Roshi sighed as he watched the group of impressionable young kids who had just been inducted into the War Institution. He would really rather not be here, if he was to be honest. There were other things he would much rather be doing than standing here among his other jounin as they evaluated the children who had been recruited.

Many were from the clanless families out there, then there were those who were from the only clan in Iwa, the Kamizuru clan, the supposed 'royalty' of Iwa, Roshi suppressed a snort at that thought despite being a member of the clan, albeit a branch member himself. The remaining few were probably the poor few foundlings who had been recruited, forcefully or otherwise, from the local orphanages.

Not that he would care about it. In fact, he would not have been here if his ward was not among the children here today. Roshi narrowed his eyes as he looked out for the boy Han, spotting the child out there among the crowd easily, the boy's height easily making him stand out when he stood next to the other midgets.

Not that Roshi had any soft spot for the child. Oh, he had disliked the circumstances that the boy had been thrust into, but had no love for the child despite being in the same situation as the boy himself.

Being a Jinchuuriki had cultivated him into a rather cynical and bland person, it would seem.

How long had it been? he wondered. Ten years ago? He had been seven when he was chosen to be the host for the Yonbi, not knowing how it would have changed his life once he had accepted the honor. His fellow shinobi and family had not denounced him or anything, but they had been extremely wary of him and were unwilling to interact with him for any extended period of time. In the end, the only few consistent interactions he had had were with those shinobis from the sealing team and the Tsuchikage himself. Considering that the former were a bunch of paranoid ninjas and the latter was an extremely narrow-minded old man, there was small wonder that he had grown to be the bitter and antisocial youth that he was.

He was already making plans to leave the village so that he could journey around the country, except that the last Jinchuuriki for the Gobi had to go and bite the dust, leaving them to have to implant the tailed beast into another young boy. Han had been a very sullen young boy, but dutiful and obedient to a fault. Perhaps that was why he was chosen to be the next host, that and the honor it would have brought his family at the expense of the prejudice he would have to endure as a Jinchuuriki.

That was why Roshi had agreed to look after the young boy, postponing his plans to travel until the other host was old enough to fend for himself, just as Han's predecessor had done for him. It was the least he could do. Jinchuurikis should stick together, after all.

"This year's batch looks rather promising." One of the jounin beside him commented to his partner. Roshi made no effort to attempt to join in, probably because he knew that the jounins would probably shut up the moment they realised he was paying attention to their conversation.

"I heard that one of the recruiters had put forth eight kids from the same orphanage as potential candidates for the Jounin Track."

Roshi's eyes widened in surprise. Eight in a single batch? That was a record breaking number. Each year, the number of shinobi from orphanages who were actually considered for the Jounin Track was less than that number in total across all the orphanages.

"Seriously? They all passed the 'question'?"

"Yeah. All eight of them from the same establishment."

Impressive. Roshi nodded absentmindedly. When it came to foundlings, Iwa had a standing policy that so long as they portray the necessary qualities, they were to be drafted into the Iwa War Institution to be trained as shinobis. The 'question' however, was a method that was used to separate the wheat from the chaff at an early stage.

It differs each time, normally it was something along the lines of 'Are you willing to die for Iwagakure?', though Roshi had heard that other recruiters had changed up the question from time to time. Regardless, that 'question' was used to determine if the child possess the mindset that all Iwa Jounin should possess: Loyalty to the Country, the most important value that was even espoused within the ideal of Iwa, the Unity of Stone.

Still, to think that eight from the same orphanage would possess the same mindset, that was too much to be a coincidence, wasn't it?

"Any chance that the results were rigged?" The other Jounin asked, echoing Roshi's thoughts.

"Nope, the recruiter and the caretakers of that establishment were checked and questioned, and turns out that they were not the ones responsible for that whole fiasco."

"Oh, who is it that's responsible."

"That girl down there, third column from the right, fourth down."

Roshi looked at the kid in question, taking in the details of a young petite girl with messy blond hair and in what was probably second hand clothes. This was the kid?

"Turns out she managed to convince the rest of the kids to answer in the affirmative." The first jounin continued, chuckling as he added, "though she might find trying to keep her influence on the others intact a mite difficult now."

"Ah yes," the other Jounin conceded, "the Tsuchikage's son is in this batch too."

Kitsuchi was? Roshi grimaced, much as he disliked that little loudmouthed brat, that kid was as assertive as his father. That girl would stand no chance against him.

Still, Roshi could not help but notice that the child looked rather different than the other kids. Not in physical appearance, but there was just something about her that made her stand out as much as Han did.

Shaking his head, Roshi chalked it up to his imagination. Besides, there was a chance that she would not survive the course. His interest fading, he resumed his original line of thought as he waited for the ceremony to end.

The first month went about as well, or bad, as he would expect. Han was given a wide berth by the other students who were either intimidated by his size, or were warned to not go near him by their families. The boy had seemed a little dejected by this turn of events but had remained optimistic in his silent, stoic way.

The second month however, was vastly different. It was the day that Han's class had been scheduled for a survival lesson, where they had to hunt and kill their own game and cook it for their own meal. It was an exercise that was meant to desensitize the children and Roshi had expected that Han would return no different than before.

He had not expected the boy to be smiling when he returned from the exercise. It wasn't outright grinning, but it was evident that the child was in a good mood.

"What happened today, boy?" Roshi asked from his seat in the kitchen of their modest four room apartment.

"I made some friends."

What? Seriously? "Who?"

"Yuuyake, Inoue and Gari. And Kitsuchi-san too once he had decided he wanted some of our stew."

Four kids? That was a lot of them, Roshi reflected. "I see," He said finally as he rested his hands on the table, "tell me about them."

Turns out that for the exercise, they were told to form groups of four before they were to be released into the mountain range to hunt their game. Han was apparently waiting to be slotted into whatever unfortunate three man group that was left when he was sought out by this Yuuyake girl. Together, they had met their quota and returned to cook their meal when the other groups had returned. Evidently, some of the groups had failed to catch any game at all (Roshi had been surprised when he heard that Kitsuchi's group was one of them) and Han's group had shared their leftovers with the other hungry kids.

"Mostly because Yuuyake accidentally cooked too much rabbit stew." Han finished. He then scrunched up his face in a frown. "Though as much as they are nice people, Yuuyake and Gari are a little weird."

Now that was straightforward, Roshi noted as he reminded himself to help get rid of that bad habit of Han's. Straightforwardness was not a trait a shinobi should possess. Still…

"Weird, how?" Many shinobi had their own eccentricities, but for a Jinchuuriki to call them weird… this he had got to hear.

"When Ichidai-sensei told us to kill the rabbits we had caught, Yuuyake just did it without hesitation, and Gari was smiling when he helped skin it."

Guess that was why they were unafraid of Han, Roshi grinned, from the sound of it, they were a couple of little psychopaths. "Don't worry about it," he reassured Han, "go wash up, we can continue later."

At least he had friends. Roshi reflected bitterly, and maybe they would be crazy enough to stick around him when he told them the truth about himself. Roshi had known one such idiot that had stuck with him when the rest of his genin platoon shunned him because of his status as a host. That idiot blew himself up on one of the missions later on, and while Roshi would say good riddance to him, he would admit that the world had felt a little too quiet once he had passed.

Still, it would not hurt to make sure that the company Han keeps would not endanger him.

The next day found Roshi in the Iwa War Institution facing down his ward's class sensei across a table, a giant of a man by the name of Ichidai, who looked as if he would be much more at home as the daimyo's bodyguard than he would as a shinobi with that size he was. Still, it was fairly amusing to the Yonbi Jinchuuriki how the man who looked as if he could snap him in half with just pure taijutsu looked at Roshi with such wariness and fear.

"So, how can I help you, Roshi-san?" The bearded giant asked.

"I came to ask about Han." He replied simply, Ichidai nodded understandingly as he gestured for the Jinchuuriki to take a seat, even as he sat down on the opposite side of the table.

"Right, what do you want to know?" Ichidai asked warily, still on guard against the Jinchuuriki. "If it would be about his training, I can assure you that he is keeping up rather nicely."

"No, not about his training." Roshi shook his head, "I want to know about the company he keeps."

"Ah." Ichidai blinked, probably because he was perplexed at the request. It would seem that he was one of those shinobis who believed that the Jinchuurikis were as antisocial and inhumane as the beasts within them. Placing a hand on his chin in contemplation, the sensei mused, "well, there was a bunch of children who I had seen that was staying around the Jinchuuriki boy," Roshi suppressed a grimace at his tone, "one of them was even the Tsuchikage's kid! Though I believe that he was merely trying to get Han's support."

Impossible. Roshi reflected as soon as he heard that, Kitsuchi was more of a soldier than a politician, especially considering the way Oonoki had raised his kid. Still, gossiping about the Tsuchikage's brat was not his goal here today. "Can I have a look at their profiles please?"

"Very well," Ichidai nodded as he turned around to the wall of cupboards behind him, opening one and retrieving a stack of papers. Pulling out the relevant ones and passing them along to Roshi. "Here you go."

Accepting the documents, Roshi gave them a quick once over, taking note of their names and the assessment given to them by the instructors, only stopping when his eyes met the photo of the blond girl.

This must be the one that approached Han.

Yuuyake, clanless orphan, seven years old this year. Reports had deemed her fit for the jounin track based on the amount of influence she had somehow exerted over a group of orphans that were around her age. It then went on to describe her track record in the last two months, which was pretty uninteresting except for the fact that she had somehow established contact with the Tsuchikage's kid and the Gobi Jinchuuriki.

Still, there was not as much information as he would have liked about her. Roshi could not place it, but there was just something about the girl that had seemed off even now, when he was looking at her photo.

"Thank you, Ichidai-san." Roshi nodded as he passed the documents back. The other jounin did not reply immediately, something that Roshi paid no mind to as he stood up and left the room, his mind already moving to his next line of action.

Having already memorized Han's timetable, it barely required any effort for him to navigate the maze that was the War Institution's corridors to reach the current location that his ward was having a lesson at.

It was another of those desensitization lessons, and Roshi was glad that the lesson had not started, it may allow him to see how his ward was interacting with the current group of misfits he had joined up with.

Looking from behind the glass window that was part of the door, Roshi had no problem finding the children he was looking for. The short stocky boy was Kitsuchi, who was still wearing that damnable self-suffering smirk on his face. Next to him, with an expression that was the complete opposite, must be the sullen-looking Gari. He had a haunted look in his face, Roshi noted and if the reports were correct, had a rather tragic childhood. Still, it was not something that seemed to have affected him much, given how he was interacting with Han so easily. That only left the two Kunoichi of the group. The one who wore her black hair in a bob-cut hairstyle must be Inoue, another branch member of the Kamizuru clan, that leaves the last blond girl to be Yuuyake.

"What is it?" Roshi wondered aloud as he studied the child. She looked, for all intents and purposes, completely ordinary and disinterested in the upcoming lesson when the session's sensei called for quiet and began giving out instructions. Still, there was something about the child which he could not place.

He watched as the chunin sensei pulled out a rabbit from one of the cages beside him, holding it out and calling for a volunteer. None of the children immediately stepped forward at his summons, even Kitsuchi, which was normal, since this program was meant to make them get used to the idea of killing.

He watched as the sensei called out for a volunteer again, then found his attention drawn to Yuuyake, who was looking around at her fellow pupils, instead of paying attention. His eyes narrowed when the child seemed to sigh in depression before walking forward and taking the rabbit from the sensei. With one smooth motion, she snapped its neck before returning it to the beaming instructor and walking back to her fellows as though nothing had happened.

The entire eleven second in which the scenario had taken place was weirdly disturbing to Roshi, who then watched in fascination as the rest of the class was spurred into action, following the girl's example. Roshi paid them no mind, focusing only on the child who stood there with a disinterested look on her face as she watched her classmates murder the rest of the pitiful critters.

He had walked home in confusion that day, unsure of what to think of the child. One thing he was sure of, however, was that if he wanted his questions answered, he would need to observe her. Thankfully, being a Jinchuuriki in Iwa meant that he would have a lot of free time on his hands to complete that absurd task of his.

"Yuuyake! Wake up, it's time to go."

I blinked my eyes opened as I sat up groggily, Inoue's face the first thing which I saw when my vision focused. God, I hate mornings.

"S'up, Inoue-chan." I yawned as I got off my rock-hard mattress. "What's the first session we have today?"

"Morning," She greeted back, "first lesson's Taijutsu. Breakfast is on the table if you're hungry, but don't eat too much."

"Right, thanks. You're the best." I waved lazily as I got into the bathroom. After the morning ritual had been completed, I walked out, feeling much more refreshed as I looked around at the spartan like apartment that had been my home for the past two years.

The walls, floor and ceiling were all made from the same grey-coloured rock, unsurprising since the apartments set aside for us Shinobi Trainees were pretty much carved from the side of the mountain overlooking the Iwa War Institution.

Even our room lacked any form of decoration. With the exception of the table, even the furniture came in pairs. Two Mattresses (not beds) that were as hard as the rock we walk on, two cupboards and two chairs. That was it in the one room, one toilet apartment. Still, it definitely beats living in the orphanage. I, for one, appreciate the lack of noise throughout the night, having pretty much lost count for the amount of nights where I was rudely awakened by incessant bawling.

"You should hurry up and change, Yuuyake-chan." Inoue urged me. I acknowledged the black haired girl's advice by simply getting rid of my long sleeved pajamas and donning my usual second-hand shirt and pants.

Inoue, however, showcased her family's wealth by donning a proper set of training wear, which was pretty much the Iwa-nin combat uniform minus the Hitai-ate. Not that I was jealous or anything, though I would say that it did look a whole lot more practical than just a simple shirt and pants.

Leaving our apartment, we descended the mountain. I smirked as I remembered how daunting I had found the task a few years ago. Sure, it was actually a dangerous place to be, especially considering how there was a lack of safety precautions around here. I had even seen more than my fair share of broken bones and bad bruises from students who had a bad fall down the mountainside.

But as soon as we had learned the vertical-walking technique and was able to apply it on a consistent basis, the entire thing had pretty much became a cakewalk, pun intended.

I grinned as I watched a group of students who were still gingerly making it down the steep steps which led to the War Institution, even giving them a wave as Inoue and I sped past them.

As we ran down the mountain, the familiar sight of the Iwa War Institution loomed closer before us. If I had to put the structure's description into a single word, that word would be 'castle'. Walls over fifty meters tall, with parapets, towers and a huge looming spire that was the Tsuchikage's residence rising from the middle of the structure. The Iwa War Institution was indeed very aptly named.

"You're late!" A voice rang out as we approached the front gate. I rolled my eyes as a figure leapt off the roof of one of the buildings, landing beside me and Inoue as we slowed to a stop.

He really loves his dramatic entrances, don't he?

"Hi Kitsuchi-kun." I greeted as I slowed myself down to a brisk walk. "Glad that you can make it."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Kitsuchi demanded as he matched our pace. The spawn of the Tsuchikage was a stocky little boy, just barely shorter than me despite being two years older. Like Inoue, he was dressed in a mini-version of the Iwa-nin combat dress. Unlike Inoue, however, he was boisterous and loudmouthed little brat, though I would thank the heavens that he was not as snobbish as some of the other kids in his clan, despite being the Tsuchikage's son.

It was probably the only reason why I was willing to banter with him as much I did. "Nothing much, just means that you're alive."

Any retort that Kitsuchi had was cut short as soon as we reached the registry. Security was taken extremely seriously in the Iwa, more so in the War Institution. Even as we handed in our identification slips, we were probed by a couple of the guards just to ensure that there were no transformation techniques being used before we were cleared to enter the building.

As we made our way towards our assigned classroom, I could not help but look at the huge map of the Elemental Nations displayed within the great hall. Like always, I found my gaze falling upon the sole country in the woodland south.

Konoha.

It had just seemed so surreal, each time I looked upon that name upon the map. A constant reminder that I had known this world.

Ever since I was a child, I had been plagued by weird dreams, dreams of a city not unlike Iwa, but made of glass and wagons of metal that roamed the streets instead of civilians. Sometimes though, the dreams become much more vivid, of a loving family, or maybe a trusted colleague, but never so clearly that I could remember their faces or names.

As I grew up, I had learned to accept that these dreams, at some point, were definitely real. It would explain why I was able to learn at the pace unlike the other children at the orphanage, and able to speak a language that no Iwa citizens could understand despite never having practiced it before. It would certainly explain why I could remember fragments of memories of things that I was pretty sure I had never experienced before.

The entire process was unnerving, though it was nothing compared to the shock I had when I realised that I recognized this world.

Ninjas that could do impossible feats akin to magic and sorcery, villages that were hidden in something. A Kage. As muddled as my memory had been, these things from this world had stood out to me like a sore thumb, somehow triggering thoughts that had been buried deep in my psyche and pulling them out for my poor uncomprehending childlike brain to contemplate.

It took me awhile, but from what little I could derive from the memories which I had had, I came to a conclusion.

This world was supposed to be a world which only existed in a story, a story from my previous life in fact. A story about a boy Naruto, who had been cursed to have a monster sealed within him but was willing to go against the odds to earn the acknowledgement of his people before saving them from a crazy mass-murdering antagonist.

I was not delusional enough to exactly jump for joy when I worked it out. That world was not exactly the place that one should want to be in. People die on a daily basis in this world.

Bottom line: I did not want to die.

Originally, once I had wanted to just become a mere nobody. Live out a normal, simple and comfortable life. The chances of dying were especially high when you were a Shinobi. So I had worked out a solution, just choose not to be one.

Or at least I thought I had.

Somebody out there must have had a great laugh when I had found out that I did not get a choice at all. In Iwa, if you were an orphan and found to be capable of being a Shinobi, you either become one or die trying.

It was a cruel system, and I had only found out about it when I was four years old, when I had accidentally stumbled upon a group of Iwa-nin who were in the process of kidnapping those kids who had refused the recruiter's offer. It was a stroke of luck that they did not notice me, who knows what might have happened if they did?

Volunteer or be conscripted, it was clear which one would work out for you in the long run, especially since you get no say on whether you want to be in the Shinobi corps or not.

So I volunteered, as soon as I was discovered with the ability to become a Shinobi. I even managed to convince the batch of orphans who were with me to volunteer as well. Not all of them would make it, I was not even sure if I would make it, but I'll be damned if I did not try my best to get out of this alive.

Second lives were hard to come by, after all. Probably.

My goals were simple. Become a Shinobi that's strong enough to protect myself, but not prominent enough that I'd have a target board on my back. All the while, I'd be trying for a simple desk job, probably one like Ichidai-sensei's, it looked safe enough to have a low mortality rate.

So far, it was going swimmingly well. I smirked at Inoue and Kitsuchi, who looked at each other worryingly for some reason. They were among the first allies I had managed to attain, along with two other kids I had managed to rope into my little group. Especially Kitsuchi, who was the Tsuchikage's son, he would be especially useful in drawing attention from me.

I had a plan. One that should keep me alive for the foreseeable future.

Hopefully.

Hello everyone, Elusith here. Finally managed to get the second chapter out.

This one had been a rather pain to write because I couldn't really decide on the angle I wanted the story to portray. Had to rewrite this piece like about four times before I was satisfied. Regardless, I hope that it turned out well, though I couldn't help but be a little apprehensive about it seeing as my writing skill had deproved quite a bit(still working on it, will improve, I promise).

Reviews and constructive criticisms will be appreciated. And thank you for taking the time to read this chapter!

Regards,

Elusith.