A/N:

I don't own Naruto, only the OCs.

2

I think I might have expected this world to be like the last. In fact I hadn't expected a different world at all. I hadn't expected this.

The first view I got of this place was when I was nearing a year old. Movement was easier now and I could speak a few limited words. I'd tried to communicate in English but all attempts were ignored by the three people who hovered constantly over my shoulders. They didn't speak to me, their faces and clothes were plain and unchanging. I at times would wonder if they were human at all. Teaching and the basics of care was all they offered. Words upon words upon words. Pulling and holding my limbs into movements that confused me but I was still requested to copy. Long spaces of sitting as stationary as possible and breathing in great slow sweeps. I'd never been around a baby before but I was pretty certain this was not common parenting behaviour.

They were trying to alter my temperament also in subtle ways. They rewarded me for displays of aggression and dominance, if I were to slap at one for removing a picture book instead of a scolding I was given treats. I was not punished for stealing just for being discovered. The only negative acts they did not encourage were laziness and stupidity. I tested them all and I did not understand. What could they possibly gain from rearing a child to the stance of I am greater because my strength is greater. I didn't want to play their games and yet I found myself unconsciously stealing or awaiting reward after lashing out. This worried me far more than anything else. I hadn't known myself well enough before to know whether or not this behaviour had always been part of my personality (I'd been too weak to lash out even if I wanted to) but nonetheless I began sectioning this part away.

Despite these flashes of another stronger, phantom presence in my behaviour I remained very much as I had arrived. Terrified and confused. There was no identity in this either just a cornered animal darting about with wide eyes. Which left me questioning who exactly was I? I could not garner any clues from the memories that plagued me and they too were slowly slipping free like Autumn Canopy.

There was one constant dream that made me wake shaking. In those dreams I stood on a lake of dark water, the surrounding area was completely blanked in darkness (far too black to be night even) and the only light given was the faint blue glow that breathed up from the bottom of the dark water. The lake and I could only imagine the surrounding area also was blanketed by thin mist rising up from the surface of the water and slinking in between my limbs. It was completely silent save for the great rumbling of breathe from some other unseen, giant entity. There was nothing traditionally terrifying about the dreams, no monsters pursuing me, no quicksand dragging me under but the sense of something far bigger and far out of my control always clung.

There were two respites. The first came in the form of something I imagined others would find frustrating in this situation. It was the shaky measured progress of doughy limbs. Someone who could run and climb in their previous life would I'm sure chafe at the weak, lumbering movements this body allowed. I, however, had spent much of my previous life bed ridden and even these literal baby steps were enough to make my heart race with excitement. I had been trapped before in a body that was always buried under limitations; this new one only brought promise of future capabilities. You couldn't possibly understand how exciting that was, it was like giving a crippled man legs.

The second came in the form of the pink eyed stranger I learnt was my uncle. He rarely spoke and never directly to me. He would enter the plain nursery I inhabited, feet barely touching the tatami mats, and the three carers would vanish instantly. Then he would just sit there and stare at me for minutes on end.

Each visit was anticipated with a mixture of enthusiasm and dread. The man was small in height and weight, soft faced and had a high lilting voice. In every physical sense he appeared innocent and completely unintimidating despite the silvery line of removed stiches under his right eye. But you'd have to blind not to see the way his presence easily stretched out and filled every nook and cranny of space. Everyone was terrified of him. Everyone. From their fear brought respect because in Kirigakure power is everything and my uncle though small and child faced was a towering giant in that respect.

He never raised his voice, never moved unless it was perfectly controlled and deliberate and he never ever allowed insight into whatever was churning about in his head. His face remained utterly collected and utterly neutral in any situation, what level of control that took was staggering. What it did when it just sat there facing me had much the same effect. What was he thinking when he sat there, unblinking and focused solely on me? Was he looking for something or at something? I didn't dare question him, I didn't even look at him just waited until he gained his satisfaction and glided back out the room again, leaving me to release a shaky breath that was equal parts relief and disappointment. Because my uncle was the only human I'd come into contact with in this world to look at me directly.

It was such a simple thing but the lack of acknowledgement from the few humans I had contact with was crippling. It was only the blunt and impassive point of those two pink pupil-less eyes that allowed me identity. The eyes had confused me, the ashy brown grey hair colour and the clothes also but still I hadn't suspected a different world until that first day outside. It was my uncle who led me out of room as he'd carried me out of the one before almost a year ago. He'd sat there as he usually did, complete silence the overbearing and inescapable force of his eyes on me broken as he spoke.

"Ren, we are going outside," his voice was polite as always but it was still a command. My uncle never asked for anything just civilly demanded it and I'd never seen a case when it was not complied.

I had frozen the moment he spoke to me. Namely due to the presence of the man's voice in what had been a stifling silence and partly because he had used my name. He was the only one to actually do so as the three carers would tend to avoid addressing me at all and when they did it was usually with some strange title I did not understand. 'Three Tails' was the less common one (though I hadn't seen my reflection I could still safely say I hadn't got three tails) and Jinchuriki the most. I had no idea what either meant, I had no idea what was even going on most of the time but I was too unnerved by the characterless trio to question them.

It took a moment for my uncle's statement to fully sink in. 'Going outside'. I had been in this body for a year and the only time in which I'd tasted outside air was my transition from one dull, bare room to another.

"Oji-sama?" I instantly wanted to bite my tongue. You did not question this man. Ever. But the shock of the statement had shook lose my fear for a moment.

My uncle courteously disregarded the momentary lapse and did not reply as he stood in one slick, impressive movement and crossed the bare room. He opened the door and did not aid me as I stumbled to my feet and hurried after him. He would never help me. If I wasn't strong enough to do it myself I wasn't worth anything at all.

…..

My first thought when I saw Kirigakure for the first time was something had gone fundamentally wrong.

There had been nothing (to my knowledge) like this before. Then again there hadn't been people with pink eyes and no pupils before but that slip paled in comparison to the shadow theatre of 'Bloody Mist' rising up before me. I stilled at the door and instinctively reached out for my uncle's hand but he moved it minutely and my desperate attempt for support sailed harmlessly past. Once again he said nothing but I got the message all the same, 'do not do that again'.

I think I was distantly aware of the shaking in my legs.

Because the world I had been born into gave me that much more reason to be scared. The lack of contact, the loneliness, the confusion and the sense of never knowing exactly what the only person in this place I felt remotely connected to was thinking all shrunk under that first image of my new home.

Kirigakure was obscured through a thick, watery mist that did not dispel under the heavy beat of rain. It was a world bathed in blues and greys and so shockingly similar to the purgatory imagined that I began to rethink my reincarnation theory. The area was surrounded on all sides by the jagged slope of mountains and the brackish, green vegetation tumbling down them. The mist rose up half their height before thinning out from the heavy blanket that fermented the lower levels to a wispy state.

The streets were quiet, shadows slipping cagily in and out of the sombre grey and none of the noise of life that I expected from a place so large. There should have been, the great circular structures built from huge grey blocks and embellished only with long, slit-like windows and tops of the same thick, sprawling plants should house hundreds. There were tens of their unwavering shapes in the fog, set a good distance between each other, varying in size and separated here and there by thin, high walls. So where was all the noise? Why did it feel like the entirety of Kirigakure was holding its breath? It was eerie, this place was eerie. I felt as though I'd made an unwelcome appearance into some strange, sombre ghost world. My eyes darted about and I rubbed my palms against my clothes in hopes of wiping away the sweat because something about this place was so dangerous and unknown.

My uncle paid no attention to my obvious trepidation, only continued to walk on and the reason behind his decision became apparent. Another uprising, another clan wiped brutally from this earth made evident by the few marks of destruction on the stone. Now my uncle was showcasing the little weapon he was so carefully cultivating to a village full of people who wanted his blood. Of course I wasn't aware of my status and only vaguely understood the standing my uncle had at the time but the intent was all the same. My uncle stepped off the broad, grey stone that squatted underneath the doorway and I followed subserviently. The few people looking out from windows carved into the stout faced stone drew further back and those littering the streets changed direction entirely. My uncle didn't even glance at them just kept his gaze dead ahead and apathetic to their presence.

I however was not. Have you ever walked into a room full of people and had every single one stop what they're doing just to stare at you. It felt like every single pair of eyes in Kirigakure was watching me, judging me like I was a mass murder at a children's party. I didn't know what I'd done to receive the terrified glances behind my uncle's back. I didn't know what I act I could have possibly committed during my one year of life that could warrant those eyes.

Maybe I was horrendously deformed? I hadn't seen my reflection yet so it was an easy assumption. It most definitely had something to do with my uncle but the eyes were as much focused on me as they were on him.

So what was wrong?

A/N:
Just popped another chap up so there's more to read. Like I said in the last if you could give me any incentive as to whether or not I should continue with this I'd be really grateful because I'm still not 100% sure.

Thanks for reading