Gojo Yoru was no stranger to this feeling.
Before a person dies from sudden cardiac arrest, the body gives warnings.
When staying up too late, sometimes one cannot fall asleep at all; instead, one becomes increasingly hyperactive, experiencing a dry mouth and rising body temperature.
Even more terrifying is that the heartbeat becomes very fast. That sensation of palpitations and chest tightness creates a fear that if one falls asleep, they might never wake up again.
Gojo Yoru had experienced this feeling many times in his previous life, but he was young and didn't take it seriously.
Now that this feeling had struck again, Gojo Yoru couldn't help but feel a wave of terror.
Without any hesitation, Gojo Yoru immediately got up to drink water. He didn't dare to gulp it down but took small sips.
Once the dry sensation in his mouth alleviated slightly, Gojo Yoru returned to his room with the water pitcher. He lay back on the bed, trying to empty his mind to let his heartbeat return to normal.
However, no matter what he did, Gojo Yoru's heart rate did not slow down in the slightest.
In this silent night, Gojo Yoru's room sounded as if someone were beating a drum.
Lifting his shirt, his beating chest made it seem as though the heart inside wanted to drill its way out of his body.
His hyperactive mental state, along with the intermittent spikes in body temperature and thirst, made it impossible for Gojo Yoru to sleep. He could only constantly boil and drink water.
Gojo Yoru even took several cold showers, but it didn't help slow things down.
This situation continued until noon the next day without disappearing.
Disregarding his half-hour nap yesterday, Gojo Yoru had not slept for a full thirty hours.
Yet, Gojo Yoru didn't feel uncomfortable at all.
In his previous life, after going without sleep for so long, even if he were mentally hyperactive, he would have felt the tension in his brain's nerves, and his eyeballs would be bloodshot or even congested.
But in this life, Gojo Yoru didn't have those symptoms.
In fact, once he calmed down, he realized his energy was incredibly abundant, like a perpetual motion machine.
Clearly, this was the effect brought about by the violent beating of his heart, the organ responsible for pumping blood.
This situation lasted for a full seven days.
Gojo Yoru also suffered from insomnia for seven days, not closing his eyes for nearly two hundred hours.
Moreover, during these seven days, Gojo Yoru didn't eat anything at all; he only drank a large amount of water.
It wasn't that he didn't want to eat, but that he physically couldn't.
Miraculously, after seven days of fasting, his body showed no changes and remained full of energy.
Gojo Yoru's mood also gradually shifted from initial fear to excitement.
If it were sudden death, after seven days without sleep, he would have been dead and buried long ago.
But since he hadn't died, it meant this wasn't sudden death, but rather his body undergoing an unknown transformation.
Perhaps... his Cheat was arriving!
Was it an unknown Kekkei Genkai of the Gojo family awakening in his generation?
Or was it a special ability that traveled with him from his past life, or perhaps even the main reason for his transmigration?
The feeling akin to sudden death lasted until noon on August 28th, Konoha Year 30, before slowly fading away.
"Finally ov..."
Just as his heartbeat returned to a normal frequency and the low-grade fever and dry mouth disappeared, before Gojo Yoru could finish his sigh or check his body for changes, his vision suddenly went black. He collapsed onto the bed and fell into a deep sleep.
He didn't know how long he slept. It wasn't until his stomach acid churned with hunger that Gojo Yoru was pulled out of his deep slumber.
"So tired..."
Opening his eyes, Gojo Yoru didn't want to get up at all.
He hadn't felt this kind of exhaustion from oversleeping in a long time.
If not for the ceiling and the surrounding environment reminding him, Gojo Yoru would have thought the past six years were just a long dream.
Turning sideways, he opened the drawer of the bedside table and took out a box. Inside were two rows of six pills—these were the Naruto world's compressed biscuits and mana recovery potions: Soldier Pills.
One wasn't enough; Gojo Yoru ate three whole Soldier Pills. It felt as if his body had been hollowed out, and only then did he recover some strength.
Getting out of bed, he went to a full-length mirror. Gojo Yoru took off his clothes and turned around to examine his body in the reflection. After finding no changes in his appearance, he immediately sat down cross-legged to refine Chakra, wanting to see if there were any internal changes.
Thump—
A sound like a beating war drum exploded in Gojo Yoru's ears, his mind, and the depths of his soul.
An image of his heart chamber was suddenly projected into Gojo Yoru's mind, flashing by in an instant.
Gojo Yoru snapped his eyes open, his face full of astonishment.
If he wasn't mistaken, the heart inside the chamber seemed to be... black?
"Could that be my heart?!" Gojo Yoru thought to himself.
To verify his conjecture, Gojo Yoru closed his eyes again to refine Chakra.
But the image from earlier did not appear again.
Instead, just as his physical energy and spiritual energy were about to merge, a special energy suddenly surged out from his cells, forcefully joining the fusion of the two energies.
Then, a wisp of black Chakra, formed from the fusion of three energies, appeared in Gojo Yoru's abdomen.
"Black Chakra... could this be my Cheat?"
Gojo Yoru opened his eyes again, then formed hand seals in an attempt to mobilize that wisp of black Chakra.
The black Chakra didn't seem different from ordinary Chakra. Guided by the hand seals, it traveled along his meridian pathways to Gojo Yoru's right palm.
Perhaps the amount was insufficient, or perhaps Gojo Yoru's Chakra control wasn't up to par yet, but the black Chakra failed to manifest outside his body.
And within just a few seconds, this wisp of black Chakra disappeared inside Gojo Yoru's body.
With such a short time, Gojo Yoru couldn't determine the special properties of the black Chakra at all.
So, Gojo Yoru closed his eyes and continued to refine Chakra.
The special energy surged out again, mixing with physical and spiritual energy to form wisps of black Chakra.
When Gojo Yoru could no longer extract physical and spiritual energy from his cells, this special energy went straight for the main nest, merging into the blue cyclone of Chakra.
Like ink spreading on white paper, parts of the Chakra gradually turned from blue to black.
By the time Gojo Yoru could no longer extract the special energy from his cells, one-third of the Chakra in his body had turned black.
"Let's see what kind of effect you actually have!"
Gojo Yoru stood up. With a mix of anticipation and nervousness, he formed hand seals, mobilized the black Chakra in his body, and began to execute a technique.
Since extracting his first wisp of Chakra at age three, Gojo Yoru had now grasped the basics of the Three Body Technique taught at the Ninja Academy, and this vacation he had started training in C-rank Five Elements Ninjutsu.
Naturally, he couldn't perform Five Elements Ninjutsu at home, so Gojo Yoru wanted to use the black Chakra to perform the Three Body Technique.
The result was... absolutely nothing happened!
He couldn't create a phantom clone, and his body's form didn't change at all...
This discovery made Gojo Yoru happy rather than alarmed.
The inability to perform the technique meant that this black Chakra was different from ordinary Chakra. He didn't find anything wrong with it; it just meant that its 'special effect' was hidden deep.
And mystery implied... power!
Gojo Yoru ate another Soldier Pill, then opened the glass door to the balcony. Looking at the hazy dawn outside, he formed hand seals with both hands, intending to turn into a blur and leap out.
Suddenly, Gojo Yoru's movements paused slightly. He recalled successfully moving the black Chakra to his palm earlier, so he mobilized the black Chakra again, gathering it in his feet. He prepared to use the Konoha Body Flicker Technique, a D-rank technique also taught at the Ninja Academy.
Just like with the Three Body Technique, Gojo Yoru did not turn into a blur and vanish. However, he felt a sensation of stepping into empty space beneath his feet.
Looking down, Gojo Yoru's pupils constricted violently.
He saw that his feet were currently like they were sinking into a swamp; his calves had submerged into the balcony floor.
But there was no sensation of pressure or enclosure around his feet, and his body didn't continue to sink. It was as if his feet hadn't sunk into the balcony, but had merged with it.
Gojo Yoru slowly lifted his leg, pulling his right foot out of the balcony.
Looking at the balcony floor, which didn't have a single dent or mark, Gojo Yoru could no longer control his expression. He lowered his head, covered his face with both hands, and his shoulders trembled. He let out a sound—it was unclear if he was whimpering or suppressing a manic laugh.
After a long time, Gojo Yoru finally lowered his hands. He looked up at Konoha, which looked as beautiful as a painting under the illumination of the morning glow. It was as if he were recognizing this place where he had lived for six years for the first time. The grinning expression remained on his face as he couldn't help but spread his arms wide, laughing as he exclaimed:
"What a pretty village. Truly... a beautiful world!"