theomachy:
war among, or against, the gods
Haruno Ren is a quiet child. Something that worries his parents despite his best attempts to assure them that he is fine. That he likes the quiet and peace books bring him.
His parents say that he needs to get out more. Ren says that's what he has Ino for.
After all, the blonde haired girl has the habit of dragging Ren out whenever she has the chance.
Ren thinks it's something that the original Sakura might have enjoyed. Ren thinks that are many things about his relationship with Ino that the original Sakura would have enjoyed.
Ren isn't Sakura though. Or at least, he isn't the original version of her. He has no intentions of becoming like her, no matter her how much he had liked her character progression.
Sometimes he wonders though, wonders if he owes it to Sasuke and Naruto and Tsunade and Ino, to try and become what Sakura had been. Then he laughs.
He owes nothing to no one. Owing somebody something just wound up biting you in the ass later.
Death had taught him that.
Ren had been studying literature at his local university when he had died.
Personally, he blames his friend Jackson. The bastard had suggested they go partying on a weekday and though Ren had protested at first but eventually Jackson's enthusiasm had worn him down.
He had gone to the party, had a few drinks, and then Jackson, rough and rowdy as he had always been, had gotten into a fight.
Ren, loyal and stupid and drunk, had decided to try and help his friend. Jackson had always had his back after all, why shouldn't he help Jackson?
Expect the person Jackson had been fighting had to pull out a gun, and Ren just had to jump in front of Jackson because Jackson had saved his life before, it was Ren's turn to save his.
Ren would have been happy had his life story ended there. He had satisfied his debt to Jackson and gone out in a mildly heroic way.
Instead he woke up to the blaring of an alarm clock and pastel blue walls. Not dead, but sleeping.
Moving he would out that his limbs had shrunk, that he was now the size of a small five year old. Rushing to the bathroom he would find that not only had he shrunk but his appearance had now changed completely.
Gone were the brown eyes and hair he had and in their place were green eyes and hair that was a shocking shade of pink. His skin had a healthy tan to it and
His hair had been cropped close to his head, letting his larger than average forehead and showing off vivid green eyes.
Ren had wanted to scream then. Yell at the world for its unfairness. He should be dead. Not stuck in body not even half his age.
Instead he had taken a deep breath, closed his eyes, and went through what he had assumed was his normal routine. Brush his teeth, get dressed in a red t-shirt and beige shorts, throw on some odd looking sandals and go downstairs.
Routine was good, routine was ingrained in muscle memory and didn't require Ren to think.
Routine was good.
Sadly, said routine was broken when he spotted the two people in the kitchen. Logically, he knew he shouldn't be thinking of them as his parents. He had never seen the two in front of him before in his life. His parents, the ones who had gave birth to him and raised him for twenty years had both had black hair and brown eyes, traits they had passed onto to Ren. Expect now his hair was pink and his eyes were green and the only thing that remained consistent was his tanned skin.
The people in front of him looked nothing like his parents. But there was a voice in the back of his head, telling him, without a doubt, that he was related to the two adults in the kitchen.
Mother, the voice whispered, Father.
The woman humming by the stove had dirty blonde hair, and as she turned from her cooking to smile at Ren, Ren discovered that she had dark green eyes.
She wasn't gorgeous per say, but she was striking.
And she was his mother.
Ren felt like throwing up. Instead he smiled at the woman, he refused to call her mother, and took a seat across from the other male in the room.
The man was tall, with dull pink hair and blue eyes he was nowhere near just as striking as his wife. He was obviously strong, built like a bodybuilder and as he reached out to grab his cup of coffee Ren could see the way his muscles moved underneath the thin material of his shirt.
His father was either a professional bodybuilder or in the military and Ren didn't care to find out which it was.
But then the man smiled at him, sweet and soft and the smile seemed to light up his whole face and Ren melted. He hadn't been smiled at that way since his mother had died and his father turned all his attention toward work.
Ren decided then and there that he wanted to see that smile more often.
"Are you alright, little lily?" The man, his father, asked. Ren, giving his father a smile he hoped didn't look as awkward as it felt on his face, nodded.
"I'm fine." He chirped in reply, only to get a disapproving hum from the woman as she set a plate of pancakes down in front of him.
"Don't lie to us," The woman warned, ruffling his hair, "I'll let it pass this time considering you're starting the Academy today but you should know better than to lie to your parents."
His father nodded.
"Your mother is right," He said, chuckling, "Though, I don't find it hard to believe that you're feeling a little off. In fact, I remember my own first day at the Academy! I almost didn't go because I was so nervous."
"But he still went," The woman continued, "And you're going to go as well. I expect great things from you Ren. You're the one that wanted this after all."
Ren, was an interesting name he thought, it would explain why his father called him little lily. But if he found out he was named after his hair he was going to hurt someone.
Possibly his new parents.
"Alright," Ren said in an effort to appease them, "I'll do my best."
Ren freezes when he sees the Academy rising in the distance.
He had been a fan of an anime once, an anime where children were raised to be soldiers and people could breathe fire. He had been a fan of an anime with demon foxes and a boy who could see the light in anyone.
He had been a fan of a piece of fiction. That did not mean he wanted that piece of fiction to become real.
Vaguely realizing he had stopped Ren forces his legs forward to catch up with his parents. Mind still reeling from the realization that a piece of fiction was now his apparent reality he walks into his fathers' back when the man suddenly stops.
"Whoa there little lily-" His father says, and Ren has got to get the man to stop calling him that, "-excited are we?"
"No," Ren says bluntly, causing his father to laugh. Of course, the man doesn't know that Ren is entirely serious and already thinking of ways to avoid becoming a shinobi.
But then, a frown crosses Ren's face as he realizes that he might have to become a shinobi if he wants to live.
That's the question though isn't it? Does Ren want to live in a world he knows is going to go to hell? Does he want to deal with the fact he could use the knowledge he has to change events?
The answer is an overwhelming 'no'. He doesn't want to change events, he doesn't want to think about changing events. Things had gone fine in canon, even if it was after a war that cost many people their lives. He doesn't want to change events, or live in a world that is going to go to hell.
But he does want to live. The only to ensure survival in this world though is by being strong.
Ren doesn't want to become a shinobi, doesn't want to have to kill people.
He squares his shoulders and walks through the Academy doors anyway.
It's when their teacher, Iruka, a man Ren knows is kind, is calling out their names that Ren discovers that his last name is Haruno.
Coincidentally, there are no other Haruno's in the class.
Ren tries very hard not to think about the fact that he is the sole Haruno very hard.
It doesn't work out too well.
Alright, Ren thinks at lunch, hidden away from the other kids by bushes and trees, Alright, so I'm a Haruno, possibly the replacement of for Sakura and dead, or in a coma and dying.
I can deal with this.
Ren does not deal with it. Instead he throws out what remains of his lunch and goes to find a practice dummy to vent his anxiety on. He had taken boxing in what he's coming to realize was likely an entirely different life so he knows how to punch.
He finds a straw dummies a good distance away from the other kids and gets into stance.
The first punch hurts his knuckles, he hadn't thought to wrap them with anything, even if he had it would have been useless. He hadn't brought anything to wrap his knuckles with.
It doesn't matter. The first punch hurts and Ren keeps going, venting his rage at whatever god had landed him in his fucking place, Jackson, the man that had shot him and whoever else came to mind.
Ren is angry, and by the time the bell rang, signalling to the kids that they should head inside most of the other kids in his class and the class the year above him knew it too.
For the rest of the year, Ren remains a simmering ball of rage. Pounding away at training dummies whenever he has the chance.
It's Ino that outs a stop to that.
"You really should stop being so angry," She says, flipping her hair over her shoulder and staring at Ren with her hands on her hips, "Someone with such pretty hair doesn't deserve to get wrinkles so early."
Ren blinks, pausing mid-punch and stares at the girl who's name he doesn't yet know.
She has a point, he thinks distantly, Anger will do nothing for my complexion.
There is silence for a moment and the world schoolyard seems to be holding it's breath. Ren had been given the reputation of being unapproachable over the course of the first school year.
It seems that reputation carried over into year two.
Letting his muscles relax, Ren slowly undoes the bandages wrapped around his knuckles before shoving them into a pocket.
"Alright," He says after a moment, rage has done nothing for him so far, he needs to work on something else, "You're right."
Ino looks shocked for a moment but that look quickly disappears and is replaced with smug knowing.
"Of course I am," She says, a haughty smirk on her face, "You don't want wrinkles this young do you?"
"No," Ren says, "I don't," A pause then, "Would you like to eat lunch together?"
Ino brightens then, clapping her hands together she doesn't give Ren a response as she drags him off.
Ren laughs, the sound startling himself and the rest of the children that were watching.
Ino remained the only friend he had made during the Academy. He listened to her fawn over Sasuke, listened to her moan about how annoying it was when other girls got in the way of her getting to Sasuke and Ren listened to a variety of other complaints he never thought he would hear.
He hadn't exactly been a ladies man in his last life. He simply felt no attraction to them. Ino, all knowing as she seemed sometimes seem to know this and teased him about his supposed crushes sometimes.
Ren let her have her amusement, deciding not to crush her dreams and let her know that no, not once in the years he had been at the Academy had he had a crush on any one of their male classmates. They were children for god's sake.
But they've both graduated now, Ren ties his forehead protector around his neck and waves to Ino as she leaves for her house. They are shinobi now, technically adults, and Ren tries very hard not to think about where life will take them.
Ren ignores the boy with blonde hair on the swing he passes by to go meet his parents.
So! A new story! I really shouldn't add more to my plate with how school has been cracking down but I couldn't help myself. This idea has been bothering me for ages so I've finally decided to sit down and write it. It didn't come out as well as I hoped and I am possibly going to edit it later but it's here and ready to be posted so yolo.