Much to his astonishment however, when he regained consciousness he didn't find himself in front of pearly white gates when he became aware again, nor in front of red hellish ones.
He was not even sure how it was possible for him to think. He couldn't feel anything at all, so it was obvious that he died, but how was he conscious if he had no body and also couldn't see or even feel if he was a soul? What was he now?
Panic swelled, but there was nowhere to direct it. No breath to catch, no eyes to close and no voice to cry out.
There was no earthy ground beneath him, no sky above, and no sound or color either. It could not even be said to be dark or light, it simply was. It was a place beyond space and outside of time. There was only infinity, true suffocating beingness. There was only himself, completely aware of everything. Only him, here and now. Forever.
Every thought of his echoed in the void, louder than thunder, as if his own consciousness was screaming against the silence.
He was in this weird space of no-space and no-time, everything was freaky and somehow distorted.
He got over that particular issue, as there where more things for him to think and panic about, but it seemed that he really had eternity to think either way so there was no rush.
He needed to figure out a way for him to get out of whereever this was. He knew that prolonged times of isolation without any stimuli could have severe consequences for his wellbeing.
Time/no-time, eternity or perhaps only very long moments of Now seemed to pass and nothing he did had any effects. By this point he had thought about anything he could think of already at least a few dozen times.
As time held no meaning and the passing of it couldn't be observed, he slowly but surely started spiraling downwards. His thoughts were crashing over each other in frantic desperation.
'Am I dead? Am I nothing? Is this forever?' Each question boomed through the void unanswered, swallowed by the silence that seemed to mock him. The weight of eternity pressed down on his awareness, too immense to grasp and too crushing to bear.
He started mentally thrashing, trying to claw at the emptiness with his thoughts, to scream with a voice that didn't exist.
He panicked, relaxed, worried, panicked, had a little mental/soul? Breakdown.
His thoughts became jumbled, making it incredibly hard to even have a clear thought. Sometimes he'd simply space out, not even realizing until what could have been years and years had passed.
As he came to the realization that if things continued like this, he'd somehow cease to be himslef, to exist even, he refused to give in to despair. He started "meditating" constantly. Or at least that's what he called it. He didn't have a body, it was impossible to concentrate on his breath or anything so he simply stayed aware of his thoughts.
At first it was incredibly hard. He'd concentrate, but a short while later he'd be thinking things again and his process of concentration would start anew. He'd get distracted, annoyed, different thoughts and feelings kept coming up, but whatever they were, no matter what he felt, he stayed aware and conscious of himself.
At some point he had gotten to a state of being where he truly was pure conscious awareness. There were no thoughts, no feelings, only him infintely present in the moment.
The only thing he could notice was this all encompassing peace permeating from his being. He was truly relaxed, all the things that worried him so much before seemed much smaller and almost insignifant now.
He gradually accepted and integrated this state he was in, taking a lot of pressure off himself. It wasn't as if he were satisfied with being alive but dead or beingthe only consciousness perceivable for that matter. But things were bearable, at least for now.
It seemed, however, that nothing lasts forever and everything suddenly came to a "stop" when the question of how he could even be aware of anything in the first place came up again. When he had just become conscious he asked himself the same question.
As if everything was pushed into the background and he gained some sort of enlightenment, the reality of his current state and his situation became clear to him.
He realized that was truly made him, him, was never his body from his life, nor it's brain and the thoughts running through it. The thoughts he could have in this state weren't himself either, nor were the memories of everything he experienced himself.
He had no idea what a soul was, or if it even existed, only reading about them fantasy stories like anyone else, but what he was sure existed was his consciousness and awareness.
Staying in his meditative state for a long time made him incredibly connected to his consciousness. It felt like pure awareness was his natural being, his non-physical state so to speak. The moment he consciously realised this truth about himself something around him changed.
One second it was total void, only infite himness all around, and then the next moment he could perceive a large spec of light in the distance.
It stood out like a sore thumb, the only illuminating thing he could perceive. That is until he actually perceived himself. Similar to the light in the distance he was also made of pure light, perhaps this was his soul and the light in the distance was another soul?
However he felt like he already gained a much deeper understanding of himself and of the soul in general. Somehow it seemed to him like he found a core part of himself, granting him knowledge and perhaps even some wisdom.
In that moment, however, he was definetly glad to be out of his previous state of beingness. He felt like he had something of a body now, even if he was just light.
Sound didn't exist where he was, so all he could perceive was the big being of light gradually becoming bigger and bigger until it was in front of him.. Once it was, he somehow felt the intentions of the light in front of him. Something akin to: 'Neutral karma,small overall impact, however slightly evolved soul… Approved for reincarnation in different reality. Do you wish to proceed?'
He was totally dumbfounded. Karma? Impact? Evolved soul? Was that what he went through, an evolution? And the cherry on top: Reincarnation. This scenario somewhat reminded himself of those fanfictions he read before, but was this for real?
He felt like he should be panicking, but he wasn't as rattled as he thought he might be. He calmly decided to think about things later and concentrate on this reincarnation thing for now. He intended to ask 'Where would I reincarnate? Is it earth?'
'Negative, individuals being reincarnated have to choose a new destination. You have several options available, parallel earth's similar to yours, less advanced or more advanced perhaps, alien civilisations, worlds of magic or cultivation, worlds from stories you know etc. etc. What do you choose?'
He always felt out of place, wanting something more, and having the chance to live in a world he thought to be fictional got him incredibly excited, even though his emotions were suppressed.
'Then I want to go to the world of Naruto!'
'Possible. The world may be slightly different compared to the one you know of, however the general line of plot progression without your intervention will be similar. You have minimal positive karma, so some clans will not be possible to select for you. Now choose.'
'Is it possible for you to display different options for me?'
A tiny spec of light flew to him and when it merged into his own light he suddenly knew new information.
〚Kekkei Genkai clans: Chinoike Clan, Iburi Clan, Kurama Clan, Terumi Clan, Keraia Clan, Yuki Clan, Ankoku Clan, Kazan Clan, Arashi Clan, Suishō Clan etc.〛
〚Hiden Jutsu clans: Akimichi Clan, Yamanaka Clan, Nara Clan, Hōzuki Clan, Aburame Clan, Inuzuka Clan, Kodon Clan, Fūma Clan, Kamizuru Clan etc.〛
〚Other clans: Yotsuki Clan, Karatachi Clan, Sarutobi Clan, Shimura Clan, Mitokado Clan, Utatane Clan, Hatake Clan, Izuno Clan, etc.〛
If he had a brow to furrow he'd certainly be doing that, this was a big decision to make.. He had already thought about just being reborn into the Ōtsutsuki clan, it certainly would have been a sure fire way to become powerful, but these clans were not even contained in the info.
Considering the Senju, Uzumaki, Uchiha, Kaguya and Ōtsutsuki on the moon were all mostly wiped out at some point in time he didn't feel too bad about not being able to reincarnate into any of those clans.
Accompanying the different options, he also got a small amount of information on each of them, like where they are from, the specialties of each clan, the number of clan members etc.
It quickly became obvious to him that on top of all clans from Konoha being unavailable to him, other clans were only available when they had some sort of problem or issue going on.
(A/N: In Word I marked some clans green and some red, signifying which ones were available to him. Since that's impossible to do here, I'll simply list the ones available to him: Chinoike Clan, Iburi Clan, Yuki Clan, Ankoku Clan, Suishō Clan, Hōzuki Clan, , Kodon Clan, Fūma Clan, Yotsuki Clan, Karatachi Clan.)
Iburi? Use your Kekkei Genkai once when it's just a bit windy and you're done for.
Chinoike? Starving in some valley filled with only iron water and in Boruto they were also pretty much wiped out.
Yuki? Wiped out.
Ankoku? Wiped out.
Suishō? Wiped out.
The available clans without a bloodline limit werent particularly interesting to him. The Hōzuki Clan, which had a Hiden Jutsu that granted an invulnerability to almost all physical attacks below a certain level, was somewhat intriguing, but compared to a Kekkei Genkai it wasn't much.
'There are some options, but a lot of them are already out. I need an ability that let's me get ahead not only in strength but also in future potential. They would let me grow up in a relatively safe environment however they don't come with any actual bloodline advantage.
Let's see.. the Iburi is out. Their Kekkei Genkai carries way too many risks. That leaves the Ketsuryūgan, Ice-Release, Dark-Release and Crystal-Release. Out of those the one starting out with the least "power" but highest potential is definetly Dark-Release. Being practically immune against all chakra based attacks would be a game changer.
I also think that Ice-Release and Crystal-Release can become incredibly powerful, but compared to illusions and blood based Jutsu it still falls short. Hmm… which to pick..?'
"I choose the Ankoku clan!"
Having made his choice he wanted to ask the being before him some more questions, however before he could even begin the being said: 'It is done. You however won't be able to choose the time period of your reincarnation.'You will awaken your memories during your childhood. Goodbye.'
Without any fanfare, he felt himself get drowsy, almost like fighting against the feeling of falling asleep, while simultaneously being whisked away into the distance.