The Reason

Ye Wuji slowly opened his eyes, feeling that the pain in his body had vanished. He looked at the clothes he was wearing; the style was one he had never seen before. It looked like a kimono, but upon closer inspection and touch, it felt somewhat different.

Ye Wuji looked around and discovered he was in a room with wooden walls on all four sides. The room's furnishings were simple: a wooden bed, a table, and two somewhat dilapidated chairs to the side.

Ye Wuji reached out to touch the wall. He couldn't identify the type of wood, but since it could be used to build a house, it was likely quite sturdy. Ye Wuji had only ever seen such wooden houses on television, seemingly a custom of ethnic minorities; he had never seen one in reality.

Ye Wuji spotted a mirror on one side of the room. After tilting his head in thought for a moment, he walked over to it. Although he had been mentally prepared, seeing the youthful face in the mirror, topped with a striking head of white hair, still gave him a shock.

Have I transmigrated? Ye Wuji thought to himself. But was that person I saw yesterday really him? I couldn't have been seeing things, could I? Transmigration is one thing, but to transmigrate to this specific place?

With a creak, Ye Wuji turned his head to look. A boy with bright golden hair, looking extremely handsome and wearing a somewhat tight-fitting outfit, had pushed open the wooden door. The boy was carrying a bowl, and judging by the steam rising from it, it was likely food.

Looking at the wooden bowl, Ye Wuji suddenly realized how hungry he was.

Ye Wuji's lips moved involuntarily.

"Haha, you're awake! I was just thinking that if you woke up, you'd be starving. We don't have much good food here for now, but this is porridge I made from mushrooms and things I gathered in the forest. Eat this first, and we can talk about other things after you've finished," the boy said with a brilliant smile.

Looking at the incredibly cute boy in front of him, Ye Wuji didn't even consider that he was currently a boy even younger than the one before him.

Perhaps because he was truly famished, Ye Wuji finished the bowl of porridge very quickly. Whether it was psychological or if the porridge was genuinely effective, after finishing it, Ye Wuji felt a warm, incredibly comfortable sensation spreading throughout his entire body.

He would only learn later that although it was just a bowl of porridge, it had been infused with many medicinal herbs highly beneficial to the body, along with other nutrient-rich ingredients. Before his transmigration, this was not something an ordinary person could afford, and even in this world, it was beyond the reach of the average person. It was a nutritional supplement prepared by Konoha for ninja trainees; it was extremely useful for ninjas, let alone for an ordinary person like the current Ye Wuji.

Seeing Ye Wuji wolfing down the porridge, the golden-haired boy smiled happily. Once Ye Wuji finished, the boy pulled out a handkerchief to wipe the corners of Ye Wuji's mouth.

"Thank you." Ye Wuji did not resist the boy's help; after all, he had eaten a bit too hurriedly and must have had food on his face. Moreover, the smile on the boy before him made it impossible for Ye Wuji to refuse. He had never seen such a pure, joyful smile before.

After the golden-haired boy finished wiping his mouth, he took the wooden bowl away.

The boy placed the bowl on the table to the side, then squinted his eyes and said to Ye Wuji with a grin, "Hello, my name is Minato Namikaze. Little brother, what is your name?"

Ye Wuji was just about to ask, "Who are you?" but upon hearing the name "Minato Namikaze," his head buzzed, and he felt a wave of dizziness. He stared blankly at the boy with the brilliant smile, unable to speak for a moment.

Who was Minato Namikaze? In Ye Wuji's memories, he was very clear. When Ye Wuji used to watch Naruto, he had strong impressions of several characters. Orochimaru was the most prominent among them. It couldn't be helped; Ye Wuji had been bitten by a snake when he was young and had feared those reptiles ever since. Even though he didn't care much as he grew older, his first impression of Orochimaru was always "disgusting"—truly disgusting. Seeing him crawl out of people's mouths, that slimy appearance, made his skin crawl. That was Ye Wuji's impression of Orochimaru, which was why he had fainted immediately upon seeing someone who looked like him yesterday—he had been terrified. Of course, that had been the real Orochimaru.

He knew a bit about the others, but regarding Minato Namikaze, Ye Wuji had only one feeling when he first saw him: "cool," "too cool." It wasn't just that he was handsome; the key was that his movements were cool. The Flying Thunder God technique was simply too powerful. The first time he learned of this technique, Ye Wuji thought, With this, who needs cars or planes? You arrive in an instant. Furthermore, whenever he fought, he always ended the battle in a few moves, unlike others who would fight for half a day and end up exhausted.

Minato Namikaze, Fourth Hokage, Yellow Flash—these were all titles for the same person. Most importantly, it was said that if one encountered Minato Namikaze, one was permitted to abandon their mission. That was the level of his authority. Some might not think much of it, but one only had to look at the fate of White Fang, who abandoned a mission to save his comrades, to understand. In the world of ninjas, a mission was higher than everything else. Knowing that one could abandon a mission upon meeting Minato Namikaze showed just how powerful he was.

Ye Wuji thought about the life of the Fourth Hokage, looked at the boy smiling brilliantly before him, and then thought of how he had sacrificed himself for Konoha and for Naruto, sealing the Nine-Tails. It was truly hard to believe that this legendary figure was standing right in front of him.

Ye Wuji suddenly realized that if the person in front of him was Minato Namikaze, then the guy from yesterday must have been the disgusting Orochimaru. Thinking of this, Ye Wuji hurriedly looked around, fearing that Orochimaru might still be nearby. That was a wicked man who loved using children for experiments; he hoped he hadn't caught his eye.

The golden-haired boy, Minato Namikaze, saw Ye Wuji looking around and assumed he was remembering what happened yesterday, so he quickly comforted him: "Don't worry, it's very safe here. You are safe now."

Hearing Minato Namikaze's words, and seeing that there was no one else around, Ye Wuji felt at ease.

"My name is Ye Wuji, I am..." Ye Wuji hadn't thought about what to say, so he simply stopped.

"Well, your parents are buried over there. Would you like to go see them?" Seeing that Ye Wuji wasn't saying anything, Minato spoke up.

"Is that so? Then thank you." Hearing this news, Ye Wuji assumed they must be the parents of this body.

"Don't be so polite. Actually, it was the credit of my teacher, Lady Tsunade, and Lord Orochimaru. How about this? Your body seems better, so I'll take you to see them. After all, we can't stay here for too long," Minato Namikaze said to Ye Wuji.

"Okay," Ye Wuji nodded.

In a mountain hollow backed by a peak, Ye Wuji saw two graves, one large and one small. The large one was on one side, and the small one was on the other. It was a place with nice scenery, surrounded by unknown flowers and large trees. Since it was quite remote, ordinary people likely wouldn't come here.

Looking at the graves, the tombstone read: "Grave of parents who protected their child." Ye Wuji's tears began to flow again. He knelt directly in front of the tombstone, weeping silently.

Minato Namikaze watched from the side without speaking, though his gaze became a bit more resolute.

Kneeling before the tombstone, Ye Wuji thought of his past life. In his previous life, Ye Wuji was born on Earth. Because he had been born with white hair, he had been despised by everyone since childhood. Perhaps his parents had despised him too; he heard that shortly after he was born, he had been abandoned on the side of the road.

Fortunately, there were still good people in this world. He was found by an elderly man passing by, who was the director of an orphanage. The old director took him in. Because he was found in the middle of the night, the director gave him the surname Ye, and since the director happened to be reading The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber at the time, he named him Wuji. That was the origin of the name Ye Wuji.

The orphanage was very dilapidated at the time, with fewer than ten people including Ye Wuji, and the old director took care of everything by himself. Life was extremely hard, and because Ye Wuji had white hair from birth, others treated him as a harbinger of bad luck, calling him a "lone star of ill omen." Even the other orphans ignored him. From childhood to adulthood, only the old director had cared for him.

This led him to develop a very reclusive personality from a young age; he generally never spoke. As he grew older, Ye Wuji slowly began to help the old director with chores.

Because of his hair, normal employers didn't want to hire him. Although there were ways to dye his hair, it cost a lot of money, and having worried about money his whole life, he couldn't afford such an expense. Even though this amount was a small figure to many—perhaps no more than the cost of a meal or a taxi ride—it was a luxury to him.

So, Ye Wuji could only do other jobs that others didn't want to do, such as construction work, delivery, painting, or running errands. For instance, he would help factories take inventory or move goods. Of course, these items were often hazardous to ordinary people—chemical agents, various coatings, and paints. These jobs required protective measures, but some companies, to save money, often skipped them. Thus, they sought out people in the market who were desperate for work.

Because he was frequently in contact with dangerous materials without protective gear, by the time Ye Wuji was around twenty, his hands were severely cracked and covered in various white spots.

Since the orphanage was so dilapidated, no one sent orphans there anymore. Most of the children there had been picked up by the old director, just like Ye Wuji.

When Ye Wuji was twenty, there was no one left in the orphanage except for the old director. Looking at the crumbling building, Ye Wuji used the savings he had accumulated his whole life to prepare to build a new house for the director. Because money was tight, he could only hire some rural masons to help. They were building it well, but for some reason, it suddenly started shaking as if there were an earthquake. The nearly finished house collapsed, and since Ye Wuji was inside working on the floor, he was caught in it. When he woke up, he found himself in his current environment.

As for Naruto, since Ye Wuji had no friends growing up, he spent his time reading many books. He had even scavenged parts to assemble a computer and a router, using the knowledge he had learned to piggyback on others' Wi-Fi. Because the computer was so broken, he could only watch movies and browse the internet. As for watching Naruto, it was just something he did out of boredom when he was young, and he grew to like it later. Perhaps it was because there were many "outcasts" in Naruto who were similar to him.

After a long while, Ye Wuji slowly stood up, thinking to himself: I'm sorry. Although you tried your best to protect your child, it seems your child still died.

But perhaps you were happy in the end, as you did protect your child. Since I have been reborn in this body, I can be considered your child as well. Rest assured, I will definitely live on in this body. For my own sake, for your final wishes, and for the old director who is no longer in this space-time, I will live—I will live well. Perhaps in this world, my white hair won't be considered an anomaly.

Then, Ye Wuji bowed deeply, turned around, and walked toward the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, who was standing to the side. As he walked, tears streamed from the corners of his eyes, and he thought, Goodbye, parents I never met. Good luck. Perhaps, to ensure no more parents like you have to suffer such a fate, I should do something in this world.