I died.
Not in some dramatic, earth-shattering way.
No noble sacrifice, no tragic accident—just the simple, pathetic consequence of living like an idiot.
Turns out, sleeping 2-3 hours a day while drowning yourself in caffeine isn't a long-term survival strategy.
Who would've thought?
I had spent six years clawing my way through a joint graduation in Inorganic and Materials Chemistry...
It wasn't out of love for the subject, but because it was the only thing i was good at.
It was also something that could open doors, something I could build a future on.
But higher education isn't free, and I wasn't born into money.
So I took out a loan.
A big one.
One that I barely managed to scrape by on, covering tuition, rent, and the occasional meal when I could afford more than instant noodles.
I wanted to study further.
I really did.
I had other interests, other dreams.
But reality doesn't care about what you want.
I wasn't eligible for another loan, and I still had debts to pay.
Even if I had found a way, I was already struggling just to stay afloat.
So I did the only thing I could—I abandoned my aspirations and went to work.
I tried everything to make a few extra.
Part-time jobs, tutoring, gigolo anything
But it was never enough.
Every paycheck disappeared in loan repayments and the sky high cost of living before I could even think about saving.
I was running on fumes, but stopping wasn't an option.
And then one day, my body just gave out.
I collapsed. Blacked out.
Never woke up.
When I opened my eyes again, I wasn't me anymore.
I was someone else. Kirishima Hayato.
For a brief, shining moment, I thought maybe this was a second chance. Maybe this was fate giving me a redo.
Then I took a good look at my situation and realized I was 2/2 on horrible spawn points.
I wasn't some noble heir.
I wasn't some genius prodigy.
I wasn't even middle-class.
I was dirt poor.....Again.
But there was one thing that gave me hope—where I was.
The Land of Fire.... The capital, no less.
I was in the world of Naruto.
For the first time in my god forsaken existence, a few moments of real excitement bubbled in my chest.
This was a world where people could break streets with their fists, move faster than the eye could follow.
I clung to that hope like a drowning man to a piece of driftwood.
I trained.... I meditated.
I tried every chakra exercise I could find.
Nothing.
I refused to accept it.
There had to be something wrong. Some reason I wasn't making progress.
So I saved up every spare coin I had and paid an exorbitant fee to a Hyūga ninja to analyze my chakra pathways.
The verdict?
Burned. Most of them were burned beyond repair.
I wasn't just talentless—I was crippled.
My body couldn't even channel chakra properly.
I had no bloodline, no secret potential waiting to be unlocked.
I was just another nobody....Again.
Still, I wasn't ready to give up.
Maybe I couldn't use chakra, but strength was still an option.
Might guy had done it.
Becoming a warrior through pure physical training.
Pushing my body beyond its limits.
Becoming something monstrous through sheer willpower.
But I wasn't a fucking Spartan reborn.
The idea of training to exhaustion, of breaking myself over and over again in the hopes of maybe surviving in this brutal world was but a fairy tail.
Because I knew myself—I was a coward.
I wasn't the type who could push himself beyond his limits, even if it meant survival.
I had never been....
I was Pathetic. And I knew it.
So, I did what I had always done. I accepted my fate.
I lived my life as a regular civilian, stuck in mediocrity yet again by the circumstances of my birth.
During the day, I worked as a cook at a small restaurant, flipping yakitori and serving ramen to people who barely even acknowledged my existence.
At night, I worked at Tatsuraku, a local casino, dealing cards, running bets, watching people gamble away fortunes.
This was my life now...Again
No power. No ambition. Just survival.
Just like before.
It wasn't all bad.
I was used to being a nobody.
There was a certain comfort in it, a familiarity.
No expectations, no disappointments—just existing. Drifting through life unnoticed.
At least in this one, I had the small mercy of being relatively pleasing to look at. Or so some of the female coworkers at the restaurant liked to say when they thought I wasn't listening.
Not that it mattered. I was used to being alone.
I never craved love, never chased after it.
I didn't understand it.
People talked about it like some grand, all-consuming force, but to me, it was just a foreign concept.
Something that happened to other people.
But greed? That, I understood.
I wanted more....I always had.
So when a noble lady, Sayuri was her name, took a faint interest in me one night at the casino.
Right then and there, I saw an opportunity.
She was a single mother, refined but not cold, with an elegance that drew the eye.
And honestly? She was not bad at all to look at.
So I shot my shot.
And for a brief moment, I thought maybe things were finally turning in my favor.
But no....No, of course not.
Because that ended up being one of the single worst decisions of my life.
You see, before we got married, it was shaping up to be one of the happiest times of my life.
At that time, I thought— maybe—I wasn't destined to be screwed over by fate in every aspect of my existence.
I, who had never known love, found myself genuinely connecting with someone.
I used to watch couples when I worked late at the restaurant, the way they'd share a plate, the way their hands would brush together naturally, like it was second nature.
And somehow, I started living that life.
At first, it was comfort. Familiarity.
Then, without realizing it, I started falling in love.
I'd wake up in the mornings with this strange sense of anticipation, this lightness in my chest.
Like I was walking toward something that mattered.
I wasn't stupid—I knew about the ten-year age gap between us.
But for once, I hoped.
Spending hours together, sharing meals, making plans for the future—it felt real.
I even left my job at the casino.
I remember handing in my notice, the sound of dice rolling and distant cheers from gamblers in the background.
I walked out of there thinking, I don't have to do this anymore.
She didn't have children, though she often spoke of wanting them.
She'd laugh sometimes, hand resting on her stomach, saying, Maybe after we're married.
I let myself believe.
I let myself dream.
And then—
The moment we got married— It all crumbled down.
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Power Stones and Reviews please