*burrito? yum. no burrito to be seen here tho.
**declaration of independence from canon plotline.
***chapters 1-4 are lowkey slow but also a bit quick because baby years - idk dude i guess it'd be what you call a normal pace if you mix it together but at the same time i have no clue
Five months. I don't remember where I read it, but babies become conscious— aware, around as early as five months.
Basing my assumption on that, I'd say that it's been a little over five months since I've been born. I didn't wake up for awhile, at least not with a presence of mind— considering how the woman taking care of me didn't seem to be acting weirdly because of my seemingly wrongly presumed vegetable state during those first five months, but when I did, it was to something hanging in my face.
I cried.
Obviously. You have no idea how many times I've had nightmares that involved waking up or turning around having something right in your face with no sound or warning whatsoever.
I don't like being startled.
The lady who was taking care of me was smoothing a hand over my back, which I didn't like, because having something at your back is always dangerous, but I eventually calmed down enough to question what sort of bullshit my mind just came up with.
Did I somehow get my hands on LSD or something? Do they even exist in the void I'd been in? Do they exist here?
Because unless I was mistaken, which I almost never was ever since I joined my previous life's group, that was Uchiha Sasuke right there.
That person, standing behind the lady who still had me in her arms, in the doorway, bangs already growing to cover his purple eye, was Uchiha Sasuke.
Perhaps a dedicated cosplayer..? I thought with not much hope. That was an actual sword by his hip, he had none of the makeup that most cosplayers used even though he looked pretty as sin, and he really was missing an arm.
...Why is Uchiha Sasuke in the doorway?
Uchiha Sasuke is in the doorway!
Hold up, he hasn't even attacked yet, so the lady couldn't be a target of some sort, and he wasn't wearing his cloak, so that would mean he's (somewhat) off duty. He's looking at us funny. Is the lady someone he knows then? I turned my head to see if I could catch a proper glimpse of the lady still holding me.
And somehow, all this time she'd been talking to Uchiha Sasuke who is still in the doorway.
That means I need to fix my awareness then.
Red hair. Bright red hair. This lady has bright red hair. It would look like it was dyed or it was a wig, but it has none of the somewhat coarse look and texture that those things had. Doesn't smell like it either. It's natural? Apparently.
I turned my eyes back to Uchiha Sasuke, and realized that I couldn't understand a thing about their conversation. It sounded like he was giving short answers though, and I blinked when the lady shifted, causing her red hair to block my view of him.
If Uchiha Sasuke was here, who's the red haired lady?
I furrowed my eyebrows. Listening to them made the long ago buried fan of anime in me stir.
Wouldn't that be Karin?
Right. That would explain the red hair then. She's an Uzumaki. I batted said hair away from my face, and she turned her head towards me. Surprisingly, it wasn't that odd seeing actual red irises. I stared right at her, and ended up with my gaze back on the man with us.
Her lips quirked up into an obviously smothered smile, and she spun back to have me face Uchiha Sasuke. I froze as I met his equally surprised eyes, not sure what to do. I strained my neck to look back at the lady, wanting directions.
My neck wasn't nearly as strong to be turning like that, so I stopped in worry that I made break it.
Did she want me to show affection or something? I wanted to pull a face, but I moved my hands to make a grabbing motion towards him instead. God knows this boy probably needs some practice, just in case he finally gets his daughter.
I heard the lady - Karin, I reminded myself - say something to him, something I noticed had his name in it, so she was probably telling him that I wanted him to pick me up.
He did.
It was a bit awkward, kind of obvious that he wasn't as used to picking up babies as he probably would've wanted and considering the fact that he only had one arm, but he made it work.
I clenched a hand in the fabric of his shirt. It was warm. Comfy, even. I noted absently that even though he was usually portrayed as a bit cold, he was strangely warm. Could that be attributed to his fire nature?
Kind of a morbid thought but, would all Uchihas be this warm if they were alive today?
And that was the last thought I had before I blacked out.
Man, I'm so pissed off.
I told myself that for the fifth time, watching the ceiling blankly as another woman who I quickly realized was Sakura moved around the room. She was walking a bit slowly, but I didn't think much of it.
There was nothing to do. Nothing at all.
It's been a little over two weeks or something since I gained consciousness.
And I'm pissed off because that's all I can do.
When I had that thought I got even more pissed off.
I ended up crying out of anger.
Sakura leaned worriedly over me, gently wiping my tears away before she decided to pick me up. For some strange reason, my temper vanished, and my tears stopped pouring after a few seconds in her arms. She's a queen, that's probably why. It goes against every fibre of my being to cause too much trouble for a queen.
Sakura rubbed my back a few times before she pulled back to look at me. She had a prideful smile on. She looks happy. Proud of herself maybe? Still, I felt giddy and warm at the sight of it, so I laughed and babbled nonsense at her.
Come to think of it, why was she here? I didn't mind, but I thought that she'd already given birth by this time, so she would've been in Konoha already. Did something change?
That train of thought was cut off when Sakura kissed my forehead and sighed happily, cuddling me. Aw, that's cute. I felt happy too, knowing that me being here made her happy. She deserved the best—
Sakura said something, and it took me awhile to decipher but eventually I understood.
"The only thing that would make me happier is if you called me Mom.."
—So the best she would get.
"Maaa—" The pink haired woman hummed in response, before she pulled back again to look at me with wide and delighted eyes. "Can you say that again? Please?" I smiled at how expectant she looked.
"Mama!" With that, she burst into joy, spinning with me raised above her head and bouncing around the room. "You called?" She cooed with a bright smile, and I couldn't help but squeal at her silly face.
Augh. That's. That's so adorable. God damn.
If it were up to me, she and Sasuke would've never gone almost a decade not talking to each other. She deserves way better than that. Ugh. If it were up to me, she would've never had to look perpetually exhausted in every panel she was in.
She's too good for that.
The woman I absolutely adored peppered my face with kisses and just continuously showered me with affection as I kept calling her by her preferred title. I just leaned into every squeeze she gave me and squealed whenever she tickled me.
In my last life, I would've never let anyone do this sort of thing to me. I was too awkward and uncomfortable around any display of affection, and my childhood hadn't been the best one a child could've been given, so I was always in a state of some form of paranoia. Paranoia that, was too much for any partner I worked up the courage to have. Heartbreaking, always is and was, but I learnt to eventually just keep those sorts of things to myself.
I learnt to keep any serious companionship to a minimum, because as a core member of a group working against the government, it wouldn't always be safe for anyone associated with the group I was in. Especially because publically, we were painted as terrorists. And we couldn't risk any attempts on our lives, so we never explicitly trusted anyone.
Lonely, kind of. But it had been necessary.
I took to the single life like a champ though, that's for sure.
Maybe in this life I'll be able to settle down, but I'm only nearly six months old, I think. How did my thoughts get so derailed? I'm a baby, I'm not supposed to think about how touch starved I actually am or how our occupation as 'terrorists' didn't leave a lot of options open for pleasure or partners and how you were considered lucky if you found someone to spend your life with in the group. No. Nuh-uh.
Steering the wheel back to less depressing thoughts. If I linger too long I'll brood.
As if she knew that I needed a good distraction from my sad, sad train of thought, Sakura cooed at me, smoothing a hand over my head. I felt the few hairs I had shift, and I turned my attention to her. Her pretty green eyes were concerned, and I think that maybe I already was brooding on the outside. Oops.
She was saying something.
"Do you think we'll be able to handle going out today?" Out? Outside? Come to think of it, I've never seen outside the only window in the room I was always situated in. Honestly, I think that's part shinobi instincts and just general common sense that had me placed in a location that wouldn't be easily seen through the window. If there was an attack, a baby would be easy pickings if someone saw it through the window. Especially since people could climb walls with just their feet.
Look Ma, no hands.
I made some strange noise that I think was a cross between a happy gurgle (how does that even work?) and a giggle. I also think that Sakura took that as a yes because the prettiest smile bloomed on her face and she went on to get me ready for... The outside world, I guess.
We were in Konoha.
We were in Konoha.
At first I was occupied with staring at the mugs of each Hokage looking down at us like some sort of guardians, and I was thinking that; Hey, was Hashirama's hair that ugly in canon?
(The answer was no. It wasn't. They just had shitty artists.)
Hiruzen's face actually looked young and not wizened by age like we usually saw him in the series. My heart leapt to my throat when I saw Kakashi's old mug and I wanted to squeal from residue fangirl admiration because I realized that I would see him sooner or later.
Before I finally realized.
We were in Konoha.
I felt the stirrings of some unease happen in my gut. Where was Sarada?
I startled when I got jostled by a passerby that almost ran into Sakura. They both apologized and laughed it off, waving to each other as the other, presumably, shinobi that knew her ran off. A colleague? That would be obvious enough with how familiar they acted.
And what was I thinking about awhile ago?
Sakura was taking us somewhere, sometimes pausing whenever I let my eyes linger on something and explaining what it was, which I didn't mind. I found it nice and endearing that she was taking the time to fully explain some stuff. Something that caretakers neglect to do and prefer to let their children figure things out on their own. Just from that, I could tell that she'd be a pretty hands-on parent.
She paused again, this time outside a ramen restaurant that I was very, very interested in.
I never had the chance to eat a lot of actual ramen, but I was of the firm opinion that it was absolutely heavenly, and people deserved to at least have a bowl or three.
Which, my opinion may or may not have been influenced by my love for Naruto. Still, didn't change the fact that it was good.
As I stared hard at the restaurant, I heard a boisterous voice. Sakura heard it too, and turned to face the direction it came from.
Blond hair, blue eyes. And absolutely eye-searing orange pants.
Oh my god. Just as I was thinking about him too!
as you can tell, this si-oc is an avid fan of ramen - like me kind of, bless.
Read & Review!
