It all started extremely typically. I died, a terribly uneventful death in fact. The details were irrelevant. What mattered, however, was that I lived again. I didn't realize this for the longest time, what people don't realize is that there was more to it than simply "I have the brain of an 18 year old in a 1 year old body! Yay!". The brain has a physical aspect to it as well. The first five or so years of my life were literally a blur that flew by. My physical brain simply wasn't developed enough to cope with my mind. I was plagued by odd feelings and phrases throughout my days. Fortunately, by the time I was six, thanks to the wonders of Chakra enhancing physical growth, I finally reached a level of 'awareness'. I knew who I was, and I could finally comprehend the knowledge of my past life, and all of the parts that came with it. It quickly made me excel in the academy. It was only natural, after all, a freshman college student simply knew how to learn better. I had years and years of experience in the academic system, regardless of the vast quantities of knowledge I had absorbed. I quickly gained the highest test scores in the class, easily displacing Sakura. As I didn't want to draw too much attention to myself, I let my physical capabilities slack. A ninja village simply had too many dangerous factors for me to allow myself to become someone known to them. And that was how I lived.
"So, you three are my Genin. Why don't you introduce yourselves to me?"
Kakashi Hatake was a frightening man. He was a master ninja, and fought in a war as a mere child. He had the Sharingan, the Chidori, and who knows what else. He was once an ANBU. In my honest opinion, he could have been the 5th Hokage, if only he had gotten over his grief. The grief which ruined him. The grief which was the part of him that frightened me the most. It destroyed someone who was probably the greatest ninja the Leaf could have had.
"Your turn, girl," said the Copy-Nin. I had allowed my thoughts to get away from me.
"You all already know my name, no need to repeat it. I like reading. I dislike wasting time. My dream is to do good for the whole world," I said. Generic and dull, which was fine. All I needed to do was make sure that the plans of Orochimaru and the Akatsuki didn't succeed, and I'd be fine.
I didn't like Sasuke. He was, simply put, a being of emotion, of the heart. Ultimately, all Uchiha were, and that was thetrue form of the so called curse they bore. They simply felt so strongly, be it love of hate, that it drowned everything else. To someone like me, who had so much pride for my mind that it stayed with me through my death, it was as oil was to water. Incompatible. Unforgivable.
But he was my teammate.
Fortunately for me, I had years of experience dealing with people I didn't like. It was a huge benefit from my old life. Society worked on the premise of teamwork. I could apply that to what was ultimately a life or death situation.
However, that didn't keep me from feeling immensely satisfied with watching Kakashi pull him into the ground.
Naruto was, ultimately, the kind of person I loathed, hated the most. He was loud, brash, annoying, foolish, so many things that I hated. Perhaps some others would have the patience to look behind the front and see the intelligence that I knew was there - after all, an idiot would not have mastered a Jutsu in a matter of minutes, nor would he have created that monstrous Rasenshuriken technique.
However, that Naruto was a story. The Naruto I knew was the one who threw all of his chances at excelling, at reaching his goal out of the window. He had ambition without action. Dreams without dedication. In short, he was a lazy bum. Whenever I saw him I was filled with dread. This was the one who was, in essence, the only hope left for Konoha? This failure? No matter how I calculated it, it seemed so unlikely, so easy to go horribly wrong.
"Hey, what'cha staring at me for?" he asked.
"Nothing. Just thinking," was my reply.
"You do that a lot. What about?" asked Naruto, curious.
"How many frogs I could fit down your throat before you croaked. Ribbit," I joked back. There was a lot of surprisingly morbid humor in the world. Speaking from an objective point of view, it would serve to make the children for comfortable with death, so it was probably calculated rather than coincidence. Regardless of how it started, what mattered was the result. Naruto laughed and forgot all about me staring at him.
"Good one! You're so funny!"
I merely smiled in response.
Ultimately, our team of misfits had found itself on a mission. I knew naturally that it would come to us, for nothing had changed about our team than what should have happened. Sasuke was still the strongest, Naruto was still an idiot, and I was still the support unit who couldn't do much physically. I had, however, taken initiative and learned how to construct Genjutsu. The excess of Yin chakra that comes with having a pre-developed mind was simply too well suited for me to pass up such a golden tool, let alone the possibilities a mind like mine could come up with was far too vast for me to not use Genjutsu.
The initial stages of the mission were uneventful. I stood back and allowed the Demon Brothers to attack Tazuna with ease. The information that Kakashi needed was simply too integral for me to say or do anything different about. After the monologue about Wave, the team pressed forward. Then, Zabuza appeared. The initial stages of the fight were more or less simple for me. Kakashi and Zabuza tried to outmaneuver each other while Naruto, Sasuke, and I guarded Tazuna. Naturally, Kakashi was caught. Naruto enacted his brilliant plan, and Kakashi shortly defeated Zabuza, who was finally stabbed in the throat with needles, putting him in a deathlike-state.
"So, you're a hunter nin, huh?" I asked, after the Kakashi explained who he was.
"Yes. Zabuza was a particularly slippery target. I will now take Zabuza's corpse to dispose of," replied the Hunter-Nin, Haku.
"Interesting," I said. Genjutsu is actually impossible to simply 'detect'. There is no such thing as a 'genjutsu sense' that tingles like you're Spiderman. I learned this quickly, and used it to my advantage. A simple genjutsu that concealed me lifting my Kunai and throwing it until it was too late was plenty. Haku did not notice anything until the fountain of blood from the injury.
"What the hell!" called out Naruto. Even Sasuke was surprised at the nonchalant desecration of Zabuza's 'corpse'.
"YOU!" screamed Haku, lunging forward for me at a speed I couldn't comprehend. I could barely stumble back in fear, realizing how badly I had screwed things over. I was not ready to fight Haku. Naruto was not ready. Sasuke was not ready.
A shadow draped over me as Kakashi jumped in front of me. Kakashi? Shouldn't he be... My eyes widened as he collapsed. I was shaking, on the ground in fear. Naruto and Sasuke were too surprised by the sudden change in events to do anything.
"You killed my mentor, so I'll just have to kill yours!" said Haku. He swiftly plunged needles into Kakashi's neck, killing him. I had miscalculated. Haku was fresh, Kakashi was not, and the three of us were hopelessly outclassed.
I screamed. However, something else happened: Naruto. He shot forward, red chakra surrounding him, his features more bestial than before. Kyuubi. Of course he would show up now. Kakashi was just as precious to Naruto as Sasuke was. Haku was caught off guard and forced back. Naruto pursued, but ultimately Haku was too fast escaped. We remained there for a long moment, silent. Ultimately it was Sasuke who broke it.
"What did you do?"
My mouth was dry.
"I knew he was an accomplice of Zabuza. His behaviors were inconsistent with that of Hunter-Nin. There are certain requirements, and they are made publicly known to make sure that this kind of thing doesn't happen too often. He had to dispose of the body on the spot. He didn't, so I used a Genjutsu and killed Zabuza so he couldn't come back," I explained, my voice surprisingly calm. There was no response.
"We're continuing the mission," said Naruto. No one said anything, simply followed. Later that day we cremated Kakashi, Sasuke doing the honors with his Jutsu.
That night, I was scared.
We're doomed. There is a 0% chance of my survival tomorrow. There is a 0% chance of Naruto and Sasuke gaining the skills they need to survive. The Akatsuki and Orochimaru and Madara and Kaguya and all of them have won. I tried thinking of anything, but ultimately I couldn't see any way to win when Haku inevitably came for me. Maybe Naruto and Sasuke would survive, but without Kakashi or any proper training, they probably wouldn't gain the skills they needed in time for the Chunin Exams. Sasuke would then, willingly or not, defect, and Naruto would be left alone shortly afterwards with the Hokage's death. Naruto probably wouldn't learn from Jiraiya in time to be useful against Gaara, and certainly wouldn't learn enough to gain Tsunade back, and then Danzo would become Hokage and then Game Over. No. I didn't know what to do.
How can I keep Orochimaru from getting Sasuke and the Eye of the Moon plan from working? I thought to myself. The key points, Naruto and Sasuke, were simply too weak.
Wait. Naruto and Sasuke were key points not only to stopping the enemy plan, but also for them. Without the Kyuubi, the Akatsuki wouldn't be able to work for another few hundred years at least, possibly forever because the Shiki Fuin might kill him forever if Naruto dies. Without Sasuke alive, Orochimaru wouldn't get the Sharingan, nor would he get Sasuke. Yes that would work. Definitely. No doubt. Fortunately it was my watch, and I had my kunai. I crept back into Naruto and Sasuke's room, kunai in hand. This was it. Now the bad guys couldn't win, because they had no victory condition. I could do it. This would do the most good for everyone in the Naruto world.
Two swift strokes later, and there was only one living member of Team 7.