"A demon?" Uchiha Retsu's hand froze midair. "A demon? Then… what happened to it?"
The woman blinked at him in confusion. "Didn't… didn't you kill it, my lord?"
Seeing the deep frown on his face, she carefully described how he had appeared and what had happened afterward.
After Yuriko went out to help clean up the houses destroyed by the demon, Uchiha Retsu was left alone in the room, still unable to make sense of the situation.
"Demons could be some kind of powerful summoned beasts… but the sacrifices for Edo Tensei are supposed to be humans, right? I think?"
Even as he spoke, he wasn't confident in his own conclusion. After all, if demons truly existed, who was to say they couldn't be used as sacrifices?
He lowered his head and stared at his hands, which were covered in fine cracks. His brows knitted together.
This was undoubtedly an Edo Tensei body.
But this place was definitely not the ninja world he knew.
"Don't tell me… I crossed over again?" he muttered, his voice filled with shock and confusion.
Originally, he had been nothing more than an ordinary office worker on Earth. One stroke of unbelievable luck later, he had woken up in the world of shinobi—reborn as a boy of the Uchiha clan named Uchiha Retsu.
His original body had been the same age as Sasuke.
On the night of the clan massacre, he had been killed. Because he was too young and hadn't awakened the Sharingan, Root never took him away.
He had crossed over and revived while the ANBU were handling the corpses of the Uchiha clan.
Under the Third Hokage's protection, he entered the Ninja Academy, graduated smoothly, and became a shinobi.
He had no system. No golden finger.
But relying on his memories from his previous life, the changes brought by transmigration, and his own outstanding talent, he carved out his path.
Not long after entering the Academy, he awakened the Sharingan.
Two years after graduation, he successfully awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan.
However, he could not find a second pair of Mangekyō to fuse into the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan. To prevent blindness from overusing his eyes, he secretly sought out Orochimaru.
By offering hidden plot information from his memories, he persuaded Orochimaru to help him undergo Hashirama Cell fusion.
In the end, using the power of his Mangekyō, he successfully integrated the cells.
Not only did he gain Wood Release, but he also completely eliminated the risk of losing his eyesight.
Still, knowing just how absurdly powerful the Fourth Shinobi World War would become, he prepared in advance.
He created numerous Edo Tensei scrolls and hid them across the ninja world, ensuring that even if he died, he could resurrect himself.
His worries proved justified.
When the Fourth Great Ninja War broke out, he was able to hold his own against Edo Tensei Madara Uchiha thanks to his Mangekyō.
But when the Ten-Tails appeared, followed by Six Paths Obito and Six Paths Madara, he finally understood what it meant for gods to fight while mortals stepped aside.
In the end, during his battle against Six Paths Madara, his heart was pierced, and he died.
Even now, recalling it filled him with helplessness.
Before those cheat-level monsters, all his efforts felt like a cruel joke.
Uchiha Retsu was certain he was no longer in the ninja world.
The key lay in the surrounding natural energy.
As a transmigrator familiar with the plot, he naturally tried every possible way to learn senjutsu. After all, it could greatly amplify one's strength and even harm Ten-Tails Jinchūriki in the later stages.
Just moments ago, when he tried to sense the natural energy and enter Sage Mode, he noticed something strange.
The natural energy here felt completely different.
Unlike the quiet, subdued energy of the ninja world, this world's energy was extraordinarily active. It was ridiculously easy to sense and absorb, making Sage Mode almost effortless.
Such a fundamental change in a world's energy state was extremely rare.
He picked up the scroll in front of him and examined it carefully.
"It really is one of my Edo Tensei scrolls."
Still confused, he absentmindedly brushed his fingers across the paper, frowning in thought.
"There's still one way to confirm it."
He formed seals with both hands and slammed his right palm onto the ground.
"Summoning Technique!"
A black summoning array spread across the floor, yet nothing emerged from its center.
"I can't sense any contract…" Retsu murmured, staring at the array.
"If this isn't the Naruto world, then why is my scroll here?"
He unfolded the scroll and looked at the marking at the end. After thinking carefully, something suddenly clicked.
In the next instant, his black pupils turned crimson. Three tomoe spun rapidly, merging into the intricate pattern of the Mangekyō.
"Kamui!"
With a low shout, space twisted into a spiraling vortex before his eyes. His body was swallowed by the distortion, vanishing from the room.
In the blink of an eye, he entered a gray, hazy dimensional space.
This was Kamui's realm.
However, it wasn't originally his Mangekyō ability.
Both of his eyes possessed the same power: Amenouzume.
It was an extremely powerful technique. As long as he maintained contact with a target and continuously consumed ocular power, he could copy their dōjutsu.
The limitation was that he could only copy eye techniques.
But copied abilities could stack. New ones wouldn't overwrite old ones, and both eyes could store different techniques.
To copy an ability, he had to continuously activate Amenouzume while maintaining physical contact. The stronger the technique, the longer it took.
Fortunately, that time accumulated.
The Kamui he copied came from Kakashi's Sharingan.
It allowed him to open spatial barriers within his line of sight, teleporting enemy attacks or enemies themselves, and even transporting himself and others into this dimension.
Back then, he used the excuse of practicing taijutsu. Through countless close-quarters battles and physical collisions, he slowly accumulated enough contact time to complete the copy.
Sadly, he had never managed to copy Obito's right-eye Kamui.
Obito's intangibility always let him evade contact. Retsu couldn't even accumulate a full minute.
"Same as always," he murmured, gazing at the familiar Kamui space.
He walked quickly toward the stone platform in the corner where he used to store scrolls.
It was empty.
"Just as I thought… it's gone."
Understanding dawned on him immediately.
"So this Edo Tensei scroll… fell out of Obito's Kamui space?"
Most likely, after Obito's death, his Kamui dimension collapsed, causing the scroll to drop into this world.
The current Kamui space was a new one, recreated after Retsu's revival.
All of this was speculation.
But to him, being alive was enough.
As for whether he had crossed worlds again, he no longer cared. It wasn't his first time, after all.
"It's this Edo Tensei body that's the real problem."
He clenched his fist, feeling as though he were trapped inside a thick, heavy shell.
"I need to truly resurrect. This body may be immortal, but it can't unleash my full strength."
Whether because of the world itself or flaws in the sacrifice, this body severely restricted his power.
Activating Kamui once more, he returned to the room in an instant.
The room was furnished only with a crude wooden table and bed. There were no electrical appliances of any kind.
Through the hole in the wall, he could see villagers carrying broken beams and repairing houses. Some were tending to the injured.
Dust floated in the air, mixed with a faint scent of blood.
Judging from their clothing and the ugly chonmage hairstyles of the men, Retsu guessed this was ancient Japan.
This room had originally been Yuriko's storage room.
When the demon smashed her main house, one wall of this room had also been destroyed. Fortunately, the structure remained intact, making it the place where he "awoke."