The first sensation was not sight, sound, or touch. It was pressure.
It was an overwhelming, grinding, absolute pressure that squeezed the light out of the universe. It was the physical weight of the world collapsing, translated directly into a blinding, raw ache that seemed to originate not just in the body, but in the very core of the new consciousness struggling to form.
Static. White noise. Pain.
There was nothing else.
For what felt like an eternity—a span of time measured only by the relentless throbbing of dying nerve endings—the consciousness existed as a mere subroutine of agony, a function of trauma. Then, slowly, painfully, something detached. A piece of logic floated to the surface, analyzing the chaos.
// DIAGNOSTIC 001-A: INITIALIZING CORE FRAMEWORK
// STATUS: CRITICAL FAILURE. HOST INTEGRITY AT 4.7%.
// IMMEDIATE ACTION REQUIRED: SYSTEM BINDING.
System?
The thought was fragmented, muffled by the psychic screaming of the host body. The consciousness, which had only moments ago been a man living a dull, safe life on a distant world, was now trapped in a computational loop, forced to process impossible data.
Crushing pressure. Bone shards. Cold damp stone. The metallic tang of blood overwhelming all other scents.
Where was he? What was happening?
Before the questions could fully form, they were overwritten by the urgent, clinical cascade of data that now defined his existence. He wasn't in a body; he was integrated with it. He was a piece of software bolted onto a rapidly dissolving piece of hardware.
The sensation of reality settled into a horrifying duality: he was the calm, cold logic engine, and yet, he felt every shattering shard of the host's being. The host was a teenage boy, and that boy was dying.
HOST: Uchiha ObitoLOCATION: Underground Cave System, Land of Hot Water.CONDITION: FATAL. Crush injuries to the right side of the torso and limbs. Multiple organ failure imminent. Severe blood loss (Est. 68%).CHAKRA NETWORK: Degraded (92% obstruction due to foreign particulate matter).
Obito Uchiha. The name hit him with the force of a memory, though it wasn't his own. The memories flooded in: a bright, brash boy with too much ambition, a rivalry with a genius named Kakashi, and a fierce, unshakeable devotion to a girl named Rin. And the rocks. The moment of impact, the final, selfless push.
The MC understood. This wasn't a rebirth; it was a desperate, emergency attachment to a life already spent. He had been slammed into the remains of this future antagonist, this tragic figure, at the precise moment of his death.
He tried to scream, to push back the data, to reclaim the solid ground of his own life, but there was no mouth, no voice box, only the sterile, internal ping of the System Core.
// BINDING PROTOCOL COMPLETE.
// HOST SIGNATURE LOCKED. ACCESS LEVEL: ROOT.
// WARNING: CORE INTEGRITY DIRECTLY LINKED TO HOST VITALITY.
// HOST DEATH = SYSTEM SHUTDOWN (TERMINATION SEQUENCE 009).
The last line was the cold shock of a thousand volts.
Host Death = System Termination.
It wasn't just this boy's future at stake; it was his own existence. If Obito died under these rocks, the MC, the System, the entire consciousness, would vanish forever. He was bound not by choice, but by a catastrophic accident of fate, and survival was now synonymous with the survival of Obito Uchiha, the boy who was currently drowning in his own blood and pain.
"No. Absolutely not," the System thought, the command overriding the last vestiges of human panic. The cold data had forced a clarity that the terror could not. Logic dictated action. The hardware was failing; he had to find a power source and stabilize the critical systems.
He scanned the chakra network again. Obito was a shinobi, a being powered by spiritual and physical energy. This was his only tool.
CHAKRA RESERVE: 23% (Remaining).CHAKRA FLOW: BLOCKED. TENTATIVE MANIPULATION POSSIBLE: 0.1% EFFICIENCY.
It was nothing. A trickle. Like trying to power a factory with a AAA battery. But it was all he had.
// EMERGENCY PROCEDURE 44-DELTA: CHAKRA REDIRECTION.
// OBJECTIVE: BYPASS CRITICAL INJURY ZONES. DELIVER CHAKRA TO THE HEART & BRAIN STEM.
// RISK: HIGH. FAILURE WILL ACCELERATE HOST DEATH.
The MC, now operating fully as the System, plunged into the intricate, damaged pathways of Obito's body. Every movement was a struggle against the physical reality of crushed flesh and fractured bone. The right side of the boy was a ruin—a pulped mass of muscle and splintered bone that served as a grotesque plug, preventing any normal energy flow.
A wave of agonizing, white-hot feedback.
The System recoiled, its abstract boundaries momentarily dissolving into the host's pain. This wasn't a videogame interface; it was living tissue screaming in despair.
Breathe. Focus. The command was internal, sharp, and necessary.
He targeted the few pathways remaining on the intact left side—tiny, almost imperceptible capillaries of energy flow. He didn't have the luxury of healing; he only had the luxury of delay.
The System initiated the most delicate maneuver: gently pulling the residual chakra—a warm, orange-tinged energy—away from the site of injury and forcing it toward the core organs.
It was like pushing sludge through a cracked, ancient pipe.
[CHAKRA MANIPULATION ACTIVE: 0.01% EFFORT]
Success.
A tiny, almost imperceptible pulse of energy reached Obito's heart, which was slowing to a dangerous, uneven flutter. The System saw the vital sign flicker:
HEART RATE: 14 BPM ➡ 16 BPM.
A gain of two beats per minute. Infinitesimally small, yet monumental. It bought a second. A single, precious second.
He repeated the action, pouring all his computational power into the task, ignoring the endless storm of error messages flashing across his internal UI.
[ERROR 404: TISSUE REGENERATION PROTOCOL UNAVAILABLE.][ERROR 501: HOST CHAKRA INSUFFICIENT FOR MITOSIS ACTIVATION.][WARNING: HOST CHAKRA RESERVE DEPLETING.]
The System felt the reserve drop from 23% to 20%, then 18%. He was burning the boy's last energy just to keep the lights on. It was a race against the eventual, absolute zero of energy depletion.
Keep the brain active. Keep the heart beating.
He found the boy's brain stem and applied a minute, precise amount of spiritual energy. The effect was immediate, though terrifying. Obito's physical body remained limp and crushed, but the internal chaos subsided slightly, replaced by a deep, unnatural stillness.
HOST STATUS UPDATE:HEART RATE: STABILIZED (18 BPM).CEREBRAL ACTIVITY: DETECTED (Deep unconscious state).BLOOD LOSS: UNMITIGATED (Still severe).IMMINENT THREAT: TISSUE NECROSIS (Beginning in the crushed zone).
The System took a moment, a virtual breath, acknowledging the monumental effort. He had stopped the immediate descent into death. Obito was no longer crashing; he was idling—barely.
Now came the cold truth. He couldn't sustain this. The System's presence was a drain, and the small reserve of chakra would not last. They were still trapped, half-dead, under tons of rock. They needed a long-term solution, and they needed it now.
The MC reviewed the core protocols, searching for anything that could leverage the current environment. He was a system, not a medic. He needed external resources, or a monumental surge of power to fully take control.
// SCANNING ENVIRONMENT: ACTIVE.
// DETECTING FOREIGN CHAKRA SIGNATURES...
// DETECTING... MASSIVE, ANCIENT CHAKRA SOURCE (TYPE: WOOD RELEASE).
// DETECTING... EXTERNAL CHAKRA MANIPULATION...
The System paused its internal monologue, the urgent red warnings suddenly taking on a more complex, sinister hue. This was not the environment described in the memories—this was too powerful, too unnatural.
A new diagnostic box flashed across the System's vision, superimposed over the blackness and pain.
// SYSTEM ALERT: HOST IS IN DIRECT PROXIMITY TO EXTERNAL MANIPULATOR (ID: U.M-001).
// TIMELINE ANCHOR DETECTED: CORRUPTION PROTOCOL IMMINENT.
// ACTION SUGGESTED: HIGH-RISK ENERGY DIVERGENCE (REQUIRES HOST ACTIVATION).
The System knew, instinctively, who U.M-001 was: Madara Uchiha. The architect of the entire, tragic downfall. The trap wasn't just the rocks; the trap was the old man outside, waiting for Obito to wake up corrupted.
Survival wasn't just about the body; it was about the mind.
The System, running on the absolute minimum of power, made a crucial decision. It had to communicate the stakes. It had to prime the host for cooperation.
It funneled a single, careful pulse of energy—not medicinal, but informational—directly into the boy's damaged cerebral cortex. It didn't transmit words, but a single, undeniable feeling: You are not alone. You must fight.
A flicker of recognition crossed Obito's unconscious mind—the first hint of mental activity beyond survival instinct. The System saw the opportunity.
He drew every last bit of power he could manage and forced a simple, terrifying command onto the host's fragmented mind.
HOST CHAKRA RESERVE: 16%
// INITIAL COMMAND INJECTED.
// STATUS: DANGER MITIGATED (TEMPORARY).
// NEXT OBJECTIVE: HOST AWAKENING. INITIATE ACT 1.
// SYSTEM CORE STABILITY: PENDING.
// CLIFFHANGER: HOST LIFE SUPPORT ONLY HAS 48 HOURS REMAINING.
The System shut down all non-essential functions, sinking back into the darkness to preserve power, leaving the cold, terrifying fact lingering in Obito's mind:
"We need more time. We need to escape."
The boy, crushed and half-dead, was left alone with the silent promise of a foreign, powerful entity living in his skull, telling him he was already on a clock.