His chest ached, his lungs struggling with every moment to exhale just a little bit of breath and then take it back in.
Tears blurred his eyes making his vision blurry. Granted, not that he would be able to see much of anything even if they weren't washing over his iris'. The thick black smoke cloying at his throat and swirling throughout the building in amongst red hot flames.
Fucking terrorists man.
It was sad, pathetic really. All he could do was sit here and moan and groan, dazed and waiting to die.
He'd love to escape if he could, but considering the large weighty pillar pinning him beneath it? Well, that wasn't likely and he was seriously up shit creek without a paddle.
Honestly, it was odd how calm he felt about all of this. But then, it wasn't like anybody would even miss him. He was just a no name orphan, no family, no friends, nobody that cared about at all, not even the orphanage matron.
'…Ah, this fucking sucks.' he groaned internally. The only joy he had in life was working out and anime, not really a pair of hobbies that went together, but hey, one inspired the other.
He had nothing really going for him, but anime had inspired him, made him realise that he didn't need to if he put the work in.
…To bad that wasn't going to amount to anything. Since some dramatic asshole had come to school this morning and decided to blow themselves up for whatever reason.
Probably being bullied, his life was that sad that he would get killed over a cliche like that.
God damnit, he didn't want to die. As pathetic as a reason it was, he hadn't finished watching his favourite anime, surely life couldn't be so cruel as to do him in before that?
He never got to see if Luffy became Pirate King, or if Natsu found his dad, if Ash became a champion finally, or the conclusion of the fight between Naruto and Sasuke.
A flame boiled in his chest, not unlike the roaring embers threatening to swallow him whole and burn him alive.
He'd never had anything going for him his entire life and it, It wasn't FAIR!
(Do You Wish To Live?)
"…I've gone mad." he gaped as his vision suddenly cleared in an instant and found himself staring at a floating ebony black screen with crimson red writing.
For a moment, he just stared, forgetting where he was.
It took him a moment to shake off the shock. Was he seeing things, hallucinating now that the smoke was getting to him? Was he about to lose consciousness?
He struggled, trying to lift his arms, to no avail, the weight of the pillar pinning him to the ground was just too much.
Seriously, fuck this school.
A derisive snort left his lips, "Of course I want to live!" he spat, losing himself in the delusion for a moment.
His life was shit, but it was his shit life.
Just as he spoke, the crimson red words on the black screen shimmered and a different sentence appeared.
(Very Well, Prepare For Transmigration!)
He blinked, "…What?" he uttered.
But that was all the time he had to say anything, because a split second later, the screen seemed to balloon in size and warp around him like an all consuming cocoon of red and black and then butterflies fluttered in his stomach as he felt himself falling.
He didn't even have time to be shocked at being swallowed by the thing or the trippy red and black darkness all around him, because a moment later, a life time of memories crashed into his mind, sweeping through and integrating deeply within his psyche.
_______________________________________
Daiki Yurei, or rather Yurei Daiki awoke with a gasp, pushing himself up onto all fours and panting deeply.
He stared at the mud beneath him as his mind raced.
"…What?" he swallowed heavily, having trouble processing.
He lifted one hand from underneath him and traced his throat with a finger, feeling nothing but unblemished skin.
That wasn't right. He could vividly remember the feeling of a kunai slicing through his jugular and his vision going dark moments later as he bled out and died.
Fucking Iwa ninja, they caught sight of him during a delivery mission just across the border of Fire Country, a pair of seasoned chunin who thought it would make for a grand old time to bully and murder the young Konoha genin.
Pricks.
…But that wasn't right either. Yes, that assuredly did happen, he was decent enough with Genjutsu to tell if that was real or fake and it was definitely real.
But rather, he remembered things.
Things that made no sense. Of a boy just like him, an orphan, a nobody, worth nothing, caught in an explosion during schooling and waiting, pinned beneath a heavy pillar waiting to either asphyxiate from the smoke or be burnt alive by the flames, whatever came first.
And incredibly, beyond even having the memories of another teenager dying, was the fact that said teenager had memories of watching an 'anime' called Naruto, all about the life of Uzumaki Naruto.
…He graduated with an orange wearing dope called Uzumaki Naruto. The same blonde moron that he saw in his memories of that 'anime'.
"Just what the hell is going on?" Daiki groaned, clutching at his throbbing head.
What he knew of his own world, of his own village that he dedicated his loyalty to, was horrifying.
While he couldn't speak of what happened later in that anime, he could straight up say, that it wasn't wrong at all about Naruto's younger years.
…How insane!
The Kyuubi, Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke, Jinchuuriki, Orochimaru, Akatsuki, the Sage of Six Paths. The sheer daunting prospect of what awaited the world in the near future almost made his throat close up in horror.
…But how!? This didn't make sense. For one, they seemed to be from completely different worlds, hell, completely different dimensions, there was no such thing as chakra in that world from his memories. How the hell would that world be able to not only see clearly into his own, but even know of the future of it?
"Wait!" his eyes widened as he remembered something, "That box, was it not a delusion?"
His mind raced once more as he tried to make sense of it. "It looked almost like a status s-"
Just as he spoke, the air rippled with black light and before his very eyes, that familiar screen he saw at the end of that other boys life, appeared before him, crimson red text and all.
Yet, compared to what it was like before, asking questions about wanting to live, it was now wholly different.
(Name: Daiki Yurei)
(Age: 13)
(Chakra Capacity: 936/936 (Genin))
(Strength: 14/500)
(Endurance: 14/500)
(Durability: 14/500)
(Agility: 14/500)
(Taijutsu: 25/500)
(Ninjutsu: 20/500)
(Genjutsu: 10/500)
(Bukijutsu: 15/500)
Chakra Control: 30/500
(Chakra Affinities:)
(Lightning - (N/A): You have no training with this element.)
It looked almost like it was listing his abilities as a shinobi? His general shinobi training and physical abilities were listed in a numerical value out of five hundred, and he even had a numerical value for his chakra, but right next to it, labelled as genin?
So did that mean according to it, he had as much chakra as a typical genin? Sure, one could gauge the sheer volume of chakra others had, so technically it could be listed in a numerical value, but where did it get these numbers from?
And chakra affinity? His affinity was lightning? Well, that totally saved him having to pool together his money to buy chakra conductive paper to test his affinity, those thing cost a pretty penny.
Odd though, his father was from Kirigakure, he moved to Konoha to escape the harsh living conditions of the Mist Village and met his mother, a Konoha native.
Not that he'd ever met them, they were apparently killed during the Kyuubi's attack on the village, leaving him orphaned. But still, it would make more sense for him to have a water or fire affinity, not lightning.
How the hell was he going to learn lightning jutsu in the Land of Fire? He was totally going to have to pay people or shit to teach him, wasn't he?
"Wait, wait that's not important," Daiki huffed, glaring at the screen, "Is this all your doing?" he demanded.
The screen did not change at all, no other words appearing to answer his questions.
He tried tossing out a few arbitrary commands, but nothing, it just stayed the same.
The only thing that got any reaction, was him telling it to go away making it disappear.
Daiki then collapsed on his backside and looked up at the sky above with a sigh, "…I suppose I can't really complain." he mused.
Not only had he died, but that other boy, his other self? He had been about to die as well. This system or whatever it was, it had saved them both, in a way. They were both dead, but together, they lived on as one.
And he definitely could not deny, that the knowledge he had gained was useful.
Even just two minor things that Naruto learned early on, Tree Walking and Water Walking, were completely alien to him before now.
He was a member of the Genin Corps after all, a failure who graduated the academy, but failed to pass his given Jonin-sensei's exam.
Daiki snorted, "Genma huh?" he hummed. As it turned out, his possible sensei had been a bit of a big shot, being a personal guard to the Hokage, and being taught how to use the fabled Hirashin by the Yondaime before his passing.
…By sealing the Kyuubi into his son of all things.
To think he used to blindly believe Minato Namikaze had killed the Kyuubi and worshipped the ground he walked on.
So much lies.
As expected of a shinobi village, he supposed.
Sighing, Daiki decided it was best to get a move in, he couldn't hang around here for much longer, who knew if those Iwa cunts were still in the area?
He could decide what to do with all his new information in his head when he returned to Konoha.
He pushed himself up from his sitting positioned and groaned, "Of course…" he rolled his eyes.
He was standing in the middle of a ditch. Those assholes had literally tossed his body in a ditch after ganging up on him and murdering him.
Well, at the very least he could still see the town he'd delivered the scroll to for his mission, so he could find his way back.
He checked the equipment pouch tied around his hip and sighed in relief when he found his equipment untouched.
At least they hadn't looted his body.
_______________________________________
Thankfully, Daiki's mission didn't take him all that far from the Land of Fire borders that had patrols of Konoha Shinobi, so he didn't need to worry about any enemy ninja for the most part.
Rather, any that did manage to get passed the border patrol, would be way above his ability to deal with anyway.
He arrived back in his home village by night fall, exhausted and sweaty as all hell, but relieved.
He wasn't afraid at all to face his death head on, he'd already experienced it once, but he couldn't exactly say he wasn't tense and twitchy all the way back.
A weight was completely removed from his shoulders when he passed through the large gates of Konoha and into the safety of his home.
He made a bee-line for the mission desk and turned in his mission results straight away and happily took the fifty four thousand ryo he was awarded for his efforts.
As sad as it was to be considered a career genin, part of the jokingly named drop out corps by many in the academy, the fact he didn't have a sensei or a team provided at least one boon, two even.
He wasn't stuck constantly doing D-rank missions after completing ten of them, could choose to do missions whenever he pleased and not need his sensei to do them and he could take them himself and thus get to keep the reward all to himself.
After pocketing the reward from his first ever C-rank mission, Daiki returned to his lonely one bed room apartment he'd been provided once he entered the shinobi academy.
Once he was home, door locked securely behind him, Daiki collapsed on his ratty couch and groaned in relief, "Never thought I'd be glad to see this shithole." he snorted.
He wasn't able to relax for long though, before his mind wandered back to the massive bunny bijuu in the room.
The future and his memories of it.
As much as he'd love to believe it to be wrong, he was never that lucky. And, he couldn't exactly just go telling someone about this. One wrong suspicion and he could find himself in torture and interrogation, getting tortured the shit out of and then mind raped by a Yamanaka.
That didn't sound like a fun time at all.
Really, the only thing he could do was prepare himself and make sure he lived.
To be honest, he didn't exactly care all that much for Konoha anyway, it wasn't like he was treated all that well here. Hell, he was treated as a failure because he was in the Genin Corps.
Seriously, he couldn't stress enough how bullshit it was that he was being treated as a failure because his would be sensei gave them a stupidly difficult task to complete and they failed. He demanded they land a hit on him, a hit on a fucking seasoned Jonin.
Bullshit.
Daiki knew he wasn't exactly the shining highlight of shinobi, he was middle of the pack in his class, the true top of the line had been Sasuke. But lazy shits like Nara Shikamaru who never put in any fucking effort passed, and even Haruno Sakura who's physical abilities were abysmal passed.
He'd even claim it was bullshit Naruto got a pass over him, but while better than Naruto on paper, he'd lost quite a few bouts to the blonde haired boy during their time in the academy because the fucker just would not stay down and outlasted him through sheer tenacity.
Daiki sighed, leaning his head over the back of his couch and staring up at the ceiling, "…Status.." he muttered on a whim, calling on the status window, he'd figured out how to call and dismiss it on his way back.
He blinked as he looked at the stats reflected back at him.
(Name: Daiki Yurei)
(Age: 13)
(Chakra Capacity: 956/956 (Genin))
(Strength: 14/500)
(Endurance: 14.2/500)
(Durability: 14/500)
(Agility: 14/500)
(Taijutsu: 25/500)
(Ninjutsu: 20/500)
(Genjutsu: 10/500)
(Bukijutsu: 15/500)
Chakra Control: 30/500
(Chakra Affinities:)
(Lightning - (N/A): You have no training with this element.)
His chakra capacity had increased by twenty points? And his endurance by zero point two.
It wasn't exactly some massive ground breaking change, but it really was incredibly interesting to see his abilities grow numerically before his very eyes.
A feeling of satisfaction rose up in him.
It was odd though. His endurance listed as fourteen did look incredibly low, but at the same time, it was what he'd gained from training his body since he was but a young boy in the academy, he'd been training since he was four.
Sure, zero point two again wasn't a big massive change, but at the same time, that was a seventieth of his total endurance score, gained over eight years of training.
Did this system thing, perhaps enhance his rate of growth? Or was that perhaps just a by product of him essentially being made of up two different people now?
Could potential and talent be measured as such even?
"Well, no point looking a gift horse in the mouth." he mused, he'd find out in the future through training either way.
If so, It did present an opportunity though. He had been a Genin for two months now, in four months, the Chunin Exams were due to be held and he knew they were due to be held in Konoha now.
"I've got enough money to live on for a decent while now I suppose." Daiki mused, so he could focus fully on his training, especially now that he'd went through all the information briefings he'd had to sit through the last two months due to being part of the Genin Corps.