Chapter 2 : Resolve

Atop a sleek TV rack, a television flickered to life, its screen showing a bright blue sky with wisps of clouds drifting lazily across the display. The light emitted by the TV illuminated a dimly lit living room consisting of a modern couch and a window hidden by light green curtains. A young man could be seen snoozing on the couch with a Smart TV remote controller by his side.

The man seemed to have most likely dozed off sometime previously due to his drowsiness while watching the scenes played out on the television screen. The bright scenario of the display suddenly shifted to the image of a woman dressed in a gown of pristine ivory silk, cascading like a waterfall around her slender form. Her eyes had a mysterious light gray hue that seemed to convey her eagerness to the situation she was in.

"Brother Neji… I'm going to get married." The sound reverberated through the room in a low volume. The woman turned her head and the screen then shifted to a man with blonde hair, wearing a loose-fitting dark-colored kimono. His eyes drifted off to the distance, seemingly reminiscing of an irreversible past. 

The frame once again changed, now showing a giant boulder with six faces skillfully carved on it. But then, while the video was playing, the internet connection worsened significantly and the screen blurred beyond recognition. A loading message popped up with an animation of a pointer going in circles while trying to reestablish the lost connection.

The young man, still asleep, didn't notice this development otherwise he would've been fast to replug the cables as this seemed to be a recurrent issue. With his inaction, the loading screen continued for a few minutes until a pop-up appeared.

"Still watching?" It said. Buttons of Yes or No below the question, likely to be answered with the remote controller positioned at the young man's side. A timer appeared, expected to expire in 10 seconds in case of no movement, which was anticipated to run out due to the circumstances. However, despite not making any movement nor being in contact with the controller, a red box appeared on No, meaning that it had selected that option.

A click then was heard, and a new message popped up. "Any other actions?" And a space to write out a specific code or name surged. Again, like a manifestation of the supernatural, letter by letter, the completed text finally became visible. It followed as: "Transmigration". 

The screen turned black and only text was displayed on it. "Loading, this might take some time.". After a few moments, emptiness took over the young man.

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"Are you serious?!" Raijin grabbed the edge of the window tightly while murmuring. He stood in shock at the resemblance of the faces with previous Hokages and how the place was identical to the Konoha depicted in Naruto. Taking shaky steps backward with his arms at shoulder level, his lips made an O-shaped pattern that illustrated just how shocked he was by the current turn of events.

"I'm in Naruto?! That world full of killers with sad backstories?" His question seemed more rhetorical than actual doubts. His tone was of a desperate man and his face resembled the expression of a kid that forgot about an important exam until the date of said test. 

"I-I need to test something!" Raijin lowered his head and positioned his hands at shoulder level. While taking a look at his palms he noticed something peculiar — a characteristic he overlooked for longer than he would like to admit. "My hands… What happened to them?! They are super small!" He paled. 

Looking at his body, now he could understand why he felt things might've been taller than him. In his shocked and confused state, he thought that was just how the interior of the house was designed, but reality had other plans for him. By his calculations, he stood at about 101 centimeters tall (or 3.3 feet tall), which was way smaller than what he was used to. 

His outfit resembled that of Shinki's, in the way that it was simple and comfortable, the only difference was that he was barefoot. After he took a couple of moments to calm himself down, he realized that he had to live his childhood all over again but this time in an unforgiving world, where even the strongest of people doesn't have a second of peace.

"Man… This sucks!" Raijin spoke with a sigh. His previous experience coupled with this realization of an unexpected transmigration was overwhelming. He sat on the floor in a slumped position, his legs spread in a horizontal motion parallel to themselves and his hand accommodated his ankles. His mind was completely blank, not even aware of all the background noise present such as the birds chirping and faint voices of kids laughing.

After a brief moment of doing breathing exercises to calm down, he recompositioned himself. With a new resolve in his eyes and a slight furrow of eyebrows, his hands moved in a snake hand sign, hoping to see if this world was what he imagined it to be. The steps of closing one's eyes and concentrating on oneself to feel the chakra in one's body might be a difficult task for a lot of people, but to Raijin, it seemed elementary.

After all, he came from a chakraless body, so he knew that something was amiss when concentrating deeply. Feeling a warm sensation on his torso, it was so strange that he almost lost focus. Raijin tried to move the energy a bit, but it was somewhat sluggish— probably due to his inability to move it past his chakra pathways.

"At least I confirmed it." His eyes were serious, he knew that from now he would be navigating in a thin thread of life and death. From what he knew from the series, it would be extremely difficult to survive in this place. "Survival… Is that what I truly want?" He contemplated. After a few seconds, he shook his head. "No, I will be more ambitious. My final goal is to thrive in this world."

With his newfound resolve, a new desire burned deeply in his heart. He got up, directing himself to the futon he previously lied upon. After tidying up his bed, he directed himself to the door that Shinki previously stood by. The floor seemed to be a little dirty due to the sand the other boy previously carried on the sole of his sandals.

In the distance, he could see an old woman who wore simple clothes — a beige blouse made of linen fabric and trousers of an olive green tone, both making a melodious harmony of colors. She seemed to be scolding the boy Shinki for something he could not yet decipher due to the sound not reaching him in a recognizable distance.

Taking hushed steps, he calmly approached the end of the corridor until the woman took notice of him. "Raijin, what are you doing asleep until this hour? Have you forgotten that we are going to go shopping this afternoon?" The old woman could see an unusual expression on Raijin's face, but she contained her curiosity as more important matters were at stake.

"And you, Shinki. How dare you enter the house with those sandals filled with sand! You will clean this all and don't dare even to make a sound of protest, or else…" She said in a menacing tone. The house had been dirtied with grains of sand up to the room's corridor, so it seemed Shinki had a time-consuming task to do for now.

"B-but, Minko-sama, that's not fair! Raijin was so rude to me, how come you are not scolding him too?!" Shinki said, with an indignant tone. 

"Look, I'll count to three. If you don't want me to make you the person responsible for always cleaning the house, you should go and take the broom and start cleaning up your mess." She raised her hand at eye level and raised three fingers to indicate her seriousness.

Shinki's face assumed a white color, he was displeased, sure, but he wouldn't want to clean the house all the time. It was a chore he hated with passion. So, he ran to the kitchen and grabbed the wooden broom that stood beside the door. It was quite a funny sight to see since he was inept at using it.

Minko-sama, seeing that Shinki got the seriousness of the matter down, looked at Raijin with a calm expression. "We're immediately going to the main market venue to get food and other supplies, it appears that we might already be late." She approached Raijin and put a hand on his shoulder while passing him. She would then go to the second floor of the house to get the money to make the necessary purchases.