The bustling city glittered with neon beneath the night sky. The roar of a convertible's engine cut through the traffic as it sped along the crowded streets, drawing the attention of passersby before stopping in front of a brightly lit hotel.
A young man in a top hat and tailcoat jumped out of the sports car and casually tossed the keys to the bellhop hurrying over to open the door. Then he strode up the steps.
"Welcome back, Mr. Li," the bellhop said with a smile as he opened the door for him.
"Have my things arrived?" the young man asked quickly.
"They've been delivered to your room," the bellhop replied respectfully.
"Thanks!" The young man smiled faintly, then waved a hand behind the bellhop's ear. A pen and a piece of paper appeared in his hand.
He tucked a few bills into the bellhop's pocket, crossed the hotel lobby, and headed straight for the elevators.
Li Tong was twenty-seven, a gifted magician, and once the assistant and prized pupil of the master magician David Rawls. Five years ago, at just twenty-two, Li Tong had struck out on his own and begun performing publicly. By now, he was the world's most famous Chinese magician and its highest-paid magician—bar none!
Having just finished a performance at Bellagio, Li Tong hurried back to the hotel.
In the living room of his hotel suite stood several large silver metal cases. Li Tong went over and opened them one by one, carefully checking their contents. They were all his magic props.
Everything was in order!
Li Tong let out a long breath. He took the condition of his props very seriously. It seemed every magician had experienced problems with their props during transport, and Li Tong's situation was even more unusual: he was a germaphobe!
After checking all his props, Li Tong went back to the bedroom and took a clean towel from his luggage. He returned to the living room and carefully wiped down every prop and every case.
He showered and changed.
A full hour later, Li Tong stood before the floor-to-ceiling window in his bathrobe, holding a glass of red wine as he looked down at the nightscape of the entertainment capital.
"Ding!" The Samsung phone on the coffee table vibrated with a notification.
Li Tong hurried over and picked it up. It was a reminder for a game event. Aside from magic, Li Tong's only hobby was playing mobile games. In this day and age, plenty of people enjoyed them.
The games Li Tong played were a little different, though. He wasn't interested in role-playing, shooting, racing, or simulation games. He loved card games and had played more than three hundred of them over the years.
The game he was playing now was called Card Emperor.
Midnight Event: Elemental Furnace.
Event rules: During the limited event period, put cards into the "Furnace." Each tap adds one card. At the end of each round, your prestige is calculated. The higher the total prestige value of the cards you put in, the better the rewards.
Li Tong checked the time again. Two minutes left.
"Battery's almost dead. What a pain..." When he checked the time on his phone, he noticed it had only nine percent battery left, and the indicator had turned red. He rushed back to the bedroom for his charger, then hurried back to the living room. There was a power outlet beneath the cabinet beside the sofa.
He plugged in the phone and began to wait.
Then he suddenly noticed fingerprints on the screen. Unacceptable!
He ran back to the bedroom for a handkerchief, then came back and picked up the phone beside the coffee table. After carefully wiping it down, he placed it gently on the table and finally sat down with a sigh of relief.
He waited.
Midnight struck.
The event page popped up on the game screen, showing a furnace icon and a button to add cards. Leaning over his phone, Li Tong began tapping the screen at high speed.
Each round of the event lasted three minutes, and there were twelve rounds in total.
Li Tong had accumulated a lot of "junk cards" in the game and planned to put them all in.
Ten seconds later, Li Tong suddenly stopped, his face darkening.
There were fingerprints on the screen... the ones he'd just left there...
The event was still going.
Li Tong glanced to the side, quickly grabbed the handkerchief he'd tossed aside with his left hand, and wiped the screen of the phone lying on the coffee table. His right hand immediately followed, rapidly tapping the screen again.
He kept this up, wiping the screen with his left hand about every three seconds while his right hand never stopped.
He didn't notice.
Because the phone was charging while he played, it was heating up. And because he kept wiping the screen and tapping it, the phone grew hotter and hotter.
He didn't care. His attention was on the game and the fingerprints.
Two minutes passed like this... BOOM!!!
The sudden explosion and flames caught Li Tong off guard. Shards flew into his left eye, piercing deep. He jerked upright and clutched his eye, howling in pain as he fell to his knees.
Before losing consciousness, Li Tong had only one thought left: Why had his Samsung phone exploded?
A day later.
World Headlines: Li Tong, young Chinese magician and world-class master, died in the presidential suite of The Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas in the early hours of the day before yesterday after his phone exploded.
******
The endless darkness gradually receded, and Li Tong's consciousness slowly awoke from its slumber.
"You hit him too hard!"
"Who could've guessed the kid was so fragile? It was just one punch."
"You're a jōnin! And he... even if he was an enemy, he was still just a child."
"A child? He didn't look like one when he was killing people. He assassinated three scouts from the Hyuga Clan. If we hadn't arrived, who knows how many more would've died?"
"Hmm... An assassin trained by Amegakure, all right. And he's only a Genin, yet..."
"I'll report to the captain. If he's dead, he's dead. He's just a brat. I doubt he knows anything important."
The pungent stench of blood mixed with a sour reek assaulted Li Tong's nostrils. He vaguely heard people talking. They were speaking Japanese, but he understood them. The pain in his left eye made him groan unconsciously. With effort, he lifted his head and slowly opened his eyes. The scene before him wavered. There was someone... He could make out two people.
On the left stood an adult wearing a sleeveless vest with a long sword strapped to his back.
On the right, a man in a black robe was visible only from behind as he headed toward the exit.
Li Tong's eyes flew wide open, and he forcefully blinked his left eye.
His left eye was terribly blurry, as though it had cracked. He could see lines across his vision.
"Huh?" The man in the vest sounded surprised. "Come back. The kid's awake!"
"Hmm?" The man in the black robe stopped and turned to look at Li Tong.
Li Tong looked back at them, utterly stunned. How had he ended up here? Who were they? He instinctively thought he'd been kidnapped, but something felt off. The two men had a very unusual air about them, and their outfits looked familiar. Besides the swords on their backs, they also had kunai at their waists, on the sides of their legs, and on the outside of their arms.
Kunai?!
The thought flashed through Li Tong's mind like lightning. He froze like a statue, staring at the two men with wide eyes.
Kunai!
Li Tong knew the word "kunai" because of an anime—Naruto!
"No... That can't be..." Li Tong couldn't believe it. He slowly lowered his head to look at his body. His clothes were ragged, the blue-gray fabric covered in dirt and dried blood. But that wasn't the point! His body had changed!
He looked only... eleven or twelve?
Li Tong stared at the shackles on his hands, then abruptly turned to look around, slowly taking in the room.
The room was perhaps thirty square meters, filthy and chaotic. Bloodstained torture implements hung all over the walls. A grass mat covered the floor, though most of it was scattered with dry grass. In one corner sat a grimy wooden table and chair. Torches hung on either side of the iron door. There were no windows.
This place...
It had to be an interrogation room!
Li Tong was on the verge of breaking down. Every hair on his body stood on end, and he trembled. This place was just... too filthy!
"He actually came back to life. He'd stopped breathing a moment ago," the man in the black robe said, sounding surprised as he walked back.
"He might've only seemed dead. The kid got lucky, at least," the man in the vest said.
"Kid, are you going to talk now?" the man in the black robe suddenly demanded.
Li Tong stared at him blankly and blinked. His left eye had cleared a little, though the lines were still there. He remained dazed, murmuring almost inaudibly, "So I've been transported to another world..." Li Tong was sure this wasn't some trick. The scene could've been set up, and the people could've been in disguise, but his own body had changed. He'd become a child of only eleven or twelve. No one could have staged something so natural.
There was only one explanation!
And Li Tong had more or less figured out where he'd ended up.
The world of Naruto!
The two men standing in front of him were armed and masked. If Li Tong wasn't mistaken, they were Anbu Ninja from Konohagakure in Naruto! He knew they were from Konoha and not another hidden village because both men wore Forehead Protectors marked with Konoha's symbol!
"Are you playing dumb, kid?" The man in the black robe took a sudden step forward when Li Tong didn't answer.
The man in the vest tugged at the black-robed man's arm. When the other man turned, he shook his head and said, "Forget it. There's no need to beat him again. A brat brainwashed by Amegakure is more stubborn than an adult ninja. He wouldn't talk before... We should notify the captain instead."
The black-robed man glared at Li Tong. Seeing him still sitting there in a daze, he snorted and turned to leave.
"I've been transported to another world... I've been transported to another world..." Li Tong repeated to himself, recalling everything he knew about Naruto. Konoha Anbu. Who was the captain? He wasn't sure at all, because he didn't even know what year it was in Konoha.
The man in the vest folded his arms and watched Li Tong without speaking, waiting.
Just two minutes later.
Creak! The heavy iron door opened again. Two ninjas entered, one after the other. The man in the black robe followed behind them, while the one in front was another black-robed ninja wearing a mask, only taller than the others.
Was this the captain of the Konoha Anbu?!
Li Tong asked himself, then suddenly let out a scream. He clutched his left eye and rolled around on the ground.
Pain!
It hurt so much!
It felt as if someone had suddenly jabbed a needle into his left eye.
"Ding! Card Emperor System awakened... currently damaged... repairing... repair progress... True Sight Eye awakening... awakening gift package granted..." Strange sounds appeared in Li Tong's mind, but he couldn't make them out. The pain was already clouding his consciousness.
"What happened to him?" the Anbu Ninja who had just arrived asked hoarsely.
"Captain, I just punched the kid. I might have hit him too hard..." The man in the black robe stepped forward and explained respectfully.
"Hmm." The Anbu Captain nodded and raised a hand. "Call a medical ninja over."
"Yes!" The man in the black robe answered respectfully and hurried away.
Li Tong's pain didn't last long. The pain began to ease before the medical ninja arrived, and about ten seconds later, it disappeared completely. Worried he'd gone blind, he slowly took his hand away from his eye and blinked. Then he looked up at the people in front of him.
A strange sight appeared before him!
The lines in Li Tong's left eye had disappeared. His vision was crystal clear, but there were now some characters that looked like data in it.
--
Name: White Fang (Hatake Sakumo).
Identity: Captain of the Anbu Special Assassination and Tactical Squad of Konohagakure, Land of Fire.
Prestige: 7556 points.
Relationship: Hostile.
--
This was the information displayed when Li Tong focused his vision on the ninja in front of him.
"White Fang... Hatake Sakumo... Anbu... Captain... It's... Konoha's thirties? Thirty-something?" Li Tong murmured to himself.
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