One might absently wonder, what happened after death? Many people claim to be experts on the subject - some would say you go to an afterlife of some kind, others believed your soul would be reincarnated into another form, many also believed there was just nothing after and this life was your one and only shot.
Saul? Saul would say he didn't know, didn't care, until, well that was until today. He grabbed at his chest immediately, exclaiming loudly,
Saul woke up with a start. Eyes turned toward him from every direction. Saul matched their gazes with confusion.
A bunch of teenagers stared back at him, a girl with a long ponytail and a long bang that covered the side of her face. A blushing fat dude with his hands in a bag of chips. No, he wasn't blushing. Was that face-paint?
"Saul! Don't use that kind of fucking language in my classroom!"
A tall man with sun-kissed skin screams from a podium, clearly already pissed off.
"If you don't want to be re-tested that much, you can join Naruto on the floor!"
Suddenly the man was right beside Saul. In the next moment they were both standing at the front of the classroom. He angrily grabbed some rope (why was he even keeping that?)
"Well? Are you going to behave yourself now or do I have to tie you too!"
Both confused and bewildered by his sudden predicament, Saul meekly nods and joins Naruto in sitting on the floor. The spiky haired blonde flashes him a cheeky grin with upturned eyes, clearly amused.
"Hey hey, Saul, Saul-san. Pssst!"
The bound dude leans forward. He looked almost comical with how tightly he was tied. Saul gazes back at Naruto, observing him with a growing sense of deja-vu.
"You still don't know how to do the transformation jutsu?" His blue eyes curl into crescents.
"Uzumaki Naruto!" The tanned man with the high-tied ponytail screams. "That's it, you're first! Get up now!"
"Alright alright, Iruka sensei, I heard you dattebayo..."
Naruto gets up and pulls his arms apart. The ropes snap one by one from the pressure of his pull, falling at his feet. As expected of a descendant of the Uzumaki.
Saul watches with rapt attention as Naruto makes the hand sign for the transformation jutsu. A soft blue light leaks out from his hands, before swirling around him rapidly. It wraps around his body and forms a cloak. Finally, it turns into smoke.
A blonde woman with two long pig-tails appears. Her breasts, way larger than they had any right to be, were covered just barely by a trail of smoke. Her fat ass wiggles in Saul's direction, privates conveniently obscured by another errant trail. Saul stares at rapt attention for a moment before he remembers the reality of the situation, and then he feels a strong urge to puke.
The students each do the transformation jutsu one after another after they're called. Saul observes each student carefully, mimicking the hand-signs to practice. Ninjutsu at its core was a method of releasing and manipulating chakra to create a result. He knew that much from watching the anime. What were hand seals, then?
Saul had some theories. Everyone used them. From the Third Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen to the lowliest academy pre-genin, hand seals were used in every jutsu. However, some ninja could shorten the amount of hand seals used per jutsu. Some jutsu shared the same seals yet had vastly different effects.
Simply knowing the hand seals wasn't enough. There was a third, more crucial element that Saul couldn't figure out from the show. How did hand seals interact with Chakra?
Saul jolted. He stood and put his hands together according to what he had practiced. Here goes nothing!
Yep. Nothing. Iruka looks at him weirdly while Naruto bursts into laughter.
A circle on the clipboard lets Saul know he was going to get a lecture later. Iruka calls the next victim forward.
Saul was fortunately wrong about being called in for a lecture. Iruka seemed to only have eyes for Naruto at the time - no doubt his continued antics made Iruka temporarily forget about Saul.
This was good because he finally had a chance to gather his thoughts. He knew he wasn't from some clan - when Iruka called the roster, his clan name was not announced. He didn't have memories from whatever dude he took over to guide him. Where was he supposed to go?
He slung his bag over his back and followed after some civilian students. He reckoned either A, they were orphans who might lead him to some village sponsored housing or B, would go to an area where students gathered for their relatives to pick them up. Saul wasn't sure which option applied to him, and he didn't know which scenario he dreaded worse.
Only a few in the group however, he noted, waited at the academy for someone. A large group of people didn't wait, continuing to walk. Saul reached for his pockets. A key. He wouldn't be carrying around a key unless he needed to use it. No need to wait around then.
Absent-mindedly following behind the group of students, Saul examines the key in the light. No words. A number. 406. Green tag. Got it.
Luckily for Saul, it was fairly straightforward from there. The majority of students led him to some sort of dorm housing, where Saul was able to find his room based on number. It was shared by a few other male students much to his displeasure. They were boisterously chatting with each-other. Afraid of inadvertently drawing even more attention to himself than he already probably had by joining the conversation, Saul decided to come back later when it was time to sleep.
He found himself sitting by a tree outside. Back in the real world at a time , he would be playing games online, maybe watching some porn. Now? Saul was stuck out here in some stupid anime because of some trigger happy bitch! Why the hell was she in his home anyway? All he could remember was trying his best to ignore her before she broke into the house and then...
Not wanting to dwell on it for too long, Saul pulled out whatever he could find in his bag. He desperately needed something to take his mind off the crippling fear of arriving in a world , the depression of dying, and not knowing if you'll ever be able to return.
There was a chipped kunai. Three scrolls. A bag full of green slips of paper and a bunch of red tickets. He slipped the last one back into his bag quickly.
Unrolling the first scroll, Saul read the first word on the papyrus. Transformation.