New Life

Year 27 of the Kirigakure Calendar.

In the southern part of the Land of Water lay an extremely remote little fishing village.

By a lake some distance from the village, a boy dressed in white sat quietly. His eyes were vacant, and a pained expression rested on his face as he stared blankly at the lake, looking utterly despondent.

In truth, he was not exactly spacing out. He was merely sorting through the memories that had suddenly appeared in his mind.

A day earlier, eight-year-old Seiji had been cultivating the power known as Chakra in this world as usual when a vast number of memory fragments suddenly flooded into his mind.

Overwhelmed by the sudden influx of information, the boy had passed out on the spot. When he woke again, he discovered that his mind held countless fragments of memories he had never experienced.

After spending more than half a day reviewing every memory that had surfaced in his mind, Seiji gained a clear understanding of his situation.

It turned out that he was not originally from this shinobi world. He was a genuine transmigrator.

Eight years ago, on Blue Star, twenty-four-year-old Si Qing had just graduated from graduate school. On his way to an interview, he was struck head-on by a speeding truck that had run a red light, dying instantly.

Si Qing, who had grown up in an orphanage, had relied on the charity of kind-hearted people to grow up safely. Perhaps because the first half of his life had been too difficult and impoverished, some mysterious force had caused his soul to transmigrate. He arrived in the world of Naruto and was born into an infant who was later named Seiji.

Although the shinobi world possessed the extraordinary power known as Chakra, an ordinary adult's soul was far too immense for an infant's tiny body. Therefore, the transmigrated Si Qing's soul had instinctively sealed most of itself deep within his mind, only unsealing a day ago.

Having sorted out the memories of his previous life, Si Qing—no, he should be called Seiji now—felt joy at having been given another life, but even more uncertainty about his current situation.

The good news was that he had arrived in the Naruto world he knew. The bad news was that he had never watched Naruto in its entirety; he had only seen various exhilarating clips while scrolling through short videos out of boredom.

Having gathered his thoughts, Seiji helplessly shook his head and gave a bitter smile.

"The Naruto world... conflict is everywhere!" Seiji sighed.

After losing a political struggle, his family had been expelled from their clan and exiled to this remote corner of the Land of Water. His father was injured, his mother had died young from depression, and their living conditions were harsh. For Seiji, who had read plenty of fantasy novels in his previous life, this was practically the template of a protagonist.

Although he did not know the detailed plot of Naruto, Seiji still knew the ending of Shippuden. Kaguya Otsutsuki, Black Zetsu, Madara Uchiha—one overwhelming name after another passed through his mind.

Lowering his head, he looked at the lake, where its surface reflected Seiji's face.

His handsome features carried a touch of refinement. His smooth, fair face possessed sharply defined, cool lines, while the two red dots adorning his brow added an air of nobility and elegance to his handsome appearance.

Looking more closely, two horns actually grew from either side of Seiji's forehead. Yet they did not ruin the shape of his face. On the contrary, paired with his features, they gave him an unusually demonic beauty. (Appearance based on the young Hagoromo Otsutsuki and Hamura.)

This might have been Seiji's only piece of good news. Having seen clips in Boruto introducing the celestial Otsutsuki Clan, he clearly understood that he had inherited not merely the Kaguya Clan bloodline passed down by his parents—he had undergone atavism.

The horns on his forehead were the mark of a true Otsutsuki Bloodline. Although his bloodline was still very thin and he had not awakened the signature Dojutsu, the Byakugan, he at least possessed the foundation to evolve into a complete Otsutsuki.

After composing himself, Seiji decided not to train today.

Having awakened the memories of his past life and gained so much information, he decided to give himself a break first. He needed to properly sort through his abilities so that he could survive in this dangerous world.

Rising to his feet, Seiji strolled along the lakeshore, his thoughts churning endlessly as memories of his past and present lives flashed through his mind in turn.

Eight years ago, due to the Kaguya Clan's internal struggle for power—and because the two horns on either side of Seiji's forehead at birth differed from those of every other Kaguya clansman—Seiji's father, Kaguya Genji, had been denied by his elder brother, the current Kaguya Clan head Kaguya Musashi. Using Seiji's mutation and supposed lack of Kaguya Clan blood as an excuse, Musashi refused to acknowledge Seiji as a member of the Kaguya Clan. He expelled Seiji's family and exiled them to this border village, so remote that it could not even be found on a map of the Land of Water and did not even have a name.

Before being expelled from the Kaguya Clan, Kaguya Genji could practically be called the clan's strongest member. Genji had awakened the immensely powerful taijutsu-type Kekkei Genkai, Shikotsumyaku, at a very young age. At the time, the entire clan saw him as the hope of restoring the Kaguya Clan's glory from the Warring States Period.

Genji had also lived up to his title as a genius. He grew rapidly through battle, becoming an Elite Jonin of Kirigakure at only fourteen years old. Even among the Elite Jonin, he ranked near the top in strength, earning a formidable reputation throughout the shinobi world.

However, perhaps heaven was always jealous of geniuses. At the age of twenty, during the final stage of the First Great Shinobi War, Genji followed the Second Mizukage, Hozuki Gengetsu, in a surprise attack on the Land of Earth. At the border, they encountered the Second Tsuchikage, the bandage-wrapped man Mu, who had long received intelligence and prepared an ambush. After a bitter battle, the two Second Kage perished together. The Kirigakure forces broke through separately, and in the end, only Genji and seven others returned severely wounded.

At the time, Medical Ninja had yet to form an organized system and their development was extremely backward. After returning to the village from that breakout, Genji suffered injuries that could not be healed. The meridians within his body were shattered, restricting the flow of Chakra through him. He could only display strength close to that of an ordinary Jonin.

Within the Kaguya Clan, which placed extreme importance on martial strength, Genji's influence rapidly weakened after losing most of his power.

According to the clan's original agreement, Genji was to succeed as Kaguya Clan head upon returning victorious from battle alongside the Second Mizukage. However, because of his severe injuries and decline in strength, the matter was postponed. His elder brother, Kaguya Musashi, took the opportunity to join forces with several elders and challenge him. In the end, Musashi successfully took the position of clan head and repeatedly suppressed Genji within the clan.

Using his authority as clan head to obtain all manner of resources, Kaguya Musashi's strength rose rapidly. Within three years, he advanced from an ordinary Jonin to an Elite Jonin. With the enhancement of Shikotsumyaku, he was considered quite strong even among Elite Jonin. Though he was not as outstanding in battle as Genji had been in his prime, he gradually secured his position as clan head.

Although Kaguya Genji was frequently targeted by Kaguya Musashi within the clan, he had once been the Kaguya Clan's peak combatant. While his strength had not improved at all after being severely injured, he still possessed the power of an ordinary Jonin. In a Kekkei Genkai clan that valued bloodlines above all else, Genji, who had awakened Shikotsumyaku early and developed it to a profound degree, remained highly sought after.

The Kaguya Clan's Shikotsumyaku was an extremely powerful Kekkei Genkai. It greatly enhanced the body and close-range combat ability, while also granting long-range ninjutsu such as Ten Finger Drilling Bullets.

But great power also meant difficulty in awakening it. At present, only eight members of the Kaguya Clan had awakened Shikotsumyaku. As for those capable of using the legendary ultimate dance, Shikotsumyaku: Dance of the Seedling Fern, only Kaguya Genji before his severe injury had been able to do so.

Therefore, when Genji was twenty-four, in order to pass down the Shikotsumyaku Kekkei Genkai, he married Kaguya Yukiko, the second daughter of the Sixth Elder, who had likewise awakened Shikotsumyaku. The year after their marriage, they had a son and named him Seiji.

Not long after Seiji was born, the Sixth Elder disappeared during a mission. This further weakened Genji's influence within the clan, leaving him restricted at every turn by his elder brother and clan head, Kaguya Musashi.

Later, when Seiji was around seven or eight months old, Musashi used Seiji's mutated bloodline and the horn-like protrusions on his forehead as an excuse to drive the family of three out of the Kaguya Clan with even greater ruthlessness, exiling them to the borderlands of the Land of Water.

After suffering the successive blows of losing her father and being expelled and exiled by her clan, compounded by their abysmal living conditions, Seiji's mother, Kaguya Yukiko, rapidly deteriorated.

Living in a remote border region, under strict surveillance by people Musashi had sent, Yukiko was unable to receive timely treatment. In the end, when Seiji was three years old, she departed for the Pure Land.

Genji, whose body was already half-ruined and who could at most exert Jonin-level combat strength, could not fight one against two against the Jonin Musashi had sent to watch them without using a life-risking forbidden technique. Yet if he burned his life force to use such a technique, his entire family of three might not survive. Helpless, Genji could only watch as his wife left him.

His broken body and devastated mental state tormented the man who had once been the Kaguya Clan's most dazzling genius every day. His wife's death was the final straw that broke the camel's back. Genji completely collapsed. If not for Seiji, this child who still bound him to the world, he would have long wanted to end this muddled life.

The afterglow of the setting sun gradually faded. Seiji stopped walking, and the memories in his mind came to a halt as well.

After briefly identifying his direction, Seiji turned and slowly headed home.