The Awakened Soul (Naruto SI)

[Welydora]

Hey there!

I'm Welydora! Right now, I'm writing The Awakened Soul. It's about a reincarnated guy from a world similar to our own. The story is written in a positive, slightly pragmatic tone: the protagonist is smart, and because of that, strong—and he doesn't spend his time wallowing in suffering.

Below, you can read a more detailed description or jump straight into the prologue!

Synopsis:

Death is only a transition. For the soul of a contemporary man, it became reincarnation into the void, where his only reality was a body of pure energy. But one reckless experiment tossed him into the body of an infant in a shinobi world he'd always thought was fiction — a world ruled by Blood and Chakra.

Briefly about what to expect from the book:

1. Atmosphere: Positive Pragmatism!
This is NOT a darkfic. Most of the story is written in a positive tone, often with dark humor. Yes, there is tragedy at the beginning—but it's only a catalyst for the rise of a strong protagonist. This is a story about reaching the top and showing that growth actually has a price, not about endless whining and self-pity.

2. World and Plot
You're in for a deep AU that explores chakra mechanics far beyond canon. Like the "Evolution" tag? You'll find something similar here—after all, this is a world of blood. As the story progresses, the battles become increasingly flashy, cinematic, and high-stakes.

3. Canon
Hmm… yeah, sounds vaguely familiar. Might've seen it in passing.
But with new variables in play, events go a little—or completely—off the rails.

4. Socials & Characters
There's a strong focus on humor and on developing side characters—both their personalities and their strength. The reincarnated protagonist, however, changes the most, going from an ordinary student to something far greater. Don't worry, though: heavy introspection is mostly confined to the beginning. This fanfic definitely isn't just endless navel-gazing.

Warning: There will be polyamory, as well as "incest." The quotation marks are there for a reason.

About the Author:

1. Despises NTR.
2. Open to criticism.
3. Good-looking.
4. Permanently awesome.

Enjoy the read! ヾ(•ω•`)o

Prologue

A place with no concept of a beginning, where an eternal, cold, all‑consuming darkness stretched into infinity. A vast black canvas of existence that seemed to contain nothing at all. But… if you looked closer, tiny embers smoldered upon it, infinitesimally small in comparison to it. Shimmering with different colors, they were endless. Yet they all shared one thing.

They were all slowly burning away, dragging out their meaningless existence as they waited for their doom. Such is the law of the universe—to blaze anew, you first have to go out.

Everyone would go through this… Or were there exceptions?

A tiny soul drifted in the bottomless ocean of what would later be called oblivion. Inside an almost transparent sphere, a gray, slightly murky core glowed. This small planet wandered the expanse, rhythmically emitting a barely visible haze that quickly dissipated into the darkness.

But then, the glow went out.

Was this it?

The walls of the sphere rippled, and the core began to flicker.

An instant later, the little planet was engulfed in a blinding white flame, many times brighter than its former smoldering. Faint hints of gray flashed within it, but in the gloom you couldn't make out the rare black sparks bursting outward. Another instant, and the colors inverted. Now a barely discernible black fire birthed a myriad of almost white specks that exploded in bright flashes. Another moment, so brief you wouldn't have time to blink, and the fire froze, as if time itself had stopped.

A flash—and the swollen blaze was swept away by a wave of gray energy, scattering into countless sparkles. The darkness swallowed everything, except for it...

Once again, the small planet drifted in the ocean of oblivion. But now, right before your eyes, something was happening to it. Something light gray began to ooze around it, as if from nowhere, like a thick, viscous liquid. The color was somewhere between that of the almost transparent sphere and its murky gray core. And finally, after enclosing the orb, it suddenly started to swell into a shape. At first it was just an ellipsoid‑like blob, but it quickly gained detail until a human figure hung suspended in the endless murk.

It twitched once, a shudder running through its entire body. Trembling hands reached up to the face of the hunched‑over figure, and barely visible pulses of energy began to burst out of it.


"So... cold..."

My thoughts were all over the place, my body felt like it had a mind of its own, pulling me in different directions. A chill pierced me to the bone. My fingers were icy against my face. Everything cramped up in a spasm, and I pulled my limbs away, opening my eyes. There was darkness all around… in which I could see my own glowing, semi‑transparent hands…

"What the hell?"

A reflexive attempt to draw a breath was cut short.

I couldn't. No air was coming in.

Panic washed over me.

Goosebumps ran up my spine, and a tugging warmth spread through my chest...

My gaze dropped back to my own limbs. What I saw made me freeze, forgetting all about trying to breathe.

The question stayed the same.

The numbness almost receded, quietly replaced by calm. Had it always been this easy before? Ah, yeah. Almost.

I looked around, but saw nothing except my own body. My gaze slid down to my chest, and I froze, staring for about a minute at the glowing little "planet" inside me.

A thought flickered somewhere in the back of my mind: apparently, I wasn't going to need to breathe anymore. The transparency of my body only backed that up.

I needed to remember what had happened... My head was a mess. Trying to focus, I started to recall the most recent events, like watching an old film reel in reverse. A heaviness grew in my chest...

It all started that evening. Those memories were the clearest. It was raining, dark clouds over the city pressing down on everything. I just felt like buying something sweet—my weakness...

Leaving the building entrance, I headed for the nearest store out of habit. I walked without hurrying, knowing I'd get soaked anyway.

Why didn't I take an umbrella? I shouldn't have been in a rush… and that didn't just apply to me, but to the drivers tearing down the road along the sidewalk. One such speed demon hit a puddle and drenched me from the side, so I ended up wet not just from above. Wonderful...

Soon I was standing at a crosswalk, waiting for the green. The only one I needed to cross.

"At least I didn't forget you," I thought, fishing my earbuds out of my pocket.

Hunching over the case to shield it from the rain, I quickly put the earbuds in and started some music on my phone. The loud track drowned out the gloom.

As soon as it turned green, I stepped forward without looking… and immediately felt a sharp impact from the side that threw me several meters. A flash of pain shot through my entire body, the wail of a car horn punched through my music, and then a new, even stronger wave of pain hit from the same side. The crunch of my own ribs in my chest... then everything blurred and an icy numbness came.

So I got hit by a truck or a minibus... Most likely a minibus, considering the city and the way people here drive.

My hands clenched on their own, but a cold melancholy settled in my head... So, I died. And now I didn't feel anything. That was probably for the best. Looked like I'd already made my peace with it.

Endless darkness... so this was the afterlife. I'd been expecting something more colorful. There'd been so many interpretations of it back in my world.

Whatever. I... what was my name again? My fingers involuntarily touched my abs. Memories of gym workouts floated up. But I couldn't remember my name... The chill spread through my chest again, and I reached for it on reflex. My parents' names, the people close to me—I couldn't even recall their faces... But the feeling that those memories had been important wouldn't leave me.

At least I don't have to take my finals, an ironic thought flashed through my mind.

I didn't even remember my own face, but I knew I'd survived one whole set of finals. How old would that make me? I couldn't remember, so I had to count. Eighteen, huh.

"And what am I supposed to do with that info?" I tapped my chest, as if addressing the spheres. The only answer was a growing numbness.

Was I just tired? That's how I decided to interpret the feeling... Hm. And I kind of wondered what I looked like. I'd probably never find out now... Man, I was really getting pulled under...

The thinking wasn't helping, and without even realizing it, I let go of my thoughts and sank into something like sleep.

About ten hours later

Waking up in a pleasant haze was great. Nothing around me made a sound, my body didn't give off a single negative sensation; on the contrary, it was filled with warmth spreading out from my chest. Yeah... almost worth dying for, just for this... Horrible joke.

Sitting up, I started thinking about what to do next. The answer came up: nothing. That state of affairs didn't exactly thrill me. Then I noticed the warmth spreading through my body again.

"Wasn't I a bit... paler yesterday? And also..." I brought my hand closer to my eyes for a better look. "Did I get a glow or something?"

And sure enough, my entire "skin" was giving off a faint, barely noticeable grayish light. Hm, maybe I was being paranoid, but it really felt like this transparent little planet with the core inside me was behind this weird phenomenon—as well as the temperature thing going on in my chest.

When I was alive, I used to read a lot, and I didn't skip anime either—even though a lot of people think it's, hm, a weird hobby. And this little ball was suspiciously similar to some kind of mana core… just a strange, two‑layered one. Although, considering I'm dead and wasn't a mage in my past life, it's more likely a spiritual energy core, or something like that.

When I looked at it more closely, I added another fact to the pile: there was something else in there. It seemed like something almost transparent was flowing very slowly out of the inner core. Some kind of substance, like thick jelly. And the same stuff was flowing out of the outer core as well.

Should I try meditating or something, to feel the Force? Weird idea. Even if I did die and end up in this equally weird form of existence... yeah, against that backdrop the idea doesn't even sound that strange.

I sat down in the lotus position—I had no idea why—closed my eyes and focused on my chest. A second, two, a minute... No idea how much time actually passed, but subjectively "soon" enough, and to my surprise I really did feel a flow...

It was a strange feeling of something shifting, like suddenly noticing a heartbeat that had always been there. As if it had been with me all along; it felt completely natural.

Not wanting to stop there, I tried to make a sort of channel leading from the top of the outer sphere. And after a few moments that felt longer than before, I managed to catch that inner effort, that thought‑property, that made the energy condense and stretch out of the sphere in a thin cord, before dissolving back inside my body.

For a good ten minutes I honestly just played around with it, pulling out… this stuff into cords of different lengths and densities.

Watching and doing all that from the sphere's point of view was really interesting. I could see in a full three‑hundred‑and‑sixty‑degree circle. Me‑as‑the‑sphere inside my chest, once I more or less got the hang of it, could, by sort of jerking myself up and down, jump over the cord I'd made like it was a jump rope. Of course, that was only after I smacked myself with it a few dozen times.

Even then, probably only thanks to the sense of rhythm I'd built up in life, I managed to do a series of ten "jumps" over this... whatever it was. I had no idea what to even call the stuff inside me... Soul energy? I could be totally wrong about its nature, but whatever. After another minute, mentally huffing and puffing, I was already doing a set of fifteen jumps when something in my mind started itching...

Maybe I was missing something?…

!

Right, I should be seeing through my eyes! What the hell is wrong with my memory that I'm being this dense...

With that thought, my point of view almost literally drifted and stopped at head level. What had been a spherical, all‑around... sphere‑o‑vision turned into the usual view of human eyes.

And then, just by wanting to, my view shifted back to how it had been a moment ago.

"Amazing," flashed through… the sphere, as I switched between those two points of view a few more times and, in the end, was able to literally look through my finger.

I examined myself from the outside. Inside my semi‑transparent shell—in my head, and even down in my groin—there were no brains to be found. Apparently I was thinking with the little planet in my chest. It was the only thing in the body that really stood out.

Interesting picture. As I realized after a few dozen experiments, I was most likely perceiving reality through energy now. I simply didn't have any other organs. I could even "see" with the energy that leaked from the contours of my body.

By the way, the glowing outline that passed where my skin should've been was slightly thickened... like skin. You wouldn't notice it at first because of the glow.

Back to vision: I could sort of see out to about a couple of meters away from my body. In all directions at once, which was important. And it didn't really overload my "brain"—quotation marks now.

Well, I was discovering a new side of myself, heh. Literally.

My body looked familiar to me, so it didn't really trigger any emotions. A lean guy, far from a bodybuilder, but clearly someone who knew a thing or two about working out. Standard haircut with medium‑length hair and, as had been trendy for a while, shaved sides.

A "young man"... wasn't I a bit too young to be using that word? Ah, whatever.

What should I do next?

A cord of energy drifted over me‑the‑sphere.

Well, after getting something that was basically magic, what else was I supposed to do besides mess with it? Although… I could probably hurt myself if I did something wrong with this substance... On the other hand, I'm dead, there's nothing around, and even if I cause myself pain—well, what can you do. At least existing won't be so boring... how fatalistic.

But back to a more positive wave. Energy... let's try pushing it outside—beyond the "skin."

A stream about a centimeter thick rushed out of the core and passed beyond the limits of my body without any obstacles. No issues there.

A few minutes later I was already trying to control two "snakes" of energy. They could easily be merged into one, and I tried braiding them together.

After another ten minutes of this fun little activity, my brain steaming like crazy, I was already trying to make a weave of ten threads—one from each finger.

Another notable thing: I didn't have to pull the energy straight out of the outer sphere—which, as I was vaguely starting to feel, was the main reservoir. In much smaller amounts, the same substance was in my body, and I could draw it not just from the "skin," but even from the "glow."

The experiments with shape manipulation dragged on for another couple dozen minutes, ending with me checking how far I could stretch a thread of energy—a tendril, basically. Turned out to be about two meters. Weird sensation, like how an arm can't physically reach further, and in the same way I couldn't push the energy any farther.

After that I moved on to trying to change the properties of my energy. Up to now I'd just been changing its shape, which is also a "property," kind of. But you can take that concept a lot further.

Right away, a small flame popped up over my finger, like from a lighter. It was gray for some reason... ah, there we go, at my command it turned into a normal color.

"Hmm... looks like I've got the makings of a masochist," I muttered, holding my other hand over the flame. "Nothing... Oh, right, I need to assign the thought‑property that the fire should be hot... Hotter... hotter... Oh fuck, not that hot!"

So I could hurt myself after all. When I was "jump‑roping" as the sphere and smacking "myself" with the energy cord, I hadn't felt any damage. I'd clearly felt that I was touching myself, sure, but there were no real injuries.

I looked at my hand, now nicely filled in with gray... Well, at least I checked whether my "body" has regeneration. I hope it does.

Now I could move on to the sphere and its core... Over time, I was feeling their work more and more clearly: how the outer sphere bled excess energy out of the body, and how the inner core radiated energy into the outer sphere as if from nowhere.

Then a not‑very‑smart idea came to me, but its quality didn't stop me from trying it. As always, obeying my will, the outer sphere stopped radiating energy and started slowly overfilling.

After a minute I felt uncomfortable. After three—more uncomfortable, and a problem cropped up: I could barely hold the sphere back. It wasn't showing any signs it was about to burst on its own. In fact, that lack of an "I'm gonna pop" feeling was what kept me going, because my senses were telling me I could still keep holding it.

Even with my newly discovered self‑torture tendencies, I still didn't want to hurt myself that deliberately. If I'd felt like I was about to burst, I'd have let go.

With a low hum, the energy tore free of my control and gushed out of me in a powerful stream of light.

Ugh... tired again. I don't know what exactly in me gets tired, but this time the feeling came not only from the mental work, like before, but also from working with the energy itself. The energy, by the way, was still there in full. So apparently it was the manipulation that wore me out.

With that, I decided to push the next experiments off until "tomorrow."

Just like last time, I cleared my mind without effort and again fell into something like sleep.

Some time later

Alright, what else is there to do?

Guess I'll keep working on containing the energy.

With a light effort, the inner core kind of switched off, stopping its radiation. That took less effort than holding back the outer sphere. However... yeah, if I stopped focusing on it, the core would just "switch on" by itself again and start pumping out its "jelly." Hm...

What if...

I focused on my "glow" and immediately tried to snuff it out, as if corking the energy up inside.

Starting from the "skin" on my fingers, the glow began to fade. Slowly, centimeter by centimeter, the process of "fading" got harder and harder. My mind was practically boiling by the time my hands had "gone dark" up to the elbows...

Failure.

After rethinking what had happened a bit, I felt a slight dissatisfaction with the experiment. Sure, I'd never gotten everything right on the first try anyway. But this was just a mess: I'd failed to pull something off—that just didn't sit right.

As the experiments with form had clearly shown, my skills grew with time. And now I had... a lot of time. Hm... First I'll try making different‑colored glows. I wanna learn how to puke rainbows...

A week later

"Come on... you... I mean, I can do this!" I stared at the fading toes on my feet. At first the progress had been fast. After about an hour of work, I'd managed to "extinguish" my hands. But the farther I went, the more the progress slowed down, even if not too sharply. By my feel for it, I'd already spent something like ten hours actually working on it. Plus an unknown amount of time in between, spent "sleeping." That's how long it had taken to reach where I was now.

Though I hadn't been grinding only this one trick. I'd also been progressing in other areas of energy manipulation. I'd pushed my overall control to the point where I could stretch energy—and therefore "see" with it—up to five meters away. And, by the way, my "body" did have regeneration: the burn‑like injury had healed up over several sleep cycles.

But right now the important part was that I'd done what I set out to do. Straining hard to keep my "skin" from leaking energy, I could only squeeze out a pained smile.

Finally managed to snuff out all the glow from my skin. Now all I'm missing is a bell chime and a "Quest Complete" pop‑up over my head, I thought, my smile becoming a little less strained.

And... what's this...?

Suddenly I started to feel something vague, like my "skin" was getting "thicker"... or rather, denser, soaking up energy to do it. Was it because of the pressure I was putting on it right now?

For a few more seconds I held the energy inside, watching that slow process. But since it was taking real effort, I was just about to let go of my control when I suddenly felt a jolt from below.

A few seconds later, I was being pulled somewhere. My control slipped, and the pent‑up energy gushed out of me in a torrent. But I could still feel that my acceleration wasn't dropping; something inside told me I was moving through space. After another, fairly short stretch of time, I felt the "atmosphere" get thicker, like I'd gone from air into water. I wasn't sure this space—which, as it turned out, wasn't empty at all—had any kind of actual atmosphere, but that's exactly how it felt.

The denser "atmosphere" turned out to be energy, different from the stuff I'd been manipulating. It started slowly soaking into me, and I instinctively felt that this substance was very good for me.

For the first time in a long while, I felt hunger—and I knew clearly that this stuff outside could satisfy it.

With a push of will, my "skin" opened up instead, and the flow of absorbed energy shot up many times over.

Pushing even harder, I started yanking that energy into myself as much as I could.

I didn't really have the strength to look closely, but as it washed over my soul, that energy almost immediately made the outer shell completely transparent, while the core barely changed—its gray color just turned... grayer.

Strangely enough, even at peak strain, I didn't get tired for a long time. My control was actually growing stronger.

After a while of letting the energy pour through me, I felt... younger? And, like I just mentioned, stronger. However... my stamina still couldn't keep up with the power of my efforts. I hadn't totally lost my mind, and I noticed that as I went, so I eased off the pace. All so I could stay conscious longer and absorb more energy.

But as I kept pulling more and more into myself, fatigue still crept over me in a slow wave. And after a while, I couldn't fight it off and slipped into unconsciousness...

 

[Welydora]

I woke up in complete darkness, same as before. Only this time my "spherical vision" was almost completely cut off, and everything around me was suspiciously warm and damp.

But most noticeable of all, I was currently wrapped up inside a holy-shit level of powerful energy.

Did some creepy thing eat me? was the first thought that flashed through my mind, but I pretty much dismissed it right away.

I could clearly see my body had changed. It was smaller—shaped like a fetus, about five months along… To be honest, I'm no expert, but the transformation itself seemed pretty damn interesting. Even more interesting than another change I haven't mentioned yet: my, let's say, power had grown a lot.

I could feel the increase in my power almost in percentages: after ending up in that place, my soul had become more than 3.5 times stronger. But it was a weird metric—it somehow factored in not only the amount of energy, but also its density in some way I couldn't explain. If I multiplied both sensations together, it came out like the energy in my core had grown by about 6.5 times. Some weird bullshit.

Bullshit or not, going back to the main problem: apparently I was encased in energy that utterly dwarfed my own.

To feel it better, I tried to stick a cord of my own energy out past the edge of my body, to "look around" and "poke" things in a different way. But the moment it touched the outer energy, I jerked back from a scorching sense of hostility. Like I'd plunged my hands into weak acid, only with a very clear feeling that something was trying to erase me… not super hard, but the intent was there.

Still, I got some picture of things.

The thing containing me was soaked in this energy, but dozens of times more of it was flowing through what looked like its veins. A circulatory system? I couldn't even touch those properly—my soul energy got blown away almost instantly, not leaving me a chance. But one brush against a "vein" was enough for me to grasp the shape of that system, and I stopped thinking it looked like a blood vessel network at all—because it didn't. It also let me better gauge the power level of the creature I was currently inside… and if I'd had, say, three times less energy, then just in raw volume it would surpass me by four orders of magnitude. Ten. Thousand. Times.

That bit of information knocked me out of it for a few seconds. What kind of monster was I inside?.. Though, judging by my current situation, "imprisoned" wasn't exactly the right word.

Focusing, I carefully checked my own body again, this time a lot more consciously.

No, I mean, I did look human, right?

My eye snagged on something, but I shelved it for the moment. I was almost sure the body was human—just at some stage of development… and inside a womb. From that, I could conclude the creature I was inside of was technically my mother now. And I'd somehow ended up in a new body.

As for how it happened—in that part the logic chain got fuzzy: I'd been sucked into some space filled with energy I absorbed, and the cause of that was… my experiment to turn off the "backlight"? I can totally believe I missed something, and the cause-and-effect chain is anything but solid. But without more info I just have to work with what I've got.

So now I had at least some idea how I'd gotten here. And before moving on to "what now?", I went back to the thing that had caught my attention. When I focused on the energy system… of my mother, something at the edge of my awareness poked me—like I had something similar inside myself. To my surprise, by zeroing in on that thought and kind of projecting it into my soul energy, I started seeing a similar system in my own body more and more clearly.

Same as last time, as I changed my approach—using sensations to interact with the unknown—my mind started creaking. "Shifting" it into something I didn't understand to grope around for something I also didn't understand was, yeah, not exactly easy.

After a while, entirely new sensations from this new energy system began seeping into my mind. A slow, steady flow.

This new energy was oversaturated with a whole ocean of feelings I'd never had in my soul energy. If my power was like pure water, then this was like an ever-shifting kaleidoscope of flavors and emotions, made of two currents: one warm, alive, the other colder, more spiritual.

I tried touching the new energy with my soul energy—but I just couldn't. My soul tendril passing through the new energy felt like brushing some barely-there fog. There was something there, but I had no idea if those sensations were even real or just my brain bullshitting me with phantom input.

Weird… My mother's energy, by comparison, had been harshly blocking and shredding my soul energy. I couldn't figure out why, other than, "well, this energy belongs to my body, so it doesn't mess with my soul." I just put that question aside for later. Maybe for never, heh.

This new energy system had a pretty funny shape, though. This little flame… Wait. Hold up.

I stared harder.

Froze.

Burned myself on my mother's system again while examining it.

Realized—and holy shit.

The chakra circulatory system from the anime Naruto. No fucking way.

Look how far I've fallen… I actually ended up as some isekai insert into the anime I used to be into in my past life. If I'd known, I would've prepped way better. What do I have in my memory? Right… the anime itself, though I watched it ages ago and probably forgot half of it, and a shit-ton of fanfics… What the hell was I doing with my past life?

Anyway, now I had to recall everything I knew about this world. Any info could be valuable… I must've really gone off the deep end if I'm treating this whole "transmigrated"—yeah, "transmigrated," since I haven't actually "reincarnated" yet—thing as something more or less normal.

Eh… Fine. If that's reality now, I've got to adapt. What do I remember about Naruto? Actually, a lot. Chakra in this world either appeared, or got concentrated, because of some failed attempt by two aliens to suck all life off the planet. They had some kind of falling out, and everything went to shit. That's if you believe the Naruto sequel anime—Boruto… which I really should've watched way more attentively. I don't remember anything besides the fact there were two aliens—a man and a woman. The second betrayed the first, took everything for herself, while the first had to run and hide for like a thousand years.

Ōtsutsuki Kaguya, one of the strongest beings in the world. The Rabbit Goddess, and probably a whole list of other terrifying titles I don't know. What matters is she's insanely strong… And a vague thought kept poking at me: comparing the power I felt from outside, it wasn't crazy to think she might actually be the mother of this physical body.

I reevaluated again.

No… Or rather, I wasn't sure. Yeah, a power almost four orders of magnitude higher than mine is insane. But it's not like I'm putting out mind-blowing numbers myself right now. I mean… for example, I'd managed to learn how to burp rainbows. I'm awesome, sure—but nowhere near omnipotent. Even if you multiplied my power by those three-thousand-something times, I kinda doubted it'd be enough for an Ōtsutsuki… Damn, if only the anime had detailed power stats for the characters. In numbers. That would be useful for me… But no, anime usually doesn't like "nerding out" with exact data. Although, if I remember right, I actually liked numbers. LitRPG was a pretty good genre, I was into it. Probably… If I live, I'll need to start systematizing the stuff I'm working with.

For now, I'm in a womb. Pretty much sure of that. I've got a fetal body that clearly shouldn't be able to think like this, but I can think just fine. And also…

I tried to wiggle the fingers on my hand, but only managed an awkward twitch with the whole arm. Yeah, I could feel my body. And judging by how it looked, I was going to be stuck here in the dark and this actually pretty pleasant warm dampness for a few more months.

So I'll spend that time replaying my memories about this world—Naruto and Boruto—and messing around with my soul energy inside my body. It's not getting out anyway—I'm basically sealed in.

What else is there to do? Guess I'll try moving my chakra. It's already flowing on its own, but maybe I can speed it up?

That's what I did for the time that followed. As it turned out pretty quickly, my new brain did work somehow, though it was probably only handling part of the thinking load. Because after maybe twenty minutes of entertaining myself, I felt tired. A different kind of tired, most likely physical, and I drifted off to sleep.

Sleeping in the womb turned out even nicer than… There. Nothing hurt, there was a pleasant feeling in my chest, and waking up wrapped in that softness was insanely good. Such a cozy, skin-tingling sensation—those first few times I didn't even want to wake up right away, just basked in the bliss over and over. But I couldn't stay like that forever, so I mixed it up with various energy exercises.

That's how the new cycles of a very pleasant existence began…

Over the months, I got used not only to my new state, but also to the one who was my whole world. I didn't know her name, hadn't seen her face, but I felt her. I felt joy in the slight stir of energy around me, fatigue in the steady slowing of her heartbeat, the muffled laughter coming from outside. It all became so familiar, so dear and calming.

Until it was time to be born.


AAHHHHHH!!! WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS SHIT?! I screamed in my head as my mother's insides painfully clenched around me, trying to push me out.

"OH GOD, IT HURTS S-O-O-O-O-O-O-O MUCH!" A muffled female voice with incomprehensible moans reached me. The voice that had become so familiar and warm over the past months was now filled with searing agony.

Then my head was hit by an unpleasant cold, and the air stabbed through my hair like needles.

And life had been so good until now. Comfortable, nothing extra I had to do…

The outside world decided not to wait for me to make my own way out. I realized that when I felt something put on the crown of my head and then, somehow grabbing onto it, start to pull.

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" my mother screamed.

Yeah, I'm freaking out too!

It felt like they weren't being very gentle with me, prioritizing speed over care.

A couple seconds later I reflexively opened my mouth and inhaled, and my lungs were hit with the unpleasant cold of air. Sounds got way louder, another scream from my mother rang in my ears like a damn alarm. Light—something I hadn't seen in so long—slammed into my eyes like burning knives, making me squeeze them shut even tighter.

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!"

With that last scream, still pounding in my ears like a death knell, I was pulled out completely. Breathing was hard, my whole body was shaking from the strain…

Mom, you still alive in there? I asked mentally, kind of worried. Not that anyone could hear me. Everything felt like a blur; people were fussing around me, but I couldn't really sense anything properly.

Very soon, after a feeling of warm moisture, they apparently washed me. At the same time, everything around me started getting clearer. Sounds became distinguishable, though not any more understandable. My mind was mush; I couldn't process my surroundings properly.

"He's not crying?" They lifted me again onto… hands?… that slowly started forming a black-and-white picture in my mind.

I can see with my soul again? What's with the lack of color?

"He's breathing. It's all right, Kushina-chan."

My soul vision slowly expanded, letting me see more of the woman holding me: looked about sixty, loose robe, steady grip.

Another half second and I saw, very close—maybe a meter away—a girl of about twenty. She was also in a robe, something like a medical gown, and a cap. I still couldn't see color properly, but at least I could make out shapes inside the expanding sphere of vision.

No fucking way I'm being born again. Life was so much better last time when I didn't remember these sensations, flashed through my head.

After a bit more time, they moved me to a young woman lying on a table-bed, looking horribly exhausted. I couldn't tell the color, but she had long, straight hair.

"N-Naruto… Haaaah… I finally get to see you." They brought me up to her face. The ringing in my ears was slowly fading, and I started catching individual words. But that didn't help me much—I couldn't understand the language…

Sorry, but it was way nicer inside you. Ugh… screw this.

"Look, I'm a father! Ha-ha!" A guy around twenty, standing next to my mother's bed, was saying something while wiping away tears. He had medium-length spiky hair that fell down in two locks at the sides.

I don't get a word you're saying, but… thanks, I guess.

I reflexively reached for the girl's face. My body was so fragile. But I'd been with this woman for so long. That pleasant feeling in my chest when I looked at her? Was that… love?

"Childbirth has tired you out, I know, Kushina. But we need to completely seal the Kyuubi…" the guy said again, in words I still couldn't understand.

Wait. Just now Mom said "Naruto" while looking at me? And one of the words aimed at her was "Kushina"? And yeah, my body had those lines on the cheeks. Just great… So I'm Uzumaki Naruto now, huh…

"O-okay."

I focused on what the guy was doing. He put his hands on my mother's stomach, which, I now noticed, was covered with strange lines and circles of energy.

While I was lost in thought, the old lady who'd brought me to Mom carried me away again, stepping aside with the younger assistant.

Millimeter by millimeter, my vision kept spreading, soon reaching about three meters out. I don't think I could even control it… it was so hard to fit everything into my mental grip. I could see both women beside me more clearly now, as well as my mother and, as I now had to assume, my father. Minato—I remembered his name—kept doing something with the seal, making it fold in and get sucked inside.

My thoughts were cut off by a wave of unpleasant feeling.

I remembered that Naruto's birthday in the anime turned into a tragedy—both his parents died. But my mind was like frozen jelly, refusing to flow the right way and give me the mental images of why exactly it happened.

Instead, a dull ache started growing in my chest from a simple fact: the woman whose heartbeat had been my world these past months would soon die.

Floating away from the world, I suddenly felt like something metaphorical grabbed me and yanked me back into reality.

A picture started burning itself into my numb mind: a huge hand of a cloaked figure hanging over my face. In front of us, in slow motion, the older and younger women were falling. Their throats were slit, and I saw in crazy detail how the blood burst out of them under pressure.

With a heavy thud their bodies hit the floor, splattering it with blood.

"AAAAAAAAHHHH!" my scream, full of horror, echoed through the room. Goosebumps raced over my skin, my heart exploded into a frantic beat, the thudding echoing through my whole body. The nightmarish image of the murdered women wouldn't leave my head; I watched the sticky pool of blood spreading under them, and no matter how I tried, I couldn't "close my eyes" in my own mind.

"M-mph…!" A huge hand grabbed my head, muffling me. My whole being was flooded with anxiety. On reflex, tendrils of soul energy—what I'd been training with all this time—shot out of me, trying to stab into whoever had grabbed me. They just broke apart uselessly on his skin. His own chakra, circulating under it, was an unbreakable wall to my weak power. He didn't even react, like nothing had happened at all.

"Fourth Hokage… Minato. Step away from the jinchuriki," a deep, chilling voice rumbled above me. "Or your son dies."

"Wait! C-calm down," Minato backed away from Kushina, raising his hands in a placating gesture. But at her pained cry he immediately looked back— the beast inside the seal was breaking loose.

"You'd better follow your own advice," the intruder said, taking his hand off my frozen face and, with an imperceptible movement, pulling a kunai out of his sleeve. "I am perfectly calm."

Let me go, you fucking psycho piece of shit! was all I could do—scream mentally. I was on the edge of a full-blown meltdown. And to my surprise, he did let me go… by tossing me up, right into the path of the falling steel blade!

"AAAAAAH!"

"Naruto!" my mother shouted, turning toward me.

Swish

A hard jolt—and suddenly I was in the arms of Minato, who was crouched on the wall(!!).

Kshhhhh—my swaddling was now covered in ominously sizzling paper tags with kanji on them. This time my brain worked properly, instantly recognizing that those tags were about to blow like a grenade.

"AAAAAAAAHHH!" I screamed, doing my best to convey, Dad, save my ass!

The world smeared, my body got crushed by pressure for a moment, and then we were already out on a nighttime clearing, without the blanket. Less than a second later, an eardrum-busting explosion thundered behind us. The small stone building blew apart into shards of rock.

"AAAAAAAAAHHH!" I screamed again, fully realizing what had just happened.

"You're not hurt… Shhh… easy," he tried to calm me. "It's okay…"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!" My scream was carrying a whole bunch of meanings, most of them insults. I wanted to say: You inbred runt of a hyena and a buttfucked skunk, what the FUCK are you doing?! Mom was still in there! You got her killed, you dumbfuck! You couldn't throw that fucking blanket somewhere else?! Outside, for fuck's sake?! Like, literally into that fucking forest right in front of us?!

But I cut off my internal rant when it hit me that I couldn't see my mother or that shinobi in the smashed house. It was like they'd just vanished… Unlike the old lady and the young girl.

A lump rose in my throat as I focused again on their mangled bodies. Even under the pile of stones, I could still see them through the obstacles.

Before I could start throwing up from the sight, all my guts clenched and flipped over several times. With a soft pop of air, we moved to some room made mostly of stone and beams. The lump went back down, so nothing came out of my mouth. I noticed lots of gear bags around, and a three-pronged kunai hung from the ceiling.

"I have to save your mother before it's too late," he said, quickly laying me down on a bed that had been set up there. "Wait here a bit. You'll be safe here…"

Whoosh—saying that, the man who was apparently my father—most likely blond—vanished.

I'm out of non-swear words. What a fucking day…

For a moment, silence settled in my head. One more realization…

Fuck. And this still isn't the end. Next they're going to seal the Nine-Tailed Fox into me. My parents are going to die. And I'm about to get up close and personal with the God of Death.

My brain throbbed from the effort. I wanted to figure out how to escape this. But nothing came to mind. I really did not want to meet that scary-ass freak of a god…


A few seconds passed, panic still gnawing at me, when with a heavy clap of air my father appeared—with my mother in his arms.

She's alive… relief fluttered inside me… before bitterness washed through my insides from helpless despair. But not for long…

"W-why?" she asked something, and the man laid her down next to me, but she immediately pulled me close.

"No matter what happens, stay with Naruto," he said, quickly opening one of the cabinets and pulling out a cloak with flames along the bottom and kanji on the back.

"You won't even have time to blink before I'm back," he finished, then vanished in a flash.

"Good luck… Minato… Thank you…" Kushina barely murmured. "Naruto…"

She hugged me a little tighter.

My body, which had been on the edge of madness, somehow started to calm down.

Thump-thump, thump-thump, thump-thump

The sound of her heart, so familiar… so soothing…

I hadn't even noticed how long it had been with me, or how close it had become.


Seconds ticked by as I lay there with my mother. Explosions boomed from outside, the air grew thick with something heavy that made me shiver in fear of the inevitable. At the same time, I felt myself being wrapped up by an energy that had grown much warmer. My mother's chakra, still just as mighty, but now a lot more gentle. Over time I felt it more and more clearly on me, subconsciously calming down further.

After a few more minutes, with another soft clap of air, we were moved again. Mom was back in Dad's arms, and I was in hers. Together we found ourselves at the edge of a nighttime forest.

"Let's put up a barrier," Minato suggested tiredly.

"My chakra is almost depleted…" Kushina said, and the air vibrated with released energy. Incredibly fast, expanding chains burst from her back. The air filled with the clanging of links. I couldn't see where they went—they left my sphere of vision—but I heard clearly:

"G-R-A-A-A-A-A!!!" came the helpless roar of the strongest tailed beast, and the ground beneath us shook. It was bound, not a shred of hope left.

I was feeling something similar. Something was about to happen… something that could very well end with my death… Or maybe Minato wouldn't summon the Shinigami after all?

My body started trembling with fear again.

Kushina almost collapsed, but Minato caught her—after first smoothly taking me so he wouldn't crush me.

"I'm sorry, Naruto, I didn't mean to wake you…" Kushina's soothing voice reached me. It didn't really help.

Then they started talking about something.

"Kushina…"

"I'll drag the Kyuubi back inside… and die with it still in me…" She drew a sharp breath. "That'll keep it from coming back for a while…"

Minato sighed heavily at her words, looking at my mother with pain in his eyes.

"Thank you… khh," two thin streams of blood ran from the corners of her lips. "For everything…"

"Kushina, you…" tears began gathering in my father's eyes. "You made me your husband… You made me the Fourth Hokage… You made me this boy's father… And I…"

"Don't be sad… Minato. I… I'm happy," a strained smile appeared on Kushina's face. "Happy that it's our son's birthday."

She took a heavy breath.

"If I regret anything… it's that I won't get to see Naruto grow up."

Minato's expression darkened even more. His head dropped, and a shadow slid over his face.

"Kushina, you don't have to take the fox with you," he said, pausing for a moment to gather his thoughts. "We can use what's left of our chakra to see Naruto one more time."

"…Huh?" Mom looked at him in surprise.

"I'll use the Eight Trigrams Sealing Style and seal half of the Kyuubi into Naruto. Sealing the whole bijuu is insanely hard… Right now it's physically and conceptually impossible. So I'll seal the other half inside myself…"

"But that's impossible for a non-jinchuriki! Wait, no! You can only do that if you use…"

"The Reaper Death Seal…" he confirmed grimly. "I can't let the bijuu be reborn without a jinchuriki. The balance of the tailed beasts between the villages would be ruined."

Images from the past flashed before the Fourth Hokage's eyes. Him listening to a man with long spiky hair and two lines under his eyes:

"You know, you really might be the child of prophecy."

"What child?" a younger Minato had asked back then.

"One day, in the near future, the shinobi world will be in danger."

And the child of prophecy will save it… echoed in the blond's thoughts now.

Kushina stared at Minato in shock.

"I know what you want to say… But Jiraiya-sensei said a revolution is coming to the shinobi world. And with it, great danger!" His eyes met hers again. "And today I learned two things. First: that masked man who attacked us—he's the herald of that danger. And Naruto will be the one to stop him. A jinchuriki who'll bring light to our future. I just… know it."

Somewhere in the distance, there was the rustle of something landing.

"But… Minato—"

Ignoring her attempt to stop him, my father gently set me down on the ground, then stood and ran through a series of hand seals.

"Just believe in him. After all, he's our son."

That's it… flashed through my head as I braced for the worst. Completely out of hope, I didn't even try to resist.

After the last seal, a strange silhouette slipped out of Minato's body, only to have its hair grabbed and yanked by a huge figure. With my soul vision, I watched an extremely thin being, vaguely human-shaped. Dressed in a baggy robe, with very long hair, and horns jutting from its head. In its hands, the God of Death held a short tanto; its clawed hands pulled open its own clothes. In one palm, it clutched a string of beads.

And… nothing? I noted with faint surprise that nothing was happening to me. Huh… I'd thought this "god" would be something like a guardian of the world who wouldn't tolerate a foreign soul… Guess I shouldn't have read those fanfics… got my expectations all twisted. I focused on the thing that had appeared. So what are you, then? I can't feel your soul. Where is it…? You pulled that thing out of my father… but I don't feel a soul in it either.

"As soon as I'm done with the tailed beast, I'll seal your chakra into Naruto too. You'll meet a grown-up Naruto faster than you think… The time will come when he tries to control the Kyuubi's power. When that happens, I want you there beside him—to help."

"He's our son… That's exactly why I don't want him to bear such a heavy burden alone."

"…"

"But why the Reaper Death Seal? You don't have to die… just so I can see him for a few minutes." Kushina's voice began to crack. "I wanted you to stay with him… to raise him!"

"…"

"…Why? Why are you sacrificing Naruto for the balance of the bijuu? For the village… and the country… Why are you sacrificing yourself for me?"

"Turning your back on your village and country… is no better than abandoning your own child," Minato's voice took on a calm certainty. He was sure of what he was saying. "You know that. You remember what happened to your village. You know the pain of growing up without a home… And you know that we're a family… of shinobi."

Kushina's eyes filled with conflicting emotions.

"Besides," Minato spread his hands a little, "even if I survived, I could never replace you."

"…" Her eyes widened in surprise.

"There are things Naruto needs to know, things I could never tell him myself. That's a mother's duty, and I want you to fulfill it. Even if you only get a few moments…" His eyes narrowed seriously. "I'm not doing this only for you… but for Naruto. Dying to make your son's life better… that's a father's duty."


"The Reaper Death Seal… It can't be?!" a hoarse voice, already tinged with age, shouted. It was a shinobi in a black jumpsuit, a helmet with protection, and a steel plate on his back. In his hands he gripped a thick staff.

He shot a sharp look at the Nine-Tails wrapped in chains, and at the dome that had it trapped, with a pair of shinobi inside. Glowing golden chains ran along the perimeter of the dome, forming the barrier.

"What's going on, Third-sama?!" asked one of the two ninja who had just arrived.

"We're too late. They've put a barrier around the Kyuubi!" The old man stepped up and pressed a hand to the invisible force field. "No way through…"


The beads wrapped around the God of Death's arm, and it became covered in black markings. The arm lengthened, spearing through the belly of Minato's soul, then through the stomach of his real body, and shot toward the tailed beast.

Circling the beast, the arm sprouted countless mouths and hands, sinking into its flesh.

"R-R-A-A-A-A!!!" the Nine-Tails roared. "Damn you, Fourth Hokage!"


"It's shrinking," said the third shinobi by the barrier, watching the huge beast. The chains no longer held it, now hanging with a loud clatter.

"I can't believe he actually used that technique…" the Third Hokage said. "But the fox is still here. He didn't seal it all!"


My mind sank into empty melancholy. My parents were saying something… but I couldn't understand them.

I don't remember my old parents… and now I have to lose the new ones.

So empty…

A fox's head grew out of the head of my father's soul-that-wasn't-a-soul… Eh… that's probably supposed to be funny.

Minato formed a few signs, and an altar with candles appeared beside us. Guess it's time…

Kushina coughed as Minato laid me on the summoned platform.

From the distance came the loud rattling of chains.

"Kushina, help me!" my father shouted, and from my point of view, both of my parents blurred into motion.

"R-R-R-A-A-A!!!" The roar of the Nine-Tails drowned out the crunch of tearing flesh. Minato and Kushina, shielding me with their backs, had stopped the descending claw of the Kyuubi.

The world around me dimmed. A heavy cold filled my body. Only the corners of my eyes burned with the warmth of falling tears.

Through a muffling haze, I heard a commotion; some long toad appeared, but I didn't pay attention. My whole focus was locked on yet another pair of torn bodies. And seeing these hurt much, much worse.

Drip

A drop of warm blood slid down the claw and landed on my stomach. It forced me to focus on the face it belonged to.

"N-Naruto…" blood dripped from her chin, staining her clothes in a pattern like red roses, "don't be a picky eater… eat a lot and grow up to be a big, strong boy! H-ha…"

Beads of sweat dotted her face; every word cost her a huge effort.

"Take a bath every day… go to bed early and sleep well! Make friends… as many as you like… But first make sure they're real friends… people you can trust… Just a few is enough!"

Kushina smiled sincerely, closing her eyes for a moment.

"And study your ninjutsu… I was never good at it. Maybe you'll do better. Everyone's good at something and bad at something else. Don't get upset if you can't do everything. Listen to your teachers at the academy… and remember: avoid the three shinobi taboos… don't borrow money if you can help it. Save what you earn on missions. Don't drink alcohol until you're twenty. And don't drink too much, or you'll wreck your body."

She paused briefly.

"As for women… Well, I'm a woman myself, so I don't really know what to tell you. But one day you'll want to get yourself a girlfriend… Just try not to pick a weirdo… Try to find someone like your mom…"

"And a fourth warning…" Minato's voice came from behind Kushina. "Watch out for Jiraiya-sensei!"

"…Ha… hu," a weak laugh escaped her. "Naruto, you're going to face a lot of pain and suffering… Remember who you are! Find yourself a goal… a dream! And don't stop until you reach it!"

"…"

"I'm sorry, Minato… That used up all our time…"

"It's… all right," my father said, smiling wider, even with just one eye open. "Listen to your chatty mom…"

With Minato's last words, everything was drowned in white light. The Eight Trigrams Seal had been activated.