1 1: A Void Full Of Questions

Hey! Author here! Welcome to the first fanfic I've ever written.

The first eight chapters have been posted in one go ;)

The rest? Uh... I'm sure they'll turn up at some point? When I figure out a schedule...

Anyways! Have fun, and please comment any spelling errors you spot! My keyboard's been through a lot recently and a few of the keys don't work as well as they used to...

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When she opened her eyes, Lyra had expected to see the ceiling of her bedroom. She had just got back home from a full day at the dojo and immediately went to bed, without even eating dinner.

Instead she was greated by the unexpected sight of... nothingness.

Nothingness as far as she could see in all directions, including up and down.

'Well... that's probably not a good sign.' She thought to herself as she stood up on the mysteriously solid "nothingness" she had been lying down on. She wondered briefly if she had gone blind, but looking down at herself she could clearly see her own body. Which meant that not only was she not blind and this was indeed real, the nothingness was also somehow being lit up from somewhere.

Strangely, she was wearing the casual clothes that she thought she had taken off just before she passed out.

Before she could ponder how this could've happened to her she witnessed a flash of light to her left. Looking over she saw a young man, probably no older than eighteen appear on the ground a short distance away, holding his head.

"Owwww....."

As he slowly stood up he noticed her standing in front of him. She was suddenly very thankful that her clothes had reappeared.

"Uh... hi there! Is this the afterlife?" He asked with a surprising amount of enthusiasm.

'Yep. Ok. That deffinitely isn't a good sign' She mused before speaking. "I don't know. I just woke up here. What happened to you? You seemed to be in pain and now you're asking about the afterlife..."

"Oh yeah! I got hit by a truck."

She blinked, "A truck?"

"Yep! Just like in those reincaration novels am I right? I can't believe it actually happened to me! How'd you get here?"

She paused after he said that. If he was hit by a truck and woke up here that means he died, right? If so... how did she die to end up here? She just went to bed like it was any other night...

"I woke up here after just going to bed. I'm honestly not sure how I could've died from that. I could've sworn I was a pretty healthy person." She responded after a moment.

"Damn. That sucks. You do look pretty fit."

Lyra raised an eyebrow at that.

"Uh... I mean like 'strong' fit, not 'attractive' fit! N-Not that you aren't attractive or anything! You probably had a heart attack or something! Or maybe there was a gas leak in your home? Or maybe you were murdered in your sleep? Or maybe-"

They were broken out of their conversation when another flash lit up the area. A third person had appeared, this time a slightly older man, maybe in his mid thirties.

"Ugh, where am I?"

They were about to answer him when a third flash appeared to the right. Then a fourth to the left. A fifth, a sixth, and after the tenth one appeared she stopped trying to count them. In just a few short seconds a large crowd had formed in this mysterious empty world. As the last flash faded and people started to get loud about the sudden situation, an echoing voice sounded out across the void.

"[Greetings, Humans.]"

An immense eruption of blinding light exploded out of the air in front of them, revealing a being that could only be described as a Gigantic Floating Ball of Mechanical Eyes. A deafening *snap* sound was emitted from its body that forcefully silenced the audience, most of whom had begun screaming in terror at its appearance.

"[Be silent! I apologise for my sudden appearance. I am the Great System.]" It continued. "[I am what you might call an omnipotent god. An immortal deity that has watched over your universe since its birth.]" Several people in the crowd silently gasped at that statement.

"[You are probably wondering what happened to you. And why you are here.]"

"[To the first question: You are all dead. For one reason or another, every one of you died from unnatural causes, taken before your time should have been up. You do not need, or want, to know the specifics.]"

"[To the second question, you were chosen to come here because you are all familiar with the concept of reincarnation and you are all aware of a certain story.]"

'A story?' She thought to herself, 'We were brought here because we all know a story? Seriously?' The others were all thinking something similar.

"[Some of you appear to be confused. That is fine. I shall explain.]"

"[I shall begin this explanation by admiting something to you all. Simply put, while I am omnipotent in my power I am not omnicient. I cannot see everything. I cannot experience everything. I have become bored of the things I can see.]" The being paused, seemingly for dramatic effect before it began speaking again.

"[And so I have decided to create something new to see. I have chosen a story originating from your world: the story of Naruto Uzumaki. You one hundred reincarnators will be reborn into the world of this story and from it, you shall create a brand new story for me to experience. Within reason. Fate may interveen if you go too off-script.]"

That got another reaction from the audience. Some fear here and there, a lot of aprehension and a great deal of confusion. But one feeling rose above the others as the most obvious.

Excitement.

Lyra looked around herself at the other soon-to-be reincarnators and saw that at least 70% of them by her rough estimate where practically buzzing with barely contained joy. A slightly extreme reaction in her opinion. As much as she would like to live again doing so at the whim of a literal bored god in a very, very hostile world made her somewhat cautious.

"[Fear not. You will not be sent into this world with nothing. In a moment I shall separate you all into individual chambers to speak with you personally. There I will unseal your voices and allow you to speak directly to me.]"

The moment it stopped talking the Great System began to rotate and split apart. Each of its eyes detatching from its main body and swirling like a swarm of giant hornets around the once again terrified humans. Eventually their view was blocked by the wall of eyes and when the swarm cleared a few moments later each person was standing inside a semi-transparent box with the next one at least fifty meters away, arranged in a giant circle around the being's titanic main body.

She tore her attention away from the others and looked to the single disembodied machine-eye hovering before her inside her own chamber.

"[Greetings, Lyra. Or soon to be someone else. Let's get to work, shall we?]"