Disclaimer: Nope, not mine, don't own Naruto or everything wouldn't have gotten so over powered.
A/N at End
OOOO
"You're a little bitch like the rest of this damn pussy village!" Hidan jeered down at Akane who was once again skittering along the ground on her ass in the training field. Hidan kicked like a cannonball, even at the age of ten.
"Or maybe you're just too freakishly enthusiastic about kicking me down, you prick." And really, he was way too happy when they sparred outside of the academy, with no teacher to tell him to lay off a bit. Akane always got back up and faced up to her classmate time and time again though, she knew too much was a stake, she needed to be at least passably strong to leave the village and damn, she knew she needed to do this. And her taijutsu was her worst skill by far.
Hidan gave her all of two seconds to regain her footing before he was dancing towards her again, she managed to dodge his foot, block a strike aimed right at her face which made her arms judder and inevitably bruise, only to not be fast enough as his other foot swept under her and Akane was on the ground. Again. God damn it.
"Ugh whatever, you're obviously not gonna do any better tonight. I'm bored." Hidan unceremoniously span on his heel and walked away, no goodbye and certainly no helping her back up. Instead Akane lay back and stared up at the sky to catch her breath.
Ten years since she'd been, for the lack of better words, reincarnated into this world. Into the place of a story she knew well but into specific town of which she knew almost nothing. Only a year ago had she made it specifically into Yugakure and its Academy, to a place where she could get her bearings. Hidan had been her only clear signal of her place in the timeline, and damn he looked weird and sweet being so tiny with his huge violet eyes, but his attitude was already bad and he swore too much for his age. Not that she could judge, although Akane did have the excuse of being much older in her mind and spirit. Her first eight years in this place were strange to say the least, walking and use of her arms and hands came quickly to her but speaking, reading and writing took so long; she was so unfamiliar with Japanese and had never had any success at learning a second language in her previous life. Needs must though, and she had very little choice in the matter. Her 'parents' had seemed uncertain but, she supposed, that was of no consequence now.
Akane pushed herself to her feet and ignored each bruise that twinged as she made her way to her home. Already her second home in this violent world. It turned out Yugakure wasn't big enough to need a full orphanage, the town was prosperous and welcoming enough that the few children that were orphaned were taken in, either by willing families, or onsen needing young labour in exchange for a home. A elderly ex-kunoichi, whose own children had moved out, had taken in Akane when she had turned up at the Yugakure border tired, scared and devoid of supplies. They didn't quite feel like family, but they sure felt comfortable together.
"I'm home!" she called, following the scent of cooking into the kitchen of their small home.
"Akane-chan you're late again, I just finished eating!" Inoue-san was a kind older shinobi, long since retired from active combat, who right now was frowning at her charge, "You don't need to push this hard when you're still in the academy."
"Sorry Inoue-san." Akane didn't meet her eyes though and turned instead to grab some rice from the bowls by the cooker. The Yugakure shinobi, even the older ones who had seen war-time, were quite lax compared to what Akane remembered from the show she once watched. The Land of Hot Water had all but declared themselves a pacifist country years back and though they still has active ninja, their duties were more along the lines of keeping the roads safe and doing menial tasks around the country. They almost never left the borders and the worst fights tended to be bandits. Akane, though, was determined to be more, because she knew what kind of shit-show was coming and she didn't want to stand at the sidelines. Not knowing what she did. And so she sought out Hidan's company after seeing him the first day she joined the Academy, nearly a whole year ago now. He would become a monster in strength and skill in a matter of years and whilst he didn't seem to have his manic faith to Jashin yet, he was strong for his age. So she let him beat her down, again and again, because she knew that every attack she took without stumbling and every successful dodge meant one step to her being stronger. But goddamn did she hate every moment of it.
OOOO
Later that evening Akane sat on the end of her bed, rubbing ointment she got from Inoue-san into her bronze skin in the hope that the bruises would maybe look less vicious by morning. The last traces of the sunset was filtering through her window, casting streaks of orange onto her wall, distorted from the ever-present steam that rose from the many hot springs around the village.
One more day down just hundreds more to go.
Until what, exactly, she wasn't even sure but acting like everything was a countdown to something better, something more, helped Akane weather through her training and the restrictions that came with being ten.
She had so many plans and ideas with what she might be able to do when she was older, a ninja. And hell if that didn't sound strange to her very twenty-first century mind.
Akane twisted her pale, beige hair out of her way as she lay down to go to sleep. Sunset was late in the day here and she needed all the sleep she could get before another early start.
One more day down.
OOOO
"The onsen are the biggest asset of Yugakure, to both its citizens and shinobi. The income they bring is phenomenal from their numerous visitors, which in itself brings trade, some of whom set up permanent residency here..."
Akane sighs quietly and looks out of the window. Today afternoon lecture's focus is apparently the local economy and how amazing the onsens are. Like anyone around here needed to be taught about this; the number of foreign shinobi and citizens she sees around here are obvious. Using a pencil, and thank fuck brushes and ink are only expected for formal letters or fuinjutsu, she jots a note down on a piece of paper and crumples it up into a ball. She flicks her hand in what she hopes is a nonchalant manner but is probably like a blaring signal to her chunin class teacher, to throw the ball at Hidan who is sitting two rows behind her. Luckily it makes its mark and Yusuke-sensei makes eye contact with her but chooses not to comment.
Class is sometimes so boring. Lessons on anatomy and killing are endlessly fascinating to her in a morbid way. Battle tactics and lessons on political manoeuvres are enticing to the logical problem-solving parts of her brain. But economics, history (which is so biased here) and maths never cease to surprise her with how droll they are. Physical training is fun and challenging but equally troublesome to the side of her that spent a lifetime rarely moving much further than her flat to a car or bus.
As the lecture moves to specific details of how a Yuga ninja will be an integral part of the onsens and hotels, ensuring the safety of the customers in their country, Akane lets herself zone out completely as she continues to look out the window. All she sees is the ever rising clouds of steam enveloping the passers by, usually women in long kimono's escorted by stern looking men. One figure makes her sit up straight. Long white hair, unreasonably spiky and messy over a red jacket and feet in traditional geta sandals. He's gone within seconds and it was from a distance but Akane is sure that was Jiraiya. She had hoped that the hot-spring filled town would attract the Ero-Sennin but it had been nothing more than that; a hope. After almost a year here Akane assumed that maybe Jiraiya went to more obscure hot-springs to do his 'research' but it seems he had just been busy instead. Akane cursed her luck that she was in school. Her stealth was no where near enough to let her escape class. Well, hopefully the toad-sage would be around for a while.
OOOO
Her determined search of all nearby hot-springs as soon as classes finished proved fruitless. The perverted man was nowhere to be found. Not without her snooping inside of each of the baths themselves and all surrounding hotels, which would definitely draw someone's attention. Akane, disappointed, headed towards the river which wound through the edge of the town, in particular its widest point which was more like a small lake save for its steady current. The water was lukewarm, a mixture of overflow from the many bursts of hot water from beneath the earth, mixed with regular mountain-sourced river water.
Akane removed her shoes and sat by the edge, placing her feet near the surface. They hadn't been taught much about chakra but she had already been learning the basics from the clan she came from, before she had had to leave. Holding a handful of water and steadily imbuing it with chakra so it would stay in your grasp even as you turned over your hand was the first chakra-control exercise she had been given. To Akane, chakra was strange. It felt out of place in her body, always buzzing in her core. At close proximity she could feel that steady buzz in other people too. This difference from her old life, it's presence in everything and everyone around her, was so striking and yet no one she had ever mentioned it to ever understood what she was saying. Some of the more experienced shinobi could purposely focus on other's chakra and feel it that way but that was all. So far Akane had found her 'talent' was more of an annoyance than useful. Her range of feeling other chakras was small, only about three paces from herself and the first few years, already trapped in the body of an infant had been near maddening as she was overwhelmed by the constant foreign sensation she was unable to escape.
Focusing chakra down to her feet was simple enough, it was like pinpointing an itch but beneath her skin, but spreading it evenly and keeping the flow consistent was considerably more difficult. She had managed to get to the point where, though she couldn't stand on the water, the resistance had definitely increased and the water felt more like thick custard beneath her toes. Her attention was snapped as a pair of hands planted into her back and shoved her bodily into the water. Water trailed from her mouth as she surfaced, spinning only to see Hidan standing at the edge of the water sniggering.
"Hidan! What the hell man?"
"You usually fucking notice me when I'm like right behind you, bitch." Hidan looked down at her with a smirk.
"I was concentrating!"
Akane scowled and dragged herself back out, wringing as much water as she could out of her sleeveless top and long trousers.
"I was thinking we could try some chakra stuff for a change rather than just beating each other but if you're going to be an ass then I'll be just fine on my own."
"Aw come on Ake-chan, if you're wanting to do water-walking you'd fall in eventually anyway. I was just making you get wet faster."
They spent the afternoon competitively seeing who could get to their feet on the water first. Hidan's skill did not lay in chakra control, whereas that was one of the few things Akane had going for her. Rising to her feet in success, her smile was brief and a sharp kick to the back of the knee had her crumpling into the water again. Hidan was a sore loser. She stayed under the water this time and grabbed on on Hidan's ankles, which hung just above the water line, pulling him in beside her. The trail of expletives from the ten year old's mouth was heavily out of place and yet expected. Not much training was done after that point.
OOOO
Akane looked at her ceiling again and turned her head to look at the glass bottle she had kept by her bedside for the past year, one of the few things she had had on her person when she had been found by a team of Yuga-nin outside of the town. The red liquid inside sloshed dully as she focused intently on the bottle. Her eyes faded into a glinting red as the liquid in the bottle began twist and swirl. It was brief but the girl smiled as she turned to look back up at the ceiling, her eyes a dullish purple-grey.
One more day down.
OOOO
A/N: So this is my first attempt at a fic, or even writing. And an easy place to start is a good old OC Self-Insert-esque story. Yes there are tons of these already but hey, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Let me know what you think and bonus thanks if you can give constructive criticism- do I repeat myself too much? Is my punctuation wrong? Learner here looking for help.