Have you ever woken up and not had the slightest clue about where you were or how you got there? I'm not talking about the split second when you wake up from a vivid dream and your brain needs a second to remember it is awake. What I'm talking about is where you have a blank spot in your memories and nothing around you is familiar. If you have, I would dearly like some advice because I have suddenly found myself in the situation I just described.
Who am I? That's a good question and, now that I think about it, a question that I would also like the answer to myself. It looks like there are more holes in my memory than merely how did I end up in this strange place. Why don't I focus on what I do know with absolute certainty? I'll start with this place I've found myself in. It's a strange place filled with glowing multi-colored ever changing clouds. The clouds are changing both in what color each part is and in what shape they are in. Strangely, I've found that I can both expand and narrow my focus on the clouds. This lets me see that the clouds are made up of little glowing spheres of light. It also lets me broaden my view so that the clouds go on for miles and miles to the point where the individual shades of light disappear into an indescribably beautiful glowing piece of art.
Part of me is wondering why I am not a gibbering mess right now. I mean, between the memory losses, the strange landscape, my sudden change in zoom focus around me, and my just discovered inability to feel any of my limbs why wouldn't I have a break down? It doesn't matter how tough you are or think you are getting hit with all of these at once should be way more than you can handle. However, I'm not panicking, I'm not worrying, and I am not even feeling the least bit anxious. What I am feeling is joy. The closest I can compare this joy to is the feeling a little kid has when he or she is getting a hug from their parents while holding a toy they wanted which was just given to them. Wish I had a better way with words, because that joy is only a pale echo of what I'm feeling right now in this place wherever it may be.
There was a flash of light just as I was starting to get comfortable wherever I was and when the light receded I found myself in yet another unknown location. However, this new location was more recognizable to me. I was standing, and I can confirm that because I could feel my feet again, in some unknown basilica. It was a breathtaking blend of Byzantine and Gothic architecture filled with frescos, mosaics, stain-glass windows, icons, and statues of masterful quality. There were different styles for each medium all covering different scenes from the Bible and Christian tradition that somehow seamlessly meshed with each other.
Why couldn't I place this cathedral? I would have expected any art history course worth its cost to at least mention a place with this many different styles of artwork of this quality mixed together. If not the art teacher, then shouldn't the history teacher have mentioned this place? A building this large and magnificently built should have taken generations to construct and cost an emperor's ransom. This church could only have been built if it was at the heart of a very rich empire or maybe a kingdom. Nothing else could have mobilized the money, manpower, and material to make such a structure if the architectural clues were correct and this place was built in the Middle Ages.
A friendly voice cut off my musings and said, "This place never existed." I turned towards the voice and was surprised to see Rex Harrison of all people sitting in a chair wearing a costume from his role in The Agony and the Ecstasy. But that didn't make any sense, Rex Harrison has been dead for decades and here he was looking like he did in the 1960s! The look alike smiled at me and then said, "Please take a seat." He then motioned his hand to a chair that either suddenly appeared next to him or that I hadn't noticed before. I'm personally leaning to the chair suddenly appearing given everything else I've experienced so far today.
I walked over to the chair and sat down earning me a smile from the faux Harrison which strangely filled me with the sense of joy that I felt in that cloud place. My companion then said, "I created this place so that the two of us could have a chat without you being overwhelmed my child. This form I'm using to talk to you is also something I created since my true self would overwhelm you. With that out of the way, let us move on to the next question that you want answered. What is happening to you and why do you have gaps in your memory?"
A ghost of a frown appeared on my companion's face for a second as he said, "The answer to both of these is same my child: you died and this is the afterlife. You cannot recall your death at the moment because it was quiet traumatic. One of those soon to be pit dwellers attacked a venue you were at supposedly in my name." There was a pause as my companion smiled vindictively and said, "Make that a newly arrived pit dweller. He'll find his afterlife very different from what he thought he'd get."
Hearing that I died in what was probably a terrorist attack was a bit of a downer. I hadn't given death too much thought beforehand. I was kind of hoping for the dying peacefully in my bed at a 100 something surrounded by a large family way to leave the mortal coil. However, if that cloud place was the afterlife I could be content.
My companion then spoke again, "You are no doubt wondering why I want to talk to you here. As a general policy, I like to let the souls of the departed go to their appropriate rewards or punishments after death. Your afterlife, which you briefly experienced, is what you earned through your life's efforts. The reason we are meeting like this is so that I can offer you a deal."
I frowned and said, "Why do you need to offer me a deal if you are who I think you are?" I didn't want to say it out loud, but everything I had seen suggested that this person in front of me was the proverbial big guy upstairs.
Faux Harrison smiled an almost fatherly smile as he said, "Free Will is the most precious gift I give sentient beings throughout my creations. I will never abrogate that gift even if overriding a person's choice would be better for them in the long run. There is a task I would like for you to do, but I will not force you to do. You must accept it of your own free will."
That was something I could respect and I figured it would be polite to at least hear my companion out. "Could you tell me more about this deal?" I asked.
There was a nod from my companion who then answered me. "As I mentioned, I have many creations. Your world and your universe is one of countless others I have created. Each one is unique and a masterpiece in its own right. I like to show my creations off by allowing people in each world to catch glimpses of others which serve as the driving inspirations of storytellers and painters who in turn share my creation with others. Most, but not all, stories you've read or heard about were inspired in this way. It is quite a joy for me when a story about one of my creations becomes very popular in another creation with my children talking about this or that point."
"However, things don't always go as they should in my creations because of the actions of the inhabitants of those creations and this leads to massive suffering for my children. Your world, for all of its problems, is one of the better ones of my creations. It still has a way to go, but my children on Earth are improving things one step at a time. In other creations of mine, things are in very dire straits. I want to improve the situation in these worlds. The trick is that I have to help in a way that does not negate free will and sometimes my agents decide that they don't want to help as I hoped."
"This leads to the deal I want to make with you my child. I have decided to do something different and I want to send an agent to help avert a massive disaster knowing that this is their purpose in life. If you accept my offer, I will grant you a new chance at life in one of these worlds where you will be placed in such a way that you will be able to help the 'chosen one' of that world avert a truly terrible fate: the loss of all free will and then the loss of all life on a planet. You will also be given some tools to help you on your journey. These tools will also be helped by your familiarity with the world as it was retold to you before in your previous life."
I may not be the best person around, but the idea of letting a whole world's population going extinct did not sit well with me. The fact that I could do something to stop that was very tempting. However, that was also a massive responsibility and the thought of standing up against something that could cause what my companion described was frightening even if I was only supposed to become the support team.
Faux Harrison put his hand on my shoulder which caused my emerging anxiety to disappear. He then said, "This is an offer for you. If you do not want to accept it then I will let you return to the afterlife for all eternity. If you do accept my offer you will be helping to save the lives of millions. You will also have the opportunity to live another life, a privilege I rarely allow. Depending on your actions, you could live a long full life once your task is complete in happiness before returning to the afterlife. An afterlife that you would find richer and even more enjoyable to you thanks to the good work you will have done in your second life. Take a moment and think things over before you tell me your decision."
I thought about the situation as my companion asked to do. On the one hand I had died and part of me wanted to return to the afterlife. That feeling of being wrapped in pure joy was so good it was almost addictive. On the other hand, Millions of peoples' lives were on the line which I would have the power to help. What would it say about me as a person if I let them suffer for my own immediate happiness? I turned to Faux Harrison and said, "I'll do it. I'll help you out."
My companion smiled and said, "Thank you for helping me out. Before I reincarnate you I want to give you some advice. First, treat the story of the universe you are going to that you previously read about as a guide. Second, remember that everything and everyone you meet in that new world is real even with the gift I am going to give you. Third, remember that I need a soldier and not a saint to help stop this crisis. Finally, the customs of your new world will be different from what you are used to from Earth. Accept them, but don't forget to be a good person."
An infant's brain cannot handle an adult's mind and that's a good thing. Being a baby was something I was happy not to remember the first time and I'm glad not to remember it the second time around. Seriously, who wants to remember lying around for hours on end, unable to feed yourself, and having to have a diaper because you can't use a toilet? This mercy did come at a cost though. I lost a fair amount of my memories of my first life during the first couple of years of my new life. Text-book information like dates, nations, historical inventions, and events of great significance remained. Personal things like my old family, my friends, favorite foods, etc. have been forgotten.
I suppose that forgetting my old life does make it easier to start my life over as Domon Kamiya of Suna. That's right my new life is in Suna, as in Sunagakure of the Naruto franchise. I'm not quite sure what time this is in comparison to the time shown in the Naruto series. For one, as a four year old I don't have a lot of access to local news. Second, even if I did get ahold of a newspaper there's no guarantee that I'd find news that would let even the biggest fanboy figure out when I was in time. Third, the Naruto series I read in passing was created from someone getting visions of this world. I have no clue what sort of artistic licenses Kishimoto took with the vision to write the story.
An example of this is my own name. Domon Kamiya sounds Japanese even if my name is in western order for given and family names. This is actually the short version of my name. I saw the complete version of my name once when one of the orphanage attendants dropped some paperwork. My full name is Domon son of Bakin son of Ichiro of Clan Kamiya from Sunagakure. My name is not an exception as I saw the same pattern of person-father-grandfather-clan-settlement on all other people's paperwork as well. Epithets like the Sand Siblings had in the TV show are also very common in the Land of Wind. Everyone covered in history so far has one.
I am an orphan in this life as the mentioning of the orphanage earlier implied. It's sadly a fate that can happen when one lives on a continent that flares up into massive wars every couple of years. Most orphans are taken care of by other members of their clan. However, there are still those like me who don't have any other clan members in the village who are taken care of by the orphanage. It's not so bad I guess. I might have said something differently if I could remember more of my first life, but I don't so I don't really have anything personal to compare it with. I mean, I've got a roof over my head, plenty of decent food to eat, some shared toys to play with, and a small library of books to read. Suna considers orphans like me and the others here to be under the aegis of the Kazekage so there is a social protection that many orphans in clan based societies back on earth didn't have.
My musing was cut off when Miyako, one of the orphanage's caretakers, called out, "Alright children! I'm going to check on your beds in ten minutes. Everyone who made their bed properly will get an extra fruit portion for breakfast today." This caused a faint screen to pop up in front of me asking if I wanted to accept a quest to make my bed. I blinked my right eye once to accept the quest causing the screen to disappear. I then glanced at my bed. It looked correctly made, but to test it I pulled out a mon coin and bounced it off of the bed. This satisfied me since now I knew I'd complete the quest and get that extra fruit slice.
That's right, one of the tools I was given to help out in the Naruto world was the Gamer ability. However, the game mechanics for my life are very different from any game system I remember back on Earth and I studied it extensively to pass the time as a toddler. First of all, there is no general experience system. My level, which is currently only level 2, is linked to my skills. These skills are associated with one of my seven stats: Strength, Vitality, Intellect, Wisdom, Dexterity, Agility, Charisma, and Luck. My stat level has an effect on how effective an associated skill is along with the skill's level. My personal level increases if my combined skills are level up 100 times. Normal skills have 1000 levels to them with each level requiring more effort to get to than the one before. There's also supposed to be a jump in the leveling difficulty for a skill each time I reach a milestone which also earns me a Feat that acts a permanent bonus to my abilities.
Now, the reason I said normal skills is the fact that I currently don't have access to those skills. I'm only a preschooler to use an old Earth description and I only have access to tutorial skills such as speaking, walking, reading, etc. These skills only have 10 levels with the only associated feat being at level 10 allowing me to do those actions without thinking about them. There is something very annoying when you have to work your butt off to master toilet training just so you can get the feat of not going in your pants. It's also kind of embarrassing that getting the final level in toilet training also earned me my current level.
Still, this did help me learn how the leveling system of my game life works first hand. I gain a stat point for every 10 skill level increases that happened to skills associated with a particular stat. According to my help menu this caps at 5 stat points per personal level up. This makes focusing more than 50% of my skill leveling on skills associated with a particular stat per personal level up wasted effort. I also get 4 free stat points when I level up that I can use to boost my stats up to that 5 point increase limit. Gaining stat points outside of level ups is rare according to my mental help encyclopedia and limited to rare feats like my current 'Growing Up' feat. This Feat grants me 1 additional stat point in all of my stats on my birthday. My stats are the key to the game system governing my life. They control how much health, chakra, and stamina I have. What I can learn and how I interact with others. My stats also help each other at times so I can't really declare one stat to be innately better than others since I need all of them to live a balanced life.
For anyone who is curious, my stats at the moment are: Strength- 6, Vitality- 7, Intellect- 8, Wisdom- 7, Dexterity- 6, Agility- 6, Charisma- 7, and Luck- 7. They are not the greatest which is why I currently only have Health- 112, Chakra- 112, and Stamina- 112 while I started out when I was born with 100 health, 100 chakra, and 100 stamina. A 12 point increase thanks to a level up sounds great for a starting character. But, then I read more about my personal level and level up system and I found out that I get 10 health, chakra, and stamina points for free with each new level. I suppose it's childish of a 4 year old level 2 character to complain about their paltry level up in terms of pure numbers even though it was massive in terms of percentage compared to my previous level. I my defense, I offer the points that as a 4 year old I am a child and I am well aware that there are dozens of utter monsters out there in this world of mine.
I calmly stand next to my bed watching the other kids frantically trying to make their beds before Miyako came up. I could see a timer in my mind's eye for this quest if I focused on seeing it. As she opened the door Miyako called out, "Time's up." Miyako is a cheerful older woman who's probably in her late forties with a motherly disposition about her. She looked at each bed and either immediately shook her head in disapproval or she pulled out a mon. The mon would be used to test the bed just like I had done earlier and the result of the test earned the kid either a shake or a nod of approval. There were only seven out of the twenty kids in the room whose bed passed the mon test and I was the youngest.
Miyako stood in front of the dormitory room door after she tested the last person's bed and said, "All of you are dressed and your beds have been taken care of so it's time for breakfast. Form a line and follow me to the dining hall." All of us in the room formed the line with rehearsed ease and then followed Miyako to the dining hall. The hall had ten long tables that each could fit twenty kids. Each dorm room had an assigned table that all members of the dorm had to sit at. Each table had a number on it that corresponded to a dormitory room making it clear who sat where.
The cooks brought out breakfast once everyone was seated. Carts were used to pass out trays with everyone's meal on it. I took a look at breakfast and shrugged my shoulders. On my tray was a bowel of pomegranate flavored barley porridge, a double helping of dried dates, some scrambled eggs, and a tall glass of either goat or sheep milk. It's not my favorite meal, but it's not bad either. I got a notice after my meal is finished that my health, chakra, and stamina regeneration have gotten a boost for the next couple of hours thanks to the meal.
I take my tray with my used breakfast dishes over to the area aside for their collection. Then I head to the restroom and wash my hands. After that, I headed to the orphanage's library to find something to read. I soon noticed a new book called An Utter Moron's guide to Carpentry. It's probably not useful to me yet, but I don't see the harm in trying to read the book. I open up the book to the first page and I get a small notice in red. The notice states that I need either 15 Intellect or a person with at least journeymen level carpentry skills to read to me in order for me to learn the carpentry skill. The notice is closed with a blink of an eye and I did give it an honest try at reading the book. However, I couldn't understand everything that was written in the book. There were too many words that I didn't know or that I didn't understood the meaning.
Finally I gave up trying to read An Utter Moron's guide to Carpentry, put it back on the shelf, and grabbed The Children's Atlas of the Elemental Nations. It was a book that I started to read before bedtime last night. I opened the book to where I was last night and continued to read. If I wanted to I could have seen two progress bars in my mind's eye. The one filling up faster was my progress until I finished the book. The slower filling progress bar was for junior geography. It was a tutorial skill that had a feat of giving me the first 10 levels of geography plus a 10 percent increase rate of learning regular novice level geography. Fun fact, I don't just automatically learn something by clicking read a book. I actually have to read the book. Probably a system design choice to remind me that this is a real existence even with my game powers.
My reading ends when the orphanage's bell rings as a reminder for everyone. Younger kids like me need to head to the orphanage's classrooms because school will be starting soon. For the older kids the bell reminds them that they need to hurry if they want to make it to the Shinobi Institute on time for class. I put away the atlas, walked to my classroom, and sat down at my assigned desk. Several other kids also make their way to the classroom, but none of them sit down at their desks. They are creating impromptu games and trying to get in as much fun as possible before the teacher arrives.
Too much of my old adult personality has survived for me to join them in risking trouble like that. My comparative maturity has caused me to stand out from my peers. This thankfully hasn't caused me too many problems. Sometimes the other kids try to tease me, but I just ignore the teasing. The caretakers at the orphanage appreciate that one of the younger kids isn't a constant handful for them. That appreciation is coming into play now as the history teacher walks into the room with a twitch of irritation on his forehead. The teacher looks at the students and firmly says, "Get to your desks now."
Once all of the brats were corralled, it was time for class. I pay attention to the lecture and don't even think of looking at my progress bar in my mind's eye for my junior history skill. If I focus on that progress bar it will stop going up because I'm not paying attention to the teacher who is teaching the skill to me that the progress bar represents. About halfway through the lecture I get two notices that I quickly close with a blink of an eye. The history of the Land of Wind is actually very fascinating since the country was formed from 5 different groups. Two of these groups are each based around one of the two major rivers in the Land of Wind. Two of the groups are pastoral with one in the northern steppe and the other in both the southern desert and the eastern wastelands. Finally, there is a group in the southern edge of country on the seaward side of the Kal-Kaitan Mountains which are in dense woodland. The geography teacher stated that the Kal-Kaitan Mountains and the Southern Talvyen Mountains in the north of the country are why the Land of Wind is mainly so arid.
When the lecture is done we have a 10 minute break as the teachers swap classrooms. I use this time to look up what those notices were by accessing my main menu. This is done by closing my eyes and imagining the window coming up. Accessing the main menu does not pause reality, but it does speed up my perception in the main menu so that I can do more in less time without seeming to space off in the real world. I mentally activate the log and see that the two notices were that I reached level 7 of junior history and that I also advanced to Level 3. Finally, I have been waiting almost 2 years to advance another level.
The journal is closed so that I can access my personal screen from the main menu. In my mind's eye I see an image of myself in my current outfit next to a list which is my inventory. That inventory is frustrating me because it's got a weight limit and currently has an additional restriction which really froths me. Nothing can go in my inventory unless I'm wearing it or it is physically on my person until I reach apprentice rank in fuunjutsu. What's the point of given me an inventory if I can't use most of it? Underneath my image and my inventory is a series of tabs. I click on the tab labeled Stats to open up my personal stats.
There is another notice on the Stats tab showing that I've got a level up. Almost immediately I focus on my current stat increases. They currently stand at Strength + 2, Vitality 0, Intellect +2, Wisdom + 1, Dexterity + 1, Agility +1, Charisma 0, and Luck 0. Damn, I only got 7 out of 10 possible stat points for skill levels. When I get access to the regular skills I'm definitely going to have to plan my leveling out for maximum effect. I put 2 of my free level stat points into Vitality and 1 each into Charisma and Luck. Then I confirm my choices making my new stat line: Strength- 8, Vitality- 9, Intellect- 10, Wisdom- 8, Dexterity- 7, Agility- 7, Charisma- 8, and Luck- 8. This triggers my Health, Chakra, and Stamina level increases bringing them up to Health- 125, Chakra- 125, and Stamina- 124. I close the Stats tab and then close my main menu.
Only a few seconds had passed in the real world by the time I finished leveling up and already almost half of the class was bolting out of their seats. Most of the kids that were still in their seats were talking with other students. No one tried to talk to me since I was the teacher's pet in school. They know I will play with them after school so I don't mind the occasional teasing. I just grab my homework and start working on it during the ten minute break. My partially done homework is then put away when the door opens causing all of the kids to scramble back to their desks.
Just 2 more years, I remind myself as our language teacher who is my least favorite teacher walked in. In two years I'll be able to go to the Shinobi Institute and start climbing my way to completing the task that I came here for.
Author's Note: HistorianoftheKais here with another story for you all. I wanted to try writing in a different narrative view and this plot bunny hopped in my lap demanding attention. For the fans of Duty and the Springs of Sorrow I have this to say. I'm trying to get the next chapter out, but I'm chipping away at a nasty writer's block on how to properly follow the previous chapter.