Chapter 1
It was quite shocking when I found myself waking up in another world. After all, I never imagined I would die in my sleep. Death came for me so quietly, without me even realising it was happening…
But that wasn't the end. Instead, I opened my eyes to find myself inside another body, the body of someone else entirely. Someone I knew very well from my past life. Except this wasn't just any reincarnation. This was another world altogether. And the person I had woken up as? He was nothing more than a fictional character from my old life.
Sasuke Uchiha. The brooding, revenge-obsessed ninja I had watched countless times in the Naruto anime. Even in my wildest dreams, I never thought I would actually wake up as him…
And just like that, everything changed.
The Sasuke Uchiha I now inhabited was, frankly, both unlucky and lucky at the same time, though if I had to pick, I'd still say mostly unlucky. The reason is painfully simple: he was Sasuke Uchiha. That name alone carried a mountain of tragedy, trauma, and cursed fate. I truly believe that's the honest truth.
But there was also a strange stroke of luck buried in all that misfortune. Through my memories, the ones that flooded into him when our minds merged, he got to see the possible future of his own life laid out plainly. He witnessed everything that was coming: the betrayals, the manipulations, the endless cycle of pain, the descent into darkness, the hollow victories. And most importantly, he saw Itachi from my perspective, not just through the foggy lens of his own childhood devotion and trauma.
From my point of view, Itachi had never been some flawless, tragic martyr. I saw him as one of those extreme Uchiha types, someone who cared only about his own rigid sense of "right" and dismissed everyone else's feelings or suffering. To me, he was a fool who had been thoroughly played by Danzo and Obito, twisted into a tool without even realising how deeply he'd been used. A complicated, broken character who couldn't decide what he truly wanted: to protect his little brother, to safeguard the village, or to remain a loyal member of the Akatsuki. His actions constantly contradicted everything he claimed to stand for.
In the clearest, most brutal terms, I saw Itachi as an insane fool.
Sasuke understood all of that now. He truly understood. He could no longer pretend the massacre was some noble sacrifice or that Itachi had been forced into an impossible corner with no other choice. Because it wasn't just his parents who died that night. Itachi had slaughtered every last Uchiha, civilian men and women who never held a kunai, innocent children playing in the streets, helpless toddlers barely old enough to walk, even elderly clan members already on their deathbeds with one foot in the grave. There was no glossing over that kind of bloodbath. No excuse could wipe away the sheer scale of it, the screams that must have echoed through the compound that night.
After seeing my memories and feeling my raw, unfiltered judgment, Sasuke no longer felt worthy of chasing revenge the way he once had. If things had continued on their original path, he realised with sickening clarity, he would have ended up as the number-one Itachi fanboy, desperately trying to whitewash his brother's crimes and turn him into some misunderstood hero.
The despair that crashed over him in that moment was overwhelming. It crushed his will so completely that he simply stopped fighting against the Curse Seal. I forgot to mention that detail earlier, yes, at that exact time, the original Sasuke had still been struggling desperately against Orochimaru's cursed mark, trying to resist its corrupting influence and the pull toward darkness that clawed at the edges of his mind.
With all of that despair weighing him down, with his entire worldview shattered in an instant, it was no wonder I was able to take over his body so easily. There was barely any resistance left in him. In fact, I didn't just inherit his physical body, I inherited everything: his memories, his skills, his Sharingan, his training, his pain, even the lingering ache in his neck where the seal throbbed like a second heartbeat.
But here's the part that still unsettles me. Sasuke didn't simply fade away into the afterlife or vanish like some displaced soul. He became a part of me. Even though I'm the one in control now, a piece of him, no matter how small, still lingers inside. A fragment of Sasuke Uchiha remains, quiet but present, woven into my thoughts and feelings forever, like an echo that never quite dies.
So yeah… that's how I ended up here. Trapped in the body of one of anime's most tragic characters, carrying both his power and his baggage…
I lay on the cold, uneven ground of the tree cave, staring blankly up at the tangled roots overhead that dripped with damp moss. My mind was still reeling, but I could hear faint voices drifting in from the opening, sharp, mocking tones that belonged to the Sound ninja. They were already here...
'Isn't this beginning a little too hardcore?' I thought bitterly. 'I mean, I can't even properly use my Sharingan right now. The Curse Seal is screwing with my entire chakra system and twisting my thoughts. It's literally designed to amplify every dark impulse I've got buried inside…' Even as the complaint ran through my head, I forced myself to stand. My legs felt heavy, but I pushed through it anyway, ignoring the dull burn in my muscles.
I stepped past Naruto, who was still out cold, breathing deeply like nothing in the world could touch him right now, his chest rising and falling steadily despite the bruises... Which have already healed.
Lucky bastard.
I didn't bother waking him. Instead, I moved toward the entrance, peering out just in time to see the three Sound ninjas, Dosu with his bandaged head and that weird amplifier arm, Zaku with the holes drilled into his palms, and Kin with her long dark hair and senbon ready. But what made my blood boil was how Sakura had gotten beaten up trying to stop them, her clothes torn, face bruised, strands of pink hair matted with dirt and sweat as she stood her ground defiantly.
The second my eyes locked on Sakura's state, something inside me snapped.
I let the Curse Seal loose.
Instantly, searing chakra flooded every inch of my body. The black markings erupted across my skin like spreading ink, writhing and pulsing with unnatural energy that made my veins feel like they were on fire. My Sharingan flared to life, the tomoe spinning lazily at first, then locking in.
And this time… it felt different. Sharper. Clearer than anything the original Sasuke had managed during the Forest of Death exam.
'It's much more precise than what Sasuke had back then when fighting Lee,' I realised. The world around me seemed to freeze, every leaf trembling on its branch, every speck of dust hanging in perfect stillness as my perception stretched and sharpened, colours bleeding into hyper-focus.
I didn't hesitate. I poured chakra into my limbs without a second thought about efficiency or waste. My entire body began glowing with a violent aura, thick and wild, almost like the chakra cloak of a jinchūriki on the verge of losing control.
I didn't even register the disgust twisting in my gut at the black patterns crawling over me. But my anger spiked at being forced to rely on Orochimaru's disgusting gift so early. The sheer arrogance of these Sound clowns ignited something feral inside.
I let it all explode outward.
In the next heartbeat, I vanished from my spot in a burst of sheer speed that tore the air behind me with a sharp crack. I didn't have any ninja tools on me, no kunai, no shuriken. Probably, Sakura had to take them for the traps she had to create. Not that I cared.
I reappeared directly behind Sakura in an instant, scooped her up under one arm like she weighed nothing, her small gasp of surprise barely registering, and flickered away again before any of them could even blink.
The only thing the Sound trio managed was to widen their eyes in stunned disbelief as Sakura suddenly teleported several metres away, safe behind a thick tree trunk.
The mummy-looking guy, Dosu, with the sound-based weapon wrapped around his arm, had instinctively raised both hands to block my incoming strike. I'd let him block it on purpose.
I could've ended him instantly, caved in his skull with a single punch to the face or slit his throat with one of the kunai I'd snatched from his pouch mid-movement. But no. I wanted him to feel it.
He probably thought he would stop my punch and counterattack with that cursed amplifier of his. But that was just wishful thinking.
His weapon shattered as a tin can under the force of my fist, as both his forearms buckled backwards with a gruesome snap. Then came the sickening crack of bone giving way.
"WHAT!!!" he bellowed, voice cracking in shock and pain, high-pitched and ragged.
I didn't bother responding. He went flying backwards, crashing through bushes and small trees like a rag doll before slamming into the dirt some distance away, kicking up a cloud of leaves and soil.
I turned my gaze to the next one, the guy with the gaping holes in his palms, Zaku, already raising his arm to fire his wind jutsu, the air around his hands compressing with a low whine. Too predictable.
But even in this rage-fueled state, a small, cold part of my mind reminded me: there was still a very real chance I'd have to face Gaara, Rock Lee, or Neji in the preliminary rounds later if I were to kill them.
After all, I was not arrogant enough to think that I could take on those three without using my Sharingan properly and while holding back the Curse Seal. That sliver of pragmatism was the only thing that stopped me from going straight for the kill.
Still… that didn't mean I was going to let them walk away unscathed.
Before Zaku could even finish aiming, I was already behind him. Two lightning-fast jabs slammed into his elbows, shattering the bones of his joints with wet crunches.
"AHHHH!" he screamed, eyes bulging as the realisation hit him, his arms dropping uselessly.
He didn't get to scream for long. A third strike smashed into his jaw, snapping his mouth shut and sending him crumpling to the ground in a twitching heap, blood trickling from the corner of his lips.
I spun toward the last one, the girl, Kin, with the sound forehead protector. She stood frozen, face pale, eyes wide with horror as she watched her teammates get dismantled in seconds, her senbon trembling slightly in her grip.
"I-I surrender, " she stammered, voice cracking.
She never finished the sentence.
I backhanded her without hesitation. The force sent her spinning through the air like a broken doll before she crashed face-first into the dirt and went still, unconscious, a thin line of blood running from her nose.
All of it, from the moment I stepped out of the cave to the last body hitting the ground, had taken less than three seconds.
I finally exhaled, letting the violent rush settle just a fraction. I didn't force the Curse Seal back yet. I stayed in that powered-up state, black marks still pulsing faintly, then glanced sideways.
Team 10, Ino, Shikamaru, and Chōji, were huddled together near the edge of the clearing, looking at me with shocked eyes and some fear, Ino's hand half-raised as if she'd been about to do something. Rock Lee lay nearby, unconscious after his earlier fight, bandages wrapped tightly around his limbs.
And standing almost a hundred metres away on a high branch of a tree, with his arms crossed, was a pair of Byakugan eyes locked directly onto mine, pale, unblinking, veins bulging around them.
'Neji Hyūga…'
I met his stare without flinching. He didn't move, but I knew he was ready to stop me if I made any aggressive move toward Lee.
For a long moment, the forest was silent except for the faint rustle of leaves in the breeze and the crackle of my lingering chakra, the air still heavy with the scent of crushed earth and blood.
Neither of us said a word.
But we both understood.
One wrong twitch, and this standoff could turn into something a lot messier.
.....