Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Naruto-verse. Not the characters, nor the world, nor the concepts present within it. Shonen Jump and the Naruto-verse's creator, Masashi Kishimoto, own all rights to Naruto, Naruto Shippuden, and Boruto: Naruto Next Generations. I am making no profit off of this story, I simply wish to immerse myself and everyone reading within the amazing universe that Kishimoto has created.
A/N: As always, constructive criticism meant to help improve in areas that I am lacking, and thus increase your enjoyment of my work, is welcome. Hating for the sake of being an asshole is not welcome.
Thanks to NinjaChipmunk, StuntedDarkness, athenaincarnate, KellerWeller, warcraft505, CoGDork, and srirachacha for following Inheritance.
Thanks to StuntedDarkness, KellerWeller, srirachacha, and GraceHeart27 for favoriting Inheritance.
NatNicole: Thanks! *grins back*
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"Sometimes your heart needs more time to accept what your mind already knows" - Unknown
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First Steps Arc: Chapter 3
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How's it go-
A little eager, aren't we?
Alright, alright. Give it a rest. I guess I'll just hop right back into it.
Oh dear, sweet Kami. What have I created?
Now, let's see. Where did I leave off yesterday?
Yeah, I know. I'm the one reliving my life story.
I remember where I left off. I was just trying to irritate you.
Impatient much?
Anyway, I had just seen the Hokage Monument for the first time.
Well, not necessarily true. I had seen it before. Just not in person.
But that's neither here nor there, is it? Well, actually it is, but let's just get underway, shall we?
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For the next two weeks after my revelation, though I refused to think of it as such, I continued to see more and more signs that I had been reborn into the Naruto-verse. And dismissed each and every one as nothing more than a construct created by my subconscious, perhaps meant to occupy my mind while I remained trapped in my 'coma'. For example, I got some inkling, or at least a general idea, of who my parents were during my weekly stays at what seemed to be my two homes.
Come to think of it, I never really could think of an answer as to why I was switched back and forth every week between the two locations. Shared custody, perhaps? Whatever it was, I wouldn't learn the answer for a long time yet.
Regardless, the first signs I saw as to who my parents were would have been the symbol on the back of every single shirt at one I had previously just been calling Home 1, and the green markings on the foreheads of the majority of Home 2's inhabitants, as well as the very unique eyes of all of Home 2's inhabitants.
Simply put: the Uchiha Clan crest and the Hyuuga Clan Branch Family's cursed seal, and the Byakugan, respectively. These two symbols, and/or markings, gave me the distinct impression that one of my parents was an Uchiha, and the other a Hyuuga. As such, I began calling Home 1 and 2 the Uchiha and Hyuuga Clan compounds, and it wasn't long before I got a pretty good idea which of the people who tended to carry me around were my father and mother, the latter of which, strangely, did not appear to be an Uchiha or a Hyuuga. And of course, given all this new information about my location, I could infer that the energy I felt within and without my body, and had been utilizing and practicing with, was in fact chakra.
Of course, there wasn't really anything I could do with or in regards to this new information. I was still trapped in the body of an infant, after all. So, I continued to do as I had been for the first five months, finding various new ways to manipulate my chakra and practice with it, continuing to practice with it using the methods I had already discovered, listening to everything going on around me, and also, now, watching my surroundings very intently. After all, while I had wholeheartedly convinced myself that I was merely trapped in a coma-induced dream, it's not like I could do anything to wake myself up more quickly.
At least, nothing that I was aware of. And I knew myself far too well to think that I wouldn't die of boredom if I didn't do something. So, why not observe my surroundings utilizing every means available to me? Why not practice with my chakra in each and every way that I can?
And so, that was how I continued for the next three months. Almost exactly as I had for the first five, albeit with a few changes. But, unfortunately, I would soon discover that this 'dream', or rather this new world, was not content to merely let me live and let live.
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It was at a little past the eight month mark when things changed. I was at the Hyuuga Clan compound, and by my count there were still three or four days before I would be taken back to the Uchiha compound for the next week, when suddenly the sliding door to my nursery opened, and in walked two people I instantly recognized. Neither was my mother or father. Rather, one was a withered old Hyuuga woman whom did not bear the cursed seal, and thus was most likely a member of the Main Family. The other woman looked to be middle-aged and tall, with deathly pale skin and pure white hair, but her most distinct feature were the bandages, covered in kanji and various other markings, wrapped around her eyes.
I had seen both of these women before. The Hyuuga woman I had obviously seen around the compound, and I say obviously because I assumed she was a Clan elder. The other woman, however, did not seem to be of any relation to either the Hyuuga or Uchiha Clans, but rather seemed to have been a good friend of both of my parents.
But regardless, I found myself wondering in my head why the two women were there, and it would not be long before I got my answer. The two women exchanged a few brief, hushed words, only a few of which could I make out, as while I had been slowly picking up on the language, no one had yet begun to teach me its intricacies. But, from what I could understand, the blindfolded woman seemed to be almost pleading with the elder about something, while the withered old husk merely brushed her off as briskly as possible.
Either way, once the hushed conversation was over, the blindfolded woman bent down and picked me up, carrying me out of the room. She carried me through my home at the Hyuuga compound, and it was only once she slid open the rice paper door to the outside that I realized something strange was definitely going on. Not only was I being moved a good three or four days before I should have been, but it was pitch black outside. Blindfold had me held in such a way that I was looking over her shoulder, and as she turned around the shut the door behind her, I was facing sort of up, towards the night sky, and I could see that the moon was only the merest sliver.
As such, it cast only the slightest of lights. Luckily, Blindfold didn't seem to need much light to find her way. Which, of course, made perfect sense, given that her eyes were covered. I doubted she ever needed much light to tell where she was going. As she made her way towards the compound's main gates, I found myself wondering if she was a sensory-type.
Of course, I was working on the assumption that she was in fact a shinobi, but I was fairly certain that she was. So far as my memory, and thus I, was aware, civilians in the Naruto-verse didn't wear the Konoha flak jacket or head protector. Of course, there wasn't really anything saying that my 'dream' was exactly the same as what I remembered from the Before.
Blindfold took to the trees once the guards at the gates had closed the door behind us, and I must say, I had never felt anything quite as exhilarating as moving as fast as shinobi are capable of. Being in a car certainly didn't compare. You couldn't feel the wind in your face unless you rolled down the driver's side window, and even then, it had always been more of an annoyance to me than anything else. But this...
This was different. It almost felt that rush of adrenaline you get when your fight or flight instincts kick in. Of course, I still couldn't feel the wind in my face, considering that I was facing away from the direction in which Blindfold was moving. But I still closed my eyes as the wind chilled me, through the blanket in which I was swathed even. I had always preferred cooler weather, and this wind that Blindfold's speed was producing certainly did the trick.
As it was, I had just opened my eyes to see if I could make out anything that might give me a hint as to where Blindfold was taking me, because I couldn't be certain that our destination was the Uchiha compound, when I saw the flash of scant moonlight on cold steel. My reaction was instantaneous, as I'm sure anyone else's would have been.
I attempted to shout a warning to Blindside, completely forgetting that I was technically an infant, didn't have enough understanding of the language to actually formulate a warning, and wasn't capable yet of actually producing the words even if I did. As I'm sure you can imagine, what came out was my least favorite sound.
An infant's cry echoed through the forest, made all the more unbearable by the knowledge that my mouth was what had produced the sound. Thankfully, it still managed to get the job done, as Blindfold, thrown off guard by my exclamation, seemed to see through whatever trick our attacker had been using to hide himself from her, I presumed, sensory capabilities.
As such, Blindfold swiftly ducked and, shifting me so she could hold me with only one arm, moved to intercept our assailant's next strike. Of course, I couldn't see any of what was going on, but I can certainly tell you what I was feeling at that moment. Dream or no, I was pretty damn spooked. I mean, I knew I was in the Naruto-verse, or at least dreaming that I was, but the whole 'shinobi may be cool, but they are also highly proficient killing machines' thing hadn't really hit me until that exact moment, as I felt Blindfold moving this way and what I could only imagine were rapid bouts of hand-to-hand combat.
Of course, I could see what was going on behind Blindfold, and as such I saw three more assailants hopping through the trees, seemingly looking to either ambush Blindfold while she was distracted, or surround and overwhelm her. Whichever option it was, I recognized their uniforms, albeit only just.
Each of them wore dark pants, white and red shin and wrist guards, and a white and red flak jacket that went over only one shoulder. If my memory served, that was the uniform worn by shinobi from The Village Hidden by Clouds. Kumo. Unfortunately, this realization brought another epiphany. Kumo was always consolidating its power through various methods, according to my memories. One of these methods was stealing secrets or other such things from other Hidden Villages. Kekkei genkai, for example.
Which meant that, as an, assumed, member of the Hyuuga and Uchiha Clans, and thus holding the potential to awaken both the Byakugan and the Sharingan, they were probably after me.
Damnit! Coma or no, can't I just have a normal dream for once?!
Blindfold dodged this way and that, delivering an attack of her own here or there, whenever an opportunity presented itself. For my part, I made sure to cry out whenever an attack came from behind Blindfold, though given the sensory abilities that I assumed she had, this was really mostly for my benefit. This was the first time I had been involved in a fight, let alone one that was probably more of a mortal combat, and doing something, even if it was making that God-awful noise that I despised so damn much, really helped my nerves.
Of course, there was really nothing to prepare me for the field of red that suddenly clouded my vision. But it wasn't a translucent red, which I imagined was the color everyone from the Before meant when they talked about seeing nothing but red. It wasn't a bright red, like a flash of pain that people talked about in the Before either. It was a dark red, and while it was opaque, it seemed to shift and move. And that's when I realized. There had certainly been enough blades flashing around to warrant it. Blood.
But then I was falling, and I wasn't seeing the red anymore. That's when I realized that it had been Blindfold's blood, not that of one of the Kumo shinobi. And then I came to rest, in what felt like pair of arms. I looked up at my savior, and what I saw sent shivers down my little spine. Tanned skin. A shock of short, dark brown, practically black hair. Brown eyes, slightly narrowed. But it wasn't that that got my attention. Rather, it was the x-shaped scar on the man's chin.
Danzo Shimura.
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Alright, that's all for today. Let's be off.
No, I'll tell you who Danzo is tomorrow.
Now come on. We do still have work to do today.
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"You can close your eyes to reality but not to memories." - Stanislaw Jerzy Lec
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A/N: Sorry for the third time. It's going to pick up next chapter, because that's when Asahi's journey really begins. Also, to anyone who's favorited or followed me rather than just one of my stories, the only reason I'm not thanking you for doing so is because I can't figure out how to see who all has done so, and I deleted most of the emails from the site before I decided to start thanking people for favoriting and following, and I'm not going to thank some people but not thank others. That'd just make me an asshole. But anyway, I'll see you next time.
