Death comes quick.
One moment I was lying in bed, groggy from overtime and instant noodles…
The next, I was staring at a wooden ceiling, wrapped in cheap blankets, with a pounding headache and a body that didn't feel mine.
I blinked. Once. Twice.
"...What the hell?"
I sat up slowly, noticing my arms first, small, thin. I lifted my hands. These weren't my hands.
Where were my scars? Where was my
Wait.
I jumped off the bed and nearly tripped on a wooden stool. Stumbling over to the corner of the room, I caught my reflection in a dusty old mirror.
Black spiky hair. Pale skin. Sharp, dark eyes. I looked about… seven? Maybe six?
"...No way."
The room was unfamiliar, old, clean but clearly lived-in. I walked through the small house and found picture frames with faces I didn't recognize. A man and woman, probably my parents in this life. But I didn't remember them. They were dead, that much, I could feel.
Orphan, huh?
A heavy silence sat over the house. I stepped outside and squinted up at the sun.
That's when I saw it.
Up on the mountain in the distance, four giant stone heads carved into the rock.
My breath hitched.
"...Hokage Monument?"
It hit me all at once.
This was the Hidden Leaf Village.
The world of Naruto.
---
The next hour was a blur. I wandered through the outskirts of Konoha, doing my best to not look like a lost idiot. Everything was so… real. The streets, the villagers, even the smell of ramen in the distance.
This wasn't some VR game. This wasn't a dream.
I had actually been reborn into the Naruto world.
No idea how. No warning. No system.
Just… me.
And the strangest part? I didn't feel chakra.
But I felt something else.
Something deeper.
Something raw.
---
While walking through a quiet training field near the Academy, I spotted something that stopped me cold.
A small girl with blue hair, Hinata Hyuga was cornered by three boys. Older than her, maybe by a year or two. They were shoving her, laughing.
One of them knocked her down.
I froze. Then gritted my teeth.
"That's my future wife you little bastards are picking on."
I didn't hesitate. As a man in his late 20s reborn into a child's body, I still had all my instincts, and I wasn't about to watch some brats rough up Hinata.
I stomped over. "Hey."
The boys turned. One of them sneered. "What do you want, punk?"
I punched him in the face.
Not chakra-enhanced. Not a jutsu.
Just a clean, adult-calculated right hook with my six-year-old fist.
He dropped. The other two stared. I didn't wait, I grabbed one and kicked the other.
They weren't trained. Just bullies.
But one of them, after falling back, got mad and hurled a rock straight at my head.
Pain exploded above my brow, and something inside me snapped.
Flames erupted from my palm with a loud whoosh, lighting up the air like a small explosion.
The kids screamed and ran.
They didn't see me as a kid anymore.
They saw a monster.
Or worse, a ninja.
---
I stared at my hand, still steaming with faint embers.
That… wasn't chakra.
I didn't use hand signs. I didn't mold energy. I just got angry.
And something answered.
Suddenly, my chest burned, not painfully, but like a brand being carved in light. I pulled up my shirt and stared.
A beautiful glowing mark appeared over my heart, a swirl of four interlocking symbols, each one representing fire, water, earth, and air.
It pulsed once.
Then faded into a faint tattoo-like sigil.
> "You are the vessel. The bridge between the elements. Awaken."
The voice echoed in my soul, soft and ancient.
What the hell is happening to me?
---
A soft gasp broke me from my thoughts.
Hinata stood there, eyes wide, hands clenched against her chest. She looked… scared, but also grateful. Her cheeks were red. Very red.
"Are… are you okay?" she whispered.
I nodded. "I'm fine. Are you?"
She nodded too. Then bowed deeply.
"Thank you…"
She ran off, glancing back one last time, her eyes soft, shy, and glowing with something more than admiration.
Huh.
I didn't remember Hinata falling for anyone but Naruto.
Looks like I changed the timeline already.
---
Later that day at the Academy, I slipped into the classroom quietly.
"Who's the new guy?" I heard someone whisper.
I took a seat at the back. A few heads turned.
Hinata, sitting near the front, kept glancing at me and blushing.
Ino, who sat beside Sakura, gave me a long look. Then smirked.
"Sasuke's not the only cute guy here anymore," she muttered.
Sakura ignored her, laser-focused on the Uchiha himself.
I leaned back in my chair.
This was going to be interesting.
No system. No guidance.
Just the Avatar's soul, and my own will.
Time to shake this world.
---
[To be continued...]