Darkness.
Then a cold sensation. Damp earth beneath me. The distant rustle of leaves… and the unmistakable scent of blood.
My head pounded.
Vision blurry. Breathing heavy.
I opened my eyes.
Branches overhead. Moonlight seeping through.
I wasn't home. Not even close.
No fan whirring, no mattress, no sound of the city. Just the wind. The forest. The silence.
And pain.
I groaned and tried to sit up—only to feel a stabbing pain in my ribs.
I looked down. Bandages. Fresh. Sloppy.
"Where the hell…?"
But then I saw it. The headband. Not mine.
A piece of metal, scratched with the symbol of the Hidden Leaf.
Konoha?
"No way," I whispered.
My voice. Younger. Lighter.
I scrambled to a nearby puddle. Looked at my reflection.
Black hair. Pale face. A gash on my left eye covered by a crude wrap. I pulled it back slightly.
Burn marks. A glow beneath.
My heart skipped a beat.
My left eye—it wasn't human.
It shimmered faintly with a red hue. Like a Sharingan… but broken. A crack ran across the iris. Like shattered glass. Like it had once been powerful—and now it was barely holding itself together.
Memories hit me like a wall.
Not mine.
A name: Ren.
An orphan. No clan. No legacy. A nobody.
But a genin.
And now… me.
This was the Naruto world. Somewhere between the Third and Fourth Great Ninja Wars. That meant danger. Death. Monsters in human skin.
Why here? Why now?
And why this broken dojutsu?
I tried to stand. My legs shook. But I forced myself up.
Had to move.
Had to think.
I checked my surroundings—looked like the Forest of Death. But younger. Wilder. Less tainted by war.
I took a few steps forward—and froze.
Voices. Ahead.
I ducked behind a tree.
Three shinobi. Headbands with slashes across them. Rogue ninjas.
Blood on their blades.
One of them dragged a limp body by the arm. A child. Genin. Lifeless.
I clenched my fists.
This was no dream.
This was survival.
My fingers twitched. Instinct kicked in. I reached for a kunai on my belt. Old reflexes… not mine. Ren's.
The ninja closest to me turned. Looked my way.
I backed away slowly.
Snap—a twig.
Their eyes locked onto me.
"Another one," one of them muttered. "Alive."
I ran.
I wasn't ready.
Adrenaline pumped through me. Trees blurred past.
Chakra. I could feel it. Inside. Moving.
I didn't know how to use it—but it flowed. Like fire.
Kunai flew past my head—one grazed my arm.
I tripped. Rolled. Hit the ground hard.
A rogue ninja landed a few feet away. Tall. Scar across his mouth. Smiling.
"You're fast," he said. "But not fast enough."
I gritted my teeth. Raised the kunai.
My vision blurred. Left eye burned.
Suddenly the world shifted.
I saw the man's chakra. His next movement.
Before he moved—I moved.
Dodged left. Swung the kunai.
A slash across his chest.
He growled, surprised.
Another shift.
I saw his next strike.
Duck. Slash.
I moved before thinking.
It wasn't just prediction.
It was…
Time fragments.
I could see a second ahead. Maybe two.
But it cost me. My eye seared with pain. Vision dimmed. Blood dripped from the corner.
The ninja grabbed my arm and flung me to the ground.
Blade to my throat.
"This eye of yours…" he muttered. "What is that?"
I didn't answer.
My pulse spiked.
The eye—glowed again.
A pulse.
The rogue ninja's hand twitched.
Confused. Staggered back.
He clutched his head.
"W-What… what did you do?"
I didn't do anything.
The eye did.
He screamed. Fell to his knees.
The other two arrived.
"Satori!"
He was foaming now. Shaking. Like he was seeing something that wasn't there.
"Genjutsu?" one asked.
"No," the other said. "Something worse."
They turned toward me.
This time I didn't run.
I stood.
The glow in my eye was fading.
But my fear… gone.
They approached.
Suddenly, kunai rained from the sky.
One hit the nearest enemy in the neck.
He dropped.
The other one cursed—and was met with a roundhouse kick from a blur that shot through the trees.
A woman. Brown hair. Anko?
She spun, kicked the rogue ninja's head into a trunk.
Silence.
I gasped. Dropped to my knees.
The woman looked at me.
She squinted. "You're… Ren?"
I nodded slowly.
She tilted her head. "What the hell happened to your eye?"
I didn't answer.
Because I didn't know.
That night I sat alone in the hospital bed.
Bandaged again. Safe—for now.
Anko had left after giving her report. I was told I was lucky. That I'd "awakened" under pressure.
But I knew better.
This wasn't awakening. It was possession.
Whatever was in my eye—it wasn't mine.
And it wasn't natural.
I looked out the window.
The moon stared back.
And deep inside me…
The eye throbbed once.
As if watching something I couldn't see.
I touched the bandage gently.
This wasn't going to be some wish-fulfillment fantasy.
This world wasn't a game.
This was a death sentence.
And I had a broken, cursed power.
A cursed second chance.
But I wasn't going to waste it.
Even if the price… was my soul.