2. Awakening

"Finally awake are we"

"Huhh?!" He falls and topples down as a cold feeling sinks him onto his knees.

'What is this, where am I. Mom I'm scared' His thoughts echo through the white space as he weakly lifts his head to glimpse at the newcomer.

"Oh!, you're a special one aren't ya" The orb shines brightly and changes into a human form and looks just like Nick's body. It's eyes piercing through Nick's soul. "Specail ones are rare to find lately"

"Special?" Nick mumbles to himself as he warily stares at the apparition that looks like him. "Where am I and who are you"

"Yes, special. Souls like you are hard to comedy ever since the darkness invaded he's been snatching paradox souls like you prematurely right after their death. You on the other hand resisted the temptation of the darkness and are now stuck here in the "knolrhealm" also known as the "Realm of Knowledge and Transcende". I am one of it's keepers" The apparition responds.

'Death

Dead

Death

Dead.....

I'm dead....'

These words keep echoing in Nick's head as he tries to make sense of this situation.

After sometime Nick finally comes to terms with the situation and faces the apparition before him with a newfound resolve in his eyes.

" Can I go back" He asks.

"No you cannot" A flat response greets him back.

"Why not" He challenges the figure.

"Well look at that, you quickly found your resolve. It's as simple as this. You can go back but you'll soon die immediately as you open your eyes" A sour response awaits him.

"How come" He inquires.

"Eversince you came here your soul has been in a dormant state. Something like hibernation, your conscience didn't want to come to terms with your death so it went dormant and thus plunged itself through reality itself. The concept of time does not exist here and if I were to compare how long you've been here with time from your world then....." The figure poses as it ponders for a while.

"Ahh yes. Roughly you have been here for a nearly millennium and in such your soul has been gathering Etheral Energy from the universe and absorbing it passively. And with how much energy you have sending you back wouldn't just kill you but also release all of that energy into the world and raze it to its core setting in motion chains of reaction resulting in the instability of the universe and catastrophic outcomes with unknown consequences. And as such your return is futile".

"I...I see" his head drops down depressingly. "So what now"

"Nothing. Your soul lingers here for all eternity and once your conscience relieves you then you can pass on to the afterlife or be it you get born again in another world" The apparition replies.

"Wait....! Born again?"

"Yes. Once in a while, special conditions are met and we keepers can allow a certain soul that fails to pass on with a backing from one solece then they can be born again in another world to fulfill the course of their lives"

"Keepers?. What's that. You mentioned that you're one of them"

"Yes that is indeed true, I am one of the 12 keepers primes watching over this universe. And I can allow to be born again. Yes"

"Will you allow me to be born again" He asks.

"Well given the nature of you death and the good deeds you've done despite your own limitations and your youthfulness you are worthy by my standards to go through. But...." He stops for a while thinking about his condition and implications he will evoke wherever he goes.

"But.....?."

"The energy you have gathered here will be a hindrance to your life and most likely result to your body enveloping your previous condition and end up the same way as your previous life did if not worse. But also given how much energy you have gathered I could convert it into boons you can carry into your next life which will give an advantage."

"I'll take." He responds after thinking about his position for a while.

The apparition infront of him waves a hand infront of him as a wave of translucent rainbow colored energy engulfs his body and flows out into the apparition's hand and glows into six multicolored tiny orbs.

"Each of these represents a boon or a wish that you get to carry into your next life. Let's get this started." A blue orb floats in the air towards him and glows before him.

"First up, what world would you like to be born in?." A question is posed.

"Wait I get to choose which world?.....Hmm. I choose to be reborn in the Naruto world by Kishimoto."

Shroom

The blue orb glows brightly and enters into his chest and he glows a light blue.

"Second wish"

"Uhmm...I wish for plot armor" He states his second wish.

An white orb glows brightly from the bunch and enters his chest as previously and he lights up in a white glow.

He then states his wishes as follows: a green, orange, red and a black orbs glow and enter his chest respectively. Wishes; extreme vitality on par with Hashirama Senju's, affinity to all chakra natures even non elemental ones, huge chakra reserves and a system to help him quicken his learning.

After all the orbs entered into his chest, he glowed with a streak of multicolored energy covering his entire soul his vision started to blur and his soul went back to a state of dormancy as his eyes closed and his soul started chipping away into many fragments of light.

"Farewell....until we meet again"

That was the last thing he heard as he lost consciousness again.

———————————————————————

Inside Konoha hospital

Gasp...

Huff.....Huff...

A young boy laying in a hospital regains consciousness. His breathing is ecstatic and heavy. His vision is blurs as he frantically squints his eye trying to look around but all he sees are vivid imagery.

"Huh...?" He suddenly feels someone holding his hand and he turns in the direction as his vision lands on a blury image sitting by the side of the bed.

'For some reason I feel safe around her. Her? Somehow I feel as though I know who this is. Where am I, the last thibg i remember is.....' His chain of thought is cut off as a female voice lands in his ears.

"You're awake. How do you feel? You must be exhausted after all that training. It's a miracle you're even alive. Thankfully that join was around to help. If he didn't then.....I don't even want to think about what could have happened" A small narrow tear starts to fall from the corner of her eye as she says this.

"..."

The boy incredulously stares at the blurry figure of the woman sitting by his side as his thoughts run to as to who this might be.

"Nehan-kun are you feeling alright is something the matter, are you in pain?" She asks as she gets up and she place a hand over his fore hand to feel his temperature.

"I'm alright Mai-obasan" After a while of hesitation his mouth opens on its own and he responds before he could hold himself.

"You're having a high fever let me go get a doctor to check on you now that you're awake" She says as she walks out of the room.

Arghh....

He clutches his head as a wave of pain flushes through his body and a blurry blue scribbles appear in lower right corner of his vision.

[ Welcome....system nourishing body ]

[5%....17%....35%....62%....85....98%....]

[System body nourishing complete ]

Slowly the aches creeping on his body subside and vision returns back his eyes as his vision becomes clearer and details of the room form in his mind. He looks around and notices that he is in a hospital room laying on the bed with his body wrapped in bandages.

"Where am I"

[ Memory restoration initiated ]

[ 6%....21%....43%....73%....89%....100%... ]

[ Memory restoration complete ]

Similar blue words as before appear in his vision as he is able to get a glimpse of them this time.

This must be the system I wished for.

Memories start surging through his mind as a recollection of the memories of his past life as well as his present ones overlap start to reappear in his mind and clarity is regained and a differentiation of the two lives.

"Nahen Sato.....huh?"