The ticking of the clock was louder than the sound of his own heartbeat.
9:57 p.m.
The screen in front of Ardyn Vale was a sea of code. Lines and lines of it scrolled down endlessly, the cursor blinking at the end of a command string that had become his only companion for the last twelve hours. His fingers moved on autopilot, mechanical and precise. Each keystroke a weapon. Each solution another enemy defeated.
Another day. Another crisis. Another life he wasn't living.
The office was empty. Everyone else had gone home hours ago. Ardyn didn't even remember what the sky looked like anymore. He hadn't seen it in days. Or maybe weeks?
"Almost done," he muttered to himself, his voice hoarse. "Just need to patch the AI logic in the sandbox... then the bug in the neural layer... then... then I can rest."
He lied.
He knew it. Just like the thousand times before.
His body screamed. Bones aching, stomach hollow, eyes dry and burning. But none of it mattered. He was a tool. A machine built to solve problems for people who didn't know his name. And like any machine, he worked until something snapped.
This time, it was his heart.
A sudden jolt. His chest tightened. Breath caught halfway in his lungs. The world tilted—no, twisted.
"Ah…"
His fingers froze above the keyboard. The screen blurred. Darkness crept in from the corners of his vision like ink spilling over paper.
He collapsed.
The last thing he saw was the blinking cursor.
Then—
Silence.
[SYSTEM BOOTING…]
[INITIALIZING VOIDWALKER.exe]
[WARNING: USER CONSCIOUSNESS DETACHED FROM MORTAL REALITY]
[LOADING INTERFACE: 3%... 18%... 64%... COMPLETE]
He opened his eyes.
No, not quite. There were no eyes here. No body. No heartbeat. No breath.
Just awareness.
And the Void.
It stretched in every direction—if directions even existed here. A space without stars, without light, without even time. And yet... it pulsed. With power. With intent.
A voice echoed. Not in his ears, but within his being.
"You are awake... Ardyn Vale."
He felt his name like a chime in the darkness.
"You have escaped the prison of flesh. You are... interesting."
A figure formed in front of him. Vaguely humanoid, but ever-shifting—like a silhouette made of nebulae and shattered galaxies.
"Where am I?" Ardyn asked, or thought he did.
"Nowhere. Yet everywhere. You stand in the Void. The place before beginnings and after endings."
"So I'm dead?"
"Your previous form has perished, yes. But death is not an end. For some, it is an evolution."
Ardyn's thoughts moved quickly. Faster than they ever had in life.
"What do you want from me?"
"A better question would be... what do you want?"
A pause.
"Power? Freedom? Revenge? Purpose? Say the word. In return, I offer you a throne."
"A throne?"
"The Void Throne. All that has been forgotten, rejected, cast out by creation—it flows here. Those who master the Void can walk between worlds. Tear apart realities. Consume rules. Rewrite fate."
"And if I refuse?"
"Then you will drift. Forever. A lost fragment. A whisper in a storm of entropy."
He didn't hesitate.
"I accept."
[USER ACCEPTANCE REGISTERED]
[UPGRADING USER CLASS: VOID PRINCE]
[INSTALLING VOIDWALKER.exe]
[WELCOME, ARDYN VALE]
[INITIAL WORLD SELECTED: NARUTO - SHINOBI DIMENSION 748-AX1]
[DEPLOYING IN 10... 9... 8...]
Ardyn's awareness shattered like glass through gravity.
He plummeted through layers of space—colors that had no name, sounds that couldn't exist, data streams surging into his mind.
And then—light.
Cold air hit his skin. He gasped.
He had a body again.
Small. Young. Maybe eight or nine years old. Wearing a worn black cloak. Dirty sandals. The metallic taste of blood on his tongue. The sting of pain in his ribs.
He sat up.
Around him were trees. Thick. Dense. A forest. But wrong—his senses screamed with extra information. The wind carried chakra signatures. Faint echoes of killing intent. Wildlife that shouldn't exist.
And then—
[MISSION OBJECTIVE: INFILTRATE KONOHA. INFECT THE TIMELINE.]
"What…?"
He stumbled to his feet just as a sharp crack echoed nearby. A kunai embedded itself in a tree inches from his head.
Footsteps. Rapid.
"Damn it! He's still alive!"
Three figures emerged—ninja. Their flak jackets bore no symbol. Rogues?
"Kill the boy! Don't let him reach the village!"
Ardyn's eyes flickered.
And something woke up inside him.
[VOID CORE ACCESS: 1%]
[ABILITY UNLOCKED: VOID THREADS – Manipulate spatial strands for minor attacks or illusions.]
He raised his hand without thinking.
Strings of shimmering black webbed into existence, slicing through the air.
One rogue ninja collapsed. Another screamed as his shadow bent backward, snapping his spine. The third tried to flee—
Ardyn blinked.
He was behind the man.
"How—?"
The last thing the rogue saw were those glowing, purple-black eyes.
The forest was silent again.
Ardyn stood over the bodies, staring at his hands.
This power… this body… this world.
He smirked.
"Let the game begin."
[CHAPTER END | NEXT: THE SILENT ORPHAN OF KONOHA]