章節 1: Chapter 1 Unfamiliar Familiar World

As the man rose to his feet, his blade hung loosely in his grasp. Bloodied and battered, yet alive. This man was Ren Arden, the kingdom's knight commander, the one and only magic swordsman and the right-hand man of the king.

He had a messy appearance with his dirtied brown hair and hazel eyes, he looked no older than 28.

But in reality, he was originally a 19 year old mechanical engineering student from a planet called earth, that had no magical knowledge, but very scientifically advanced. He was an ordinary young man who enjoyed boxing as a hobby that had unfortunately died In a tragic accident, he was a fan of reading various manga and novels and yet just like in many, He had died and was reincarnated into a fantasy world with swords and magic called Uptonia, a world not very advanced in science but had the typical array of magical abilities that Ren found fascinating.. Due to his fascination he immediately became obsessed with the idea of becoming a mage, but the idea of wielding a sword AND using magic was way more enticing to him.

But here he stood, before an undefeated force, the black and white flame dragon, one of the strongest dragons In existence. Ren had pushed his luck and had tried to fight this being.

However Ren wasn't the only one injured, the beast was also wounded, missing an eye and one of its wings. As Ren readied himself to burn his remaining life force to defeat this opponent, the dragon wasted no time in charging directly at him, as Ren swiftly dodged underneath the maw of the beast he swung his sword in the air, creating a beautiful arc coated In pale moonlight as it slashed the lower jaw of the dragon.

Releasing a roar the dragon stood on its hind legs as it unleashed a devastating roar, setting nearby trees and greenery aflame In its black and white flare. But Ren was unphased, he adapted to his situation and followed through with "Arden Swordsmanship Page 12 : Dance of the Hunters Moon" as he uttered these words he began to flicker around, his graceful figure reminiscent of a ballerina before the golden moon, the dark trees burnt to ash began to glow as did the clouds as Ren began to spin around as he slashed at the beasts weak points.

Coughing up some blood as he held himself up, Ren eyed the beast as its remaining white eye glowed with a burning ferocity, "Pathetic human, disturbing the peace for no merit aside from your fated end", Ren replied with a cocky smile "pfft who are you calling pathetic? You can't even fly anymore".

The dragon, shocked by the man's ability to laugh despite being at deaths door, was strangely intrigued.

As Ren braced himself for the beast's onslaught.. before he knew it the fight had raged on for two whole days.

Before the rising sun, a man kneeled. His arm mangled as the other was nowhere to be seen, his face a mess of blood and bone. Missing a leg as he leaned on his sheathe, yet before him lay the corpse of an elder dragon, Kokuenryū the dragon of black and white flame. But the man, Ren. The moonlight swordmaster, the first magical swordsman and the worlds strongest warrior. The first man to reach pinnacle tier swordsmanship while also being a 9th circle mage, his knowledge and wisdom knew no bounds. He lay defeated for the first time in his life.

…

"Huh?.. am I not dead?" Ren thought aloud as he felt himself submerged in some sort of strange material, as he pushed and forced his way out he found he was submerged in.. sand? "Were there any deserts in uptonia?" Ren thought

*what the hell is a desert*

"who said that?" Ren looked around, confused as he searched for the person the voice belonged to

*I said that.. I haven't clue what is going on*

As the boy stood up and dusted himself off, he then looked down at his body and saw he was dressed in a burlap looking cloth as well as some beige cloth and a torn black robe, he could also see his thin wrists a testament to malnourishment and lack of care. His short stature implied he was either very young or just unlucky. he tried to get a grasp of the situation, there is a strange voice in his head and he feels shorter, skinnier and less developed. "What the FUCK happened" he said aloud, clearly voicing his discomfort to the voice.

*Asking me like I know, as if I didn't just voice my confusion, insolent human, I haven't a clue of what is going on.*

"No need to be a prick like, I'm obviously confused, I'm in an unfamiliar place, with a weirdo in my ear, I feel small and fragile, I can't feel my magical power, and there's a WEIRDO IN MY EAR". Ren thought aloud just for the voice to hear

*Shut up, foul human.*

Ren scoffed and sat down, despite just waking up he felt exhausted just as..

A sudden influx of memories invaded his mind, visions of a beautiful young woman with black hair and a handsome young man with white hair smiling calling out the name "Riku" repeatedly. As Ren clutched his head as veins were clearly visible as his head began to redden, his eyes went bloodshot as he clawed at his head, his face buried in the sand as he screamed, but his efforts were to no avail, the torturous headache was undying, his mind being fried more and more he tried to fight it.

During all of this, that bastard voice began to laugh in pure joy as he watched the young child cry and scream in torment had blood began to spew from his nose and even his eyes.. after what felt like years, which in reality was only a few minutes. Ren stood up, blood streaming down his face and cheeks as he looked braindead, eyes lost their focus and drool coming from his mouth.

…

An hour or so later, Ren regained his consciousness, but the slight migraine remained.. "that was.. memories? Implanted memories?" Ren said with slight discomfort in his voice, the dried blood felt uncomfortable on his skin as he itched.

It seemed he had been given the memories of the body he was currently inhabiting, this was definitely not uptonia, but a world that felt awfully familiar yet so strange. The boys name was Riku Kuroshiro, an 8 year old boy and the last remaining member of the Kuroshiro clan, despite him being a lowly being amongst the rest of the clan, the swordsmanship only the noble family could learn was awfully similar to his Arden swordsmanship, therefore he could easily disguise it as that.. Kuroshiro clan was a clan not known throughout the world yet somewhat known by local villages for their good looks and elegant swordsmanship,

"heh, I fit right in eh?" Riku thought to himself with a smug look on his face

*pfft, with that ugly mug? You look like a fool.. maybe a bastard child?*

Riku's face became flustered at being mocked by the voice, but this gave him some insight, the memories he saw, there was no such voice from what he could tell. Could this be something that only came into existence because of him? The voice sounded familiar but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

As for his parents, he saw they died from the memories. Recently too, around a day before I took control of this body, the killer was someone I knew too, someone I used to idolise, someone I thought was the coolest character in my favourite manga, Naruto. It was Obito Uchiha, completely unwarranted. His family did no wrong, obito just felt the need to sweep over his families territory. He probably didn't even hesitate or stop to think that a family lived here.

As for why Riku was stuck under sand, well his entire clan grounds was submerged under a sea of sand, well wasn't that great. The family of the body he inhabited lay as suffocated corpses directly under his feet.

*wow, that's a never a pleasant sight..*

"You don't say.." Riku mutters under his breath as he gathers his bearings. "No point sitting around I guess, I'm gonna starve to death I've gotta find something to eat at least"

*how empathetic. Empathy costs nothing you know?*

"Shut up, they weren't MY family" Riku shot back at the arrogant voice.

…

As Riku traversed the endless desert, he found absolutely nothing but more and more expanses of sand. However during this time he had plenty of time to adjust and think about his situation.

What Riku had gathered so far was.. he was a Jinchuriki (maybe), he thought this because of how fast he healed and the voice in his head, however the voice had no clue what that even was.. so maybe there was a beast sealed within, but not a tailed beast which was slightly discouraging but the fact that his wounds and fatigue all regenerated quickly was a sign that the beast was nothing to scoff at, and thus while traversing the scorching sand he at least tried to get familiar with it

"What's your name?" Riku asked softly

*…*

"No reply?? Did you forget or something?" Riku asked sarcastically

*Obviously not. A superior life form such as I has no reason to answer such a lowly being.* the beast scoffed

"How come you only started talking now that the old Riku died and I'm now inhabiting his body?"

*I was brought here after death also, it's honestly surprising that you haven't figured out who I am, a typical senseless human. To think I was defeated by someone as lowly as this pathetic human.*

…

Riku stopped in his tracks, "you.. were brought here too? Are you not of this world? And what do you mean defeated by someone as moronic as this.. don't tell me.."

*yes.. you fool do you now understand?*

…

Riku was dumbfounded, "Kokuenryū..? The black and white flame dragon?"

*in the flesh, well I suppose not.. In the spirit?*

"How the hell are you here?" Riku asked dumbfoundedly "and that was terrible by the way"

*Im not sure, probably the same reason you're here.. and how are you so small and fragile yet retain such insolence? definitely not the man that defeated me..*

Riku left it there and continued walking on.

A few hours later, his stamina and energy still at their peaks thanks to the benefits of Kokuenryū. At this point he found absolutely nothing. No people, no houses, no nothing other than just sand. Despite his energy and stamina being topped up, his hunger and thirst were still an issue, and his body not having had food or water for over a day was taking its toll.

Around 20 minutes later he stumbled upon something, signs of life. Well not really, corpses littered the ground as blood stained the golden sand, unfortunately they seemed like old corpses, which means the battle was not recently fought. But, it was something at least.

As Riku walked down and inspected the corpses

*they're dead*

Riku didn't even bother replying to Kokuenryū's obvious analysis, Riku reached out and grabbed one of the swords held by a corpse, it was rusty and old but it was the only sword that was usable, and thus he had a way to actually defend himself, with Ren's vast knowledge of swordsmanship he knew of a few ways that could turn even the most fragile of objects into deadly weapons that could withstand a thousand good hits via the slight of hand and perfect timing.

Riku would've taken some clothes if they weren't all rotten and absolutely rancid to the nose, however he made sure to grab one of the ninja headbands worn by one of the corpses, by the looks of it.. it belonged to Sunagakure, well Riku figured that since he was in a desert in the Naruto world but seeing it in person filled him with an intense excitement, there was once a period in his long life where he would daydream nonstop about being a ninja in the Naruto world, and now he could actually fulfill that dream.. well if he actually managed to escape this desert alive.

Right at that moment, Kokuenryū informed Riku

*I can sense 4 life forces behind that tent, by the looks of it some kind of bird?*

Riku smiled as the dragon actively helped him, but figured that if he died, so would the dragon so it was only natural he helped.

Riku slowly approached the backside of the tent where he was met with 4 large vultures eating the corpse of a long deceased man, Riku ducked down to hide his presence, almost 20 years of experience in the battlefield, he knew how to disguise his presence as he slowly approached, right as he was 1 meter away, he lunged forward hoping to slash all 4 with one swing, however. Being used to his adult size he misjudged his abilities and missed horribly, only slicing the wing of one vulture.

But this did not leave him discouraged, he quickly danced around the vulture as it was unable to fly away, the vulture tried to flee but Riku's onslaught was too much and the vulture inevitably fell.

The vulture was naïve and didn't register the weak and malnourished body of the child as any danger, but as correct as he was, the power of being a Jinchuriki was overwhelming, the physical benefits were enough, despite Kokuenryū's power being at a measly 6%, Riku was still able to survive from that alone.

As Riku dragged the corpse of the vulture he had realised.. "how am I going to cook this?" There was no fire, there was no oven, he had no way to cook it.

*if only you could breathe fire like me* Kokuenryū added salt to the wound with his snarky remark

"Yeah if only.." Riku replied with a slump, and so Riku grabbed a couple of the rusty swords and some of the dry tarp from the tents, and slammed down as hard as he possibly could with two swords onto each other, the sparks were tiny but there were sparks.

After a few tries Riku had a small kindling, as he sprinted over to grab more flammable items like the bloody clothes and more tarp, then using some of the leftover material and supporting beams for the tents he crafted a spit and trammel , which was something he learned in his mechanical engineering days as a student, as Riku wiped the sweat off his forehead, Kokuenryū chimed in

*That was impressive! Where did you learn to do that?*

"In my first life" Riku said without thinking

*first life?* Kokuenryū asked dumbfoundedly

"Yeah this isn't actually the first time I've been reincarnated funnily enough, I died at the age of 19 in a world where there was no magic, no swords, no dragons, just humans. And we were very advanced scientifically and mechanically. Then I died in an accident which caused me to get reincarnated into Ren Arden and yeah you know the rest from there."

*thats.. interesting* Kokuenryū said, a hint of curiosity in his voice.

"As a matter of fact, the world we're in right now was a popular story back in my first life, somehow it became reality, that's probably why I was able to adapt so fast." Riku said, as if it was the most normal thing ever

Kokuenryū was dumbfounded

*we're in a story?*

"Probably not, I think this is some kind of alternate universe" Riku then went on to explain pretty much everything he knew about Naruto and the fact that Kokuenryū was pretty much his own tailed beast.

As Riku took the cooked vulture off the spit, ripping a leg off and digging in, somehow the vulgar creature tasted like heaven on earth, maybe because he hadn't eaten in a while but hey! He wasn't hungry anymore.

But.. unknown to Riku, his fire had attracted a group of people he didn't want to attract.