Chapter 2: The Chimaera System.
I woke to stone and silence.
Cold pressed against my back, seeping through thin fabric into muscle and bone. My fingers twitched against rough rock, yet the simple act of feeling something solid, something real, was enough to be thankful for after floating in that tank.
No fluid. No glass. Just air, even if it was stale and damp, filled my lungs as I took a big breath.
As my eyes adjusted to the dim light, I could see that the cell was small. Maybe ten feet by ten feet, carved directly into the rock with no windows and a single heavy door set into one wall. A thin pallet served as a bed, which I wasn't lying on, because apparently whoever had dumped me here hadn't bothered with comfort. A bucket sat in the corner.
I sat up slowly, every muscle protesting, shrugging my shoulders and rolling my neck to try and loosen up.
My hands came up in front of my face, and I stared at them.
They weren't my hands.
Too young. Too calloused in the wrong places. The fingers were longer than I remembered, the skin a shade different from what I'd spent decades getting used to.
My breathing quickened. I scrambled to my feet, swaying, and pressed my palms against the cold stone to steady myself.
I wasn't dreaming. This is real. This is actually happening.
The memories from before, the tank, the fluid, Orochimaru's golden eyes studying me like a specimen, none of it had been a dream. I was here. I was alive. And I was in the Naruto universe, trapped in a body that wasn't mine, with a new name.
Kagemaru...
Or subject 402, as I had also been called.
"Okay." My voice came out rough, scraped raw. "Okay. Think. I just..."
I'd watched the anime. Read some of the manga. I knew enough to know that being in Orochimaru's care was probably one of the worst possible starting positions for any existence, fictional or otherwise. The man collected people like other people collected stamps, except his collection methods involved human experimentation, body-snatching, and a casual disregard for anything resembling ethics.
And I was one of his experiments. One that had "survived" when others hadn't.
This really isn't looking good for me...
That thought should have terrified me more than it did. Maybe the terror would come later, once the shock wore off. For now, my brain had shifted into a strange, clinical mode, cataloguing information, searching for angles, trying to find some way to process the impossible.
Then the pressure returned.
That same sensation from before, like something powering up behind my eyes. I tensed, expecting pain, but what came instead was light, clean white text assembling itself in my vision like a heads-up display from a video game.
[CHIMERA SYSTEM — ACTIVE...]
Host detected in stable condition.Assessment protocols complete.Full system access is now available.
I stared at the words floating in front of me, partially translucent, like they were projected directly onto my retinas.
"What the hell..."
The text shifted, responding to my attention.
[WELCOME KAGEMARU]
The Chimaera System is now fully operational.
This system exists to facilitate your growth and survival. You have been granted the unique ability to absorb and integrate kekkei genkai from other users through DNA acquisition.
Your current status and capabilities are available for review.
Would you like to view your status?
A prompt appeared below the text: [YES] / [NO]
I laughed. It came out slightly unhinged, echoing off the stone walls of my cell, but it was a laugh nonetheless.
"You have got to be kidding me."
But of course it wasn't kidding. Because I knew exactly what this was. I'd read enough web novels, watched enough isekai anime, consumed enough of exactly this type of fiction to recognise what was happening.
Reincarnation. New world. Game-like system...
It was one of those stories. Except I wasn't reading it or watching it. I was living it. I was the poor bastard who'd gotten hit by truck-kun? The headlights, the sound of the world ending... yeah, it all seemed to fit.
I rubbed my face with hands that still didn't feel like mine, slapping my cheeks.
"Alright," I muttered. "Let's see what we're working with then."
I focused on the [YES] option, and the display shifted, selecting it.
[STATUS]
Name: Kagemaru.
Level: 1 EXP: 0 / 1,000
SKILLPOINTS: 0
[JUTSU]
None.
[PERKS]
CHIMERA ABILITY LV 1 — Allows the user to absorb and learn kekkei genkai by consuming the DNA of the user.
[KEKKEI GENKAI ABSORBED]
None.
----
I read through it twice, then a third time, committing the details to memory.
Level 1. No jutsu. No absorbed abilities. Just a single perk that promised something extraordinary, if I could figure out how to use it.
The Chimaera Ability...
Absorbing kekkei genkai through DNA consumption. In a world where bloodline limits could make the difference between being a footnote and being a legend, the ability to steal them was the kind of cheat code that could change everything. The Sharingan. The Byakugan. Wood Release. Ice Release. Every broken, overpowered bloodline that made certain clans legendary... theoretically within my reach.
But the system was sparse. No stat sheets telling me how strong or fast I was. No numerical breakdown of my capabilities. Just a level... Level 1 at that, experience, and that one tantalising ability sitting there, waiting to be used.
"Consume DNA," I muttered. "That's... that's not ominous at all."
Did that mean blood? Flesh? Hair? The system wasn't exactly forthcoming with details, and I wasn't sure I wanted to think too hard about the implications.
What I did know was this: I was Level 1, which meant there were higher levels. I had zero experience, which meant there were ways to gain it. And I had an ability that could, theoretically, let me steal the most powerful genetic gifts this world had to offer.
If I could survive long enough, that was.
"Okay." I took a breath, forcing calm. "Priorities. First, survive. Second, figure out how this system actually works. Third, find a way to not be Orochimaru's lab rat for the rest of my probably very short life."
The system offered no response. No helpful tutorial, no guiding voice, no convenient quest marker pointing me toward safety. Just that status screen, cold and clinical, waiting for me to figure things out on my own.
Fight, survive, grow stronger. The System demanded it. Orochimaru demanded it.
A chill ran down my spine that had nothing to do with the cold stone.
Suddenly, the sound of footsteps echoed from somewhere beyond the door. Unhurried, growing closer and closer.
I dismissed the status screen with a thought, and it vanished from my vision as if it had never been there. Just in time, because a moment later I heard the scrape of metal, and the door swung open.
Kabuto stood in the doorway, the light from the corridor casting his shadow long across the cell floor. He was smiling, that pleasant, helpful smile that made you want to trust him right up until he was dissecting your organs for science.
"Ah, you're awake." He adjusted his glasses, that habitual gesture I recognised from a thousand scenes. "How are you feeling, 402?"
Not Kagemaru. 402. The number made it clear exactly what I was to him.
I considered my options. Play dumb? Act defiant? Neither seemed likely to end well.
"Confused," I said finally. My voice was steadier than I expected. "Sore. Alive, which I'm guessing wasn't supposed to be the case for most of the people in those tanks."
Something flickered in Kabuto's eyes. Interest, maybe. Or just surprise that the lab rat could string a sentence together.
"Perceptive," he said. "Yes, the survival rate of Project Chimaera has been... disappointing to say the least. You're the only survivor of what we thought was a failed experiment." He stepped into the cell, his presence somehow making the small space feel even smaller. "Lord Orochimaru is quite interested in understanding why."
Lord Orochimaru. The title rolled off Kabuto's tongue with genuine reverence. This was before his defection, before the war, before whatever complicated character development the series had given him. Right now, he was Orochimaru's most loyal servant, and that made him one of the most dangerous people I could possibly be alone with.
"Your survival presents an opportunity. Lord Orochimaru has invested considerable resources into Project Chimaera, and you represent the first return on that investment." He gestured toward the door. "Which means we need to run some tests. To ensure your... unique physiology remains stable."
Tests. In Orochimaru's labs.
The words settled in my stomach like lead.
"And if I'd rather not?"
"402." Kabuto's smile didn't change, but something in his voice did. "That wasn't a request."
He stepped aside, gesturing toward the corridor beyond with a politeness that was all the more threatening for how genuine it seemed.
I looked at the door. At the narrow corridor beyond, lit by the same dim fixtures as my cell. At Kabuto, still smiling, still waiting, hands clasped behind his back like a butler offering to show a guest to their room.
There was nowhere to run. I didn't know the layout of this place. I had no, no weapons, no allies. My level was 1, my stats were garbage, and my only special ability required me to consume the DNA of people who were definitely more capable of killing me than the reverse.
But I also wasn't dead yet. And the system was real, which meant growth was possible, which meant that somewhere down the line, I might have options I didn't have now.
Survive. That was step one. Everything else came later.
"I understand," I said, agreeing to come without a fuss.
Kabuto's smile widened slightly.
"Excellent. I'm sure you'll find the experience... educational."
He turned and walked into the corridor, not bothering to check if I was following. Why would he? Where else was I going to go?
I took one last look at my cell, at the thin pallet and the bucket and the cold stone walls, and then I stepped through the door.
The system pulsed once, quietly, in the back of my mind.
[OBJECTIVE UPDATED]
Survive...
Yeah, I thought grimly. Working on it.
The corridor stretched ahead, lit by flickering lights, and I followed Kabuto deeper into Orochimaru's domain, one step at a time, trying not to think about what "tests" meant in a place like this.
Because I had an ominous feeling I was about to find out.