Chapter 1 — The Awakening in Konoha
Koichi Aizawa woke up to the strong smell of antiseptic and the distant sound of hurried footsteps.
"Ugh! Where is this?" He groaned painfully when he tried to move, forcing his body to tense up once more.
The first thing that invaded his consciousness was not a memory, but a throbbing and brutal pain at the base of his skull, as if someone had split his head open with an axe and then glued it back together.
Who am I?
His memories were a chaotic mess.
He couldn't remember anything, and even his name seemed to have evaporated from his consciousness. "Damn! What is happening?"
He raised one of his hands to his forehead, feeling the bandage wrapped around his head, but his eyes froze when he saw his hands.
"Uh? Are these my hands? But this isn't how I remember them..."
"Ahh!"
He suddenly screamed, the pain increasing by at least two levels when that memory surfaced unexpectedly, also bringing an irritating buzzing to his subconscious.
Suddenly, strange yet familiar terms began to appear in his mind one by one, as if they were pieces of a puzzle.
Konohagakure. Shinobi, Chūnin, and missions.
All of them seemed so strange, yet at the same time so familiar that Koichi had no idea what was happening.
"Calm down."
Koichi ran a hand through his hair, taking a deep breath to maintain his rationality. Thus, little by little, his memories—at least the ones from this world—began to organize themselves slowly.
His name was Koichi Aizawa. He was a Chūnin from Konoha, and also an orphan. He was currently fourteen years old, and had entered the ninja academy one year before the golden generation.
"Konoha? Is this like that anime?" He murmured automatically, soon feeling a sharp pain pulsing in his brain once more, but this time much more bearable.
"Wait..." His eyes widened, even greater confusion stamped across his face. "This can't be right, can it? Am I in a fictional world?"
His heart skipped a beat.
He didn't know how he had knowledge of that, but he was sure that this was not his original world. Or to be more exact... it was a world that shouldn't even be real!
At that exact moment of confusion, the room's door slid open silently and someone entered with soft steps.
"Ah, you're awake, Koichi-san."
The person who entered was a girl.
She had pink hair, relatively short, falling to shoulder length, and beautiful green eyes that resembled emeralds.
She wore a light-green nurse's uniform, tight enough to outline the early stages of puberty of a body that was leaving childhood behind, with a white mask covering half of her face.
Sakura Haruno.
The name surfaced in Koichi's mind naturally, as if he had known it all along, even without needing to see her full face.
Sakura Haruno. Tsunade Senju's heir, a member of Team 7 and one of the main heroines of the Fourth Great Ninja War. The shinobi with the best Medical Ninjutsu, who surpassed her Master.
So it really is just like I imagined.
Koichi closed his eyes, trying to calm his thoughts, before opening them again.
"I'm fine. It's just that my memories are a bit confused." He replied, not knowing where to look.
"Oh, that's normal after a head injury, don't worry too much."
Sakura approached the bed, exuding a clean scent of soap and something floral and sweet. That explosive temperament she reserved for Naruto in Team 7 was nowhere to be seen.
At that moment, she was professional, quite dedicated.
"I'll need to examine your pupillary reflexes, Koichi-san. Please stay still." She said, her voice slightly muffled by the mask.
She leaned over him. The closeness between the two was inevitable, but she was professional despite her limited experience.
Koichi could feel the heat emanating from her skin through the thin uniform. When she brought one of her hands to his face to hold his eyelid open, the touch of her fingers was soft, yet firm.
"I'm going to move the light and you just follow it with your eyes, alright?" She blinked. Even with the mask, Koichi knew she was smiling.
He stared at her, amber eyes fixed on her green ones. Moreover, he noticed a certain vulnerability in her at that moment, and the physical closeness only made his blood—now the blood of a young, healthy adolescent—flow a little faster.
"Ok, let's begin then."
She clicked the small medical flashlight, casting a beam of light into Koichi's eyes.
However, the instant the light touched his retina, the world seemed to stop.
A translucent, bluish screen, invisible to Sakura, materialized in the air, floating perfectly beside the girl's face.
[Ding!]
[BOND SYSTEM INITIALIZED]
[Target Detected: Sakura Haruno]
[Bond Potential: High]
[Cost: 1 Monthly Bond (Available: 1/1)]
[Do you wish to establish the bond with Sakura Haruno?] [YES] / [NO]
Hm? Koichi's pupils dilated when he saw that. It looked unreal, and Sakura seemed to have absolutely no awareness of it. 'Could this be a system?' He thought, with confusion in his memories, hesitating about whether to accept it or not.
He had the feeling that he shouldn't accept it randomly, without any planning. But in the end, while he was still being examined, curiosity was stronger than rationality.
And as soon as he made a decision, Koichi felt Sakura's touch move away from him, and with that, the floating interface dissolved into the air like smoke.
The silence of the room was filled only by the soft sound of papers as she organized them on the clipboard. He remained still, just staring at the void, which was literally empty now.
'So it's activated by touch?' He wondered, looking at Sakura as she moved around him with several papers.
"Koichi-san? Is there a problem? Are you feeling any pain or dizziness?" She asked suddenly, taking a step forward, noticing that he was acting strangely.
Koichi gave a faint smile, thinking of a plan to see if his speculations were correct.
"Actually, Sakura-san... I still feel a bit unsteady." He extended his tanned hand toward her. "Would you mind helping me get up? Just for a moment. I'm tired of staying in bed."
"That..." She hesitated for a moment.
However, fulfilling her medical duty, that hesitation lasted only a second before she approached again.
"Alright, but just for a moment. You still need to stay here for observation." She explained quickly.
She then wrapped his arm around hers, offering support, and her hand firmly touched Koichi's forearm.
And exactly as Koichi expected, the instant contact was made between the two, the blue screen exploded into his vision once again, showing exactly the same information as before.
[Ding!]
[Target Detected: Sakura Haruno]
[Bond Potential: High]
[Cost: 1 Monthly Bond (Available: 1/1)]
[Do you wish to establish the bond with Sakura Haruno?] [YES] / [NO]
This time, he didn't hesitate. With a mental command, he selected [YES].