Ch 1 Old Student, New School.
"Are you nervous, dear? about your first day at a brand new school?" Asked my mother (Third Edition) as she nervously fiddled with the collar of my uniform.
"Not really." I drawled in lazy amusement that brought a pang of longing for my once twin. It was just school. I had done this whole thing a couple times before, not that I would tell her that. I took a cursory glance at the mirror. Taking in the features, that just weren't quite the same as Shikako, but were eerily similar, with just enough of my current parents to confirm that I was not in some strange genjustu.
There were no Jutsu in this world, not enough chakra. That didn't stop me from learning 'Martial Arts' and training though. My parents were supportive of my 'hobbies' and kept encouraging me to go to tournaments and the like, if just to meet other children who spent their free time doing stretches and Kata's instead of...whatever normal children do for fun... But, while I sometimes felt like I would kill for a decent sparring partner, my own natural shyness and a prior lifetime of ninja paranoia made me avoid exhibitions like the plague.
"I'm fussing too much aren't I? Its just, I have such a good feeling about this school, and this town! I feel like Everything is just perfect for you. Its a combined middle and high school, that places each student individually, they even have college classes! Complete Academic freedom while still going to school with children your age. And, like, a dozen, different kinds of Martial Arts Classes! You can actually be expected to bring a sword to school! Then we discovered such a fantastic job opportunity for your father in the local town. It seems like everything is going so well, I just want you to be happy."
"I'm always happy, mom." I said with fond exasperation. "And you always fuss too much."
My parents seemed determined to worry constantly about my lack of close friends, and whether or not school was challenging enough. I had figured the third time around was going to be pretty tedious no matter what, and with no urgent threat looming on the horizon, was content to nap and daydream through grade school. I still completed my work properly though. The teachers however, managed to catch on in second grade, and then came the fussing... There was much talking about moving me up several grades, or private tutoring, and much angsting about how that might negatively effect my social development.
I thought my social development was fine, I had people I talked to at school. That weren't teachers. Sometimes.
The trip to my new school was occupied by scenery and nostalgia. the Forests surrounding my new home and school were almost large and thick enough that I wanted to get out of the car and try jumping from branch to branch, it would be reckless and stupid to try it without chakra though. Chakra enhanced coordination and strength, and durability, in case of a fall. Even the trees would be less durable due to the lack of natural energy passively enhancing them. I doubted anyone would be stupid enough to try it.
At least that's what I thought. Until I arrived at my new school only to hear a branch breaking, before a boy crashed down on top of me. I dodged the branch and broke my fall correctly, so It only hurt a lot. I took a moment to be thankful that I hadn't had the wind knocked out of me only to see a startlingly familiar pair of blue eyes that made me forget how to breathe.
"Hey...PersonIdon'tknow! I thought I knew everyone around here, I'm Tyler! but you can call me Ty...Are you alright?!"
Tyler, not Naruto, that would be silly and impossible, gingerly pulled himself up without stepping or leaning on me, which I appreciated.
I stared dumbly at the hand he held out to me for a moment, trying to process the sudden shocking recognition, followed by crushing irrational disappointment.
I reached out my hand to his, because it was Nar..no it wasn't, but I took his hand anyway, and he helped me to my feet.
"Demetria." I said looking awkwardly at the ground.
"Huh?"
"My name." I explained, I was blushing in embarrassment, and he was still holding my hand.
"Oh." there was a moment of silence "What was it again?"
"Demetria." I repeated.
Another beat of silence followed.
"Weird name."
I blushed harder.
"Its Greek."
"Well, it certainly is, to me." he joked. I looked up, startled to see the desperately familiar, mischievious grin on his face. Then he looked thoughtful. "Hey! Are you sure we don't know each other? You seem really familiar." I just stared at him for a moment before answering.
"No."
He waited a moment, for me to elaborate perhaps, before finally letting go of my hand and scratching the back of his head.
"Well, Demetria, I'll see you around I guess. Thanks for breaking my fall!"
I took a moment to resettle myself after that encounter. You never got over losing everything, losing everyone. Thinking for just one second that you might have found it again was...
I took several slow deep breaths before heading to the office. Moving forward. Only for the Deja Vu to hit me all over again. There was a blonde girl, around my age, in ridiculously fashionable clothing with a high pony tail, and a fresh flower pinned to her hair, chewing out a teenage boy who seemed to be manning the desk. He, thankfully for my sanity seemed unfamiliar.
"Ino." I said thickly, before I managed to get ahold of myself.
"What!?" she snapped around to face me ending her tirade mid sentence.
I stared at her gaping stupidly. My heart was fluttering madly, in time to the gibbering nonsense bouncing around my brain. Had she really reacted to that name? Or was it just the realization that someone was standing behind her. She studied me for a minute with ordinary round pupiled eyes, that were nonetheless the same piercing aqua I remembered, Before gracing me with a dazzling smile.
"I'm sorry for snapping at you. Someone messed up my class schedule and that idiot at the desk was being singularly unhelpful." She rolled her eyes, and stepped forward offering me her hand. "I don't recognize you, so you must be new. My name is Darlene. Darlene Rose. I answer to Darlene, or Rose." She tilted her head thoughtfully "Or ...Ino apparently" she added in a bemused voice.
I stared at her hand for a moment, then reached out my hand to hers, because it was Ino. I no longer had it in me to believe that it wasn't.
"Um, my name is Demetria Jones. And I am supposed to see Mr. Richmond for my placement evaluations?" I said gracelessly waving a piece of paper that said just that, and glancing somewhat pleadingly towards the person sitting at the desk.
Ino, or Not Ino, plucked the paper from my hands "Don't bother asking him, Mr. Richmond doesn't allow idiots in his office as a general rule, so he probably has no idea where it is. Follow me." She said as strolled down the hallway with my admissions note. with me reluctantly trailing after.
"So your a science nerd, huh, whats your Subject?" She asked when I had caught up.
"What makes you say that?" I asked warily still feeling a little unbalanced.
She waved the paper casually at me, and I briefly considered snatching it away and running for it.
"Mr. Richmond doesn't do placement eval's... He does most of the advanced science classes, and usually refuses to bother with anything else. If he's doing your placement eval. it means you have caught his interest. Two things interest Mr. Richmond; science experiments, and promising scientists, and he is not allowed, to use the students as science experiments." She concluded smirking at me.
I groaned aloud. "I did a science fair project on the kinetic energy released for various chemical combination explosive reactions. It wasn't even that good, I made something of a glaring oversight on my mathematical calculations. But it got a bit out of hand, There were prizes and newspaper articles, and they wanted me to do presentations. It was horrible. And then there was that stupid nickname." I stopped myself. Why on earth would I mention that to Ino? Did I learn nothing from a lifetime with the moniker Shikabane-hime?
"Nickname?" Konoha's former queen of gossip queried with a raised brow and a predatory glitter in her eyes. I groaned again.
Then I spotted my, very temporary, salvation, in the form of a door labeled "Richmond".
"Oh look! were here!" I squeaked, Grabbing my paper and rushing inside with little dignity or decorum. Only to freeze in wide eyed horror for an endless half second. Then adrenaline pounded through me with my very next heartbeat. And my weight shifted in a subtle manner that wasn't any kind of formal fighting stance, but nonetheless promised violence and death to those familiar with such things.
Other than the slightest narrowing of his cool analytical gaze, he carefully did not respond to my implied threat, and in a languid, deliberately nonthreatening manner he leaned back in his office chair. He looked so normal, with light brown eyes, instead of reptilian gold, and his dark hair in a modern contemporary short haircut, fair skin, instead of grayish pallor, and a formal collared shirt with the top button undone. We spent a single suffocating eternity that could not have lasted more than a few seconds just watching each other. Until an arm draped itself casually over my shoulder.
"So I know Mr. Richmond comes off as a creepy jerk, but once you get to know him, you'll realize that deep down, he really is a creepy jerk."
"But!" she continued cheerfully "If he ever tried anything, Mrs. Jenkins would punch him through a wall, and Jake would drive him insane! So, thanks to his well developed sense of self preservation, he's perfectly trustworthy."
"Ino!" I protested, not knowing if I was more appalled that she had just insulted a teacher, or that she had just insulted Orochimaru, to his face. Then I felt Not Gold eyes cut into me sharply, and remembered that her name wasn't Ino, it was...
Well, I couldn't remember over the buzzing of Adrenalin, and the pounding of my heartbeat in my ears.
After a moment when the shattered tension had settled Orochimaru gave a put upon sigh and said with dry amusement "Miss Rose,"
"As grateful as I am to you for showing our newest student to my office, and your... glowing character reference, I believe placement interviews are confidential." He glanced pointedly at the door, which was still slightly ajar. Ino spared me a quick concerned glance before turning to leave. As she reached the handle of the door she half turned, placed her hand on her hip and sing songed over her shoulder.
"Fine, I'll go. But if you don't behave yourself, Jack will hear about the incident with the lab mice this summer." I was still standing at an angle where I could see the sly grin on her face as she slipped out of the room and closed the door to the sound of Orochimaru practically stuttering.
"Wha...How did she...nevermind." he concluded with yet another put upon sigh, I got the feeling those were habitual around...Darlene.
I was really glad I wasn't the only one having one of those days.
Except now I was alone in an office with a teacher who resembled someone from my past life, who possibly was someone from my past life, far too much for anything resembling comfort. I met his evaluating gaze warily, no longer a hair trigger from violence but far from relaxed.
"Shikako Nara." I flinched at the sound of that name, spoken in that voice and that tone, and suppressed a shudder. He continued. "You actually remember don't you? Not just ingrained responses and phantom memories, how interesting."
I was able to infer a great deal from that statement. That the people that so resembled my old friends, probably were in fact, my old friends, with no actual memory of their prior life. That I was in fact speaking to Orochimaru, and that he did in fact remember his prior life. That he knew that I remembered too. That he knew that I knew, that he knows, I remember.
I forced myself to stop that train of thought before insanity became an issue, and called upon lifetimes of self discipline to set aside the overwhelming emotional turmoil that I was currently unable to process. Thankfully, while I was a bit rusty, I had a great deal of experience adapting to insane occurrences.
"Orochimaru." I responded simply. Confirmation, acknowledgement, and acceptance in a single word. "The others, they don't remember, but you mentioned phantom memories? and why are they all here?" Horrible as Orochimaru could be, you could trust him to be curious, to try and figure things out, and he had obviously been aware of this situation longer than I had.
He gave me a knowing half smile. "I theorize, that while physical memories are not usually retained after rebirth, the spiritual energy retains certain patterns, that carry over into the next life. And I suspect that the addition of chakra, either due to the catalytic reaction to the spiritual energy, or the constant deliberate merging of physical and spiritual energy, or both, reinforces those patterns. Causing former shinobi, to have much stronger spiritual resonance to their prior selves."
"As to how so many came to be here, that is in part simply due to people being drawn to familiar people, places and activities over time. And in part due to the fact that I, and a few others have been deliberately seeking them out and drawing them here, for the last ten years or so. The internet is so very useful."
"You arranged my dad's new job." I accused suspiciously.
"Hardly a nefarious crime." He dismissed. "You will probably find the fact that I am disinclined to make the same mistakes twice, a bit more reassuring than the fact that its been a very long time since we were enemies, and I have changed a great deal. Although both are true." The remote seriousness his voice was familiar from my previous life. We are not friends, but our mission objectives, do not require us to be enemies.
"And for some reason Tsunade, and Jiraya's new incarnations seem to be convinced that if they ever let me do any kind of research or project without them looking over my shoulder, something horrible will happen. They haven't left me to my own devices since we were children."
The last comment was added with a huff of exasperated fondness, followed by childish petulance that was so out of sync with my memories of Orochimaru that I could almost feel my brain try to skip gears. Thankfully, before I was forced to try to wrap my brain around the concept of a warm sentimental Orochimaru, his eyes returned to regard me with a familiar, if less intense, predatory amusement.
"I have compiled a great deal of analysis and research on the subject of reincarnation, and alternate worlds, in addition to specific individual observations of former Shinobi. Not something I could share with most of my colleagues. But you might be interested."
It sounded like bait for a trap. My fingers twitched with the desire to get my hands on that information. It was very, very good bait. His smile broadened
"That is, of course, if your classwork meets my expectations."
What? My. What.
"Classwork?" I said incredulously
"Of course, I am a teacher now, in case you forgot. As a teacher I find that I hate to see wasted potential." He replied seriously, but a suspicious twitch at one corner of his mouth informed me that he knew exactly how ridiculous this was.
I blinked. a bit surprised that I actually had no problem with his terms, except...
"I really don't like standing out."
He shrugged,
"I can keep your actual coursework to myself, and I fully intend to evaluate your work based on my own estimation of your abilities, your grades shouldn't raise any eyebrows. And you can do as well or badly as you like in classes other than my own, I don't really care."
"Okay." I could deal with this. I started to go over the morning in my head cataloging everything I knew, everything I wanted to know.
"Do you think its possible if an echo of the memory is still there, that the actual memories could be restored with the right trigger or catalyst?" I asked thoughtfully. The following silence was very, very quiet.
Orochimaru, or Mr Richmond, was very deliberately not looking in her direction, instead he was pensively staring at a wall to her left. He finally broke the heavy silence with a single quiet statement.
"I don't want them to remember."
"Oh." I said reflexively. Slowly coming to the realization that people from their past life getting their memories back would mean very different things to him.
"Oh" I repeated, struck by the sudden awareness that the answer to my question was 'yes'
Suddenly inscrutable, Mr. Richmond opened the right hand drawer of his desk took out a thick stack of paperwork, and dropped it onto his desk with a thud.
"Now I believe we have Class Placements Evaluations to conduct."