Chương 2: Chapter 0 - Prologue

Haah... I wasn't ready for it. And I managed to do it not in some heroic, movie-worthy way either, like saving a little girl, a cat, or, I don't know, something else. No, no... That would at least be cool. My case? Well... It was still impactful because Truck-kun got me. The ancient and undefeated deity of every isekai novel I have ever read. The patron saint of 'Oops, wrong place, wrong time, buddy.' Ugh...

I can already see the title of my story:'That Time I Forgot to Look Both Ways Before Crossing the Street While Going To The Convenience Store!' Yeah. That's me... An overworked idiot, too tired to look around... I remember the screech of tires, seeing a flash of white from the corner of my eyes, then the sort of crunchy sound that your brain can't process, not in time, and then... Just nothing.

Only a sudden, heavy silence, like someone turned off reality's sound settings, and plunged me into an uncomfortable emptiness. I may joke around about this all, but... I am doing it because I am terrified. When I tried to move, there was no body... It's not that I couldn't see it, but I couldn't even feel it. When I tried to think, it felt like my thoughts were floating away before I could finish them. I was disappearing, wasn't I? I don't want to... Damn it... It's unfair! So unfair... Haaah... This is it?

At first, I tried to tell myself that maybe this was just a coma. Then that it was purgatory... Or perhaps the world's worst nap. Then I had to realize, it was probably hell. I expected fire and brimstone, but... what I got was emptiness, like the loading screen before a dream starts... However, being aware of my situation made it paralyzing. I don't know how long I drifted there. Minutes? Hours? Maybe days. It was all the same... Time didn't exist, and neither did boredom, which, weirdly, made it worse.

"... Can I get... Deleted at least? Hello? God? Please? Turn me off... I wasn't that of a bastard to deserve this! I didn't know being a nerd warranted something like this..." I remember trying to yell it to the void. Or maybe I was simply thinking it, it was hard to tell when you don't have lips. Or a head...

"Hello?! What the hell... Is death nothing but just… bad Wi-Fi and eternal buffering?" If I'd known dying meant being trapped alone with my own sarcasm, I'd have lived more carefully, maybe even gone to church once or twice. Then, just as I was about to start panicking again... Another blinding flash. What?! Truck-kun is coming around for round two?! It wasn't the call of the afterlife, nor was it a gentle light, asking me to walk into heaven. It hurt looking into it, like... As if it were a nuclear detonation.

My nonexistent eyes felt like they were getting flash-banged by God Himself.

"Fuck!" I grunted while I tried to turn away.

"It hurts! Okay, okay! I'm sorry for cursing! Just stop burning my soul!" It didn't listen as the light swallowed everything, replacing the blackness with pure whiteness. Then, scaring me even more, my consciousness flickered. And then... Again... pain. So strong pain! I couldn't breathe, couldn't see, couldn't think, it was overwhelming me... Then, I could tell that cold air slammed into my lungs like a well-placed punch, and suddenly I was screaming. Yeah...

I was crying, desperately crying, actually panicking, right until I noticed I could feel my body once again, albeit... it felt weird. I tried to speak, ask something, anything, but it came out as a shriek while I also gurgled up some liquid. Bleh! What the...?! Everything is so fuzzy... and... Oh no... I'm a baby. I know I am, because I read enough isekai manga to recognize what was happening. I couldn't move properly, everything felt too heavy, and my arms were like wet noodles...

And my head wobbled as if it were attached with elastic bands instead of sitting atop my spine. The whole world was swimming, making me want to vomit. When my blurry vision finally started cooperating with my will, I saw shapes that were most likely faces, as people were looking down at me. Doctors? Maybe...? The only one I could somewhat make out was a woman with soft eyes and dark hair pulled back into a neat bun. She was sweating, crying, laughing, all at once, confirming what I already knew. Yeah...

I was being reborn... literally. THANK GOD! Thank you, thank you, thank you! Damn it, I was afraid I was going to float in that darkness forever! This beats that by a mile, even if I forget about my previous life. Haaah... Now I can finally calm down. I wasn't sent to hell! As I was thinking about that, to my surprise, my eyesight quickly began adjusting. Instead of suffering from weeks or months of bad vision, the picture came into focus just minutes after being born.

Turning from my new Mom, I looked to her side, knowing that there stood a man with short, spiky black hair, a sharp jawline, and the kind of expression that told me that he was in control of the situation... No... Liar. What it really meant was that he really had no idea what to do. Ah. That has to be my Dad. Well, well, well... I may be lucky. I wasn't a slob in my past life either, even though I never knew my parents, the duo that made me was at least acceptable... Even if I wasn't the girl's first choice either.

Looking at my current parents...? Heh... They were… beautiful. Please don't throw me away this time around... okay? Wait... What's happening...?! Everything blurred just then, and darkness returned... Fuck. Did I speak too soon? Or is this the memory wiping part?! If it is the latter... It is faulty, because I can still remember stuff. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Another flash of light... right into my retinas.

"Huh?!" The next time I woke, I wasn't sure if it was hours or days later. But... I was still me. I could tell that someone was humming a lullaby, maybe trying to soothe me, noticing that I woke up with a startle. Oh... oh... It's my Mom. I couldn't understand the words, but the melody was... Nice. To make sure I was still here, I tried to look around, see what was in the room. Hmmm... Wooden beams, sliding paper doors, classic tatami flooring. For a second, I thought maybe I'd been reincarnated in feudal times...

Am I? I... Uh-oh... Okay, it may not be bad. Let's relax. Yes... It already happened, just... let it flow... And the moment I did, life became a blur of sleep and waking up to confusion. I'd wake, stare at something vaguely familiar, then pass out again. Each time it happened, my awareness lasted a little longer, though. Every time I got a grasp on my body, I made sure to start memorizing the faces around me, mostly my Mom and Dad. Sometimes, other people visited us though... And... Their clothes were strange.

Huh... Dark robes, short sleeves, high collars? It was for sure not the kind of clothing I was used to. Plus... Everyone seemed fit. Super fit... It was like the entire village had a gym membership. I guess working rice fields all day does that to you? Should I... worry? Eh. Naah. I'll take it as it comes. Then... Once, while sitting in my little chair and being fed by my Mom, I caught a man in uniform walking by outside the window...

There was a distinct, metal plate tied to his forehead, engraved with a spiral symbol. Honestly, I thought my brain was hallucinating from the shock of being reborn. Yeah... that has to be it. I didn't see that again for a time being anyway... Then, during my second, longer period of clarity, I began trying to control my body and started crawling. I wanted to stand up and walk already, wanting to see where I really was, but my coordination was trash.

My limbs were small and uncooperative, like they belonged to someone else, so I face-planted the floor twice or thrice, causing me to blabber some nonsense, but my parents seemed happy every time I made a noise. They even encouraged me to try and walk more... And around that time, my Mom would call me Renjiro, realizing that I was starting to make out what they were saying. Renjiro. Huh? Close. Very close. Phew, at least I won't miss my name when someone calls me.

Maybe it wasn't a coincidence, and the universe had a sense of humor... especially because I could still recall everything. I won't complain, though. But then, when I fell again, I may have hit my head a bit too hard, because I caught certain words... Patrol? Chakra? Uchiha? The first one made sense. The second... maybe not that much. The third? My tiny heart skipped a beat. Yeah, no. I misheard them. Yes. But then, my father turned slightly, and I saw it on the back of his clothes...

A red and white fan stitched into it. I'd seen that symbol a hundred times, right on the big screens, in manga panels, in flashbacks now coming into my mind. Nooo... pft. I was imagining things. That's the funny thing about denial: it's comfortable, and I made myself ignore it, telling my new brain that it was simply me being an idiot. Just... go back to sleep, Renji, and then you will realize you were daydreaming. It seemed I did just that, as the next time I zoned out, years had somehow passed by me.

But at least the gaps between these unwanted grogginess where I couldn't really recall the days I was having were growing shorter, replaced by actual dreams and memories, and I learned to stand, to walk, even run a little, to talk without drooling on myself. And with each improvement, finally, my clarity became permanent. When I had gone multiple days without skipping multiple weeks between my 'sleeps,' I knew that my consciousness had finally settled down in my new body. And it brought with it a new reality...

This wasn't feudal Japan... It wasn't even the past. The world outside was... Familiar, in a weird way. Yes, we had roads, storefronts, and everything I would expect, even some ramen shops on the streets. But there were also people leaping across rooftops, men carrying swords and kunai like they were fashion accessories for a convention... But when I first saw someone casually walk up a wall, I fell backward and bit my tongue... That's when it hit me for real.

"... Oh, crap," I muttered, checking if I indeed crapped myself or not. Hooooly shiiiiiit...

"Truck-kun, you absolute bastard." There's a strange calm that comes after accepting what has happened to you. Once I stopped fighting the idea, everything started fitting together. The way people dressed, the chakra lamps that glowed without fire, or the respectful bow everyone gave my father when he passed by... No wonder.... Because he belonged to the city's police force. Yeah... and that meant that I was in the Uchiha clan. Which indicated two more things: Life expectancy wasn't exactly great.

And that everyone had eyes that could ruin you emotionally and physically. Oh boy. Please, Itachi, please don't do it... Not yet, okay? Please, please, please? I just became aware of my new version! I don't want to restart again! Uuuuh... I didn't know the timeline yet... But honestly, that didn't matter, because simply being an Uchiha, I was already neck-deep in danger just by existing in this setting. Why can't I be a Hyuuga? Wait. No.

Then I may have been born into a branch family or something, get marked on the forehead... Brrr. Ugh. Well, cheer up, Renji! It could be worse. I could have been Gaara. Thinking about it, I caught my reflection in the window, watching back at me... Big black eyes, straight black hair from my mother's side... Ordinary for a Uchiha, terrifying for me.

"Do not, under any circumstances," I told my reflection, "unlock any eye powers. Just stay normal, blend in, no Sharingan, no tragic flashbacks, and especially no creepy crows crawling out of your mouth. And no killing your parents!" With that in mind, I tried to focus on small things, like learning to read and helping Mom with chores.

Sometimes I was allowed to follow Dad around when he was on patrol duty, and every time I did, he'd ruffle my hair and tell me stories about the village, about missions, teamwork, and duty. Words that would sound heartwarming in any other world, but right here, they sounded like foreshadowing... Is this the buildup for me becoming an orphan? Please no... I like my new parents... They are there and they care for me... Then, finally, I realized a significant point that I had managed to miss until that day.

The wall... where the heads of the previous Hokages were looking down on the city... It only had three heads. Meaning, Minato was not yet Hokage, he hadn't even died yet... I think. I hope? Please... If so... I have a chance to prevent a massacre and save my parents and myself. The question is...? How much time do I have...?