There he saw it. Two people stood before him. The first was the image of himself, the one that Saul had recently grown to become familiar with. Brown hair, brown eyes, a muscular, trained body. It was his current body, the one he trained. The man stared blankly at Saul.
The other was a scrawny, young adult. He hid behind the blankly staring muscular envisioning of his form.
This was reminiscent of his experience with Neji. It was a perfect connection born of his own chakra. If he investigated with his chakra, the body itself would lay bare its secrets completely for him. And yet, for some reason, there was a consciousness residing within. Saul observed for a moment, before waving his hand.
The blank staring man walked aside according to Saul's intentions. It left the young man who stood there trembling, bare. Saul opened his mouth to speak, but the sound did not come out of his mouth. Instead, his voice came in from all directions, reverberating throughout the empty space.
"W͓̽h͓̽o͓̽ ͓̽a͓̽r͓̽e͓̽ ͓̽y͓̽o͓̽u͓̽?͓̽"
The scrawny young man immediately got down on his knees and started trembling.
"N-no one! I'm nobody, yes, just nobody..."
Saul scratched his chin. Interesting... Let's try something.
He made a come hither gesture, and the young man was immediately propelled towards him by some unknown force. Similar to his world of Genjutsu, whatever he imagined simply came to pass. Saul performed the Mind body palm, and placed it on the young man's head. His eyes rolled back as Saul looked inside...
It was as if he was entering an unconscious mind. What greeted him was a series of connected lights, memories. Saul was able to go through them quickly, easily, with no resistance. As if they were his own. He went from present to past.
This man had been experiencing everything the main Saul had, from his latest dealings with Temari to his earliest meetings with Hinata. Yet they went back further. Saul's eyes widened.
The trees cast long shadows due to the fading, orange light of the sun behind them. They extended outward over the trodden village streets. A man walked between the shadows while looking down. He was examining the small bag that held all his funds for the coming week.
The brown haired man was dressed in poor ninja attire. He was scrawny, yet his arms carried a strength that betrayed his continual ninja training. Saul looked at a nearby grocery as he passed, then sighed longingly. No. He wouldn't buy food just yet. Saul cursed under his breath and put the money back in his bag.
The academy pension he received was barely enough to cover anything. This bag of money was the result of his savings over multiple months. All of the Ninja gear he had was second hand, shitty crap that people had simply thrown away. He couldn't afford anything. Yet before he became a ninja, he at least wanted to be able to afford a proper set of equipment. Hopefully he could... This wouldn't be a problem however, if he just joined root. Why hadn't he joined yet?
Back when he was at the orphanage, a man named Kanpu always took care of him. He was like a second father to him. Stern, yet kind. His old man had repeatedly pleaded with him. Never, ever, no matter what, join root. Saul had taken his heartfelt advice with him and endured much hardship because of it.
Joining root meant not going hungry. It meant better equipment, an actual chance at survival once he became a full fledged ninja. Yet it also meant he would have to kill another person just like himself. Saul actually knew about the person he would have to kill.
He was a quiet man just like himself. The black haired man loved to quietly sit down and draw during his free time. While Saul was training, like always. Their mutual friend had been Shin. Saul knew him, everyone knew him. Shin was a real lovable idiot.
And strong too. Saul knew he stood absolutely no chance against him. Yet the guy had apparently died from some sort of illness. That left Sai to join root completely untested. The guy had gotten a free pass. Saul didn't really *like* the idea of killing Sai to take his place, but... The guy was an emotionless tool with some sort of mental illness or something. Surely he'd just give up if Saul asked him to, right?
Saul's stomach rumbled once again. He was hungry. If he could join Root right now, he would. Yet, even if he wanted to, how the hell was he supposed to join them? Other than that one time they came by the orphanage to recruit people, he had not heard a peep from the group. He had no idea where to find Sai either. They seemed to have disappeared from the face of the village.
Shit. He needed to just get some extra cash asap. He could worry about trying to join root later.
Saul went from place to place, asking if anyone needed a hand. There wasn't much work for a trainee Genin like him, as he could not take missions. However, some folk usually took pity on him and let him wash dishes or something, or maybe clean out a storage area. Saul wasn't picky. Today however, he had no such luck. The evening quickly passed without any progress, leaving Saul to kick a pebble on the road in frustration.
Damn it... So much time wasted. I guess the only thing I can do for now is go back to the dorm...
Suddenly someone bumped into his back. Saul stumbled forward, then looked back. A man with a cat mask on stood before him impassively, wearing a long trench coat. He looked through his bag and ninja pouch, before handing everything back to him impassively. Saul looked on in a daze, unsure whether to be offended or afraid. This guy was some sort of Anbu, right? What did he want?
"Academy student Saul. Follow me."
Saul, who was just an orphan, knew better than to question the orders of his superiors. The command hierarchy of Konoha was unmistakable. Academy students were below Genin, Genin were below Chunin, Chunin were below Jonin, and the Hokage stood above all. He followed the man obediently.
The man took him to a room, where Saul saw a bunch of familiar faces. His dormmates, who were also orphans, a couple other civilian teenagers, etc. He was one of the last to arrive, presumably because he had been out in the village wandering instead of being at the dorm like they must have expected.
Saul was made to sit down among the group, before a ninja with an unmarked mask addressed the group.
"You all are here to participate in an important assessment for the village. Some of you here may be budding, academy ninja. Others may not yet have even undergone any formal training yet. Regardless, all of you have the ability to retain and grow chakra. Do your best to cooperate with the test."
Test...? What? Saul wasn't sure exactly what they meant by test. Yet the lack of clarification gave him a bad feeling. One of his dormmates tried to get up, but the man with the cat mask patted him on the shoulder. Saul could have sworn he saw some sort of green light emitting from his palm. His dormmate sat back down immediately, and returned his attention to the unmarked Anbu addressing them.
"Hey, psst." He tried to signal his friend, but he had no reaction, "Is everything ok?"
The man continued to stare forward blankly. Something was very wrong! Before Saul could even start to get up, the cat faced Anbu had brushed his hand on his shoulder as well. Saul's eyes bulged.
The memory grew fuzzy from this point onward. Hazily, Saul recalled seeing some sort of fragment, emitting an oozing, purple light. And a seal marked in characters he didn't recognize. The next thing in the memory, Saul recalled waking up the next morning with a haze. He couldn't recall what he was doing yesterday. The only thing he knew was that he felt tired. So tired. And his head hurt so badly. Nevertheless, Saul got up to go to the academy as always.
That day was the very day Saul, the transmigrator, had arrived in Naruto.
Author's Note: A little more backstory revealed!
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