"Emptiness…"

He recognized it couldn't even be called darkness anymore. There wasn't an absence of color, it simply never existed in the first place. The time he remained here is unknown. His sensations were completely nil. There wasn't even a trace of aroma, touch, noise — you name it.

But suddenly, in this moment — after what seemed or really could be an eternity — there was.

Nothingness. It's really an inexplicable feeling. Humans can only truly experience it two times. The moment before they were born and the moment after they died. 

No one could remember what they did before they were born, because there simply weren't any "did or do's". And no one can say what they are going to do after they die, because there are no "will or would's". And it is also impossible to say what's the sensation of feeling for the first time. After not existing, you simply exist. 

But there is one person who defied this rule. He could say all of the above. A being that is not detained by universal rules.

Meet him — the greatest ninj—

'AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH'

He screamed. But not with his newfound body and mouth, but only with his mind. After all, vocal chords were not something he was used to anymore. The overflowing stimulation that appeared without any warning was daunting, to say the least. 

Lying on a futon, a soft cushion enveloped his body, particularly his face, which sank into the pillow. Making it develop a trench-like appearance on its surface. His eyes, still shut, made him experience for the second time in a long while what it was to see darkness once again.

In a free-faller sleeping position, he felt his hands and toes. His torso sank deep into the cushion and his legs dangled a little because whatever he felt he was lying on should be too small for his body.

'I can feel? That void… I escaped?!' He felt exasperated. While in the void he could only reminisce about his previous life. The sensations he only craved to have were there now. The desire to discover new things and explore anything besides the nothingness he was submitted to came like a surging tsunami. His human nature rose once again.

With a bit of difficulty, he tried to move his hands to get a proper holding for a rising motion. This decision, however, was met with strong resistance. His fingers could only do dangling movements due to his uncoordinated and untrained commands.

'What is it with my hands… I can't even move them properly!' He realized that his integration into this sudden new body wasn't perfected enough to do even the most primitive of actions. It seemed that his nerve communication was a little off due to this condition.

After waiting a few moments to get somewhat used to his new body, he got the hang of it. It looked somewhat funny on the outside seeing a child's body being all jittery like they've got an itch in every body part, but he finally could get a proper holding to raise himself and take a look at the place which he was in.

'I seem to be in a room. There are a few futons here as well, by my reckoning it should be 3 including mine.' He turned his head frantically to the right and left, seemingly trying to assess the room he was located in. 'There seems to be some clothes here too. However, they are kid's sized pajamas… What is going on?'

The furniture in the room seemed to bore the scars of years gone by, representing the age the building stood since its foundation. The tables and wardrobes were faded with nicks and small scratches on their wooden surfaces, but despite that, a polished appearance testified to its maintenance and the liveliness that could be observed by the people living there.

"Raijin, when are you coming to play? You've been stuffed up in the room all morning, it's almost lunchtime." A child with dark brown spiky hair, clad in a loose-fitting shirt, the color of weathered sand, trousers of a similar hue, and sturdy sandals with sand clung to the soles stood by the entrance of the room. He stared intently at the boy named Raijin, thinking that he seemed to be a tad bit different from normal.

Raijin promptly directed his line of vision to the spiky-haired boy, seemingly out of his daze. 'This boy… Who is he?' He stared back at the kid who announced himself. 

"Who is Raijin? And where am I?!" The last line was spoken using an aggressive tone, followed by a furrow of his eyebrows.

"Oy oy oy…" The boy answered with appeasing gestures, the palm of his hands doing back and forths to calm Raijin down. "Did you eat something bad, Raijin? You don't even know your name?!" He asked in a confused tone. Despite being thrown off, he regained his composure and followed: "Besides, you should not talk like that to your elders. As a matter of fact, I am two years older than you, brat!" He said pointing at Raijin.

"So, if you don't remember me, let me refresh your memory. I am Shinki Shinbatsu, the future genius of Konoha. How is that?" He said with a proud tone, taking his fist upwards to make his statement and ending with an enthusiastic voice, waiting for Raijin's answer. 

Raijin became confused with Shinki's introduction. 'Konoha? I think this boy is watching so much anime it messed up his head. He shouldn't confuse real life with fiction. Also, my name is Raijin? When did that happen? Last time I checked, my name was Nicholas.' He looked at the kid. He seemed eager for a reaction, probably wanting recognition of his self-called genius.

Raijin couldn't help but sigh. Having to wake up in an unknown place and interact with an unhinged kid who even claimed to be older than him despite not even having hair in his armpit was a bit too much for him. "Yeah… And I will be Hokage someday as well. As if…" He said unenthusiastically, murmuring his last line.

Shinki's composure toned down. His back slouching forth in a sorrowful posture. "Y-You mean! You will see!" He ran back to the corridor, probably to go back to whoever he was playing with. It seemed that Raijin's tone didn't please him.

"Oh, well… I guess that's that. Anyways." He turned back to see the room and located a window hiding behind a molten red curtain. With this find, he became a little hopeful that he would recognize the place and get back home, so he eagerly walked to it. Raising his arms to lift the curtain away from the view, he grabbed it and moved it away. A bright light surged, blinding Raijin for a few seconds.

With his eyes shut from the sudden clarity, he calmly lifted his eyelids to see the surroundings. He looked at the buildings and couldn't recognize anything. A residential area with Japanese-style houses, something far distant from the usual modern household design he used to see in his neighborhood. His first thought was that he was in Japan or some Asian country due to the architecture and the clothes he observed in the people around the perimeter.

His eyes then doze off to the terrain away from the nearby area. He first observed how dense the vegetation was in some mountains in the distance. He wondered whether he was kidnapped to a countryside village or was being abducted into a cult. However, before making any other assumptions, he saw a giant boulder with three faces carved into it. They had a raw style and were carved with such precision he wondered what technology they had to make it so realistic. But then, he realized. "Those faces… Are they?!"