Darkness. Endless, suffocating darkness.
Marcus drifted through an impossible void, his consciousness suspended in a space that shouldn't exist. Hundreds—no, thousands—of eyes stared at him from every direction. Unblinking. Hungry. Each one felt like it was peeling back layers of his soul, examining something he couldn't comprehend.
What the hell is this?
His chest tightened with panic as he forced his eyes open—or at least, he thought he did. In this place, the distinction between open and closed, awake and asleep, felt meaningless. He spun around, trying to orient himself, but there was no up or down. No ground beneath his feet. Just... nothing.
"Where am I?" His voice came out raw, desperate. The sound should've echoed, but instead it was swallowed by the void instantly, as if the darkness itself was devouring it.
"You have been chosen."
The voice crashed through his mind like a tidal wave, making his skull throb. It wasn't coming from any direction—it was just there, inside his head, reverberating through every corner of his consciousness.
Marcus clutched his head, his thoughts spinning out of control. "Chosen? Chosen by who? What the hell is going on?"
"You have been selected by the Will," the voice continued, utterly indifferent to his distress. "You will be sent to a dimensional world to complete the tasks assigned to you by the Will."
"The Will? What Will?" Marcus felt like his brain was about to explode from the sheer number of questions piling up. "How did I even get here? I was just—"
He tried to remember. What was he doing before this? Walking home? Working? The memories felt slippery, like trying to hold water in his hands.
"Your first mission is simple," the voice stated, cold and mechanical. "Enter Konoha Village. As the Witch of Vanity, you will establish the Witch Cult."
"Konoha Village?"
The name hit him like a lightning bolt. Memories flooded back—late nights reading manga, watching anime episodes until dawn. That iconic hidden leaf symbol. The ninjas. The jutsu.
"Wait, wait, wait." His voice cracked with disbelief. "Konoha? You mean the Konoha from Naruto? That's—that's not real! That's a fictional—"
His words were cut off as his body was suddenly yanked.
One second he was floating in the void, and the next he was hurtling through space at impossible speeds. Colors blurred past him—blues and greens and browns all mixing together into an incomprehensible smear. Wind that shouldn't exist in the void roared in his ears.
Then gravity reasserted itself with brutal finality.
Marcus crashed through a canopy of massive trees, branches whipping at his body as he fell. He hit the forest floor hard, knocking the wind from his lungs. Pain exploded across his back and shoulders as he rolled across dirt and dead leaves.
"Ugh... what the hell..." He groaned, pushing himself up on shaky arms. His palms pressed into damp earth, feeling the texture of soil and moss beneath his fingers. Real. This was real.
But when he spoke, his voice stopped him cold.
That wasn't his voice.
Marcus slapped his hands over his mouth, eyes going wide. The sound that reached his ears was completely different—higher, lighter, distinctly feminine. His hands... they were smaller. Paler. His hair fell into his vision in long white strands like fresh snow.
"What the—my voice?" Panic surged through him as he stared at his transformed hands. "What happened to my—"
"Character initialization in progress," that emotionless voice echoed through his mind again. "Your role has been set as the Witch of Vanity. Replacement will be completed shortly."
"Replacement? What do you mean replace—"
Beep.
The sound was sharp, clinical, like a machine powering on. And then everything went dark.
Not the external darkness of closing his eyes—this was different. This was something inside him shutting down, like someone had just flipped a switch in his brain. The last thing Marcus felt was his consciousness being shoved aside, pushed into some distant corner of his own mind as something else took the reins.
"Ara?"
The voice that escaped those lips was melodious, almost playful. The body that had been Marcus's straightened up gracefully, brushing dirt from an elaborate black dress as if falling from another dimension was merely a minor inconvenience.
Pandora looked around the forest with curious silver eyes, taking in the towering trees that stretched impossibly high into the sky. Sunlight filtered through the canopy in golden shafts, illuminating dust motes that danced in the air. Birds chirped somewhere in the distance, and she could hear the rustle of small animals moving through the underbrush.
"A world I've never seen before," she mused, her lips curling into a subtle smile. "How interesting."
"Witch of Vanity—Pandora. Replacement complete," the voice announced in her mind.
"Oh my." Pandora tilted her head, white hair cascading over her shoulder. "What a strange voice. To think something could speak directly into my consciousness without permission. How... rude."
Despite her words, she sounded more amused than offended.
"Witch of Vanity," the voice continued, undeterred by her commentary. "The Will has brought you to this world. You must complete the assigned tasks: establish the Witch Cult and corrupt the entire Naruto World."
"I see, I see." Pandora's smile widened, though there was something unsettling about it—like a beautiful mask that didn't quite fit right. "How curious. To think that I, who have always been the one to control others, would one day find myself controlled by another. This feeling is quite... novel."
She began walking through the forest, her movements impossibly graceful. Each step was perfectly placed, making no sound despite the dry leaves scattered across the ground. Her snow-white hair seemed to glow in the dappled sunlight, and her skin had an almost translucent quality to it—like moonlight given physical form.
Everything about her screamed wrong for this world. She looked like a ghost, a spirit, something that belonged in a fairy tale rather than a forest outside a ninja village.
She'd only been walking for a few minutes when she sensed them.
Rustle.
Dark figures dropped from the trees, landing in a circle around her. Five ninja, all wearing the distinctive spiral symbol of the Uzumaki clan—though Pandora had no way of knowing that. They wore dark uniforms and masks, their postures tense and ready for combat.
The Konoha Police Force had been monitoring unusual chakra signatures in the forest, and they'd picked up something... off. Something that didn't belong.
"Huh." One of them lowered his guard almost immediately, his voice carrying a note of confusion. "The captain said there was a weird chakra signature coming from the southern sector, but it's just some kid?"
"Hey, little girl," another ninja called out, his tone shifting to something gentler. "Are you lost? This forest can be dangerous for civilians."
"Her clothes are pretty weird though," a third ninja observed, studying Pandora's elaborate black dress with suspicion. "Doesn't look like anything from the village. Where are you from?"
Pandora stood perfectly still in the center of their circle, her head tilted at a slight angle. Her expression was the picture of childlike innocence—wide silver eyes, a small uncertain frown, hands clasped in front of her as if nervous.
The ninja exchanged glances. Despite their training, despite years of experience dealing with threats, they couldn't bring themselves to see this small, delicate-looking girl as dangerous. She looked like she should be playing with dolls, not wandering through forests.
"Ara ara~" Pandora's voice was soft, almost disappointed. "It seems everyone is underestimating me. How unfortunate."
The smile on her face froze—literally froze, as if her face had become a mask. The temperature in the clearing seemed to drop several degrees. The playful innocence drained from her expression, replaced by something ancient and utterly inhuman.
She opened her mouth, and power rolled out with her words.
"Please kill each other."
It wasn't a command. It wasn't even a request. It was a rewriting of reality itself.
Her Authority—the power that made her the Witch of Vanity—washed over the ninja like an invisible wave. The melody in her voice latched onto their minds, worming into the deepest parts of their consciousness and twisting.
Their eyes went blank.
The ninja at the front moved first. With jerky, puppet-like movements, he drew a shuriken from his pouch and lunged at the man next to him. Steel flashed in the sunlight as the blade drove into his teammate's shoulder.
"What—Derek, what are you—" The injured ninja's words cut off in a gurgle as another blade found his throat.
Chaos erupted.
The five ninja, who moments ago had been colleagues—friends, perhaps—were now tearing into each other with single-minded savagery. Kunai clashed against kunai. Blood sprayed across tree trunks. Screams echoed through the forest, though whether they were screams of rage or horror even the ninja themselves couldn't tell.
Pandora watched the carnage with detached interest, like a child observing ants fighting in a jar.
But one of them resisted.
The ninja who'd been injured first, pain shooting through his shoulder, felt something in his mind crack. The agony was sharp enough to pierce through the fog that had descended on his thoughts. Years of training in the Uchiha clan—years of practicing against genjutsu—kicked in on pure instinct.
His eyes burned as he activated his Sharingan. The three tomoe in each eye spun rapidly, and suddenly he could see the influence trying to control him. He could see the invisible threads of power wrapped around his consciousness.
With a massive effort of will, he shattered them.
Clarity returned in a rush. He looked around at his teammates killing each other and felt his blood run cold. Then his gaze locked onto the small white-haired girl standing calmly in the center of the carnage.
"You!" His voice was hoarse, thick with rage and pain. Blood dripped from his shoulder, but he ignored it. "You're someone sent by the village! I knew it—I knew the village has been wanting to get rid of the Uchiha clan!"
His hands moved through seals faster than thought. Whatever this girl was, whatever jutsu she'd used, he had to warn the clan. Had to let them know the village had finally made their move.
The message seal activated with a pulse of chakra, sending his report racing toward the Uchiha compound: Attacked. Unknown jutsu. Village involvement suspected.
He expected her to try to stop him. Expected an attack, a killing blow while he was vulnerable.
Instead, Pandora simply walked toward him, stepping delicately around the bodies of his fallen comrades. Blood pooled on the forest floor, staining the fallen leaves crimson, but her bare feet somehow remained pristine.
"Your eyes," she said softly, studying him with genuine curiosity. "They're quite beautiful. Do others in your clan have such lovely eyes as well?"
"Who the hell are you?" The Uchiha ninja backed up a step, his body screaming at him that this girl was wrong, was dangerous in ways his brain couldn't fully process.
Pandora's smile returned, warm and gentle and completely at odds with the massacre surrounding them.
"I am the Witch of Vanity," she said simply, as if introducing herself at a social gathering. "I have come to this world by chance, to allow all of humanity to find release through death and despair."
The ninja's Sharingan spun faster, trying to analyze her, trying to find some weakness, some way to fight. But all he could see in those silver eyes was an emptiness so profound it made the void between dimensions look shallow.
"Release through death and despair," Pandora repeated, her voice almost singsong. "Isn't that wonderful?"
Those were the last words the Uchiha ninja heard before darkness claimed him.
Pandora stood alone in the forest clearing, surrounded by the still bodies of the Konoha ninja. The afternoon sun continued to shine through the trees, birds continued to sing, and somewhere in the distance, she could hear the sounds of village life.
She looked down at her small hands—hands that weren't hers, in a body that wasn't hers, in a world that wasn't hers.
But it was hers now.
"Well then," she said to no one in particular, her voice carrying that same disturbing cheerfulness. "I suppose I should introduce myself properly to this Konoha Village. I do hope they'll be more entertaining than these ones were."
She began walking toward where she could sense the largest concentration of life—toward the village proper. Her white hair swayed gently with each step, and if anyone had been watching from a distance, they might have thought she looked like an angel.
They would have been wrong.
The Witch of Vanity had arrived in the Naruto World, and nothing would ever be the same.
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