I'm Inside Naruto Manga

"..."

The abruptness of it all left Logan completely stunned for several seconds. He slowly closed his mouth and, with a neck that suddenly felt unbearably heavy, turned to take in the street around him.

A man in a suit walked past him from behind, briefly turning his head in confusion. He couldn't understand why someone would just stand in the middle of the road. He hesitated for a moment, but upon noticing Logan staring unblinkingly at the street with an expression that didn't seem quite right, he quickly moved on.

Laughing couples walked around him, customers exiting the bookstore instinctively avoided him as he blocked their path. Passersby gave him a glance before merging back into the dense crowd. Above him, streetlights and neon signs bathed the road in dazzling brightness, making it seem almost like daylight. Japanese voices drifted in the air, 'Doko e iki', 'Mata ashita'... (T/N: It's written in Japanese, doko e iki means where to go, and mata ashita means see you tomorrow.)

He really was back in Akihabara.

Just moments ago, he had been speaking with Sumika. In that warm glow, he could clearly recall every tiny change in her expression, the way her eyes shimmered with emotion… he had truly felt the rhythm of his own heartbeat...

There had never been a moment he wanted to hold onto more. Logan shook his head, trying to reclaim that feeling, but the city's noise pressed in even closer.

"Damn transmigration!" Logan's face darkened. Without thinking, he clenched his fist and swung it hard into the ground.

Boom!

There was a bookstore nearby, and the people reading books on the other side of the wall look around in confusion.

"Did something just shake?"

"Impossible, right…"

"I think I heard something too?"

"Let's go somewhere else..."

Logan hadn't held back in the slightest, and his strike was beyond what any ordinary human could manage. The entire wall trembled slightly from the impact, and loose gravel at the base of the roadside wall inexplicably rolled outward.

Fortunately, the deep, echoing thud was drowned out by the general noise of the city. A few pedestrians instinctively glanced over but didn't notice anything unusual.

Logan exhaled and glanced around, realizing that he couldn't afford to draw attention with reckless actions. But the sheer frustration of being forcefully pulled away from such an important moment was unbearable.

He even felt an urge to unleash a Chidori right then and there… but the most infuriating part was that he didn't even know who to aim it at.

'How did I travel back so fast?' Logan couldn't wrap his head around it. The events unfolding in the Ninja World weren't even centered around him, and this time, he'd only spent a few hours there… from afternoon until evening...

"Wait, it's already nighttime?" Logan looked across the brightly lit lights on both sides of the street and looked toward the sky, "How is that possible? Hold on… Where's the others?"

When he had traveled to the Naruto World, time in modern world should have practically stopped.

Logan pulled open the bookstore door and stepped inside, scanning the area. The wooden bookshelves were still lined with a dazzling array of light novels and manga, but his classmates were nowhere to be found.

'Things have changed again.'

Logan pulled his phone from his pocket. He had anticipated returning to Akihabara, so he hadn't changed out of his clothes or removed his belongings. Even so, things had gone far beyond what he expected.

Sunday, December 24th. 6:00 PM. Not only had an entire afternoon passed, but he had also missed the scheduled meeting time set by the tour guide.

Logan looked at the numbers on his lock screen and frowned.

Confused and uneasy thoughts came one after another, 'Estimating from the time it took me to travel from the border to Capital, the flow of time in both worlds should've been roughly the same... Are they now synchronized?'

His already frustrated mood grew even worse. "Today is Sunday... could that have something to do with it?"

"Excuse me."

A chubby otaku carrying a large bag of books squeezed past him, exiting the bookstore. Logan stepped aside, and a gust of winter air slipped inside.

The stark difference in season from the other world reminded him of the most pressing issue at hand.

'That's right, since it's already evening now, that means I vanished the moment I stepped out of the bookstore. If David and the others couldn't reach me...'

Ding!

Hs phone chimed at the right time, and the message acceptance prompts came out. LOgan reluctantly picked up his phone, which suddenly came to life after having no signal and then connected to the Internet.

Aside from a bunch of irrelevant app alerts, there were dozens of missed calls and messages, most of them directed at him.

'Chat apps, texts, missed calls…' Logan rubbed his temples, 'This damned transmigration…'

Buzz–

The screen changed, and another call came in at this moment. Logan found out that it was from Olivia.

To be honest, Logan had zero desire to answer all. After all, what was waiting for him was a storm.

Buzz-

The phone vibrated tenaciously in his palm.

Seeing this, Logan let out a long sigh. No matter what, his current identity was that of a high school student on a study trip. Disappearing like this was no small issue, and the longer he delayed, the worse it would be.

'Hopefully, they haven't called the police yet...' Logan silently prayed as he swiped to answer.

"..." After the call was connected, Logan didn't speak first. He hadn't come up with an excuse yet.

A few moments passed in silence, just the faint sound of breathing over the line.

'The signal was clear. No interference...' A familiar female voice spoke at this time.

"Logan?"

It was Olivia's voice, and the other party still felt cold on the phone.

"It's me, Senior." Logan tried his best to sound normal.

A commotion immediately broke out on the other end, with rushed voices and the sound of things being moved. It seemed like the school group had realized they had finally gotten through to him. Logan even caught a few familiar voices.

"David, what are you doing? Move aside..." The phone's volume suddenly dipped, as if someone had pulled it further away.

"Logan! Tell me the truth, were you sneaking off behind my back…"

"Somebody, get him..."

The chaos intensified for a moment, as if there was some kind of struggle happening. The call was noisy for more than ten seconds before it finally settled down.

"Alright. It's me, Olivia."

Her voice was calm, as if she had just wrapped something up and moved to a quieter place where no one else would interrupt.

"…Oh."

Logan vaguely heard David yelling in the background, but he decided to pretend he hadn't.

"Where have you been?" Olivia got straight to the point.

"I..." Logan had already come up with two possible excuses in his head, but neither sounded very convincing, so he sounded a little unconfident.

"Let me ask a different question." Unexpectedly, Olivia didn't seem interested in pressing him for details. Instead, she asked, "Are you safe right now?"

Logan was briefly caught off guard by her shift in focus. He wasn't sure what to make of it, but the fact that she prioritized his safety gave him a small sense of warmth. He answered sincerely: "Yeah, I'm safe. Completely safe. I haven't lost anything, and I didn't get robbed or anything."

"Then why couldn't we reach your phone before? You didn't respond to any messages either!"

"Uh… I didn't have any signal."

"I see."

That was all Olivia said. She didn't accuse him of lying or even sound particularly doubtful.

'She 'sees'?' Logan was even more confused, 'What exactly do you 'see'? Because I sure as hell don't see anything.'

A sudden thought flashed through his mind, 'Wait… Olivia had always suspected me of having supernatural abilities. Which, technically, wasn't wrong... but still! That's not the point!'

Logan then thought of the serious look on her face when Olivia had asked him on the plane if he had any particular places he wanted to visit in Japan.

"Senior… you're not seriously thinking of some unrealistic, far-fetched explanation, are you?" Logan held his phone a little tighter, and cautiously probed.

"Not at all. I haven't said a single thing, have I? What's wrong? Hmm?"

"..."

'She definitely made something up in her head.' Logan replayed her tone in his mind and felt completely powerless.

"You just admitted it." After a long pause, her voice came through again, calm, steady, as if making an objective conclusion.

"…I don't want to talk anymore."