White.
A vast expanse of white.
Up and down, left and right — every direction was monotonously white.
Then, not far from where Hii Kōri stood, a small child was sitting huddled up with their knees drawn in.
"Ah, so you're the one, huh? The original owner of this body."
Running his hand through his hair, Hii Kōri offered a disingenuous apology, then reached towards the child's head. "Sorry, but from now on, this body belongs to me. Just go ahead and pass on peacefully."
"W-Wait a second!"
Seeing Hii Kōri's movement, the child squeezed his eyes shut and scrambled backward—but at the same time, shouted out in a trembling voice.
"You can have my body! B-But... I want you to promise me one thing!"
Even though his body was shaking like a quail, he clenched his fists and stood up. Sensing the slight resistance at his fingertips, Hii Kōri clicked his tongue and withdrew his hand.
"...Oh?"
Since the "rightful owner" had spoken, he didn't feel like spoiling the mood. Besides, he still hadn't figured out the relationship between souls and bodies in this world—rash action probably wasn't wise.
"If you get the chance, please find the ninja who killed my parents and avenge them!"
Without a moment's hesitation, the child blurted out his request, as if he would have said it even if Hii Kōri hadn't stopped his action.
"That sounds way too troublesome. No way. A brat's soul like yours is easy enough to deal with..."
"It's different! If you don't agree, you won't be able to use my body without—uh, without any trouble!"
Before Hii Kōri could finish, the child interrupted urgently and aggressively. But the pause caused by his limited vocabulary, along with the tears at the corners of his eyes, made him seem less confident than he was trying to appear.
"And the pendant my parents left me—it needs my soul to work properly! It's a treasure that's valuable even among us Uzumaki!"
"Tch..."
Leaving aside the claim about it being a "treasure," Hii Kōri had indeed sensed some resistance both earlier and while circulating his life force.
This proved that at the very least, if he didn't resolve the child's soul, he would face interference. And considering the kid was only five or six years old, if he could manage this much, there might be irreparable gaps left even after dealing with him.
Besides, if he was going to operate in this world, he'd eventually need to find some faction to align with. Seeking revenge against the murderers of his "family" wasn't a bad excuse.
Though the child seemed overly eager, overall, Hii Kōri wouldn't lose anything by agreeing...
After some brief consideration, finding no real downside, Hii Kōri decided not to refuse. That said, being "threatened" by such a small child still annoyed him slightly.
"Aren't you worried I'm just agreeing verbally?"
"...Doesn't really matter, since... I can't hold on much longer anyway. Even if you said no, there's nothing I could do. But since you're asking like that... does that mean you agree?"
The child's flustered reaction that Hii Kōri had expected never came. Instead, the kid sighed with relief and offered an awkward smile.
"Hah, so that's how it is."
Before he'd even finished speaking, the child's figure began to dissipate like a bubble, dissolving into tiny specks of light. At the same time, this pure white world showed signs of collapsing.
Hii Kōri crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow, not particularly surprised.
After all, the child had been so anxious that Hii Kōri could have dragged things out a bit longer. But his own condition wasn't great, and he didn't feel like gambling.
"If you hadn't entered my body, Mister, I might have already disappeared completely..."
The child bit his lip, stepped forward a few paces, then awkwardly averted his gaze.
"Mom and Dad taught me not to lie, but... they're not here anymore. Maybe it's okay to cheat a little..."
"I think it matters quite a bit... Well, saying that now doesn't change anything."
Watching the child vanish completely, Hii Kōri couldn't help but inwardly lament the bitter irony.
Perhaps it was because the child's lingering traces were so faint—had the child not spoken up, Hii Kōri might never have realized any connection had ever existed between them.
In truth, this child's actual soul had long since scattered. What appeared before Hii Kōri now was merely the lingering obsession and memories within the body—a reverberation formed by the ripples of Hii Kōri's own soul.
His parents had left behind a treasure capable of protecting him, yet his own fragile spirit had wasted this precious opportunity. That regret had latched onto Hii Kōri's soul as it entered this body, becoming an obstacle.
The so-called "self resisting self."
And when Hii Kōri agreed to this request—in a sense, forming a "Binding Vow"—with "avenging the family" as the condition for fully possessing this body so that no one could distinguish his soul from the original—that reverberation faded into nothing.
The conditions were extremely broad, with no time limit. As for what he gained in exchange... it was hard to say whether it would prove useful.
Amid Hii Kōri's complicated thoughts, the pure white world collapsed.
Consciousness, surfacing.
"Troubles just keep piling up. For an 'opening,' this is way too harsh, isn't it?"
Having fully sorted through the original body's memories, Hii Kōri muttered with his head lowered.
Just as he'd predicted, this was indeed the world of Naruto, and the original owner was a pure-blooded Uzumaki.
Hii Kōri scratched his hair in annoyance. The sticky blood plasma on his hands matted his crimson locks into clumps, making him feel even itchier.
Just like his current situation.
Knowing the name of this world naturally meant he'd read the manga and watched the anime. But as mentioned before, his purpose in consuming these "fantasy" works was purely utilitarian—just seeking inspiration for crafting cursed tools.
To save time, Hii Kōri only paid attention to techniques, special materials, and skills that seemed worth experimenting with. As for the plot—those "byproducts" of memory...
Not my preferred content. Ignore directly.jpg
"But considering the current timeline, remembering the plot probably wouldn't make much difference anyway..."
Fingering the pendant hanging from his neck, he circulated life force through his body to slowly compensate for the weakness from blood loss while adjusting his mental state.
Simply put, although the original owner and his parents were pure-blooded Uzumaki, this smithy that served as their home was clearly not located in the Uzumaki clan's ancestral land. In fact, the vast Country of Fire lay between here and the Country of Whirlpools.
The original owner's parents had grown tired of life as ninja. During the First Shinobi World War, they faked their deaths to escape, wandering incognito until they settled in the Country of Rivers to live in seclusion.
Yes—from time to place to bloodline, Hii Kōri's current position existed in a subtle state: connected to the world of Naruto, yet not quite connected, in ways that made sense but also didn't.
After the death of the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju, the absolute deterrent vanished, exposing the conflicts between the Five Great Nations that had never truly been resolved. The false peace treaties were torn up, and the First Shinobi World War erupted.
Nearly ten years had passed since that war which left all Five Great Nations severely weakened. The ceasefire treaties signed back then had, by now, begun to lose their restraining power.
The great nations stirred restlessly; the small nations harbored their own schemes.
During this period, even if the original work never mentioned it, one could easily imagine the turmoil this world endured.
To be honest, purely in terms of concealment, the original parents' choice to flee to the Country of Rivers was quite clever. Red hair was relatively common in the Country of Wind, so the Uzumaki's signature crimson locks weren't particularly conspicuous here, near the Wind border.
The couple did indeed spend several relatively peaceful years here, even giving birth to their child.
Their strength, while not reaching Jōnin level, far exceeded ordinary Chūnin. Simply wanting a stable life wasn't too difficult for them.
But the problem lay with the "child" himself.
Once they had a child, this couple had far more to consider.
Especially the timing of the child's birth—it couldn't be called good.
For this couple to fake their deaths during the war, flee to a foreign land, and live incognito certainly required luck. But doing so also demonstrated their sharp perceptiveness—they could naturally sense the growing unrest in the ninja world.
Under these circumstances, they began preparing for their son's future peaceful life.
Take the pendant between Hii Kōri's fingers, for example.
It was a "container" crafted using Uzumaki clan sealing techniques, containing years of chakra that this couple had continuously poured into it.
In their vision, this chakra could heal their son when injured, gradually improve his constitution, and even allow him to inherit this power when the time was right.
Earlier, Hii Kōri hadn't noticed, but now that he was fully merged with this body, he could clearly sense the power within.
In a sense, this pendant resembled the Special Grade Cursed Objects he'd handled in his previous life. The former was something "unrelated people" couldn't perceive as special at all; the latter gained almost invincible physical resistance at the cost of "not harming humans."
Perhaps the original parents had inadvertently touched upon the power of "Binding Vows" through their sealing techniques. And maybe it was precisely to create this container that this couple—nearly as strong as Jōnin—had weakened to the point where they could be so easily killed by some unknown ninja.
But regrettably, although this gift—condensing a parent's purest love for their child—did indeed save the boy's life, his spirit couldn't withstand the shock of watching his parents die before his eyes.
If not for that, Hii Kōri wouldn't have so easily inherited everything he now possessed.