"Cough! Cough!"
Zenji doubled over, hacking violently as motes of blue light flew from his mouth.
"Where... where am I? Why does everything hurt so much?"
A twisting agony wracked his entire body. Beneath him lay damp grass, and before his eyes stretched what appeared to be a primeval forest. Towering trees loomed overhead while a faint mist drifted through the undergrowth.
Then, without warning, a cool sensation flooded his mind, easing the pain that had consumed him. The chaotic energy tearing through his body suddenly... balanced.
But even as the pain faded, he could feel something deeply wrong. His cells were being drained of their vitality, squeezed dry despite the equilibrium. At this rate, even if the energy remained stable, cellular necrosis was inevitable.
In other words—death.
"What the hell is going on?" Zenji's thoughts raced. "I was just watching Jujutsu Kaisen..."
He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to make sense of the chaos. Somehow, he could perceive objects floating within his consciousness—a purple-black sphere of light, a familiar small stone, and a slip of paper.
The Tiger Talisman? The thought came unbidden.
It was an octagonal stone no thicker than a finger, carved with the image of two white tigers joined at the center. A gap resembling the Taiji symbol split them down the middle.
This version was far smaller than a normal Tiger Talisman—because it had been his pendant in his previous life.
Among all the Talismans, Zenji had always preferred the Tiger over the Dog's immortality or the Horse's healing. Balance between Yin and Yang had always appealed to him more. That's why he'd worn this particular pendant.
Now, impossibly, it seemed to have become real—and it was the only thing keeping the wild energy in his body from tearing him apart.
The second familiar object was the paper. Four words were written on its back:
[Book of Ages]
This had also been one of his pendants—just a paper model with those words printed on it. But like the Talisman, it too had become real, though its power felt far weaker. Only a few lines of text appeared on its surface:
[Descent]
[Zenji collapsed in a forest...]
[His flesh and spirit underwent transformation. Two subtle energies were born within him, and under the influence of an external force, a miraculous fusion occurred, giving rise to a new power.]
[According to external information, this power is called...]
[Chakra!]
"Chakra?" Zenji's blood ran cold. "This is the Naruto world!"
Of all places to end up, this was far from ideal. The world of shinobi was chaotic at the best of times, and death came far too easily.
Forcing his eyes open, Zenji found his vision swimming. The once-clear forest had become blurred and doubled. Blue light outlined every object while their actual forms grew indistinct.
"What's happening to me?"
He looked down at his hands—or tried to. His familiar fingers flickered before his eyes, replaced by something else entirely.
Clusters of tiny blue dots filled his vision, magnifying like cellular structures. They pulsed in and out of existence, sometimes crystal clear, sometimes vanishing completely. And through it all, he could see chakra continuously gathering within his body.
Ordinary ninjas needed to perform hand seals to mold chakra. Only a select few—those with special bloodlines, unique organs, or the Tailed Beasts themselves—possessed such massive reserves that chakra generated within them constantly.
But right now, Zenji's cells and spiritual energy were producing chakra at a frantic, uncontrolled rate. His physical and mental energies were being wrung dry like water from a sponge.
The two energies mixed and flowed through his meridians, transforming into chakra. The massive amount gathered there, enveloping his cells in reverse—but without any technique to convert it into vitality or offensive power, it simply... corroded him from within.
Did I transmigrate physically? Zenji's mind went blank.
A normal adult possessed roughly thirty-six trillion cells. But people native to the Naruto world had over one hundred thirty trillion, their bodies specifically designed to generate physical and spiritual energy for chakra production.
This was an entirely different biological structure. For natives, producing chakra was as natural as breathing. For Zenji, it had become a death sentence.
He opened his mouth carefully. The pain had weakened considerably, and he no longer spewed those mysterious blue motes—whether they were tissue fragments or individual cells, he couldn't say.
But the countdown hadn't stopped.
The Tiger Talisman was keeping him alive, but only barely. Because it had formed from a mere pendant rather than the genuine article, its power was diminished. It couldn't fully balance the forces raging inside him.
Sitting on the damp grass, Zenji's expression grew grim.
"There's still hope," he muttered. "This is the Naruto world. As long as my soul survives, resurrection is possible. I just need to find a way."
He let out a long breath, forcing himself to calm down. Then he closed his eyes and focused on the objects in his mind.
These were his lifelines—his cheat abilities. Whether he could solve this crisis quickly enough depended entirely on them.
He directed his perception toward the purple-black sphere of light. His consciousness merged with it instantly, and a peculiar space unfolded before him.
Countless items manifested as special lights, divided into two distinct categories.
The first consisted of complex patterns formed by luminous lines, floating in the void above.
The second consisted of glowing orbs of varying sizes, each radiating a different hue. Zenji could feel unique wills pulsing within them—fragments of consciousness, perhaps.
"The entire Jujutsu Kaisen world?" A smile crept across his face. "I hit the jackpot."
It wasn't truly the entire world, but it contained all of its essence.
The two types of light represented different things. The patterns were knowledge—Innate Cursed Techniques, special moves, bloodline abilities, even information about Cursed Spirits and Cursed Objects. Everything that had appeared in the original story and left an impression was recorded here.
The glowing orbs, meanwhile, contained soul information belonging to the more prominent characters.
"Incarnation," Zenji breathed, staring intently at one pattern that resembled a humanoid form. "If I can recreate that technique using chakra, I can survive."
But before he could examine it further, a commotion erupted from the outside world.
A thick fog rolled in from the surrounding woods, blanketing the clearing in white.
At the very beginning, before the Tiger Talisman had taken effect, Zenji's body had already begun showing signs of chakra-fication under the violent transformation and energy erosion. The change was similar to what happened with Tailed Beasts—yet not quite the same.
His eyes snapped open, glowing faintly blue. A pale membrane covered them, and through this new vision, everything around him dissolved into particles of chakra light.
The surrounding mist simplified into tiny white dots, then became transparent altogether.
With a single glance, he locked onto a location where chakra was circulating and condensing. A three-person squad.
This new vision granted him extraordinary perception, but it came at a cost—his normal sight was compromised. Half-blind to physical details, he couldn't make out any features of the three figures.
He had no idea who they were.