**Amegakure - Second Year of the Second Shinobi War**
Pain
That was the first thing I felt as consciousness returned - a throbbing headache as if someone was hammering inside my skull. My breathing came in ragged gasps, and the relentless cold rain made my entire body shiver.
I tried opening my eyes, but the heavy downpour immediately assaulted them. The distant rumble of thunder shook the ground beneath me, and the muddy earth felt damp against my skin.
Where... am I?
With great effort, I pushed myself up. But when I looked at my hands—
These aren't my hands.
The large, calloused hands I remembered were gone, replaced by small, thin ones covered in scrapes. My tattered clothes clung to me, soaked through by the rain.
Then, like a dam breaking, memories that weren't mine came flooding in.
### Memories That Didn't Belong
Yuki Kashiwagi. A 13-year-old orphan in Amegakure. No clan, no special skills—just one of thousands of children struggling to survive in an endless war. Flashes of his life played before me: scavenging for food in rubble, hiding from shinobi patrols, watching corpses pile up in the streets.
But beneath those memories, *I* still existed—the memories of a 25-year-old man who died in a missile explosion, in a world where all this was just fiction.
I'm in the Naruto world.
And not just any time—I was in the middle of the Second Shinobi War, where Amegakure was just a pawn fought over by greater villages.
### The Distant Roar of Battle
Another explosion suddenly shook the ground. The acrid smell of gunpowder mixed with wet earth. I had to move—if I stayed, I'd die.
Trembling, I tried to stand. My body felt weak, probably from hunger. But I had no choice.
I moved through narrow alleys, hiding behind collapsed buildings. The rain made everything harder—I could barely see, but at least it also hid me from enemies.
Suddenly, footsteps approached.
I froze.
Someone stood at the end of the alley.
A girl.
Her short purple hair was soaked by rain. Her sharp eyes scanned the area warily before finally landing on me.
No way...
I recognized her.
Konan.
But she wasn't the cold "Angel of Akatsuki" I remembered. Right now, she was just a girl my age, her eyes still holding a glimmer of hope.
### Fateful Meeting
"Idiot," she said, her voice nearly drowned by the rain. "You want to die?"
I couldn't answer.
She glanced toward the sound of explosions, then back at me.
"If you want to live, follow me."
She turned and started walking without waiting for my reply.
I stood there, rain streaming down my face.
This is insane. I just met Konan.
But what choice did I have? Stay here and die, or follow her?
I took a deep breath—and stepped forward, following the girl deeper into the shadows of Amegakure.
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