The late-autumn dusk in New York felt like a slice of pizza soaked in rain—soggy, cold, and smeared with gasoline. Jack Harper pulled his hoodie strings until the fabric framed his face like a tunnel. Through his earbuds blared the opening riff of NARUTO's "ROCKS", the perfect antidote to another ten-hour shift at the tech mill. He balanced a jumbo tub of half-price popcorn on one arm, ready to reboot his evening with anime, bullet-comments and a thousandth roast of Studio Pierrot.The elevator lights flickered. Instead of the basement parking level, the LCD spat out gibberish: "42-DIMEN-001". Jack blinked—overtime hallucination, surely—yet when the doors parted, a breeze carrying the scent of loam and sun-warmed leaves rolled in. Forest air. Not parking-lot air."Welcome to the Dimension Traverser System, designation DS-001."
The voice was female, metallic, and it bypassed his ears entirely, skating across the surface of his brain.
"Host passion-index for anime culture exceeds threshold. Forced binding initiated. First target: NARUTO-001. Insertion point: Konoha Forest Reserve, Land of Fire."The floor vanished. The popcorn tub overturned, sugar snow fluttering into darkness. Weightlessness lasted two heartbeats before Jack slammed into soft moss.He scrambled to his feet. Sugi pines towered like skyscrapers; sunbeams spotlighted boys in green flak vests. Ahead, a blond teenager screamed at a black-haired one—language unmistakably Japanese, yet Jack understood every syllable: "Sasuke! I'll definitely beat you!""N-Naruto?" English slipped out before he could stop it.
Naruto turned, whisker-cheeks flexing in surprise. "Huh? A foreigner?"A cyan window popped up:
「Language module installing… complete. Host can now comprehend and speak the target language in real time.」A warm swell filled Jack's throat. He switched to Japanese. "I'm Jack. Lost."
Sasuke's Sharingan spun, suspicion cranked to max."Lost civilian?" Kakashi dropped from a branch, one eye bored, the other buried in orange smut. "Temporal rifts have been popping around the village. Strangers appearing. Come register."Jack's heart jack-hammered. Registration? Spy interrogation was not on his to-do list.
Another pane flashed:
「Main Quest ①: Survive 24 h inside Konoha.
Reward: Basic Chakra Extraction Technique.
Failure: Forced repatriation + memory wipe.」"Memory wipe equals this never happened," Jack muttered inwardly.
"Precisely," the System replied, icy. "Host will forfeit all future return privileges."Forfeit this miracle? No chance. Jack plastered on his most harmless grin. "Lead the way, jōnin-san."The crimson gates of Konoha loomed, four stone faces glowering like titan guardians. Awe swelled in Jack's chest—those crags he'd streamed in 480p were now tactile, breathing.As he stepped across the threshold, a faint crack tickled the edge of hearing. He glanced back: a hairline fissure of gold light stitched the air, then vanished. No system alert.Cold fingers walked his spine. That wasn't any jutsu he knew—evidence of the rumored dimensional rift?Naruto threw an arm around him, sunlight voice yanking him back to warmth. "Hey, foreign guy! After we register, I'm treating you to miso ramen—double chāshū!"Jack laughed, the sound half English, half Japanese. "Make it triple."They strode into the village, shadows stretching like storyboards. None of them saw the emerald chakra butterfly perched above the gate; it fractured into glitter, blown toward an uncharted sky.Far behind, the forgotten popcorn bucket lay on its side. Inside the rim, sugar crystals had rearranged into tiny English letters:
「This is not a dream.」