Chapter 1: What Time Is This?
The Land of Fire.
Konohagakure no Sato — the Village Hidden in the Leaves.
The night was unusually still, as if the air itself held its breath. Within the Uchiha district, the moon loomed high, bathing the silent streets in cold silver light.
Inside a dimly lit room, a young man slowly opened his eyes.
"…Have I… traveled through time?"
His voice was quiet, hoarse, more confused than alarmed.
Standing beside a low futon in a sparse, traditional bedroom, Uchiha Raizen looked around, eyes adjusting to the darkness. The room smelled faintly of old wood and incense. He slowly approached the window and pushed it open.
The cold night air rushed in, and the full moon stared back at him like a silent witness.
"This... isn't a dream."
He lifted his right hand in front of his face. It trembled. Not from weakness—but disbelief. This wasn't his body. Not completely. It felt stronger. More agile. Younger.
The mirror on the wall showed him the truth—his reflection bore the features of a teenage Uchiha. Raven-black hair. Pale skin. Those dark eyes with just a hint of intensity behind them. A standard-issue Konoha forehead protector lay on the table, untouched.
"I really did reincarnate into the Naruto world…" he whispered. "I'm in the Uchiha clan. Konoha...?"
His heart raced.
But then—
An icy realization struck him.
"Wait... what year is it? What day?"
He turned sharply, walking out into the hallway. The silence was deafening. No voices. No movement. No sign of life from other clan members.
He ran outside, scanning the empty streets. The lamps lining the path were unlit. Doors were ajar. Some windows shattered.
The air reeked of blood.
"No… no, no, no—don't tell me—!"
His thoughts were interrupted by a faint sound behind him.
Shhhkt.
A blade pierced through his back—cold steel slicing through muscle and bone before emerging clean through his chest. Blood dripped onto the ground.
His breath caught in his throat. His body froze.
Slowly, he looked down.
A kunai... drenched in his blood... protruded from his heart.
Impossible... That wasn't a warning blow.
Pain flared. Not just physical—something deeper. Existential. Wrong.
Behind him, a masked figure stepped forward, silent and merciless. A fox mask.
Red eyes glowed under it, cold and unfeeling.
"Uchiha… Itachi," Raizen croaked, barely able to form words.
"So it's tonight…" he gasped.
The night of the Uchiha massacre.
The kunai slid out, and Raizen collapsed like a puppet whose strings had been cut. Blood pooled around him.
Itachi turned, not sparing him a second glance. He had more to do—more lives to take.
Raizen's vision blurred.
This can't be how it ends… not after I just arrived…
"Why...?" he thought bitterly. "Why me? Why now?"
No systems. No cheat powers. No tutorials.
Just death.
Was this fate?
Was this a joke?
"No… No! I won't accept this! I didn't come this far to just die again!"
Rage erupted in his chest, hotter than the blood leaking from his heart. Memories of pain, betrayal, and helplessness from his past life merged with the agony of this one. And at the core of it all—
Hatred.
"I don't want to die… I WON'T die!"
And in that instant—
BOOM!
A massive pulse erupted inside his skull like a thunderclap. His vision exploded with light. His eyes burned—white-hot agony flared within them.
One tomoe.
Two tomoe.
Three tomoe.
The Sharingan awakened, spinning wildly.
But it didn't stop there.
The tomoe twisted—merging—mutating. They bloomed into something deeper, darker, more sinister.
The Mangekyō Sharingan.
A vortex of power burst forth from Raizen's body, and the blood on the ground evaporated. His chest wound healed rapidly. His breath returned. His heart beat again.
He stood.
His chakra—wild and unstable—erupted into the night sky like a flame too large for its vessel. Dust lifted from the ground. The very air trembled.
Bones made of chakra began forming around him—a skeletal frame that grew with every heartbeat. A rib cage. A spine. Arms.
The incomplete form of Susanoo—not a tool of protection, but one of rage.
"Ahahahaha…" Raizen laughed madly. "So this is power?! This is what it feels like to defy death?!"
---
Elsewhere in the Uchiha district...
Uchiha Itachi stood silently, gazing at the bodies of his fallen parents. His Mangekyō flickered in the shadows. The deed was nearly done.
Behind him, the sound of small feet running.
Sasuke.
A quiet sigh left his lips.
"It's over."
BOOM.
A pressure unlike any before surged from behind. The chakra signature—raw, chaotic, and full of hatred—rippled outward like a storm.
Itachi's eyes widened.
"What is that?"
A roar shattered the night.
"Uchiha Itachi!!!"
A giant form—cloaked in deep blue chakra and skeletal rage—charged through the air like a beast. Before Itachi could react, Raizen's Susanoo crashed into him with a thunderous BANG, sending him flying through three buildings before skidding to a halt.
Cough!
Itachi struggled to his feet, staring through the smoke.
"A Mangekyō Sharingan?!" he muttered.
"But… that's impossible. No one else in the clan awakened it."
Then he understood.
"At the brink of death… from pure hatred…"
He awakened it when I killed him.
---
Back in the ruined street, Raizen floated, Susanoo pulsing with life around him. His eyes glowed.
"You think you can kill me and walk away?" he growled. "I'm not one of your disposable clanmates. I'm the one who will break this world!"
A force field had formed around him, draining chakra from the environment—and from the corpses around him.
The Susanoo evolved. Flesh formed over bones. Chakra hardened into armor. It wasn't just a defense—it was a predator.
---
Itachi landed atop a nearby rooftop.
"He's growing stronger by the second. This chakra... I have no choice."
His Mangekyō spun, and crimson chakra burst forth. A red skeletal form enveloped him—his own Susanoo roaring to life.
"Let's end this before it spreads."
---
The two giants charged.
Blue versus red.
Hatred versus duty.
BOOM!
The clash echoed through the village.
From a distance, Sasuke watched. His small hands trembled.
Tears streamed down his cheeks. He turned away and ran.