Chapter 2 – Dreaming, wondering, and blending in

Summary: She was just a sickly girl back home, living her short life to its fullest. She was supposed to die, but she woke up in an entirely new world as a completely different person in a baby's body.

A/N: Yes, 2 weeks after she was found, that was when the Kyuubi appeared in Konoha.

And I apologize because the story at this point is still largely narrative, and there is not much dialogue. But these are all just foundations to the main plot of the story. Much like a "Once upon a time". Bear with me please, thank you.

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"I have a dream, a song to sing

To help me cope with anything."

Sara strummed her guitar lightly as she sang sweetly. She was singing a song from her previous life, but tricky as it was to maintain the melody and tune while converting the lyrics to Japanese, she was a musician and lyricist at heart so she pulled it off. She even adapted the melody of the song to the trend of music here. It was not an easy feat, but she thought she did a great job.

She glanced down at the cloth she laid down in front of her, it was full of money as usual, so she knew she did great. But maybe the people of Konoha were just generous. Or maybe they thought she was adorable because she was just 4 years old and she was already performing in the street. Then again, it might be that her performance was just really great.

Whatever their reason was for giving her money, she was glad they did.

If her singing would get her this constant amount of money, maybe she'll be able to enroll herself in the Academy when she turned 6.

She thought about her past 4 years since she was dropped off on that front door.

Years had passed by quickly from the moment she found out she was in Konoha. When she saw the Hokage Rock, she went into shock again, and she had to be taken to a doctor once more. The caretaker almost branded her as sickly because it was the second time she had to be taken there due to shock. But Sara forced herself to look fine afterwards. She was already sickly in her previous life. She didn't want to be sick this time, she just wanted to be normal for once.

Of course, normalcy was thrown away when she found out that she was born into the ninja world. How that happened was beyond her. How was she resurrected into a fiction world written by Kishimoto? Who was she here? Where were her parents? What in the world was she supposed to do now?

These questions flooded her mind, even as she pretended to play with the cheap plastic toys the orphanage gave her. That was why she went into shock again, her young mind uncomprehending of how or why she ended up here.

Truthfully though, as confused and restless as she was, she was really excited to go through it all. Every Naruto fan wanted to end up here after all. She was born into a new world she could explore, a different adventure, and a different experience to have.

The caretaker was careful not to take her out again after she went into shock at the market place. It was a shame because she yearned to see ninja prowling about and using their techniques. It was silly to expect seeing them though. She was at the far end of the village in the poorer civilian section. The orphanage she was in was a different one from Kabuto's in the series. It was also different from the one Naruto stayed in until he was capable enough to live on his own (which he was allowed to do at 6 years old. Why the Hokage thought he could live alone at that age was a mystery.) Naruto was luckier though because despite his status as a menace/monster, his parents were still Minato and Kushina, and they left a small fortune for him. So he could afford getting his own place. Sasuke had the whole Uchiha's fortune to himself so he could also afford being on his own.

Sara imagined that it would be a different case for her. She was just left at the front door. She vaguely wondered if she had actual parents here in the ninja world. Whatever the case was, no one left her anything. In her orphanage, they were all civilians cramped in this small building. It wasn't a popular one too so parents who wanted to adopt rarely came.

But of course, Sara was sunshine personified. She was happy all the same, realizing that she was a healthy baby girl. During her 1st year, she was only sent to the hospital twice. Her mom told her that she had to stay half the time at the hospital since she was born in that other life.

As much as Sara wanted to explore though, she knew she was far too young with her 1-year old of age. So she decided not to sulk about it and focus on learning her new language. It was impressive that just a month after her shock, she could already speak basic Japanese fluently. Of course, the moment her vision cleared, which was just a few months after she was found on the front door, she had already focused on learning it. There wasn't really much you can do as an adult in a baby's body.

She would watch the adults speak and try to put contexts in it. It was a difficult guessing game. But 1 year and one month of doing nothing but staring at the adults and comprehend their conversations made it successful for her. In mornings when all the babies at the orphanage were causing chaos, she would slowly attempt to pronounce her new words. Her tongue was still wobbly, but she could manage after several tries. Many would say that she should have done this at night instead when everyone was asleep, if she intended on hiding it. But she thought that a chaotic morning where nothing can be heard over the wailing of the babies was better than a completely silent nighttime where a single word would echo all over.

And yes, she intended on hiding it. It wouldn't do for them to mark her down as a prodigy or as a genius. Because she wasn't. She was just unfortunate enough to have an earlier 19 years of memory. Especially, since she was in this world, it would be dangerous for anyone to put expectations on her.

So she kept quiet and hid that she could already understand them just a month after her 1st birthday. She didn't speak, and only followed the usual baby timeline. She started speaking out a few words when she was 2 years old, even though at that time, she could have definitely hold full in-depth conversations if she wanted to.

Soon, she started getting her hands on books. Even in her past life, she always loved reading. She travelled a lot with her parents so she had many great experiences, but reading was the travelling of the mind. After she learned the language, she focused her attention on learning to read. It wasn't as hard as learning how to listen to and speak the language. She would just let a caretaker read stories to her. Later on, she would get the same book and pore over it, determining which words the caretakers read.

It took her only 2 months to get it down. That meant even before her 2 years of age, she already knew how to read, write, and speak.

It surprised her entirely to realize that her memory was great in this world. When she learned how to read, she realized that she possessed a true photographic memory. It only took one glance to understand and recall a page she was reading. Soon, she was breezing through books like nobody's business.

In her past life, she wasn't exposed to much academics. Her parents thought she would only live up to 5 years, so they turned her attention to arts and experiences instead. She never went to school, although her mother did tutor her in general knowledge. So she never really got to test the extent of her mental capabilities. She wondered if she always had photographic memory and she just never utilized it when she was reading story books before, or was it something that developed here in this super powered world.

She did know that her parents were great academics. Her father was a theoretical physicist and cosmologist while her mother was a biomathematician. When Sara was born, her parents laid back on their work schedules to spend time with her. But she always knew that her parents were great people in their own fields. Their living room had numerous awards, certificates, and plaques spattered about. She never gave it much thought before because her parents were just her parents to her. It didn't matter that they were super brainiacs. All she knew was that she loved them with all her heart.

But now, as she read three books at the same time, her eyes glancing at the pages in just 3 seconds before moving to the next one, she wondered if maybe she inherited that kind of genius after all.

Not that she let anyone see just how smart she was becoming in less than 2 years old. She still didn't want to be deemed special in the ninja world.

When she reached 2 years old, the children were finally allowed to go to the park to play. She told her caretaker that she wanted to go to the library instead. Surprised as her caretaker was, she was allowed to go there, since it was only a block away from the park. The librarian was a friend of the caretaker so the librarian was asked to look after her.

At first, she only read story books to push away suspicion. She was just 2 after all, and she chose to go to the library instead of playing at the park. So the adults kept an eye on her, but she easily misled them by happily telling her fellow orphan mates about the stories she read at the library.

The children loved listening to her because she always told the story with a lot of action and enthusiasm. It was really because it was nice to share dreams and wonder to these lost children. Sara might prefer to be shy and on her own, but she loved everyone around her all the same. The caretakers adored her, so did the other children, so they branded her off as just a bookworm.

As soon as she felt the prying eyes gone, she moved on to reading about chakra and ninja basics.

So what was she doing?

Honestly, Sara was just learning about this ninja world with as much passion as she could give. She was fascinated by ninjas, and how they came to be. She was born sickly and weak, but now she pored over the texts and she could see the potential to be super. It wasn't the idea of power that attracted her to learning so much about it. It was the idea of becoming stronger, body, heart and soul. Strong enough to spread love, dreams and hope, just as she was given in her darkest days. Maybe she wanted to help, maybe she wanted the strength, but all she knew was that this world was magic. And at 2 years old, if she wasn't allowed to explore around, then she would travel with her mind, through the books.

So she read and read and learned so much about the world and the basics of being a ninja. In 3 months, she was able to read half of the required knowledge for the academy's whole curriculum. She would need more practical application but as of now, she knew and understood enough.

Before she was 3 years old, the caretakers found out about her desire to become a ninja. They warned her that they didn't have much money, so they really couldn't enroll her to the ninja academy. But Sara was determined, she vowed that she would save for it herself. The caretakers sadly nodded their heads in tolerance, knowing that a three-year old couldn't possibly save up enough to enroll herself.

This was when she started singing in the streets. She crafted her own guitar from left over firewood and strings from compiled fallen animal hair. It was a lot of work, but she managed. She made the caretaker accompany her to the more crowded and well-off parts of the civilian sector and sing there, with a washed-up blanket in front of her and a winning smile.

It wasn't long before the adorable singing 3-year old with a dream caught the attention of the crowd. Sara put her best charming smile on and sang her heart to reach out to all the people. Being a 3-year old was already an advantage, having a dream she can't have was another. But more than that, Sara took her enchanting voice from her previous life to this new one. She had an angel's voice. And everyone was easily put under her spell.

On her third birthday, her usual audience all pitched in to grant her birthday wish, the most expensive seal weights there were. She knew she was heavily hinting on wanting it, but its sheer price left her in doubt if they would actually get it for her. Opening her gift and finding it left her in tears. She stood on tiptoes all day to kiss everyone on the cheeks. Behind them, the caretaker was crying in joy for her.

She wanted seal weights because she thought that learning how to manipulate her strength and chakra as early as now would be a good investment. She could have gotten something like Lee's, but it would be bulky, and she was too young to handle those weights.

The seal weights weren't as obvious. They looked like fitted wrist bands and ankle bands. She could wear them and it would look like mere accessories. But they were weights. She could adjust how heavy it should be. And it was stretchable so she could use them for the years to come when her arms and legs grow. This was why it was expensive. It was intricate and it looks like a part of clothing, but it could weigh a hundred grams if you want it to, and no one will know.

In her head, she knew that if Lee took a year to get that fast, starting at 3 would make her as fast as lightning! More than that, it was an exercise of chakra control too. She set the weights heavier than what her actual 3-year old body could handle. So she would need to continue purging out chakra and circulating it to the right muscles to make herself stronger. It was delicate and it injured her a dozen times before she got it right. Of course, she kept them a secret to her caretakers, or they would confiscate the seals.

But when she finally got it, she focused on circumventing the chakra properly. And she knew that if she kept doing it, soon she could control her chakra like instinct.

With her weights, she finally started applying everything she learned. She developed a special routine for herself, carefully evaluated from all the exercises and training methods she read. But she couldn't go to a training ground without arousing suspicion. So she would just go to the edges of some woods to practice. From afar, it looked like she was just exploring, maybe looking for bugs and insects like the other kids. But in truth, she was practicing her katas and her attacks and defenses. She didn't really have equipment yet like shuriken or kunai, but she fashioned some substitutes like pointed twigs and rocks to practice on.

She had to be wary of details to make it feel like a real thing. She was particularly accurate in the weight and pointedness of her inventions. She needed to make it like the real thing so she could practice for the real thing when she was finally allowed to handle them.

More than Taijutsu and chakra control, she was interested the most in seals. She was staring at the seal on her weights one day when she wondered how it was constructed; a seal on a cloth that can make it weigh a whole tire if adjusted so. She studied the symbols and the lines and wondered if they were all there to affect something that made it function.

So she went to the library to ask for books about it.

Surprisingly, the librarian firmly refused to give her a book on it. She said it was highly advanced and Sara shouldn't be playing around with it.

Sara wasn't an idiot. She was mature for her age (immensely so) and she knew better than to mess with something she couldn't understand. But she knew her own limits. It didn't change the fact that she wanted to learn about those seals. Maybe she would study them for a long time until she was ready. But she wanted at least a chance to learn about them, not shut out completely like this.

It was at this time that she finally encountered the Naruto.

She was walking around, stomping her foot in frustration from the librarian's flat out rejection when a loud explosion startled her. The caretaker immediately scooped her up in her arms and took several steps back.

Then suddenly, a dozen ANBU came running about, splattered with different colors of paint. And above them running up on the roofs with a gleeful laughter was a flash of bright orange and sunny blond hair.

It was Naruto, holding cans of paint in his hands as he wreaked havoc on the respectable ANBU.

The other villagers stared in horror. But Sara bit her lip to stop herself from laughing out loud. It was really a funny sight if people would stop being biased about it.

Naruto caught sight of her and saw her smiling wide. He winked at her and declared himself a genius before he ran away, the exasperated ANBU on his tail.

Sara swooned in giddiness. It wasn't that she was enamored with Naruto. It was just that THE NARUTO actually winked at her. She mentally danced in glory and screamed "sucker" to everyone else in her previous world. She saw the hero in the flesh. All the other Naruto fans would die of envy.

She was giggling on the way home, with the caretaker eyeing her in amusement. The caretaker didn't really understand why she was so happy, but Sara's joy had always been infectious.

As Sara slept that night, she started plotting on how to convince the librarian to give her the basics of fuinjutsu, seal making. She knew that she only needed the basics, and from there she can work up to learning the more complicated ones. She thought fuinjutsu was like math. It all had basic formulas and mathematical rules that you would need to follow. The more complicated formulas are rooted from there. Maybe she would still need more references in the future. But she knew learning the basics would get her a long way.

The next day, she got some of her orphanage friends to come to another park on the other side of the village. Suspiciously, it was the same park Naruto was in. They played in a sand box near a swing set where Naruto was alone. Sara sparked a loud conversation about the ingenious idea of pranking in front of the library. The library was supposed to be a quiet place, and it was the haven for academics. It would be like "pulling the stick out of their asses." The caretakers came at Sara and scolded her for having such a crude language. As they went home, Sara sneaked a peek at the hyped-up Naruto who had a mischievous smile on his face.

That afternoon, Sara hovered in front of the restricted section, casually humming and reading a fairy tale. It didn't take long before an onslaught of small animals (rabbits, birds, frogs, insects) invaded the street in front of the library. Immediately, everyone jumped up and rushed to the window to spot the menace in orange.

Nobody noticed the little girl who disappeared.

It hadn't been long since Sara had started training with chakra. At this point she was just 3 after all. But she had a really small chakra capacity because she was civilian, and she was really young. It wasn't hard at all to try and control it. Let alone hide it. Sure, if someone was actively seeking for her, it would be easy to spot her. Or if someone was paying attention, she wouldn't be hard to find. But as it is, the great distraction outside gave her all the factors she needed to disappear into the shadows.

She knew where the books she needed were. She was always observant even in the library. So even if she never borrowed from the restricted section, she would watch older people borrow there and she would glance at the librarian fetching it. Her photographic memory allowed her to remember where the librarian headed off to for each book the readers borrowed and returned. As such, she knew where books on seals would be.

She quickly snatched the whole course of basic sealing, and lugged the heavy books out on the back. Her caretaker was too busy gaping at the boy setting loose animals on the street. She hid the books somewhere at the back door and swiftly returned to her peaceful place in the library. Soon enough, Naruto was taken away and the commotion was settled down.

She pretended to still be reading there, minding her own business.

When night came and everyone was sleeping, Sara sneaked out and retrieved a total of 20 books from the backdoor of the library. The whole course was lengthy because of the strict instructions on sealings.

Would someone notice that 20 books had gone from the restricted section? Maybe. But Sara craftily shook some shelves in the restricted section so the books would fall off. She also left behind some fur and feathers, so it looked like some animals from the earlier prank just happened to infiltrate the room.

Was it fair for her to use Naruto like that? Probably not.

What was she planning to do anyway?

Should she be focusing on planning to change things instead? Every fanfiction she read about original characters getting sucked into Naruto all attempted to change things for the better. Maybe it worked, maybe it didn't. All she knew was that everything in the canon story played an essential part towards the original happy ending of Naruto.

Changing anything was frightening and unstable.

Sara decided to deliberately leave Naruto alone. She knew that Naruto's loneliness was important. This isolation would cause him to crave the attention of everyone, building his dream to become Hokage, the figure that everyone looked up to. This dream was vital to the whole story, so she needed to let him feel it. She needed to let him develop his dream. He had to feel abnormal and without attention so he would even have the slightest desire to be Hokage.

It was a cruel thing to do, but Sara felt trapped. She knew what would happen, and she knew just how important every piece of the timeline was. For example, Sasuke needed to go to Orochimaru because he would be infinitely stronger there. Orochimaru may be a crazy and evil man, but he was still a genius. He would show Sasuke the ropes on how to utilize his powers better. He would give him the snake contract, which Sasuke used even during the war. Naruto would also frantically try to improve to catch up to Sasuke because of this. He would push himself to learn Rasenshuriken after being beaten around by Sasuke when they found him 3 years after Sasuke left the village.

There was also the 4th shinobi world war. As frightening as it sounded, it was also an essential harm. The Shinobi alliance would be created because of this war. Maybe it was overkill, but Tobi was going to find a way to do this anyway no matter what she did. Better let this war from the canon story happen, knowing that everyone would overcome it.

And a lot more essential story routes.

She contemplated this for a long time as she pretended to play with her toys. The truth was, messing with the story might mess up the essential elements which led to the happy ending of Naruto.

She was lucky she wasn't born into one of the main characters. Now she could sit back and watch. All she wanted was to live the life of a stronger ninja, survive the coming war, and help people in need. She could watch the story of Naruto unveil in front of her and possibly aid as one of the normal kunoichi on hand.

Or so she thought.

She spent the next years just developing herself. She didn't play a lot so she had massive times to just focus on training. And she was dedicated too because she was fascinated on how mobile her body was as compared to her sickly form back then. She was also thrilled at chakra and the techniques she learned. Every fan would probably spend years doing the same thing, watching in fascination as you sprout fire from your fingertips and other magical things.

She continued singing in the streets, and soon, she finally saved enough for her enrollment.

She was 6 years old.

And it was the start of the school year.

Was it a coincidence that she decided to enroll along the rookie 9?

Not really. She may have decided to step back, but she still wanted a front row seat on the action.

With the many kisses from her caretakers and friends, she hunched up her heavy bag and skipped excitedly to the academy.