Chapter 1: War Orphan
Staring at the plump worm wriggling before him, Chiba hesitated. Should he eat it or not?
It had been several days since he arrived in this world, yet Chiba still struggled to understand his circumstances.
The body he now inhabited was very young. Apart from knowing that his current name was Chiba—a somewhat feminine name—he hadn't learned much else.
He knew that he was in the Land of Rain, amidst a war. If he wasn't mistaken, he had somehow ended up in the world of Naruto. Based on bits of information he'd pieced together, Chiba deduced that this was the Second Shinobi World War.
The worst part? He was right in the middle of a battlefield.
The original owner of this body had wandered aimlessly after the death of their parents, and there were no clues as to their exact location.
But these concerns were secondary. What troubled Chiba most right now was hunger. He hadn't eaten in days.
Suddenly, his eyes caught sight of a corpse lying nearby.
"Hmm? Maybe there's something useful."
Approaching the body, Chiba felt no fear. Hunger gnawed at him, urging every fiber of his being to act. Fear and disgust were utterly drowned out by the desperation to survive.
Reaching out toward the corpse, Chiba muttered under his breath, "Please let there be food… I can't hold on much longer."
As he rummaged through the belongings, his eyes landed on the headband on the corpse's forehead.
"A ninja! And it looks like one from Iwagakure."
A strange tremor coursed through Chiba's body as memories that didn't belong to him surged into his mind.
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"Aah!"
A young, beautiful woman screamed in horror.
"A corpse?" she gasped, trembling as she stumbled backward.
"Dead?" exclaimed a sturdy man beside her, his fear quickly giving way to excitement. "A ninja corpse, no less! There might be valuables we can trade for food. If we're lucky, we won't have to starve when we reach the next town."
Hearing this, the woman's initial fear turned to curiosity. Standing beside the man, she eagerly began searching the body.
A young boy, watching the scene unfold, stood frozen in confusion. Why were his parents suddenly so excited?
Just as the man picked up the ninja's tool pouch, the faint sound of a metal mechanism clicking reached their ears.
Click!
Before they could react, a barrage of senbon needles shot out from the ground, enveloping the couple in an instant.
Splat! Splat splat!
A fine mist of blood sprayed into the air, painting the boy's face red.
Staring blankly at his now riddled parents, the boy remained rooted in place, unable to comprehend what had just happened.
"Papa… Mama?" he whispered, his voice trembling.
"Papa!"
"Mama!"
After a moment of silence, the boy collapsed to his knees, wailing in despair.
"Don't come any closer!" cried the woman, her voice strained. She was still alive, but just barely.
The boy froze, staring at his mother in confusion and fear.
"Mom…?"
"Stay back! It's dangerous," she coughed, blood trickling from her lips. Her pale, ashen complexion betrayed the fact that she had been poisoned.
Looking at her son, tears streamed down the woman's face.
"I'm sorry… Chiba… I'm so sorry."
"Mom… don't leave me…" the boy sobbed, covering his mouth as he broke into tears.
"Chiba," she rasped, "I won't be able to stay with you anymore. From now on, you'll have to take care of yourself."
Her eyes brimmed with sorrow and guilt.
"Life will be hard, Chiba. You'll face pain and struggles you can't imagine. But no matter how much it hurts, you have to endure."
"Mom…"
The boy seemed to grasp the gravity of her words, his sobs growing louder.
"Live on, Chiba! No matter what happens, you must survive. That's my final wish."
"Mom, please… don't leave me!"
"Waaaah—"
The boy knelt on the ground, crying uncontrollably.
His mother looked at him one last time. Her gaze was filled with pain, regret, and hatred—emotions the boy couldn't understand.
"Chiba…" she murmured, her voice faint as her life ebbed away. "If… if there really is a god… please, protect this child…"
Her eyes dimmed, and the boy's cries pierced the air.
"Mom! Dad!"
"Aaaaaahhhhhh!"
---
A deafening hum reverberated in Chiba's mind, jarring him awake from the memory. Stumbling backward in terror, he collapsed onto the ground, gasping for air.
The sorrow and fear from the body's original memories lingered, overwhelming Chiba. It felt less like his soul had taken over the body and more like their souls had fused. The boy's lack of knowledge and experience made Chiba's own consciousness dominant.
The boy had spent three days guarding his parents' corpses before hunger forced him to wander aimlessly. Eventually, he collapsed, which led to Chiba's arrival.
Choosing to keep the name "Chiba" was a tribute to the boy's memory and a way of bidding farewell to his own past.
Terrified, Chiba glanced at the ninja corpse once more before turning and running. He couldn't bear to stay near the body.
Suddenly, as Chiba sprinted away, a black kunai streaked through the air, grazing his nose before embedding itself in the ground.
Feeling the faint sting on his nose, Chiba froze, trembling as he turned to see the source of the attack.
"What? It's just a brat?" A blond-haired Iwagakure ninja stepped forward, disappointment clear in his voice. "I thought I found another tasty prey."
Chiba stared at the ninja, his body shaking uncontrollably. He had narrowly escaped death.
To a ninja, he was probably nothing more than a bug—something they could squash at will.
Soon, a standard four-man Iwagakure team appeared before Chiba. The leader, a black-haired man, regarded him coldly, as if pondering something.
"Kill him," a scar-faced ninja said bluntly. "A war orphan like him is better off dead. It'll spare him more suffering."
The scar-faced man moved to strike, but Chiba instinctively stepped back, trembling in fear.
"Wait," the black-haired leader interrupted.
"Huh?" Scarface looked at him in confusion.
The leader's lips curled into a cruel smile. "Leave him alive. He might be useful."
Chiba's trembling intensified under the man's cold, calculating gaze. What did he mean by "useful"?
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