Rebirth of Pain

Chapter 002 - Uncertain Awakening

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Continuation of Chapter 2

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The first thing Nagato knew, upon returning to the closest thing to consciousness, was that he was wet and cold, a cold that was never experienced except by those who'd never known of anything but warmth being dragged mercilessly out of said warmth. His eyes showed nothing but blurs, and none of his limbs responded as they should, only twitches and spasms.

Immediate worry swept over him. He found himself breathing, and was honestly very surprised by that fact, but while he was understandably surprised at actually surviving what he had done, being a near-suicidal technique with perfect health and being rather crippled in addition and all, he was also worried. Was he suffering permanent damage from said technique such as brain damage? Was he being held captive by some group (Konoha had a big reason to, even with the mass resurrection)? He'd normally be able to break out with as much effort as it took a civilian to open a door, but in his weakened state...

He tried to speak, but all that came out was garbled sounds. As he focused on his surroundings, what little he could make out that is, he noticed he was being wrapped in a cloth, and before he could react he was being...handed off to someone.

No, he thought as a figure loomed over him and started talking in some unknown language. No no nononono. NOT possible. I'm dreaming. Or drifting along, stuck in my head after finally losing my mind keeping the lunatics in the organization in some semblance of order. Or I've died, have been tried for my actions, and stuck in a nightmare forever. Otherwise...

...Reincarnation? Seriously?!

Considering the possibilities, Nagato did something he hadn't done in years; he proceeded to break down crying.

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To be honest, once he calmed down, Nagato knew that he could easily be wrong. There was the thought of capture, or brain damage, or...maybe reincarnation wasn't the WORST option. Not good by any means, and with mostly circumstantial evidence for that possibility, but not the worst option he could think of.

However, since that would require years of being stuck unable to do anything for himself while being fully conscious, trying to figure out how long it had been before he rejoined the living and, worst of all, reliving puberty...

He was going to blame the first crying fit on the instincts of a newborn anyways, so breaking down again wasn't that big of a deal, and he'd deny it as long as he lived regardless.

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As the first few months went on, he started gathering his facts. It was possible that his reincarnation (and, as time went on, that was the only thing that could fit the evidence and time length beyond being driven around the bend, and as that would be impossible to tell...) was yet another feature of the Rinnegan, an unusual and unexpected side effect of dying while resurrecting hundreds of people with his Samsara of Heavenly Life Technique, or any of another thousand reasons. Speaking of the Rinnegan, the moment his eyes had finished developing and he gained the capacity to move properly, he'd found a reflective object to see if he still had them, only to see red hair spiking not not unlike Yahiko's had, and slate-gray irises.

On one hand, that wasn't too disturbing; if his early memories were to be trusted, he hadn't had the Rinnegan from birth in his former life either, they'd appeared not long before...his parents had been killed. However, that didn't mean he would receive them again in this new body and new world. And a new world was what it was; the only language he'd ever heard like the one's his new kin spoke was from that blonde foreigner from over the sea from a country named...Ametris. Yes, that's what it was. Not only that, but even if he hoped to simply be on a different continent, the technology here was far beyond that of the Elemental Countries. Even Ame, originally built upon the ruins of a city from a long-destroyed civilization, couldn't hope to try and make some of the things that were apparently standard here. While there were things like powerlines and refrigerators, alarm clocks and televisions, he KNEW that these...airplanes and telephones were new, plus a lot of the technology of his world was better here.

Not only that, but from what he could determine chakra was nearly nonexistent here. He only had slight sensory capabilities outside the Rinnegan's gifts, more of a holdover from his heritage than anything, but the scarcity of the energy sharpened his gifts. It was as though a background buzzing was quieted, and one could then focus in on little noises usually overlooked; with the natural chakra so suppressed here, he could tell in moments that all those he encountered had the chakra levels even under the civilians of his world. In fact, the people of his world would be hospitalized from those levels. His own worried him too; while, unlike them, he had what could be a more-than-crippled chakra system, his new levels would be nowhere near what they had been, nearer to an academy student or new Genin once finished developing. For now, all he could do was sit and keep an eye on them, and perhaps attempt a few exercises once he gained a tad bit more autonomy and muscle control to see if that could help things.

All in all, the only thing he could hope to do was adapt to this new world. After that...he didn't know. There was conflict here, he overheard enough conversations to put that together, but it didn't sound like country-shattering wars, and even if there was, would he even be able to do anything about it?

Oh, if he had the capacity to cause change, he would, but if his powers never returned, things would a lot harder.

For now, he was going to continue growing, continue gathering information to determine a plan, and work with his chakra as much as he could.

Beyond that...well, let's see what this world looked like before making any sort of long-term plans.

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Hello all! I'd blame the delay on it being in college, but honestly I'm just lazy as hell...and in college. Either way, I've had this semi-completed for a while and figured I'd toss it up. Some may have noticed that I didn't tag it 'HP & Naruto', and that's because I have more thoughts on him ending up in a different world, but unless/until I actually write it out there's no point to changing the tags. After all, can you tell what world he's in yet?

Well, hope this is enjoyed, and Happy Easter!