Подземелье было темным, лишенным какого-либо рассеянного света, воздух был густым от сырости, удушающей влаги. Мох и плесень цеплялись за стену... С тех пор, как он проснулся месяц назад, этот неизменный пейзаж был всем его миром.

  Он должен был быть престолонаследником. Он знал, что должен был быть императором. Но каким-то образом он снова открыл глаза.

  Квадратное, замкнутое пространство, в котором он оказался, было тесным. Помимо зарешеченных железных ворот спереди, толстый слой земли окружал его со всех сторон. Внутри обнаруженных предметов были койка и туалет... Без сомнений, это была тюремная камера, глубоко под землей.

  Заключенный в этой темной камере на месяц с момента его ?возрождения?, инормация, которую он собрал, была крайне ограничена. Короче говоря, он знал лишь несколько вещей: во-первых, его имя теперь было ?Хабара?. Во-вторых, он находился в мире ?Наруто?. В-третьих, человек, управляющий этим подземельем, звали Орочимару.

  Вся ситуация была странной. Даже если бы мертвец мог снова открыть глаза, разве он не должен был быть в больнице, морге, крематории или могиле — ни в одном из этих четырех мест? Почему в темнице, да еще и в другом мире, не меньше?

  Но как бы неприемлемо этого ни было, реальность была реальностью. Месяца ему потребовалось, чтобы выработать необходимую ментальную стойкость... Даже если это было вынужденное, неохотное рассмотрение, это все равно было рассмотрение.

  Мышечная память направила его правую руку к пояснице. С тихим металлическим лязгом он вытащил из-за спины черное, короткое, как кинжал, уникальное клиновидное металлическое оружие: кунай.

  Его глаза уже давно добрались до полумраку. отражая свет от лезвия куная, он подтвердил свой нынешний внешний вид — молодой с пепельно-серыми волосами средней длины и глазами, которые блестели свинцово-серым металлическим блеском.

  Или, может быть, точнее было бы сказать ?ученик средней школы??

  Несмотря на его неопрятный вид, он все же мог примерно определить свой возраст... На вид ему было всего четырнадцать или пятнадцать лет.

  Это было явно не его тело, но... это был он.

  Пока ему жертвы используют имя ?Хабара?.

  Since he was imprisoned here, it stood to reason that "Habara" was a ninja in this world. Unfortunately, he hadn't retained a single memory from the inal owner, leaving him pletely g in any specialized knowledge or skills.

  Just as Habara how to escape his current predit, distinct footsteps echoed from the long corridor outside his cell. Simultaneously, a stramosphere began to prickle his senses – a cold, cruel air emanated from the end of the passage.

  It felt as if se, slithering creature was slowly leaving its ir.

  Then, the steady, rhythmic footsteps abruptly stopped. A figure blocked the entrao his cell... The sound of the footsteps had seemed much further away, yet somehow, the person had appeared here instantly.

  A pale hand held an oil mp. The quietly flickering fme cast twisting, ever-shifting shadows on the wall behind it.

  A man with long bck hair, pale skin, and purple eyeshadow painted on his face stood outside the cell. A hoarse, dry voice, tinged with a low, amused chuckle, followed:

  "Good vigince."

  For someone who desperately cked a sense of security, vigince ractically a given...

  The person who had appeared was her than the renowned and powerful ninja of the shinobi world, Orochimaru.

  "Your name… I believe it was 'Habara,' wasn't it? Hmm, in terms of chakra strength, you're only at a in level. You hail from a small, exiled ninja , ohat is now nearly extinct… But that's not surprising. Most small ninja s in the shinobi world meet a simir fate.

  What's strange is that you were being hunted by Sunagakure, one of the Five Great Ninja Vilges, until about ten years ago. Because of that, I haven't been able to gather any specififormation about your , other than that you specialize in a secret teique called 'Inji no Jutsu' (Attra Teique).

  Of course, none of that, nor your previous identity, matters… Now you have only one identity: my 'test subject'."

  Fag a mad stist, there's one kind of fear when they don't treat you like a human being at all. But there's another, entirely different kind of fear when they rattle off the name, in, and current status of every single "b rat," regardless of whether that rat is important or not.

  More importantly, Orochimaru eaking the truth. A test subject was just a test subject. In Orochimaru's presence, Habara couldn't even speak normally. He could only lower his head, feigning the appearance of listening ily.

  Fortunately, Orochimaru seemed to be just passing by. After a brief, idle chat, he left.

  Habara had no idea how the inal owner of this body had fallen into Orochimaru's hands. But it was certain that he would be forced to participate in one, or perhaps several, of Orochimaru's experiments. Even more unfortunately, all of Orochimaru's experiments were highly lethal.

  Rebirth was a joyous occasion, unless you were going to die again shortly after. He'd spent the st few years of his previous life struggling with severe illness. Therefore, having miraculously obtained a sed life, he would not give up, no matter what.

  So, without a doubt, Habara needed an escape pn.

  The problem was, how? He felt utterly lost, with no idea where to even begin. Blind a would only lead to a faster death. Putting aside the fact that he didn't know any ninja skills, even if he could utilize this body's full potential, how could an ordinary ninja possibly escape from one of the "Legendary Sannin," Orochimaru?

  He checked himself ain, reag the same, disappointing clusion: He couldn't see any kind of status s, he wasn't wearing any rings, and he couldn't hear any system sound effects.

  Well, that was to be expected. Those things were a bit too uific…

  Habara then began tanize some more realistic thoughts.

  Although he had no memories of this body, fortunately, physical objects didn't just disappear. He could feel a special energy cirg within him. That robably the legendary chakra. But how to use this special power? It didn't seem like something he could figure out through sheer guesswork.

  This was truly…

  A man trapped in the game, stuck within the game.

  Before he k, two hours had passed. Another ninja, a woman wearing bck clothing and a mask, arrived at Habara's cell door.

  This ninja was named "Hotaru," and she was the actual manager of the prisoners in this dungeon. Her most important job was to deliver food to the prisoners, preventing them from starving to death.

  However, she wasn't here to deliver food this time. She directly opened Habara's cell door.

  "Please check your ninja tools, and then follow me," she said to Habara after the creaking sound of the cell door opening.

  "...What's going on?" Habara instinctively asked. Obviously, opening the cell door didn't mean he was being released.

  But the other ninja simply looked at him, no response.

  "Alright…" Habara stood up and obediently followed behind her.

  As they passed by the other cells, the half-dead prisoners within showed no i in the occasional passerby. When they reached the end of the corridor, a retively spacious, circur area came into view.

  The female ninja stepped aside, gesturing for Habara to enter while saying, "We're here."

  Uhe harsh light from above, the dried, brown patches on the floor and walls were particurly gring. In an instant, Habara uood what this pce was – an arena, or more accurately, a "colosseum."

  However, Habara had no choice but to ply. There was no room to hesitate. He took a deep breath and stepped inside.

  The door behind him closed with a heavy thud.

  Habara wasn't alone. On the opposite side of the arena, another person was already waiting… It wasn't hard to guess what was about to happen. The cruelty of this world was being dispyed in a simple, brutal manner.

  The overhead lights illuminated every er of the arena, but made it impossible to see what was above. However, it was clear that someone was watg from up there, because Orochimaru's voice soon echoed down:

  "The rules are simple… Only one of you will survive."

  This senseless, meaningless killiainly didn't align with modern sensibilities. heless, Orochimaru's voice was the signal for the fight to begin!

  Before Habara could eveally prepare himself, the person who had been standing on the opposite side of the arena was suddenly in front of him, in the blink of an eye.

  Physically, this man was clearly much rger than Habara. At this moment, Habara desperately wao "forfeit" – a heavyweight fighting a lightweight? The fight was utterly unfair.

  Unfortunately, no one else cared about fairness, because this wasn't a petition at all.

  Habara's rag thoughts were cut short. The man had rushed at him with incredible speed, stopping abruptly before swinging a single-handed bde in a horizontal ssh aimed at his waist.

  The unfairness was esg. The oppo was wielding a trolled bde that was eighty or y timeters long. In parison, the kunai Habara had was little more than a small awl.

  Habara's mind was that of a weak modern man, pletely ignorant of fighting teiques. His body and reflexes, however, seemed to act before his sind could. Faced with the enemy's sudden attack, he shifted his weight onto his right foot, lowered his ter of gravity, a his back signifitly, leaping backward in a rge arc… Though he stumbled, he mao dodge the attack.

  A ninja's reflexes were clearly different from a normal person's.

  Habara's heart pounded with lingering fear. He slowly raised his head to look at his oppo, his gaze meeting the man's fierce, frenzied, and murderous eyes.

  Although he had no desire to participate in this fight, Habara now knew he had to protect himself… Si was a fight, he had to do something.

  Thinking this, Habara pulled out a kunai from behind him, took a few g his oppo, and threw it with all his might! To his credit, his aim was quite good. The kunai flew in a straight li high speed, directly towards the man's head.

  But the attack was too linear. The enemy simply tilted his head slightly and dodged it.

  The instant, the enemy was in front of Habara agaiook a step forward, hooking Habara's ankle in a very direct manner.

  This prevented Habara from dodging flexibly.

  From their brief exge, the enemy had correctly cluded that Habara was a plete amateur! Therefore, he could afford to be bolder and more reckless in his attacks.

  After restrig Habara's movement in such a forward manner, he immediately sshed again, aiming for Habara's neck… This time, Habara couldn't retreat to evade.

  Death was shogly close! Realizing this, Habara couldn't tell if his mind was going bnk or rag at high speed. His breathing evened out, his heart rate accelerated, and his adrenaline levels spiked!

  In that critical moment, Habara's metallic-colored eyes reflected the cold, sharp glint of the bde as it came down, like a mirror... This instant, this tiny distance, was the dividing liween life ah.

  At this moment, the oppo's movements seemed to slow down in his eyes.

  Suddenly, Habara reached out with his left hand, moving far faster than the oppo's downward ssh, towards the diagonal upper area. He extended his five fingers and firmly gripped the long bde that was cutting towards his neck. His pale knuckles held their shape firmly, and his burning fiips seemed as if they could melt steel, gradually sinking into the bde's surface.

  It seemed like the sharp bde would sever Habara's fingers in the instant, but…

  It was held fast, uo move an inch.

  The se froze momentarily.

  But if this stalemate tihe one holding the on would undoubtedly be ironger position.

  Habara o do something else.

  And as he thought this, a strange sensation spread from his body.

  Habara instinctively waved his hand. The kunai he had thrown earlier, which had already fallen to the ground, suddenly flew back at a speed far exceeding its initial throw. It pierced the oppo's right abdomen like an armor-pierg round.

  The sudden, sharp pain caused the man to loosen his grip slightly. But before he could react to what had happened, Habara's lowered right hand had already hooked two kunai from the ninja tool pou the oppo's leg.

  Habara's arm moved upward rapidly. He first thrust a kunai deep into the oppo's right thigh, causing him to stumble. Then, as his arm passed over the enemy's shoulder, he held the kunai horizontally, almost instinctively preparing to thrust it hard into the oppo's neck.

  A soft neck would be no harder to pierce than a muscle-covered leg, but it was undoubtedly more lethal.

  However, just as Habara was about to end his oppo's life, he suddenly woke up as if from a dream… Although someone wanted him to perform in a gdiatorial show, he didn't want to aowledge that will.

  План побега был далёк от осуществления, но этот небольшой акт неповиновения был вполне осуществим.

  Итак, Хабара резко изменила направление атаки. Кунай, изначально направленный на шею, вместо этого вонзился в пространство между ключицами... Ну, кажется, это было не лучше, чем удар в шею?

  Кровь хлынула из тела излучения, забрызгав Хабару. Вязкое ощущение и запах крови встряхнули его. Он быстро отпустил хватку и отступил.

  Даже если это не ?смерть?, ?победа? должна была поддержать Орочимару, верно?

  Тяжело раненый противник, несколько раз покачнулся. Сначала он опустился на колени, затем опустил голову, чтобы осмотреть свою живот, по-видимому, не в силах понять, так как он был так тяжело ранен.

  Затем он нашел, казалось, ответ и, наконец, рухнул на землю.

  ?Манипуляция сюрикеном…?

  К сожалению, это было ошибочное мнение. Сверху, наблюдая за всеми, Орочимару молча улыбнулся.

  Теперь он понял, почему Деревня Скрытого Песка преследовала этот неизвестный клан.

  ?Освобождение Магнита…?

  ?Хе-хе…?

  Оказывается, он получил ценный ?экспериментальный материал?.