Summary: Recca, Kagero, and a SI are placed in the world of the Nine Tails
Crossover: Flame of Recca, Naruto
Disclaimer: I don't own what other people do. I do own me, though.
Feedback: Sure thing... I like hearing how I can improve :)
Pre-fic Comments:
My knowledge of anatomy is very limited, and although I have a copy of Grey's Anatomy (at only $12 NZD!), I have no idea how to look stuff up in it. I'm a computer geek, my sister is the nurse. And after a brief eyeball, it dunna mention certain things in it.
The Naruto series will not be present for a couple of parts. Be patient.
A lot of dialog from the Recca manga is present.
My mind was turning over slowly, but unfortunately faster than my legs were as I jogged. I was jogging to build up my fitness level, in order to pass the fitness requirements to join the Army, but running never was my strong point, so I spent far more time running than I did doing other exercises. A third of my mind was playing death metal to the other two thirds, another third was paging through memories of manga scans, and the remaining third was trying to figure out the best way to write a story I had planned.
As I got close to the pub, I thought to myself, 'I'll walk for a little bit after I reach the pub door.' (I never went in there, however, unless someone else was paying. I go through life stingily, monetarily, with temporary bouts of prosperity now and then.)
I intended to write a Naruto and Flame of Recca crossover, with a self insertion flavour to it. While I found Naruto interesting in terms of personalities and techniques, Recca would always be, in my mind, the number one best ninja anime. So far, using Kage Houshi's portal creation and only moving her and her son seemed like the best plan. Now, I just had to work out a plausible excuse for the self insertion angle, without resorting to a 'Congratulations, God (aka The Author) just conscripted you!' plot device.
Once I passed the pub door, I kept running, thinking to myself, 'I'll walk for a little bit once I get to the meat works.' (I found this technique to be a great way to run without actually walking. Once I started running, anyway.) I had to cross a busy road to get to the works, one that all the trucks took to get there. I didn't hear the rumble, I didn't hear the brakes screaming, it was only until the truck was almost on top of me that I noticed it. I said only one word, but believe me, I really, really meant it.
"Bugger."
After dying, the next thing I recall was being in a warm place, noticeably void of bright lights and choirs of angels. I attempted to move, as the warmth was almost constrictive, but something was wrong.
I was not certain, but I felt I was upside down, and my arms were too short. My legs were too, and they lacked a great deal of muscle I had built up. I felt something sliding beside me, as contractions began forcing me around the already cramped warmth. Kicking weakly, I felt another person of similar build and size to me (poor guy!) moving down the warmth, past some slim portal that I could feel faintly with my short, stubby arms. As my arms moved in front of my abdomen, I (probably) paled; an umbiblical cord was present.
I really had died when that truck hit me.
Well.
It looks like being an Anglican was the wrong choice. Oh well, seems like I've got another go 'round to get it right. Maybe the powers that be make you be born again (physically) until you follow the right religion? Does that mean that atheists are immortal?
I realised that the other person had finished going through the portal (which looked far too small for my liking). Right after that, the thought ran through my head that I'd have to go through that as well.
"Bugger."
Right after I thought that, I was in far too much pain to think about anything else, and felt cold once born, even as the midwife cleaned me up. I began to settle down after a while, baby eyes staring through faint tears at the world. Next to me, the other child continued to cry. I have no idea how, but I could understand what they said. In my previous life, before I had been killed, I had only had a vague, spotty understanding of Japanese.
"Is is is, is it here yet?! Has the baby arrived?," a strident voice called out. "Has my baby come? Kagero?"
"Yes, Ouka-dono," a tired female voice replied. "You have two beautiful baby boys."
"There there, don't cry," a scarred man with a wide, happy smile said, patting the child on the head. I guess he was my new brother... it would be strange, having an older brother. "His tears are like a raging fire... yeah! This child shall be called Recca!"
When the man turned to me, I studied him quietly. As his hand approached, I reached out, missing it as I was not used to this body yet... so tiny, so fragile.
"Haha! Did you see that, Kagero?," the man asked. His love for all of us could almost be felt physically. "The silent hunter, reaching for me! He shall be called Matora, the fierce tiger!"
As he held both Recca and I, I considered matters. Did Kurei exist in this timeline, Ouka's oldest son? As fire appeared, wreathed around Recca's small fist, I worried.
I found life as a baby to be... most vexing. A few days after I was born, Kagero, my new mum, took Recca and I to a presentation that was also attended by my older brother Kurei, and his mother. Kagero knelt, holding both Recca and I in her arms.
"The 'Child of Flame' can only appear once in every generation!," one of the men in the room roared. "That is how we decide our one leader!"
"So why are there two?," another asked. "We must take care of this immediately!"
"What about the third child, Matora?," the first man asked.
"He does not have flame," Ouka said. "He is not the Child of Flame."
Well, that was one weight off my back at least. On the other hand, being able to create fire would have been nifty.
"It is true that I am no more than a mistress, but Kurei is still the eldest child!," Reina snarled. She was Kurei's mother. "Kurei should be the Hokage's next leader! Recca is the very embodiment of bad luck -- we should kill him!"
"Reina...," Kagero trailed off, worried.
"Wait!," the elder commanded. "Perhaps the real omen lies within Kurei."
"Wha?," Reina asked, confused. "What are you saying, Elder? There's no way that Kurei could be the bad omen!"
I snorted, waking Recca up. I swore to myself as I began to fall asleep...
Right when things get interesting...
Damn baby body...
snore...
The outcome of that meeting was that Recca was recognised as the Child of Flame, and the next leader of the Hokage ninja. Kurei, on the other hand, was the Cursed Child, and ridiculed by the other children. Reina was dismissed by Ouka.
Sure, I would have gotten pissed regardless of what happened. Being a baby was boring to someone who had used to relative independance.
Things did get /too/ interesting at one point though. Heck, I still have the scar from it.
Recca and I were quietly napping during the day, when the sound of the door sliding open woke us up. Recca laughed, holding his arms up, expecting okaasan to pick us up to go outside.
"Die...," Kurei whispered.
I smiled too, but it died when I realised that the figure silhouetted by the light was a short five year old, not Kagero-kaasan. Tangled in the blankets, I tried to move, even if he was innumerably faster than me, but he swiftly pulled out the tanto he had taken and wildly slashed at the two of us.
The sharp blade slid across my right eyebrow and cheek, cutting down to the bone. Luckily, he didn't think to angle the blade to puncture my eye. But dear god, it /hurt!/ I cried, the pain cutting through anything I had ever felt in my short life as the coppery tang bled down into my nose, and pooled in my right eye. Recca began to cry, too, as Kurei's knife cut clear through his left cheek.
Our older halfbrother's knife rose again, to try to kill us.
A strong pair of arms restrained him, throwing him to the ground and taking the knife off him. The ninja, once Kurei had been disarmed, yelled out, "Trouble! It's the Cursed Child! He's attacked the Child of Flame!"
"Recca!," Kagero cried out. As she saw me, her tears increased. "Matora!"
She picked us up, trying to clean the freely flowing blood away with her clothes.
"Ahahahah! Cry! Crawl up and die! DIE!," Kurei shrieked, hatred colouring his voice and cutting through my pain. "Now you can feel the pain you forced me and my mother into!"
This, I knew, was the beginning of the end.
That night, as if Kurei's attack had been an omen, news came that Oda Nobunaga had declared war on the Hokage. It was no real secret that he was after the madougu of the Hokage, their mystical weapons. Ouka-tousan, rather than fight Oda with them and chance the warlord taking them all in a war of attrition, ordered that the weapons be hidden, and the Hokage attack with traditional ninja weapons.
"Matora seems restless," Ouka said, stroking my hair after the meeting. While he loved to spend time with us, his sons, Clan business took a lot of his time.
Dammit! I wanted to tell him that we should be running, honour be damned!
"Perhaps he knows what we've been speaking of," Kagero offered. "I sometimes think that Recca is the leader, while Matora waits to watch what happens."
True. When the two of us had began to crawl, Recca had often nearly fallen into pits, or into dangerous objects, while I didn't.
"He'll be a help to his brother," Ouka said. "Someone to help him with decision making."
"I sometimes wonder if he will live long enough to be leader," Kagero said, a slight frown on her face.
"Don't worry so," Ouka said, kissing the top of her head. "Even if I die, the Hokage will live on in you and our sons."
"Ouka-sama!," a ninja called out. "The madougu have been taken away."
"I must go," Ouka said to Kagero, handing her Recca. He walked out to the forest where they would meet the enemy.
"I will go with you a little way," Kagero said firmly, brushing her clothes.
"They're here! It's Oda!," a look out at the top of a tree called out.
"Kagero... I'm sorry I wasn't able to be a good husband to you," Ouka said. "Recca, and Matora too -- I never did anything for them."
I reached out with my arm to him. Recca was asleep beside me, arms curled around my left.
"No, as a ninja and the leader of this clan you did very well," Kagero insisted. "I am proud to be the woman you call your wife."
"I'll see you later," Ouka said, optimistic as the sound of battle began.
He ran into the midst of the soldiers, summoning his Flame as he called out, "I am the best among the Hokage, the leader, Ouka! Fight me if you wish to die!"
I reached out with both arms, jostling Recca awake as Kagero ran with both of us. As we got further away, I saw several swords run through the proud leader, his flame now his funeral pyre.
"Don't be afraid," Kagero whispered to the two of us. "Soon you'll both be in a better place.
I watched, as Kagero-kaasan's eyes closed briefly in reflection, musing on a lesson from the Elder. "As long as you live, there will be hope..."
---
"Kagero," the Elder began, "the Hokage have a secret art, a technique that allows one to be sent through time... but you must never use it! For if you do, you will be cursed by time itself."
"Cursed by time?," Kagero asked, kneeling on the tatami.
"Time will cease to flow over the user," the Elder explained. "You will be forever unable to die! You will forever be plagued by the death of loved ones... to have death avoid you eternally, that is a true living hell. Do not use this skill!"
---
Okaasan held us in her right arm, as her left hand rose and fell, forming hand seals. Her hand formed the last seal, and she called out, "I will not let these children die! Jikuuryuuri"
A shining portal of blue light opened, the surface misty and opaque. 'Kaasan slid an arm protector into Recca's bundle, and lifted the two of us to the portal. "Take this tekko... this will protect you. Goodbye... my children..."
As the two of us passed through the portal, through time itself, I clung tightly to Recca, so that we would not be parted. Recca began to cry, cold and missing Okaasan.
Dammit...
Crap. My infant body began to cry as well in an automatic response. Being a baby sucked. The clothes the two of us had been wrapped in had come loose, and as it began to rain, I began to mean it as I cried. A cold was the last thing I needed!
As a man approached, umbrella in hand, I started to settle down. If I recalled canon correctly, he should be Shigeo.
"Abandoned children?," the man asked the air, picking us up as he tucked his umbrella under his arm. He studied Recca's tiny jacket. "Rec... ca."
He then looked at me, and I quietened down as I stared back. "Ma... tora. What are you two doing here?"
"My... my babies!," a familiar voice called out, full of joy, pain, sadness, and happiness.
"Why were your kids on the street?," the man asked the approaching woman, who was clad in a voluminous black dress with some of her hair done up in a bun.
"I thought I would never see them again," Kagero said, tears coming to her eyes. She knew that the curse from using Jikuuryuuri meant that she would not be able to touch them again, but she could try... "Let... let me hold them..."
"Don't cry!," the man said, panicking. "I can't take a woman's tears! I'm Hanabishi Shigeo. Here you go."
"I... my name is Kagero," Okaasan said as she took the two of us from Shigeo's arms.
Once her fingers were touching the two of us, blue lightning arced around us, forming a blue disc of crackling electricity. A faint wind grew, as bolts leapt out from the disc. Everything that the bolts touched was sucked into the disc, which seemed to be a portal.
This never happened in canon, I thought as a couple of houses and a flower shop vanished.
"I... I am sorry, Hanabishi-san," Kagero said as her, Shigeo, Recca, and I were struck by those blue lightning bolts.
"Hokage-sama!," a ninja called out, running into Sandaime's office. "Something is happening!"
"I felt it," the old man said, picking up his pipe as he walked briskly out of the office.
"Right in front of the gates, where the demon was sealed a year ago!"