Elyse stood at the precipice of her life which, not coincidentally, was an actual precipice. As she gazed down at the craggy terrain below her, she wondered, Do I really want to do this? Maybe life would get better. Maybe it wasn't as bad as she made it out to be.
Her phone vibrated in her pocket. Slowly, she pulled it out. Who would be calling her at this time? She stared at the caller ID with dismay. It was her job, the part time cashier job at a large corporation discount store that cared more about harassing customers into signing up for the company credit cards than actually letting those customers pay for their items in the checkout lane. Whoever thought the best place to sell credit cards would be the checkout lanes anyways? She hated that. The long lines full of impatient and fussy customers made longer by her obligation to give them sales pitches.
Elyse threw her phone off the edge of the cliff. Soon after, she followed.
When Elyse came to later, she had many questions. Questions like; Why am I still alive? or Who is that enormous person picking me up? The answer to those questions would reveal themselves later on through simple deduction. First, she was still alive because she'd been reincarnated. Second, that enormous person who picked her up was her new father and, no, he was not enormous. Just enormous compared to her new small and fragile baby body.
Not long after finding herself reincarnated, Elyse realized her new parents were strange. For one thing, her dad often had a bit of cloth tied around his forehead with a metal plate in the front. The metal plate had a triforce etched into it. Maybe her new dad was a huge Zelda fan although that didn't explain why he chose a weird headband to advertise his fandom to the world.
For another thing, her parents were magical. Yes, magical. Those two could move with unprecedented speed. They would crush Olympic records if that speed translated to longer distances than that which was required to run over to stop Elyse from escaping her crib. The speed didn't even compare to the other things they could do. Sometimes, Elyse saw two to three versions of her mom running around the house, and no, she wasn't an identical triplet. Elyse saw the other two mom's appear out of thin air. Her dad liked to disguise himself with his magic making his ears comically big or his nose abnormally large in an attempt to make Elyse laugh. Elyse thought that trick might be more likely to make a normal baby dissolve into tears, but she gave little giggles sometimes to please the man.
It really hadn't been too hard to accept that her new parents were magical. Not after she had been reincarnated. Strange unexplained things could happen. Who knew?
Elyse's parents mostly spoke in English, for which she was grateful, but at times, they spoke Japanese which she had almost no knowledge of. Trying to learn the new language by trying to pick out the words they spoke proved to be nothing more than a headache provider. Elyse gave up that endeavor quickly. Her parents spoke English, so that was good enough.
It wasn't until she turned two and a half that Elyse learned she and her parents had more in common with each other than brown hair and green eyes. Her mom had Elyse in her lap as she showed her a map of the American continents. "That's where your daddy and I used to live," she said pointing to the US.
"Where do we live now?" Elyse asked frowning down at the map. She hadn't been able to make sense of her location. She heard her parents saying at times that they lived somewhere called Sunagakure which sounded pretty Japanese, but she noticed a desert like landscape the few times she'd been outside. Deserts didn't sound very Japanese like to Elyse, but what did she know? Maybe Japan had some deserts. She never studied Japanese geography.
"We live in Sunagakure in the Land of Wind," Elyse's mom answered.
"Where is that?" Elyse asked. Surely, not in the Americas.
Her mom moved the map of the Americas aside and grabbed a new, more unfamiliar looking map. "This is the Land of Wind," she stated outlining one of the regions on the land mass. "And this is Sunagakure."
Elyse stared at the dot marking the city. This wasn't helping. "How far from there?" Elyse pointed a stubby finger at the map her mom had discarded seconds earlier.
"Oh. That's very far away, Jin." Elyse made an involuntary face at her new name. Her name was about the only thing she liked about her old life, and she didn't want a new one. Her mom continued, "See, your daddy and I used to be different people. We lived in a place called America in a completely different world, but we died there. We were reborn into this world."
Elyse's brain whirred. Her parents were reincarnated too? This wasn't even Earth anymore? "Wait, is it common for people to be reincarnated around here? I thought I was the only one!"
Her mom stiffened. "Jin?" Elyse turned to face her new mother who had a stricken expression.
"If I'd known you were in the same situation, I'd have told you earlier," Elyse said. Her mom carefully deposited Elyse onto the floor, stood up, and started pacing.
"This- this has never happened before," she said stress permeating her voice.
"What's never happened before?" Elyse scrunched her brows in confusion. The woman had just said she'd been reincarnated too, so clearly, that had happened before.
Her mom turned to her eyes wide, face frantic. "We've never had a reincarnated baby born to a reincarnated parent. I should have known. You caught onto English too quickly and Japanese too slowly. It wasn't because we spoke English around you more. It's because you already knew English."
Elyse looked away starting to feel a little bad for the lady that just found out her child wasn't entirely her child. "I'm sorry. I can't imagine what it's like to have your two year old turn out to be an adult. I didn't mean to do it."
Her mom's face softened. "Of course, you didn't, honey. I put my second pair of parents in the same situation though they didn't know it. I loved them just as much as my first parents too. How old are you really?"
Elyse thought. "I was 23 when I died, so I guess 25 now."
"I'm still older than you then. I've lived a total of 38 years. Haru is 37." Elyse started at that. The two looked to be in their early twenties. They must have died fairly young. "If you let us, we can still act as your parents in this life. You'll still be granted all your rights as an adult as is the law in our clan."
"Clan?" Elyse asked. Who the hell had clans?
"Oh, yes. You have so much to learn. Do you know about Naruto?" The name tickled Elyse's memory, but she couldn't quite figure out why. She shook her head.
"No? That makes it a little bit harder. There was an anime and manga back in our original world about a ninja named Naruto. It was pretty popular."
"Oh!" Elyse cried out suddenly recognizing the name. She saw a couple of episodes of that. "I have heard of that. The annoying, blond kid, right?"
"Yes, that one," her mom said with a smile.
Elyse frowned. "Wait, why are we talking about an anime now?"
"Because that's the world we're in now. This is the very same world that Naruto lives in. Actually, that very Naruto was born not long before you were."
Elyse stared back at the lady in consternation. She could accept the magical powers. She could accept the reincarnation. She could even accept that the reincarnation was into a totally different world, but the world of an anime? Come on, now. "Wait, you aren't serious, are you?" Her mom nodded. "We're in an anime world?" Another nod. "Are you sure about this?"
"I know it's weird-" Elyse let out a strangled laugh. "-but that's the reality of it." The lady was dead serious. Elyse shook her head. The ninja in the show did have those dopey looking headbands her new father sometimes wore, didn't they? And they had magical powers too.
"Are you sure you aren't playing a joke on me?" Elyse asked again just to be sure. Her mom shook her head. "Well, then. Isn't that something?"
"I was quite shocked when I realized it too."
"So the clans then," Elyse started. "Is that a Naruto thing? I'm afraid I don't know very much about the story."
"Oh, yes. There are ninja clans. They hold secrets, usually about jutsu, in their clans. Our clan's secret is our reincarnation and knowledge of the future. Reincarnated people around the world find us through the hints we leave, or in some cases, we find them first."
"What hints?" Elyse asked and then thought again of her father's headband. "The triforce symbol?"
"Well, yes," her mom said looking sheepish. "Along with the name of the clan, books we've printed, restaurants we set up with dishes from our world, and other such things."
"What's the clan name?"
Her mom's face displayed great reluctance. "Nintendo," she admitted.
"Nintendo," Elyse repeated flatly. "Like the game system?"
"Yes."
"Whose bright idea was that?"
"That would be Fusajiro Yamauchi. No, not the actual Fusajiro Yamauchi, just some guy that used his name when he founded the clan."
"Excuse me, but who is the actual Fusajiro whatever guy?" Elyse asked having never heard the name before.
"Yamauchi," her mom emphasized. "He founded the Nintendo company. The Fusajiro of this world who, of course, was also originally from the same world as the actual Fusajiro Yamauchi, had quite the Nintendo obsession. And our clan reaps the consequences to this very day."
"Why not just change the name?"
"Change the name!? You can't just change the name of an established clan. Do you know how many council votes we'd have to incite? Or how much paperwork we'd have to fill out? Not worth it. Besides, like I said earlier, it helps to lead others like us to our clan."
"Ok. I guess that makes sense," Elyse said uncertainly. "Earlier, you said reincarnated people have never had a reincarnated kid before. Do you guys usually let loose all this information on regular kids?"
"Yes. Little by little all clan kids must know our roots so that they can carry out our clan's purpose."
"What purpose is that?" Elyse asked curiously. If it was the clans purpose, that meant it probably would end up being her purpose since she was now a member of said clan.
"To ensure that canon lives on!" her new mom stated emphatically. Elyse gawked at her feeling utterly bewildered.
"To do what?"
Her mom sighed and shook her head. "You really should be learning all this in class. There's too much for me to tell you in one sitting. Tell you what, we'll have you enrolled by next week."
"I have to go back to school?"
"Yes. Everyone in the clan has to go to school to at least learn the rules and duties of the clan. You also have to go if you ever want to learn to use your chakra."
"My what?" Elyse was starting to feel very overwhelmed with all the information she was being fed.
"Your chakra. It's a manifestation of your physical and spiritual energy. It's what allows me to make clones and perform other jutsus," her mom explained.
"Oh," Elyse said in understanding. "You mean your magic."
"It's not magic, Jin. It's chakra."
"It's Elyse," Elyse informed her new mom who frowned.
"No. It's chakra not whatever you just said."
Elyse slammed her forehead into her palm. "I mean my name is Elyse."
"Oh." Suddenly, pain flooded the face of Elyse's new mom. She felt ashamed. It was just a name. She could have let it go.
"Never mind. Jin is fine," Elyse said hurriedly. Her mom gave her a wavering smile.
"No, no. Elyse is a beautiful name. You should keep it." Elyse didn't know what to say, so she didn't say anything. Her mom walked over to her and picked her up.
"Let's put you to bed. Mental adult or not, you need to sleep."
Feeling like she had already put the woman through enough for the night, Elyse didn't protest.
The dynamic between Elyse and her new parents was something quite strange from that night on. Sometimes, the two treated her like the toddler she appeared as. Elyse indulged them those times not wanting to deny the two recent parents the chance to act as such. The rest of the time, they remembered she was an adult and left her to her own devices. Elyse's new parents started to grow on her and she believed they liked her too even if they resented her a little for not being an actual kid.
Elyse's mom, Eri, enrolled Elyse in the class she mentioned in their previous conversation. Only three other kids took the same class each physically older than her but none reincarnated. They didn't interact with Elyse because she was too young. In turn, she didn't interact with them because they were too young.
In her new class, Elyse learned about the history of the Naruto world and what was expected to happen in the future. As the teacher covered a segment on the massacre of a clan in the village of the protagonist, Elyse raised her hand. "Why don't we do something to stop the massacre if we know it's coming?" she asked after the teacher, Mr. Peterson as he liked to be called, called on her.
Mr. Peterson opened and closed his mouth like a fish before pointing to a sentence that had been on the top of the board since the first class Elyse went to. "What does that say?" he demanded.
"The sanctity of canon must be preserved," Elyse quoted boredly. "But why? It seems like we could save a bunch of people if we ignore canon altogether."
"Ignore canon altogether?" Mr. Peterson spluttered. "Do you realize what you're saying? If we change events, we run the risk of allowing the world to be destroyed when the more formidable enemies of the story come into play. We have to keep everything the same so Naruto saves the world when the time comes."
"Still, though," Elyse said. "It can't be right to let a massacre of an entire clan happen right under our noses."
"It's not right under our noses. It's in another village, and it's a necessity. That clan plans a coup on their village. Who knows what characters could die in the fighting that would inevitably follow? No, the clan has to be killed to stop the coup," said Mr. Peterson with a tone of finality.
"Does it though? I find it hard to believe that the correct solution to any problem is genocide."
"Miss Suzuki, I don't think you're getting the concept. What does that sentence say?" Again, Mr. Peterson pointed to the sentence on the top of the board.
"The sanctity of canon must be preserved," Elyse repeated dully.
"Yes, yes." Mr. Peterson nodded enthusiastically. "Do you understand now?"
"Absolutely," Elyse said with a fake smile. "We must keep canon alive to allow Naruto to save the world."
"Yes. Thank you, Miss Suzuki. We must do exactly that. Now, where was I? Ah, yes. Sasuke Uchiha. Itachi just couldn't bring himself to allow his younger brother to be murdered along with the clan." As Mr. Peterson droned on, Elyse smiled a real smile down at the blank page provided to her for notes. She would make something of her life this time. She had a new purpose, one that went completely opposite of the Nintendo clan's stated purpose. She would destroy canon so completely that this world wouldn't be recognizable to any more reincarnated persons.
"You have to learn Japanese if you want to be able to interact with anyone outside of the clan, Elyse," Eri told her after Elyse stared blankly back at her when she said something to Elyse in Japanese. Elyse had no skills with languages as she learned in her high school Spanish classes. She would have told Eri that she had no desire to talk with people outside of the clan, but she would have to in order to carry out her new self-appointed destiny.
"Alright. I'm ready to learn," said Elyse with determination. She could learn a new language. People did it all the time. The toddlers in the clan were almost all at least bilingual. Everyone in the clan spoke Japanese, almost everyone spoke English, and a small scattering of other languages diffused throughout the clan.
"Good. I'll set you up with another teacher."
"You're not going to teach me?"
"Elyse, I'm not a teacher. Don't worry. Mitsuko Uchiha is an excellent teacher," Eri reassured.
"Wait," Elyse said the name ringing a thousand bells. "Isn't Uchiha the name of the clan that gets massacred?"
Eri looked down sadly. "Yes. Such a sad affair. Mitsuko is lucky she had knowledge from the manga and knew to escape before she can get killed."
"But I thought canon must be preserved. Doesn't that mean we have to let Mitsuko die with the rest of the Uchiha?" Elyse asked sardonically.
"Elyse," Eri gasped in appallment. "How can you say such a thing? Mitsuko is a much beloved member of our clan. It's not going to change canon if one more Uchiha lives past the massacre."
"Never mind. Sorry." Elyse let the matter drop. She had to let the rest of the clan believe she valued canon as much as they did.
As it turned out, Mitsuko was an absolute peach of a lady and had a variety of gripping stories from both her old life and her new life. Her old age, 83 when she died and 50 now, provided her with all kinds of opportunities. Elyse listened in awe as Mitsuko described fighting a dozen giant, dancing cockroaches on one of her genin missions.
"And I said to myself, 'Mitsuko, you've seen a lot of things in your 96 years of life, and this has to be the most disturbing thing yet, but you have to pull through if you want to save Hana.' I reached inside of myself to find the courage residing in the depths of my soul, and I rushed at those cockroaches kunai ablazing. I made quick work of those repellant but surprisingly talented pests, and I rescued Hana from the Cloud ninja. The ungrateful brat didn't talk to me for a year after that too. Apparently, I'd been cruel to kill the cockroaches. The Aburame don't take bug abuse lightly."
"Wow," Elyse breathed as Mitsuko finished her story. "I just have one question."
"Let me guess, you want to know why the cockroaches were dancing. I don't know the answer to that. That very question has haunted me ever since that day." Mitsuko looked off into the distance with a troubled expression.
"Um, not exactly. Actually, I wanted to know how in the world you were familiar with the Naruto manga if you were 83 when you died."
"What? You don't think an old woman can read manga?" Mitsuko barked.
"Well, I suppose you can…" Elyse trailed off as Mitsuko erupted into laughter.
"I'm just screwing with you, child. Of course, I never read the thing, but my sweet grandson loved the story. Talked about it all the time. Until his abusive mother burned his manga collection in a drunken rage, that is. He never showed much of an interest in the story after that."
Once again, Elyse found herself hard pressed to find anything to say. "You're daughter-in-law?" she asked.
"I wish." Mitsuko sighed. "Nope, she was my daughter. I eventually got custody of Hiro when my daughter was ruled to be an unfit mother, but I always wondered if that was a mistake. If my daughter turned out to be such a mess, how could I be expected to raise another child successfully. Hiro turned out well-adjusted though. Either I got better at raising children or Ayumi really was just a bad seed."
Elyse started at the Japanese sounding names. "Are you originally from Japan?"
"Yes, I am. And that reminds me, this is supposed to be a Japanese lesson not an old lady rambling about her life session."
"I was fine with the latter," Elyse said. Nevertheless, Mitsuko continued on with the Japanese lesson for the rest of the day. Elyse supposed that was for the best. She needed to learn Japanese, and she could listen to more stories some other times.
Learning Japanese was easier for Elyse than learning Spanish had been probably purely due to her immersion into a group of people that often spoke Japanese. Mitsuko decided that she would still tell Elyse stories, but only in Japanese. Elyse desperately tried to hang onto every word, but Mitsuko had no mercy in her renditions of her life experiences. She didn't simplify her language to words Elyse had familiarity with, and she didn't speak slowly for Elyse to have time to process each sound. The real learning happened during the lessons. Mitsuko just told stories to tease and entice Elyse. Damn it if it didn't work all too well.
"Hold on," Elyse said in the middle of one of Mitsuko's gems. "Is this another tale involving dancing cockroaches or did I mishear something?"
"That's not how this works, Elyse," Mitsuko said with a gentle smile. She then launched back into her story. Oh. Elyse got it now. There weren't more dancing cockroaches. Mitsuko was just referencing the courage she found within herself during that time. Thank God. Elyse didn't think she could believe it if Mitsuko crossed paths with dancing cockroaches more than one time, and she desperately wanted to believe every word of Mitsuko's stories.
"Did you ever have kids in this world?" Elyse asked after her lessons ended for the day.
"Goodness, no," Mitsuko said. "With my failure rate of 50%, I figured I better not."
"I don't think you can consider that percentage reliable with such a small sample size. That'd be like if someone took Kershaw's ERA in the postseason and declared him a bad pitcher because of it," Elyse said shaking her head at the absurdity of it.
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Well, Kershaw is the best pitcher in baseball, or at least he was last time I lived on Earth. Anyways, he's ridiculously good, but he either has poor luck in the playoffs or pitches worse then for some reason. Either way, a person would look pretty silly if they looked only at Kershaw's playoff stats before making a decision about what kind of a pitcher he is. You just shouldn't make assumptions from small sample sizes."
"Maybe not, but I think in my case it was safer to err on the side of not irreparably damaging a young child," Mitsuko pointed out.
"Fair enough," Elyse allowed. "I just can't imagine you being anything other than a wonderful mother. I wish my mother was like you. My first mother, I mean. I like Eri."
"I'm flattered," Mitsuko said patting Elyse on the head. "But I'm still not telling you any stories in English. You need the motive to learn Japanese."
"Dang." Elyse snapped her fingers. She hadn't said what she said to suck up to Mitsuko, but she didn't defend herself. Mitsuko already knew Elyse really meant what she said.
Elyse didn't enjoy her Naruto history classes nearly as much as she enjoyed her Japanese classes. The material was much more intriguing, but the teacher had nothing on Mitsuko. Mr. Peterson didn't have any interesting life stories to tell his class, and he absolutely abhorred class participation. The classroom was his time to ramble on as he pleased, and he didn't need any kids, reincarnated or otherwise, to disrupt his teachings.
"Yes, Miss Suzuki?" Mr. Peterson asked reluctantly when Elyse raised her hand. No matter how much he hated interruptions, he always called on her when she raised her hand. Elyse supposed she had to give him credit for that.
"Um, I don't really understand the Hyuga thing. Is the main branch of the Hyuga really practicing slavery under the guise of protecting the secret of the byakugan?"
"Yes, Miss Suzuki. That is exactly what they are doing." Glad that that was over with, Mr. Peterson started to move on with his lecture. Elyse raised her hand again. "Yes, Miss Suzuki?"
"I just don't get how they get away with it. Is slavery completely legal in Konoha? If I moved over there and brought over a slave with me, would that be allowed? Or do the Hyuga get a special exception?"
"Slavery is illegal in Konoha. The Konoha council doesn't recognize the use of the curse seal as slavery." Mr. Peterson could tell this wasn't going to be an easily dropped subject. He wished he was rude enough to ignore a raised hand.
"How do they not recognize it as slavery?" Elyse exploded. "How could it be anything but? If I went around forcing someone to my will through torture on a consistent basis, you'd consider that slavery. That's exactly what the curse seal is."
"Yes, but the branch members are allowed to follow their own pursuits in life so long as they protect the main members when needed. It's not quite the same as slavery the way you're thinking of it."
"So it's more of a conditional slavery," Elyse stated sarcastically.
"Miss Suzuki, I don't approve of the Hyuga curse seal anymore than you do, but it's not something I have control over. That is in the hands of the Hyuga clan and very slightly the Konoha council," Mr. Peterson said in the hopes that was the end of the conversation. Elyse did end the conversation there, but only because she couldn't hold her tongue for much longer. Even if Mr. Peterson could do something about the curse seal, Elyse knew he wouldn't. Doing so fell under the category of messing with canon, the only sin Mr. Peterson spoke against with any conviction.
Another time, Elyse raised her hand during Mr. Peterson's long drawn out description of the Kyuubi's conversion to the light side. "Yes, Miss Suzuki?" Mr. Peterson asked dutifully.
"I'm sorry, but how does every single bad guy end up redeemed? I let it go with Gaara even though it doesn't seem particularly likely that a sociopath with a lust for blood would have such a quick turn around. I let it go with Sasori even though it doesn't seem particularly likely that a sociopath with a lust for blood would have such a quick turn around. Hell, I even let it go with Pein even though it doesn't seem likely that he stopped his long awaited plan to end the world due to the words of some random 16 year old kid. But I just can't allow Naruto getting the nine-tailed beast to help him out. It's preposterous!"
"Thank you for your contribution to the discussion, Miss Suzuki," Mr. Peterson said through gritted teeth. "But I can assure you that this is indeed what happens. Naruto is a very convincing boy."
"So it seems," Elyse said. She felt like banging her head against a desk. "An amazing skill indeed. We should all strive to be so similarly skilled. We could make a killing in negotiations."
After that lesson, one of the boys in her class approached her. "You're reincarnated, right?" he asked shyly.
"Yeah," Elyse answered shortly. She wasn't particularly interested in conversing with a six year old kid.
"So is my mom," he said. The two stared at each other in silence for a while. Just as Elyse decided to get a move on, the boy spoke again. "Did you read the Naruto manga in your previous life? Mom says she didn't."
"No. That's why I'm going to this class. To learn about it now." Did this kid have a point?
"Aw, too bad. Naruto is so cool. I wish I could be like Naruto."
"You mean unimpressive compared to almost every other ninja in the story yet still able to come out on top through sheer determination of will and the free use of the magic - excuse me - chakra of the nine-tailed beast?"
"N-no," the boy stuttered. "I mean protecting his friends and family."
"Oh, that. Yeah, that's good. Tell me, do you love your family and friends?"
The boy nodded vehemently. "Of course!"
"And would you do anything to protect them?" Another nod. "Then, congratulations. You're like Naruto. Well done."
"Wow," the kid said lighting up like foxfire at nighttime. "Thanks, Elyse!"
"Sure," Elyse said after the boy already ran off. "No problem, kid."
Something Elyse noticed about many members of the clan was that a lot of them formed some sort of fandoms for the characters of the Naruto series. A whole section of the clan loved Naruto, another section loved Shikamaru, and so on. Some members of the clan loved everything and everyone mentioned in the Naruto series. Except Sakura. The amount of vitriol these people held for the poor girl was incredible. Elyse couldn't imagine hating anyone not an unapologetic serial killer as much as these people hated Sakura. Elyse decided then and there that if she ever met Sakura, she'd make that girl her best friend. And talk some sense into her about Sasuke because come on, already. If a guy tries to kill you, he's probably not interested, and you really shouldn't be interested in him either. Elyse needed to ruin canon to stop that disastrous relationship from happening if nothing else.
One day, Elyse spotted a rare Sakura fan in the wild. The girl stood her ground against two Sakura haters pointing out all the good she saw in the pink haired ninja.
"She has a good heart," the girl said desperately.
"But she's useless." An older girl drawled out the last word with disdain. "What has she ever done?"
"She beat Sasori-"
"That was mostly Chiyo," a boy interrupted.
"But she learned medical ninjutsu from Tsunade. She must have helped heal an inordinate amount of ninja. We just don't see that kind of stuff in the series because it's not particularly interesting to read about."
"She stayed obsessed with Sasuke even though he treated her horribly and went against pretty much everything she stood for and everyone she cared for," the older girl put in.
"That's… Well, that's completely true," the Sakura fan admitted. "But that's just one glaring fault. I know she didn't take on any S rank ninja on her own or anything, but they can't all have demon chakra or dimension defying eye abilities."
"She didn't take on any ninja S rank or not," the boy said.
"Not in the story," Elyse interrupted stepping into the argument. "She exists outside of the story, you know. I'm sure she had to take on other ninja to reach chunin level, and then had to take on more in missions."
The Sakura fan turned to Elyse with awe in her eyes. "I'm Diane. Who are you?"
"Elyse," Elyse answered as the older girl and boy left muttering about delusion Sakura lovers. "Diane's not a Japanese name. Are you reincarnated as well?"
Diane shook her head rapidly. "No. Mom and dad just wanted to name me Diane." Fair enough.
"Pity. It's hard to meet people around my age that have been reincarnated."
"Can I still be your friend?" Diane asked with wide eyes.
Elyse didn't have the heart to refuse. "Sure, why not?" Friends didn't have to interact with each other, did they?
From that day forward, Diane latched onto Elyse at every possible opportunity. Elyse greatly regretted her decision to agree to a friendship with the girl. The girl was adorable and sweet, but the way she nattered on about the Naruto story grinded at Elyse's nerves. This whole clan had an unhealthy obsession with the thing. Even her parents held an amount of reverence in their voice when speaking of the series.
As Elyse found out at some point, Eri and Haru both had some amount of interest in the Naruto series before getting reincarnated into the world. Eri avidly read the manga in her youth while Haru was a casual anime watcher. "Until Shippuden," he said. "I just couldn't stand all the filler anymore."
Eri nodded beside her husband. "I stopped when Pein came around. The powers the ninja's had just got too ridiculous for my liking."
It was during that time, that Elyse realized every reincarnated person she talked to lived after the first Naruto manga was released. Even Mitsuko, born 47 years prior in this world, knew about Naruto from her old world. Fusajiro Yamauchi, not the founder of the Nintendo company, clearly knew about the series, and he was born into the world more than 100 years ago. None of it made any sense.
On that note, nothing about Fusajiro Yamauchi made much sense. The reincarnated Fusajiro Yamauchi, not the other one. When Mr. Peterson wasn't prattling on about canon events and the importance of that being upkept, he told the history of Fusajiro Yamauchi, the reincarnated one, and the Nintendo clan. "Fusajiro Yamauchi was born outside of the Elemental Nations," Mr. Peterson started and then stopped when the bane of his existence raised her hand. He would refuse to teach anymore reincarnated children. "Yes, Miss Suzuki?"
"The sequel or the original?"
Mr. Peterson furrowed his brows unable to make any sense out of the question. "What?" he asked unintelligently.
"Was it the Fusajiro Yamauchi that founded the Nintendo company or the Fusajiro Yamauchi that founded the Nintendo clan?" Elyse asked with a mischievous smile on her face.
"The Fusajiro Yamauchi that founded the Nintendo clan." Mr. Peterson wiped at his face tiredly. "The founder of Nintendo the company couldn't have been born in the Elemental Nations since he was only born on Earth."
"So that means he was born outside of the Elemental Nations, and you could have been talking about him in your original statement," Elyse pointed out deviously. One day, she'd leave Mr. Peterson to lecture the class in peace.
"Technically, yes, but context matters, as you know well. Now, back to the lesson. Fusajiro Yamauchi, the sequel, was born outside of the Elemental Nations and it took him a while to figure out he lived in the Naruto world. Once he did figure it out, he trekked to the Elemental Nations by himself at the young physical age of 14. What now, Miss Suzuki?"
Elyse frowned. She had a real question this time. Maybe she should stop crying wolf. "How do we know all this if no one knows who Fusajiro was before he founded the Nintendo clan?"
"It's in his memoirs."
"He has memoirs?" Why had Elyse never heard of those?
"Yes. We keep them in restricted section of the clan library."
"We have a restricted section? Can I find Moste Potente Potions in there?"
"No, just deeper details of our clan's history and some secret techniques clan members created," Mr. Peterson said. "And before you ask, no, you cannot go into the restricted section. Not until you make genin."
Mr. Peterson picked his lecture back up. Fusajiro Yamauchi the sequel found out he wasn't the only reincarnated person in the world when he came across a hotel in the outskirts of the Land of Wind. The owner of the hotel, a woman by the name of Naka Osahu, named her hotel The Hilton. That was what drew Fusajiro to the hotel. With the help of Naka, Fusajiro set out to find other reincarnated souls out of a sense of nostalgia for his old life. Under Fusajiro's leadership, Naka and four other reincarnated people they managed to find founded the Nintendo clan with the goal of ensuring canon events happened.
Originally, the Nintendo clan resided in the dumpy village on the outskirts where The Hilton was located. As the clan grew, the village gained prosperity through tourist attractions made by the six members of the clan. One of the men started a Mexican restaurant that gained notoriety when the Daimyo visited the restaurant and sang its praises to his people. Another one of the men in the clan learned how to use earth nature chakra to create beautiful sculptures into the land. He would later be offered a ton of money to sculpt the faces of the Hokages into the mountain in Konoha but have to refuse due to the clan's purported purpose.
As the popularity of the village grew, so did knowledge of the existence of the Nintendo clan. More reincarnated people found their way to the clan which grew to a sizable enough amount that the Kazekage started to take notice. The Kazekage couldn't have a powerful clan growing in some rural village of his land. All powerful ninja belonged in Suna serving the interests of the hidden village. He sent a messenger to the Nintendo clan offering a compound and the protection a hidden village would provide to the clan.
At first, the clan refused the offer realizing that joining one of the prominent villages in the story seemed a little too much like changing canon. Fusajiro argued that joining the village would give the clan more access to information about the going ons in the world allowing the clan to act on any possible threats to canon. Eventually, the Nintendo clan agreed to join Suna so long as they were allowed to keep the triforce symbol rather than adopting the traditional Suna hourglass. They needed to advertise their existence, after all.
Elyse thought the whole thing preposterous. For someone so set on preserving the 'sanctity of canon', Fusajiro sure jumped at the first chance he got to insert himself into canon. How could moving a new clan into one of the main hidden villages not change canon? But so far everything proceeded as expected. Maybe Fusajiro's actions weren't as contradictory as they seemed. Elyse really wanted to get ahold of the guy's memoirs in the restricted section.
"When can I become a genin?" Elyse asked her new parents.
"You have to take classes at the Suna academy in order to become a ninja," Eri informed her. "The leaders of the clan won't allow you to go out on your own in the village until you ace the test on the history of Naruto and the importance of upholding the clan's purpose. Plus, you still have a ways to go with your Japanese."
"I have to go to class with regular people? Why can't I just learn what I need to know here?"
"Because genin is a rank given to us by the Suna leadership. You have to follow the proper steps to achieve that rank and that includes graduating at the academy. Don't worry. Haru and I will help teach you how to manage your chakra in the meantime." Haru nodded along with Eri's words.
"And I'll teach you my own unique jutsu when you graduate. That jutsu got me my jonin rank," Haru said proudly. Elyse perked up in excitement.
"What's the jutsu?"
"I can't tell you yet. Not until you graduate." Elyse didn't understand why she couldn't just be told now, but she nodded anyways. She was just happy Haru was willing to pass on his jutsu to her. Sometimes, she doubted that the two completely thought of her as part of the family.
When Eri announced her pregnancy a few months after Elyse turned three, her doubts multiplied tenfold. Maybe Eri and Haru would be content with their new real baby and wouldn't want to deal with Elyse anymore. She didn't bring up her fears to them for she didn't want to bother them. She tried not to be too much of a nuisance to the couple that more than they bargained for with Elyse's birth.
"Nonsense," Mitsuko said when Elyse brought up her fears to the woman. "Eri and Haru love you. Whether you used to have another life or not, those two cared for you as a baby and watched you grow and learn about your new world. You're still their child even if your mental age is a little closer to theirs than usual children, and as their child, they love you. I still love Ayumi even after everything she did in adulthood. That's the curse of being a parent. Loving your child even if they don't deserve it. And you deserve that love, Elyse, so don't think that your parents could possibly not love you."
"That's a nice sentiment and all, but I can assure you that my first parents did not love me." Elyse knew it to be true. Her mother practically said as much, and her father hadn't talked to her in ten years before she committed suicide.
"And your first parents were horrible people. Eri and Haru are not."
Elyse smiled feeling better but still a little uncertain. Twenty-three years of having uncaring parents gave her misgivings about receiving love from parent figures.
Elyse decided to change the subject. "Hey, do you have the Mangekyou?"
The muscles in Mitsuko's face tensed and she spoke stiffly. "I don't even have the sharingan."
Elyse blinked in confusion. "What about those stories you told me where you used the sharingan?"
"I used to have it. I don't anymore."
Judging by Mitsuko's expression, the story behind that was too personal. Elyse quickly dropped the subject.
Nine months later, Eri had a baby boy, Haru named him Kei. The two new parents and Elyse tried to determine if the baby was also reincarnated but didn't know how to figure that out.
"He doesn't seem particularly intelligent," Elyse said as her brother chewed on the ear of his teddy bear. Two defensive parents turned towards her with offense.
Elyse could have worded that better. "I mean, for a baby, he's quite intelligent," Elyse lied. To her, Kei didn't seem any more intelligent than any other baby. "But he's not adult intelligent."
Eri and Haru nodded now that Elyse corrected the slight against their child. "I guess we have a regular baby on our hands," Haru said reaching into the crib to poke his son's cheek. Elyse started to shrink away. Her parents had a real baby now. Eri reached out placing her hand on Elyse's back.
"Do you want to hold your brother?" she asked kindly. Elyse nodded hesitantly. Haru picked up Kei and placed him carefully in Elyse's arms. As Elyse stared at the drooling, unimpressive baby, she felt lighter than she had in years. This was what family felt like.
When Elyse first started making criticisms about the Naruto series, her friends and family nodded along agreeing that her complaints were valid. Lately, though, she noticed a sort of weariness anytime she poked at what she saw as a hole in the story. "You're nitpicking too much," said Diane, who may not have been reincarnated but was mature beyond her years being only three years older than Elyse. "Stop being so critical of the story. Write your own Naruto if you're so sure you can do better."
"Maybe I will," Elyse mused. "I'll write my own Naruto with blackjack and hookers."
"What?"
"Never mind that," Elyse said hastily. "You're too young for that comment to be appropriate and too not reincarnated to get the reference. Please, forget I said anything."
Diane narrowed her eyes. "You always do that. Just because you're reincarnated doesn't mean you can treat me like a little kid. You're younger than me."
Age was very strange in the Nintendo clan. One could go mad trying to figure out who was younger or older, or whether to treat someone like their physical age or their mental age. Most people settled for a perfect blend of both. Elyse got adult conversations and received the same treatment by clan law as all other adults, but she also got patronizing pats on the head and scolded like a child when she acted rowdy.
Elyse and Diane started going to the Suna ninja academy at the same time. Elyse hated it. She had classes on Japanese reading and writing something Mitsuko already covered for her. She had classes on simple math she already learned a thousand times over in her past life. She had classes on history most of which Mr. Peterson already covered to some degree. The taijutsu classes were the worst. There was nothing like fighting a bunch of children to make a person feel like a cretin. Still, a few of the classes caught her attention.
The class on ninja politics and law carried a lot of valuable information if nothing else. Elyse loved to hear about the strange laws brought about by chakra too. For example, in Suna, one could get arrested for vandalism if they imprinted their chakra signature onto any of the private properties in the city. That didn't even begin to cover the weirdest of the laws. Water jutsu was illegal in Suna because it wasted a scarce and valuable resource in the desert. Restaurants in the village weren't allowed to serve food or drink because the courts received too many cases of poisonings. Instead, people brought their own meals to restaurants, the restaurants just serving as a social setting. Clan compounds were an exception to that rule since poisonings were much less common among clan members.
Another class that vaguely piqued Elyse's interest was her weapons class. She found she had a knack for throwing kunai, something she took pride in since her past life didn't give her any advantage in that.
Chakra control classes made Elyse's every day. Whether she called it chakra or not, it was tantamount to magic in Elyse's mind. What person wouldn't get excited about learning to use magic? Elyse struggled with her chakra, at first, putting her behind the other kids in that particular area. The more she practiced the easier it got.
The other kids in the class all seemed either afraid of Elyse and Diane or overly curious. The Nintendo clan was a huge mystery to outsiders. To everyone else, the clan appeared to take people from their homes and induct them into the clan purely by whim. In reality, those people approached the clan on their own recognizing something from Earth in the clan. Elyse could tell that some of these children heard horror stories about the Nintendo clan from their parents and feared they would be abducted by the Nintendo members of their class.
Only, one boy dared to approach Elyse and Diane. Isamu was a tall boy about Diane's age with blonde hair and brown eyes. "What does the symbol on your clan's headbands mean?" the boy asked as he stood directly in front of Diane and Elyse.
Elyse and Diane exchanged looks due to this unexpected situation. "It's, uh, supposed to represent wisdom, courage, and power," Elyse said digging into her memories of Zelda. "Each triangle stands for one of those." Diane's face twisted into surprise before she schooled herself. She probably thought Elyse made that whole thing up. Diane was savvy enough to know that the symbol represented a game from the other world, yet Elyse doubted she knew much more than that.
"Oh," the boy said looking a little disappointed at the answer. He stared thoughtfully at the ground for a while before looking back up at Elyse. "Do you know where Europe is?" he asked in English with an Irish accent.
"Oh my God," Diane squealed also in English. Elyse put her hand over Diane's mouth.
"Remember protocol," she whispered. Louder, in Japanese, she asked, "Isamu, would you like to come over to our compound after school?"
"Yes, thank you," Isamu responded.
A big fuss was made over Isamu's arrival to the Nintendo compound. The poor guy was bombarded with questions and offers of living arrangements. Luckily for everyone involved, Isamu was an orphan, a fact that made his transition into the Nintendo compound much easier. Had he had parents, the clan would have had to explain themselves to the parents and invite them too.
Isamu lived in Ireland previous to his reincarnation as made obvious by his heavy Irish accent. He died at the age of 31 in a car crash. Isamu loved to talk about his past life, but no one liked to hear it. His stories were the most boring stories in existence. Not only did his life consist of absolutely nothing interesting, he also failed to tell his stories with any kind of talent. His tone, bland and expressionless, made his already boring stories the dread of the village. Elyse swore he could even make Mitsuko's adventures sound like tales about watching paint dry.
When he wasn't trying to force his stories into the brains of his companions, Isamu was a joy to be around. He told excellent jokes which kind of contradicted his failed attempts at spinning yarn. How could one master language in joke telling while also failing completely at the aspect of storytelling? Elyse was impressed. Isamu also made a lot of games. He had a knack for inventing board games that were both challenging and fun. Elyse decided Isamu was allowed to hang around her and Diane.
The looks the other kids in class gave the three of them after Isamu joined the clan increased in fear and suspicion. Elyse wanted to push Isamu towards them and yell, "Look! He's fine! Stop freaking out over nothing!" She said nothing. What some random kids thought didn't matter.