Just as Jonathan was arranging his thoughts, he noticed a mirror by his bedside. Picking up the mirror, he wasn't at all astonished that his physical features remained the same. Rather, he looked exactly like he did almost twenty years ago. Both his dark eye colour, his hair colour and even his skin tone matched.
Before he could figure out what this could mean, the door opened. Jonathan placed the mirror down before turning to see a new face wearing a regular nurse's uniform walk in with a rolling table. On it, there were bandages, other medical tools and soup.
"Sorry for barging in. My name's Ikitsumi," said the nurse. She looked like some medical intern from earth.
"Lady Taji got real busy and told me to bring this to your room. Sorry to hear about your amnesia," Ikitsumi addressed casually. Jonathan could only think that the reason a medical-nin came to treat an average boy, who wasn't even a shinobi, was because Minato Namikaze personally brought that boy in. 'And that name. Taji...' Jonathan remembered that name. 'But she wasn't present until the Shippūden arch.'
Jonathan began making his deductions. 'In this world, I'm no different than a side character at the moment. Most side characters in the franchise never had any significant roles to play. Is it this world filling those characters in, or is this world different from the one I watched back home?" Jonathan kept his thoughts to himself as Ikitsumi patched up his head with new bandages.
'But how do I get back home?' Jonathan asked himself. He knew that powerful techniques to traverse different dimensions existed. Yet, to perform things like that, he'd need to be equivalent to a main character. Or the main villain... Jonathan looked at Ikitsumi as she continued mending his injury. Seeing Jonathan, she gave him a warm smile with her eyes closed.
Even if Jonathan was fast enough to slay this unknown nurse, he knew this wasn't some manhwa where the main character was gifted an overpowered system to help be his guide. Jonathan had no friends here, no family. He was alone. Every move he made would affect the story in some way, shape or form. If he decided to become an enemy of the world in order to return home, he'd not only accept that role, he'd be doing things on his own.
As far as Jonathan understood, he was born only a few moments ago in a child's body that closely resembled his own. That did not mean he was at a disadvantage. Because he knew almost everyone and everything in this world, he had vast supremacy over most, if not all, people he would likely encounter.
Jonathan knew this story well. He wasn't some cosplay fanatic who collected comic books. He was an average fan that had followed their series for nine years. As long as he didn't obscure too many things, his knowledge of what should happen next would be one of his biggest weapons. The only issue is that he had stopped following the series more than eight years ago.
Jonathan's memories might be better than most individuals', but even the smallest of details he wouldn't be able to recall. He looked at his bowl of soup and recognized it as ramen. Back on earth, Jonathan had only ever eaten ramen three times from Asian-style restaurants. Whether they were authentic or not, this would be his first time trying food not from another country but from another world.
'If I was able to come to this world, I'll be able to leave as well,' Jonathan simultaneously thought to himself. He then grabbed his chop sticks and slowly ate his meal. Ikitsumi stared at Jonathan as he swallowed his noodles.
"It's good," Jonathan said after seeing Ikitsumi's eager look.
Ikitsumi jumped joyously at Jonathan's response. "That's great! I cooked it myself after all." Ikitsumi winked before giving Jonathan a thumbs up.
"I thought you were a nurse," Jonathan said.
The atmosphere quickly changed as Ikitsumi relaxed, trying to keep her smile. "Well, you see. The war just ended and our hospital didn't have much staff, so I had to—" before she could finish her sentence, Jonathan interrupted, "What...? What month are we in?" Jonathan's sudden question startled Ikitsumi a little.
"We—we're in the month of November. November twenty-seventh to be exact."
Today's the day Rock Lee will be born. Jonathan only knew this because that character had been one of Jonathan's favourite before he stopped following the series. Jonathan knew just about everything related to his favourite characters as well as their respective families. But that's not what alarmed Jonathan. The fact that the war had recently ended meant that Minato Namikaze would be named Hokage soon.
Worst of all was the event that followed after that: The nine-tailed fox would attack the village.
