Jake's chest hurt as a huge boulder crushed him, pinning him in place with no way to move or call for help. His lungs struggled with each breath, barely managing to exhale before desperately pulling in more air. Thick black smoke from the fire clogged his throat and filled the building as red-hot flames raged around him.

He coughed until tears blurred his vision, making him nearly blind. Not that there was much to see except the crumbling ceiling and the flames devouring everything in their path. Though the flames were a bit farther away, his situation was dire. While trying to escape, a pillar exploded and fell on him, trapping him completely.

It was a pathetic end to his sad and lonely life. All he could do was sit there and choke to death. He'd love to escape if he could, but with the heavy pillar pinning him down, he could only sigh in resignation.

Oddly, he felt calm about it all. Nobody would miss him. He was just a no-name orphan with no family, no friends, and no one who cared about him.

"…Ah, this really sucks," he groaned internally. The only joy in his life was watching anime and writing novels. The encouraging comments from his readers were his only motivation to pursue his dream of becoming a writer.

Too bad that wasn't going to amount to anything. That morning, a psychopath had come to his workplace and blown themselves up, claiming the company was scamming and stealing from innocent people. Jake couldn't deny some of their claims, as he knew about the shady things the company did, but that didn't justify blowing up the building. Many innocent people worked there—people with families and children to raise.

'Ah, what's the use of thinking about this stuff?'

Damnit, he didn't want to die. As pathetic as it seemed, he hadn't finished writing his novel. Surely life couldn't be so cruel as to end him before that? Probably the only people who would miss him were his novel's readers, but they, too, would quickly forget about him amidst the plethora of other great novels out there.

So, would this be his end? He was unwilling.

A flame ignited in his chest, not unlike the roaring embers threatening to burn him alive. Only when humans are about to die do they realize the truly important things in life. He had many regrets. He didn't want to die. There were so many things he wanted to do. He'd never had anything going for him his entire life, and it wasn't fair!

[Do You Wish To Live?]

"Am I going crazy?" he wondered as his vision suddenly cleared, revealing a floating black screen with red writing. For a moment, he just stared, forgetting his pain. It took him a moment to shake off the shock. Was he hallucinating now that the smoke was getting to him? Was he about to lose consciousness?

He struggled, trying to lift his arms, but the pillar was just too heavy.

'Ah, damn it. Of course, I wanna live.'

Even though he knew he was probably hallucinating, he decided to entertain the idea of having one last conversation, even if it wasn't real.

Just as he spoke, the crimson words on the black screen shimmered, and a different sentence appeared:

[The host agrees to terms. Prepare For Transmigration!]

"Transmigration…" He blinked. "What?" he said. Was this one of his regrets in life? Was his mind hallucinating?

Before he could process what was happening, the screen expanded rapidly, wrapping him in a cocoon of red and black. A burning sensation spread through his body as if his very soul were being torn apart. The pain was overwhelming, stealing his breath and silencing his scream. Then, a torrent of memories surged into his mind, drowning him in an ocean of unfamiliar experiences.

The soul-ripping pain, coupled with the flood of memories, caused him to fall unconscious.

'Huh? How am I still alive?'

Jake opened his eyes to find himself lying on a bed.

'Where am I?'

He was in a bedroom he didn't recognize.

What the hell is this?

His hands… They were small, tiny even. He flexed his fingers, the motion feeling oddly foreign. Panicked, he sat up quickly, feeling an unfamiliar lightness in his body. He looked down and saw that his body was small, like that of a child.

"No way," Jake whispered, his voice sounding high-pitched and childish. "This can't be real."

He jumped out of bed, nearly tripping over his short legs. He ran to a small mirror on the wall and stared in shock at the reflection. A young boy with wide eyes and black hair stared back at him.

"This… this is me?" he said, his heart pounding.

"Why am I in a child's body?"

He clearly remembered dying under that pillar, yet here he was, alive and in a child's body.

"Is this some sort of lucid dream?" He carefully raised his hand towards his face and pinched his cheek. "It hurts!" He glanced at the slight red mark on his face. "Since it hurts, it shouldn't be a dream, right?" He looked at his reflection in the mirror.

"What's this… time travel… transmigration? Or reincarnation?"

As he considered these ridiculous possibilities, an intense headache suddenly hit him. Jake screamed, clutching his head as unfamiliar memories poured into his mind, overwhelming him. The pain became unbearable, and he fell to the ground.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

"What was that noise?"

"Kisuke! Kisuke! Are you alright, dear?"

Several voices rang in his head before he lost consciousness.

A tall man with brown eyes and shoulder-length brown hair entered the room, followed by a woman with long, bright-black hair and large, brown eyes. The man frowned while the woman's face looked worried.

"Kisuke!" The woman rushed towards the child and picked him up. The man pressed his finger on the child's chest, and his frown eased.

"Don't worry, he just passed out. Prepare the herbal soup to help him recover."

The woman nodded and placed the child back on the bed.

After some time, Jake slowly regained consciousness. His head throbbed with a dull ache, but he ignored it and kept staring at the now-familiar ceiling. His eyes reflected his complicated thoughts.

'Damn… how did I transmigrate, and it had to be the freaking Naruto world of all places.'

He couldn't help but feel a little ridiculous that something so cliché as transmigration happened to him. I mean, wasn't this situation only supposed to exist in stories?

No matter how much Jake tried to deny his situation, it was clear that he was truly here, in the Naruto world, and his new five years of memories confirmed it.

'Was it that voice perhaps?!'

He remembered his last moments before dying, that voice that asked him if he wanted to live—was this its doing?

He tried to mentally communicate with the strange voice again, but no matter how much he tried, no one answered.

'At this rate, I'll go crazy if I keep thinking about it.'

Despite questioning the reason behind his suspicious transmigration, Jake was happy to be given a second chance at life. Even if it was the Naruto world, where being weak meant living like a sheep, as long as he had a ninja aptitude, it shouldn't be too hard for him to gain a certain level of strength.

Besides, his luck wasn't so bad. He wasn't reborn as an ordinary civilian.

Thinking of this, he tilted his head and glanced at the woman sitting on a chair, sleeping with her eyes closed.

'This woman should be the mother of… no, my mom.'

Looking at the woman's awkward sleeping posture and the exhaustion on her face, Jake faintly smiled.

Because of the fusion of the souls, Jake gained all the memories and emotions of the kid named Kisuke.

According to the memories, the Second Ninja War had yet to happen, but he didn't know when exactly. But he wasn't too worried. The Second Ninja War wasn't as brutal compared to the Third, where Konoha had to deploy fresh ninja school graduates.

Jake slowly sat up, trying not to wake the woman who was now his mother. He felt strange emotions towards her. Kisuke's memories were merging with his own, making it hard to separate his feelings from those of the child.

He took a deep breath and decided to accept his new reality. He had been given a second chance, and he would make the most of it. The world of Naruto was dangerous, but it was also full of opportunities—opportunities to explore supernatural powers.

A soft groan from his mother made him turn his head. She was waking up. Her eyes fluttered open before she immediately jumped up and hugged him.

"Kisuke, you're awake!" she exclaimed, her voice filled with relief and love as she held him tightly.

Jake felt awkward with a little bit of strange guilt. He knew it wasn't his fault for possessing Kisuke's body, but it didn't help much after seeing how the woman treated him.

"I'm fine… mom!" Jake struggled to say the word 'mom.'

"Mom," it was an unfamiliar concept to him. As an orphan in his previous life, Jake had never experienced a mother's love. It felt strange being cared about this much. He didn't hate it.

She pulled back slightly, still holding his face in her hands. "You scared us so much. You were unconscious for almost half a day."

"Sorry,"

He could see the exhaustion on her face, the dark circles under her eyes. This woman truly cared about Kisuke and, now, about him.

She smiled tears of relief in her eyes. "It's good, it's good…"

He felt strange as she kept repeating "good" while patting his face.

Suddenly, her gentle expression turned serious and angry as she squeezed his cheek really hard.

"Ow... ow…"

He didn't understand why she suddenly flipped. Just a second ago, she was like a caring angel, but now she looked like a ferocious beast.

"Kurama Kisuke…"

He shivered when she called him by his full name. Looking at her serious face, he knew he was in trouble.

"What was this doing in your room, young man?" his mother, Kurama Kirikou, pulled out a scroll and shoved it in his face. "Huh, tell me!"

"I…"

He didn't know what to say. According to his new memories, Kisuke had been excited to start practicing his clan's specialty, so he stole this Genjutsu scroll from his late father's library and secretly tried to learn the jutsu to impress his mom.

But something went wrong. He found it hard to successfully perform the Genjutsu, leading him to practice until he completely exhausted his spiritual energy and chakra, causing him to die.

Seeing him unable to speak, Kirikou sighed. "I've told you many times that it's too early for you to start practicing Genjutsu. If you're not careful, you might not be able to become a ninja."

"I... understand, Mom," Kisuke nodded. "I won't do it without your permission again."

Fortunately, Kirikou wasn't opposed to the idea of him becoming a ninja, despite his father dying on a mission. They were all from the Kurama clan, so becoming a ninja was the aspiration of any young kid who hadn't yet seen the cruelty of the world.

After looking at him for a while, Kirikou said, "I can't fully trust you since this isn't the first time you've secretly stolen a scroll. So I'm going to set some boundaries here, and if you cross them, there will be consequences."

Without waiting for him to respond, she continued, "If I find out that you've tried to learn Genjutsu without my permission or proper supervision, I won't let you enroll in the ninja school at all."

Kisuke was at a loss for words. Was training in Genjutsu that dangerous for Kirikou to go this far just to prevent him from learning it? But then again, the original Kisuke had also 'died' when he practiced it, so her worries weren't unfounded.

"I'm sorry. I promise I won't try it again."

Seeing him being obedient, Kirikou smiled in satisfaction. "Well, I'll leave you to rest for now. I'll go prepare some food for you."

After she left the room, Kisuke plopped down on his bed, staring at the ceiling, lost in thought.

He closed his eyes and felt the strange sensation coursing through his body.

"This feeling… it must be chakra."

As one of the first clans to join Konoha, Kurama clan members had a significant amount of chakra compared to other clans. Not as much as the Senju and Uzumaki, but still high enough, thanks to their huge reserves of spiritual energy, which made their Genjutsu no worse than the Uchiha's.

Kisuke was fascinated by the strange energy that could cause all sorts of supernatural effects.

Deep down, a seed of desire to explore it to the fullest was born in him. He wanted to understand it, its limits, and its different applications.

Despite watching the Naruto series years ago, it never went into detail about how jutsu were created. He wanted to test the absolute limits of chakra and its applications.

But all of that was for the future when he was strong enough and could delve into research without worrying about his safety.

"Being born in a clan has its own benefits."

For starters, he wouldn't have to worry about finding suitable ninjutsu. As long as he showed enough talent, the clan would definitely not neglect him and would invest in him with all kinds of resources to ensure he became a backbone for the clan.

But the most important aspect of being born into the Kurama clan was that he wouldn't have to worry about Danzo playing any dirty tricks to get him into Root—which he wasn't even sure if it existed yet. Anyway, the clan would definitely refuse to hand him over after he showed enough talent worth investing in.

"There's still about a year before the ninja school opens for the new academic year."

This gave him enough time to train and get used to chakra. So he started to plan his training schedule until Kirikou called him for dinner.

****

If you have any critique that would help my writing style, I will really appreciate it.