The scenery around him peeled away like flaking mirrors, shattering into fragments. His body felt as if it were torn apart—then instantly reassembled. The air in his throat was violently compressed, and the suffocating sensation plunged his vision into darkness. But in the next instant, everything returned to normal.
"Ugh—!"
Naruto slammed heavily into the ground with a dull thud. Stars exploded in his vision, and his entire body ached, though the pain faded quickly as his sight cleared.
Dusk.
On the streets of Ginza, layers upon layers of colorful billboards rose high, as though trying to blot out the sky itself. Massive electronic screens flickered like kaleidoscopes, cycling endlessly between smiling models and sleek displays of cutting-edge electronics.
Neon towers pierced the skyline, their lights constantly shifting. In the distance, crowds surged forward, people hurrying past one another without pause.
Naruto struggled to his feet, his eyes following the footsteps of passersby, filled with confusion and disbelief.
"Isn't this… the divine space?"
He didn't know the origin of this method, but he had prepared himself for a life-or-death battle with Obito. Yet now, Obito was gone. Madara was gone. Black Zetsu was gone.
All that remained was a forest of steel looming over a modern city.
This was too strange. What kind of twisted turn was this?
Naruto instinctively approached the pedestrians and soon realized they were speaking Japanese—and he could understand them perfectly.
Judging from the surroundings, he immediately recognized that he was in modern-day Japan, though the exact location remained unclear.
"For travelers, one tiny perk is being able to understand the language of another world…"
He complained inwardly, then stepped toward a passerby to ask what was going on.
At a wide intersection, crowds waited for the green light. Naruto walked up to one of them and asked, "Excuse me, where is this place?"
"Hello?"
The person ignored him completely. Naruto frowned and reached out to tap his shoulder—
His hand passed straight through.
"…What?"
Panic surged through him. He tried again, reaching through several people, until despair settled in.
He was like a ghost.
An invisible ghost no one could see.
It's over.
As he silently composed his last words, the scene around him began to shift. The light turned green, and people streamed across the intersection.
Suddenly, someone caught Naruto's attention.
The sensation was subtle yet overwhelming—like locking onto something with an unknown sense, or spotting a firefly in the darkness. Her presence was abnormally strong.
"Hm…"
Naruto scratched his brow and followed her. His instincts screamed that this person was the key to breaking the stalemate.
From behind, she looked like a girl.
He quickened his pace to keep up.
When she turned slightly, he saw her clearly.
A round, soft face. Hair tied high in a ponytail, revealing a smooth forehead. Ordinary features. A slightly plump figure wrapped in a loose mustard-yellow dress. Her chest rose subtly. Her expression lacked confidence.
She wasn't pretty by any country's standards—but she wasn't ugly either.
"Why is her presence so intense…?"
Naruto glanced around. No one paid her any attention.
Rustle…
They walked side by side. The girl never once looked at him, as if he truly were invisible. Yet Naruto noticed something strange—the scenery kept shifting around them, with the girl at its center.
He tried running away from her, sprinting in the opposite direction—only to slam into an invisible wall of air. Panting, he ran back.
In other words, he could only move within her vicinity.
A bold hypothesis formed in his mind.
This wasn't a real neon-lit city. And he wasn't a ghost.
This was a memory.
And this girl was its owner.
That explained everything—why her presence was so strong, and why the surrounding people felt unreal.
But who was she? And why had he been dragged into her memory?
Naruto recalled the fight with Kim Hammer. After opening the cloth, the mysterious fragment exposed to the air had sent him here.
Was this the true identity of the so-called time traveler?
A timid Japanese girl?
It didn't fit. She lacked that manic vitality.
Naruto kept following her.
She stopped in front of a shop along the street. A dazzling sign glowed above the door, adorned with flashing neon letters and the image of a handsome man rendered in lights.
After hesitating, she stepped inside.
Naruto looked up.
"Tch. Not my type," he commented casually, then followed her in.
The interior was spacious and brilliant. Crystal chandeliers hung from the ceiling. Polished marble floors gleamed beneath their feet. Art adorned the walls. A bar lined with sparkling bottles glowed under warm lighting.
The entire place exuded luxury and indulgence, filled with laughter.
The girl was nervous. She scanned the room, then finally spotted her friend. She greeted her awkwardly and sat down beside her.
Naruto grinned and sat next to her, looking around.
"This is less comfortable than Ichiraku," he muttered.
He glanced at her friend—a girl with a classic sweet, cherry-blossom face.
Naruto nodded slowly. "Definitely a player."
The shop was filled mostly with female customers, surrounded by well-dressed men who poured drinks, chatted, and laughed with them.
Naruto had a guess now.
"Welcome. Is this your first time here?" A handsome male attendant approached, kneeling on one knee and opening a menu.
"Chinatsu-chan, look," her friend smirked.
"Oh… y-yes," the girl nodded nervously.
"So her name is Chinatsu," Naruto thought, watching the attendant enthusiastically introduce various "packages."
Chinatsu nodded repeatedly, completely lost.
Naruto took a closer look.
These "packages" were men.
"…This isn't a bar. It's a host club."
A place where male hosts entertain women with conversation, alcohol, and affection—for profit.
Naruto had once looked them up out of curiosity in his previous life. Their looks were… hard to describe.
He never understood how they kept women circling around them.
"Please choose anything you like," the host said, handing Chinatsu a tablet.
The front page featured a top host in a white suit holding roses:
[Monthly income: 4 million yen for 1000 consecutive months][Highest record: 1.9 billion yen][2021 Annual Sales Champion]
Naruto frowned—not at the exaggerated figures, but at the date.
2021?
Strange. He remembered traveling back twenty-five years. Why was this memory from only twenty-one years ago?
He set the thought aside.
Unable to decide, Chinatsu watched as the hosts lined up one by one, greeting her with drinks, business cards, flattery, and flashy tricks like peacocks spreading their feathers.
She grew increasingly uneasy.
"Low-tier performance," Naruto muttered.
Just as he thought it was over, a young man in a black suit approached, smiling gently. He handed Chinatsu a handwritten card.
[Ran]
Chinatsu's eyes lit up.
Naruto's blood ran cold.
He stood abruptly, staring at that single character.
"It's the same handwriting," he muttered darkly. "The same one Kim wrote when she lost control."
The jagged strokes were identical.
Naruto locked his gaze onto the handsome young man sitting across from Chinatsu.
"Ran. That's his name," the boy said softly.
"I'm still new at this," Ran smiled. "Talking to you feels like chatting with a classmate."
Pure as lotus rising from mud.
At least compared to the greasy men earlier.
Chinatsu relaxed, and Naruto's unease deepened.
They talked. Naruto learned her story.
Watanabe Chinatsu. A college student. Working part-time to pay tuition. Her father had died early. Her mother worked multiple jobs.
She studied hard by day, worked at night. Life was tough—but hopeful.
Except for one thing.
She was a plus-sized girl.
Life's malice followed her everywhere.
Beautiful friends were surrounded by handsome men. The men who liked her were ugly. She got cropped out of video calls. When walking with good-looking men, people openly called her a sugar mommy.
Her only refuge was a small bar run by a kind owner.
That's where she met Takahashi Mai, a regular at host clubs—and tonight's instigator.
"She's not broken," Naruto concluded quietly. "She just lacks love."
The memories continued.
Closer bonds. Subtle dependence.
A cheap bill. Then another visit.
Ten thousand yen.
Then money slipped secretly into her hand.
Naruto inhaled sharply.
A master manipulator.
Gradually, Chinatsu fell deeper.
Debt.
Escort work.
Desperation.
Selling herself.
Memory blurred.
Expelled from school.
Broken.
Then—
She looked at Naruto.
The world froze.
"You… is this your true form?"
Naruto froze.
She handed him a mirror.
His reflection had changed—back to his original appearance.
"This is my memory," Chinatsu said calmly. "And that fragment controls it."
She handed him the black shard.
"The one who did this controls time and space," she continued. "And preys on trauma."
Naruto finally understood.
The ninja world magnified darkness.
Someone was using broken people as fuel.
A phantom appeared.
"The simplest solution," it chuckled, "is to kill all travelers."
The world collapsed.
Death Forest.
"Naruto!"
He fell—caught by Sakura.
Five minutes had passed.
But everything had changed.
Naruto looked to the sky.
Someone was playing with human suffering.
And he had to become strong enough to stop it.
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All the fanfiction is 30-chapter ahead but this "A Witty Life in the Naruto World" is 30 chapters ahead there