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Perfect Timing

Summary: A highly utilitarian girl from our world gets thrust into the midst of the Third Shinobi World War. All she wants to do now is avoid changing the original story.

It's not as easy as it sounds. OC/Reincarnation.

Chapter 1: The Enemy You Know

In which knowing the ending of Naruto only seems to make things worse for our reincarnated protagonist.

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"Shit," was all Reina could say when suddenly faced with memories of a life she was really, definitely, way too young to have lived.

In her new body, the one that was already residing in the Naruto universe, she had already been an orphan for as long as she could remember―it'd been five years since she'd first been dropped off at the gates as a baby by a man of unknown village ties.

The man carrying her had been covered in blood, tiny rivulets dripping down his face by the time he'd hastily handed her bundle off to the nearest Chunin at the gate. The second she'd left his fingers, the seal on his body exploded, and Reina was immediately brought to the nearest hospital to be examined for injuries.

After being proclaimed a completely normal, if not awfully small child, she was unceremoniously plopped into the nearest available crib at the village orphanage, and that was that. She'd never lived anywhere else since then, the orphanage matron kindly allowing her to stay even after she'd entered the Academy a few weeks ago.

Oh yes, she'd entered the school for trained assassins at age five. That was allowed, because guess what? They were also still in the midst of the Third Shinobi World War. Fuck.

It was a few moments after fainting at her worn little birchwood desk that she'd awoken to memories of an entire 21 years of her previous life; a life in a world where everything around her was part of a popular anime series. A series that wasn't real. Wasn't her problem. Until now.

In her previous life she had been a university student with a mind for numbers and a safe, loving family; as well as a dog she now dearly missed. She's not sure how she died so young in that world, but it probably wouldn't be nearly as graphic as the one she'd experience in this one if she wasn't careful. Did she mention she's five now?

Back in her old life, her interest in the Naruto series had been limited―she'd watched what she could of it in her downtime during college, which wasn't a lot, though she did make it to the end right before her death. She generally knew what would happen in the series, but not many of the little details, and the haze of competing memories of her life already lived here wasn't helping. Plus, she'd kind of preferred One Piece.

The current incarnation of Reina seemed to differ. Now that she had little Reina's memories from this life, it was clear she'd wanted to be a ninja too, having already enrolled herself into the Academy despite being a clanless, orphaned little nobody. Well, maybe she'd get lucky and die quickly and painlessly fighting the war. And then she'd be reincarnated into the world of Pirate Kings instead.

But obviously, if she had that level of control in the matter, she wouldn't be here in the first place.

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It seemed the war propaganda had been especially strong when this Reina was growing up; her current incarnation had fallen for it and fallen hard.

As Reina searched around her room for more clues to the new world around her, she'd stopped to stare at the alarming number of shinobi posters and toy kunai little Reina had in her shared room.

Little 'before-reincarnation' Reina here had big ol' dreams of fighting for her village, the desire to help defend them from their enemies, and in turn, make a name for herself as a hero; just like the fliers and pamphlets the older shinobi handed out promised she could.

But little Reina hadn't known what her older, past self did, a fact she couldn't help but groan at. That this path was far more dangerous than anyone her age could ever fathom. The Kyuubi attack hadn't even happened yet. They were still in the midst of the Third Shinobi War.

Previous Reina hadn't even really known war.

That was one of the things that struck her the most; she was pretty much at the beginning of the series, no, even before then―there was the war, plus Minato, from what she had garnered upon seeing the Hokage Monument in passing, hadn't even been elected Hokage yet.

And she had never been involved enough with the story to be familiar with the exact timeline, so that was a distinct disadvantage.

So what if Naruto isn't born yet? She tried to reassure herself. Who cared if she didn't know when he would be? As long she could make it out alive until then, her knowledge of what was to come after could be a huge advantage for her survival.

Though then came the next problem; she didn't really know if she was supposed to be in this world or not. There'd been no mention of reincarnated girls in the main series, or the ability of anyone to reincarnate, at least not that she knew of. It seemed like a weird thing to gloss over.

If she wanted the series to stay the same as the one she once knew, she'd have to do as much as possible not to change anything, then. Previous Reina was a good student that paid attention in the class that covered Schrödinger's cat. She knew the implication of alternate universes and branching off, and she didn't want to ruin the (mostly) happy ending she knew, born of strife as it were, because at least in that one the heroes still prevailed.

The enemy you know is better than the enemy you don't.

Reina decided she won't do anything to take away from that final future, tempting as it might become, and went on with her life as well as she could.

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After searching around Konoha, she'd managed to glean she was, at minimum, five years older than the main cast. The math wasn't really, you know, exact, but it was the best she could do seeing as none of them had been born yet.

Reina had first seen Mikoto with her arms full of toddler Itachi in the streets one day, after he caught her attention with the most grating, high-pitched whine she had ever heard. She turned at the sound to see his mother handing him a piece of a sweet bun from a nearby stand, effectively shutting him up as he gnawed hard on the soft dough.

Reina stared right at that fat-faced future mass-murderer.

Well, despite that, he was actually a pretty cute kid. His yapping quieted as Mikoto continued to walk down the street, his jiggling cheeks stretched into a warm, blubbering smile.

Since he was obviously around two or three years old, that made her at least three years older than Itachi. Good to know, though it still didn't really give her exact numbers on that timeline.

She couldn't help but feel a little jarred, watching the two of them walk away; it would be so easy to just run up to Mikoto and warn her about the massacre―spin her the tale of failed coup, how it essentially killed her elder son in the long run and completely traumatized the younger, and warn the young mother to stop it.

Nope. Reina walked away.

Some weeks later she also saw Shikaku, Inoichi, and Chouza, chatting outside of a tea shop in their ninja gear like the lifelong friends they were. She herself will be quite old by the time these three die, probably older than she'd been in her previous life. Old enough to warn them of their fate and be taken, at least a bit, seriously. But without her interference, they die heroically, sacrificing themselves for their village.

It's not her place to take that away from them.

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Oh, and then there's Obito.

She hadn't even thought to look for him until she felt the burst of wind as he ran past her on her way to the Academy one day. The gale carried his loud curses about being late with him as he went.

From what she'd glimpsed, he was in his teens, looking almost exactly how he'd been depicted in the series. He probably only had a few years until his 'demise'.

Warning him could mean erasing a lot of the tragedy that happens later on―

but that would take away the promise of a future she could predict.

Reina didn't even have to wrestle with the thought that hard.

What if by changing events, she kept important heroes from being born, or started a chain reaction of events that allowed new, more powerful villains to rise? Ones just as easy for Madara to manipulate? She―no, not just her, the village too―they were only truly safe if things stayed the way they were meant to.

Reina would treat this as a numbers game. Naruto was destined to save the entire world in the end. She couldn't risk all of their lives to save one little Uchiha boy.

She thinks this, but she is still standing in the middle of the street half an hour later, stuck staring at the spot where Obito's blue and orange-clad figure disappeared to.

She realized, at that moment, a very annoying fact; that she is surrounded by ghosts.

Even if their deaths haven't happened yet, they are dead to her, because she will do nothing to stop them.

A tiny voice in her heads whispered this reminder every time she walked through the village and saw a familiar face, so she stopped walking through Konoha during the day, instead electing to take the long route to the Academy and do her errands in the early mornings.

Reina is tired of the ghosts.

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Reina stared openly at Shishui. He gave a friendly, almost awkward, smile back.

"Uh, hi," He said, confused, and probably a little freaked out by Reina's staring. That was fair; she was a bit bug-eyed in this body.

She hadn't planned to make a habit out of staring at Uchihas this week, but this kid had thrown a little wrench in her plans.

Shisui was usually surrounded by the other Uchiha children in the classroom or the yard, so she hadn't taken any notice of him individually; but now that he stood before her alone, she could place him by his messy hair and extremely long eyelashes, which were just plain unfair on a boy that young.

She hadn't expected to see anyone she recognized from the series in her class, being so much older than the main cast, yet still years younger than Kakashi's generation. But apparently, she and Shisui had been in the same one for a few weeks now, even before she'd gotten her previous life's memories. Great.

As far as ghosts went, his situation was a little more unique. He wasn't in the series much―so little, in fact, that at first Reina had incredible trouble placing what exactly his role had been. Then the cogs of her mind finally click together.

Shisui was to be the sacrificial lamb, so to speak; the first domino to fall before catalyzing the Uchiha clan's future decimation. The image of Mikoto and Itachi from the street the other day flashed in her mind, quick and blinding like a strike to the face, as she finally lowered her eyes from the boy's face.

It'd been only a few hours after she got her old memories back when she'd decided that, despite her aversion to yet another early death in this life, and her avoidance towards changing canon, continuing her shinobi studies might not be such a bad idea.

Staying at the Academy meant she could at least learn how to defend herself should anything come up. Like, say, the several village-wide invasions that even shinobi-protected civilians had perished in over the course of the series.

She was in a world of body-snatching snake-men, deadly eye magic, and evil councilmen, one of which essentially will kill the boy in front of her, and those were just the threats within the village currently (or had Orochimaru already left Konoha? She didn't really know, but he'd come back later anyway). Reina would have a hard time feeling safe here, even as a normal civilian. Hence, staying at the Academy to defend her sorry ass.

(And besides, it seemed this world's Little Reina was as friendless as her previous life's incarnation had been, so it wasn't like anybody in her class would notice the change. Ouch.)

Another perk was that Academy orphans were allowed their own apartments outside of the orphanage (though tiny, dinky little places they were, the village always needed more shinobi thanks to the war, and they seemed all too ready to supply her accommodations).

This meant she would be far, far away by the time a newborn Naruto was dropped off at what she was pretty sure was the only orphanage in town. Their apparent age differences promised she could be well out of the Academy before he started attending here too.

But if Shisui was in her class, that posed a potential problem. Too much interaction with him might end up changing the course of the story...

Well, then again, he died so many years before the start of the main series. And really, if his role was just that, how much damage could attending the same class truly cause? He'd be a corpse floating down a river soon enough.

Oof. As much as being clanless kind of sucked, least Reina hadn't been born a Uchiha.

"Shisui, Reina, are you ready?" The teacher called, interrupting her thoughts. She'd forgotten they were standing in the yard, a small white circle etched in the ground surrounding the two students. Shisui'd already settled in his stance, prepared for the fight, and nodding to the teacher.

"Good luck," He said to Reina, pulling up the Seal of Confrontation.

Oh yes, they were in the middle of a Taijutsu test. This was supposed to be a friendly spar, a sort of benchmark for their current skills at the beginning of the year, nothing out of the ordinary. Reina kept her gaze down to she avoided eye contact with the ghost in front of her, before pulling up her own Seal of Confrontation.

"Ready... And go!"

Reina probably should have guessed she would be out of her league here, but the reminder is clear as the boy comes flying at her before she has time to blink. Literally. Her eyelid has only made it a millimeter down by the time he is in front of her.

She'd thought herself lucky that Little Reina, the girl who no longer existed now that this Reina was occupying her mind, had dreamt so hard of being a shinobi. Little Reina had worked on her chakra control to a point where Reina could use it well enough for basic ninjutsu.

Despite that, she, unfortunately, hadn't made much progress in her Taijutsu before her memories had shown up.

Reina was much more a bookworm than a fighter in her past life, and she remembered Shisui's reputation in the main series. She was about to get her ass handed to her.

The future Uchiha legend is fast, so much faster than her, a girl with a third of a lifetime more than him. She's acutely terrified when she's suddenly on the ground, his left hand pushing her into the dirt by her upper chest, his right in a fist only inches away from her nose.

Her last thought before his knuckles were about to connect with her face was that she should've just made like a Nara and forfeited when she had the chance.

And suddenly there is only a deafening thrum of silence.

"What?"

Reina had squeezed her eyes shut for a second, bracing for the impact of his punch when the sound of Shisui's shock has them flying open again.

She looked around her to see only black and white. Wait, that can't be right.

So far it'd felt like she was in the anime, not the manga, but the colorless greyscale around her definitely more resembled the latter right now.

...And then she realized all the movement around them had also suddenly ceased.

Their classmates looked to be frozen in time, various expressions held eerily still on their faces. Their teacher's unblinking gaze stared directly at her, yet unseeing, clipboard in hand and pen hovering above the paper, unmoving. She heard no wind, saw no rustling of leaves in the trees.

There is only silence.

"What?" She echoed Shisui dumbly, before looking up at him. He is the only one still in color, besides herself. His eyes are no longer on her as he takes in the scene as well.

His knuckles were truthfully nowhere near her face as whatever is happening kicked in, and she blinked again, wondering if that will bring the color back. Shisui pulled back, almost stumbling as he did.

"What's happening? Did you do this?" He asked, voice tight with alarm, before rising to his feet. Reina sat up slowly too, glancing at the frozen figures around them. She and Shisui are the only ones not subject to the changes she'd observed, moving as if in a world of their own as the one around them stays paused.

"I don't... I don't know," Reina said. It is terrifying, the blackened shadows and the too-bright whites of this colorless world. She sees the group of Uchiha children from their class standing behind Shisui, fists paused midair from cheering on their cousin, dark hair and irises now even more striking against the crisp whiteness of their skin.

Shisui is the one staring at her now. No longer was there that relaxed stance and friendly grin Reina had always seen him sporting around the classroom.

Instead, there is something sharp in his eyes, accented by those long lashes, as he gives her a look far too analytical for someone his age. His back tenses ramrod straight as he takes a step away from her, as if distance might undo the effects of what is happening.

Reina frowned at this, but her focus shifts back to the matter at hand. There is a pounding in her head, and something is bubbling up in her chest.

She coughed it out, bringing her hand up to her face―only to lower it a moment later and see herself reflected in a small pool of crimson.

"Is that bloo-" She barely heard Shisui start to say as the corners of her vision blurred and the world around her faded to nothing.

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A/N: Speaking of endings, I actually hadn't seen much of the Naruto series since way before it ended, but I recently caught up and this has been on my mind for a while. Not sure how much I'll be willing to rewatch to fact-check though, so bear with me. Just thought it'd be interesting to have a reincarnation story where the main character's not that into helping.

Fun Fact: I've never seen more than a minute of One Piece.