It's All the World's Fault

On the second night since crossing into this world, Mizuki returned home only to feel the emptiness and loneliness of the house. The stifling sensation of having secrets he could share with no one, coupled with the alienation of a strange environment—these were things he hadn't experienced the night before.

"And now, it is time to resolve the hidden dangers within myself." In the bathroom, Mizuki let the warm water from the showerhead pour over his body, staring at the terrifying tattoo-like pattern on his arm. A Curse Mark? Is it a cheat code or a death warrant?

To say he had no thoughts about this thing Orochimaru had bestowed upon him like a joke would be a lie. In the original anime, Mizuki had been unable to resist temptation and took a desperate gamble. But judging by Mizuki's ending, this thing was truly unreliable. The Curse Mark remained in a silent state, completely impossible to activate; with his own abilities, he likely had no way to deal with it. In fact, in the entire ninja world, aside from research fanatics like Orochimaru, those who could understand this thing were few and far between—let alone mastering it, there were barely any who knew how to use it. Moreover, his version was merely a semi-finished product with side effects deadly enough to cost him his life. Compared to the Heaven Curse Mark and Earth Curse Mark possessed by Anko Mitarashi, Kimimaro, and Sasuke Uchiha, calling his own a "Tiger Curse Mark" was giving it far too much credit. Others could at least use theirs; as long as they didn't overexert themselves, the overall harm was minimal, and they could play with the second-stage transformation without pressure. His, however, was like a death warrant that accelerated the overdrawing of his life force, the kind that would play him to his death in one go. It had absolutely no practical utility.

From this perspective, aside from forcibly activating and suppressing it with immense strength, the only way to deal with such a Curse Mark was to obtain extraordinary vitality and recovery capabilities to offset the damage. Looking across the ninja world, such abilities did exist: the powerful constitution and life force of the Uzumaki clan like Naruto Uzumaki, or the super-speed regeneration gained through Kabuto Yakushi's acquired modifications. The most effective method, without a doubt, was transplanting the cells of Hashirama Senju. This was a massive trump card; Danzo relied on it to recover from injuries and fuse Sharingan, while Obito, Madara, and Sasuke relied on it to obtain the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan and the Rinnegan. Tenzō relied on it to achieve Wood Release, and so on.

Unfortunately, none of these methods were within Mizuki's reach; he couldn't count on them at all.

"This thing is a landmine. Even if I don't use the formulaic reagents provided by Orochimaru to activate it, there's no guarantee it won't unexpectedly erupt under certain conditions and suck me dry into a husk. This problem must be solved as soon as possible."

He wiped the mist off the mirror and looked at his reflection. His image did feel different from before, though his hair was a bit too short—perhaps it would be better later. If possible, would wearing glasses be better? He thought about it and decided against it; Kabuto wore glasses, so that wouldn't do.

After his shower, Mizuki rested comfortably on his bed. Unlike yesterday, he finally had some time to let his mind wander before sleep. He reached out and glanced at a book nearby. "Not Icha Icha Paradise?"

It was actually some heroic tale about a legendary hero. He hadn't expected a villain to have heroic fantasies; Konoha's education was quite successful indeed.

Mizuki tossed the book aside. Lying back on the bed, he extended his left hand and silently circulated his chakra. A pale blue glow lit up.

"Ninjas, this inexplicable world—is this what created all of this? It truly is an incredible thing."

For a transmigrator arriving in the world of Naruto, his true thoughts might be completely different from what everyone expected. If one only treated this world as an anime work for entertainment, although many things were unclear, no one would delve into them. But when one is in such a real world, many things force you to think.

There was a saying in his previous life that described it well: "No matter how big the pancake is, it cannot be bigger than the pan that bakes it." Due to the limitations of their horizons, the natives of the ninja world treated things that were miracles in Mizuki's eyes as common sense, taking them for granted. As a transmigrator, setting aside the unrealistic external factors, Mizuki felt his greatest advantage was his god-like perspective and the intelligence suppression of a prophet. This was his greatest reliance. If there really was a "cheat," the first thing he would worry about was not anything else, but the cheat itself. In any world, there is no such thing as a gain without a cause. A baseless cheat must mean he had already paid a heavy price, even if he didn't know it or didn't care from birth to death.

"Chakra, the source of ninjas. Countless ninjas chase after powerful ninjutsu to satisfy their desires, yet they turn a blind eye to the treasure right under their noses." Mizuki couldn't help but look down on all ninjas, with the exception of true wise men like the Second Hokage and Orochimaru.

Legend has it that the ninja world originally had no such thing as chakra, and the origin of ninjas lay with the Sage of Six Paths. According to information from his previous life, it could be confirmed that chakra originated from Kaguya Otsutsuki. However, regarding the origin of the so-called God Tree, Madara's claims during the final war were untrustworthy. For a physical world, the birth of something like the God Tree was unnecessary, let alone one that bore fruit to produce chakra.

According to the knowledge from his previous life, in a closed environment without the influx of "negative entropy," as entropy constantly increases, the entire system gradually tends toward chaos and destruction. When it reaches its maximum value, the world is finished. People die, and the world dies just the same. For the ninja world, it was impossible to understand how it could spontaneously give birth to a God Tree that bore fruit, only for Kaguya Otsutsuki to eat it. Isn't that as ridiculous as making a knife, handing it to a stranger, and letting them kill you with it? Unless the underlying structure of this world was extremely solid and vast, capable of tolerating an extremely high power ceiling, and this current supernatural power was merely within a normal fluctuation range.

But looking at the thousand-year history of the ninja world, knowing that no one had reached the level of the Sage of Six Paths, one knew this was absolutely impossible. Thus, the plot of the latest theatrical film was much more credible. This world had likely been invaded and plundered by high-end external forces; the God Tree was the tool, and the fruit was the plundered result. Kaguya Otsutsuki was the thief, and in the end, the one who gained the most was the Sage of Six Paths. As for what the Sage's purpose was, it remained unknown. However, his act of separating the Yin-Yang and Five Elements was highly suspicious, resulting in the fact that, aside from himself, only by relying on the God Tree—the Outer Path—could one achieve the most powerful Yin-Yang Release.

Even so, looking at this world, it was already extremely chaotic. Not to mention the reincarnations of Indra and Asura's chakra, which didn't even rest after death. Then there was the Second Hokage, who actually created the Edo Tensei, a ninjutsu that blurred the boundaries between life and death, and the Dead Demon Consuming Seal, which could borrow the unknown Shinigami to directly attack the soul. And in the end, with the Rinnegan and Tenseigan and various large-scale resurrection techniques, the world was like a bullied little wife, trampled over and over again, until even the underlying rules of life and death were completely broken. Thinking back to his previous life, which had no supernatural powers, they had only achieved mass-energy conversion and played with nuclear power and atomic bombs; the only things that could be linked to sci-fi or fantasy were cutting-edge theories like gravitational waves and quantum entanglement. By comparison, the future of this world was truly unpredictable. Looking at the ninja world, the sentence Kakashi said at the beginning was the most reliable: "Ninjas cannot be measured by common sense." In other words, the world was the same; there was simply no completely reliable truth. What momentum conservation? Energy conservation? What were those things? The protagonist could even travel through time, simply crushing a bunch of transmigrators into dust.

Although, according to the news before Mizuki crossed over, the ninja world hadn't perished even after a dozen years, so he would likely not see the end of the world before he died. But he feared the butterfly effect was beyond his control.

Overall, this ninja world was shrouded in dark secrets, with one villain after another wanting to play the role of the mastermind behind the scenes. The banner of saving the world was held high, but what they wanted to save were only the people living in this world. As for the world itself, no one cared. Perhaps some had thought about it, like the Sage of Six Paths and the Three Great Sage Regions. But they had all hidden behind the scenes as mystics, and it was unclear what they were planning.

"When all is said and done, the root is still chakra, the power born from the combination of body and spirit. Aside from body and spirit, what else does a person have? Heh, it seems Orochimaru really is a genius; the Curse Mark and Living Corpse Reincarnation are both remarkable things."

From the above, the conclusion was obvious: chakra was the remnant of a series of changes in the world, where the authority to change the rules had been lost. To put it bluntly, this thing shouldn't exist at all. As long as one knew the method to extract chakra, it was equivalent to the world giving out a free cheat code. Those who used it well were the Sage of Six Paths; those who used it slightly worse were Indra, Asura, Madara, Hashirama, Naruto, and Sasuke. Others who were unlucky were high-IQ mainstays like various Kage and elite Jonin, and then there were those like Mizuki—Chunin or Genin who didn't have an instruction manual for their cheat. Those who didn't become ninjas were perhaps the cannon fodder whose cheat codes hadn't been topped up.

Feeling dizzy and sleepy from all the thinking, Mizuki couldn't help but curse: "This damn world where everyone has a cheat." Then he turned over and went to sleep.

In a half-dreaming, half-waking state, he was surrounded by colorful bubbles, and everywhere he looked were all sorts of bizarre and fantastic scenes. He touched the bubbles passing by his hand. "Is this the tension and anxiety of the college entrance exam? Is this the joy of a work raise? This is? The Nine-Tailed Fox?..."

Each bubble was a segment of experience and emotion. As Mizuki wandered among them, feeling them, the vast majority were from his previous life, and a small portion were from the original Mizuki.

Suddenly, there seemed to be something different in the distance. With a thought, he drifted over involuntarily. In the middle of a dense cluster of bubbles, a figure appeared. The body was curled up, eyes dull, calm to an extreme, completely unresponsive, just like a shell without any content. "It's actually Mizuki? This is impossible?"

In a state of agitation, a sudden disturbance occurred. Mizuki opened his eyes and sat up abruptly, breathing heavily.

A voice came from beside him: "Having a nightmare? As a ninja, your vigilance is truly lacking." An Anbu wearing a mask was standing by his bed.

"Lord Third wants to see you."

"Understood, I will prepare and be there shortly."

He looked out the window. "It's already dawn."

"In a world that possesses an excellent mapping tool—chakra—it is highly likely that changes in the body and spirit would be reflected in the form of dreams. If this isn't just an ordinary dream, but a premonition, then I am riddled with hidden dangers from my body to my spirit." Touching the Curse Mark on his arm, Mizuki couldn't help but smile bitterly.