Chapter 1: Death and Absolute Void
A young man—or rather, a grown man who merely looked young—was slumped over his desk, the pale blue glow of a computer screen casting a stark, cold light on his face. He appeared to be in his early twenties, perhaps twenty-one or twenty-two. The room was unnervingly quiet, punctuated only by the rhythmic clicks of his keyboard and the low mechanical hum of his AI assistant.
Across his triple-monitor setup, an intricate web of browser tabs and meticulously organized notes sprawled out—each orbiting a singular, consuming obsession: the convoluted yet fascinating energy system of the Naruto universe.
"Kekkei Mōra…" he murmured, a calculated gleam entering his eyes. "If chakra is fundamentally composed of elemental natures, and Kekkei Genkai are merely fusions of two, then logically, a perfect fusion of all seven basic elements must be achievable. Not just theoretically—but practically."
His fascination with Naruto transcended typical fandom. For him, it wasn't just a story—it was a grand, unfinished theorem. He dissected its internal logic, energy constructs, and the strategic nuances of its combat, treating it less like fiction and more like a branch of theoretical physics awaiting a unified field theory. He sought to uncover the fundamental laws governing that universe—to reverse-engineer its very essence.
"If I were to exist in that world," he often pondered, a distant, almost detached thought, "could I evolve Kekkei Mōra through sheer intellect and design not by eating chakra fruit like kaguya otsutsuki?"
His mind—sharp and relentlessly analytical—was already constructing hypothetical scenarios, alternate paths to power that would leave canon characters in the dust.
Just as he began to formulate a bold new theory, a sound shattered the silence. Not just any sound—a brutal, tearing rupture of reality.
The wall directly behind him exploded inward.
A blinding white light followed, searing his retinas. Before his highly trained—but physically unprepared—body could even twitch, a monstrous, unforgiving force barreled through the breach.
A truck.
Time, that most immutable of concepts, stretched, distorting into an eternity within a single heartbeat. His eyes, wide with a surge of adrenaline, instinctively tilted back, pushing him deeper into the seat. His heart pounded—not from fear, but from cold, primal recognition of the inevitable impact.
' This damn house...'
Even in that compressed moment, his mind worked with chilling clarity.
' I should've moved the moment I analyzed the road layout.'
He had chosen this rental house not for its charm or safety, but because it was absurdly, unbeatably cheap. The reason for the discount now became painfully clear: it sat on a notoriously sharp bend in the road—an infamous black spot for vehicular accidents, especially those involving trucks. It had been a calculated risk: cheap rent versus the infinitesimal chance of catastrophe.
He miscalculated.
A flicker of annoyance crossed his face.
A nanosecond later, the truck's mass met his body, and his world turned to absolute, indifferent black.
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There was nothing.
No pain.
No light.
No sound.
Only abyssal, all-consuming darkness.
He lost all sense of time. Was it mere seconds echoing from the moment of impact? Or had eons passed, while the indifferent universe continued its cosmic dance and he floated in oblivion?
Eventually, a faint thread of awareness returned—a fragile spark in the vast nothingness.
He was no longer confined by a body. He was... something else. A drifting soul—formless, weightless—suspended in suffocating dark. And even this ephemeral state was unstable. He could feel himself unraveling, dissolving at the edges, like smoke threads vanishing into the void. His very essence was being meticulously unwound.
' So this is death, he observed.'
A detached, clinical thought—like assessing a failed experiment.
But beneath that cold analysis, something screamed. A primal, unyielding will to live.
Not from fear—he felt none.
Not from regret—he held no attachment to his past.
It was pure, unadulterated will to exist. A logical imperative to persist.
That ruthless instinct for survival triggered something profound.
A faint, defiant light flickered within his dissolving soul.
[Unique Soul Skill: Living Paradox – Awakened]
Suddenly, the unraveling slowed. The decay of his soul halted, not entirely, but enough. Enough to grant him presence in a realm where nothing should exist.
This was the Absolute Void, a place beyond the multiverse. A realm where even concepts like time, space, or causality didn't apply. A place where everything is eventually erased.
The fact that Living Paradox could resist even this erosion—if only slightly—was staggering.
Time, though meaningless here, marched elsewhere. On Earth, perhaps eighty to a hundred years had slipped by since his death. For him, it had been an unending, featureless stretch of blankness.
Then—the darkness thickened.
Until pain returned
Not physical pain, but existential corrosion. His soul once again began to erode as the void intensified its assault.
This time, his instinct wasn't just to survive.
It was to overcome.
In this moment of extreme spiritual pressure, his evolving consciousness flared once more. Data flowed through his soul—patterns, energy, information. Not just resisting the void, but analyzing it, adapting to it.
[Unique Soul Skill: Evolution Singularity – Awakened]
With the second skill awakened, his soul began to change. No longer just resisting the void—it evolved in response. Slowly, but constantly. Every non-moment in the Void made him stronger, more complex, more resilient. He integrated the essence of chaos into his very structure.
He wasn't just surviving now.
He was transcending.
And so, unknowable eons passed. His mind, now a cold, pure intellect, drifted between states of awareness. Sentimentality had been stripped away. In its place: an iron will. Relentless self-optimization.
Time held no meaning. But within him, a desire crystallized.
Not for purpose.
Not for safety.
But for freedom.
To leave this realm of unyielding nothingness. To experience something—anything—again.
That desire, quiet yet absolute, triggered his final awakening.
[Unique Soul Skill: World Seeker – Awakened]
Three soul skills, bound to his very essence, now functioned in tandem.
Living Paradox ensured his continued existence.
Evolution Singularity made him stronger with each passing non-moment.
The World Seeker gave him a way out.
And so, the search began.
[Initiating search for a compatible universe…]
His final thoughts before death had centered on Naruto. Its intricacies. Its energy systems. Its potential. That obsession had shaped his soul at the moment of death.
[Searching: Naruto Universe… Optimizing reincarnation parameters…]
[Suitable alternate Naruto universe located.]
[Searching optimal timeline and body…]
[Uchiha bloodline host found. Reproduction cycle initiated.]
[Initiating reincarnation…]
In the womb of an Uchiha woman, a new soul began to stir.
A child not born of prophecy, nor divine will.
But forged by self-preservation, tempered by the Void, and sharpened through evolution.
A reincarnated soul from Earth—
One forged in paradox, evolved in chaos, and driven by logic—
—was about to enter the world of shinobi.
And he was ready to bend its rules to his will.
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