It was the familiar quiet and dark room, outside the curtained windows the sun slowly rising and first rays pouring all around the village.
In the room and on the empty bed, a figure covered in dust appeared suddenly, sitting up straight immediately and looking around with wide eyes.
"Was that all a dream?" Seeing the familiar room, Isamu couldn't help but mutter in a slightly emotional voice. Unlike any other dream before, it was so real, and he remembered every moment of that dream.
"Huh… No…" Just as Isamu was having a hard time believing that it was just a dream, he looked down and noticed his dusty clothes, even his face and hair having some dust over them.
But he noticed something even more amazing at this time—on his right forearm, a mark that was gradually dimming and disappearing.
On his forearm was a small but strange mark—two spirals twisting inside a black circle. One spiral was bright red with three black dots shaped like small commas, spinning slowly. The other spiral was of a blue wave, curving like the sea, with golden tips that looked like claws or sharp wind. Both the red and blue moved in opposite directions, glowing faintly and getting dimmer every second.
Soon, Isamu saw the mark disappearing completely, his forearm smooth with nothing on it. But as it disappeared, his head shook as some information poured into his mind out of nowhere.
"Crossgate Seal, huh," muttered Isamu as he gazed at his forearm, the information in his head making all things crystal clear.
Eighteen years ago, when he traversed to this world, his soul, during the dimensional travel, absorbed some dimensional energy which, after arriving in this Shinobi world, tried to adapt to it. It not only adapted to this world in 18 years but linked him to another world at the same time—this was the main function of dimensional energy.
But linking to another world caused all the dimensional energy attached to his soul to be exhausted. (Author's Note: I wrote this sentence to put a cap on more worlds getting involved in the story—adding more worlds will only cause serious imbalance in power scaling.)
Now that there was a stable connection between two worlds, it didn't require dimensional energy to travel between them, and chakra could serve as an alternative as well.
To give an analogy: dimensional energy worked to create a tunnel between two places which were impossible to connect, and now even normal energy (chakra) could be used to travel through the tunnel to both sides.
According to the information in his head, urging the chakra in his body, he could activate the Crossgate Seal and travel to the other world whenever he liked. But it was recommended to let the seal recharge on its own—over 10 hours slowly using a small amount of his chakra to recharge, rather than all at once and leaving him vulnerable and exhausted when he arrives in the other world.
Of course, if his chakra amount could be improved to a very high level, then this drawback would naturally go away. There was one thing worth mentioning—that he could only use his own chakra to activate the seal and travel to the other world.
Another condition was he could not take another living being with him to the other world; the dimensional energy had only made him special enough to travel between the two worlds.
The time of both worlds was linked, and there was no upper limit to the time he could stay in either world, but there was a lower limit of staying ten hours for the seal to recharge. Again, this lower limit could be lowered as his chakra amount increased.
"Guess that early retirement plan can be scrapped, haha." Muttered Isamu as he let out a little laugh, the appearance of the seal a huge opportunity for him, who had given up on improving his strength to a level which would grant him absolute security.
But he needed to work hard—and ten times more than before now. What magic two different power systems could cause depended on his efforts.
With a new resolve, Isamu, looking much more radiant, quickly took a shower to wash off the island's grime. Eating a few pancakes and donning his Shinobi attire, he headed towards the Ninja Academy.