Chapter 2: The First Few Years
"Mmmm, doughnuts." - English
"I like doughnuts." - Japanese
'Raspberry-filled doughnuts are the best!' -Thinking
"If one's different, one's bound to be lonely."
― Aldous Huxley
Four Months
I lied on my silky blanket in the stinky goat wool and stared at the ceiling as Kofuku cleaned the house. It's technically not even a proper house, and dirt always manages to get on the wooden planks and walls. You'd think that they'd they'd make the roof out of wooden planks too, instead of straw and mud. Maybe that's the reason why there's always dirt everywhere. BECAUSE THE ROOF WAS MADE OF DRIED MUD.
All in all, it's official.
Life sucks.
Why, you ask? Why do I not appreciate the gift that was so graciously bestowed upon me by that thrice damned Agent of Death?
It's because I still haven't gotten used to the smell of goats and manure even after four months of being stuck here, it's really hot, and all I have to eat/drink is stinkin' goat milk. Well, I'm getting used to it at least. Doesn't mean I like it.
The new people in my life aren't that bad in comparison.
The woman, Kofuku, and the man, Tomi, I've learned, are both farmers. They're my new adoptive family, but I can't help but feel uncomfortable calling them Mommy and Daddy, like I think they try and tell me to.
We lived in the Land of Sound, or as Tomi said, "The proud Land of Rice Paddies, at least before that weird snake man whose name I can't remember conquered us." That "weird snake man" was probably Orochimaru, and the fact that Oto is probably somewhere around here does not make me happy in the least. But, Orochimaru probably wouldn't take interest in a backwater farming village like this, so I could take comfort in that.
Our tiny hut is surprisingly, one of the larger huts in our nameless village. Everybody there works in the rice paddies, and the village has small vegetable gardens and the rare farm animal. We have a nanny goat named Yagi. When Kofuku took me sightseeing around the village, I learned that every goat was named Yagi, or more simply, that the Japanese (or at least I think it's Japanese) for goat is well, yagi.
Creative, eh.
The inhabitants of the village all seem happy and peaceful, and sometimes Kofuku passes me off to one of the other females in the village, when she goes out to work in the paddies or to weed the vegetable garden. The women teach me how to speak by pointing to an object and repeating its name over and over again.
Once, I repeated the words of a teenager with curly black hair. It was a bit distorted with baby lisp, but she stared at me with so much shock and surprise that I thought she was going to drop me. Then her face transformed into one with hidden discomposure, and she smiled shakily at me.
In that moment, I felt slight fear at my circumstances. At what age did a baby start developing? Did I start talking too early? I stopped trying to speak the language, and I focused on being able to understand it instead.
Now, at least, I could understand some of their gibberish. (They called me 'strange' and 'foreign'.) Not all of it, but that would soon change. I knew what the sky was called, and I knew the names of the people around me. I also knew that I was expected to call Kofuku and Tomi Mommy and Daddy.
If I called them that, would I replace my old family with them? I mean, only my parents, not Natalya. Natalya is someone who is hard to replace... Though if I improvised, Yagi could be my new sister.
Yeah, no. Never.
I would, never replace my family. Especially not Natalya. Not like there was anyone here that I could replace her with anyways. My old mom will be Mom, my old dad will be Dad, and so my new mom will be Mother, and my old dad Father. A bit overly-polite, but it would do.
I rolled over as Kofuku, well, Mother now, bustled over, presumably to rock me to sleep.
Not that it's going to work. I mean, that'd be really embarrassing.
Eight Months
'I only fell asleep because I was tired, not because Mother, rocked me!' I thought to myself blearily as I woke up in my tiny bed. It has been another four months, and Tomi made me a bed after he found some wood (Turns out, the reason they don't have wooden roofs is because there's not much trees around. Mostly rice paddies.) and made it in a box, filled it with goat wool, and placed my blanket over it.
I've began talking more in these eight months. Mother loved to talk to me, while Father liked to tickle me.
Bastard.
I rolled over in my bed, and slowly, slowly pushed myself up with my noodle-y baby arms. Oh yeah, I can sit up now! And crawl too! No more lying helplessly for me! It's crawling helplessly now!
I can't wait until I can walk.
Just when I was about to go back to sleep, I was scooped up by Mother.
"Chou, today we're going to see the rice paddies!" She exclaimed happily as she set me on the floor. She quickly pulled off the cotton gown that I slept in, and pulled the smock I wore outside over my head. I grunted quietly as she picked me up and swung me around in a circle.
My head nearly brushed the ceiling, and I choked back a scream at the suddenness of her movement. Mother didn't seem to notice, and held me snug in her arms again.
Near death experience 2?
"Aren't you excited to see the rice paddies? I don't think you've seen them before, but you'll be seeing them a lot when you're all grown up, Chou!" Mother talked incessantly for the entire walk to the fields. I began tuning her out, choosing to try and recall all the details of my past life.
"And we're here!"
A wide expanse of shelves covered the land as far as I could see. The mere expanse of them was amazing, especially seeing them in real life.
How did they work all that land? It seemed simply impossible to be able to plant, plow, and harvest everything.
Mother brought me closer to the paddies to have a closer look, and it was then that I realized that there was water. A lot of it.
Enough for a baby to drown in if one tripped in it.
"Don't you think it's cool, Chou?" Mother brought me to the edge of the field, set me down on all fours, and pointed out the tiny figures of farmers that knelt in the shallow water, working. "Daddy's working out with the farmers, too. When you grow up, you'll also be working here!"
I didn't respond to her, choosing to lean over to look down at the water that was dotted with small stalks of rice that poked out of the earth. There was a pool of water in front of me that didn't have any, and I could see my reflection as clear as day.
(Cue Mulan music.)
Who the hell was staring back at me?! I flinched at the sight of my bright orange hair that spiked upwards and to the sides, while some messy strands fell over my forehead. My eyes were a deep blue. Nobody back home would be able to recognize me if I looked like this...
I raised my hand to touch my face, watching as the baby in the water raised to touch his face as well. A sudden gust of wind blew, pushing me forward slightly.
I wobbled, and pitched forward into the water.
"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
Mother jumped in fright as I dropped into the rice paddies, and quickly plucked me from the water. I gasped as water slid down my face, and abruptly began to cry. I tried to hold back my sobs, but that only ended up choking me slightly.
Near death experience number 3...
"Well, looks like we're heading back..." Mother sighed, and placed a hand to her forehead. She began the trek back to the house.
One year.
I have spent one year here in the Naruto-verse.
AND IT IS ONLY TODAY THAT I REMEMBERED THAT EVERYBODY HAS CHAKRA.
AM I STUPID OR WHAT.
SOMEONE TELL ME, ANYONE.
Mother seemed surprised when I began wailing out of nowhere.
Two years.
I sighed heavily as I rested my back against the wall of the house. Now that I knew how to walk (I've been walking for three months by now), you'd think that I would go more outside.
Sad to say that wasn't the case. I kept inside, just like in my old life.
I didn't like to go outside because the villagers didn't really feel comfortable around me. They never said anything to my face, but I could feel it from them. Like how I could feel Natalya's anger when something pissed her off. It's a skill that you develop when you're walking on eggshells around highly volatile people.
I spent my time indoors trying to find my chakra, the energy that fueled every living thing.
Do I just... search for something warm and pulsing? Would chakra feel like a pulsing fire?
I sat there, trying to meditate, and tried to find the fire inside of me.
...
...
...
Nope, nothing.
I rolled over, sighing, as my 1,245th try to find my chakra failed to work.
Not that I expected anything else, y'know? It wasn't like some of those fanfictions in which the character would find it easily, or semi-easily. Or like those fanfiction in which one was really sensitive chakra because there was none on Earth.
For me, there was no sensitivity at all. I could not sense the locations of people in the vicinity, and I didn't feel pain from a developing chakra system.
'Cause, you know, you can't be alive here without chakra. So I presume that when the fetus develops in the mother's womb, then a chakra system develops there as well. No developing chakra system while you're growing up. Maybe the chakra system would grow as you grow, and the tenketsu would develop more if you train as a ninja, but it's there all the time.
I'm 100% sure that even animals have them.
I groan miserably, wishing that I had a book here to read. Something adventurous and exciting, like the Sea of Trolls or the Eye of Minds. If there were any books around here, then I'd have to learn how to read and write the language first.
A new goal affixed in my mind, I got up from the floor and left the hut.
I stepped down the wooden steps to the dirt ground, and swiveled my head around looking for her. I spotted her over at the veggie patch, and I wobbled slowly over to her.
She didn't notice my approach until I tugged on her kimono.
"Eh, Chou? What is it? Mommy's working, you see?" She scolded me kindheartedly.
I swallowed. Talking to people was so hard. My inner monologue is typically rude, but I could never do it to people's faces.
"Uh, um... Will you... will you teach me, um, how to read and write?" I stared up at her, trying to put on my best puppy-dog eyes.
"Read and write?" Her eyes widened in shock, and she threw her head back and laughed loudly.
"Silly, silly Chou! We're just peasants, we don't know how to read! Perhaps some of the more well-to-do farmers might know how to read, but we're on the poorer side, see?" I flinched slightly at her response. Her laughter hurt. Mother noticed my discomfort, and stopped laughing. Her face died down into a wry smile.
" I'm really sorry, but none of us in our village know how to read or write. The old elder used to, but he died before we found you. Why don't you help me pull some weeds? I'm sure it'll be better exercise than sitting inside all day."
Well, the physical part of chakra did need you to be fit. I grunted quietly in response, and tried to pull weeds next to her.
Mother smiled at me, and began pulling weeds with more vigor.
Four Years.
Today is the day I died, got punted in the Naruto-verse, and was adopted by a nice couple. I still haven't discovered how to use chakra, and I don't know how to read or write in Japanese. I probably smell bad.
Last year, to comfort myself, I found myself a long and skinny stick and pulled all the parts that stuck out off of it, and used the kitchen knife to shape it into something resembling a long pencil. After shaping it, I hardened it using the village fire, using the method primitive humans used to create weapons. It took time to actually form the spear, and that was only an abridged version of my efforts...
Mini-flashback:
I held the wooden stick over the fire, turning it slowly.
C'mon...
I watched it carefully, waiting for the right moment to take it off. A long lick of flame suddenly burst up as the wind began blowing harder, and set my stick on fire. Throwing it to my left, where a pile of burnt sticks laid. Another pile of unburnt sticks laid on my right.
I grabbed another stick, and held it over the fire once more, grumbling in my throat. Why couldn't I have been satisfied with a normal stick? Noooooo, I just had to go and want a tough, fire-hardened stick that would be strong and cooooool.
The villagers walking around gave me funny looks as I cursed loudly when the stick caught on fire again.
I broke out of my meandering path down the memory-lane.
It looked more like a staff or a spear, but I could use it to draw in the dirt and write the English that was slowly peeling off of my brain.
I would speak English to myself, making the villagers give me even weirder looks behind me back. (They think I don't notice, but I DO. Bastards.) The other children probably thought I was crazy, talking to myself.
Pfft. I didn't want to play with them anyways. I didn't need company from others. I got enough from Mother and Father, even if they were out in the fields working all the time.
'I'm not lonely.' I told myself. 'I'm definitely not. One day, I'll leave this place behind.'
The adults had more pressing things to worry about than to contemplate me, anyways. When I eavesdropped on their conversations, I heard one (a short and strong man with a black beard) fret about how he thought he saw one of 'them damn Oto shinobi' while he was answering Mother Nature's call one night. The other adults told him not to worry, and that they would take more precaution if he saw more shinobi.
They never talked about it after that, so I assumed that the man (or anyone, for that matter) never saw anymore Oto shinobi. I expected that, in a way. The time the man saw him was probably only pure luck. The Oto shinobi would make sure that nobody saw him or her again. And if somebody did, the shinobi would probably silence that person.
I still didn't know what part of the story line I was in. After Orochimaru left the Akatsuki, I know that. Everything else is just unknown to me.
I dragged my wonderful stick through the dirt, drawing pictures of all the key characters of Naruto.
I... wasn't the best drawer. My baby hands didn't make things much better.
Oh god, Naruto looked like he was having an aneurysm. And Sasuke looked like he was on drugs.
I don't even want to talk about how badly I drew Sakura.
Scraping my foot against the drawings to erase them, I slowly got to my feet. Walking had become a lot easier, and I took the time to run around every day. Important people in Naruto were almost always ninja. Unimportant people were usually civilians.
Teuchi is one example of an important civilian. He provides sustenance for Naruto in the form of ramen. Ramen sounded absolutely delicious after having a diet of goat milk, mashed rice, and wilted vegetables.
I scraped my stick through the dirt as I began my daily walk around the village, trying to make pretty spirals and patterns as I walked. While I concentrated on making a particularly complicated design (A squiggly line that wants to become a circle! Too bad you'll become an oval instead!), I smashed into the legs of a giant.
He wasn't a giant, but he was certainly taller than everyone in the village, including the men.
I stared up at the looming silhouette, my eyes widening as I took note of the white hair and the red lines trailing down from his eyes. A horned metal forehead protector glinted in the sun, and a foreign Japanese character was stamped on it.
Holy shit.
It's Jiraiya.
What the hell's he doing here?! This is a backwater village in the Land of Rice Paddies no one cares about!
"Eh... Jiraiya?" A small whisper made itself unwilling out of my throat.
The motherfucking Sannin stared down at me, cocking an eyebrow in surprise.
"Well well well, just how do you know my name, eh, kid?"
"I, I... Um, I..." I felt myself wilting into shyness, and I began to stammer.
A smirk grew on his face, and a glint came into Jiraiya's eyes.
"Could it be... that the fame of the great Toad Sage Jiraiya has spread even to small villages like this?!" He twirled around on his wooden geta, and posed dramatically.
I felt my face slacken into a blank stare as I stared at him.
"Erm, yeeeeees?" I mumbled, still in shock from the appearance of this guy, of all people.
Jiraiya burst out into raucous laughter, throwing his head back and placing his hands on his hips. "Well, kid, you live around here? I've got some questions to ask you about the happenings around here."
I pulled my eyebrows together. "Y-yes, I live around here?" Shouldn't that have been obvious, idiot? "And, um, go ahead and ask..."
"Have anything weird been happening around here lately? Any weird sightings, any of the like?"
My mind flashed back to the conversation about the shinobi. But, it didn't seem like that would be weird, seeing how this was the Land of Sound now. Might as well tell him anyways.
"Uh, yeah... We... usually don't see shinobi around here, and, and somebody saw an Oto shinobi at night a few day ago."
Jiraiya's eyebrows furrowed slightly, but he smiled and patted me on the head. "Thanks kid! I owe you one. Oh, you wouldn't know if there was an inn somewhere around here, would you?"
"An inn...? Mrs. K-Kogu(1) l-lets people stay in her house sometimes, s-seeing how her house is the biggest... But, um, we don't have an inn..." My face flushed slightly from all the words I was tripping on. So Jiraiya was going to be staying for a while? For what reason?
Another thought passed through my head. 'I can ask him to teach me how to read and write!'
"Could you take me to Mrs. Kogu's house, please?"
I nodded, and began walking in the direction of Mrs. Kogu's house. It was closer to the center of the village, and it was near my house.
We stopped in front of a house that was -gasp!- two stories high.
"Mrs. Kogu p-probably isn't home right now. She likes g-going on walks around the rice paddies."
"That's fine. I'll just wait for her here." He plopped down on the steps of Mrs. Kogu's house, and leaned back, closing his eyes.
"Uh... okay." I turned to leave. Should I ask him now?
I turned back to him. Jiraiya opened an eye, and stared at me. "Hm? Need anything?"
I took a deep breath, steeling my nerves.
You can do it, Chou.
"W-wi-w-w-w..." GET IT OUT, STUPID NERVOUSNESS.
"W-would you like for me to show you around the village!?"
Jiraiya could've sweat-dropped in that moment. "Uh, sure?"
Someone, shoot me, please.
Translation Notes:
(1) Kogu 厚遇 - Hospitality
Author's Notes:
Jiraiya's finally here!
His motives for coming to the nameless village in the Land of Sound will probably be stated in the next chapter. It's not like he's there just because he's there. Everyone's somewhere for some reason.
I mean, you're at home because you're not outside. You can bullshit plenty of reasons for things that usually don't have reasons.
Kotoma - Thanks for being intrigued! And thanks for liking my profile picture too! (uUu)
Thanks for reading all the way to the end.
-Rin
Words: 3427
Status: Unbeta-ed, unproofreaded.