Stuck on the Road of Life

(Re)Birth

Disclaimer : I do not own Naruto, simple enough.

I am a guy, writing a self-insert fanfic… I find that uncommon in the Naruto fandom, but what the hell!

Dying was not the peaceful white light that many people preached about of. Oh no… dying was a major pain in the ass. Especially when the cause of your death was a drunk driver who suddenly came out of nowhere. Seriously, who the hell expected that to happen in the middle of the day? I was going home from school, walking on the sideways as usual, my fingers itching for the familiar sensation of mouse and keyboard. It was a typical hot cloudy day in the city. The road was quite empty, which was weird, considering it was the time when office workers go to lunch.

I put on my headphone and sat at the bus stop, listening to Green Day while waiting for the bus. I guess I must've put on the volume too loud because I didn't hear the people yelling at me to get out of the way. When I looked up from my phone, I saw a black car heading right towards me at top speed. People probably expects me to think about of my loved ones, the things I would be leaving behind, like say, my precious turtles… and families, of course. In the short span of a single second, I probably thought of those things, but the only thing that came out of my mouth was one word that most would say if people were in my situation.

"Shit!"

The next thing I knew was complete darkness. I couldn't see a damn thing. I couldn't even feel anything, so that probably confirmed my status of being dead. I wondered if I would go to Heaven or Hell. I hadn't done that many things in my life, since I was still an eighteen year old boy. I still had some more growing up to do and a kickass career I would probably have if I hadn't died. Mostly wishful thinking but at least I still have a dream. Or maybe there are no Heaven and Hell, just this endless void of darkness.

That would suck.

As a consolation though, I died in an accident and not in a martyr sort of way. Dying for a cause and then finding out you'll be stuck in an endless void after death would probably be like a stab in the back… with a bastard sword. I thought back on all the martyrs I knew from history books and pitied them if this was truly the case.

I thought back on my life before the car accident. I was an ordinary boy who was born in an ordinary household. I was a smart kid, though my brilliance was probably overshadowed by my laziness. But I could truly be smart when I put my back into something. I hadn't joined kindergarten because my family didn't have any money, so I stayed home for the most part of my early life. My brother and I taught ourselves on how to read in our attic. There were mountains of books there, either from my parents or my cousins' old books. We started with easy things, like Donald Duck comic books.

After my brother was whisked away by the diabolical claws of school, I started to read by myself, mostly books about zoology. I was really interested in animals and dinosaurs, especially dinosaurs. I now mentally laughed at the faces of my parents when they realized I actually memorized dozens of dinosaurs' names.

I really liked to draw. Drawing was a huge part of my life. My father first showed some of his old drawings and even demonstrated on how to draw a horse. Since then I've been drawing nearly every day. I first started with Popeye and other cartoon characters. As the years went by I got better at it too. I found that Masashi Kishimoto's drawing style suited me the most. It was realistic, but still stayed in the realm of manga.

I admit that I was a tad bit overweight, but I still did sports. I had been playing badminton since I was a little kid and it actually helped me with my reflexes. I was a quiet and polite person. It was only in the company of close friends that I truly open up and be the jokester that I truly am. Sometimes I like to joke in class, but I mostly kept my mouth shut. I usually put on a neutral expression when not dealing with people, which was quite a lot of time. People actually called me Flat-Face because of it. Not that I mind.

It felt like hours. I waited and waited and waited yet nothing happened. What? Was there an invisible queue where we line up and be judged to be sent to Heaven or Hell? I really hope not. Then suddenly, a bright light shone not far from where I was. It started out as a small light, no more than a small dot. Seconds went by and the light became bigger. I could hear voices from the other side. The voices spoke in a strange yet somewhat familiar language. The light made me squint. Then I got engulfed by the mysterious white light.

I saw many unfamiliar faces. Some of them were wearing white masks. They were holding me with their gloved hands and I felt wet and breathless. I was scared and I couldn't breathe. I did the only thing that seemed logical to me. I screamed. But it came out as a cry. A baby's cry. A thought dawned on me. I was experiencing my birth.

My rebirth.

I was being reincarnated. It only proceeded to make me cry even harder. A pair of arms came to hold me and a soothing voice reached my ears. I saw a beautiful woman with long brown hair. Her bangs stuck to her forehead, no doubt wet from all the sweat. I couldn't understand what she was saying. She was speaking in that strange language that oddly seemed familiar. I wanted to know more. I wanted to know what was going on. But my eyes betrayed me and I soon fell asleep.

I woke up in a crib. I held back a sniff when I remembered that I was reborn as a baby. The room was dark from what I caught by lying down was that the room was sparsely decorated. My parents probably didn't have enough money to buy decorations. The crib I was in seemed to be made from cheap wood and the blanket seemed to have been stitched back together after being ripped. Being reborn was the last thing that I expected to happen to me. Sure, some people in my previous life had talked about it but for it to happen to me? Preposterous!

Still, I have accepted that I had in fact died. So, I would just have to accept this new reality. Still, a new life. The idea alone was pretty crazy to me. I kept thinking on what country I was born in since I was obviously not in my country anymore or any English-speaking country as evident from the strange language I've been hearing. I hadn't been outside the house even once. So the moment my one of my parents brought me outside, I made sure to memorize my surroundings and determine where the hell I was. Morning was probably still hours away, so I decided that the best thing to do was to go to sleep again.

Morning came and I saw mother heading towards my crib. I still couldn't see very clearly, but I could see she was wearing some kind brown kimono. So I was born in Japan. But looking from her clothes, it was pretty traditional. Maybe she was a traditional person, I don't know. Anyway, where was my father?

She spoke some words that I honestly did not understand one bit. Then she spoke a single word that captured my attention. She kept repeating it while pointing at me. It dawned on me that she was speaking my name.

"Tora," she said. So my name was Tora. I liked it. Tiger. It wasn't as interesting as my old name, to be honest. But at least Tora was still a cool name. At least I wasn't named Yuki. I couldn't imagine sticking with such a girlish name.

She picked me up from the crib and carried me out of the room. I looked around the house as we went to the front door. The entire house was sparsely decorated which strengthen my suspicion of my family's financial condition. Then I saw the kitchen with had a whole lot of baking equipment. So my mother was a baker. Looking at the house, business must've been pretty bad recently. I didn't need to be a genius to figure that out. We went out of the front door and I saw my surroundings. I could see more clearly with my eyes now as they had adjusted quite well. The buildings were not tall and I could see that they seemed rather ancient to me. I turned my head around to where my mom was looking and saw a sight that made my brain stop working for a second.

On the mountain I could see three faces carved on the surface of it. I tried to convince myself that it was simply Mount Rushmore. But there were no Mount Rushmore in Japan, and Mount Rushmore does not have the faces of the First, Second and Third Hokage carved on it. I finally realized where I was. I was reborn into the Naruto world. I did the one thing any sane person would do when stuck in this kind of situation. I cried.

My mother patted my back in an attempt to calm me down. She was confused as to what had made me upset.

I just continued to cry.

I finally have the courage to write this. I was skeptical about writing self-insert fanfic at first as SI fanfics evidently have a nasty reputation among fanfics. But I'm now willing to give it a shot. Plus, I don't see a lot of male SI in the Naruto fandom. I will try to keep the characters from the manga as in character as possible. Having them acting out of character is the last thing I want. I'm sure it's the last thing you want too, right?

Anyway, follow this story as there will be more coming. And would you kindly share your opinion of the prologue to me in the review section. That would be really helpful, especially if there were any flaw or anything I could improve. Thanks!