I woke up feeling like absolute trash. My head hurt like hell, and my body was numb for a moment, only for an overwhelming pain to follow soon after.
I let out howls of pain, without holding back or caring where I was. I've been in this world long enough to understand that silence and discretion are important. I've been hurt before; I'm a damn mercenary.
But this pain… I've never felt anything like this before.
My muscles hurt a lot, as if every muscle in my body, each one of them, was cramping. Every time I inhaled, my lungs hurt and burned.
I don't like this… it's as if I'd gone back to the hospital, where I struggled to even stand alone, too weak even to exist.
I don't like this!
Panic started to take over me, and instinctively my chakra responded to my emotions, which only made my body hurt more. But I didn't care. I began forcing my body to get up.
I have to prove... to myself, that I'm not the same as before. I'm no longer weak, I'm no longer a useless burden.
"S...uya… Ge…"
I couldn't see; my vision was blurred, as if there was a veil over my eyes, but I could faintly hear someone saying something, while someone tried to gently push me back down to where I was lying.
With abrupt gestures, I shoved the hand away. Don't you dare make me lie down! I won't accept my weakness! Damn it if this kills me! I refuse to lie down and wait for death again! Never again!
Each time I tried to stabilize my breathing, my lungs burned more. The more I forced my body to respond to me, the more the searing pain invaded my thoughts, forcing my mind to try harder, in a spiral of pain and despair.
My chakra was beginning to go crazy, and I felt blood start to drip from my nose. My ears rang, and that irritating, distant voice kept saying nonsensical things. The hand was still trying to make me lie down. How annoying.
"Don't touch me! I won't lie down; I won't die lying down again! I'll die in a war, or die of old age, watching my grandchildren play! But I won't let anything make me bow and die pathetically!"
The hand froze briefly, and I was on my knees, trying to make my chakra force my body to stand… maybe this will work.
With a cough, blood spilled from my mouth, my lungs burning, but it doesn't matter; I'm almost standing.
Then I felt a blow to my stomach and another to my neck, and my consciousness began to fade.
No, no, no, NO!
____
The next time I woke up, my body still hurt, but much less. My eyes returned to normal, and my ears no longer rang.
Breathing was still a bit painful, but nothing I couldn't handle. My body swayed gently, which made me open my eyes to see where I was.
I was in an old, poorly maintained cart, in the back, while someone with long hair was at the front.
Oh, right… Kiyoshi. I had completely forgotten about him, but I'll never say that out loud.
"You already said that out loud, idiot."
No, I didn't.
"Yes, you did."
Kiyoshi turned his head to me, with a scowl on his face. Dark circles under his eyes, as if he hadn't slept in days.
"Man, you look like shit."
Kiyoshi glared at me. "Whose fault do you think that is? What did I tell you about not going around burning chakra recklessly?"
I felt a little ashamed, but I think I was justified. I don't have this guy's special eyes, but the flames lit up that night well, and I distinctly remember there were at least ten shinobi attacking us.
The worst part? They were strong. Very strong. They managed to cast a genjutsu on me at some point, making me see horrible things, like, for example, naked old ladies running at me. So much skin, so many wrinkles... I don't want to relive that. Yeah, it wasn't a pleasant sight, so the easiest way to break out of that was to let my chakra run wild.
And it was fun. So much fun that it's actually scary.
I tried to tell Kiyoshi that it was necessary, that I had to do it, otherwise we would have been caught, but he didn't believe me. The next half hour was a boring, tedious sermon on responsibility, duty, honor, choosing our battles... the worst part is that my body refuses to obey me, so I just lay there and listened to the sermon.
After the sermon, Kiyoshi explained to me about the Shinro clan, the clan that killed the Hyuuga clan's entourage and has been trying to kill Kiyoshi for over a month. Honestly, I found it pretty disappointing. I mean, I know that being able to track someone over hundreds of miles is impressive and all, but I expected more.
I'm also disappointed. I know there are great clans, like the Senju, with seemingly endless stamina, the Uzumaki, who never run out of chakra, and the Uchiha, the deadliest clan in the Land of Fire. I thought I was getting closer to the level of those clans, I thought I was getting more powerful, that I was on the verge of leaving my mark in the history of this world.
But no. I was injured by a clan that knows how to track people. A clan I never heard of while watching Naruto (maybe I did, but I don't remember). It's simply frustrating to know that I'm not strong, just arrogant.
"... And their venom affects the nervous system; that's why you're like this, even though your body is fighting off the venom incredibly fast. If you hadn't been an idiot and tried to stand up days ago, injuring your lung, and the muscles in your arms and legs, and, worst of all, disrupting your chakra flow, you'd almost be cured by now."
We both stayed quiet for a while, enjoying the breeze of a warm, refreshing afternoon, just listening to the birds singing in the trees, the wheels of wood against the dirt road. There's something therapeutic about just ignoring the problems.
"... And the people from the village?" I had to ask. I think I know the answer, but I have to ask.
"They're… they're probably still alive. But they lost everything. They can no longer return to their old home, having to start all over in a completely different place."
I felt a pang of guilt in my chest. Rationally, I knew it wasn't my fault. I knew that to the rest of the world, those villagers were just "collateral damage," to be eliminated in order to keep any clan conflicts and techniques secret. But that doesn't change the fact that they were affected by a conflict that was mine. They suffered because of my weakness. This weakness disgusts me, but there's nothing I can do about it quickly.
One step at a time… baby steps. A mountain isn't climbed in a day.
All of this reminds me of the conversation I had with Kiyoshi a few weeks ago. I asked him about Konoha, but he had no idea what I was talking about. He didn't know anything about 'a hidden village' of shinobi from various clans united in one place, fighting under the same flag. Needless to say, I felt like crying. I have no idea how many centuries I am in the past, maybe millennia. Even if this world has a magic pill to make me live forever, I'll never be able to flirt with Tsunade! I'll be judged and arrested by the cosmic court if I try that!
When I used to watch Naruto in my past life, I always thought the clans united to become stronger, forming a village to be more protected, but maybe there's more to it than I remember. My memories aren't reliable at this point, maybe they never were.
Maybe it was the daimyo who ordered the construction of Konoha; I don't know. But the way things are, it's incredibly damaging to the common population. To the clans, they're just nuisances, and to the nobles, they're nothing but glorified slaves. The worst part? I can't do anything to change this. I can't do anything for them today, and maybe I never will.
______
The next week was calm. I didn't train my body, even though the venom had been expelled, the weakness still seeped into my bones and sapped my strength.
Who am I kidding? I didn't train because the Hyuuga bastard can see even from behind, and the distance on that is ridiculous! I should have been a good hundred meters away from him, and he should have been asleep! How exactly does this Byakugan work? That thing defies the natural laws of the world!
Even though I didn't train any taijutsu or ninjutsu (Kiyoshi doesn't know how to use genjutsu, and honestly, I don't know if I have the patience for it), I continued with meditation and practicing hand seals. The week passed in relative calm, except for Kiyoshi rejecting my proposal to immediately head toward the Shinro clan and exterminate that plague from this world. Just thinking of them breathing the same air as me makes me nauseous. And yes, I hold a grudge for being poisoned.
Since the last incident, Kiyoshi and I have avoided entering villages, regardless of their size, and only stopped in cities to replenish our medical supplies, as I ended up using everything last time.
Kiyoshi also took on one or two missions in a city, something about helping a rich lady find her cheating husband or something. He didn't let me go to the city often.
Apparently, having hair that changes color is very eye-catching. Speaking of hair, Kiyoshi taught me a great hairstyle, giving me a long-sought solution I'd wanted for years! My hair floats (don't ask me how) when I'm fighting, which keeps it out of my face. But that doesn't happen when I'm training. Every training session, I must swallow at least 400 grams of hair, not to mention the times my hair falls into my eyes like an opposite-pole magnet.
It was only when we crossed the border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Noodles that we discovered some expected, but still disappointing, news. The Land of Fire is at war. One of the big ones. We don't know exactly if there's a Casus Belli, but well, I don't think anyone involved in the conflict cares about that.
I don't know the full details, but the Land of Fire is at war with the Land of Earth, and a few other small countries may or may not be involved in this conflict. Kiyoshi was a little worried, even if he vehemently denied it.
I think the Hyuuga clan will return to the Land of Fire. After all, this is a gigantic conflict. Kiyoshi might think I don't know, but he still has nightmares several nights, reliving how his relatives died in front of him. Knowing that his family will probably fight in a bloody and brutal war might not be the best news you can receive while desperately trying to survive.
The Land of Noodles was honestly pretty disappointing. Despite being next to the Land of Fire, the Land of Noodles was quite… normal. There were no lush forests like in the Land of Fire, no mineral wealth or major clans here.
But they did one thing better than anyone, and that's noodles, obviously. I had never tasted udon this delicious in my life. Even Kiyoshi ended up spending more than we could afford, which earned us a few more days of delay in our journey.
Maybe Kiyoshi is the kind of person who, when anxious, needs to eat to calm his nerves. I think I'm more the type who likes to sleep to calm down.
____
Night came and went, and a bright morning with palpable heat was upon us. And I hate all of it.
I hate waking up early. I hate the idea of being on a ship for days. I hate waking up early. I hate not having eaten anything yet today. I hate waking up early…
"You know that pouting isn't going to change the time we'll spend aboard the ship, right?"
Is it just me, or is this bastard getting bolder with each passing day?
"First, I'm not pouting. Second, why do we have to go so slowly? I recognize I don't know the dangers of the seas, but is it really necessary to go as slow as possible?"
With a shrug, Kiyoshi walked up the wooden ramp of the decaying ship we'd be traveling on. "We could go faster, but that would attract the attention of the sea demons. Trust me, you don't want those grotesque creatures' attention."
Sea demons? What is that, some kind of ninja Loch Ness monster? Kiyoshi must have noticed my "I don't believe a word you're saying" expression because the arrogant Hyuuga raised his chin in superiority, much to my sincere disgust.
"Well, of course, you wouldn't know about that. A poor bastard who's never seen the wider world. Listen up." He said as we searched for our cabin. If this ship was ugly and decaying on the outside, it managed to look worse on the inside. Everything smelled of mold, and I swear half of this ship's wood is rotten.
"It all started 60 years ago when the Uzumaki clan's patriarch sealed a giant creature, Ikuchi. All the sailors celebrated with immense joy, as Ikuchi had terrorized these waters for centuries."
We found our cabin, but I didn't care about it. This story had me hooked. How big was Ikuchi? What color was it? Could Ikuchi use chakra? Did this mythical creature have a gender? If it did, that would mean there were more of its kind, right? Unfortunately, all the stories I've heard in this world are told halfway. Not many people are crazy enough to travel around proving the existence of mythical creatures or disproving them. We put our baggage (mainly noodles) next to the bed, and I looked at Kiyoshi, urging him to finish the story.
"But what no one knew was that Ikuchi controlled these sea demons, Umi-hebi, sea serpents that attack anyone in their territory. But serpents are just that, serpents. The problem is their numbers. It's like they're descended from Yamata no Orochi: if you kill one serpent, two take its place."
Well, this trip was already bad; now it's downright terrible!
____
Land of Fire, headquarters of the Shinro clan.
Shinro Jingo was a man of 43, a true miracle in a world where living past 30 was rare. He had brown hair, scars on dark brown eyes, and two black tattoos below his eyes, an ancient custom of his clan.
Jingo was a cunning man, always carrying himself with grace and poise, never choosing a fight he couldn't win… but this time, he'd been too greedy.
The mission was simple: kill the Hyuuga clan's caravan.
But the useless members of his clan failed at such a simple mission, leaving a confirmed survivor, Hyuuga Kiyoshi, and another Hyuuga unaccounted for.
When he heard that the Hyuuga had been injured after a fight with samurai, he sent his shinobi to track and kill the troublesome Hyuuga.
He failed. Again. The Hyuuga found a traveling partner. A boy of unknown age who's proficient in Katon and Suiton.
That's why he is as he is now. In his own "throne room," on his knees, forehead against the wooden floor, with blood trickling down his back.
"You had only one mission, Shinro Jingo, just one. The Hyuuga clan had the weakest escort, just a few teenagers who hadn't even stopped wearing diapers. The Uchiha were attacked, the Senju, and they all managed to complete their missions, but not you. Now you have the audacity to kneel before me and ask for another chance?"
The man sitting on Jingo's chair was tall, ridiculously tall, standing over two meters, with pale skin and a slender body. The man's eyes were a pure, shimmering blue, but there was no emotion in his gaze, only apathy, and Jingo hated that look. He knew that look; he used the same expression when looking at the dirt that are the commoners, mere worms unworthy of a second glance.
"M-my lord, I swear I won't fail this time! I'll personally go with my elite to bring down the Hyuuga! We already have information that he took a ship heading to Nagi Island, his goals obvious. Just one more chance, my lord! Just one, and if I fail, you can kill me and exterminate my entire clan!"
"I can kill you and your clan right now. Why would I bother to wait any longer for your mistakes?"
Chakra began to leak from the man, and Jingo, still with his forehead on the floor, was sweating like a pig on the way to the slaughterhouse. He knew the man's temper. He couldn't say more, or else everyone in the Shinro clan compound would die.
"All right, Shinro Jingo. You have one more chance. Two weeks, that's the time you have. Kill the Hyuuga boy, and bring me his eyes—they'll make a nice decoration. And bring me the head of the boy traveling with the Hyuuga."
The man rose from Jingo's "throne," and he s
eemed even taller, even more imposing. "Do not fail me again. This is your last chance."
And as if he were nothing but an illusion, the man simply vanished—no sound, no trace.
.
..
.....
Author's Note: I was reading the Naruto databooks, especially the first one, and I got quite a shock. I'm looking forward to sharing the news with you all, as I'm really excited to write about what I've discovered!