Prologue: When Trees Are Something More
Trees. There were a lot of trees.
The girl looked around, vaguely puzzled and a little disoriented. She barely remembered being in a car, driving. Then there had been screaming, tumbling, and darkness. She looked around at the field, seeing how the colors were so much brighter and more vivid than she could ever remember them being.
She had a very good memory so she would know.
She looked around at all the different trees. They were different sizes, different species, different colored leaves. Some were so tall she imagined that even a mountain would cower before them. Others were so wide that a house inside of them wouldn't be too shocking.
They were beautiful.
She took a step forward and looked down at her clothes. She was barefoot and wearing a white dress. It clung to her loosely, fluttering in the occasional small gusts of wind that whipped her hair around. She had never owned a dress like this one.
Shrugging off a feeling of unease, she ventured farther out into the field, leaving the safety of the great oak that had towered over her. It interested her that the grass beneath the trees was different from the grass beneath the sky. Beneath the trees it was longer with flowers growing in it. Underneath the sky, it was shorter, brighter, softer. She stepped out onto the grass and looked around more, seeing that the grass seemed to grow in straight edges and sharp angles around the trees, like someone had cut it that way.
She wondered why that was.
Suddenly, a large gust of wind flew past her, whipping her hair and dress around. She could hear voices in the wind.
"I'm will be an astronaut!"
"I'll be a doctor!"
"I'm gonna be an adventurer!"
"I'll sail all the seas in the world!"
"I'll discover a new animal!"
It went on and on until the wind died down. The girl was left with a feeling of dread in the pit of her stomach. Something very strange was going on and she somehow believe that she wasn't in her own world anymore.
"Where am I?" she asked. "Why am I here?"
"Child, do you not know what has happened?"
She turned to see an older woman. She had kind grey eyes and long, black hair with streaks of grey. She wore a plain white dress with a brown apron tied around her waist and she held a basked against her hip. To the brim, it was filled with seeds.
"No, I don't," the girl said. "Where am I?"
"You are in the place where all worlds meet. It is a place of paths and choices. Now you simply must choose which path you will take."
The girl frowned. "What do you mean? How can there be more than one world?"
The woman smiled indulgently. "Children often create their own worlds to play in," she said. "the thought of that world is a seed and as they create the world and its inhabitants, that seed will grow into a mighty tree. Of course, it isn't always children. I've seen many adults create them in the books you read. Those are usually the worlds that become a mighty tree that will always last."
She looked around at all the trees and smiled wistfully. "Once, I was a simple maiden in a world. But then I died of a sickness. The Gods asked me to be a guide of sorts, explaining this place to those who come here. More often than not, people choose to move on to the next plane. I believe you would call it heaven."
The girl frowned, deeply unsettled. "Heaven is real? This is all real?" she asked, gesturing to the trees, the grass, the sky and the woman herself. "I haven't gone crazy?"
"Of course not child. You are merely at a cross roads. Your life in your own world has ended. Now you are left with a choice. You have a choice to be reborn in a world of your choosing, or you can move on to the world you know as heaven. There you will live peacefully with the others before you who chose to go there. It is a choice that most make."
"How do I know what world I'm going into if I choose one?"
The woman sighed and looked around at all the trees. "These trees hold memories of the worlds they are my dear. Touch their bark and you will see the world that tree holds."
The girl considered this. "You said that authors create worlds. If I enter one of those worlds, do I go into the time of the book? Can I change things if I do?"
The woman studied the girl carefully. "You are different from the others. Most would choose to go on, not wishing to be reborn. You however, seem to want to live life again. Why is that?"
The girl was silent, thinking everything over. There was really only one world that she wished to enter and that was with the hope that she could change things. It was a terrifying thought but that world called out to her. It had always been so real to her. And having the oppurtunity to live in it, to experience that? It was so terrifying but so, so tempting.
"There's a world that I read about," she said finally. "A world that has so much suffering and war. It's a world that I want to change. The future of that world seems so harsh. If I could keep some things from happening, wouldn't that be better?"
"You are indeed very different from the others," the woman said, smiling. "Perhaps you will change things. And yes, if you choose to enter the world of a book you would enter the time at which the book started. You would be a new soul that could influence things in many ways so that the world may not turn out the way you read it. Does that answer your question?"
The girl smiled. "Yes. Can you direct me to the Naruto world?"
"Follow me."
The woman wove her way through the field as if it were a part of her. She knew every tree, every blade of grass, every breeze. It intrigued the girl.
"How long have you been here?"
The woman's step faltered for a moment. "Many eons have passed since I became the tender of this garden. In time, I will choose to move on. But I must find the next gardener before then."
"How do you choose?"
"You must have a love of life and a will to be a part of each world. You must be able to tend to the trees as if they were your own children. Listen to their stories, hear the wind, and be a part of them. Everything has a story to tell if you are willing to listen you know."
"Listen, love life, and be willing?"
"That is the basics, yes."
"Can you travel into the worlds?"
The woman smiled. It was a smile of someone who has seen more than she wishes, and knows more than she wants to. It was a very sad smile.
"Yes. You would be to the people a god. You would not age and you could not be harmed. Time would pass differently there. I, myself, have traveled into many of the worlds. I have had many lives, loved many times, and bore only three children. They all wait for me in the next plane."
"That seems kind of sad," the girl said softly. "Falling in love when you can't properly be with that person."
"It is sad. But each time it was the same person. He chose reincarnation many times over, claiming that it was always for me. Now, he and our children wait for my time as the tender of this garden to come to an end."
The girl smiled. "Does that mean you were soul mates?"
The woman smiled widely, a light blush lighting her cheeks. "Yes. We will always find each other, no matter time, distance, life or death. As it should be, we will always be together."
The woman stopped before a great oak tree. It towered above them, its many branches twisted and warped in places. You could see where it had faced hardships and troubles. The girl wondered if those were signs that the world had faced many troubles.
"This is the world you know as the manga Naruto," the woman said. "Simply step forward and touch the bark, wish to be a part of that world, and you will be reborn within it."
The girl stepped forward, placing her hand on the bark. She glanced back at the woman. "Before I go…what is your name?"
"My name is Hidiya. In your previous world, it is an African name meaning sacrifice."
The girl nodded and smiled at Hidiya. "Thank you Hidiya-san."
"Go forth now, child. You have a new world that awaits you."
The girl turned towards the tree, feeling the rough bark beneath her fingertips. She closed her eyes for a moment and listened.
My world is a world with a great cycle of hatred and wars. Shall I tell you the tale or do you wish to see it for yourself?
The voice was ancient and wise. It spoke as if it had felt pain like none she had ever faced and lived to tell the tale.
"Perhaps when I return once again, I will become the tender of this garden," she murmured. "Then I could listen to all of your stories. But for now, I wish to be a part of your world."
Very well. I wish you luck young one.
Light danced around her, wind whipped against her, and suddenly, the girl was gone.
Hidiya smiled at the spot where she had disappeared. "And so it begins. I will look forward to seeing how she changes your world Wise Oak of Many Words."
As will I, Hidiya-sama. As will I.
AN: Okay, so I decided to do a reincarnation, girl from our world into the Naruto world story. I've read a couple of them and they are always really awesome! I'm hoping I can at least make a good story out of the basis of being reincarnated into that world.
Please let me know if you have any questions or anything so I can try to answer them.
Til the next chapter!
