Mandy Grid's hands shook as he tried to hold the water bottle. The cancer made everything harder.
"Breathe in for four counts," the yoga instructor said. "Hold for four. Out for four."
Mandy followed along. His chest burned but he kept going.
"This Kundalini exercise opens your chakras," another teacher explained later that day.
Mandy didn't believe in chakras. But the breathing helped with the pain.
At home, he put on Baki episodes. Watching Hanma Yujiro fight made him forget the hospital visits for a while.
"Look at that guy's back muscles," Mandy whispered to himself. "Looks like a demon face."
The fighters on screen moved like monsters. Pure human strength pushed to impossible levels.
Mandy's own body was dying. Watching these characters live at their peak felt good.
The IV drip next to his hospital bed made soft beeping sounds. Mandy's vision got blurry.
"I wish I could fight like them," he said to no one.
Then everything went dark.
Light hit his eyes different. Sounds were louder.
Mandy tried to speak but only baby noises came out. He looked at his hands.
Tiny. Soft. Baby hands.
"What the hell?"
But again, just baby sounds.
People around him spoke a language he didn't know. Their clothes looked old. Like historical movies.
Some wore armor with blue fan symbols on the chest.
"This isn't real," Mandy thought. But he could feel everything. The blanket. The air. Someone picking him up.
Many of the armored people were leaving. They looked sad. Some had bandages.
An old man with white hair picked him up often. The man's eyes were dark but kind.
"Seems like grandfather," Mandy figured out after a few days.
The old man would carry him to meetings. Other old people would look at him and nod.
Mandy would get tired and fall asleep. Sometimes he'd mess his diaper and feel embarrassed.
"I'm an adult trapped in a baby body," he realized. "This is insane."
Six months passed slowly.
Mandy started recognizing faces and voices. The old man - definitely his grandfather - took care of him most days.
Then one day, a man and woman in dusty armor came back. They looked tired but happy.
The woman had long black hair and gentle eyes. The man was tall with scars on his hands.
"Our son," the woman said in that unknown language. But somehow Mandy understood the emotion.
These were his parents. Back from some kind of war.
The grandfather held him up proudly. People gathered around.
Someone mentioned a word that made Mandy's heart jump.
"Uchiha."
Then another person pointed at the grandfather's eyes. They were red with black patterns spinning in them.
"Uchiha," they said again.
Mandy had seen those eyes before. In anime. In Naruto.
"No way," he thought. "Are those Sharingan?"
His mouth opened and the first word came out clear and loud.
"Uchiha!"
The room went completely quiet.
Then the grandfather started laughing. He lifted Mandy high in the air.
"My grandson is a true Uchiha!" the old man shouted. "Everyone! Today is a festival day for the Uchiha clan! The war is ending and my grandson's first word is Uchiha!"
People cheered. Some cried happy tears.
Mandy looked around at all the celebrating faces. At the armor with fan symbols. At his grandfather's red spinning eyes.
"I'm in the Naruto world," he realized. "And I'm an Uchiha."
His second life was about to begin.