Chapter 4: The Beginning and End of the Transmigration
After finally getting everything sorted out, Shen lay on his bed and looked out through the window at the jungle and the sky beyond, recalling his old memories.
First came the memories belonging to this world. Perhaps because the two souls had fused, Shen remembered this world's memories with astonishing clarity. He could even remember things from infancy—his mother's tenderness, his father's indifference, all of it engraved vividly in his mind.
His mother had only been a lowly servant, while his father had been a steward of the main branch. During one of his outings to plant a God Tree, he had accidentally discovered his mother's beauty, and then used his status to take her for himself. While waiting for the God Tree to bloom and bear fruit, Shen was unexpectedly conceived.
Why unexpectedly?
Because every single time, his father had taken precautions. Yet for some unknown reason, one time they failed.
Though he had been an accident, his father had not killed him while he was still an embryo. Of course, there was no chance Shen would ever be recognized as part of the main branch, but simply being allowed to be born was already considered a great mercy. So when the God Tree finally bore fruit, and his father consumed it before returning with his mother to the Ōtsutsuki clan's ancestral homeland, Shen was already five years old.
And at that age, he had not felt even the slightest trace of fatherly love.
When addressing that man, he called him Lord Huishi. "Father" was never a title he had the right to use.
After returning to the Ōtsutsuki ancestral land, his mother died during an outing due to an accident. More than thirty people who had accompanied her perished as well. She left nothing behind for Shen—not even a private chakra extraction method. The only thing he had was the common, mass-circulated technique taught within the clan.
At the time, Shen was eight years old.
After that, his cheap father unexpectedly came to see him once. He seemed surprised by Shen's talent and wanted to cultivate him into a trusted subordinate, so he gave him a more advanced chakra extraction method. After that, however, he went right back to ignoring him.
To Huishi, Shen had merely been one of life's little surprises. Whether he would remember him again in the future would depend entirely on Shen's future achievements.
The current ancestral land of the Ōtsutsuki clan was severely depleted of resources. Just as Shen had seen when he first awakened, the clan's homeland resembled the surface of the moon—utterly barren, without the slightest trace of plant life. Vegetation was an extremely precious commodity, something only the nobles of the main branch could possess.
In truth, the main branch rarely lived in the ancestral land. Only a handful of people with responsibilities there, like Hien, remained behind. Everyone else—those great lords of the clan—would roam the cosmos in search of suitable planets to claim as their own domains. Otherwise, they would only return to the ancestral land once every thousand years for the clan gathering.
Shen had practiced the chakra cultivation method Huishi gave him, but in that exhausted homeland, there was simply no way for him to grow much stronger. Compared to the common technique he used before, it was only slightly better. It wasn't that the new method was bad—it was simply that the ancestral land's natural energy was far too scarce. And how much chakra could he really refine from his own body and spirit alone?
Shen's body had not originally been as thin and frail as it was now. He had once been rather strong and well-built. But in the past, he had pushed chakra extraction too far and damaged his body, leaving behind permanent defects. Afterward, he never treated the injuries. In that resource-starved homeland, the fact that his condition had not worsened was already a blessing from heaven.
Now that he had arrived on the richly abundant world of the Naruto world, he could finally begin treating himself. And with a superior chakra extraction method in hand, his strength would definitely rise to an unprecedented level. If he could find Shikkotsu Forest and learn Sage Arts from the Slug Sage, then he would become even stronger.
And when that time came, Shen was confident he could beat Ōtsutsuki Hagoromo and Ōtsutsuki Hamura into the dirt.
He refused to believe that after learning senjutsu, he still wouldn't be able to deal with two mere mixed-blood Ōtsutsuki.
Of course, the Ninja World still held many secrets—such as the Three Great Sage Lands, Mōryō, the Dragon Vein, and more. But aside from Ryūchi Cave and Mount Myōboku, the rest only required some caution. Mōryō was watched over by the shrine maiden lineage, and the Dragon Vein had not yet appeared. Shen strongly suspected that the Dragon Vein was the very place where the God Tree was currently rooted.
When the God Tree transformed into the Ten-Tails in the future, the crater it left behind would most likely be where the Dragon Vein was located. After all, a God Tree could not simply be planted anywhere. It had to take root in a planet's energy nexus in order to grow properly, and when planted that way, it would mature far more quickly.
Of course, none of that meant much to Shen right now.
What he needed to do was wait—and search for Shikkotsu Forest so he could seek help from the Slug Sage. He wanted to heal his injuries, and with his current ability, there was no way he could cure such old, deep-rooted damage himself. As far as Shen knew, the Slug Sage's healing ability was the greatest of all.
So finding Shikkotsu Forest was his top priority.
After finishing his recollection of this world's memories, Shen began recalling the memories of another world.
And when he thought back to what had happened before he arrived in the Naruto world, he still found it utterly unbelievable.
"Hey, Fatty, where did this thing come from?" Shen asked, staring at the old, ancient-looking parchment in his hand.
"Heh, I told you before, didn't I? My neighbor's a foreigner. He's got a whole bunch of stuff like this at home. He said these things all have mysterious magical power in them. Like the one in your hand—if you set up the magic circle according to the instructions on it, you can travel to whatever world you want." His classmate and best friend, Nolan, leaned over Shen's shoulder with a sleazy grin as he spoke.
"Get off me. Don't you know how much you weigh? Are you trying to crush me to death so you can inherit my three-thousand-yen Huabei repayment bill?" Shen grumbled, uncomfortable under Fatty's weight, and shoved him off with a bit of force. Fatty awkwardly stood back up.
"This? Travel to another world? If you told me to go outside, get hit by a car, and transmigrate, I might actually believe you. But this thing? Fatty, tell me honestly—am I the one with water in my brain, or did zombies eat yours?"
He carefully examined the parchment in his hand. Based on what his father—who specialized in digging up antiques—had taught him, this parchment really was an old object, possibly even something dating back to the era of King Arthur. But as for it being able to send someone to another world? He wouldn't believe that even if he died.
And never mind whether it worked or not—how had something this valuable ended up in Fatty's hands in the first place?
This was a genuine antique. It hadn't been carefully preserved, hadn't been donated to the state, hadn't been put on display or sold for profit. Instead, Fatty had simply rolled it up, stuffed it into his backpack, and brought it to school.
"Uh, I don't believe it either, so that's why I brought it here for you to try out, bro. I checked the materials listed on it, but a lot of them are hard to get. Stuff like moon-gazing stones and colored ore—I've never even heard of them."
"Moon-gazing stones are just rocks that've been shined on by moonlight. They're everywhere. And colored ore is just glass..." Shen said helplessly as he tossed the parchment back to Fatty, trusting it even less than before.
"Huh? That's it?!" Fatty had clearly not expected it to be that simple.
"Fatty, even if the magic circle itself is fake, this thing in your hand is definitely an old artifact. If you stole it from someone, I suggest you return it immediately. And if they only let you borrow it, then hurry up and give it back. If it gets just a little damaged, your two hundred pounds of meat won't be enough to pay for it." Shen was worried Fatty's neighbor might be trying to scam his family, so he seriously advised him to return the antique as soon as possible.
"Uh, Uncle Kaiwo already gave it to me. He said this is the Age of Dharma Decline, so stuff like this doesn't work anymore. He even tried it himself several times and failed. No, what I actually wanted to ask you was—if you could transmigrate, what world would you want to go to most?" Fatty froze for a moment, but since the neighbor had already given it to him, he didn't think much of it.
"Hm, if he gave it to you, then fine. But this is still something valuable. Keep it safe and don't go around talking about it. If you don't want it anymore, your family could probably sell it to a private museum or collector for a lot of money. As for the world I'd want to go to... hmm, probably Naruto. I'd want to be friends with Naruto, fight Lord Madara, and tease that tsundere fox when I've got nothing better to do. Hahaha." Shen came from an ordinary family, so of course he had followed a mainstream manga like Naruto all the way through.
"Then... should we try it? I already looked up the materials. Aside from those two you just explained, I've got everything else figured out. How about we do it on the rooftop?" Fatty's curiosity was still overwhelming, and he wanted Shen to test it with him.
Looking at Fatty's eager expression, Shen shivered. Unable to endure that look any longer, he finally agreed.
"Fine, fine, fine. Stop looking at me like that. It's recess anyway, we've got time, so I'll mess around with you for a bit. But let me warn you—if we set it all up and it doesn't work, you're the one cleaning it up. And if the school finds out we were doing some kind of superstitious ritual, then we're both screwed."
"Hehe, Brother Xin, don't worry. Leave it to me." Fatty said ingratiatingly before running out of the classroom.
"Holy shit, Fatty, I warned you not to call me by that nickname!" Shen might not play Chrysanthemum Xin, but he definitely knew the name. A creepy nickname like that was one he wanted no part of.
Before long, the two of them were bickering and horsing around as they arrived on the rooftop of the teaching building. Hardly anyone ever came up there, because the wind was too strong, and standing there for too long could make a person feel dizzy.
Fatty followed behind Shen carrying two plastic bags. He had prepared the materials in advance. Aside from the stone and glass—because he hadn't known what those actually referred to—he already had everything else ready. And since stones and glass were easy enough to find at school, everything was now in place.
All that remained was to begin.
"Fatty, stand over there in the southern corner and be my reference point. Yeah, right there. Stay still." Shen pulled out a compass and a tape measure, then started drawing and marking the ground.
Watching Shen work with smooth confidence and no hesitation at all, Fatty couldn't help feeling envious. He had often come to Shen with weird occult-related things in the past. Because of his family background, Shen knew quite a bit about such matters, and that was how the extremely curious Fatty had become friends with him in the first place.
It didn't take long—about five minutes.
Once Shen had finished preparing everything, he stood up and called Fatty over.
"Alright, it's done. Fatty, you can play with it slowly if you want. I'm heading back." With that, Shen turned to leave. There were only three minutes left before class started, and he had no interest in staying here acting stupid with Fatty.
"Hey, hey, hey, Brother Xin, don't go! If you're helping, help all the way—at least say the incantation for me." Naturally, Fatty wasn't willing to let him leave. He might have been endlessly curious about these things, but he was also a complete coward. Watching from the sidelines was fine, but asking him to step up himself? He wouldn't dare even if his life depended on it.
"The hell? Say that nickname again and see what happens!" The moment Shen heard it, he kicked Fatty. Fatty only gave a sheepish grin and didn't dare fight back. Instead, he clung to Shen's arm and refused to let go. It was obvious that unless Shen went and recited the spell himself, Fatty had no intention of letting him leave. And Shen certainly couldn't drag around two hundred pounds of human deadweight.
"Let go already. I'll do it, alright? All that meat on you, and you're still this chicken?"
Speechless, Shen shook him off and slowly walked to the center of the array. He asked Fatty for the phonetic transcription of the incantation written on the parchment and began reciting it aloud.
A full thirty seconds later, Shen finished the spell.
Then he simply stood there in the center of the array, looking bored as nothing happened.
He turned and gave Fatty—who was smiling ingratiatingly at him—a flat look that practically said, Satisfied now?
"Alright, nothing happened. Let's go back. And after class, remember to come up here and clean this mess up." Shen said as he prepared to step out of the array.
But the moment he lifted his foot, the ground burst into a brilliant blue glow.
In an instant, Shen was frozen in place, completely unable to move.
Realizing something was terribly wrong, Shen looked at the dumbfounded Fatty in front of him and shouted:
"Fatty, run!"