The Purest Malice in the World!

Dark clouds pressed down on the city, as if heralding the arrival of something.

The air was thick with moisture, so heavy it was hard to breathe.

"Ugh..." A boy lying facedown on the ground gently rubbed his head, opened his bleary eyes, and struggled to raise it.

As his consciousness slowly returned, three questions surfaced in his mind:

Who am I?

Where am I?

What am I doing?

Fragments of memory surged like a tide, crashing into the boy's mind.

He slammed his not-so-large head hard against the ground, using the pain to dull the violent ache inside it.

His deathly pale lips, paired with the blood trickling from where he had bitten them, created a stark contrast.

Slowly, two completely different sets of memories reassembled in his mind.

One was the long, complex memories of a young man in his twenties; the other was the simple recollections of a child under ten, suited to the body he now occupied.

The two sets of memories overlapped, leaving the boy unable to tell which one was truly his.

"My name is... Toneri? Or... Sheren?"

After a long while, the boy's mottled hand clutched his head, and a hoarse voice slowly escaped his lips.

The pain in his head gradually subsided, and his memories grew clearer. But now the pain in his body came into focus, sending wave after wave through his nerves and bringing a fresh sheen of fine sweat to his forehead.

Enduring the pain, especially in his abdomen, he forced open eyes that had squeezed shut from the agony.

His gaze immediately locked onto the most painful part of his body: his stomach!

He slowly lifted the only garment covering it, a coarse hemp robe.

"This is..."

His small, frail stomach was so yellow and gaunt that his ribs jutted out plainly on either side. It was nothing like the belly of a normally growing child.

What shocked Toneri most was the string of strange symbols imprinted in the middle of his stomach. Among them was a character he recognized...

"Seal"!

Tiny, strange tadpole-shaped characters surrounded this "Seal" in a perfect circle.

"A seal?!" Toneri wasn't sure.

But this was the only word that came to mind.

He suddenly raised his head.

The movement was too abrupt. The instant he lifted his head, another sharp pain shot through his skull, as if something were about to burrow out from beneath the skin at his temples.

His vision swam, then went black.

It took him a while to recover.

When his sight returned, Toneri began to examine his surroundings.

It was an extremely dilapidated, crude house. The only thing that could be called furniture was the bed—or rather, a pile of weeds and scraps of cloth.

In Toneri's memories, in such a war-torn era, having a roof over one's head was already a rare blessing.

Other than that, the house was empty.

Well, not entirely empty.

Near the doorway, Toneri spotted an old man lying in a pool of blood. It was impossible to tell whether he was alive or dead.

The man wasn't far from him. It was just that when Toneri had first looked up, the old man had been outside his field of vision.

The old man's bloodied hand pointed toward Toneri, and his two still-open eyes stared straight at him.

It was unsettling.

But Toneri's attention was drawn to the object on the old man's forehead.

A headband!!!

"Ninja!!" The word slipped out instinctively, as if it were deeply etched in some fragment of memory.

A cloud-like symbol was engraved on the headband.

"Kumo Ninja!!" This time, the words came from another set of memories—the ones belonging to the young man in his twenties.

That symbol represented the Kumo Ninja!

Or, more precisely, the Kumogakure Ninja!

This was... the Ninja World!

Toneri suddenly felt both familiar with and bewildered by the place he was in.

Then another fragment of memory surfaced in his mind.

Back to half an hour earlier.

Toneri had been asleep on the only bed in the crude wooden house when he heard a little girl crying next door, along with her parents trying to comfort her.

He knew that cry well. It belonged to a family living next door, and he vaguely remembered that their little girl had been born only about two years ago.

Born in a time of chaos—he didn't know whether that was lucky or unfortunate.

But the crying soon fell silent.

Just as Toneri was preparing to endure his hunger and force himself back to sleep, someone kicked his ramshackle wooden door to pieces.

A blood-soaked old man then appeared in the doorway, leaning against the frame.

When Toneri saw him, it was as if he had suddenly forgotten how to breathe. His face flushed, and he felt as though he were suffocating.

The old man stared intently at Toneri, as if examining an object, a possession, or perhaps... a vessel?

The old man pressed his left hand hard against his right chest, but blood still seeped uncontrollably between his fingers, soaking his clothes.

They looked like combat gear.

Over them, he wore a thin, hazy blue cloak, its details hard to make out.

"Ptooey—"

The old man spat out a mouthful of blood, and his face gradually regained some color.

"As expected of Ōnoki, the man known as the Two-Sky Scales. Kekkei Tōta is still terrifying. If the Two-Tails hadn't had such tenacious vitality, I wouldn't have made it back here...

"But this is as far as I can go. Those Anbu who protected my retreat probably won't make it back either!"

It sounded as though he were explaining himself to Toneri, or talking to himself—or perhaps he was muddled from losing too much blood.

"This place really is a ruin. There's nothing but two-year-olds and eight- or nine-year-olds. I have no other choice!"

The old man's hoarse, pained voice came again, accompanied by a steady flow of blood.

Toneri could hear complicated emotions in his words, but he was too young to understand exactly what they were.

"Forget it. I have no choice. An older child should be able to endure more. You can't disappear with me—you're the village's ultimate weapon!

"I hope this child can hold on until the Anbu arrive..." The old man's words sounded like his final murmur as he left this world.

Toneri's body went limp.

The old man grabbed him and roughly pulled up his coarse hemp robe, exposing his sunken stomach, shriveled from hunger.

He never would have expected a dying man to still have so much strength!

A trace of reluctance flickered in the old man's eyes, but it was soon replaced by resolve.

In this chaotic age, mercy was useless—especially for a man who was about to die.

He removed the hand pressed against his right chest and, mixing the blood seeping from the wound, drew a strange symbol on Toneri's stomach.

As the old man drew it, pale-blue flames surged around him, as if they were about to envelop him.

"Ptooey—"

Another mouthful of blood sprayed from his lips, splattering across Toneri's face.

The sensation had been unmistakable.

The blood...

was warm.

"Two-Tails!! Do you want to leave with me?

"You can revive, but can you endure three years of deathly silence?! If you don't want that, then lend me one last bit of your strength!!!"

As the old man shouted, the pale-blue flames around him slowly faded, drawing back into his body.

Pinned down, Toneri couldn't see the whole process.

He only glimpsed a similar strange symbol on the old man's stomach.

Then the old man painfully pulled a strange blue beast out of the symbol on his belly.

It looked a little like a cat, perhaps a tiger, or maybe something else...

Then he roughly shoved it into Toneri's stomach.

"Seal!!" The old man pressed his left hand against Toneri's belly and held his right hand in a two-fingered sword sign, uttering a single word.

Thump—

As the word fell, the old man toppled to the ground.

Immediately afterward, Toneri felt as if his body were on fire.

A burning pain spread through him, as though his whole body were about to be scorched.

Freed from the old man's grip, he twisted and struggled, slowly crawling forward.

After struggling for a short while, he collapsed on the ground and went completely still.

The scene vanished.

Half an hour later, Toneri woke up.

His eyes wide with disbelief, he touched the tadpole-like seal on his stomach, which looked like a tattoo.

Although his mind was still somewhat foggy, Toneri had a rough idea of his situation.

It was bad enough that he had ended up in the highly chaotic world of Naruto. Somehow, he had also become a "glorious" Tailed Beast vessel?

The Two-Tails?

The Two-Tailed Beast, Matatabi?

A Two-Tails Jinchūriki!?

For the first time, he felt that the world was filled with malice toward him.

As he sifted through the memories, the two sets merged completely.

Neither took precedence. But since this was the world of Naruto, his name was Toneri.

According to his memories of the Naruto world, the Two-Tails, Matatabi, was a weapon of war belonging to Kumogakure.

He remembered that the Two-Tails Jinchūriki should have been a woman, not the old man in front of him.

Was this the most chaotic period—the First or Second Shinobi World War? The darkest, bloodiest era?

Toneri felt a headache coming on.

In theory, becoming a Jinchūriki should have earned him a decent standing in the village.

Of course, that was assuming he could control the Tailed Beast.

From the old man's words, it was clear he had only wanted Toneri to serve as a temporary vessel, so the Two-Tails wouldn't die along with him.

It was an attempt.

The original Toneri had died because of it, allowing Sheren, from Earth, to enter this body...

But now, he really had become a Jinchūriki.

"Life in the Land of Lightning isn't as comfortable as in the Land of Fire, but it's still a decent place. At least the Land of Lightning wasn't a battlefield in either the Second or Third Shinobi World War," Toneri reassured himself.

Aside from its less hospitable living conditions, the Land of Lightning was no weaker in terms of its strongest fighters.

It was also a nation that revered strength, and Kumogakure was a village that believed in the strong.

As long as you had strength, you could earn a corresponding status. The future Eight-Tails Jinchūriki, Killer B, was the best proof.

Just as Toneri was wondering what explanation would sound most reasonable if he met a Lightning Country ninja—and give him the best chance of survival...

Crack—

A lock suddenly clicked open in his mind, and another sealed fragment of memory surfaced.

It was something he hadn't seen when he had just revisited his memories.

But after "watching" it, Toneri's face turned deathly pale. Beads of sweat poured from his forehead, and his whole body began to tremble.

It wasn't from pain. It was fear!

In that memory, perhaps sealed away, he had seen the person he least wanted to see.

A gloomy-faced man with a fork-shaped scar on his chin!

Toneri grabbed his tongue and frantically pulled it out. He couldn't see everything carved into it, but he managed to make out a little.

"The Cursed Tongue Eradication Seal!"

Toneri murmured, despair rising in his eyes.

Thump—

He dropped onto his rear.

Looking at the dried blood on the ground, Toneri felt once again the undisguised, overwhelming malice with which the Naruto world had welcomed him.

Becoming the Two-Tails Jinchūriki had been hard to accept, but for Toneri, who had just arrived, it might not have been such a bad thing.

Having the Two-Tails, Matatabi, would give him a better chance of surviving in this world. At least he wouldn't be utterly helpless.

As for how to make good use of the Two-Tails without letting it control him, that was another matter.

But as long as he could prove his worth, he could survive in the Land of Lightning as a Jinchūriki, and might even live quite comfortably.

The only condition was that he not let the Two-Tails escape and that he become a proper Jinchūriki.

That had been his plan. Even if Kumogakure confined him, he could accept it. At least he would still be alive.

But now!

He had discovered that he had the Cursed Tongue Eradication Seal on him!

Toneri knew exactly where that cursed seal came from.

It was a special cursed seal used by Root, the secret force of Konoha Ninja in the Land of Fire, the greatest nation in this world. Its purpose was to prevent anyone marked by it from revealing any information about Root's leader, Shimura Danzō.

Either the Two-Tails or the Cursed Tongue Eradication Seal would have been trouble on its own, but he could at least have found a way to survive.

But when both were on the same person...

There was almost no chance of surviving!

Toneri slumped to the ground, feeling as though the damn heavens had played the cruelest joke on him.

They had let him cross into another world and be reborn, but given him no way to stay alive!

He sat motionless on the ground for half an hour. His thoughts were in chaos, and he had no idea what to do.

Even as a former battlefield medic who had endured who knew how many terrifying wars, he had never felt as lost as he did now.

"Forget it! I need to get out of here first! If the Kumo Ninja find out their current Two-Tails Jinchuriki is actually a Konoha spy, they'll probably extract the Two-Tails from my body and then torture me for information until I'm dead!"

Toneri staggered to his feet, his legs numb from sitting so long.

He slowly made his way to the doorway and looked up at the bright full moon in the sky. It looked exactly like the one on Earth.

"There's no going back..." The faces of his former comrades flashed before his eyes.

He pushed aside the untimely grief.

The midnight breeze blew against Toneri, making him shiver involuntarily. As his pores tightened, the sweat on his back and forehead made him feel even colder...

He pulled his only coarse robe tighter around himself.

"No, I can't just leave like this! That would be trouble!"

Perhaps because of the cold wind, Toneri shivered, and his thoughts suddenly cleared.

A miserable life was better than death. If they could live, no one wanted to give up and accept their fate.

With that in mind, Toneri turned and rushed back into the house, pawing all over the old man's corpse...

He searched the corpse...

The old man's body had long since gone cold, but Toneri's attention was clearly elsewhere.

Soon, everything of value lay neatly arranged on the ground.

A professional ninja tool pouch. It didn't look very large, but it could hold quite a lot and was practically essential for every ninja.

Three gleaming black kunai. They were the first things Toneri had found after opening the pouch, and the ones he valued most.

With three kunai in hand, he felt a little less helpless, and a measure of comfort settled in his heart.

He might have been a battlefield medic, but that didn't mean he was completely defenseless. With a sharp weapon in hand, he'd be much safer.

Then there were five small, sharp shuriken.

And three sheets of paper made of a special material, covered in strange markings. The only character he recognized was "explode," written in the middle. They had to be the "famous" Explosive Tags of the Ninja World!

But Toneri wasn't a ninja and had no chakra, so he didn't even know how to use Explosive Tags.

Only at the very bottom did he find what he needed most: two Money Tickets worth one thousand Ryo each, and a small pouch of... mustard-yellow pills!

Military Rations Pills!

These were his lifeline.

He didn't even hesitate when he opened the pouch of Military Rations Pills and was hit by an intensely foul smell.

It was a mixture of strong medicinal herbs and countless strange, unfamiliar odors. He popped one straight into his mouth.

The instant it hit his taste buds, Toneri nearly spat it out!

Luckily, he managed to hold it in...

He didn't know if he'd have the courage to put it back in his mouth after spitting it out.

It tasted more or less like something of a similar color...

There weren't many Military Rations Pills in the pouch, but every single one was a lifeline for Toneri.

Still, he had to admit that although the pills tasted awful, they were remarkably effective.

Not long after he swallowed one, a trace of warmth began to spread through his body, reaching his every limb.

And the longer it stayed in his mouth, the more the flavor seemed to mellow, becoming less bitter.

With a little strength now in his body, Toneri braced himself on his knees and slowly got to his feet. What he had to face next would probably be the world's truest display of malice toward him.

He turned to leave, clutching the Kumo Ninja Headband in his hand. Behind him stood a dilapidated house engulfed in roaring flames!

It was his entire past!

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