Summary
What do you do when your reborn in a family of silk merchants, with the air practically clogged with blood? She already knew that her second life was doomed from the very start.
Chapter One
There was a list of things Aiya had learned in her repeated toddler years. One. She was reborn into a family of silk merchants. This fact was deduced by the mounds of unblemished silk dyed in vibrant colours draped over tables and chairs. She also concluded this by the refined foods and treatment she always had access to, and the 5-star necessities that littered the compound as if it was the norm. There was no low or medium-quality item in this household that existed, and she knew her family always got the best of things. Two. Aiya was in a whole different universe than the other world. She knew this from her observations of maps that hang on the walls of her compound, recording boundaries and geographic shapes foreign to her eyes. The lands were labeled strangely, in ways she had never seen before. The main language present also happened to be Japanese, which she mastered as fluidly as a one-year old could. Intellect has its rewards. And three. This was by far the most astounding revelation she had uncovered in her new body and new life. In this world, this energy called "chakra" that dwelled in specific humans dubbed "shinobi". They could perform abnormal feats by utilizing the energy and applying it strategically. This piece of information surprised Aiya greatly, her mind still hanging on to some science left. She was curious about how shinobi actually did their miraculous stunts, and if her fellow science had a say in it. But Aiya was mostly wondering if she herself could become a shinobi, or kunoichi, a female shinobi. The odds were highly tilted against her favor, but the determined toddler was willing to give it a try.
On a cold morning, Aiya, now three, scrambled out of her small enclosure and fell onto the tatami mats laid neatly on the floor. Aiya was a very genius baby. At the mere age of one, she could walk adequately and navigate herself. When she turned two, she could walk completely bipedally and speak a few easy words and sentences. By three, Aiya could read scrolls and say normal sentences like most people. Many civilians, mostly purchasers of her family silk, had given her the moniker "Little Prodigy" and cooed whenever she demonstrated her skills beyond her years. "Your child is a wonder, Hattori-san," they complimented, "and she looks just as stunning as her mother!" Aiya did look like a carbon copy of her mother, but had auburn hair instead of brown and rosier cheeks. She also had lighter gold eyes, like the ingot that made up her mother's eyes was polished within herself. Being honest, she was a little bit relieved to look as beautiful as her mother did. It would have been a shame if not, and just plain embarrassing. Her form was wrapped in a small toddler-sized deep blue kimono, with ocean waves embroidered on it in thin silver thread. Her prison was right in the middle of a room with a fusuma decorated with spindling trees barricaded her in. Luckily, Aiya was a genius baby and easily disarmed the fusuma, stepping out of her little room. She slowly slid it closed behind her and tiptoed across the compound. Ornate vases and china decorated the chigaidana that were attached to the walls, gleaming as Aiya walked past them. She made her way through the shoji that protected the doorway and outside of the house, then started running, dropping her guard as she giddily sprinted off. This was her normal routine. Sleep, sneak out, run away, train, come back, and be totally innocent. She was really determined to become a kunoichi. And the geography seemed to support this, as a dense forest was right outside of her house. Aiya ran through the dense underbrush, acting as a catalyst for the small animals that fled from her as she continued. Branches whipped at her face and tugged her robes, but she held fast and recklessly ran forward. Trees towered over her, their trunks brown and tinged in a warm golden glow. Their leaves rustled in their own dance of sorts and watched Aiya travel through the forest. Exhilaration spread throughout her translucent veins like flowing water, rejuvenating her being. She always treasured moments like this, where freedom was her little puppet. After moments of pure joy and excitement, Aiya stopped at the barren riverbank of a twisting blue river. The ground was littered with pebbles in varieties, and the water glinted like a sharpened sword. It perfectly matched its reputation. "I don't know which river this is, but it looks pretty safe to train." Aiya thought in anticipation. Science could roll around in its grave. Everything in this world was impossibly extraterrestrial to her, but she didn't care a bit.
The result of her training was an accomplishment that Aiya would forever be proud of. After many attempts(and fails) to perform chakra control(Aiya had managed to get her hands on some scrolls about chakra and its properties), she had finally managed to do so by standing on top of the rushing water of the river. Sweat poured down her face from the strain of effort, and being from a non-shinobi family, her chakra reserves barely exceeded the minimum quantity. "I'm going to have to put more dedication in training if I want to increase that quantity." Aiya frowned at the thought of it and stepped off the water before letting herself flopping down on the ground. Her blue kimono was sullied with the pebbled ground's dirt, but Aiya merely brushed it off and dug her nails in the dirt. She then flopped backwards against the earth and gazed up at the passing clouds, accompanying each other on their journey. It was pitiful that clouds would have companions, but a genius like her wouldn't. "It would be nice to have a friend around, someone who I could laugh and talk to." Loneliness crept up her chest and constricted her heart painfully, like a snake wrapping its prey in a bone-crushing hug. Aiya frowned in self-pity, grabbed a smooth pebble beside as a victim of her despair, and flung it across the river to the other bank with her more-than-average strength. It landed with a dull clang and jostled against the others as it bounced sharply, before coming to a halt. Aiya perked up, noticing how the stone had skipped before dying out. Pure fascination filled her up to the brim, for she had lived in a city with beyond normal urban fashion. Nature had been nowhere near it,with the exception of the man-planted trees growing out beside paths and roads. But a river? Oh, finding a river there would have been the miracle of miracles. Aiya then picked up another pebble and shifted it in her small hand until it was positioned accordingly. She drew her arm back slowly, and like a metal spring, flung the pebble across the water. The small stone disturbed the surface of the river by rupturing it's stillness and causing excess water to splash into the air. It skipped about four times, then plopped in and sank down to the bottom as the ripples caused by it slowly receded. Aiya grinned proudly at her handiwork. "I did exceptionally well for a first time!" She thought happily and brushed her hands together in a proud manner. This new life was certainly unlike the other, but it gave her happiness she couldn't have ever obtained there. As the sun began reaching the peak of noon, Aiya picked up her lady-like attitude and started walking back to her family's home, her head lifted high from pride of her performance this training session. Aiya would become the first civilian-born kunoichi that's stepped daringly out of their comforting life to welcome the life of a soldier. Fate had plans for her that would definitely make a mark on history.
Vocab:
- Tatami: A type of mat used as flooring in traditional Japanese rooms.
- Fusuma: Vertical rectangular panels that can slide from side to side, that either changes the space in a room or acts as doors.
- Chigaidana: Shelving structures that are used to display small objects.
- Shoji: Wooden sliding doors with a translucent paper covering
Second chapter! WHOO! I'm really bad at plots! Please don't be too harsh!
-Cinnamon