She never did know what happened after death. Her mother believed in heaven, her father perceived reincarnation, her brother couldn't care less. Keisha, however, just thought that death was rest. It was that once she died, that was when she was going to rest. And until then, she would have to thrive on in life, survive whatever bullshit thrown at her and move on.
Her answer came one day. It was bright, scorching hot. She could see people walking about without a shirt on, water sprinklers starting up and the air conditioning at full blast. It was a rather peaceful day, hot but overall peaceful. The entire neighbourhood was sluggish, children were playing around. Keisha could even spot a lemonade stand.
Then there was a cry. Keisha, her stupid but beautiful heart, clenched in worry before she sprinted over. Maybe she was being too nosy, but she grew up in this district. Children never cried out in pain, because Officer Jim was just that good.
The sight that greeted her was revolting. There was a little girl sprawled on the groud, her body absent of any clothing, blood surrounding her and a man over her body. No, it wasn't a man. It was a monster. Thinking quick, Keisha picked up the skateboard lying around against the wall before charging at the man.
She didn't notice the gun, she couldn't. Regretting the fact the little girl would be subjected to whatever nonsense, later on, lamenting on how her family was going to miss her so, so much.
Keisha Banner died of a gunshot to her chest at two in the afternoon. Her family mourned, the world moved on. Keisha knew her family would be sad, why would they not?
Her father loved her to the point of being constricting, he showered her in gifts, sung her praises and tucked her in. He guided her on what type of course she should try out, he taught her how the world worked. Her mother, that beautiful dumpy woman, was Keisha's best friend. She could share everything with her and was never, ever judged for it. It didn't matter if it was about her questionable sexuality or identity crisis— her mother always listened patiently.
And her brother, for all his aloof attitude, Keisha knew he cared. He took the time to quit school when their family was in a financial crisis, and worked for extra cash. He only returned to school once more when everything settled down, he made sure Keisha had the chance to enter school even when they were trying to make ends meet. Keisha knew that her brother prioritized her above all things, and she loved him more than he could ever know.
It hurts, Keisha thinks. Death hurts, emotionally. Her vision goes black, her mind goes muddled and her senses blinded. There was nothing, her though process was slowed down to the point of being nonexistent. Then, Keisha blinked. She could hear muffled sounds, was she not dead? There was something bright but she couldn't see properly.
And then someone picked her up and Keisha stopped. Oh, oh so this was it. Her father might have been right after all, because reincarnation was the right term for this situation. Keisha was quite sure she had died, so there was no other explanation. Not to mention her body was unable to move and there was something pushed into her mouth along with warm liquid.
Was she drinking breast milk? Oh, God.
She managed to spit it out. That was a waste but disgusting. Her body might be physically a baby, no doubt on that one, but her mind was most certainly not. She was a twenty three year old woman and Keisha could not fathom the idea behind willingly sucking milk from another woman's breast.
Doesn't matter if she's her new mother, Keisha still hasn't process that thought just yet. Not that she wanted to, no. She loved her first mother way too much to perceive this woman who had just given birth to her as her mother. In fact, Keisha was pretty sure she wasn't over the fact she had just been reincarnated.
It took a total six months for Keisha to fully accept she was reincarnated. She was never going to hear that dark humour her father loved so much anymore, her mother's hyena-like laughter wasn't going to be heard anymore, she won't bear witness to her brother's infamous sarcasm anymore. Keisha broke down, she wailed like there was no tomorrow. She was in a new world, with new people, a new language and she didn't even know her name.
That month after the sinking in, Keisha made her new mother's life hell. She went on a hunger strike, refused to drink anything. She never talked, never looked at anyone. Keisha realised the woman looked sick, initially she thought it was stress but Keisha knew that the woman was likely ill. Meaning, she was likely going to die soon.
Maybe her brother might have been onto something when he proclaimed her emotional quotient being depressingly low.
But Keisha had been right, because this new mother of hers died of some incurable disease two weeks later. With no father or relative, the hospital decided to just pawn her off at the orphanage. The nurses spoke in that gibberish, it sounded Japanese but Keisha can't be too sure. She didn't like to speculate only to be proven wrong. Keisha hated being wrong.
She found herself in an orphanage, alone in a crib, but not alone in the room. There was three other cribs in the small room, one was occupied by a red-haired baby while the other was a boy with white hair. Likely, the boy was an albino, or had some sort of genetic mutation to achieve that hair colour. Alas, Keisha cared too little to continue pondering over that small fact.
The caretakers were two women and one man. The oldest being a woman with very dark blue eyes and grey hair, second being the man with Harry Potter worthy glasses and the youngest was a woman with long, flowing blonde hair. The blonde woman talked a lot, Keisha wondered if she should be glad because this way she could learn the language better, or should she be annoyed because she hated chattering.She stayed quiet, not like she could say much.
It took her another month to grasp the language, and that was when everything went downhill. Or to hell, pretty much yeah. Keisha was held up by the blonde woman, Hanako was her name, and the woman cooed.
"What a cute boy you are," she smiled. Keisha shot her an indignant look, excuse her! She was a girl, wait... She had to be. This was the first time she heard them speak around her in a while, Keisha admit that she might have taken a word or two wrongly.
"I can't believe Yuzuru-san named you Orochimaru because of your eyes," she complained, "Your eyes are beautiful, Maru-kun."
At that moment, Keisha — or was it Orochimaru, now?— knew her life just went down to hell. She honestly didn't know what was worse, the fact she grew a pair of balls overnight or the fact she was somehow reincarnated into the body of one of the most annoying antagonists in a fictional world. Because if she was not male, Keisha swore she would eat her sock.
Stupid reincarnation.
"Hn," she managed to grunt. She has to refer to herself with male pronouns now, no? That one isn't that big of a problem, Keisha could manage. No, the problem was her name. How was she (okay, he) going to refer to herself as Orochimaru.
God, this was confusing. Keisha forced himself, herself— themselves to push that thought away. That matter would be dealt with in the future.
"Would you like something, Orochimaru-kun?" The only male caretaker asked. Keisha— it's Orochimaru, now— stated at the man blankly before reading their hand towards the bookshelf. They muttered a word, "Read."
"Oh? Would you like me to read for you?" He asked. Keisha (it's Orochimaru now!) shook their head, "No. Can't reach the books."
"Ah, so you need help. What's the magic word?" The man asked as if talking to a child. Pause that thought, Keisha grimaced, they were a child.
"Please," Keisha grits out.
"Alright," The man went on his knees, "Which book would you like to read?"
Keisha pursed their lips, scanning the man's face before there was a slight tilt to their mouth, "Fundamental Understanding for Iryo-Ninjutsu."
Keisha finishes with a smug tilt of their face. It had taken quite some time to fine the right words to put to the book, Keisha took Chinese in their last life, not Japanese. No matter how similar Traditional Chinese was to Kanji, they were different.
Then Keisha paused, wondering why the man was silent. They glanced up in alarm only to be greeted by the gaping face of their male caretaker. The other was staring at them with wide eyes and mouth moving akin to a fish's.
"Y-you, oh god," the man spluttered, "Hanako wasn't kidding. You really are a genius, like Tobirama-sama!"
Who the fuck? Keisha questioned in their head, but on the outside they did but stare in a seemingly incomprehensible manner at the man. Let's see, Tobirama... Tobirama... It rings a bell but who was it? Was it an Uchiha? Probably, Tobirama Uchiha sounds about right.
"You know, Orochimaru-kun, I heard that Hokage-sama has a granddaughter around your age," The man informed. Keisha should start thinking into knowing the man's name soon. "Or at least about two years younger, she was just born after all."
Hokage-sama... Uh, Hiroshima? Wait no, that was the place America bombed during World War II. Fuck, why do these people have to possess stupid names?
"I hope you can be good friends with her," The man said. Keisha frowned, "Hn. My book?"
"Yes, yes," The man handed over a book that Keisha had been asking for since the very beginning of this conversation.
"Thank you," Keisha bit out before turning to leave.
The book turned out to be so fucking useless. Keisha had been looking into going down the medicine route back in their previous life, so they had wanted to be closer to that. But these barbarians that call themselves medics doesn't even have the basics when it comes down to phagocytes, lymphocytes and so on. Hell, they don't even have an explanation for genetic inheritance and so on. Worst yet, the medics doesn't have something akin to a Hippocratic Oath, much less an actual one.
Disappointing.
Keisha was willing to bet the memories of their past life that the medics just went on to be one once they could heal a bone or two. Stupid, backwards village.
Okay, Keisha might be biased.
They were pretty sure Konoha was quite modernized by now, as compared to other villages (if they even exist) so they couldn't complain much. If the medical care was so lacking, then Keisha just has to make sure it was at the top of the world. They just needed to make sure that by the end of any medical training, these people knew what was the difference between a distorted red blood cell and a normal one.
So be it.
"Maru-kun? What are you doing here?" Hanako the young caretaker said. Keisha glanced up from the book they were reading, "Reading."
"Oh? What are you reading?" Hanako questioned. Keisha frowned, why did everyone seem to be so interested in what they were doing?
"Basic Iryo-Ninjutsu," They responded curtly.
"That's interesting," Hanako nodded, "You want to be a Shinobi, Maru-kun?"
Well, no. Keisha mused, they didn't exactly want to be a Shinobi. It was just that being one would likely allow them a larger chance to further their work and have leverage. Being a Shinobi was just a tool in the making, Keisha wasn't particularly taken by the career other than the fact it was a steeping stone.
Fortunately, Hanako seemed to have drawn her own conclusions. She smiled down at Keisha (well, Orochimaru. They really needed to get that stupid name thing down), "That's wonderful, Maru-kun."
"Hn."
"Arara," Hanako giggled, "If I didn't know better, I might have thought that you were half Uchiha with how you're acting."
Keisha huffed but didn't comment on anything. Why would they need to? It wasn't as if Hanako said anything remotely offensive. Keisha tilted their head and wondered if there was anything else Hanako wanted to share.
"Alright, I won't keep you," Hanako smiled, "Why don't you go back to your room. I'll call the three of you down for dinner."
Room. Keisha grimaced. Speaking of their room, Keisha was immediately reminded of their two less than pleasant roommate. No, don't get them wrong. The two other children didn't do anything wrong as per say, it was just that Keisha couldn't connect with actual children. Their roommates were loud, obnoxious and always babbling. One was an Uzumaki, that much was obvious while the other was a Hatake.
Clan orphans.
Uzumaki seems to inherit all the traits any stereotypical Uzumaki had; She was loud, brash and always opinionated. The Hatake was slightly different. Keisha knew that the Hatake Clan often had geniuses churned out one after another, or at least that's what Yuzuru said. But this Hatake wasn't reserved like what others said, this one was loud. He could easily be compared to the Uzumaki.
In other words, Keisha wasn't too keen on befriending two obviously loud people.
"Okay," They mumbled before trudging up the stairs. Keisha stopped in front of a large sliding door before pausing. They could hear the ruckus from out here and Keisha wasn't very welcomed by the idea of being surrounded by the said ruckus. They slid the door open and stared.
"Orochimaru!" The Hatake exclaimed in glee. Keisha stared a little more. The Uzumaki squealed before she tripped, on flat land, and fell to her death. Okay, no. She wasn't dying but her face was planted on the ground.
"Jiraiya," Keisha greeted, "Inoue."
And wasn't that a surprise? Keisha had been stunned when they found out their roommate had been a Hatake, then became dumbfounded when they realised said Hatake was Jiraiya of all people. In conclusion, Kishimoto was a dick.
"Don't be such a stick in the mud, Orochimaru!" Jiraiya chided. Keisha paused, raising an eyebrow in amusement.
"Orochimaru-kun thinks you're stupid! Stupid, Jiraiya! Stupid!" Inoue Uzumaki taunted. And soon the both of them were brawling on the ground once more. Keisha cringed when spit was involved, they quickly occupied themselves with the book.
"What are you reading, Orochimaru?" Jiraiya asked once he came out victorious. Keisha raised their head, "Basic Iryo-Ninjutsu."
"You're going to be a Shinobi too?" Inoue asked gleefully, ignoring the ruffles of her clothing or the dirt on her striking red hair. Keisha blinked languidly.
"Cool!" Jiraiya grinned, "I'm gonna be one too!"
"Not before I become one first!" Inoue interjected. Keisha watched as another fight broke out between the two before returning to their book, no point saying anything.
The fight lasted until dinner, to Keisha's astonishment. They pushed the book under their pillow before dragging the two idiots out of the door.
"Unless you don't want dinner," Keisha said over the howls of their voices, "I suggest you both shut up."
Jiraiya sulked, "Whatever."
"Ne, Orochimaru-kun?" Inoue asked. Keisha titled their head in question. The Uzumaki seemed to take it as a good time to continue, "What's your last name?"
"Don't have one," Keisha replied. Well, they probably did have one but Keisha couldn't remember and the caretakers only gave them a new given name. Keisha could make do with whatever they had.
"Oh, you can use Hatake if you want," Jiraiya offered. Inoue puffed up in indignant immediately, "No way! Orochimaru should use Uzumaki, instead!"
"I'm pretty sure both your clans would not be willing to have an outsider adopt their last name," Keisha cut in before another brawl could break out.
"Oh," Inoue sounded dejected. Keisha mentally shrugged, the truth was the truth. It wasn't as if they could change anything.
"I've decided!" Jiraiya declared. The two other paused and gave him questioning looks. Jiraiya grinned widely, "I'm no longer a Hatake! I'm going to make my own name, from how on in Jiraiya and Jiraiya only!"
"What," Keisha stated flatly.
"You're an idiot," Inoue sniffed, turning her nose away. As expected, Jiraiya flushed red and flung as an insult of his own, "No more than you are!"
"Are you calling me an idiot?!"
"You said it, not me! Ahonue! Aho! Aho!"
"You!"
Keisha sighed.
A/N: No Beta. So, I managed to publish this... Go easy on me, please? Thank you.
Disclaimer: I do not own nor claim any rights to Naruto.