"Hmmmm, hmm hmm hm." I kept humming to myself as I pulled up the sails of my little boat, looking at the beautiful horizon before me and thinking about all the bullshit I had to deal with since I woke up from dying.
Yeah, long story short, I was part of a very exclusive club of people who died and reincarnated in order to have adventures. Not that I have met any other members of the club, because I was dead a moment and then waking up to a new life the next. Though in my case it was less reincarnating and more transmigration into someone else.
It was rather bizarre. One moment I was just minding my own business, next a coconut falls on top of my head and crushes my skull(which naturally causes me to die) and then I wake up as a very handsome red-haired man. And by redhead I don't mean ginger, I mean blood red that you would find in fiction; it was awesome.
Though admittedly the empty left eye socket with a gash going over and blood pooling from was bit of a bummer. So was the huge wave of memories that hit me after waking up.
My name was Uzumaki Shin and yes, by Uzumaki I mean that Uzumaki. The prestigious clan of redheads that were destroyed in the world of Naruto, where the main character was also a member of the clan and therefore making his whole 'anyone can become strong with hard work' belief to be bit of a joke. Though that line of thought had become a joke long before when it turned out he was the son of Hokage and then became an even bigger joke when it turned out he was also the reincarnation of the son of the local messiah.
Getting off point.
The point was, I was in the world of Naruto as an Uzumaki; one who was the son of a survivor of the fall of the clan. One that was also ridiculously strong, as in it was a miracle that a seal master who somehow learned Senjutsu without a summoning contract was a relative unknown.
Though that relative unknown status was likely about to end due to the series of events that had led to the loss of my eye.
See, the place I woke up was not exactly much far from Iwa, the village hidden in stone, and they didn't exactly like Uzumakis; they actually didn't much like anyone. Somehow they found out about my existence near their village and have decided to... remove me from possible threat list and they didn't care much if that was through killing me or taking me back to their village to be a breeding bull. And to make sure that the results wouldn't be favorable to me, the fucking Tsuchikage sent after me Gari of explosion style and Kitsuchi, his own son and one of the best of the best of Iwa.
Well... at least he was. Now he was dead and I likely had a very pissed off user of particle style after my ass. Bad news since I would rather not deal with a guy that could atomize his enemies. So I made a potentially hasty decision, ran to the very edge of the land of the earth and bought myself a little boat and set sail to the very borders of the map.
Cause honestly, fuck the plot of Naruto and every other moron trying to force their worldview down the throats of anyone they could find. There was absolutely no way the whole world was just one continent and the unknown beyond the borders were surely better than what we had here. The thought was definitely more exciting anyway.
"Now then, bring me that horizon." I said to myself as I set the sails once more, took a swing from my bottle and looked at the beautiful scenery of sunset and sea before me.
*THUNK*
"What the fuck?!" Right before my boat hit that scenery and I ended up rolling around on my boat while trying to regain my balance.
"The hell is this?" I muttered to myself as I got to the end of the boat and held my hand out, touching the horizon before me; which made the scenery waver, making me flinch and pull my hand back. Then I hesitantly poked the horizon, making it waver again, and then did it again a few more times before I looked up with wide eyes.
"Dear lord, I have been Truman Show'd!"
"I'm not sure what that means, but I would be very grateful if you could step away from the barrier." I immediately turned around with a yelp and wide eyes as someone spoke from behind me, which was very frightening since there weren't supposed to be anyone in about thousands of miles. Then my eyes widened even further as I looked at the one who had just spoken.
An old man with wrinkled face and spiky brown hair wearing a full-length white kimono. But the far more eye-catching facts about him were the facts that he was hovering over the water in a meditative position, had two horns, a red circle on his forehead and purple eyes with ringed patterns; making his identity known.
"Sage of Six Paths."
"I actually like going by Hagoromo more. Now, I believe you were about to step away from the barrier." He said with a raised eyebrow. "Please, my brother and I put a lot effort into making it. It's not supposed to be a landmark for you people to gawk at."
"Okay, yeah no, hold up." I said as I waved my arms in front of me. "The fuck are you talking about? Why is there a barrier here in the first place? And aren't you supposed to be dead?!"
"So many question, so little patience." The Sage sighed. "I am dead, but this barrier is filled to the brim with my chakra so I can still communicate when we are at its edges. And for your other question, the reasons do not matter; all that matters is that you leave."
"Fuck that." I said with a glare, over my shock and now entering the stage of being pissed off. "You might not have realized it from wherever you end up after your death but your descendants kind of screwed the whole society over for the size comparison contest your sons had about their ideals and the position of your heir. The last one hundred years are considered to be peaceful compared to the rest of the history and we had three world wars during it. If there is a place outside and away from all this bullshit, then I am leaving." Seriously, who did this guy think he was?!
Maybe it was the memories of the original Uzumaki Shin that were influencing me since he had grown up with horror stories his mother told him about the great villages and shinobi culture that kept their whole world in a constant state of cold war for profit and had destroyed their people simply because it was more convenient for them to not exist in their perfect world. So being denied the chance to leave that world was irking me, just a tiny bit.
"...I once had a friend." The Sage said, seemingly unbothered by my outburst. "He was laidback and cared about people in a rather complex way. You could see him laughing at a crying child moments before he decked the person who made that child cry. Wherever he went, joy and laughter followed soon after." He said, his eyes having a far-off look in them.
"Yet not everyone appreciated his way of living, those who thrived on the misery of others wanted him and those he considered allies gone. And when I was fighting my own mother, the progenitor of chakra and the most powerful being on this planet, those people made the world itself betray my friend. When my affairs were finally in order, it was too late." He said, not looking at me anymore; but instead into the horizon.
"My brother and I created this barrier to keep our lands out of the rest of the world. To protect our people from those who betrayed our friend, and to keep away the temptation of going on a rampage in order to avenge him." He said with a sigh before turning to me.
"If you truly believe our lands to be a prison for you, then I will open the barrier for you. But tell me this, are you truly willing to spent the rest of your life out there with no way of return? To go into the unknown with no safety of knowledge?" He asked, his gaze hard and frown unhappy but my answer was clear.
"In the name of freedom? Without a doubt." I answered with a glare, only somewhat fascinated by the tale told by the Sage while far more interested in leaving this shithole of a continent.
"Then you are free to go." He said as he laid a hand on my head and another hand on the barrier. "The mark I give you will lead you back to our lands if you ever wish to return."
"I thought this was an all or nothing kind of a deal." I said as he took his hand back and rubbed the spot he had laid it on.
"Do allow an old man some amount of amusement." He said with a chuckle as the space seemed to warp before me and a hole of pitch darkness replaced the horizon. "I do not know what the world outside has turned out to be since I closed our borders, but I doubt that it will be some paradise if that's what you were hoping for."
"Maybe, but going there will still be my choice." I said with a glare as I positioned the boat towards the exit. "And that makes whatever I have to face worth it."
For some reason last words seemed to have brought some amount of joy to the Sage, who looked down at me with a smile as he started to disappear.
"...if you truly believe that, then face it with courage and live your life with no regrets." Then he raised his hands and a gust of wind blasted the boat away.
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As he watched his young descendant go further and further away, Hagoromo could not help but smile bittersweetly. The boy had been very rude in many ways but he was never dishonest, much like his friend.
"Dreams will never end as long as people keep searching for freedom, was it?" He muttered to himself as he looked at the barrier closing itself. "Maybe Hamura and I were simply too conceited, too far from true understanding of people in our search for peace. What would you say I wonder..." And then their continent and the rest of the world was once more cut off from each other.
"Joyboy."
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