The rain had been falling since evening, painting the city in shades of gray and silver. Ryo Kazehara pressed his forehead against the window, watching droplets race each other down the glass. The soft rhythm of water hitting the rooftop made his small apartment feel even quieter than usual.
His desk was a mess of manga volumes, old ramen cups, and an open laptop glowing faintly in the dim room. The latest chapter of Naruto was on his screen. He had read it countless times before, but something about this rainy night made him want to relive it again.
"Man... even after all these years, this still hits hard," he muttered, flipping through the digital pages. His eyes softened at the scene of Naruto standing alone, facing the world that once rejected him. "You really did it, huh. You idiot."
Ryo leaned back in his chair and sighed. He was twenty, a university dropout, and a convenience store part-timer. His life was nowhere near the stories he used to dream of. Every day felt like a loop, dull and predictable. Maybe that was why he still clung to Naruto, the one story that never failed to make him believe that effort could mean something.
The thunder outside cracked sharply. The lights flickered for a second.
He glanced at his phone. 1:42 a.m.
"Guess I should sleep," he murmured, rubbing his eyes. Yet his cursor hovered over the tab labeled 'Naruto Alternate Universe Theories.' His lips curved slightly. Curiosity always won over sleep.
He clicked.
A forum post opened.
Title: "What If You Could Rewrite the Story?"
The username was blurred, just a string of random letters and numbers.
Ryo frowned. "Weird... never seen this thread before."
The post was short.
'Every fan dreams of being the main character. But what if you really could? Would you still want that life?'
Beneath it was a single button that said: 'Accept the Chance.'
Ryo chuckled. "What is this, some kind of creepy survey?" He hovered the mouse above it, half amused, half curious. "Sure, why not. Maybe I'll wake up in Konoha or something."
He clicked.
The moment his finger pressed the mouse, the screen went black. Then a soft light began to pulse, bright, white, and strange. His laptop made a low humming sound, almost like it was breathing.
"What the hell..." Ryo muttered. He tried to move, but his hand wouldn't respond. The light grew stronger, filling the room. His ears buzzed, and his heart raced. He could feel the air thickening, pressing against his skin like static.
The rain outside stopped.
Then, silence.
A single drop of water from the ceiling fell and hit his desk. Time seemed to freeze around it. The next second, Ryo's vision blurred, and everything dissolved into white.
It felt like falling.
No ground, no air, no sound... only weightless emptiness. His thoughts began to scatter, pulled apart by something invisible.
He tried to shout, but his voice didn't come out.
Then, faintly, he heard a whisper, not from the outside, but from inside his head.
"You wanted to be the main character, right?"
The voice was soft, almost playful.
"Then prove you deserve the story."
Ryo's heartbeat roared in his chest. His eyes widened as light swallowed everything.
And then...
...he was gone.
---
The first thing Ryo felt was the wind.
Cool, clean air brushed against his face, carrying the scent of soil and grass. He blinked rapidly, his head pounding like someone had hit him with a log.
"...Ugh. What the hell..." he groaned, pushing himself up. His hands sank into something soft. Grass. Real, damp grass.
He froze. The room, the laptop, the city, everything was gone. In their place stretched a forest, dense and alive, sunlight streaming through thick branches. Birds called somewhere above, and the faint rustle of leaves filled the silence.
Ryo sat there for a moment, staring blankly.
"This... has to be a dream."
He slapped his cheek. Hard.
"Ow!" The sting was real. Too real.
His heartbeat quickened as he stood and turned around. The forest was endless, stretching into hills far in the distance. A dirt path cut through the trees, worn and narrow, like it had been used for years.
Something about it looked familiar, painfully familiar.
He swallowed hard.
"No way. There's no way."
His eyes caught movement down the path, a figure in a green vest, walking casually with a pack slung over his shoulder. Ryo's breath hitched.
The man had a metal forehead protector gleaming under the sun.
Ryo's brain stopped working for a second.
"That... that's a ninja," he whispered.
The man noticed him and paused. "Hey, kid. You lost or something?"
The voice was normal, human, but that only made it worse. Ryo's knees almost gave out. He recognized the uniform, the gear, the tone... everything.
His mouth opened before he could stop it. "That vest... that headband... Are you, are you from Konoha?"
The man frowned slightly. "You hit your head or something? Of course I am. Where else would I be from?"
Ryo's mind spun. His body trembled with disbelief, fear, and... something else. Excitement.
Konoha. The Hidden Leaf Village.
The world he had spent years reading about, imagining, memorizing. It wasn't supposed to exist, yet here it was, real, vivid, and standing right in front of him.
"Hey, kid," the man said again, walking closer. "You don't look so good. You should come with me. The village isn't far."
Ryo nodded automatically, still dazed. "Yeah... okay."
As they walked, Ryo's thoughts raced.
This isn't possible. This can't be happening. But if it is... then where in the timeline am I? Before the war? After?
He looked at the man again, studying the flak jacket's design and the symbol on his arm. Everything looked authentic, no cosplay seams, no fakes.
After what felt like half an hour, the forest opened into a broad clearing. And there it was.
The massive gates of the Hidden Leaf Village stood tall before him, carved wood and steel shining under the afternoon sun.
Ryo stopped dead in his tracks. His breath caught in his throat.
"Konoha..." he whispered. "It's real."
The guard at the gate gave him a curious look. "Another stray? We've had a few wanderers lately."
"Found him near the forest path," said the man who brought him. "Seems disoriented. Might be from one of the border villages."
Ryo wanted to say something, anything, but his mind was too full. The sight of the Hokage Monument towering above the rooftops almost made his knees weak. He could see the faces carved into the stone, Hashirama, Tobirama, Hiruzen, Minato... and Naruto.
"Wait..." he whispered, eyes widening. "Naruto's face is there. That means..."
He was in the post-war timeline.
The realization hit him like a kunai to the chest. This wasn't the chaotic, war-torn era of the past. This was after everything ended, when peace had finally settled over the ninja world.
A small smile tugged at his lips.
"So this is it... the world he built."
The guard waved him in after a brief check, and just like that, Ryo Kazehara, an ordinary man from another world, stepped into Konoha.
The air was warm. The streets were lively with chatter, vendors, and shinobi passing by. Children ran with toy kunai, laughing. Somewhere nearby, he heard the faint sound of someone shouting about ramen discounts.
It was everything he had ever dreamed of.
And yet... something about it felt strange.
A faint pulse echoed in his chest, like a heartbeat that wasn't his own. When he looked down, he saw a faint glow near his wrist, a small, shifting mark that looked like ink, forming and fading like smoke.
"What the..." He pressed it, but it didn't hurt. Instead, a small window appeared before his eyes, faintly translucent, like a hologram.
[Plot Energy: Initialized]
Welcome, Ryo Kazehara.
You are now the Main Character.
Ryo's heart skipped. His breathing turned shallow.
"Main... character?" he whispered.
The text flickered again.
Your story begins now.
The mark faded. The world returned to normal.
But Ryo's mind didn't.
He stood there, staring at his trembling hands. "Main character... What does that even mean?"
A breeze passed through the street, carrying the distant laughter of children. For a moment, everything looked peaceful. Normal.
But Ryo could feel it. Something unseen was shifting around him, as if the world itself had started watching.
"Alright," he muttered to himself, trying to calm his racing heart. "If this is real... then I need to survive. I need to figure out what's going on."
He glanced up at the Hokage Monument once more.
"Guess I should start where every story begins," he said quietly.
"With Naruto."
And as the sun dipped below the rooftops of Konoha, Ryo took his first step into the world he had once only dreamed of.
---