpack inside and made his way towards it.
Surprisingly, the floor was shiny and didn't have a speck of dust on it and even he hesitated to step inside with his shoes on which compared to the cabin was better maintained, almost like someone lived in here rather than in the cabin.
"Its written in Japanese, guess that means I'm somewhere in Japan, should have figured that out right away when I saw the dojo" as he berated himself for not coming to that conclusion sooner, though this throws his theory of having traveled to another world out the window, or perhaps it's a similar but different Earth or any number of possibilities.
"It's too early to draw conclusions, I need more information before I can confirm anything"
After taking his shoes off he saw some bokuto (wooden sword) placed on the wall of the dojo and it had a few signs of use as well, such as nicks and scratches on the edge of the wooden swords.
"Maybe someone was living here until recently, but now they're gone and who knows when they'll be back?" said Haru before sighing in defeat, knowing he missed his chance to leave this forest.
As he left the dojo and saw what appeared to be a small path he followed it for a while before stumbling across a lake, there was even a pier with a small boat attached, which would explain the fishing gear in the back. There was also a pipe which connected back to the main house and was probably used to draw the water.
"Though I don't see anyone else here, I hope they don't mind me using this place for a while, at least until I get stronger and can get out of this forest on my own" as he apologized in advance for intruding.
Ding!
[Congratulations to host for completing main mission 'Explore the New World']
[Host is awarded 500 system points and Basic Training Set]
As he heard the sound of the system going off Haru felt relieved that he found a place to stay and that his Sharingan would not be sealed for a year, that would have been a real shame.
After that the Basic Training Set appeared with a 'peng'
It included half a dozen kunai knives, a dozen shuriken, a few paper bombs, and a small ninja pouch which functioned like an inventory space, though it could not hold everything and nothing bigger than a sword it could hold quite a lot.
"Since this is to be my new place I'll stay here for a while, this place offers the perfect place to train for me, though I shouldn't mess it up much, or maybe go in deeper to practice any big ninjutsu" as he thought of various ways to spend his time here.
"Maybe one day I'll find a way back home too" as he said that a trace of sadness couldn't help but flash in his eyes, he had been wondering if his family had already received news of his 'death' in his old world and if they were already planning his funeral. He didn't want to see his Mom crying, so instead he would work hard and find a way back to his old world.
Till then…
"Time to start training" he said resolutely before walking back to the cabin.
"Maybe I should go by a different name, don't want others to know my real name, besides... this is probably a different world where no one knows me. Now, what should I call myself?" as he receded into deep thought for a few minutes before opening his eyes.
"Why not Haru Uchiha? The last of the Uchiha Clan, I kind of like the sound of that" as he smiled in joy.
This would be the beginning of Haru Uchiha's journey through this strange new world.
