Blood Bonds – Chapter 1: Part 1 – The Monologue of the Void
I don’t know how long I stayed in that void.
A moment?
A millennium?
I only remember a sensation. That of falling.
But there was nothing to see. Nothing to touch.
Not even me.
Just... the void.
Absolute.
Crushing.
Silent.
I think I was dead.
Yes. That’s it.
I died.
But... it wasn’t painful. It was cold. Peaceful, in a way.
As if my entire being had been cleanly erased, without drama.
A sigh. A vanishing.
And yet, my consciousness floated. There. Inexplicably alive.
I started thinking. Remembering.
My life.
It was ordinary.
An apartment, a screen, silence, and me in the middle of it.
I worked too much, out of habit. I lived very little.
I didn’t really hate people.
It was more… a kind of weariness.
I had stopped hoping for something beautiful to happen.
I had learned to be content just watching other people’s stories.
That’s why I loved manga so much. Especially Naruto.
Because in that world, loneliness was always a phase. Never the end.
Naruto, that rejected, insulted, wounded, abandoned kid — and yet, he smiled.
The child who screamed his pain into the wind, but never stopped moving forward.
I admired him.
Like the brother I never had.
Like the version of me who would’ve had the courage to fight.
And now, here I was.
Between nothing and everything.
Then, suddenly... a heartbeat.
Slow. Deep. Organic.
And light. Not physical. Not tangible.
A clarity of the mind.
My consciousness regained its shape. I was something.
Someone.
Then... a pulse.
And another.
And… a voice.
> "Selected soul confirmed. Integration in progress."
I didn’t have time to understand.
Everything closed in on me.
My consciousness was compressed.
My essence, pulled in.
And then I felt.
Not the cold of the void.
But the warmth of life.
Liquid. Movement. Pressure. Muffled sounds.
I knew that sensation, even without ever having lived it.
A womb.
A uterus.
I’m in a woman’s womb.
I... I’m being gestated?!
A dull panic coursed through me.
Then, an energy enveloped me. A presence.
Strong. Vivid. Painful and loving at once.
Kushina Uzumaki.
My memory, my knowledge of the Naruto universe… it all realigned.
Kushina.
Minato.
October 10th.
The attack.
Kyūbi.
The sacrifice.
The orphan.
No...
I’m in Kushina Uzumaki’s womb.
Which means...
I am Naruto.
Or rather… I inhabit his body.
My consciousness has taken root in this unborn child.
But I am not Naruto.
I am… me.
And yet, I feel his soul. Dormant? Absent? Erased?
No, it was never there.
It’s as if... I’m replacing him.
As if destiny called me to be born here.
And just as I began to grasp the magnitude of what this meant...
> [Infinite Ascension System Activated]
[Welcome, Host.]
[Passive enhancement begun: +1 point per second in all major stats.]
A screen appeared in my mind.
Not visible with eyes.
But clear. Structured. Present.
Like an extension of my being.
A system.
A power of progression.
Common in isekai.
Maybe too common.
But this time... it was real.
Every second, I grew stronger.
Even as an embryo.
My chakra reserve? Constantly expanding.
My mental capacity? Already beyond anything possible at this stage.
My perception? Rapidly developing.
I felt my brain growing. Structuring itself.
My chakra circulating slowly, then faster.
My cells becoming... special.
I was becoming an anomaly.
A being that shouldn’t exist.
And yet... here I was.
And I asked myself one question:
Why me?
Why place me here, in this role, in this world, at this time?
I hadn’t been a hero in my past life.
I hadn’t saved anyone.
I wasn’t particularly good, nor particularly bad.
Just... an ordinary man.
Maybe that was the reason.
Because I knew this world.
Because I could understand it.
Because I knew what was coming.
And there, in the warm darkness of Kushina’s womb, I felt something I hadn’t felt in a long time:
Fear.
Real fear.
The kind that eats away at you.
The kind that makes you tremble from the inside.
I knew what was coming.
Obito.
Kyūbi.
Minato.
Kushina.
The sacrifice.
The loneliness.
The suffering.
The broken childhood.
I didn’t want to relive that.
I didn’t want to let that happen.
I didn’t want to be that Naruto — the one who smiled to hide his tears.
And most of all...
I didn’t want to lose my parents.
Not this time.
They’re not my parents, I told myself.
And yet... that was a lie.
They already love me.
They speak to me.
I can feel them.
And in that invisible bond, that stream of chakra connecting me to them... I sense something pure.
Unconditional love.
So... I made a decision.
Here. Now.
I won’t let this story unfold the same way.
I will change the script.
Defy fate.
And carve a future even the gods will fear to touch.
I will grow.
Learn.
Observe.
Strengthen myself.
And when the time comes...
I will save my parents.
I will protect my family.
And maybe... just maybe...
I will save myself.