"A Youkai?"
Uchiha Lie's hand paused midair.
"A Youkai? Then… what about that Youkai?"
The woman blinked, confusion flashing across her face.
"You killed it, my lord!"
Seeing the faint crease in his brow, Yuriko carefully recounted everything she had witnessed—the spreading black incantations, the gray-white dust, the transformation from Monster to man.
After finishing her explanation, she bowed nervously and went outside to help clean up the wreckage left behind by the Youkai's attack.
The moment she stepped out—
Silence fell inside the room.
Uchiha Lie sat alone.
His crimson eyes dimmed back into black pupils as he lowered his gaze to his hands—hands riddled with pale cracks like fractured porcelain.
"A Youkai…" he murmured softly.
"In the Ninja World, that would probably be classified as some kind of powerful Ninja Beast."
But—
The Sacrifice required for Edo Tensei had to be human.
Right?
…Probably?
He wasn't completely sure.
After all, who could say for certain that some strange demonic creature wouldn't meet the requirements?
He flexed his fingers.
There was no doubt—this was an Edo Tensei body.
He could feel it.
The unnatural cohesion of chakra.
The faint connection to impure soil and summoning formulae.
Yet—
This was not the Ninja World.
That much was certain.
"Did I… transmigrate again?" he muttered.
---
He had once been an ordinary office worker on Earth.
One moment stepping out of a building.
The next—
He had awakened in the Naruto World, reborn as a boy of the Uchiha Clan.
Uchiha Lie.
The same age as Uchiha Sasuke.
The original owner of this body had perished during the Night of the Clan Massacre. Too young to awaken the Sharingan, he had not been taken by Root.
Instead—
He had regained consciousness just as Anbu were disposing of Uchiha corpses.
From death.
Back to life.
Under the protection of the Third Hokage, he entered the Ninja Academy and graduated successfully.
He had no System.
No cheat interface.
No golden finger.
Only memories of his previous life and the faint changes brought about by transmigration.
But his talent—
His body's potential—
It was extraordinary.
Not long after enrolling in the Academy, he awakened the Sharingan.
Two years after graduation—
He awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan.
But he lacked a second pair to evolve into the Eternal Mangekyo.
Blindness loomed over him like a curse.
So he did something dangerous.
He sought out Orochimaru.
By trading fragments of future knowledge—carefully selected plot secrets—he persuaded Orochimaru to assist him with Hashirama cell fusion.
Using the power of his Mangekyo, he suppressed rejection.
The fusion succeeded.
He gained Wood Release.
And permanently resolved the blindness risk.
Yet even that—
Was not enough.
Because he knew what was coming.
The Fourth Great Ninja War.
The Ten-Tails.
Six Paths Obito.
Six Paths Madara.
He had prepared accordingly—creating numerous Edo Tensei scrolls and hiding them across the world.
Insurance.
Against death.
His precautions were justified.
When the war erupted, he could contend with Edo Tensei Uchiha Madara.
But once the Ten-Tails emerged—
Once god-tier beings descended—
He understood.
When gods fight, mortals must retreat.
He died with his heart pierced during battle against Six Paths Madara.
Even now, remembering it left a bitter aftertaste.
In the presence of those monsters—
His strength had been a joke.
---
He closed his eyes and extended his senses outward.
Natural Energy.
As a transmigrator who knew the plot, he had mastered Senjutsu.
Sage Mode was essential—one of the few methods capable of harming Ten-Tails Jinchuriki.
But when he reached for Natural Energy now—
He felt something strange.
The energy here was different.
In the Ninja World, Natural Energy possessed a certain stillness—heavy, tranquil, difficult to balance.
Here?
It was active.
Restless.
Almost eager to be drawn in.
It flowed like a living tide.
It was easier—far easier—to sense and absorb.
Such a fundamental environmental difference could not occur within the same world.
"I'm not in the Ninja World."
That conclusion was unavoidable.
---
He picked up the scroll on the table.
"It really is one of the Edo Tensei scrolls I made."
His fingers brushed the paper unconsciously as he pondered.
Then—
"There's one more way to confirm."
He formed hand seals swiftly.
"Summoning Technique!"
His palm slammed onto the floor.
A black summoning array spread outward.
But nothing appeared.
No beast.
No chakra resonance.
"I can't sense any contracts…"
His eyes narrowed.
"If this isn't the Naruto World… why is this scroll here?"
He unfurled it further and examined the marking at the end.
A faint memory surfaced.
Suddenly—
His black pupils shifted.
Crimson flooded his irises.
Three tomoe spun rapidly.
Then condensed—
Into the Mangekyo pattern.
"Kamui!"
Space twisted.
Spiraled.
Folded inward.
His body vanished from the room and entered a murky gray dimension.
The Kamui Dimension.
---
It looked the same as before.
A bleak, stone-like platform suspended in endless gray emptiness.
But this Kamui was not originally his own.
Both of his Mangekyo possessed a single ability—
Amenonuhonotama.
As long as he maintained contact and consumed Ocular power, he could copy another's Ocular Jutsu.
Limited to eye techniques only.
But stackable.
Copying required prolonged contact.
The stronger the technique, the longer it took.
Time was cumulative.
He had copied Kakashi's Kamui during countless sparring sessions under the guise of Taijutsu training.
Collision after collision.
Gradually accumulating enough contact time.
Obito's right-eye Kamui—
Intangibility—
Had eluded him.
Obito never allowed contact long enough to copy.
A missed opportunity.
Uchiha Lie walked quickly toward the corner of the platform where he remembered storing a scroll.
Empty.
As expected.
"So it fell out…"
He exhaled slowly.
After Obito's death, perhaps that Kamui space had collapsed.
A scroll drifting through dimensional instability—
Falling into another world.
This Kamui dimension was newly regenerated after his resurrection.
A separate instance.
All speculation.
But the fact remained—
He was alive.
Whether he had transmigrated again hardly mattered anymore.
It wasn't his first time.
---
He clenched his fist.
"This Edo Tensei body…"
It felt heavy.
Restrictive.
Though immortal in theory—
It could not unleash full strength.
Whether due to world differences or imperfect sacrifice material, this body limited him significantly.
"I need true resurrection."
Edo Tensei granted immortality.
But at a cost.
Power ceilings.
Stagnation.
He activated Kamui again.
Space folded.
He returned to the room.
---
The interior was simple.
A wooden table.
A bed.
No electrical devices.
Through the gaping hole in the wall, he saw villagers outside hauling timber, repairing homes, tending the wounded.
The air carried dust.
And faint blood.
The men wore old-style garments.
Their hair styled in crude chonmage topknots.
Ancient Japan.
Most likely.
This storage room had been spared partial destruction and temporarily became his resting place after his "awakening."
Uchiha Lie stood silently.
This was not the Ninja World.
This was a land of Youkai.
And Natural Energy here—
Was unnaturally abundant.
A faint smile tugged at his cracked lips.
"If that's the case…"
"Then perhaps this world…"
"…isn't so bad."