Chapter 2: The So-Called 'Binding Vow'
White.
A blanket of pure white.
It was impossible to tell up from down; every direction was a monotonous blank.
A small child's figure was hunched over, clutching his knees, not far from Hiiro Rinko.
"Ah, yes, you must be the original owner of this body."
Rinko raised a hand to scratch his hair, offering a distinctly insincere apology, then reached his hand toward the child's head. "Sorry, but this body belongs to me now. Just be a good kid and go on to the afterlife."
"W-wait a minute!"
Seeing Rinko's movement, the child squeezed his eyes shut and scrambled backward, yet at the same time, he yelled out with a trembling voice.
"You can have my body! But… but you have to promise me one thing!"
Even though his body was shaking like a quail, he clenched his fists and stood up. Rinko sensed a faint resistance on his fingertips, frowned slightly, and withdrew his hand.
"…Hmph?"
Since the 'rightful owner' had spoken, he wasn't keen on ruining the moment. Besides, he still didn't fully grasp the relationship between soul and body in this world, so moving rashly wasn't a good idea.
"If you ever get the chance, please find the shinobi who killed my Mom and Dad, and take revenge for them!"
Without a moment of hesitation, the child quickly blurted out his request, as if he would have said it even if Rinko hadn't stopped moving.
"That's too much trouble. I don't want to. I can just get rid of a brat's soul easily, anyway…"
"It's not the same! If you don't agree, you won't be able to easily… uh, use my body!"
Before Rinko could finish, the child interrupted him, both urgent and defiant. However, the pause caused by his lack of vocabulary and the tears welling in the corners of his eyes made him seem less confident.
"Also, the pendant Mom and Dad left me only works if my soul is here! It's a treasure even for the Uzumaki Clan!"
"Tch…"
The claim about the 'treasure' aside, Rinko had indeed felt a slight sluggishness earlier, both when he woke up and when he was manipulating his Life Force.
This proved that at the very least, he would be hindered if he didn't deal with the child's soul. Considering the boy looked only five or six years old, there was a risk that dealing with the soul forcefully might leave an irreparable flaw in the vessel.
Moreover, if he was going to operate in this world, he'd eventually need a faction to join, and taking revenge for 'family' was a perfect excuse.
Though the child was acting too desperate, Rinko wouldn't really lose anything…
After a brief consideration, Rinko found no downside and decided not to refuse. Still, being 'threatened' by such a small child annoyed him slightly.
"Aren't you worried I'll just agree verbally?"
"…It doesn't matter, I guess. After all, I can't hold on much longer. Even if you don't agree, Big Brother (Onii-san), I can't do anything about it. But since you asked, I'll take that as a 'yes,' okay?"
The expected flustered look didn't appear. The child let out a sigh of relief and managed an awkward smile.
"Ha, so that's how it is."
Before he could say anything more, the child's figure began to dissolve like a soap bubble, turning into tiny specks of light. Simultaneously, the pure white world showed signs of collapsing.
Rinko folded his arms and raised an eyebrow, though he wasn't overly surprised.
Given how desperate the child was, Rinko could have stalled a little longer. But his own condition wasn't great, and he didn't want to gamble.
"If you hadn't entered my body, Big Brother (Onii-san), I might have completely disappeared already…"
The child pursed his lips, stepped forward a few paces, and awkwardly averted his eyes.
"Mom and Dad taught me not to lie, but since they're gone now, lying a little shouldn't hurt, right?"
"I think it hurts a lot… but well, it's too late to say that now."
Watching the child completely dissipate, Rinko grumbled with a complex feeling.
Perhaps the child's residual presence was too faint. If the boy hadn't said anything, Rinko might not have even noticed their connection.
In truth, the child's actual soul had long since scattered. What appeared before Rinko was just the residual 'Vibration' of his unfulfilled desire and memories, formed by the ripples of Rinko's own soul entering the body.
Though his parents had left behind a treasure strong enough to protect him, his spirit was too weak to withstand the shock of their brutal murder, wasting the precious opportunity. This resentment clung to Rinko's soul upon entry, becoming the source of the obstruction.
In short, the problem was him 'fighting against himself.'
Once Rinko agreed to the request, establishing a sort of 'Binding Vow' (Shibari)—using 'avenging the family' as the condition to gain complete ownership of the body, making it impossible for anyone to tell his soul wasn't the original—the residual 'Vibration' vanished.
The condition was broad and had no time limit. As for the effect… well, it remained to be seen if it would truly matter.
Amidst Rinko's complicated thoughts, the pure white world collapsed.
His consciousness rose.
"Troubles just keep piling up. For a 'starting point,' this is a little too rough, isn't it?"
Having completely sorted through the original owner's memories, Hiiro Rinko lowered his head and muttered to himself.
Just as he predicted, this was the world of Naruto, and the original owner was indeed a full-blooded Uzumaki Clan member.
Rinko scratched his hair, feeling annoyed; the viscous blood plasma made the scarlet strands clump together, only increasing the itching.
It was like his current situation.
Knowing the name of this world naturally meant he had watched the manga and anime. But as mentioned before, his purpose for consuming these 'fantasy' works was purely utilitarian: to find inspiration for making Cursed Tools.
To save time, Rinko always focused only on the techniques, special substances, and potentially valuable skills. As for the plot—that 'byproduct' memory...
Not content I like, direct ignore.jpg
"But considering the current timeline, remembering the plot might not even matter much anymore…"
He fiddled with the pendant hanging on his chest, circulating his Life Force inside his body to slowly compensate for the weakness from blood loss while adjusting his mental state.
To summarize: although the original boy and his parents were pure Uzumaki, their blacksmith's workshop was clearly not located in the Uzumaki ancestral homeland. In fact, the entirety of the Land of Fire separated them from the Land of Waves (where the Uzumaki Village used to be).
The original boy's parents grew tired of the shinobi life. During the First Great Shinobi War, they faked their deaths, traveled incognito, and settled in the Land of Rivers to live in seclusion.
Yes, in terms of time, place, and lineage, Rinko was at a subtle point in the timeline: having some connection to the Naruto story, but being in a place where it barely mattered.
After the death of the First Hokage, Senju Hashirama, the absolute deterrence was gone, and the previously unresolved tensions among the Five Great Nations resurfaced. The false peace treaties were torn up, and the First Great Shinobi War erupted.
Nearly a decade had passed since that war, which had severely crippled all Five Great Nations. The truce established back then was now beginning to lose its binding effect.
The Great Nations were restless, and the minor nations were all plotting in secret.
Even if the original story didn't delve into this period, it was easy to imagine the level of turmoil in the world.
Frankly, based purely on their hiding spot, the parents' decision to flee to the Land of Rivers was a decent plan. Since red hair was fairly common in the Land of Wind, the signature Uzumaki red hair didn't stand out much near the border.
The couple had indeed spent several peaceful years there and even had the original boy.
After all, while their strength didn't reach the level of a Jōnin (Elite Shinobi), it far exceeded a typical Chūnin (Mid-Level Shinobi). Simply aiming for a relatively stable life wasn't difficult.
But the problem lay with the 'Original Boy'.
With a child, the couple had far more to worry about.
Especially since the timing of the child's birth was terrible.
The couple's ability to fake their deaths during the war and travel far away to live in hiding certainly involved a degree of luck. However, doing so also showed their sharp judgment, and they must have sensed the gradually growing unrest in the Shinobi World.
Under these circumstances, they began to make preparations for their son's peaceful life.
Like the pendant in Rinko's fingers.
It was a 'Container' created by combining the Uzumaki Clan's Sealing Jutsu (Fūinjutsu), imbued with the Chakra the couple had continuously poured into it over several years.
In their plan, the Chakra in this container could heal their son when he was injured, subtly improve his physical constitution, and even allow him to inherit that power at the right time.
He hadn't felt it before, but now, fully merged with the body, Rinko could clearly sense the power within it.
In a way, this pendant was similar to the Special Grade Cursed Objects he had handled in his previous life. The former was something an 'unrelated person' would never realize was special; the latter gained almost invincible physical resistance at the cost of 'not harming humans.'
Perhaps the original boy's parents had unintentionally tapped into the power of a 'Binding Vow' through the use of Sealing Jutsu. And perhaps it was because of the effort to create this one container that the couple, nearly as strong as Jōnin, were so weakened that they were easily killed by some unknown shinobi.
It was a pity. Although this gift—a crystallization of a parent's purest love for their child—did save the child's life, his mind could not withstand the shock of witnessing his parents' brutal death.
Had that not happened, Hiiro Rinko would not have so easily inherited everything.