NIHM: Ch. 02

At that moment, Kazuha's impression of pirates plummeted to rock bottom. If the two giants hadn't also been pirates, he probably would have wanted to join the Marines or become a pirate hunter.

Over the years, it was only through their guidance that he corrected his wrong understanding.

In the One Piece world, plundering, smashing, bullying the weak, that kind of pirate crew was the norm. Crews like the Straw Hat Pirates were rare and special, like endangered beasts.

Strictly speaking, they weren't really pirates, but a group of adventurers unrecognized by the official Marines. Therefore, when facing that pirate crew, Pirate Kazuha, under the support of the Dorry and Brogy, carried out his first black-on-black betrayal.

According to Kazuha's, hmm, and the two giants' plan for the future, he would focus on training here, and once he turned 18, they would build him a ship to set out to sea. Of course, if he met suitable companions before then, the two would also approve of him joining them to begin his journey as a man.

To this, he had repeatedly said he didn't want to go. But they rejected his refusal, firmly and "for his own good."

What? Don't want to go?

That won't do. How can you become a man without going on an adventure?

If you don't go on an adventure, how can the two of them resume their life-and-death battles?

A man's fight cannot be desecrated.

Even for raising a child, that principle remains.

Kazuha understood in his heart.

Because of his presence, they hadn't been able to truly fight in over a decade. So they wanted him to leave the island.

He couldn't shake their insistence, so all he could do was agree verbally while stalling for time.

Set out to sea?

Was that a good idea?

But one day, in while doing his repetitive daily training, something unexpected happened, his steadily strengthening body suddenly weakened. His consciousness, hazy and adrift, arrived in a mysterious space.

There, he saw another version of himself, and a new set of memories began surfacing in his mind.

Those memories belonged to Ninja Kazuha.

From that moment, the experiences of the two worlds began to merge.

When Ninja Kazuha awakened from the rush of memories, Pirate Kazuha opened his eyes at the same time.

Though neither of the two Kazuha fully understood what was going on, their minds were now linked. Their thoughts were one. They both knew that the person before them was themselves. And within both of their minds was a message, something that didn't belong to either of their memories.

It was an introduction to this place: System Space.

Originally, Kazuha was supposed to receive a cheat-like system. Unfortunately, something went wrong during the transmigration, and the soul-bound system shattered.

Along with it, his soul was also broken. However, protected by the system fragments, the pieces of his soul repaired themselves and reincarnated into different worlds, becoming new versions of Kazuha.

In theory, Pirate Kazuha and Naruto Kazuha were once the same person in their past life. Now, they were two individuals with the same soul, and thanks to the system, one person now lived two different lives after transmigration. This space could sense the location of the broken system and summon it. It could also summon all transmigrated versions of Kazuha across different worlds into this space.

However, since each Kazuha had already become a complete individual, the summoned versions could no longer fuse with each other, apart from sharing the functions granted by the system fragments they each carried.

For example, Ninja Kazuha carried the "Name Bar," a function that allowed both Kazuha to share life experiences and learn from each other's strengths.

Pirate Kazuha, on the other hand, had the "HP" fragment. Commonly known as: Health Points.

This function allowed them, in addition to sharing memories, to also share life force. How exactly the sharing worked still required further study.

Based on the memories they organized together, the two Kazuha made some initial speculations based on their personal experiences.

"The activation of the cheat system must have been triggered by your death, it triggered the system's self-preservation mechanism, which forcefully summoned me here to prolong your life."

Pirate Kazuha looked at the HP function, and where the display had originally been 10000 (+0/300), it now showed 9950 (+50/300).

He felt a force draining some stamina from him. His body felt a bit tired, but beyond that, there was no major discomfort. Eventually, the numbers in the parentheses increased from 0/300 to 300/300, and then finally stopped.

9700 (+300).

Once it reached that state, the barely-conscious Ninja Kazuha seemed to have found a foothold, his drifting consciousness returned to his body.

His eyes moved slightly, and he finally opened his eyes. He realized he was no longer at the Uchiha clan compound, but inside the Konoha Hospital. Not far from him was a boy who had just undergone a life-changing trauma. The boy sensed something and turned to look at him.

It was Sasuke, who had just endured the torment of Tsukuyomi and awakened his single tomoe Sharingan in a surge of rage.

"Kazuha-niisan... none of that was real, right?" Sasuke looked at Kazuha, his eyes filled with desperate hope. At this moment, he might not have truly wanted the truth, he only wanted to see Kazuha nod.

Kazuha looked at Sasuke, then at his own bandaged body in silence, and after a moment said, "I don't know exactly what happened, but I remember this much, the one who killed me wasn't Itachi. It was a masked man with a single eye."

After saying that, he said nothing more. Compared to Sasuke, who had lost his beloved older brother, how was he any different, having lost Shisui?

Though Shisui had always been a bit naive, there was no denying that over the years, aside from his questionable "bromance" with Itachi, he had treated Kazuha, his younger brother, with sincere affection.

If it were before his system had awakened, he definitely wouldn't have bothered with Sasuke. He might even have mocked him, saying things like "Itachi is noble and above you."

But now that his cheat had activated, his future was no longer as bleak and predictable as it once was. The future was wide open.

And in this world, resurrection was possible. That rekindled his hope in what was to come.

Naturally, his attitude toward Sasuke also shifted.

As the reincarnation of Indra, he might or might not prove useful in the future, but maintaining this connection wouldn't hurt.

Having made up his mind, Kazuha became the emotional anchor for Sasuke, who was left adrift after Itachi's defection. At the very least, his presence prevented Sasuke from being entirely consumed by loneliness. And those words he had just said sparked a new idea in Sasuke's mind, which had been consumed by hatred.