In a modest room, the quiet was only broken by the soft sounds of four children breathing in their sleep. The space wasn't large, but it wasn't cramped either—just enough for four small beds, two of which were bunked against the walls. The faded paintings of animals and trees on the walls told anyone who entered that this was a space meant for children.
For a while, everything was still. Then, one pair of eyes fluttered open.
The boy shifted under his blanket, his body unusually heavy. He blinked a few times, his brows furrowing in confusion. 'Why do I feel so… tired?' The thought came sluggishly, as if his brain were wading through fog. He tried to reach for another thought—his name—but it slipped from his grasp.
The boy frowned, his discomfort deepening. "Why can't I remember my name?" He pushed harder, trying to pull the answer from somewhere, anywhere.
Then it hit him.
His eyes widened as something stirred deep within his mind—something foreign, something overwhelming. Panic clawed at him as pain erupted in his head, sharp and relentless. He clutched at his temples, his small hands trembling. A *scream* tore from his throat, raw and involuntary, before his body gave out and he slumped back into unconsciousness.
The scream shattered the stillness. The other children bolted awake, their startled cries filling the room. In the chaos, they spotted the boy lying limp on his bed, his face pale, his small chest rising and falling in shallow breaths. Panic set in as one of them dashed out of the room, yelling for the caretaker.
---
At the Hokage's office, the air was thick with smoke and paperwork.
Hiruzen Sarutobi 'The third hokage' sat at his desk, surrounded by an oppressive mountain of documents. The faint scent of tobacco lingered as he took a slow drag from his pipe. He was dressed in the traditional robes of his office, the white and red fabric pristine but weighty. His weary gaze wasn't on the papers, though. It was fixed on the window, where the monument of the Fourth Hokage stood etched into the mountainside.
"You were a great Hokage," he muttered, his voice barely audible over the crackle of his pipe. "You gave everything for the village."
His words were tinged with something unspoken—regret, perhaps. Or guilt.
'They remember you as the Yellow Flash, the savior of Konoha. But me? Decades of service, countless sacrifices, and I'm still just the old man who took over after you. He exhaled, smoke curling around his face. Maybe they're right. Maybe I was never enough.'
His hands trembled slightly as he placed the pipe on the desk. The truth clawed at him, though he rarely admitted it even to himself. He could have saved Minato. He could have intervened, made a different choice. But he hadn't.
"I let my pride , my hunger for power or either jealousy get in the way," he whispered. "And now the village suffers for it."
It had been a year since the Kyūbi's attack—a year since Minato had sacrificed himself to save Konoha. The village hadn't yet recovered. The losses from the assault had piled onto the scars of the Third Great Ninja War, leaving Konoha weaker than ever. The orphanages were overcrowded, the ranks of the ninja thinned. And the burden of rebuilding fell squarely on Hiruzen's shoulders.
With a weary sigh, he turned back to the papers. There was no time for reflection—not now.
---
At the orphanage, the boy stirred.
The medical ward was quiet, save for the faint hum of activity beyond its doors. The boy blinked slowly, his head pounding, his thoughts sluggish.
"Kazeo?" a gentle voice called.
He turned his head slightly, recognizing the face beside him. Sato Kaori. She was the caretaker here, a kind civilian woman who always wore a tired but warm smile.
"How are you feeling?" she asked, her voice full of concern.
"I'm… fine," he murmured. "Just a little headache."
Kaori's shoulders relaxed. "That's good to hear. You've been out for a while. The doctor said you're fine, but you should take it easy today. Let me know if you need anything."
With that, she left, her footsteps fading down the hall.
The boy closed his eyes, but the peace didn't last. Memories—fragments, flashes—came rushing in, each one sharper than the last.
My name is… Tanaka Kazeo. But that's not the name I remember.
A cold realization settled over him as he pieced it together. This wasn't his world. This was fucking Naruto world .
The thought hit him like a hammer, leaving him breathless. This wasn't some fictional story anymore. This was reality—a world of danger, death, and chaos. A world where even children weren't spared the horrors of war.
"Why am I here?" The question lingered, unanswered. Fear twisted in his gut as the implications sank in. If he wanted to survive, he needed to get stronger. Much stronger.
But then another memory surfaced, one that felt closer, sharper. His old life. His family. His friends.
Tears welled in his eyes as the loss struck him all over again. 'They'll never know what happened to me. They'll think I'm gone forever.'
For hours, he lay there, wrestling with his thoughts. The grief of leaving his old life behind warred with the excitement of a second chance. Slowly, the tears dried, replaced by a fragile determination.
"I'm here now. There's no going back. If I want to survive, if I want to make this life worth living, I have to do whatever it takes."
With that, his body finally succumbed to exhaustion, and he drifted into a restless sleep.
[Author here!
'What do you think happened to him , Did he get transmigrated in Kazeo's body or did he reincarnated as Kazeo and just got his memories back ??'
Do let me what you think?]