Naruto Fanfic: Self-Insert
The Two Fawns:

Chapter 1: Enter Nara Yoshiko

Dying was not going to be painless. She had very much hope that she can die a peaceful and painless death; preferably in her sleep and surrounded with many grandchildren and children, long after her retirement as an architect, the dream job that she had wanted. Life was short and she was not going to deny it, however she hadn't expected it to be that short.

Her death had not been pretty. She had been weigh and looked nothing but a bag of skin and bones along with patches of hair on her head. Basically a walking corpse. A ghost and fragment of the girl that once occupied that body. A girl on the chubby side with her bright green eyes and flaming red hair and most importantly her large carefree smile.

Her parents had always been there to remind her how beautiful she was, how fast she was going to recover from this and go back to school. Yet she knew they were lying to themselves as she lay bedridden in the hospital with her mother quitting her well paying job as a doctor to be her personal nurse and caretaker. Her brother John had been the best support of all, he had not been over optimistic about her condition, but he had instead made her forget about the horrible pain in her bones, the ache that slowly grew to the point where she would pass out from it. He told her stories of the many things he would do at the boy's school he attended and at home when not visiting her. It made her feel normal and good about herself again. At least no one was showing her pity that she didn't want.

Her death was not going to be painless in the sense that she had been anticipating it for months. Not knowing which day she would not get to see John's smiling face again took its toll on her. Not knowing when she won't wake up to hear her mother sooth her to sleep again pained her. Not knowing how her father would take to her death... God bless that man's soul, he had been the most optimistic about her, never wavering in his faith and hope that she would one day spend her mornings walking in the park with him like she did before, laughing and talking like the good old days. Before her fight with cancer that began four years ago.

The cancer had spread to her lungs already with little to no hope of survival for her. She longed for death's embrace to end her misery but she deny death for she wished dearly for more time with her small family. It was not fair. No one had said life was fair. Time was ticking away in her hourglass. It was time to go...

At least there was one good thing about her dying at this time, she will be able to spare her family the pain of watching her eyes close for the last time. Under her pillow was the diary she had left for them, a record of her meager time spent with them as a sister and a daughter. She decided that they should only keep the happy memories of her, hence she kept smiling till the very end...

As Jean's heart stopped its fruitless struggle and gave in at last to the clutches of death, the monitor gave a dull beep. Jean Lynn Owens was dead at exactly 3:03 am on 18 December 2015, three days before her nineteenth birthday.

~Page Break~

The baby wailed in her crib waking the other baby in the crib as well. Cheeks soon became red from exertion and her little lungs burned from all the screaming. Her brother the other baby soon followed, brawling loudly in their nursery. Their screams echoed through the whole residence, attracting the attention of its inhabitants.

Shikaku Nara heard the shrill wailing of his little girl first. Her screams were of a higher pitch and was a tiny bit softer than her brother's. Soon both babies were wailing at the top of their lungs. Shikaku wondered what was wrong again as he excused himself from his game of shogi with Choza. Shikaku would often leave his two little children to his wife Yoshino to handle, however with Yoshino in the Yamanaka flower shop and the fact that he would be in hot soup with her if she finds him with two crying babies meant that he had to pacify them. How troublesome...

There was one problem. He had almost no idea how to stop a baby's tirade much less to say two babies' tirade. He often left it to Yoshino when they are on a their drama time which were rare isolated incidents with Shikamaru not bothering to cry, apparently the infant had found it a waste of energy or some sorts to cry. Yoshiko was naturally easily placated with him or Yoshino carrying her.

Sighing, Shikaku braced himself as he entered the nursery. Picking up Yoshiko first, he rocked her gently against his chest and stroked her back in an attempt to calm her down. Gradually, Yoshiko wails turned to soft whimpers and eventually the baby turned her round brown eyes up to face him. She cooed at him, in her way for calling for his attention. Meanwhile Shikamaru rolled back and promptly fell asleep.

"Papa" the baby had blurted out, but sounded rather unsure of herself like she was testing the sounds in her throat. Shikaku could say he was elated for Shikamaru's first word had been 'sleep'; something that he felt rather suited his son. But girls are supposed to be a lot more sensitive and knowing Yoshiko who latched on to him like a shadow, she was definitely closer to him that her namesake and mother, something his wife had refused to admit when Inoichi jokingly pointed out during a gathering at his home.

"Papa... Papa..." The baby girl had mumbled before she wandered off to gurgling at him with her baby language which Shikaku could hardly began to comprehend. Sensing that she was not going to go back to sleep, unlike Shikamaru whose eyes were closed Yoshiko's eyes were wide awake and was now wiggling in his grasp in her restlessness.

"Aren't you a rather energetic one." He mused. The baby cooed back at him before kicking her little pudgy legs harmlessly at him. An energetic Nara, rare for a whole family of laid back individuals; then again he had to consider the fact that she was a girl and most likely girls have a different type of energy as compared to boys.

~Page Break~

Now Jean was unsure of how and where she was. For a long time she was surrounded by blurry shapes and dim lights; seriously people who told her that dying meant going to Heaven and meeting angels were lying. First, she had not met the said angels who were supposed to be majestic beings with glowing wings and all sorts of things. Second, she was not in Heaven because the Bible did mention something about a gate in Heaven to go pass according to someone when they visited her in the hospital. Third, that person had mentioned that Heaven was where one would feel at peace with themselves and Jean was certainly not at peace with herself.

She opened her mouth to question and ask like the inquisitive student she was; she was the teacher's pet and the unofficial leader of the Geeks Club, she always find asking question and taking action later a crucial quality to have. Of course she wouldn't be able to recall her classmates' names or teacher's for that matter. Which idiot would jump head first into a problem without first analyzing it anyway. Common sense will tell them not to but not too commonly found in many people.

However, her vocal cords seemed incapable of making any speech at all. Instead of 'where am I', it came out as some sort of gurgling sound. Great, now I sound like a freaking baby! She attempted to vocalize her question only to have the same thing happening again. To say that she was pissed was an understatement. She let out a loud cry of frustration only to have it sound like a baby's cry.

"What the hell is going on! Bloody piece of shit!" Jean hardly cursed but this was one occasion where she can curse her lungs out and nobody would notice. It meant no Mom to go 'your language, young lady!' Speaking of Mom, she kind of missed her but the memories of her past family was now blurry at the best. She can remember Dad and John along with her cat Jay and some of the normal things she often did with them but not a lot of things.

Unfortunately for her, the cursing went unnoticed but the sounds that followed from her attempts were noticed by her neighbor next to her. Squinting her eyes and willing it for her to see, she found herself sitting no sleeping next to a baby! A baby!

I'm the same sized as the freaking baby! As the reality of the situation set in quickly like being dunked into to a bucket of ice water, she started to freak out like how most people will react to a totally unworldly situation. "FUCK!" Oops, that came out a bit too loud and the baby next to her started brawling as well. Like all babies' inborn reaction, Jean too started to cry, surprising herself at the level of childishness that she happen to possess. Reincarnation was not fun at all...

Just then, she felt herself being lifted up by two rather strong arms. Definitely stronger than the health nut that was my dad. Strangely rather than recoiling from the sensation of being lifted up into the air, she kind of liked it. Hence her cursing stopped and the crying soon reduced into little hiccups. She felt secure with this pair of arms like the person was a safe place for her to be in. Snuggling in, she looked for a comfortable place to lay her head in. With all that wire meshing the man wore on himself she had expected herself to be accidentally scratched; but it had been rather comfortable as they were definitely made of thin wire wrapped around by rolls of cloth.

Turning her head up took a lot of trouble. Unlike the pre illness Jean with a strong healthy body and muscles from daily jogging by her dad, a baby's muscles were not well developed and hence she tried, note the tried to lift her head to look at the man. She ended failing quite badly until the man kind of helped her out a little by propping her up when she made some noises at him. But she decided to coo at him to make sure she doesn't get back to that bed.

Being a baby wasn't fun at all. Eat and sleep basically constitutes her daily schedule. Being a nineteen year old mentally meant that she had needed to be entertained with other things. Like for example, she is supposed be reading or playing with her tabby cat Jay.

Hence she tried attracting the attention of the man. "Papa... Papa." This man must be her father in this lifetime. Well she didn't mind looking like he did. Jet black hair tied into a ponytail, tanned skin (she never gotten that type of tan without accidentally burning herself to look like a lobster instead of that golden bronze tone) and almond shaped dark eyes paired with sharp features.

She saw the man's features twisting into a smile. Yes yes... Take me out. She tried to move to signal the wish to get out of the nursery by climbing up the man's shoulder but succeeded with only a mere wiggle. Curse it, it hadn't seem like baby muscles are that weak. No doubt she can crawl but climbing like a monkey took a little too much out of her.

"Aren't you a rather energetic one." The man chuckled at her rather futile attempts to climb up his shoulders. She turned to glare at him, well attempt to cause babies cannot glare to save their lives. She must have looked stupid trying to glare at a fully grown man.

"Take that new father!" She hissed at him, however it came out like a baby's coo. She kicked her little legs at him, a rather juvenile behavior but she cannot help it.

She regretted it instantly. Kicking the man's stomach had felt like kicking a rock. Ouch ouch. That hurt like a bitch! Who on earth would train their muscles to feel like rocks rather than flesh. Or perhaps it must be her little soft legs' problem.

But she had to begrudgingly admit that the man was a lot better than her new mother who would croon at her with her friends and tie numerous pink ribbons into her hair. And her screaming at her father was just plain scary. She understood the language that they spoke - Japanese; it hadn't been that hard since she took Japanese classes in middle school and high school and she had been one of the few kids in the class that bothered to listen and take down as much notes as she could. She is what one can call competent in the language; yes she can hold a conversation and read with it, but no she cannot go through difficult poetry or literature texts without her English-Japanese Dictionary. She got through the tests fine and she was not in AP Japanese Class so that had been okay for her. Not the best but decent.

The man carried her out to some sort of living room where there were two other men. One had red hair, a fat figure and strange purple markings on his cheeks. The other was a lot normal with a medium skin tone and blonde hair but the weird part came in when he had an extremely long ponytail that would make all the cheerleaders green with envy.

The man wait her new father, placed her on his lap while he carried on with some sort of weird chess game. Oh no way in hell is she going to be ignored! Again, she wiggled furiously hoping to get his attention again. He continued with his game like nothing was happening.

She had traded a boring situation for another boring situation. She tried her very best to resist the urge of rolling her eyes at the obviously oblivious adults. She almost tried getting their attention again. But she resisted the temptation to do so. Babies start talking at nine months or so.

She was supposed to be around nine months old. Babies are not supposed to be that sharp around adults. She not supposed to be able to tell that they were trying to carry on with their game. The game seemed interesting but only if she see it being played. All she could see from her angle was the table top! Looking around she saw that blonde man was not really playing the game. An opening!

As sneakily as she could, well a baby could; she crawled over to blonde man. It was embarrassingly tiring for her. Although her logical side had reasoned that it was probably due to her not well developed muscles, the other side of her had taken it quite badly.

~Page Break~

Inoichi was not very good with children. That much was proven with his daughter preferring the company of his wife as compared to him. Ino had been quite clingy towards her mother. According to his wife, he was holding Ino wrongly hence getting the rejection from his daughter.

Ino had been spoilt by him, according to his teammates and wife. However he could see the same being done to Yoshiko with Shikaku being willing to bring her out of the nursery during her assigned nap time. The pot calling the kettle black as usual. Shikaku had always assume women were delicate and gentle; perhaps with little Yoshiko, his perception may change or become deeply enforced in him.

He was pleasantly surprised when the said little girl crawled towards him after crawling away from Shikaku who was as usual busy with his Shogi game. It was quite cute seeing the little baby's large brown eyes looking at him almost hopefully to carry her. It was with that type of eyes that prompted Inoichi to give Ino that extra dango after dinner that she was not supposed to have. She hadn't had the effect that Ino had on him; but a baby was still a baby and Inoichi could not decline a baby's demands.

Picking the baby up was not difficult but holding her had been hard. Inoichi was used to using his death grip on enemy shinobi. Despite softening his touch to suit a baby's and not harming a baby, most babies didn't like to be carried like that. The child had been more interested in climbing on his shoulders with her clawing his shoulders and slipping repeatedly. Hearing the baby give a huff of frustration, he helped her up. It must have been a strange sight, a baby perched on a grown man's shoulder and observing a Shogi game although she must be clueless on what was going on in the game.

Soon enough, the baby grew bored and by her wiggling; Inoichi assumed she meant to tell him to let her down. Holding her gently, he placed her on the tatami covered wooden floors. Sure enough she crawled towards some colorful threads that Yoshino had possibly forgot to keep. Grabbing the threads with her little hands; the baby managed to tie a rather loose knot after multiple attempts of having the strings twisted all the wrong way. Inoichi helped her along and watched her carefully in the event that she accidentally gets herself tangled in string. Inoichi will cut the strings if she become trapped in them but he was worried that the little girl might kick up a fuss if he did that.

His worries had been quite unfounded as the baby did something that surprised him to no end. The baby having got the hang of tying a knot started to knot the strings in various groups of three and started to braid the strings! Braiding will be stretching it a little but she was making some sort of patterns with her strings by finding a definite repeat pattern after numerous tries of looping the strings and with Inoichi's help of untying all the unnecessary knots.

~Page Break~

"Shikaku Nara what are you doing!" A familiar voice of Yoshino screeched. The said man jumped up from his Shogi and looked around for his daughter only to have Inoichi shushed him and beckon him towards where his daughter was sitting at. The sight gave him a rather pleasant surprise.

Yoshiko seemed to have an inert ability for systematic methods and approaches. Unlike Shikamaru who had excelled at solving the simple cube games (when he can get him to do it without that Shikaku had given with methods that he had not taught him yet; Yoshiko seemed to be a lot more interested in figuring out a pattern than solving the root problem by itself.