"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on. Life " by Robert Frost
Being a smart girl, or so I liked to think, the first thing I did was to scout the perimeter, meaning I got lost a lot and had to ask for information every fifteen minutes while at the same time fend off strangers who wanted to search for my 'mom', these were mostly civilians. The village had a nice jazz feel to it, hard to put in words but when I was walking I couldn't stop humming to 'But not for Me', perhaps it was the feeling of overall happiness and security that you just didn't get at my first world. Here, people liked to talk to strangers and let their money bags hanging at their arms. The vendors put their merchandise at display and occasionally you would see a ninja jumping on the rooftops, of course, when you stopped to think that the nice feel to the city came from the fact that these people were protected by people who killed mercilessly to ensure their village economical, political and social environments were up to the best – your mood soured pretty quickly.
My first weeks were almost all spent in the same way, sometimes I would get a quick meal and go out and about exploring and getting to know people. I even came by the Nara's clan head coincidentally. Of course, he made me stop to talk, Yoshino pretty much forced me to attend to one of her special meals – Special because there was someone, read me, to compliment her food without having to be prod – baby Shikamaru was mostly quiet I left before it was dark with too much food and another kimono, what made me think that maybe the encounter wasn't all that coincidental. The appointment at the Konoha Hospital was smooth the doctor had nothing bad to say about my overall health, he was dare I say surprised an orphan-civilian-baby could take care of herself, his words, not mine.
As I had so much free time on my hands, I started to do what I loved the most. I started to recreate the Earth culture. From poetry to books, pieces and songs. I did it all. The poetry was the easiest, Robert Frost was light and made me feel like a wiser person every single time I recited it, my favorite would always be 'The road not taken' not only because of the obviously religious context but because of my own personal struggles. To be or not to be. A ninja that is.
Did the world really need one more assassin? The more I thought about it, the more I didn't like the concept of killing for the good of the village. As a self proclaimed old soul I really wanted to give these people a taste of all the cultural and religious options my old world had. Perhaps, it would do them some good. Konoha was polytheist hands down; there was so many goddess and gods. The regular ninja normally didn't take religion to heart, after all they could die any second in a mission, no amount of gods was going to change that, they adopted a cynic view in life that was understandable when you put yourself in their place. I wonder how they would take 'Thou shall not kill'. Probably not well, since it would automatically condemn all of them to hell. Perhaps an edited version of the bible would be possible. Lord forgives my pride for thinking myself good enough to rewrite His words. But what purpose would I have in this world if not to spread His words? In Mark 16: 15-16 He said "Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned." And in Revelation 22: 18-19 "I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book". Strengthening his words again in Proverbs 30: 5-6 "Every word of God proves true; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him. Do not add to his words, lest he rebuke you and you be found a liar." And Deuteronomy 4:2 "You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you." So I would not add, but some things just wouldn't work in this world, there was no need to make the Hokage have words with me for initiating a revolution against ninja, especially since it would only increase the blood spewed on earth. After a careful analyze I came to realize that I wouldn't be a good ninja but I had to try, even though I would always be against killing. All I wanted was a simple life, to be recognized as the most famous civilian, a political and cultural carrier. I would start small, publishing a few books and poetries, just enough to get the public attention. I wanted to be able to travel between the countries, spreading His words and giving people a chance to get to know a more cultural side to the world. Meaning, I would immortalize Edgar Allan Poe, Frank Sinatra, Shakespeare, Melville, Tolkien, George R.R. Martin and J. K. Rowling –just because I can – Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson. It would be hard but I wouldn't stop there, Nat King Cole, Dvorak, J.S. Bach, Louis Armstrong, Mozart and so many others, whole centuries of literature and music, politics and economy. I would do it all. Life was fun. Needless to say the amount of paper I had to buy was scary. My first task would be learn to write in this world proper Japanese, as to not cause suspicious, then I would move on to write in my mother's language and then to Japanese. It would be hard enough to find the right words and don't lose the rhythm and meaning of the songs or pieces. Joy. Another aspect of Konoha that never failed to amaze me was how they didn't have jeans! I searched everywhere and I COULDN'T find anything similar to denim. THAT was going to change. Fashion here was abysmal. Ignore the fact that ninja wore the same outfit every single day. It was depressing. All those cute little adjusts teenagers did on their clothes were inexistent here; it was like everybody dressed in a pattern. Civilians used mostly conservatives clothes and ninjas dressed military- ish, with a few exceptions - i.e Naruto and Sakura – and there was no sneakers here. The main problem was I needed to bond with the newest ninja generation, which meant I would need to become at least a genin. It would make it easier to buy certain materials and get contacts out of the village; Also, ninjas looked down on civilians. It is human nature to scorn those who didn't go through the same experiences, or to create bonds with those who shared their hardships. So, genin it was. May God help me, I think I just condemn myself.
Two years later
Turns out I didn't have to wait for a eternity for the genin that checked on me bring up the Academy subject. All my careful planning was for nothing. The Jounin-sensei whose name I just can't remember asked me if I had interest in join the Academy, which I said yes, and he said to 'Be at the Academy gate at 0800 hours tomorrow'. Talk about anticlimactic.
To enter the Academy, one had to meet basically the following requirements.
To love Konohagakure and want to help preserve peace and prosperity; Which I didn't get entirely since you was signing up for assassinations missions and bullshititng other military governments.
To be generally well in the head and have a healthy body, since being sick would defeat the whole ninja aspect of being… well, a ninja.
When I got to the gates there was about two dozen kids waiting outside. Some looked about six years old, others eight. I was probably the youngest of them, which Lord knows why apparently gave the girls cooing rights. One word, annoying. I put on my best get-the-heck-away glare but they just went all 'awwwwn'. Maybe, I MIGHT be able relate to Sasuke now. Big and fat, MAYBE.
At exactly 0800, or what I assumed it to be the gates opened and some weird dude with a chin dimple started to blab about how Konoha was perfect and how it was an honor to serve the village and how we were handpicked to carry that honor and blablabla I zoned out after that. After an eternity he started to hand out applications we had to sign because after that we were supposed to be under swear to keep the village secrets, ahem! Secrets…. Imagine that. And there wasn't a place to parental signatures, which made me think we were all orphans, therefore expandable and cheap. Half of these kids wouldn't get past chunin; so really, it wasn't as much as being a honor working for the well of the village as it was a question of giving back with interest the money the Hokage had spent on us. Politics. It was so much like discounts and cheap offers. Triple the price because there is always some innocent bystander that believes the product is better because it's expensive, than after a couple weeks give a 50% discount. No matter the outcome, you will win.
No matter, at the end of the week I was in class. After the initial mess where kids started to cry and the teachers had to drag some to them to their respective classes, it was clear who was top dog and who wasn't. The teachers hand a subtle way to separate the proverbial week from wheat. Mostly the clan kids and the exceptional – be it on intellectual or physical aspects of the classes – were put together, sitting next to each other or the teacher may ask one of the kids to ask the other to play, stuff like that. Not subtle at all but kids at this age don't get subtle.
The initial curriculum wasn't particularly hard it consisted of mathematics, geography, memorizing the Shinobi Rules and all that boring stuff that one day would save our asses. Surprisingly I had Neji and Lee on my class. Lee was as showed on the anime a happy boy. A REALLY excited-about-anything boy, I thought he was like that because of Gai, but apparently no. He scares me sometimes, and those bushy brows. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm not one to judge people based only on their physical looks, but the first time I had to hold my horses to don't laugh on his face because all I could think was 'caterpillars'. One would expect him to be bullied due his features but he was such a nice boy! Always eager to help you, no one ever got angry at him for long. Then, at the other side there was Neji. The stoic prodigy. He was a sad kid, there was no other way to put it. No one would talk to him out of fear of retaliation, he would eat lunch alone under a tree and practice kata until it was time to go to the class. After a month I got the opportunity to hear his voice in a really embarrassing moment of my life I wish I could erase from my memories. I was hanging in a bar upside down when one of the boys joking around made me lose my grip, in one swift motion Neji, who was next to me held me face down like a potatoes sack…. And my panties were on display for all the kids in our class. To my displeasure, after that I got known as the 'Strawberry panties girl'. The incident led to a weird friendship with Neji Hyuuga. Well… maybe friendship is a little far stretched… oops?!
Well, first sorry for going so long without updating this FF. I'm honestly sorry, but I went through a radical change in life and all that jazz.
Hope you guys enjoy. This time I will try to post at least once a week. Honestly.
You may like or don't. Let me know, either way I'll be happy you took the time to read. - michi out