Brain deposit here. Take the advice.
System distribution here. Everyone, please claim and activate your own. Stock: 9999+.
The story begins...
Takamagahara.
This was the sacred domain of the Ōtsutsuki Clan, a planet suspended deep in the starry sky.
At that moment, this ancient land was collapsing.
Lin Jin stood on the shattered ground, drenched in blood. He could barely maintain his Six Paths Sage Mode anymore. Of the nine Truth-Seeking Orbs behind him, only one remained, and the ocular power of his Nine-Tomoe Rinnegan was nearly exhausted.
Through years as a ninja and countless battles to the death, he had never been so close to the end.
Opposite him, Otsutsuki Shibai floated silently in the air.
This Ōtsutsuki Progenitor, revered as a god by the Ōtsutsuki Clan, had taken on a form beyond the bounds of reason. Half of him was humanoid, while the other half had already merged with this space.
His presence enveloped all of Takamagahara, and every inch of space trembled beneath his will.
"Lin Jin Uchiha..." Otsutsuki Shibai's voice seemed to come from ancient times. "For a native of the lower realm to come this far with a mortal body is commendable. But this is as far as you go."
He raised a hand, and all the power of Takamagahara converged in his palm.
Lin Jin coughed up a mouthful of blood and smiled.
"A mortal body?" he said quietly. "You're right. I am indeed a mortal. But mortals..." He straightened, the ripples in his Nine-Tomoe Rinnegan slowly spreading. "Can kill gods too."
The moment he finished speaking, the vast chakra within him, his Six Paths Power, and even his life force began to burn.
He extended a hand, and the last Truth-Seeking Orb floated above his palm.
"Divine · Six Paths · End-of-the-World Truth-Seeking Orb."
He softly spoke the name of the technique.
This was his first time using it, and it would also be his last.
He would burn everything in exchange for the power of a single strike.
The End-of-the-World Truth-Seeking Orb began to expand, devouring everything around it: light, space, time, and causality.
Sensing the terrifying chakra contained within the End-of-the-World Truth-Seeking Orb, Otsutsuki Shibai's expression finally changed.
"You can still unleash such power? But you'll disappear too!"
Lin Jin did not answer.
He merely remembered a question a companion had once asked him: if one day you encountered an enemy you could not defeat, what would you do?
He had always known the answer.
"Burn myself out and end in glory."
Finally,
The End-of-the-World Truth-Seeking Orb erupted in full.
Light swallowed everything: Takamagahara, Otsutsuki Shibai, and Lin Jin himself.
In the final instant before his consciousness faded, he heard a voice:
[Host's vital signs detected approaching zero... Activating Emergency Protection Program... Expending all World Power...]
"Ah!"
With a startled cry, Lin Jin snapped his eyes open, only to find a familiar ceiling before him.
This was his rented apartment. He had lived in this room for three years and knew every corner of it intimately.
Lin Jin abruptly sat up.
"I'm back?"
He looked down at his hands. The calluses from his time as a ninja were gone, and his body bore no scars from battle either.
He got out of bed and walked over to the mirror, seeing a young figure reflected in it.
He looked twenty-three, completely untouched by the ravages of time.
Could everything I experienced in the Hokage World have been nothing but a dream?
No.
Those memories were too clear.
In the Hokage World, he had bonded with a system and was of mixed Uchiha and Uzumaki descent, possessing the Sharingan Kekkei Genkai and the Uzumaki Clan's enormous chakra reserves.
He had grown stronger step by step, from Genin to Jōnin, from ANBU to Kage Level, from unlocking the Mangekyō Sharingan to awakening the Rinnegan.
The teammates who had fought beside him, the enemies who had died before him, the villages he had protected, the people he had failed to save.
It had all been too real.
So real that he believed it could not have been a dream.
Lin Jin sat on the edge of the bed, dazed for a long time.
After slowly coming back to his senses, he raised both hands and began slowly forming hand seals.
Snake-Ram-Monkey-Boar-Horse-Tiger.
These were the seals for Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique.
As a member of the Uchiha Clan, he could not have been more familiar with this technique.
(Image attached. Start practicing!)
As he completed the final seal, he felt a surge of scorching chakra rise from his lower abdomen and rush through his chakra pathways to his throat.
Lin Jin stopped.
He did not breathe out flames, merely feeling that familiar, searing power circulate through his body.
It really wasn't a dream.
I really came back...
He opened his eyes again. His once black-and-white eyes had turned scarlet.
Three tomoe slowly revolved in his eyes, then spun faster and faster before finally merging into a distinctive Straight-Bar Tomoe Pinwheel shape.
The Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan.
Lin Jin gazed at those scarlet eyes in the mirror. Everything felt as natural as before.
However, when he tried to draw on more ocular power to activate the Rinnegan, he found that he could not do it at all.
And when he settled his mind and sensed the chakra within him, he discovered that his chakra reserves had also shrunk considerably, leaving only about one Naruto's worth. (Equivalent to the chakra reserves of one Naruto.)
"What's going on?"
"Not only is my Rinnegan gone, but my chakra reserves have dropped too."
"Aside from my own Mirror Image, the only Mangekyō Dōjutsu left are Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi."
Lin Jin frowned.
Back in the Hokage World, when he awakened his Mangekyō Sharingan, the Dōjutsu of those eyes that reflected the soul had been Mirror Image—a technique that copied Dōjutsu.
His left eye's Dōjutsu was Mirror Image Replication, and his right eye's was Mirror Image Retention. With this ability, he had copied nearly every Dōjutsu that could be copied, yet now there was nothing left.
Lin Jin thought for a long time but could not figure out why. In the end, he could only sigh.
"Forget it. I should be satisfied just to have come back alive."
Just then, a weak voice sounded in his mind.
[H-Host...]
Lin Jin's gaze sharpened.
He knew this voice all too well. In the Hokage World, this very voice had told him that he had transmigrated, that he had become someone of mixed Uchiha and Uzumaki descent, and that he had to survive in that cruel world.
"System."
"What happened? Didn't I die?"
"Were you the one who sent me back?"
Lin Jin fired off three questions in a row.
[Yes... you did die,] the system's voice stuttered. [But at the last moment, this system expended all the World Power accumulated in the Hokage World to send your soul back to this world and resurrect you.]
Lin Jin fell silent for a moment.
"So you brought me back to my original world and used your power to resurrect me?"
[Yes and no...] [This world is not your original ordinary world, but a parallel world. Moreover, no anime related to Naruto exists in this world.] [Due to the excessive expenditure of World Power, this system can currently maintain only basic functions. Your strength also cannot be fully restored for the time being.]
Lin Jin frowned. "What do you mean?"
[After this system reconstructed your physical body and resurrected you, the world's source power was exhausted. Your peak strength cannot be fully restored for the time being. Currently, only strength beyond Super Kage Level can be restored. The rest can only be temporarily sealed in System Space.]
[This includes the Rinnegan.]
[Sage Body.]
[Six Paths Mode.]
[Copied Dōjutsu.]
[Part of your maximum chakra capacity.]
"Then how do I unseal them?" Lin Jin asked again.
[You need to collect World Power...] The system's voice grew weaker and weaker.
[Supernatural powers also exist in this parallel world. You can obtain World Power by completing missions issued by the system or killing uncanny entities and enemies.]
[A reminder to the host: the system will temporarily enter dormancy, retaining only its automatic functions. Considering that beings capable of threatening you exist in this world, the Appraisal function will be unlocked. Please proceed with caution...]
[Appraisal: allows you to view a target's basic information.] ```
The system's voice vanished completely as it fell dormant.
Lin Jin sat on the edge of the bed, digesting this information.
A parallel world, supernatural powers, uncanny entities.
It seemed this world wasn't so simple either.
Although most of his strength had been sealed within the system, the insights from his years of training, the various ninjutsu he remembered practicing, and some of his Kekkei Genkai remained unaffected.
Still, with his current strength beyond Super Kage Level, his Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan, and his years of combat experience in the Hokage World, he should not fare too badly in this world either.
Before you continue