1 Arrival

"Darkness… that's what I see. An abyss, a place full of darkness, there is no light, wind, or even a remote sense of something that resembles life. The only thing that I feel, Is the fact that the darkness that surrounds me, it's a water-like substance, it just feels like I'm in an endless pond, and I am just sinking, lower and lower. This moment… it's similar to the events that happen in my dreams. I just keep falling and falling, until I wake up. I'm still regretful, I still had unfinished things, but I guess, what's done can't be undone, unless you're a God, which sadly, I don't even have the criteria to be above average. As I am falling… I can't help but think about my dreams. Will I wake up from this? Or will I just keep sinking forever? Or no… the better question is, would I like to wake up?"

He was thinking, soon he found himself entering into a deep state of mind as he got into a fetus position.

"Am I worthy to open my eyes?"

"Do I deserve this? After what I have done?"

"No! I need to wake up! This time, I just want to make a decision myself, and yes, I do want to wake up!"

The time passed, or better said, the time didn't pass at all. Even though the man kept sinking, he felt he didn't move an inch.

But something happened, after he cleared off his mind, and decided his fate, he soon began seeing a light, a glowing light that erupted from the cold abyss.

"This warmth, it's… it's like a sunray…" And indeed, it was a sunray. After a flash of powerful light, the man closed his eyes, and after he opened them, what he saw… it made him think about life again.

"Impossible… it really can't be…" he was left speechless.

He did not saw the abyss anymore, instead, he saw a forest, full of trees, with leaves that had a joyful color of green that combined with the ineffably blue and distant sky. This is like a canvas, that was just freshly painted.

"I can feel my body again, but… It's different." He looked at his hands, and he noticed that they were smaller, his upper and lower body too. The world seemed bigger, it was like he had the body of a child.

" This body, it's like the body of an elementary school kid…"

He looked at the scenery around him, his eyes just kept wandering, for a second he looked into the vast "ocean" that is above him, but he couldn't help glancing at the colorful grass around him either.

The fresh air invaded his nostrils along with the songs of the birds that resonated in the area, the natural sound of the water and insects could be heard and the cold but at the same time, warm breeze embraced him into the atmosphere.

"This forest, it's more beautiful than any forest I have ever since I was a kid"

He tried to move forward, but he subconsciously exerted the force he used when he was in his original body, of an adult, thus he just awkwardly moved his leg forward losing his balance in the process, in just a moment he found himself laying into the ground.

He took some deep breaths, moved his limbs a little, to get a feel of the force necessary to move, and he got up.

He inspected his body, he was wearing a red t-shirt accompanied by blue shorts and sandals. At the back of his hip, he had a small leather pouch, with a black button that kept it closed, inside of it, it was a strange-looking knife. It was shaped like the tip of an arrow, and every edge was sharp, the "tail" of the knife was bandaged in white cloth, and the end of it was shaped into a ring.

His eyes wandered around the fine knife, his glances alone reflected into the good crafted knife. He inspected it very carefully, touched almost every part of it. After some moments, the realization kicked him harder than he expected.

"This knife, it looks oddly familiar to the knives used in Naruto!"

"This knife, it's a kunai…"

He took a grip of the kunai and slashed it into the air, not soon after, he slashed it again, again and again.

Blood began pumping faster, as the adrenaline rushed into his brain, for him, it was the first moment when he touched a real-life Kunai. Of course, he used replicas in the past, but nothing even comes close to the authenticity of this.

But as soon as the happy emotions faded, the negative ones took the chance of that opportunity and struck.

He looked around, and saw no human soul, he was alone into the wilderness. It wasn't the first time he was alone into a situation like this, back in the day, he used to be a boy scout, so it's nothing new for him, well, nothing new if you do not take into account the fact that he just woke up into a different body, in a different place.

"Is this a dream?" He couldn't help asking himself.

He moved his leg forward, but this time, he did it properly. He took another one and another one until it was clear that he was walking deep inside the forest.

While walking, a sudden noise of cracking startled him a little, but it was just the sound of the twigs that he broke,

"Is this the purgatory?"

The kind of thoughts wouldn't escape his head, but after a while, they disappeared because he noticed something strange.

The corners of his mouth were now dry and itchy, and the skin of his lips began drying up. He was dehydrated.

"If this were a dream, would I get thirsty? Can you even get thirsty into the Purgatory? Well… Purgatory or not, I better find some source of freshwater, I don't want to die again by just dehydration."

As he walked deeper and deeper into the forest, he noticed a slight sound of buzzing, it was similar to the sound of the bees, and in fact, the sound was coming from bees. He followed the direction of the sound, and he saw that there was a Bee nest just ten meters from him. And that was a slight joy, where there are bees, there is water. Usually, bees make their nests around a water source, in desperate cases, the source can be found near the area of the nest, which usually is found around 5 kilometers. Another good indicator of a water source, is the color of the plants around you, more greener the plants, the closer you are to the water source.

Aft two-quarters of an hour passed, he found a small river.

"The water looks clean, and it's running water, I should be safe even if I don't boil it"

For him, this was a gamble, for the moment, he didn't have the means to boil the water, even if he could make a fire, he didn't have a container that could resist the heat of the fire. Why boil it you ask? Well, usually, in stagnant water ( such as ponds), the parasites and harmful bacteria develop like crazy, the parasites and the bacteria usually don't like running water, but even then, there are cases where parasites or harmful bacteria could still be present in running waters (such as rivers)

He approached the river, twisting his head right and left, inspecting to see if there is an animal nearby, he cupped his hands and took a mouthful of water.

The moment when his dry lips touched the cold water, he instantly felt better. The water slowly entered into his mouth and found it's way into his stomach. But it was unusual, as the water entered into his body, he felt something else was taking it, it was different from the usual digestion, it was similar to a gut feeling.

"Now that I think of, this feeling, I had it since I waked up into this body"

That feeling, as some of you might think, it's his chakra. Even though he is a big fan of Naruto, to the point of memorizing the hand seals, watching the anime, reading the manga and the novels, going to cosplay conventions, at some point he even had a fan club. His sharp memory helped him retain this information. But even then, in his situation, right now, he couldn't think clearly.

After gulping down some more water, he leaned against a tree.

"Is this my punishment?"

"Is this the reason I have this knife? To choose if I want to continue or If I want to kill myself ..?"

"I wonder… If I die here, would I wake up in my old body again?"

He took the knife, and clenched his hand on the handle, pointing it towards himself.

His hands were shaking, he looked at the knife, and imagined himself being impaled by it.

"Hah, Am I stupid? There's no way I would do this, I'm too much of a coward to do that…"

He quickly put the knife away, in its pouch.

"I'll get off this forest tomorrow, I can't stay here, I need to see if there are persons around here"

"But before that…"

After the moment he first opened his eyes to this world, several hours have already past, and the sun was setting. As he stood against the tree, a sudden cold breeze made him reconsider his actions. He was wearing just a T-Shirt and some shorts and by the looks of it, in this area, the nights will be pretty chilly.

"I need to make a shelter first, I don't even know if it will rain or be even colder and I don't even want to think what kind of animals are around here"

He got up, and waked one hundred meters away from the river, he needed shelter, and to make a shelter, in his kind of situation, he needed wood. For him, the conditions were met, since he was in a forest full of various sizes of trees, from a small sapling to big old trees.

As he looked around him, he found the perfect tree to create his shelter. He wanted to make a lean-to shelter. It was one of the most basics shelters a man can create. For that shelter, you only need sticks and branches with leaves.

Cutting small saplings with his kunai wasn't difficult, but cutting the bigger ones were, due to his small body. But after an hour he had everything he needed. He cut a big sapling that he leaned against a big tree and with the branches full of leaves, he covered the big stick sideways, pressing them together, creating a perfect shelter. With some leftover leaves, he covered the ground, so he will have some sort of comfort.

"Well, the last thing I need to do, is to make myself a nice cozy fire"

Making a fire without a match, a lighter or even a Flint and Steel, it's quite difficult, but possible nonetheless. There are several methods to do that, most of them use friction created by rubbing a stick of wood into another piece of wood, that friction is created into heat, which in turn creates a small ember.

He took two dry sticks, one of medium size and small size. With the kunai, he split the medium stick into two parts, he discarded one part, and he carved the other one making it look like a small board. With the other small stick, he chiseled it, making it as round as possible, and he sharpened the end of it, creating a small round edge, in survival terms, this is called a spindle.

This method is named the hand drill, if you don't have tough palms, a good type of wood and nice weather, you can't use it. You could use it even if you don't have tough palms, but if you do not have them, the chances of creating blisters occur, and in a survival situation, having even a little bit of damage, can be the difference between life and death.

He placed the spindle on the board started using his palm on the spindle, rotating it, and using pressure as he was going down. There was no smoke.

"Damn it, why don't you just give me a little bit of ember… maybe because of my strength and technique? I mean, sure, I didn't go in survival excursions for years but I still know what I learned… " To no avail, he tried and tried again, but alas, he couldn't make fire.

In that night, under the clear sky, he slept alone, in the darkness of his shelter, shivering.