Beyond the borders of the Land of Water, the scars of the Second Shinobi World War still lingered, etched deep into the land.
Amidst the rare stillness of a forest finally granted peace, the silence was shattered by a thunderous roar, as though a violent explosion had erupted in the heavens themselves.
The clouds above scattered violently, and a vast, pitch-black rift tore open in the sky.
From the depths of that abyss shot forth a brilliant ray of light, which condensed into the figure of a young man suspended in the air.
An aura surged out of him—immense and alien, far beyond anything belonging to the Hidden Rain Village. Though it flared for only a fleeting instant before fading, it was impossible for those nearby to dismiss what they had felt.
From within the void emerged a man of commanding presence. His face was stern, his bearing regal, his body wreathed in shifting radiance, as though clad in threads of divine light.
Even from afar, the weight of his existence pressed down upon all who looked at him.
The suffocating dread emanating from him was overwhelming. Not even standing before Hanzo of the Salamander—the iron-fisted ruler of the Land of Rain—could compare to this crushing pressure.
Thunder cracked and flashed around the tear in the heavens, each bolt splitting the sky, a sight both dreadful and awe-inspiring.
At last, the young man floating high above opened his eyes. Lightning seemed to arc within his gaze, flashing dangerously.
"So… this is the Immortal Realm?"
Raiden Takuma's eyes swept quickly across the land. All around him stretched only ruin, the desolation of battlefields long ravaged, not a trace of the grandeur or purity he had expected of immortals.
He noticed the people scattered below, each wearing a headband marked with strange symbols. Recognition stirred faintly within him, awakening memories he had long since sealed away.
Once, he had been nothing more than an ordinary man on Blue Star. By chance, he had been bound to the Devouring System, which carried him into the cultivation world. There, he consumed countless formidable foes, seizing everything they possessed.
Step by step, through endless tribulations, he rose from the Foundation Establishment Stage to the Mahayana Stage. In time, he became a leader of the righteous path, a grandmaster of his sect, revered by the entire realm.
But the cultivation world was, in the end, only a secondary realm. To reach the Mahayana Stage was to stand at the threshold of the void—to break free and ascend to the Celestial Realm.
Yet what he saw before him was far from what he had envisioned.
The symbols engraved on those headbands tugged at his buried memories. He could not bring himself to believe it fully, but a dreadful suspicion took root in his heart.
"Devouring System," Raiden asked in a low voice, "have we… entered the world of Naruto?"
"Yes, Host," the system's mechanical voice confirmed without hesitation.
"What kind of joke is this? Shouldn't we have ascended to the Celestial Realm? Why in the world have we landed here?"
His ascension had gone smoothly—or so he thought. The Celestial Realm held mysteries he had long yearned to explore. To suddenly find himself hurled into this shinobi world was something he could not yet comprehend.
"Host," the system explained calmly, "during your ascension, you were struck by the world's most lethal poison—Mandrake Venom. It threatened to drag you into unconsciousness. I was forced to act, drawing upon the power of your ascension to suppress the toxin. This prevented you from being lost forever within the endless river of the void."
Raiden's eyes narrowed. He turned his senses inward, and indeed—something was wrong. A malignant force writhed within his body, locked away in his lower abdomen. The system's power was suppressing it, holding the Mandrake's venom at bay.
"Renji… damn you!"
Renji had once been his sworn brother and most trusted subordinate in the cultivation world, a Tribulation-Crossing master. Only Renji controlled access to the sect's treasury—and within that treasury lay the Mandrake poison, the sole thing capable of threatening Raiden's life.
Betrayal was the only answer.
But now was no time to dwell on vengeance. He had drifted into the Naruto world, and his first priority was to purge the Mandrake venom from his body.
After all, he was originally a man of Blue Star—and Naruto had been one of the three most famous anime in that world. He still remembered much of its story, its characters, and its future.