The reason I am writing this story is so i can improve as a writer, so constructive criticism is appreciated. I hope you all enjoy the story and please let me know what you all think!
PS: I don't own Naruto, fairly obvious I know but I'm covering my ass.
Prologue
I could see nothing. An ever expanding darkness lay before me, one that beckoned I tread deeper into its embrace. It was cold, not unlike cool dirt that has rested in the shade of a cozy tree on a spring morn. It was both comforting and stifling, and yet… I felt at peace. Time seemed meaningless here, as if it did not exist at all yet I knew of it as a fact of life. Yet as I let the cold emptiness encompass my being I couldn't help but ask, "Who am I?"
That simple question began nagging at the back of my mind. At first it was like a prickling sensation on the edges of my fingers and toes, but the feeling soon spread and morphed into agony. The Question took over my every waking thought, so much so that the comforting embrace of darkness became suffocating. Just when it was reaching its peak I saw a flash of light. That flash multiplied endlessly in the abyss until it looked like the night sky. But I knew the lights weren't stars, no they were… something else. I tried moving closer to one of the lights yet I couldn't budge an inch. I was rooted in place, ugh so annoying. That's when it happened; the lights started playing thousands of movies at once. All scenes to a story long since ended, of that there was no doubt. I saw a young boy with striking blond hair and greenish brown eyes being beaten by a dark skinned man, I saw that same boy with a knife in his hands fear clearly etched on to his young face. I saw a beautiful woman with fiery hair, an ugly sneer cutting a jagged ravine into her would be attractive face, as she screamed at the boy. The slow mental breakdown of the boy unfolding before my eyes in excruciating detail, every emotion the boy felt thundered through my formless being. I saw the boy taken away from the fiery haired woman, who I knew he called Mother, and brought to a balding man that radiated sorrow.
I saw the boy grow up fighting with a younger boy, his brother, the scene morphing into a montage of the two boys fighting a massive group of other kids. I felt every blow inflicted on the bond boy, experienced every scream that tore his throat asunder, heard every laugh that escaped his grinning face, fake and not. I saw him practicing smiling in the mirror in a vain attempt to fit in, to escape ridicule. Years of memories washed over me like a never ending wave of emotion. I watched the boy slowly grow to a man, one who acted confident yet just beneath the surface was broken beyond repair. I heard the sounds of gunfire, and explosions, saw men and women who the man cherished choke out their last breaths, both pleading for the blond man to save them and to save himself. I experienced everything this man experienced in his violent life, carrying out his duty despite everything thrown at him. I saw him kill, over and over again yet each time he extinguished a life a piece of him died as well.
I watched the man, hardened from his trials in war return to an empty home. I could hear the façade the man built around himself shatter as he struggled to come to terms with his life yet even then, in his darkest moments, there was a glimmer of hope. Hope for a better tomorrow, a hope that everything wasn't in vain. I saw the man try to find love, yet stumble and fall all over himself. Pushing through rejection after rejection. I experienced the doubt he felt as he looked himself in the mirror and ask "Am I worth it?" "Am I a good person?" I felt a smile stretch across my nonexistent face as he finally found the love he so craved in the form of a beautiful petite raven haired woman. I heard him chuckle as she stumbled over herself around him in what was obviously a crush. The love they felt towards each other lit up the man's life like a star, the heat of that star washing over me in a protective embrace. I saw them marry, and try for children. I saw the woman glow with happiness breathing life into the man as he watched her rave about their soon to be daughter. I felt the heavy weight of worry on the man's shoulders as he gripped his love's hands as she pushed with all her might at the doctor's command, and felt the steady stream of tears run down his face after finally being introduced to his daughter. I saw his daughter blossom like a flower into a beautiful young girl before his eyes, and felt the ever present blinding love the man felt for his family.
I felt the tears hit his face as he smiled at his wife and daughter for the last time, the cold embrace of death creeping up his limbs as the blood drained from the man's body. However in that moment, the man didn't feel fear. He didn't feel hatred for the man that stole his life, only content with the people that desperately grasped at his dying body. I felt the final words roll off his lips as he whispered to his wife and daughter for the last time, "I love you both… so much…" and there was no more.
Shock filled my being as the lights floated away, the dam of emotions flooding me as realization filled me. I knew this story… it was mine. I was that man. I wanted to see them again… but… I knew that wasn't possible. I was dead. There was no going back from this, so all that left was… what now? As I floated in the nothingness surrounding me the question dancing in my mind like a clown, I felt a pull on my soul. My very being was being torn from this realm, yet I didn't find it in me to resist. What could I do? So I accepted my fate with a smile, if I was to burn in hell for the life I lived then so be it.
Yet as I thought that, the hellish heat never came. Instead a blinding light filled my vision and following it a striking cold that penetrated me from all over. It was so intense I couldn't help but cry out in shock and fear. Yet what clawed from my throat wasn't a yell of a man, but the shrill scream of a baby. Huh? The light was blinding, I couldn't see much but I could make out giant silhouettes of some… people? Giant gloved hands were wrapped around my slick and slimy body as I was passed around for a while, eventually landing the arms of a beautiful young woman with raven black hair and eyes. I stared wide eyed at the woman for a while. She was saying something but I couldn't understand her in the slightest, yet when she looked at me I saw an overflowing warmth exude from her eyes. Despite her haggard state, the beaming grin that spit her face radiated happiness like a supernova.
After I was taken away from the woman I was bathed and wrapped in a blue cloth and presented to the woman like a prize, which she accepted with tired joy. All of the excitement was getting to me and I began nodding off, however that was before I caught sight of a very familiar symbol on the blanket I was bundled in. it was white and red circle with a red rectangle extending downwards, a simple design but one that made my blood run cold. I knew that symbol. Why was that symbol on my blanket? I looked up towards the mirror on the far wall and saw my reflection for the first time. Even though I was just born, I had unmistakable black hair and golden eyes. My eyes trailed down to the bedside table and landed on a head band with a stylized symbol of a leaf etched onto the metal. Shock and horror struck my tiny frame like a bolt of lightning. Oh fuck me… I'm in Naruto! My attention was drawn back to the radiantly beautiful woman who cuddled me to her bosom. The smile never leaving her face as tears of joy seeped from her dark eyes. She brought me close and planted a kiss on my brow, filling me with a foreign feeling that I would later learn was a mothers undying love.
"Welcome to the world, Taiyō Uchiha."