I apologize for the wait ladies and gentlemen, but the wait is over as the curtain is ready to rise for the next act of our story. Please take your seats and hold your applause for our wonderful actors when we reach the end of today's act. Now without further delay, let the show begin!

Chapter Nine: Is This the End?

Kojiro P.O.V.

It's been four days since I got on the ship and left the Land of Water. Ever since I got on board, I always go to the back of the ship to see if I can still see the land where I was reincarnated only to see nothing but water in every direction that I looked. My mind always wander back to Mrs. Shinomiya, Noriko, and Ryuji and just imagining the worried looks on their faces was enough for me to feel guilty about disappearing all of a sudden despite the fact that I was kidnapped. And that's what bothers me, no matter how hard I try I can't remember who my kidnappers were or why they kidnapped me. The only thing that I remember is being in a dark cave staring at the cold dead bodies of my parents laying in a pool of their own blood. I still cry and feel chills going down my spine whenever I think about it.

"I should get some sleep." I mumbled to myself resting my arms on the wooden railing looking up to the starry sky. "Will I dream about mom and dad again? If I do, I hope they're good ones." A chill went down my spine from the cold night air as I made my way to where my cabin on the ship is and my mind wandered to what Ao told me before I got on board. "Is what Ao told me true? Do I really have a Kekkei Genkai?" I raised my hands to look at my palms. "I know that Kekkei Genkai is a mixture of two chakra natures with dojutsu being the exception, but do I really have one?"

"Hey kid!" I looked up from my hands to see a man I'm guessing is one of the ship's staff walking towards me. "What are you doing wandering out here all alone so late at night? You should hurry back to your cabin and get some sleep." He stopped in front of me and knelt down so that he was at eye level with me and gave a friendly smile. Another thing that sucks about reincarnation, everyone is taller than you and treats you like you're some defenseless kid... oh wait, I am a defenseless kid. "After all, a little girl like you needs all the sleep you can get if you want to be pretty for any boy that catches your eye."

"I'm a boy!" I shouted in complaint at being called a girl yet again. I already accepted the fact that I look like a girl, but that doesn't mean I enjoy being called one. The man's eyes widened and had a look of surprise at both my outburst and what I said.

"You are?" He asked before sheepishly rubbing the back of his head letting out a nervous laugh at the awkward situation he got himself in. "Sorry about that kid." He then got to his feet dusting off non-existent dust on his clothes. "Anyway, you should really get back to your cabin. Is it nearby or do you want me to walk you there?" I just shook my head and pointed to the door next to us which happens to be my cabin when he stopped me. "I see, at least you didn't get lost. sleep well kid." With that being said the man continued to walk past me as I opened my cabin's door and walked in.

"I might as well wear a sign that says 'I'm a boy!' around my neck." I muttered to myself before sighing pulling out my hair stick and hair tie to let my hair fall and flopped on the bed in the cabin to stare at the ceiling while placing my hair stick and hair tie in the folds of my kimono. My arm found its way to rest on my forehead as my thoughts went back to the worried looks that are most likely on Mrs. Shinomiya and Noriko's faces right now. 'Everything went so fast, I didn't had the chance to ask if everyone's okay back in the village.' I rolled to lay on my side to looked out the window to see the stars shining in the night sky. 'I doubt Ao, Chojuro, or Mei knows how they are even if I did ask, I just hope they're alright.' I felt something press against my chest and reached into the folds of my kimono to pull out a red scroll much to my surprise and unfurled it to read the contents inside.

After five minutes of rereading the scroll, I found out that it was the scroll that I wrote what in I remembered from the anime and manga. "What's this doing here? I thought I left it in my room at Mrs. Shinomiya's place." I took my eyes off the scroll to look at the ceiling trying to remember where the last time in my room I left the scroll before realization hit me. "Ah, I forgot to put it away before going to bed." I furled the scroll and stared at it contemplating what I should do with it. I sighed before unfurling it again and began to tear it apart into tiny pieces making sure that not one part of it left a single word that was readable. After I thoroughly tore the scroll, I gathered the pieces and threw them out the window to be scattered by the wind before climbing in the bed and let myself be dragged into a dreamless sleep.

The sound of creaking wood stirred me from my slumber but kept my eyes closed in hopes of falling back to sleep. The sound got closer as the squeak of a door's hinges entered my ears and rolled in my bed so my back was facing the door. Let's just say that was a bad idea when I started to hear footsteps slowly approaching me when a hand suddenly clasped over my mouth and nose forcing me out of my drowsy state as my eyes shot wide open and I began to trash around letting out muffled scream hoping to at least either get away or someone hearing me.

"Is this kid one of them?" I heard someone asked removing their hand from my mouth only for a piece of cloth to take its place in muffling my screams.

"If the blue hair is anything to go by." I heard another feminine voice replied as the other person forced my arms to my back and began to tie them. "I don't get why one of that clan is on this ship, but then again, I don't really care. The boss will be happy either way." I couldn't see who was tying me up, but I did saw the the person in front of me was a woman probably in her mid-twenties with long brown hair tied in a bun and brown eyes wearing a red chinese dress with a yellow trim. She gave her companion an impatient glare. "Would you finish tying her up already? If we don't leave now we're going to get caught."

"Shut up." The person behind me grumbled as he tightened the last knot on my wrists and started to tie my ankles holding them down with one hand while the other made a single knot before he grabbed both ends of the rope and tightened it effectively restraining my legs. "You try tying up a struggling kid. it's not as easy as it looks." The woman sighed resting her hands on her hips as the man finished the last knot and walked around me to stand in front of the woman for me to see a tall bald man wearing a black suit. "There, she's tied up, you happy now?"

"About time." The woman said turning to open the door to my cabin and looked left and right. "Doesn't look like there's anyone yet." She looked back to her male companion. "Grab the kid and let's get out of here."

"Don't tell me what to do." The man glared at her before turning around and got on a knee reaching for me. Out of fear, I kicked the man as best I could with my ankles tied together aiming for his knee, but my aim was off and ended up kicking him in the crouch which resulted in his howling in pain and fell to the side holding his damaged goods twitching.

"You idiot!" The woman whispered in panic as she looked out the door to see a few people approaching before shutting the door and pushing the bed against it. After she finished barricading the door she turned to face me with a glare. "Now you've done it kid, you shouldn't have done that." She pulled a dagger out of nowhere and I stared at it in fear as the light of the moon reflected off the blade. "If you had been a quiet and obedient little girl, then I wouldn't have to resort to killing you." I tried to back away from the woman but something flew past my head halting my movements as the cloth that was tied over my mouth fell to the floor and there was a cut on my cheek with small beads of blood trailing down from it. I slowly looked behind me to see it was the dagger the woman was holding embedded into the floor. "That was a warning shot, the next one will be aimed for your heart." I looked back to the woman as she pulled out another dagger and slowly approach me. "I don't know why the boss wants someone from your clan, but I have a feeling you're going to cause problems even if we did manage to get you off this ship."

'My clan?' I thought in confusion as she knelt down and placed the tip of the dagger under my chin and forced me to look her in the eyes. 'What's this lady talking about?'

"I feel generous today, so I'll let you choose how you want to die." The woman said removing the dagger from under my chin to point the end towards my right eye. "You have two options between a quick death, or a slow and painful one." She slowly pulled the dagger back a few inches as a sadistic smirk formed on her lips. "Now pick, you have until the count of three before my dagger digs those beautiful green eyes of yours out." With her other hand, she raised one finger. "One."

My body wouldn't stop shaking as I couldn't take my wide fearful eyes away from the blade as she pushed it forward a little. 'She's going to kill me.'

"Two." The woman raised another finger bringing blade inched closer and closer to my eye and I started to break out in a cold sweat. 'She's going to kill me.'

"Two and a half." My eyes widened even further that she actually said that which caused my breathing to start getting abnormally fast and I knew right away that I was hyperventilating from fear of a dagger being mere inches from my eye and knowing that the last thing I'll ever see is the sadistic glee on the face of the woman in front of me. 'She's going to kill me!' I shut my eyes waiting for the dagger to plunge in them and for the pain that's sure to be unbearable.

"Stop it!" I risk cracking open an eye to see the man I nailed in the nuts earlier gripping the woman's wrist and her dagger in his other hand. "The boss wants her alive, he'll be royally pissed off if you kill someone from that clan!"

"So what if he's pissed!" The woman snapped wrestling her arm out of his grip. "It's not worth getting caught just to deliver some kid! He doesn't even explain why he wants a member of that clan, so why should I give a damn of whether we deliver the kid or not?!"

"Are you really that stupid?!" The man yelled in frustration. "Did you forget the last time one of our men killed a person from a nearly extinct clan?!" I continued to watch the two argue before realizing that it was my chance to get out of these ropes and slowly backed up to the dagger that was still behind me and started to slowly cut the ropes on my wrists. "The guy's lucky to be alive, what do you think will happen to you when he finds out you killed this little girl?!" I fought off the urge to shout that I was a boy and focused on cutting the ropes.

"I'd like to see that bastard try and kill me." The woman said waving a dismissive hand. "He may be the boss of our group, but that doesn't mean he controls me." She then glared at the tall man in front of her. "I kill whoever I want to kill. If my target ends up being the last of their clan then oh well, it's their fault for being pathetic weaklings." I felt the ropes loosen around my wrists knowing that they were cut and knew I didn't had much time to free my legs so I decided to throw caution to the wind and quickly pulled the the dagger out of the floor and just as quickly cut the rope around my ankles and made a run for the window I conveniently left open since the door was barricaded. Apparently I wasn't quiet enough as when I reached the window a dagger whizzed past me and embedded itself in the window frame. "Where do you think you're going brat?" I slowly looked back to the man and woman as her glare sent chills down my spine. "Don't even try it, on the other side of that window is nothing but open water. So be a good girl and come with us quietly." She then gave the man a side glare. "You happy now?"

"Very." The man nodded and slowly approach me cracking his knuckles. "Now, in case you try to run again, I'll break both your legs." My eyes widened at that and with every step the man took I could feel my body shaking fearing what they were going to do after they get their hands on me. "We can't kill you since our boss will kill us is we did, but there isn't anything that says we can't immobilize you if you get difficult."

I realized that my options were limited as the man got closer and I tried to think of a way out of here. My eyes scanned the room I can use as a weapon or a possible exit other than the window behind me only to seen none of either. I could practically feel my heart savagely pounding against my rib cage and my breathing started to get heavier.

"Kill." I heard a deep, menacing, watery voice echoing inside my head. "Blood. I thirst for blood. Give me blood!" My head started to feel as if something was trying to rip my brain to pieces and shatter my skull as the voice repeated the same words over and over again to the point it was unbearable that I was gripping my head and shut my eyes tightly without knowing it letting out screams of pain when I felt them. I felt tears running down my face as I tried to shut the voice out of my head that only got louder with every second that past. "kilL! Kill! KILL!" I couldn't think properly anymore when I felt my body collide with something before what I think was water entered my mouth going down my throat filling my lungs and when I opened my eyes I saw that I was under water watching the ship I was on floating by. My vision started to get blurry and my eyelids felt heavy as they slowly closed before everything faded to black.

I screamed bolting to a sitting position breathing hard and looked around to see I was in my room from my past life. I saw I was laying in my bed that was next to a desk with a swivel chair. Next to the desk was a book shelf filled top to bottom with manga and medical books and my closet.

"A dream?" I muttered in disbelief resting a hand on my forehead. "It felt so real. I thought I died."

"Kyle!" My head left my hand to look at the door when a voice I thought I'd never hear again called out. "Are you up yet? You're going to be late for school!"

"Mom?" I hesitantly whispered.

"I'm heading to work now!" I heard my mother yell again so i can hear her. "I left your breakfast on the table so be sure to eat it before it gets cold!" I heard the front door close telling me she left.

"No way, I'm alive?" I looked to the window to look at my reflection to see that I was a teen with my hair was its usual messy short brown and my eyes were the same shade as my hair. I looked my body over to see there wasn't a scratch on me. "Was all that just a dream?" I looked over to the Naruto clock I had on my desk and my eyes widened when I saw the time. "Crap! I'm going to be late!" I jumped off the bed and opened my closet pulling out random clothes and left my room to take a quick shower. After my shower and eating breakfast, I ran out of the house remembering to lock it and ran down the street of my neighborhood praying I make it to school on time. When I reached the crosswalk I saw Jason waiting for the light to change. "Hey, Jason!"

Jason looked behind him and grinned when he saw me running towards him. "Hey Kyle, running a little late today?"

"Shut up." I said resting my hands on my knees trying to catch my breath. After I was breathing evenly again I stood up straight and stood next to him to wait for the light to change. "I'm running late because of a weird I had dream is all."

"A dream?" Jason asked looking to me curiously. "What kind of dream was it?"

"It felt so real." I replied and we began walking when the light finally changed. "I dreamt that I pushed you out of the way of a out of control ambulance only to get hit myself and died."

"You dreamed you died?" Jason asked raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, and that's not even the weird part." I said as we passed a convenience store. "After that I dreamt that I was reincarnated in the Narutoverse."

"I should have guessed." Jason chuckled as we approached another crosswalk. "Coming from a big Naruto fan like you it's no surprise that you had a dream like that."

I laughed at that as the light changed and we started crossing. "You're probably right. we should hurry before Mr. Turner gets pissed at us."

"Yeah." Jason nodded in agreement. "I don't want to hear another one of his lectures about us wasting our young lives and keeping him waiting."

"I think once is enough." I shuddered at listening to what could be hours of a middle aged man droning on about how we should cherish the time of our youth before we regret it only for it to turn into him yelling at us for being late to his class and keeping him waiting as he doesn't start class until all students are accounted for except those who were sick. All of a sudden I stopped walking and couldn't move my feet, I looked down in surprise and tried to lift a foot up only for it to stay rooted to the ground like it was glued there. "What the?"

"Come on Kyle." I looked up to see Jason in front of me with his hands behind his head. "Hurry up or we're going to be late."

"Jason, I can't move my legs." I said trying to lift my leg again only for the same result as last time. "Why won't they move?" The sound of a siren penetrated my ears and I looked to the source and my eyes widened in horror when I saw it was an ambulance and frantically look to Jason who hasn't noticed yet. "Jason! Get out of the way!" He just continued to look at me as the ambulance got closer and closer as I grabbed my leg in a desperate attempt to fore the appendage to move to no avail. I looked back to the ambulance to see it was mere seconds from hitting us when all of a sudden my arms moved on their own and pushed Jason out of the way and I felt something hard collided with my body sending me flying. 'This is just like...'

My eyes snapped open only to see nothing but pitch black and when I tried to move my arms I realized that my wrists were tied behind my back and cloth over my mouth again. I still couldn't see anything and I assume the reason why is because I'm blindfolded which wasn't really helping my panicked state of mind right now. There was a bit of swaying and that's usually an indication that you're being carried either on someone's shoulder or under their arm.

'A dream?' I thought in confusion.

"Honestly, what was this kid thinking?" I heard a familiar voice said in exasperation making me stiffen a little. "The brat's lucky we jumped after him since we needed him alive or he would be fish food right now."

"I don't think he was thinking at all." A masculine voice said and I could hear from his tone that he was contemplating something and it hit me that they stopped calling me her, she, and girl. I thought over many ways how they knew I was a boy when they were calling me a girl before and blushed when one way popped in my head but quickly dismissed it. "He looked like he was in pain if him gripping his head was any indication."

"Or he's bat shit crazy." The woman replied with a snippy tone in her voice snapping me out of my thoughts and quickly pretended I was still unconsciousness. "Who else but people whose off their rocker grip their head like that and jump out random windows screaming like a crazy person?"

"You got a point there." The man admitted begrudgingly making me think that these two don't get along. "But that isn't our concern, all that matters is getting this kid to the boss." Everything fell silent after that with only the sound of footsteps entering my ears as I pretended to still be unconscious to think of a way to get away from these people. I considered using my chakra, but I can never know what could happen and might accidentally kill myself in the process. "How much do you think the boss is going to ask for when he sells him?"

My eyes widened under the blindfold but stayed perfectly still when I processed those words. Sell? As in giving something, or in my case someone, away in exchange for money kind of sell? Are these people slave traders?!

"Who knows." The woman replied and if I wasn't blindfolded and pretending to be unconscious I would probably see her shrugging right now. "All I know is that the boss wanted someone from that clan. Heck, he doesn't even know what they can do." I felt someone hit me in the head and I forced a yelp that wanted to come out down my throat to stay quiet and keep my act of being knocked out going until I figured out how to get away. "The only information he's got about them is that they all have blue hair and have an affinity for water style jutsu."

"One things for sure, the boss will be happy that we got him." The man said adjusting me on his shoulder which I now know was the way I was being carried. "The hidden cloud might pay a pretty penny for him. After all, weren't they on the hunt for people from different clans to breed their own in the village?"

'I'm not an animal!' I mentally yelled in frustration realizing that my legs weren't tie this time. I thought about kicking the man again but decided against that idea as I probably won't get away from his companion when he drops me. 'This can't be happening to me. First I lost my parents, then I had to leave everyone because of a theory, and now this? What's next? I ended up a jinchuriki?'

"Kill." a familiar deep, menacing, watery voice echoed in my head again.

'Not again.' I thought in horror when the familiar feeling of something trying to crush my skull made itself known and I couldn't help but let out a whimper when it got worse. 'Please, not this again.' I felt the man stop walking and I knew they heard me whimper but I didn't pay them any mind as the pain got so severe that the blindfold over my eyes were soaked from the tears that forced their way out and let out a scream that was muffled from the cloth over my mouth.

"There he goes again." The woman sighed in irritation. "Let's just kill the kid, he's getting on my nerves."

"We can't." The man said dropping me from his shoulder. "I don't know about you, but I feel like living."

"Like I care about what you feel like doing." I felt a foot slam into my gut which made me cry out in pain but only muffled sounds came out. "All I care about are two things. Killing and making money, so unless you want to be next I suggest you shut that trap of yours and let me do my thing." The blindfold was removed and I had to shut my eyes at the sudden brightness before slowly opening them to see the woman from the ship looking down to me with fake concern. "Oh you poor boy, you look to be in so much pain." She then smirked and kicked me in the gut again and I cried out again. "Let give you some more before I put you out of your misery!"

My cries of pain were nothing but muffled screams as the woman continued to kick me while I rolled myself into a ball in a vain attempt to keep her from kicking my stomach again only for her to change targets to my back. She then pulled out her daggers and seemed like she was playing Russian Roulette as she randomly threw them hoping to land a hit and prolong my suffering. One of the daggers cut the cloth and it fall out of my mouth making my cries heard for once which was music to her ears when a dagger finally hit me in the shoulder.

My vision started to get blurry and getting dark which reminded me of when I died in my past life. Tears continued to fall down my face when I thought I might die here and no one will find me. 'S-some... someone... please... help me.' Everything went dark and couldn't stop myself from surrendering to what I thought was Death's cold embrace.

It is now time to reply to the reviews of the audience who were kind enough to leave them for me to read and know how you feel.

guest reader: As you have witnessed today, Konoha is not Kojiro's next destination yet. Only those who see all knows the answer of our hero's fate.

Rodvek97: Not yet I'm afraid. Young Kojiro still has a long journey ahead of him.

SilverDragon1218: Only time will tell when and where Kojiro will reach his destination. They would most likely think the worst as Kojiro vanished in the dead if night. As much as it pains me to write it, it must be done and I shall always cherish the time and effort I put into making Kosuke and Akane. As you saw in today's act, the red scroll will now never fall in the wrong hands. I do apologize for the wait and I hope that this has satisfied you enough to patiently await the next act I have planned.

Darashiko: It warms my heart to hear that you liked it and I look forward to hear from you again.

Seeker of Immortality: No, he most certainly will not be happy. I am happy to hear you love it and I hope you leave a review for the next time you and this story cross paths.

MohamedOssama999: He did not blurt out due to shock of seeing Zetsu and wasn't thinking clearly in his grief of seeing his parents' corpses. Glad to know you thought it was great.

oshietenaruto: Believe me when I say that the naruhina will happen, just not yet as Kojiro has yet to reach Konoha. Glad you like it and thought it was funny. I apologize for the wait, but here is the next chapter.

KittKed: That's the case in most kidnappings. He couldn't ask as Ao, Chojuro, and Mei might not even know. I thank you for waiting and hope to hear from you again.

NHHY99: An interesting idea, but unfortunately not going to happen.

That is all for the reviews and now the curtain must fall as we it a day for today's act and I hope to see you all again next time.