From Sekiro

Outside the secret passage of Ashina Castle.

White pampas grass swayed across the mountains and fields beneath the morning light.

"Do it, Sekiro!" Isshin Ashina shouted. From the moment he had grasped his blade, he had already prepared himself to die by one.

Sekiro slowly drew the Mortal Blade, its crimson glow spilling from behind his back. Looking at the red dot flickering ceaselessly on Isshin's neck, he swung his long sword, granting him a warrior's death and bringing an era to its close.

Sekiro gazed calmly at the corpse below him. To die beneath an enemy's blade had always been the final destination of people like them.

"Wolf..."

A faint call came from nearby. A subtle change finally appeared on Sekiro's face, as though carved from stone, and he hurried toward the voice.

He gently lifted Kuro, who was already close to unconsciousness, then took out the Dragon's Tear and Sakura Blossom he had prepared long ago and carefully placed them in his mouth.

"Ugh..."

Kuro looked at the person before him, his lips moving several times. Yet his injuries were too severe; he could barely even keep his eyes open. How could he possibly say anything? In the end, he helplessly lost consciousness.

"Little one, live well..."

Sekiro drew the Mortal Blade again, except this time, the crimson blade was aimed at his own neck.

Living was an incredibly alluring thing.

But he had, after all, lived through two lives. The values left over from his first life would not allow him to cling to life at the cost of a child's.

"Live on... as a human..."

The long blade swept through. The Dragon's Heritage upon the Divine Heir, along with Sekiro's body, turned into drifting cherry blossoms and returned to where they belonged.

"Naruto! Naruto!" Calls rising one after another pulled him from his memories.

Looking at the pineapple-haired boy before him, Naruto Uzumaki asked, "What is it, Shikamaru?"

"..." Shikamaru silently looked up and sighed. He was quite confident when it came to slacking off, but that depended on who he was being compared to. "School's out. A few of us are going on a picnic. You coming?"

"Yeah." Naruto Uzumaki nodded heavily. Though he had grown used to being alone, wasn't it better to have companions and laughter around him?

Death did not mean the end. It also represented a new beginning...

That was the first voice he had heard after arriving in this world, though it was not the first time he had heard it. He had heard it once before when he had been reborn into that world filled with undying people during his first life.

In his previous life, he had chosen to leave Kuro that little fellow the chance to live. Aside from the values formed in his first life not allowing him to do otherwise, another important reason was that he believed he could be reborn into a new world.

Naturally, he had been immensely curious about the reason behind it. He had sought answers in his previous life, but gained very little—one could even say he had gained nothing at all.

Still, when living life, there was no need to figure everything out so clearly.

Just like the world of undying people in his previous life.

If he had not seen it with his own eyes, then no matter how hard he thought about it, even if he racked his brains, he would never have believed that people who could not be killed truly existed.

Kuro's immortality originated from the Sakura Dragon. Perhaps the source of his endless reincarnation was something similar.

When the boat reached the bridge, it would straighten itself out. In any case, it was not as though he was losing out.

To him, life was a journey. The meaning of a journey did not lie solely in its destination; the scenery along the way was also worth looking forward to.

"Did you two skip lunch or something? Especially you, Shikamaru!"

At the school gate, Ino, her long golden hair gleaming, felt her temper flare when she saw the two of them strolling over at a snail's pace.

"...What a drag." Shikamaru looked helplessly skyward. No matter how he thought about it, he could not understand why he had become playmates with such a troublesome woman.

Ino Yamanaka, Sakura Haruno, Choji Akimichi, Kiba Inuzuka... Naruto Uzumaki swept his gaze over the group, each name surfacing in his mind. Aside from those who could not come for special reasons, they were probably among the few people in the village who dared interact with him, the "Nine-Tailed Demon Fox."

In a corner of the group, Shino looked at the laughing children and silently adjusted his glasses.

Calling it a picnic was really just finding another place to play. Although children in this world matured unusually early, how much delicious food could children barely ten years old make?

Naruto took a kunai from the ninja tool pouch at his waist and began preparing the river fish they had just caught.

"Sorry to trouble you again." Choji Akimichi crouched beside him with a bag of chips in his arms, speaking sheepishly.

"It's fine." Influenced by his previous life, Naruto's speech was always concise. If he could convey something with two words, he would never use three.

He rekindled a fire atop the remains of a campfire from a few days ago.

Because of his status as the "Nine-Tailed Demon Fox," he could rarely buy things from the village shops, leaving him with very few sources of food. To keep his meals from becoming too bland, coming to places like this for some meat had become something he often did.

"Akamaru, go!" Not far away, Kiba fiercely threw the branch in his hand. Tiny Akamaru immediately raced after it.

Beneath the shade of a tree, Shikamaru lay there listlessly, staring at clouds tinged dusky yellow in the sky, lost in thought.

Shino, meanwhile, crouched at his side and carefully observed an unknown little insect slowly climbing the tree trunk.

Farther away, the two little girls picked one spring blossom after another, comparing their flower-arranging skills.

This was nice...

Naruto withdrew his sidelong gaze and silently thought to himself. A scene like this simply had no soil in which to grow in Ashina.

Kuro would probably like this atmosphere. After all, they were around the same age.

"Is it done yet?" Choji swallowed, his hopeful gaze fixed firmly on the grilled fish over the campfire.

"Almost." Naruto looked at the golden-brown skin, poked the inside with a freshly snapped branch, then called toward the salted fish lying dead in the distance, "Shikamaru, the seasonings!"

Since this was one of his usual foraging spots, he had naturally left some seasonings here.

Shikamaru got up and rummaged through a tree hollow nearby, pulling out several bottles and jars—salt, chili powder, sesame...

Though small, it had everything it needed.

Naruto took the seasonings from Shikamaru and sprinkled them over the fish. An appetite-stirring aroma instantly filled the air.

"Food's ready!" Naruto called out to the two girls wandering farther and farther away.

On the picnic cloth, aside from the fish he had just grilled, there were also a few foods the others had bought—takoyaki, sushi...

None of it could be called exquisite cuisine, but the picnic atmosphere and the presence of companions made the simple meal incomparably delicious.

That was especially true for Naruto. Ashina's food had been truly hard to put into words...

Most of it could only be described as "barely edible." Anything more flattering than that would have been impolite.

The Memorial Mob could openly put even a single persimmon on a shelf—and at no ordinary price, either. One could imagine just how desperately scarce supplies had been.

"The graduation exam is in a few days. Are you all ready?" Kiba Inuzuka suddenly asked.

"Are you ready?" Naruto swallowed the food in his mouth and asked.

"I-I guess..." Kiba answered haltingly.

"No problem." Naruto tore off a piece of fish and tossed it into his mouth.

Kiba: "???"

"He means that if you're ready, then we definitely have no problem," Shikamaru translated.

"Hey, hey, hey! Shikamaru, you're a dead last too. Is it really appropriate for you to say that?" Kiba immediately became displeased.

Naruto smiled slightly at that. The Ninja Academy's curriculum was broadly divided into two parts: theoretical knowledge and practical training.

The theoretical portion was somewhat difficult, but with the education he had received in the world of the undying as a foundation, combined with studying from an adult's perspective, he might not compare to a theory genius like Sakura, but he was certainly not at the bottom.

All roads led to the same destination. Even though this world had something called chakra, the basic knowledge was still much the same.

There was even less to say about practical training. He had been a shinobi in his previous life; he had fought humans and non-humans alike. Fighting a group of children could not be easier.

A newbie seeking protection!

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