Inside Yaga's office at Jujutsu High, Gojo Satoru sat with one hand propping up his face and one leg crossed over the other, holding the cursed spirit exorcism request Yaga had handed him.
As he looked at the location written in the request, Gojo could not help but grumble.
"That's way too far. Even if I take a car, I'd be stuck riding forever."
At a village about fifty kilometers from Jujutsu High, a Grade 2 cursed spirit had appeared. Casualties had already occurred, and the remaining villagers had all been evacuated.
But the moment he saw the fifty-kilometer distance, Gojo found it a complete nuisance. After all, at this point in time, he had only just begun to grasp teleportation and could only move over short distances.
"Gojo, this is a mission assigned by the higher-ups. Even if you have to walk, you're walking there."
"What a pain. When are those higher-ups going to die already? If they don't, I'm going to die from how annoying they are."
"Gojo!!" Yaga shouted.
"Yeah, yeah, fine, fine, okay, okay, I'm going." Gojo got to his feet, waved a hand behind his back at Yaga, and pushed the door open as he walked out, leaving Yaga alone in the office with twitching lips and fury practically rising off his head.
...
A beam of white light appeared, and Itachi slowly stepped out of it, shielding his eyes. Once the blinding sensation faded, he looked around.
The first thing that came into view was sunlight filtered through the trees. The woods around him were lush and dense, and ahead of him was a road paved with stone.
So this is the new world? It doesn't seem that different.
Just as that thought crossed his mind, a slight pain stabbed through his head. Itachi clutched it, and in that dazed moment, countless things he had never seen before appeared in his mind, including all the ninjutsu of the ninja world.
It was as though he were a moviegoer, watching those memories play out like some sort of documentary.
As the memories continued to unfold, the pain in his head gradually faded away.
(For this, just think of it like how Heroic Spirits in Fate receive some basic "modern knowledge" when they appear in the present world, though in this case, nothing about curses was included.)
"How incredible. A world like this actually exists? Though this world has its wars as well, it's still far more peaceful than the ninja world."
Itachi slowly opened his eyes and murmured to himself.
"Hm? This power inside my body...?"
He frowned slightly, confused.
After examining his body more carefully, Itachi discovered that his chakra had vanished, replaced by another kind of unknown power.
But the amount of it was astonishing. If he had to compare it to before, the difference was like a stream and an ocean. Not only that, he also sensed that his physical condition was several times stronger than before, and even the illness that had tormented him for so long was gone.
"So this must be the gift the Sage of Six Paths left me."
After feeling it out once more, Itachi started walking down the road beneath his feet. Although those memories had already given him some understanding of this world, he still could not help but feel curious. He wanted to see it for himself.
Itachi kept walking, and after about half an hour, he arrived at a village. Seeing that the entire place was deserted, without a single person in sight, he naturally grew curious and decided to head deeper in.
When he reached the center of the village, he found more than a dozen corpses. Bloodstains and severed limbs were scattered around them. The moment he saw that scene, Itachi immediately became alert.
"The bodies were mutilated in different ways. This doesn't look like the work of a sharp weapon. It's more like they were torn apart by some kind of beast."
Itachi frowned faintly.
"The corpses are all facing different directions, and their faces still carry the terror they felt before death, but there are no signs of resistance. Can the enemy turn invisible? Or use genjutsu?"
A genius of the Uchiha clan and a member of the Akatsuki, Itachi instantly analyzed the situation and came to a conclusion.
Just as he was about to continue forward and inspect further, four burly green one-eyed monsters suddenly appeared behind him.
They all looked identical. Their thick arms were lined with fangs, from which dripped a foul mixture of red and green liquid that looked revolting.
In the span of an instant, all four monsters lunged at Itachi. They wrapped him tightly in their arms, and the fangs on those arms pierced into his body. At the same time, the four monsters let out delighted roars.
Yet in that very moment, the Itachi bound in their grasp suddenly began to dissolve, turning into a flock of black crows.
The crows scattered in all directions, filling the air with eerie cries.
"?"
The four monsters looked briefly confused, then in the next moment raised their heads and stared at Itachi crouching on top of a utility pole.
"What kind of monsters are these? Summoning beasts?"
Perched on the pole, Itachi fell into thought. He had seen all sorts of bizarre summoning beasts before, but something this oddly shaped was a first even for him.
"The blood on your arms... was it you who killed those villagers?"
Itachi stood up and paused slightly as he spoke.
The only response he got was the monsters' hoarse growls.
"Mindless monsters... in that case."
Itachi formed hand seals, so fast that afterimages appeared.
Snake, Ram, Monkey, Boar, Horse, Tiger.
Once the seals were complete, Itachi drew in a deep breath.
"Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique!"
Itachi forcefully released the unknown energy gathered in his mouth. The moment it touched the outside air, it turned into blazing fire. In an instant, a fireball nearly ten meters wide erupted from his mouth.
The Great Fireball exploded the moment it struck the monsters, and dust billowed out from the blast.
When the dust quickly cleared, the four monsters were only left with minor surface wounds.
I'm still not used to using this power to cast ninjutsu...
As that thought passed through his mind, Itachi's eyes changed. They turned into a strange crimson, with three tomoe slowly rotating within them. Through the Sharingan, Itachi saw that the monsters contained the same kind of power that had appeared inside his own body.
"So this is this world's equivalent of chakra?"
In the next second, Itachi formed hand seals again.
"Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique!"
After that first attempt, Itachi had already adapted to the new power inside him. This time, the Great Fireball exploded across the monsters the instant it struck.
The creatures let out sharp screams. Looking over, Itachi saw blood pouring from their bodies, and two of them had both arms blown off.
"So it works."
Perhaps it was the first time these four monsters had ever suffered such heavy damage since their birth. Roaring wildly, they leaped straight in front of Itachi and swung their fists.
Itachi's expression remained cold as he evaded them with the Body Flicker Technique.
"Since I can damage them, this becomes much simpler."
Appearing behind the monsters in a flash, Itachi formed hand seals again.
And it seems someone's coming. I need to finish this quickly.
That thought flashed through his mind.
"Fire Style: Dragon Flame Release Song Technique!"
Itachi completed the seals in an instant and spat out four fire dragons from his mouth, each one rushing toward a monster. This time, he increased the output of that strange power, and the moment the fire dragons hit, the monsters were blasted to pieces.
"Yo! Your technique's pretty interesting."
The sudden voice startled Itachi, who had just finished the battle. He turned around at once, and his three-tomoe Sharingan instantly shifted into the Mangekyo Sharingan, locking tightly onto the newcomer.
The man was tall and slender, wearing a pair of dark glasses. His silver-white hair fluttered in the wind, and with both hands tucked into his pockets and his posture tilted back in lazy arrogance, he looked unbelievably cocky.
"Kakashi-senpai?"
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