It was raining the day he died
Not the dramatic kind -- no thunder, no lightning. Just a soft, steady drizzle on a quiet street. The kind of day no one would remember.
But he would
He was 25. An ordinary man with an extraordinary mind.
His name was never in the news. His face wasn't on posters. But in his small world, he was everything to the people who knew him.
He had a job he liked — not loved, but liked.
He volunteered at a local shelter on weekends.
He played chess in the park with old men who called him "the polite detective."
He read books most people ignored. Doyle, Nietzsche, manga.
He had a worn-out copy of Kuroko no Basket: Extra Game beside a leather-bound Sherlock Holmes collection on his shelf.
He was good. Good to the point that even strangers felt at ease around him.
But beneath the calm…
"I was made for more than just kindness."
He had that thought more often than he admitted.
He wasn't arrogant. He didn't want power for power's sake.
But he felt it — in his bones. That something greater waited, if only the world gave him a chance to reach for it.
It happened fast.
A child darted into the road — chasing a ball.
A truck turned the corner, tires screeching in the rain.
Everyone screamed.
Everyone froze.
Everyone but him.
He moved before thought could catch up.
One push. One yell.
The child fell backward, safe.
And then — nothing but impact, pain, and black.
He didn't feel the rain anymore.
Didn't hear the sirens.
There was only silence.
Then… stars.
And a voice.
"A soul with no regrets. Rare. You could rest… or you could rise."
He looked up. A being stood before him — glowing, shifting, ancient and unknowable.
"You may choose. Three wishes. Bound by growth, not greed."
"Rebirth awaits."
He smiled. He knew this trope. Truck-kun. ROB. The great isekai formula.
And yet, something inside him thrummed. This wasn't fantasy. This was… fate.
"Alright," he said. "Then let me walk the path I never could."
"My first wish — give me the Emperor Eye. But make it mine. Better. A tool not of control, but of clarity."
The ROB nodded.
"And the second?"
"Give me an essence — something that lets me evolve endlessly. The body of a sage, the mind of a creator, the calm of a storm… and the strength to adapt."
The ROB smiled — the first and last emotion it ever showed.
"And the third?"
He closed his eyes. Thought of that child. That moment.
"I'll keep it. For when everything else fails."
"Go, soul of quiet fire -- and shake the world awake."
That was the final words he heard from the ROB before blackness consumed him.
A soft glow pulsed inside the dimly lit birthing chamber of Uzushiogakure.
Midwives whispered prayers, their voices trembling with hope and awe.
The child was coming.
---
In that moment, a storm of chakra rippled across the village — subtle yet undeniable.
The elders watching felt a presence they hadn't sensed in generations:
A rare, potent life force.
---
His first cries echoed — weak but clear.
The newborn's eyes fluttered open, revealing irises swirling with a faint crimson hue and a golden shimmer dancing beneath the surface.
No ordinary child.
---
Inside the infant's mind, fragments of memories flickered — like waking dreams.
A voice whispered calm:
"Observe. Understand. Adapt."
His body was different, even now.
Healing faster than any newborn, chakra flowing like a steady river beneath his skin.
The Essence of the Evolving Sage began to pulse rhythmically with each breath.
---
The village head approached, eyes wide, sensing the magnitude of this birth.
"This child… he carries the blood of the Uzumaki and the spirit of the sage. The Emperor Eye… it's no myth."
---
As the moonlight bathed the room, the baby's eyelids fluttered again.
A small, serene smile curved his lips — even in this first moment, the quiet storm had awakened.
---
His journey had begun.