Am I Naruto?

(Come on, check your brains at the door!)

"Hss!"

"So painful!"

This was Naruto's first sensation after regaining consciousness.

The pain felt like a thousand needles stabbing into his skin and muscles at the same time, piercing straight to his bone marrow, hurting so badly he almost passed out again.

Wait?

You can feel pain even when you're dead?

The moment this thought popped up, the very next second, an indescribably massive torrent of memories rushed frantically into Naruto's mind.

He saw a huge Konoha, saw those four stern faces on Kage Rock, saw a lonely boy with blonde hair sitting alone on a swing, watching other children get picked up by their parents.

He saw the boy pulling pranks every day, doodling on Kage Rock, running around the streets, just to win a shred of attention from others.

He saw Iruka handing him Ichiraku Ramen, saw that brat wearing goggles shout out, "I'm going to be Hokage!"

He saw himself desperately training in the Clone Technique, saw himself stealing the Scroll of Seals, saw Mizuki's hideous face and Iruka's bleeding back as he blocked an attack in front of him.

He saw Team 7's first gathering, saw the snobby black-haired boy Sasuke, saw the fangirling pink-haired girl Sakura, saw Kakashi holding a little orange book and saying, "I got lost on the path of life."

He saw himself tied to a tree trunk, watching Kakashi distribute bento boxes to Sasuke and Sakura, his stomach growling loudly from hunger...

The memories continued to pour in.

The mission in the Land of Waves, the skirmish with the Demon Brothers, Kakashi trapped in the Water Prison Technique by Zabuza, and he and Sasuke teaming up to put on an act, breaking the Water Prison Technique with shadow clones and a Fuma Shuriken.

Then there was the Missing-nin from Hidden Mist, Momochi Zabuza, that terrifying man carrying a Kubikiribōchō.

Finally, it froze amidst a flurry of Ice Crystal Magic Mirrors.

Senbon filling the sky, and a boy wearing a Hidden Mist ANBU mask whose voice was as cold as ice...

"Whoa~"

Naruto abruptly gasped, breaking free from the dizziness caused by the forced influx of memories.

He opened his eyes, and what met his vision was a gray, overcast sky, along with a faint mist lingering all around.

The ground beneath him was cold and hard, and the air was a mix of dirt, blood, and moisture.

Naruto stood in a daze for three seconds, then slowly raised his hand and placed it before his eyes.

This was a pair of childish hands with a few scrapes on the skin, but without a doubt, they belonged to a twelve or thirteen-year-old boy.

He clenched his fist, feeling a strange energy flowing through this body.

Chakra.

"I... transmigrated?"

Naruto muttered to himself, his voice extremely hoarse: "And I transmigrated into Naruto Uzumaki?"

"That guy who yelled about becoming Hokage and actually ended up as the Seventh Hokage... the male protagonist of Naruto?"

"Could it be that because my nickname is Naruto, I transmigrated into Naruto Uzumaki?"

This kind of plot, which only existed in web novels, had actually fallen on his own head.

Naruto closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

A few seconds later, he opened his eyes again, the shock in the depths of his gaze having subsided quite a bit, replaced by a complex, wry smile.

"Whatever, being able to live a second life is already great."

Naruto sighed softly.

In his previous life, he had died at just thirty years old.

Not from cancer, not from a terminal illness, and not from getting sent flying by a speeding truck.

It was purely a case of him bringing about his own death.

Thinking about it, it was quite absurd.

He was originally an ordinary person, and at eighteen, he suddenly awakened an ability.

It wasn't some fancy power like spitting fire, shooting water, or casting lightning, but an extremely special talent: Absolute Body Control.

This ability allowed him to precisely control every single cell, every nerve, and every muscle within his body.

He could actively develop his brain regions, making his thinking exceptionally clear and sharp, with memory and logical deduction abilities far surpassing ordinary people.

When injured, he could control the muscles around the wound to contract and stop bleeding, accelerating cell division and healing—minor wounds would form scabs in a few seconds, and serious injuries could recover as good as new within minutes.

Under certain circumstances, he could even forcefully control his body, ignoring fatigue to keep fighting.

It sounded incredibly cool.

And he really had done quite a few good things relying on this ability. Every time he scrolled past those blood-boiling, unfair incidents online—black-hearted bosses oppressing workers, bullies committing crimes in broad daylight, and scumbags with connections escaping punishment—his sense of justice would burn fiercely.

So, he took action.

He wore a crude, self-made mask, relying on physical control to imitate completely different postures and voices. He snuck into the residences of those evildoers in the middle of the night, making them wake up the next day to find their deeds turned into large-character posters known to the entire internet, plastered all over their residential complex, with the evidence neatly arranged at the doorstep of the public security organs.

He had also dealt with a few thugs who beat people in the streets, making them lie in bed for a full three months while the hospital could find no cause at all, only saying, "Soft tissue contusion!"

In reality, it was him using extremely exquisite force to stimulate the nerve nodes of the opponents.

The methods were covert, and the results were satisfying.

Cheers echoed across the internet, and the titles "Night Vigilante" and "Modern Robin Hood" spread far and wide.

He became somewhat carried away, feeling that he was an executor of justice and a walker of the path outside the rules.

However, once or twice was fine.

The third time, the fourth time, the fifth time...

He who walks often by the river is bound to get his shoes wet.

During his fifth operation, he was finally targeted by the personnel of the security department.

That night, he had just finished arranging a surprise in the target's home when rapid and orderly footsteps suddenly surged in the hallway, and the beam of a flashlight swept across the window.

He fled in a panic from the back window, being pursued all the way to the edge of a cliff on a barren mountain in the suburbs.

The mountain wind howled, and the pursuers behind him got closer and closer. He gritted his teeth, intending to jump to a protruding rock on the opposite side, but his foot slipped.

Then came the ten-thousand-zhang abyss, and his consciousness was cut off.

In this life, I must absolute never make the same mistake again.

Naruto clenched those tender hands tightly, making a silent vow in his heart: Even if I see a monstrous injustice, before I have sufficient strength and absolute security guarantees, I will never stick my neck out.

Breaking the law is breaking the law; even if the motive is just, it does not mean the methods can be free from restraint.

At the same time, he admonished everyone: never attempt to place your own standards above the law, because courting death really leads to death.

He let out a long breath and began to carefully sort through the memories belonging to Naruto Uzumaki in his mind.

This time point...

Naruto's brows furrowed tightly, then slowly relaxed again.

The plot node he was currently at was the middle stage of the Land of Waves mission. He had already passed Kakashi's Genin test, become a full member of Team 7, and was currently following Kakashi, Sasuke, and Sakura to escort the bridge builder Tazuna to the Land of Waves, engaging in battle with the Hidden Mist rogue ninja Momochi Zabuza and his subordinate Haku.

His current injuries were precisely those stabbed into him by Haku using Senbon.

Those needles, as fine as ox hair, stabbed into his body; although most of them missed vital points, that excruciating pain of ten thousand needles piercing the body, along with the subsequent fake-death state, was a necessary scene from the original work.

Fortunately it's this time point.

Naruto couldn't help feeling a sense of relief.