The forest stretched endlessly, but my steps were certain. The path ahead was already clear to me: the Land of Sound.
If there was one person in this world who understood experimentation, who pursued forbidden knowledge without hesitation, it was Orochimaru. In another life, in another time, he had been my master. A shadow who had shaped me in ways both good and vile. Now, I would return to him—though not as a disciple. Not anymore.
As I walked, my mind burned with possibility. Chakra surged through me with a vitality I had never known, the fusion of Isaac and Sasuke's souls sharpening my control to a razor's edge.
Lightning crackled at my fingertips. A breath of fire roared from my lungs. Wind whistled sharp as blades. Water condensed at my command, flowing in spheres across my palms. The earth itself trembled under my heel.
All five chakra natures, once fragmentary, now bent to my will as if they had always belonged to me. The Sharingan turned every attempt into insight, every mistake into mastery. With each step, my arsenal grew.
But it was the left eye that pulsed most powerfully.
The tomoe pattern swirled, warping reality at its edges. And then, with a single blink, the Rinnegan bloomed to life. The world shifted, threads of chakra revealing themselves, gravity humming faintly at my fingertips. Power beyond comprehension—wasted by the old Sasuke.
Not anymore.
I stopped at a stream to test it, pressing my hand into the flow. The water bent unnaturally, sucked toward my palm in a spiral. With another thought, I repelled it, the entire stream erupting upward in a column of spray. My lips curled into a rare smile.
Absorption. Repulsion. Manipulation. Creation. Every path of the Rinnegan was mine to explore.
And the enemies to come—the Ōtsutsuki, the threats Naruto's world wasn't prepared for—they would demand nothing less than mastery.
The Ace Gotcha System hummed faintly at the back of my mind, as though pleased with my progress. I ignored it for now. I didn't need random chance to grow stronger. I had genius, power, and the will to use both.
Still, a part of me knew: in a world this vast, opportunity and fate walked hand in hand. The system was another weapon. And I would wield it when the time came.
The forests thinned. The air grew heavier. Soon, the broken lands of the old Sound villages stretched before me. A land of secrets, scars, and serpents.
Orochimaru was waiting.
But this time, the student would not kneel.
This time, the genius and the avenger walked as one.