If your reading this, well I'm surprised. *Scratches side of nose while staring curiously*
"My mother told me something long ago. She said 'The world belongs to you just as much as you belong to the world'. For you were born and that gives you the right to exist.' -Lacus Clyne (Mobile Suit Gundam seed).
Menma Uzumaki that what I'm called here, once upon a time I had been called something different, I had been someone different.
That's in the past now I suppose, and I had never been one to brood when it was related to the past so no reason to do it now. You see, I don't belong here, but if you asked one of the villagers they would nod and say yes they were very familiar with the name, in fact they often saw the child running around with his brother creating mayhem.
...well truthfully they would glare and say they want nothing to do with the demon child before rushing away. Either way though, people here know me as Menma Uzumaki.
I was born three minutes after my twin brother Naruto on October tenth, and within three hours I saw the man and woman who would have been my parents die. Obviously it didn't take me long to connect the dots, actually it took me about one day to be precise, for me to realize what was happening. To be fair though, it was utter chaos as soon as I was born so it wasn't like I had a lot of time to sit down and think.
I had been reborn into the Naruto-universe.
As impossible and crazy as it seems, it was true, or maybe not. For all I knew I was in a coma and this was some weird dream created by a mixture of my imagination and the drugs the doctors had given me. Reality or not, I wasn't very eager to just lay down and die.
I hesitate on calling this reincarnation, from what I had heard you didn't get reincarnated into a human right away, there was a whole cycle you went through before you had that privilege. I didn't know why I hadn't been reborn as a bug, but I wouldn't be complaining to anyone about the fact that was for certain. What I wasn't too positive about was if being reborn here was a good or bad thing. Children were raised from when they could walk, and possibly even before, by their parents to be assassins and expected to kill people without showing any sign of emotion.
On the other hand though, my brother was the most loyal, kindhearted person I had met so it wasn't all too terrible.
Funny how things tend to even themselves out sometimes.
When children are born, people usually celebrate, but my brother and I's birth set a course for our parents death and the destruction of Konoha. I guess sometimes you aren't always so lucky.
At birth a babies eyesight is undeveloped and blurry, I could barely make sense of the world around me. I wouldn't call it blindness, it was more like I was looking through a window covered in rain and could only make out blurred shapes of the people around me.
It scared and terrified me beyond belief, I had no idea what was happening and while I could hear, the words were a jumbled mess that I couldn't understand. Had I been kidnapped and drugged? Did I have brain damage? The thought that I had no way to communicate or see what was happening made me even more scared.
But even then those possible situations didn't explain everything, I was picked up carried forward like I weighed nothing. I had always been tall for my age, and with height came the dreaded weight that would have slowed whoever was doing the carrying down if not by a little bit. Nothing made sense and I did the only thing I could, I wailed and cried.
An odd response for an adult, that was for certain. In my defense I was ruled by the fact that my body couldn't do much but scream, and even if I had tried to talk I wasn't advanced enough to make any sort of words that would have made any sense. So I was left with screaming.
It's difficult to try and properly explain how helpless and terrified I felt at that moment. I had never not been in control of my body, and the fact that some person could easily ignore my struggles as if I were a fly buzzing around them made my imagination go wild. Not that it was a good idea to start thinking about the possibility that they could be some sort of supernatural being since I was already freaking out, but hey, I was running out of ideas.
I wish I could tell you I remember everything that happened, I wish I could have remembered how brave and selfless my father had been and how strong and awe-inspiring my mother had been. But with my vision being the way it was, and my brain set in a mode of panic everything was more of a blur.
I can recall the absolutely terrifying moment when the Kyuubi had been ripped from Kushina's stomach, at the location where my brother and I had been laid the pure hatred that had suddenly fallen over the forest made my blood freeze within my veins. I don't use the word hate very often, but the looming sensation that made my gut twist, hate was the only word I could use to describe the feeling. The ground shook violently making the house tremble and Naruto wail in fear as an ear shattering roar echoed through the night.
I'm not embarrassed to admit that this night was what triggered most of my nightmares throughout my childhood.
Unlike before I couldn't find it in myself to cry like Naruto was, it felt as if everything inside of me had frozen and all I could do was lay there and tremble. I don't use the word evil carelessly, but that was the only way I could explain how Kurama's chakra felt as it settled down like a thick smoke threatening to suffocate me.
After that though, the distinct sound of a woman murmuring gently and the warmth of her arms as she wrapped them around us was one of the last memories I had of Kushina before she and Minato had died.
About an hour or so later we were transported away from the house and into the forest, and that's where my memory gets very choppy. I can recall the absolutely huge from of Kurama looming over us, wrapped in glowing lines that crisscrossed over his body which I now know was Kushina's chains. By then I had come to a hesitant conclusion, I had heard enough Minato's, Kushina's and Naruto's to make me realize how deep in shit I was currently in.
This is where my memory is the worst, but only because of the pure agony I had been put through. Faster then he had in canon Minato set up the Cerimonial Throne and placed us on it, his voice gentle as he set Naruto and I down on something soft. I had been confused and slightly worried about the fact that we had both been set on the throne, the lingering hope that perhaps they just didn't want to leave me behind hovered uncertainly in my mind, but somewhere inside I knew the truth.
Once before Minato was my favorite character, the way he had sacrificed himself for the village had made me look up to him as a hero, I couldn't say I felt the same a few minutes later. If I hadn't been there Minato would have sealed the dark half of Kurama inside himself, I still to this day don't know what went through his mind when he decided to put it inside of me but I would never look up to him the way I had before because of it.
I can't properly explain how much pain I had been put through that day, how does one explain having their veins set on fire as a beast was sealed inside of them? It was like stabbing a hot piece of metal into an open wound, except it was multiple pieces of metal and the wounds covered every inch of my body. My mind blanked out for a second as the pain reached such heights that I couldn't even scream, molten lava raced through my body threatening to burn me from the inside out.
I had never felt pain like that before.
There were murmurs, a roar and the sickening sound of a sharp object passing through flesh. Kushina's voice gently spoke to us moments later as a claw as large as a semi-truck hovered just inches over where we were laying. Even if I understood what she said, I wouldn't have been able to make my mind work properly and remember her words as the fire continued to race through my body.
The last thing I heard was Naruto suddenly wailing as the other half of Kurama was sealed inside of him before I finally fell unconscious.
When I woke up next a day later, it was to a dark room with a small baby beside me. I could just barley make out the bright blond of his hair and I couldn't help but stare. I could deny it as much as I wanted, but with the indisputable proof that I had just witnessed I reluctantly came to an understanding that I had indeed somehow ended up in the Naruto-verse.
I didn't know what to think at first, because something like that was impossible. But even if I was dreaming, the pain and agony I had felt was enough for me to realize in this dream-thing I could get hurt and possibly die. I refused to die, I wouldn't sit back and allow someone to cut my throat. I would fight tooth and nail to see this dream-thing through.
There was also the fact that I had been born as Naruto's twin brother, a fact that was so obviously wrong it wasn't even funny. I couldn't even keep back to the sidelines if I wanted, being Naruto's brother not only meant he would't grow up alone but it also changed so many things. Naruto had related to Sasuke's pain of loosing his family and loneliness because Naruto had no family, but now that I was here what did that mean for his and Sasuke's friendship?
Talk about out of the pot and into the fire. My existence had already messed things up, figures I'd have that sort of luck.
...
AN: After days of mulling this over I have finally succumbed to the Self-insert's sirens call. I still am wary about writing one, but I suppose it's up so nothing I can do about it now. I've never been a big fan of first person, yet alas here I am writing a story in first person. Let's hope this doesn't totally explode in my face.