A Multiverse Tale: Hope in Another World!

The bell chimed, marking the end of class. 

Takuma Kirie, who'd spent the entire lesson staring into space, jolted upright and started cramming his things into his bag with the urgency of someone plotting a hasty escape. 

Eyes around the classroom followed him, including those of his deskmate, Nakano Itsuki. 

"Takuma-kun, are you bailing early?" Itsuki asked, her tone casual as she pulled out a pack of cookies, ready to indulge during the break. 

"Yeah, something urgent popped up," he said, already hoisting his backpack onto his shoulder. "If the teacher asks, could you cover for me, Nakano-san? I'll owe you a coffee pudding tomorrow—thanks!" 

He dashed off before she could get a word in, disappearing down the hallway like a gust of wind. 

"Hey, Takuma-kun…" Itsuki started, her mouth hanging open as she watched him vanish. Her cheeks puffed out in a quiet huff. "I didn't even say yes! And coffee pudding's not even that great anyway!" 

--- 

Unaware of the snack-obsessed girl's grumbling, Takuma sped home with the intensity of a man possessed. 

He burst through the door, locked it tight with both bolts, and drew the heavy curtains closed. His pulse thrummed with excitement as he locked eyes with the golden roulette wheel gleaming in his vision. 

"Activate Multiverse Traversal!" 

--- 

Destination: [Naruto] 

Stay Duration: 100 Days 

Notice: First-time traversal detected. The 'True Soul Reincarnation' function can be activated for free. Proceed? 

The Multiverse Roulette judged its user's performance and meddling with a world's original storyline, dishing out ratings and points as rewards. The first thing those points could buy? True Soul Reincarnation. 

Sure, it sounded like the kind of gimmick that'd get you flattened by a truck and reborn in a fantasy realm, but in truth, it was more like forging a custom identity card. With True Soul Reincarnation, Kirie would be dropped into the new world with a random, sensible role—gender guaranteed to stay the same. 

In this mode, curses, injuries, or other nasty souvenirs from that world wouldn't tag along back to his main reality, but bloodlines, skills, and buffs? Those were keepers. Unless he got obliterated in one hit—brain turned to mush—he could limp back home on his last gasp, and the function would scrub away all the damage. It was a survival cheat of the highest order. 

The downside? His age might take a hit, though his body remained his own.

For Kirie, it was a dream fit. Without a legit identity, how was he supposed to infiltrate a place like Academy City, mess with the plot, or flirt with key (female) characters? The heavy hitters in those worlds weren't pushovers—they'd spot a fake a mile away. 

And looking ahead, worlds like Rakudai Kishi no Cavalry or The Asterisk War often tied perks to your backstory. An Uchiha or Hyuga bloodline in Naruto, or a shot at a magic sword as an Asterisk student—the identity alone could be a goldmine.

"Activate!" 

Per the Roulette's pricing, True Soul Reincarnation started at one point, with no upper limit. Scoring a free use for his debut trip instead of going in raw was a downright delicious steal. 

"But, uh… since it's free, I'll get a solid identity, right?"

"It should be decent… yeah?"

"It's gotta be!" 

--- 

Dusk settled over Konoha, the rain hammering down in relentless torrents. 

Takuma Kirie, now housed in a rickety shack for war orphans, gazed out at the storm, a wave of melancholy washing over him. 

He'd dreamed of landing a cushy gig—an Uchiha with a Sharingan, or at least a Hyuga with Byakugan. He wasn't picky. But no, the universe had other ideas. He hadn't even scored a civilian ninja family. 

Instead, he was a war orphan—one of the countless kids left adrift after the Second Great Ninja War's end. Being parentless wasn't new; he'd been an orphan back in the multiverse world too. But shrinking from a sixteen-year-old high schooler to an eight- or nine-year-old kid? That was a tough pill to swallow. 

Still, it might've been the only way to slip into Konoha undetected. After a round of vetting, orphans like him—clean records, no family ties—were dumped into these shoddy little huts. 

Without some twist of fate, most would graduate from the Ninja Academy and end up as Konoha's grunts or cannon fodder. The rest? Left to scrape by in the village as cheap labor. 

Kirie's path was clear: the Ninja Academy. 

Before transmigrating into the multiverse world, his past-life self had been a med school grind. He wasn't a medical prodigy, but years of modern medical training had to be worth something. 

Given his current hand, the best play was to join the academy, pick up shurikenjutsu, taijutsu, the Three Basic Techniques, and some entry-level ninjutsu, then flex his medical aptitude to become a medic-nin. 

It sounded unglamorous, but hear him out: snagging chakra training, stepping into the supernatural, and mastering the Three Basics was already a tidy profit. 

To Kirie, the Three Basics—Clone, Transformation, and Substitution—were low-key god-tier, outshining plenty of A-rank techniques in utility. A perfect doppelgänger? Morphing into anyone or anything for a disguise? Swapping places with an object to dodge a hit, with a whiff of spatial jutsu flair from the anime? 

Those were the real ninja bread-and-butter moves. 

If he could snag some top-notch healing ninjutsu on top, this trip would be a certified win for a normie like him. 

Unless… 

"…a bigger chance comes knocking!" 

His eyes narrowed, heart pounding uncontrollably. He dredged up that Mirror Still Water calm from before, wrestling his excitement into submission as his gaze settled on a cold, distant figure. 

Long black hair, golden slit pupils, purple eyeshadow stretching to the nose, pale skin, and blue magatama earrings. 

No question—this was Orochimaru, one of the Legendary Sannin, ninja science icon, and a transmigrator fan-favorite. 

If Kirie's memory held, post-Second War Orochimaru was obsessed with immortality and neck-deep in secret Hashirama cell experiments with Danzo.

[④: Multiverse Roulette grants perfect compatibility and conversion of abilities across all world systems.]