Boom!
With an earth-shaking roar, a towering mountain was instantly flattened. Amid the billowing smoke, a woman in a brown coat and a Konoha Ninja Village forehead protector tightly held a man covered in blood, his face no longer recognizable. Tears streamed down her cheeks like broken pearls, falling onto his face.
"Luoshan! Get up, Luoshan! Don't leave me alone again!"
Perhaps the tears splashing onto his face woke him, or perhaps it was her sobbing voice. Mitarai Luoshan struggled to open his eyes. The pretty face so close to him was unbearably blurry at that moment.
"An... Anko!"
His hoarse voice was filled with weakness and unwillingness. Mitarai Luoshan tried his best to see the tear-streaked face before him clearly, his ink-black eyes filled with reluctance and longing.
"Please don't cry anymore!"
"If you don't want me to cry, then you have to get better soon!" Mitaraishi Anko said through tears. "You said you wouldn't leave me again. Are you going back on your word?"
Swish! Swish! Swish!
Dozens of battered figures appeared around them, yet not a single one made a sound.
"I'm sorry, Anko... Anko, please... live... well..."
Mitarai Luoshan tremblingly raised a hand, seemingly wanting to wipe the tears from her face. Sadly, it eventually fell limply back down.
"Luoshan!!!"
Endless darkness, without even a trace of light. Neither body nor soul could move at all. The suffocating silence and loneliness... was this what death felt like? What an awful feeling.
I'm sorry, Anko. I really can't stay by your side anymore. There were still so many things I wanted to tell you.
I grew up among wolves. I had no name, no parents. Living within that cruel pack, I was an unusual wolf, a wolf unlike the rest.
Until one day, that peaceful life was shattered. Out of the enormous wolf pack, only Little Wolf and I, who had just been born, escaped. Perhaps it was the instinct to survive. I wanted to live, though at the time, I didn't know what I would do if I survived.
From then on, Little Wolf and I depended on each other for survival. We never dared enter human territory, because we would be killed. Perhaps as time passed, I began to understand that I was human, not a wolf.
War broke out soon afterward, and Little Wolf and I found ourselves in an even harder situation. We had to fight our own kind for food while constantly guarding against humans hunting Little Wolf. I clearly remembered how often we went hungry then, our bodies covered in wounds.
It was winter, the coldest winter. Little Wolf and I had not eaten for a long time. Every day, we could only fill our stomachs with snow. At last, unable to endure any longer, we collapsed. I remembered that it was the first time I had faced approaching death. Yet strangely, I felt no fear at all, only calm—a calm so complete that it seemed unbelievable.
Unexpectedly, we were saved. They were passing ninja, wearing metal plates marked with symbols on their foreheads. I remembered that those were called forehead protectors. The leading ninja was the first to find us, then he took us back to his village, Konoha Ninja Village in the Land of Fire.
Although Konoha took us in, it was not a blessing for Little Wolf and me. Instead, it marked the beginning of another kind of suffering. The reason was simple. Though I was human, I could not speak human language, and no matter how one looked at me, my mannerisms were more like those of a beast. Little Wolf's fierce appearance also frightened people.
The people of Konoha kept their distance from us, despised us, and even beat and kicked us. Not just adults—even children did the same. The commoners feared us, calling us beasts and monsters, telling us to stay away from them. The noble clans looked down on us even more. Every beating was a nightmare that Little Wolf and I would wake from in terror.
Until I met her—Mitaraishi Anko.
She was also a member of one of Konoha's noble clans, but she was like a god who pulled me from that dark world and brought color into it. That was right. She was the only ray of sunlight in my life.
I still remembered our first meeting. Little Wolf and I had been cornered and were being beaten. The pain from our wounds had already gone numb. Perhaps we would die in the next moment. To be honest, I had hoped for release sooner, but that was the last time, because she appeared.
With a short ponytail, a childish yet stubborn face, she stood in front of me and said I was her little brother. She drove those people away, then grinning, held out her hand to me. Her eyes curved into crescents when she smiled. She looked so adorable. To me, that pure smile was something I would never forget for the rest of my life.
Later, I learned her name and was able to remain by her side. She taught me how to speak, how to read, and how to be a person. Then, she gave me a name.
Luoshan. Mitarai Luoshan.
I was very happy. Mitarai was her surname.
Not long afterward, Anko entered the Ninja Academy, and she kept me by her side. Ninjutsu was truly troublesome, requiring hand seals and all that. Compared to that, I preferred simple, direct things like Swordsmanship and taijutsu.
The moment I picked up a sword, I could not control myself. I wanted to fight, wanted to kill. Back then, a guy named Kakashi Hatake and I were both called geniuses. Geniuses? What a boring title.
The war continued. After graduating from the Ninja Academy, Anko became the disciple of Orochimaru, the Cold Lord and one of the Three Ninja, under the direction of her uncle, Mitarashi Zixiao, one of Konoha's Legendary Eight Colors. As for me, I became the disciple of Hatake Sakumo, Konoha's White Fang. I heard his Swordsmanship was the strongest in the Shinobi World, and I wanted to become the strongest.
I thought White Fang would not teach me his Swordsmanship so easily. In truth, though I did not know why, White Fang agreed. He simply never allowed me to call him Master. I did not care. After training for a while, I discovered that I was born with an extraordinary affinity for lightning. When I used it, I did not need hand seals at all, and its power was even greater than Lightning Release Techniques of the same level.
War meant anything could happen—both the expected and the unexpected. Mitarashi Zixiao died. Watching Anko cry her eyes out, I felt my own weakness and helplessness for the first time. The determination to grow stronger took root deep within my heart. I did not want Anko to cry again.
Soon, more bad news came. Hatake Sakumo, White Fang, had abandoned a mission to save his companions. For a ninja, that was unforgivable, especially since it had prolonged the war. Blamed by the entire village, White Fang ultimately committed suicide at home.
I did not know why White Fang chose such a way to end his life, but I knew that I wanted power—power that would make everyone fear me. So, blinded by power, I stubbornly left Konoha.
During my wandering days in the Shinobi World, I learned too much and understood too much, but I also forgot too much and lost too much.
Orochimaru defected from Konoha after using living people to research forbidden techniques. Anko was one of his test subjects. She was branded with a Cursed Seal, and part of her memories were sealed away by Orochimaru.
Only then did I suddenly realize that I had been wrong all along. The most important thing was never power. It was Anko.
But it was too late.
After returning to Konoha, I looked at Anko lying in a hospital bed, still trying to comfort me, and suddenly felt like crying.
When you were at your saddest, I wasn't there.
When you were in the most pain, I wasn't there.
When you needed someone by your side most, I still wasn't there.
Perhaps I had become afraid. From then on, I did not dare leave Anko's side even for a single step.
I had always wondered how I would end my life. Whether I died or not did not really matter. A beast had to have a beast's Resolve. But I truly had not expected to die like this.
Obito, though you always deny it, I still wanted to call you that.
Was it for Rin? I do not care what you want to do, but you hurt Anko. So sorry, we could only be enemies now.
But as your brother, how could I possibly bring myself to kill you? Maybe you were right. I really was weak.
Perishing together? Actually, this was already good enough. But Obito, I still hoped you could live. You would survive, wouldn't you?
Naruto, Kakashi, Anko, this was all I could do. Obito was in your hands now. I was truly tired.
I just could no longer keep my promise to you.
When I opened my eyes again, I had somehow become a baby. My name was Kawasaki Dao? What a joke. I would never acknowledge it. I would always be Mitarai Luoshan.
This was the Soul Society, a world made entirely of Reishi. A world of Bleach and souls, also a world where the strong preyed on the weak. Only power was the foundation of everything.
Perhaps because of my previous life, I was born with extraordinarily powerful abilities that should be called Spiritual Power here, as well as a pitch-black long sword shaped like a vicious wolf—the weapon called a Zanpakutō here. I simply had not let anyone discover them.
The Reiatsu of the Soul Society and the chakra of the Shinobi World differed somewhat in structure, but they also had many similarities to a certain extent. So I began training in secret. Perhaps I could return to that original world someday. I knew very well how unrealistic that thought was, but it was the only motivation supporting my will to live.
A few years later, the mother who gave birth to me died. Kawasaki Jie, my nominal father, had accidentally injured her, and she died without receiving treatment. Before she died, she told me not to seek revenge. She said she held no hatred. I agreed.
Mother had only been a maid, while I was naturally just the illegitimate child Kawasaki Jie had sired by accident while drunk. After a simple funeral, I, a worthless waste with no Reiatsu in his eyes, became a disgrace to both him and the Kawasaki Family.
But what did his opinion have to do with me?
Time in the Soul Society was long, so over those endless years, I recovered the peak strength of my previous life. I did not know how strong that made me in the Soul Society, but I should not have been weak.
But what could that change? I still could not return.
Then what meaning was there in living in this world at all?!