The sky was on fire.
That is the only way I can describe it. Red clouds, black rain, and the ground shaking beneath my feet like the world was having a seizure. I remember thinking, This is it. This is how a nobody dies.
My name is Shin Anaro. Genin of Konohagakure. Number 017483 on the mission registry. I had no clan, no legendary father, no tailed beast inside my gut. I had a pair of worn out sandals, a dented kunai, and a heart that refused to stop pounding even when my brain had already accepted the end.
The Fourth Great Ninja War had been going on for weeks. Or months. I lost count after the first hundred bodies.
We were stationed at the border stronghold. A pile of mud and wood they called a fort. Ten of us. Then seven. Then four. Then me and a chunin who stopped talking after his jaw got crushed by a rock. I carried him for two miles before he went quiet. I left him under a tree. I do not know if he was dead or just sleeping. I did not check.
That was three days ago.
Now I stood in an open field littered with broken weapons and the smell of copper. The White Zetsu army had come like a tide. We pushed them back. Then the real monster appeared.
Madara Uchiha.
He floated above the battlefield like a a hungry monster descending to crush ants. His hair moved without wind. His eyes glowed red with those ripples that made my stomach turn. I had heard stories. The Ghost of the Uchiha. The man who fought Hashirama. I thought those were legends. Fairy tales to scare academy students.
He was real. And he was looking at me.
Not at the general behind me. Not at the jonin screaming orders. At me. A nobody with a dented kunai.
I felt it before I saw it. A pull. Like the air itself was being ripped away from my lungs. A meteor. He dropped a meteor. Not a fireball, not a jutsu. A whole piece of the sky.
Someone yelled, Run.
I ran. My legs burned. My heart screamed. I made it twenty meters.
The impact threw me like a rag doll. I remember flying. I remember my spine hitting a rock. I remember the taste of dirt and blood mixing in my mouth. I tried to push myself up. My left arm did not respond. I looked down. It was still there. Numb. Useless.
Madara landed in front of me. His feet touched the ground like he weighed nothing. He looked down at me the way a man looks at a broken toy. No anger. No pity. Just the quiet observation of something already discarded.
He said, You are still breathing.
I tried to answer. Blood came out instead.
He tilted his head. A tiny movement. Almost curious. He said, A leaf that does not know the tree has already fallen.
I did not understand what that meant. I still do not. But I remember the way his hand moved. Slow. Deliberate. Like he was reaching for a door handle. A wooden stick extended from his palm. A simple rod. No flash. No thunder.
He pushed it through my chest.
The pain did not come right away. There was a cold sensation first. Like swallowing ice water. Then warmth. Then nothing. I looked at the rod. It went in just below my ribs. I looked at Madara. His face was already turned away. He was walking to his next target.
I fell backward.
The sky was still on fire. I watched the red clouds spin above me. My ears rang. The sounds of battle became distant. Muffled. Like listening through water.
I thought about the ramen I never finished. The girl in my class whose name I never learned. The mission I never completed. All the small, stupid things that made up my small, stupid life.
I thought, This is it.
Then the world went black.
No light. No tunnel. No dead relatives waiting to greet me. Just silence. A deep, endless silence that pressed against my ears like cotton.
I was nothing. I was everywhere. I was falling without a body.
Then a voice. Not a sound. A feeling. A presence that spoke without words.
It said, Host detected. Fatal status confirmed. Initiation protocol.
, What?
It did not answer. Instead, something opened inside me. A door I never knew existed. A room inside my soul. And in that room, a screen. No. Not a screen. A void with writing. Lines of light carved into darkness.
System of Extraction online.
User identity: Shin Anaro.
Status: Deceased.
Extraction available: 1.
I am dead.
, Correction. You were dead. Now you are between.
I did not understand. But then I felt it. A pull. Not from the meteor this time. From inside. Something was being dragged into me. A skill. A memory. A piece of someone else.
The first extraction completed.
Technique acquired: Wood Release. Secret Technique of the First Hokage.
I hahaa. . the absurdity hit me like a wave. Wood Release. The bloodline of Hashirama. The power that shaped entire forests. And it was inside me. A dead genin with a dented kunai.
This is a joke.
The system said, No joke. You died. Madara Uchiha killed you. Now you will kill him.
My eyes opened.
I was lying in the mud. The battlefield had moved. Bodies surrounded me. Some wore Konoha uniforms. Some were White Zetsu. The rain had stopped. The sky was gray and quiet.
I sat up. The hole in my chest was gone. The rod was gone. My left arm worked. I touched my ribs. Whole. Unbroken.
In the distance, I saw him. Madara. He was fighting the Five Kage now. Their attacks splashed against his Susanoo like waves on a cliff. He was laughing. Actually laughing.
I stood up. My legs shook. My hands trembled. I looked at my palms. They were empty. No kunai. No weapon. But I felt something else. A warmth spreading through my veins. A green, living pulse that was not mine.
Wood Release.
I whispered to myself, Okay, Shin. You are dead. You are alive. You have a system. And that man over there owes you a chest.
I took one step. Then another. Then I started walking toward the demon of the Uchiha.
Behind me, a voice in my head said, Mission objective updated. Kill Madara Uchiha. Kill Kaguya. Unite the ninja world.
I said, One thing at a time.
The system went silent. The wind picked up. And for the first time since I died, I smiled.