The young man slowly opened his eyes.
Black sclera, brown irises.
Those were the distinctive marks of an Impure World Reincarnation body.
"Where is this...?"
His voice was somewhat hoarse, carrying a faint echo.
"I... wasn't I already dead?"
The man looked confused and incredulous. Then he lowered his head and looked at his cracked hands.
"No, this is... the Second Hokage's forbidden technique?!"
The man looked around, his gaze eventually settling on the person before him who appeared to be Anbu.
As expected of a Jōnin, he was remarkably knowledgeable.
"Nice to meet you, Senior Dan Katō."
Aoba stepped out from the shadows, removed his mask, and smiled.
"Welcome back to the Shinobi World!"
Dan Katō looked at the teenager who had removed his mask. That face was absurdly young, even retaining a trace of childishness.
This is the caster?
"Let me introduce myself. I'm Yamashiro Aoba, a Genin of Konohagakure."
Aoba casually hung the cat-faced mask from his waist, speaking as easily as if he had run into a neighbor on the street. "Although this way of meeting is rather presumptuous, to avoid causing unnecessary trouble, I had no choice but to trouble you by having you awaken in a place like this."
Konohagakure? A Genin?
He was too young, his face still carrying a trace of immaturity.
But how could anyone capable of mastering a forbidden technique like Impure World Reincarnation be an ordinary brat?
As a Jōnin who had experienced the Shinobi World Wars, he quickly calmed down and scrutinized Aoba. "Impure World Reincarnation... this is the ninjutsu the Second Hokage, Lord Tobirama, classified as forbidden. If you're a Genin of Konohagakure, how did you come to possess such a forbidden technique? Who exactly are you? Why have you disturbed the peace of the dead? What