Chapter 2 – The Dead Leaf Stirs
Naruto Uzumaki had never been chosen for anything.
He wasn't picked for squad missions. He wasn't trained like the others. Even the ramen shop closed early when he walked past.
Now he had a glowing mark on his hand.
He sat at the edge of an old wooden bridge in a quiet corner of Konoha, staring at the blue seal that pulsed under his skin. The same shape that burned into everyone else—young, old, powerful, weak.
But Naruto was still alone.
He hadn't spoken to anyone since the announcement. No one told him what to do. There was no teacher, no team. Just that voice in the sky:
"Preliminary matches begin in 24 hours. Failure to comply will result in system erasure."
Naruto didn't even know what that meant. Erased?
He clenched his fist. "I don't get it. Why me?"
The wind didn't answer.
But the seal did.
It pulsed. Once. Twice. Then—
"PLAYER SELECTED: Naruto Uzumaki. MATCH FOUND."
Text appeared in the air in front of him, like a floating scroll. His first match.
Opponent: Yori Tetsuka. Genin. Hidden Rain.
Location: Forest Arena – Zone 6.
Time: 14 hours, 17 minutes.
Naruto's eyes widened. He stood up fast, nearly slipping off the bridge. A real fight? A ninja from another village?
"Yori…? Who the heck is that?" he muttered.
But it didn't matter. He'd been dragged into something bigger than him—and he wasn't going to run. Not now. Not again.
Far away in the Hidden Rain, Yori Tetsuka sat sharpening three kunai.
He was calm. Cold. Precise.
His village had taught him that emotions had no place in battle. The war had made him cruel. The system would make him worse.
He stared at the match list.
"Uzumaki? They're sending me a kid?"
He didn't laugh. He just stood up and walked out of the bunker. Rain poured down, mixing with the blood on the ground from training matches earlier that day.
One more fight. One more step toward survival.
Meanwhile, in the Hokage's office, Tsunade slammed her fist through the desk.
"What the hell is this system doing? Even Naruto's been chosen?"
Shizune stood quietly. "It's not targeting by skill. It's marking everyone. We can't stop it."
Jiraiya entered the room, cloak soaked in travel mud. "I've been chasing whispers of Madara for months. This system isn't just a jutsu—it's alive. It reacts, thinks, and locks people in place."
Tsunade gritted her teeth. "He's forcing a generation to fight each other like weapons."
Jiraiya placed a scroll on her desk. "It's worse than that. I found what's left of a match arena outside Grass Country. The loser didn't die. He didn't even have a body left. The system pulled out his chakra, his memory, his jutsu—then discarded the shell."
Tsunade sat back down, fists clenched. "And Naruto's going in alone…"
Back at the training fields, Naruto was panting.
He'd spent hours throwing shuriken. Practicing his clones. Trying to remember what Iruka-sensei had told him before graduation.
None of it felt like enough.
"I'm not smart like Shikamaru. Not strong like Kiba. I've never even left the village," he mumbled.
The sun was setting.
Then a voice echoed in his mind.
"You are not alone."
Naruto blinked. "Who—?"
A soft glow flickered inside him. The seal on his hand pulsed again. But this time, it wasn't just the system.
It was… something deeper. A warmth. A stirring. Like a giant creature waking in its sleep.
The Nine-Tails.
Kurama didn't speak. Not yet. But Naruto felt the pressure of chakra build quietly in his belly.
The fox had noticed the tournament.
At midnight, all over the world, battlefields began to form.
System arenas grew like crystal domes over valleys, lakes, forests, and mountains. Shinobi from every nation stood ready—or afraid.
Some, like Itachi, simply waited, eyes unreadable.
Others, like Sasuke, stood alone, thinking only of strength.
13 hours left.
Naruto stared into the night sky.
He didn't know who Yori was.
He didn't know how strong he needed to be.
But he knew one thing.
This time, they wouldn't ignore him.
"I'll win," he whispered. "You'll see. I'm not just a nobody anymore."
The mark on his hand glowed once more—acknowledging him.