My life had truly not been one worth living.
Diagnosed at birth as immunodeficient, it had been made abundantly clear to my parents that I would need to be sheltered from the outside world if I were to have a chance at any kind of long-term survival. A warning that could not have been more apt, as only a few short months later, a rare genetic disease had reared its ugly head, and rendered every single bone of my body brittle, effectively making a permanent cripple out of me at the ripe old age of three months old.
To their credit, my parents did not abandon me to my fate upon learning the news, as would have been their right, but had opted instead to do their utmost in order to ensure I would have as comfortable a lifestyle as my circumstances allowed, going as far as petitioning the hospital I resided in to grant me an expensive computer and eye-tracker system through which I could rudimentarily communicate with the outside world from inside my contamination room, simultaneously allowing me access to a plethora of books, movies, shows and online courses to occupy my endless amounts of free time once I was of age to do so.
Despite all the limitations of my situation and regardless of the fact that I did not have a single memory of ever setting foot outside the hospital or even having a single friend, they had invested themselves fully in my upbringing, pushing me to try and get the most out of the cards I had been dealt in life, urging me to always give it my all and do my best at all times, no matter how unfair I often felt my existence to be.
I credited them entirely with the fact that I was already, as a young eighteen years old teenager, halfway through an online five-years degree in computer science, offered by the local university, though I had to admit, it was much easier for me to find the time to be studious and productive when I had none of the numerous distractions that often accompanied the ability to move or socialize.
Silver linings and all that…
All things considered, it had come to a point where I had made my peace with the Universe and my place in it, fully determined, as I was, to leave a positive mark behind when my time finally came.
Which was why it was so simultaneously heartbreaking and infuriating for me when a blood vessel had suddenly and inexplicably exploded in the middle of the night, aggravating what should have been a simple nosebleed for anyone else in the world, into an agonizing ordeal, which had seen me slowly choking on my own blood, unable to do anything to prevent it and causing me to suffocate to death, alone as I drifted into darkness.
If I were to be honest with myself, I would admit being more disappointed than sad at the fact of finally dying. Death was not something I feared, and while I did not actively yearn for it, like I had so often done in my younger years or whenever I had spent time thinking on what kind of life awaited me. Nowadays, I did not feel like I had much to lose if it ever happened to me.
And yet, I could not help but find the timing of my death to be insulting, if not cruel. Had I known this would have been the extent of my life from the moment of my birth, I would have wished to have died on the spot, rather than put my parents through the almost two decades of suffering raising me had proved itself to be. A stillborn son would have been a devastating blow to their lives, but it paled in comparison to what they were sure to feel now, at the loss of their only child and the sequelae it would leave behind. Dying in my sleep was a terrible way for me to repay them for all the sacrifices they had done for my sake.
I could not ignore the pang of guilt plaguing my heart. In the end, my existence had truly been meaningless and only pain had come from my continued survival into the world. I was certain my family would have been much happier had I never been born.
Still, a part of me I loathed couldn't help but feel slightly relieved for my life to have come to an end, relieving me of the responsibility of moving forward and pretending I was happy.
In death, at least, there would be peace and I would be free of my worthless existence and the unnecessary worries that had followed every single moment of my wasted days.
Death, however, was not like anything I had expected it to be, now that I was taking the time to think about it.
I could feel neither hell nor heaven close by, no demon had come to harvest my soul, nor had any angel appeared to judge me or the way I had acted in life, in fact, not even aliens were anywhere to be seen.
There was nothing. Absolutely nothing.
I was floating, alone, in the void, unable to perceive a thing, blind, deaf, slowly being crushed by the emptiness and suffocating under the weight of my own existence, as I lay motionless, paralyzed in the nether.
It was not a pleasant experience, and as time passed, I found myself slowly delving into panic; It would be an ironic and extremely cruel joke if in the end if this was all the afterlife had to offer, essentially condemning me to the same fate I had hoped to escape through my death for all of eternity.
Especially when taking my rotten luck into account and the unfortunate way my life had gone so far, I would not be terribly shocked to learn this was all I would ever amount to, a prisoner of my own mind to the bitter end of times and it was with growing dread that I was starting to bitterly accept my fate.
Fortunately, however or perhaps unfortunately, it seemed destiny had finally taken pity on my miserable self and my suffering came to an end in the form of a very familiar sensation engulfing my world.
Pain.
I could feel my eyes burning from the brightness of the world, my ears ringing from the loudness of everything surrounding me, while my nose was assaulted by the overpowering smells of blood. A searing cold was transpiercing every pore of my body, freezing me to my very bones, causing me, despite my best efforts to break into cries at the harshness of my newfound situation.
I was tiny, I realized belatedly upon feeling myself being picked up by two shaky hands holding me into someone's arms before the pain started subsiding little by little and my vision faded to darkness once again.
Only after waking up a second time did I register that my being overwhelmed by my senses was not a temporary thing, but rather a new natural state of being for me, though it was only after a warm liquid, I recognized as either milk or baby formula, had been forcefully pushed down my throat that I had finally understood my current state of distress was due to having been fully reborn with all the disgusting and traumatizing circumstances that entailed.
I had no idea whether I was truly being given a second opportunity at life as compensation for my terrible first experience or if this was all a figment of my imagination, courtesy of a dying brain on the verge of fading to nothingness due to a lack of oxygen slowly extinguishing my existence, but it would not be a development I would be against, either way.
As far as I was concerned, the afterlife, rebirth, reincarnation or any other dozen of trillion of possible scenarios would be a welcome surprise I would be jumping into without question in my current condition, so long as they did not feature my being in pain forever.
If this was really happening, I was elated to have a second shot at reaching happiness and experiencing a content state of being. If it wasn't? Well then, I would try having as much fun and be as happy as possible before everything shut down. Having nihilistic thoughts would not help me in any way in my current situation, or at least for the time being…
This decision, while being a good one for my peace of mind, had not changed the unfortunate position I had found myself in, as a newborn child, seeing as my eyes and ears had clearly not yet developed to a point allowing me to discern anything happening around me, stopping any scheme I might have had dead in its tracks and forcing me to pick the second-best possible plan of action in the current circumstances; closing my eyes and pretending I did not exist. Simply wait until things settled down around me and I could realistically interact with the outside world without feeling any pain or having my senses be overwhelmed.
Luckily, while still not the greatest scenario to find myself in, the pill of being isolated and more or less asleep to the outside world, again, was made easier to swallow by the fact that I had kept a modicum of mobility, allowing me to move my fingers ever so slightly if I concentrated hard enough on it, a marvelous situation and a first for me, whom had never had the chance to experience such a simple pleasure of life. It was truly a dream come true for me, as I had fantasized about this feeling for years now, though my heart ached at the knowledge that running a finger over another was the pinnacle of human condition and the highlight of both my lives so far.
A very sad state of affairs, if I were to be honest…
It was in that state of semi blindness and unconsciousness that the next few weeks or months passed for me, empty of new developments, or novel experiences as I slept the days away with the only exception of when I was being fed, an event during which I never protested or refused my meal, having tried once and learning the hard way it would not be a winning strategy as I would simply be forcefully and painfully fed the same liquid at a later date whenever I rejected the gentler approach.
Fear of pain was a great motivator to make sure a baby would comply without question, I had discovered, which in a bizarre roundabout way, had proved itself a positive thing for me, as it kept me conscious enough of my situation to somewhat reliably keep track and estimate the amount of time I was wasting meditating in boredom and musing in the endless darkness and bitterness that was my mind.
My forced seclusion, however, proved somewhat productive as I quickly realized I had, upon dying, retroactively gained the ability of perfect recall, meaning my forced meditation, became that much worse, making me relive again and again the almost two decades of despair that had been my life, though sifting through my memories and experiencing things anew was a distraction at least from the crushing weight of the void I had grown accustomed to…
Luckily, the weeks had swiftly blended together for my warped perception of time, until one beautiful morning when I had been pleasantly surprised to discover my eyesight improve to the point where I could discern more than a few dark shapes and colors without issue, the moment immediately climbing on the list to become the very best day of both my existences as I enjoyed the simple freedom of darting my eyes all over the room while absent-mindedly wiggling my fingers like it had become a habit for me to do.
Immediately, I had examined my surroundings for the first time, after being allowed my very first view of the room I resided in, an opportunity which sadly proved itself an unsatisfying reward as beyond the bars of a baby bed, a white ceiling and faded beige curtains, my field of view was completely bare and sterile, devoid of any furniture, personality or any clues on the location or time period of my rebirth.
Still, staring curiously around me was all I could do and so I did, noticing a few additional details as I eyed the room, making me realize how terrible my eyesight must currently be if I had managed to not immediately notice the lightbulb on the ceiling lamp or the dark brown coloring of the mahogany flooring, observable from in-between the white bars.
This meager amount of details was not much either, but it was enough for me to determine that my new world had access to electricity at least, which was always a positive as it probably meant I could be afforded a certain amount of comfort in this life as well.
Predictably, however, the sight of the same empty room had quickly lost all of its appeal to me and boredom had started setting in when I was startled by the entrance into my room of a white mask wearing person walking directly towards my bed, picking me up and unceremoniously changing my diapers, making me realize to my growing horror that I had been behaving so far like any baby would, soiling myself and emptying my bladder and the contents of my stomach down myself without a thought.
Needless to say, the revelation was a very hard one to accept for me and I was confident the mortification I felt at that point in time would follow me into the grave, even preventing me from taking stock of my caretaker beyond a furtive glance, as I closed my eyes, pretending to be asleep to avoid the risk of ever meeting their eyes, a strategy I was determined to adopt for any such scenario in the future.
Thankfully, they were apparently very experienced in the task and I was soon back into the bed, freshly cleaned and changed, though by the time I had reopened my eyes, I was once again alone in the room, making my mind race a thousand miles a minute as I had been almost confident the costume of the person had been an ANBU uniform, or at the very least, the mask they wore had been.
Which if it meant what I thought it did, I was in deep deep trouble.
ANBU were a specialized branch of the military in the world of Naruto, a fictional universe where death and encounters with monsters were daily occurrences.
Even if my current state of being was a result of a dream from my delirious brain, I had died and had been reborn already, which meant either that mask was part of a cosplay set, which I highly doubted, or the more likely scenario that I had been transported into the fictional world of Naruto.
A universe of Ninjas.
The implications were honestly horrific for me.
Sure, the Shinobi Universe was one of the coolest fictional worlds around, and if I had a choice in where I would like to live, a world where I would be allowed to breathe fire, cut lightning and summon gigantic creatures, would definitely be an interesting choice.
Unfortunately, it came with the drawback that I would have to live in a world where other people could breathe fire, cut lightning and summon gigantic creatures, which was much more terrifying.
Especially if I was being reborn in Konoha. This village had the absolute worst luck in the entire Elemental Nations in terms of the world-ending dangers lurking around every corner.
Honestly, if I was truly being reborn here, I was pretty much doomed to an early grave.
I had no confidence whatsoever in my ability to ensure my survival. I was a simple cripple whom had died a pathetic death and had only dreamed of being allowed a second chance to live as a regular person, pinning after a civilian lifestyle.
Still, even now I knew that any plans I might have ever had of being a happy go lucky person reincarnated into a peaceful world evaporated on the spot, right in front of my eyes and I knew immediately how unlikely I was to ever reach the age of seventeen, like Naruto had done.
I had been much too passive and had as a result suffered too much at the hands of fate in my life to ever allow myself to be a victim of circumstances in this one as well. I would be a shinobi, I decided then and there, if only to ensure I did not die needlessly.
Still, rather than spend my time speculating on the who and why of my current position, I opted to go with the flow and see how things would change going forward now that I was awake and aware of my surroundings.
My time, I decided, was better spent trying to move a little, with the ultimate objective of flipping myself onto my stomach, an unfortunately fruitless endeavor for the longest of times, though I had made progress in my observations over the next few weeks, even as I lay in bed, stuck in bed pedaling aimlessly for days as meals and diapers flew by.
During that period, I was able to make many observations, chief of all being that the person taking care of me changed regularly. At first, I had believed it was the same one changing outfits and masks, but I had quickly realized that the height of my caretaker changed too drastically for it to be the result of different shoes or heels, which meant the reigning Hokage had delegated the care of my baby-self to his agents as a mission, which was somewhat depressing, though I could not fault the effectiveness of it as there was probably no better way to ensure my safety.
On a more positive light, I had discovered that my teeth had started to grow by probing my mouth with my tongue, though for some reason, and unlike what I had read and come to expect, the experience was a completely painless one for me, something I was very grateful for as the prospect of toothache was not an enticing one.
Naturally, the development had seen my meals be slowly transitioned from milk to more varied and slightly more consistent dishes such as apple sauce, mashed potatoes and puréed meat, though I had no idea how my caretakers had known to do so as they never examined me or spent any meaningful amount of time with me, making me worry they did so when I was asleep, a somewhat worrying and creepy prospect, though there was not much I could do about it.
I had decided to look at the situation from a positive point of view, celebrating the fact as a good sign that I was starting to grow up, though I still found it strange how I had never left this empty room, the silent workers even bringing a basin of water with them from time to time to clean me up with a washing cloth once every few days.
I was getting somewhat angsty to leave the cramped space that was my bed, however, as my routine was starting to become unbearably dull for me. Surprisingly, the day after I had finally succeeded on flipping myself over on my stomach had brought a happy change with it, as I had woken up in a new much larger bed, surrounded on all sides by high wooden bars preventing me from leaving the enclosed space and making me feel like some kind of overgrown chicken.
It was still a good thing, however, as the increase in available space allowed me to try learning how to crawl without being too limited in my movement, and my caretakers had been kind enough to provide me with a set of different colored and shaped wooden blocks, which I spent hours on end, holding in my hands and marveling at the sensations delighted as I was, comparing the sharpness of the edges to the smoothness of the faces, ages after I had gotten bored inserting them into the correspondingly shaped hold in the large accompanying puzzle block.
Apparently, my progress was being monitored, as every day, after completing a puzzle, I would wake up the next to a new one, with differently shaped blocks, a different order puzzle, or even one with blocks that could not be inserted into any of the shapes available in the puzzle, which I had ignored completely.
This was why I had not been surprised when the next step of my education had been one of my caretakers, the one wearing the bunny mask entering my room one evening with a basket full of rubber balls of all colors in his or her hands.
Observing them carefully, I watched as they deposited a ball in front of me before pointing at it and repeatedly making an unfamiliar sound I did not understand.
It took me a long moment and only after Rabbit had dropped another ball in front of me and make a different series of noises, for me to understand this whole thing was their way of teaching me my colors in their language, making me want to slap myself for not realizing their intent on the spot with how evident it was.
Paying more apt attention from that point onwards, I did my best to commit every single sound into memory as well as the associated color for each, discovering that the pleasantly light colored one was pronounced 'Blue', while the darker more aggressive ball was known as 'Red'.
I was greatly pleased and proud of myself at the ease at which I remembered the name of each pair, recalling everything after only hearing it once, making me wonder whether my eighteen years old brain was helping me with an increase in cognitive ability or if the fox constantly healing my brain was to thank for affording me this boon.
When the lesson came to an end, Rabbit left the room with their empty basket, leaving the balls with me and I had great fun comparing the texture and admire the feeling of round things in my palms.
It had taken until the next morning for me to realize there was no reason for settling with memorizing the words if I also had the possibility of learning to pronounce them myself, as I would have to do at some point anyways, so why not try and get a head start even with my very limited physical abilities and underdeveloped vocal cords.
Despite my enthusiasm and the best of my efforts, I was only able over the next few hours to utter unintelligible blabber, frustrating me greatly as even while knowing exactly what sound I was hoping to produce, it simply refused to come out.
Realizing the limitations of my body and the futility of repeatedly walking head first into a wall, I changed my strategy and looked for the easiest word I could try and enunciate with my limited speech pattern and small repertoire, settling quickly on the word 'Black', courtesy of my ease with the sound 'a'.
As I had hoped, it only took a minimum amount of effort from my part to see meaningful progress, first with two separate syllables; a pathetic sounding 'Bak' and a disappointing 'Lak' sound, that I had progressively turned over the course of an hour into a more acceptable 'Be-Lak', though the correct pronunciation still eluded me.
Not discouraged, I kept diligently practicing my vocal cords as much as I could, to the point where I was starting to marvel at how I had not yet earned myself the very first sore throat of my life, though it had all been worth it when the results of my labors were progressively showing and a new wave of proudness swept over me when the sounds escaping my mouth started sounding somewhat coherent.
Eager to show off my improvements, I had waited for the next time Rabbit had arrived into my room to propagate their teachings through colored rubber balls, before picking up the black one and screaming the word 'Black' from the top of my baby lungs before they even had a chance to reintroduce the colors, making the masked person pause for a second.
Happy with their surprise, I lightly threw the ball away, reiterating my answer of the word 'Black', earning an approving nod from them before they walked closer to my bed.
"Blue?" Rabbit asked, and immediately, my hand reached for the correctly colored ball, holding it in my hands, enthusiastically exclaiming the sound 'Blu!', which while not as refined as I had hoped it to be, had the merit of successfully transmitting my understanding of the prompt.
"Green." Rabbit demanded and once again I picked the correct piece, though "Leen" came my pathetic rendition of the word.
"Green." They repeated and "Ga-leen!" I managed after a few more attempts, which apparently was agreeable enough for them as they moved onto the next color, increasing the pace as we went down the list of balls and I pointed out the correct one as well as tried pronouncing whatever word was being requesting at any given time.
Once or twice, Rabbit had gone back to a color I had already gotten correctly, probably to test whether I remembered and without fail, I always did.
Quickly, however, the colors came to an end and it was made clear to the both of us that I had internalized all the knowledge they had imparted onto me, a feat I was extremely proud of, though I could see no outwards reaction from the caretaker.
It had therefore not been a surprise to me, when the next day, a new Turtle-wearing caretaker had come early into my room without any colored balls, but with a small puppet, pointing out different parts on the body of the toy, slowly naming them, before moving on to the next one, allowing me the chance over the next few minutes to learn the words 'nose', 'mouth', 'eye', 'ear', 'chin', 'cheek', 'forehead' and hair from the impromptu lesson.
Just like the day prior, I proved myself perfectly able to identify everything after being shown it once, earning me the privilege of being lifted up into the arms of my teacher before I was turned towards my place of residence, and Turtle enunciated the sound 'Bed' to me, requesting of me to repeat it a few times before being satisfied with my performance and moving onto 'door', which had been surprisingly difficult to reproduce for me, my underdeveloped body clearly convinced it was pronounced 'do', though the hurdle was finally overcome and we moved onto more interesting words such as 'curtain', 'pillow', 'wall' and 'ceiling'.
Being deposited back into my bed, Turtle left the room, leaving me to worry that the lesson had come to an end already, though it quickly appeared my fears were unfounded as they came back only a few minutes later, holding a book in their hands, which I had quickly rebaptized as "Bo" once they asked me to repeat after them as they introduced the term.
Opening it into a page, Turtle showed me a squiggly symbol in the shape of an open-ended triangle but with a line cutting it horizontally in half and slowly pronounced "A", making me realize they were already planning on teaching me my letters, a prospect for which I could not be any happier for even if I tried.
The knowledge was easily assimilated and we quickly flipped through the pages, moving on as soon as my teacher was satisfied with my performance, though they sometimes would go back a few letters to make sure I was still fully following along, which I always did, to my great delight.
Having apparently decided to test my cognitive ability to the maximum, Turtle brought back another book into the room and sat down beside me, picking me up and sitting me on their lap, showing over the next few hours all kind of possible syllable combinations, and consecutive characters and the pronunciation of the sound produced, starting from 'Ab', 'Ac', 'Ad', and going all the way down to 'Zy'.
The whole process had proved itself quite boring and frankly mentally exhausting for me, tough once it was all said and done, I could not help but feel happy of the progress I was making and proud at the speed it had been made, even if I now had to confront the fact that nobody should have ever been able to memorize such a large volume of information, in a different language and in only one sitting without at the very least having an extremely effective memory, making it clear to me that I had an abnormally potent memorization ability, perhaps even an eidetic one as a result of my tenant's interference, though I would have to wait a bit more before accepting that conclusion as a fact.
Over that period, I spent any free time I had, whenever I was not being taught new words working on my pronunciations, or trying to crawl around the bed to try and improve my mobility, frustrating as it was to be an almost one year old child, and still not be able to stand or even sit on my own.
From my lessons, however, I was getting more and more advanced with my knowledge, different caretakers helping me flip through picture books, teaching me words, their meaning and spelling all at once, starting from the easiest categories, such as animals with words like 'cat', 'dog', 'cow', 'pig' and 'fox', allowing me to know identify the masks they were wearing, before growing my vocabulary as I was taught to read, though I sometimes felt like I was cheating, as I was memorizing the words rather than try to learn and decipher the text on my own like I normally was supposed to.
As time went by and it became increasingly clear that listening to a word once was always enough for me to commit both the sound and the spelling to memory, I had to conclude that I had been blessed with the gift of deictic memory, a very welcome surprise to me as that had not been a power I had had in my previous lifetime.
My caretakers, however, were strange to me, in the sense that they did not react in any way to my impressive feats beyond sometimes nodding approvingly, making me question whether I truly was a product of scientific experimentation if my rate of progress was not seen as anything particularly spectacular or impressive, which it definitely should have been in my humble opinion.
Still, even if not enough to impress the ANBU, my learning speed was absolutely phenomenal and every day I was growing more knowledgeable of the common language, though not having abandoned my efforts in movement, I had finally been able to sit comfortably without holding onto anything and crawl somewhat comfortably, making my next goal to learn how to stand and eventually walk, though I had no idea why I was still not allowed outside of my coop.
One-year old children were definitely old enough to be allowed to walk around, I knew, meaning my captors were still monitoring my progress or did not trust me enough to allow me the freedom of movement I so desired.
Having finally exhausted the small topics and their related lexicon, I had learned lots about fruits, flowers, clothing items, vegetables, tools, emotions and some basic qualifiers such as 'good', 'bad', 'above' and 'under', which meant it had been time for my education to move into a more practical and conversational direction with my teachers reading short books to me with the expectation that my abnormal memory would kick in to help me develop a stronger grasp of the language through building an internal database of sentences, expressions and use-cases of different words and scenarios.
For that reason, it became common for Squirrel to bring larger story-driven and dialog heavy books to read for me, though I had immediately realized I was able to read at the same level of proficiency as they did whenever there were words I had been taught before, while being completely lost whenever I encountered a new one, as I ignored both the meaning and how to pronounce it, making the idea of co-reading even more genius in my mind.
It had been somewhat jarring at first to encounter strange combinations like 'cha' being pronounced as 'ka' in certain words and 'cha' in others, though I did not waste much time thinking on it, I still hadn't been convinced on the importance of duplicate letters such as 'Q' and 'C' when 'K' and 'S' were perfectly capable of doing the job…
Even then, I did not spend much time arguing the logic of a new language, choosing instead to delight myself at the thought of how broken my mental ability truly was when I noticed that my brain had started making connections on its own, filling blanks using what I assumed to be my previous life's memories as well as any new information I learned.
I couldn't wait until I got my hands on an actual dictionary and never have to worry about ever finding a word I could not understand, I had decided one day, as while I could read on my own, I would still struggle whenever meeting a new word or if I ever encountered a spelling mistake as I would always find myself wondering whether I had missed something or if it was a new word I ignored.
Surprisingly, it had not taken me long to get my hands on a dictionary as my caretakers and I were apparently thinking on the same wavelength, seeing as only three weeks after having started reading books, Mouse had brought with them a large dictionary, doubling as a book of synonyms of their own volition in order to read it for me.
I had been excited at the prospect, though quickly changed my opinion.
Predictably, reading a list of arbitrary words was undoubtedly the most boring and uninteresting reading material one could subject himself to, doubly so when unable to understand anything going on, as I had learned the hard way, spending most of my time wondering what on earth an 'adverb' was, though I had been truly blessed with my magical brain and the way I could feel my syntax and word database updating in real time with each new definition we read, until finally reaching the insect known as "Zyzzyva", making me realize I had now absorbed every official word of this new interesting language.
It had taken weeks, but the results spoke for themselves and I sat there for hours, going over the new information, staring at my ceiling and smiling to myself like a lunatic, though there seemed to be some truth in the saying that good news never came alone, as only a few days later, I had finally managed to stand on my own in my bed, without use of the bars to support me or even help me up, making me finally ready to try and learn to actively walk.
My ability to speak was pushed even further when the very next books I had been subjected to, though this time, I had interrupted the ANBU to read them on my own, were a Grammar booklet and a conjugation manual, making me fully capable of communicating and understand the common tongue. Or at least I would be as I earned a bit more experience in slang and figurative language, a subject that would unfortunately have to be studied in vivo rather than using the shortcut of books.
Once again, I was convinced that my progress was being closely monitored and mapped as the very next day, as if it had been planned to happen at the exact moment I reached that level of proficiency, I had received my very first visit from someone other than my team of caretakers in the form of an old man with a receding, but messy, mop of white hair and a long goatee entering my room and smiling upon finding me awake, staring directly at his wrinkled face and the two large moles on his cheeks.
At least I knew what era I was in…
"Good morning." He had greeted politely, and I observed him closely, doing my best not to let my surprise show on my face; Besides the times my ANBU read to me, this was the very first conversation I would ever experience, as my caretakers had never answered any of my questions nor addressed me directly, even as they read books to me for hours on end.
It had been very creepy from their part now that I thought about it…
Still, it did not do to be impolite and I had returned the salutation with a quick "Hello."
"I have been hearing about how quickly you learn for months, now, but I must admit to be pleasantly surprised to see you come so far in such a short amount of time." The man said, making me raise an eyebrow but keeping my silence as there was nothing for me to answer to or any reason for me to open my mouth.
"Is your memory fully eidetic?" he asked once it was clear I was waiting for him to keep talking.
I nodded.
"That is quite remarkable for someone your age." He smiled encouragingly. "It usually takes months for most to develop that skill, and even then, only so much can be remembered at any given time." He informed me helpfully and I nodded again, hiding my shock at learning that having an eidetic memory was considered a skill that could be learned in only a few months in this environment. No wonder my caretakers hadn't been impressed!
Seeing me still not saying anything, the man moved the conversation forward once again on his own.
"Had I known your cognitive ability would be this advanced from birth, I would have arranged more agreeable living conditions." He admitted, an apologetic expression on his face.
Not interested in his turning around the pot, I decided to move the discussion into a more productive direction and changed the subject.
"May we speak alone, Lord Third?" I requested, internally smiling at how quickly his expression turned into a stony version of himself, not letting any emotion show, his eyes guarded and calculative, a clear indicator that I was now talking to the greatest Kage of his era rather than the friendly grandpa he was pretending to be.
He did a quick sign from his hand before motioning me to speak.
"Why am I being raised in solitude?" I asked point blank, wanting at least a reason for the unhealthy way I had been living.
He slumped at the question, the subject clearly not the one he expected me to address.
"I am sorry, Naruto. This was the safest option for you, at least until the village fully recovered."
I could practically feel my face paling upon hearing that wretched name.
I wasn't just reborn into the world of Naruto… I WAS Naruto.
This was bad. So much worse than being reborn in the world of ninjas. This boy had been the catalyst and at the center of most of the dangerous events in his story, and while being allowed to exist as a nameless nobody in this world was something, having to undergo the story of the main character was a different thing entirely.
I was unimportant. An anonymous cripple who died after a meaningless life without ever accomplishing anything, which meant things were going to go terribly quite soon, as without the main character doing his main protagonist thing, there would be no one strong enough to stop Pain and the Akatsuki, nobody to persuade Obito to change sides, no savior to defeat Madara, no Ashura descendant to eliminate Kaguya, no hero to bring back Sasuke from the dark side. Without the child of prophecy, this universe was doomed and I had a first-choice seat in the line of danger.
I was not Naruto. That kid was a once in a lifetime kind of person. He was charismatic and had a will of steel. He was nothing like me. Even when he was not strong enough to win some of his fights with his powers alone, he had managed to inspire others to believe in him and won his enemies over to his cause over time.
And despite the fact that Naruto had been an idiot for most of his life and had wasted an inexcusable amount of time doing pranks or playing around, getting bailed in every confrontation he ran into, even after his graduation, by his mother's genes or his tenant's existence, his potential had always been monstrous, even as a child. His ability to use an absurd amount of shadow clones, on its own, had opened the doors for him to become the most dangerous ninja on Earth, bar none. In only a couple of days, he had managed to get through years of practice in improving his wind chakra manipulation, and there was no real reason why he had never bothered to do the same with all the other elements and techniques, or at the very least mastered the Rasengan to the point where he no longer needed the help of a clone to do it. It was a disgrace really, when considering the fact that the blue orb was the single most overused trick he had abused in almost every single fight of his life.
Even now, as I digested my new entry into life, part of me couldn't help but wonder whether I could replicate the feats he had accomplished if I was more efficient with the advantages he had been granted in life. Could he have done so had he had the work ethic of someone like Rock Lee or even his rival, Sasuke? Yes. Easily. Had Naruto not been an idiot, he would have been an S rank ninja by the time he had needed to fight most of his world-shattering foes.
Almost infinite amounts of chakra, the ability to render time a non-issue through a large helping of clones, and powerful genes were more than anyone could ever need to become strong, but the fact that he was the Jinchuriki of the strongest Bijuu in addition to his innate advantages meant he had no excuse for his underwhelming abilities for most of his teenage life.
And yet, I had never asked for this. All I wanted was to live a peaceful and happy existence. Becoming a killer and having the weight of an entire world thrust upon my shoulders is not what I wanted in this miraculous rebirth.
Despite that, however, I had already died once and had wished for so long to be anybody else on Earth. I could not try to hide again now that an opportunity to be just that had shown itself.
Sure, I was not as stupidly optimistic and naïve as the real Naruto had been, but that did not mean my parents had raised me to be a coward. I was lucky enough to be offered a second shot at happiness and life and I would be damned if I was to squander it away for no reason or without trying my hardest to make it work.
I had all the tools at my disposal to try and carve myself a long and prosperous existence, and who knew, maybe even improve the world I was being born into.
After all, I personally despised the ninja village system as I found them to be hypocritical, soulless and selfish entities of war, profiteering from the darkness of humanity.
Of course, they might have been a step in the right direction at the time in order to limit the number of causalities during the Warring Clan Era, but they definitely were not in the business of peace-keeping, or else they would not be slaves to their respective daimyo, nor would they be overtaking assassination missions, or even worse, sending their children to die in meaningless skirmishes.
I did not even like the Hidden Leaf village nor I had any interest in assassinating innocents or abducting children while instigating wars between neighboring countries for the sake of protecting the interests of a belief system as abstract as it was meaningless such as the will of fire.
Nationalistic pride based purely on the geographical location of one's birth was a disgrace in my opinion. Especially when it was literally the only difference between the village and its main rivals. Even when accepting the premise that Konoha might put more emphasis on teamwork and the role of family in society, it was still a disgustingly authoritarian and militaristic society using underhanded tactics and relying on terror as a political tool in order to further the objectives of the village to the detriment of its rivals, the same as any other country in this world.
Even by the time everything had been resolved and peace had been achieved, fighting still occurred, though that was probably more a reflection of humanity's flaws rather than the villages, themselves.
Still, if I was to really pick a village to live in, I was grateful it was in the village Hidden in the Leaves, as while probably not the safest place to be, seeing how often it was attacked, invaded or destroyed over the years, it had the merit of being much safer for a child than being subjected to the barbaric practices and twisted traditions of the bloody Mist or the miserable lifestyle of the desert.
Even more important, it was a familiar setting, more familiar than any other in this world, at least, and it was reassuring to know I would at all times be protected by one of the most powerful militaries of this universe in case of attack.
Had I been offered the choice to live as I pleased in the Elemental Nations, I would have wanted from the bottom of my heart to be some nobody civilian who could travel and experience all things I had not been able to do in my previous life.
Unfortunately, that was a pipe dream and I knew that given a choice, I would always pick to be a ninja over any civilian; Being a civilian in such a world was absolutely out of the question, as it would mean becoming a defenseless victim in whatever world-ending shenanigans ninjas decided to occupy their time with on any given day.
Whether I liked it or not, I would have to become a ninja and a strong one if I were truly to be injected into the Naruto verse, as it would simply be a matter of survival at that point; there was no reason to die to some nameless grunt.
Being reborn as Naruto was even more of a reason to try and become a strong shinobi, especially knowing the full potential this child had had at his disposal from a very young age.
Becoming strong enough to survive whatever was going to be thrown at me would always be the top priority, no matter what objective I picked as my mission for the rest of my life in this universe, from living a carefree life to striving for peace, or even becoming Hokage like my namesake had done in his time alive.
I would be doing my best. I had to.
"I know everything." I said suddenly, returning to the conversation happening in front of me.
"Elaborate." He ordered, not assuming anything or giving me any indication that there was anything to know. I had to admire his dedication to not beray any information to someone fishing.
"I know about my tenant." I said, patting my stomach. "And my parents. Both of them." I added with a smile.
A tired sigh escaped his lips and he regarded me with suspicion. "How?"
"Minato." I lied easily. "He left part of himself into the seal and made it so the Nine Tails' chakra cannot harm me."
"Are you sure?" He asked immediately. "Could it be that the Nine Tails is tricking you into..."
"No." I interrupted him. "I met them both. The Kyuubi was in his cage, angry and grumbling about being sealed into a stupid brat again and Dad…" I had some difficulty getting the word out, as no matter what happened, I did not consider the Fourth and his wife to be my parents. "… explained things to me."
"Even from the grave, you never cease to amaze me, Minato…" the old man muttered to himself, a far-away look on his face as he took a moment to digest what I had told him. It seemed he was eager to believe the story I was feeding him.
Part of me felt somewhat sorry for prying on his innate trust in his successor's son and lying to him, but if I really wanted to be allowed to train more seriously from a young age, I had no other choice than be somewhat dishonest with the leader of the village.
"Did he say anything else?" He asked, eagerly, probably hoping for words of wisdom from the deceased Fourth Hokage.
"He asked me to surpass him." I lied.
"Not an easy feat." Sarutobi chuckled, though the bitterness in his tone made it clear he was not amused. "Why?"
"He refused to tell me, but according to him, there are serious threats to my life and I am not safe, even in the village." His expression darkened, but I quickly continued before he had the chance to interrupt me. "He said I needed to be trained and become as strong as possible as early as I could, but he also requested I make sure to be happy, to enjoy a childhood and join the academy in order to make friends my age with whom I would graduate and build bonds."
I made sure to affect a pensive smile, imagining what I would have hoped my own father would have wished upon me in such a situation.
"He told me to make sure that when it was finally time for me to graduate, I would be the best Genin this village had ever seen." I added before remaining silent for a moment, as if reminiscing about my encounter with the man, but mostly so my sentence could set in for the elder and allow him the time to internalize that I should not be rushed out of the academy into deadly missions or worse, allowed to become one of Danzo's weapons.
"You have given much to think about, Naruto." The Hokage sighed and for once, I could see the wrinkles weighting him down.
Apparently learning the child of his successor was in danger even in the heart of his own village was not good for his morale.
"When can I start meeting people and leaving this place?" I asked in a rush, scared of the possibility of him leaving without providing me any answers.
"I am sorry, Naruto, but you are still much too young to allow outside even under guard." He apologized. "Another year at the very least will be required before I feel comfortable letting you leave."
I nodded my ascent grimly. This was the problem with gaining consciousness at birth. At least I could try and be productive in the meantime.
The Hokage stayed there for a few more minutes, making sure I was fine before finally looking at his watch and making a movement as if he was about to leave.
"Keep what we have spoken about today to yourself." He ordered me. "And know that you can always come to me about any new development, simply say to your guard that you wish to speak to me and they will let me know."
I nodded my understanding before making a request of my own. "Could you please arrange books for me?" I asked. "Academy manuals, and other useful materials." I specified.
He raised an eyebrow looking back at me. "Useful materials?"
"Non-fiction." I replied. "Encyclopedias, theoretical guides, practical tutorials, textbooks on Mathematics, Physics, History, Geography, Anatomy, anything that can be learned. I have an eidetic memory; it would be a waste to not make use of it…"
He smiled and nodded, even as he left me alone in the room, but the peace had not lasted, as only a few minutes later, I had been pleasantly surprised to learn that Hiruzen Sarutobi was a man of his word when Panda had placed three large piles of books at my feet, letting me know it was a gift from the Hokage.
It brought me shame to know I was exploiting his respect for a dead man to get what I wanted out of him. There was no way he would go against what he perceived to be Minato's dying wish, especially not when it came to how to raise his son.
It saddened me that I was probably too unchildlike to establish the same rapport he had had with the original Naruto, but hopefully I could establish a positive relationship with him over time. He was part of the rotten shinobi system and his bad habit keeping his eyes closed to many of the shady events happening under his watch was a damning incrimination, but at the same time, he had given second chances to many people whom abused his generosity.
To me, he was a very complex person, but one did not become a Kage and last in the position for half a century if they were not great at what they did and for that reason alone, I would hopefully always be in the old man's good graces, and I would aim to save his life when it was truly in danger, or at least I would try my best to do so.
Even then, however, I had not waited a moment longer before skimming the titles of the left pile, happy to discover it was constituted of textbooks on different academic subjects, exactly as I had requested.
Glad to finally have the tools of my learning at my disposition, I had picked up the first manual and quickly skimmed through the whole book from cover to cover in the matter of minutes, much too fast for me to read anything, let alone understand or internalize a single word, but with the cheat code that was my memory, I had photographed and stored the images somewhere in my brain where I could take my time and read through at a later time without needing to have the books physically present with me. It really payed to have a permanent memory on your side from a young age…
By the time it was finally time for me to go to bed for the night, I had finished my scan, and I let my guard know, simply speaking to the empty room that I was done with this batch, and telling them they could take them back, and provide me with a new batch of whatever the Hokage authorized.
I had gone to bed that night happy with myself and the first step I was taking, already aware my position in life was much better than it had been only a few hours ago and infinitely more enviable than the real Naruto had been at this point in time, especially if my non-childishness meant the villagers treated me better than they had the real Jinchuriki.
The next day saw my implementing of a new routine, with my alternating between pedaling my legs in the air and doing the plank all day as I mentally pulled out one of the books I had skimmed earlier and threw myself head first into my study, going in the matter of hours through what should have been multiple days' worth of material, though everything came easy to me, courtesy of my superior, Internet based, twenty-first century education, allowing me to understand everything much faster than I had any right to be, especially for someone of my new physical age.
From there, months ran by in a quick manner, where I slowly worked on building strength in my bones and mentally studying as much as I could through the stacks of books I had been provided with, hoping to at the very least, not need to waste any time studying when I was finally old enough to attend school.
As a result, it had not taken me very long to get through the whole mathematics syllabus from the academy, as I was flying over the subjects, from basic Arithmetic to Combinatorics, while going in depth into Algebra, Geometry, Calculus and Statistics.
Not even a month into my reading and I was already confident to be at least equal in mathematics to the average graduate of Konoha, meaning I was already miles ahead of how Naruto had been at this age, or at any point in his life, really, the man had been a powerhouse, but no one could ever accuse him of being the sharpest tool in the shed…
Regardless of my mental prowess, however, the ANBU had not treated my intellect or my buildup of tolerance as such an anomaly, a worrying indicator of the absolute monsters inhabiting this world, as anyone having shown my level of self-awareness and cognitive ability at my age would have definitely made waves in my previous life, while in Konoha, it barely raised any suspicion at all.
Skittish about learning Ninja skills, I had not minded the absence of anything relating to the shinobi arts in my mental library and had concentrated my efforts on the more academically challenging books, procrastinating by learning all about subjects like history, which would be doubly useful as I could separate my knowledge of the current world from the Naruto Universe I was used to, before going onto the human anatomy for whenever I had the opportunity to learn healing techniques. Similarly, another priority for me would be to study the geography of the elemental nations, which would not hurt my chances of survival if I were ever to leave for a mission at any point in my life.
First, however, I had completed the more familiar to me Physics curriculum of the academy and I had to admit, that unlike for mathematics, I had been disappointed with the current level of knowledge taught in the civilian course, for what they considered as the totality of Physics had only been the most basics of Mechanics, some relativity as well as some optics lessons, which to be fair, should not have surprised me as much as it had; the Elemental Nations were not quite on the same level of technology as my previous life, never really needing to go as far in their quest of understanding the world when an energy source like Chakra was present everywhere.
Of course, I did not discard the possibility of the knowledge existing but being hidden from the civilian populace and the masses, as the current political system was much more authoritarian than I had been used to. For ninjas, there was no benefit in allowing their civilians counterparts to know they could potentially destroy all life on Earth using atoms and do so even without the use of chakra.
In a lighter set of ideas, however, I had then spent a few days memorizing every organ of the human body, its functions, the names of all the bones as well as the major arteries. I knew for a fact that the book was missing all information on chakra and pressure points, though there was nothing I could do about that as only Ninja and shinobi hopefuls were allowed into the library where all such knowledge was hidden.
A week's worth of time was spent studying the History of the Hidden Leaf, starting from the era of the Warring Clans period and the union of the Senju and Uchiha clans and the founding of the villages and going into the important events of each era, from the first, second and third world wars, resulting in victories for the village and the promise of a bright future with the emergence of a one-man army that was the fourth Hokage, striking fear in all enemies of the village.
As could be easily understood, the books had been written prior to the attack of the Kyuubi and the death of the Leaf's hero, but more than that, I was almost certain the events were a watered-down version white-washed for the consumption of the public as it always presented the village in a good light, standing for what was right and only defending itself when attacked.
Memorizing all I could of the country's topography and internalizing the contents of its land, on the other hand, had proved itself quite useful, though all I had learned from the plants and fungi was how to recognize them if found in the wild as well as which to avoid due to being poisonous, while the book on animals had been quite similar, with the small quirk that it had a put a strange emphasis on the hundreds of insect species common around the village.
Immediately seeing potential for a more thorough understanding of this world, I had expressed my interest to my ANBU caretakers on finding similar material on the other countries' information and so, I had spent another four weeks learning all I could about the Lands of Water, Earth, Wind and Lightning.
Similarly, I had been pleasantly surprised to find a few cooking books with some traditional recipes of the Land of Fire on them, which I promptly absorbed into my long-term memory, before requesting similar cook books from the other nations, learning all I needed to know in order to be ready when it finally came time for me start feeding myself on my own.
Speaking of which, I was finally starting to move on my own around the small house I was occupying, which was still somewhat unbelievable an experience for me and something I had dreamed about for so long.
I had been pleasantly surprised to see I was a very cute baby, and was now convinced all ANBUs were sociopaths for being able to ignore the bundle of adorableness I was on a daily basis. No wonder Naruto had tried pranking them any time he could. They deserved it, those stoic professional bastards.
I had lost myself to my routines that I had been surprised when the Hokage had visited me one day all smiling, wishing me a happy birthday, and sharing a piece of cake with me.
"How are you doing, Naruto?" He had asked me politely, though he seemed genuinely interested in my answer, which made sense as it wouldn't do for the village's Jinchuriki to be needlessly unhappy.
"Bored." I said tired. "I have been studying for almost a year now."
He cracked a smile at my whining. "Yes, I have heard about your eagerness to learn about our world, though I must admit some surprise with your interest in the culinary arts?" He asked and I was glad I had a story ready to play on his heartstrings.
"Dad said that half the reason Mom wanted to marry him was because he always fed her ramen and he wanted me to learn to cook." I replied with a smile and the Kage erupted into a mirthful laugh.
"Yes, Kushina was quite fond of the dish." He let out a small sigh after calming himself before returning his attention onto me. "What do you know about them?" he asked.
"Not much I admitted." I did not want to blow my cover or say anything wrong. "They loved each other. They loved me. And they're still there with me."
"How so?" he asked and I pointed at my belly.
"Dad left part of his chakra in my seal as a failsafe if I ever came close to losing control so he can seal the Kyuubi back into me and part of Mom is there waiting to help me when it is time for me to use the key and master his power." I admitted, hoping this knowledge would allow him to trust me more in the future if he did not believe me to be some kind of bomb waiting to explode.
He looked stunned at the revelation before chuckling and mumbling to himself for a few moments, stroking his grey beard pensively.
"Your father was, by far, the best Hokage this village has ever seen." He eyed me for a second before playfully adding, "You will be hard-pressed to surpass him."
"I know." I admitted with a nod of my own. "But he said I would, and who am I to prove him wrong?"
"Does that mean you will be aiming for this hat of mine, someday?" He asked half-teasingly as he removed said hat and put it on the table in front of him, where I observed it in silence for a long moment before answering him.
"I am not sure." I said honestly. "I have been granted cards in life that give me the potential to be one of the strongest shinobi in the Elemental Nations, and I need to reach that level, even if only for my own safety, but I am not convinced that having to bear the responsibility for the safety of this village's residents is a burden I wish to take upon myself."
He hummed pensively, letting me think about the advantages and disadvantages of the role.
First and foremost, it was a lot of work and an enormous responsibility to be thrust upon someone. Tsunade was right, it was a sucker's job, even if she had let Uzumaki convince her to become the said sucker who took up the mantle. Jiraya had the right of it in finding a way to not be saddled by the ball and chain this position was.
At the same time, however, my freedom and wellbeing are only secure so long as the current Hokage was on friendly terms with me. I could not imagine having to deal with my following the orders of someone like Danzo, Fugaku or even Sasuke.
It could potentially be necessary for me to do a grab for the position only to secure a future for myself away from being at the mercy of so many others.
"Well, that's alright, you are still young enough to take your time and decide what you want to achieve with your life." He interrupted after a moment and I nodded my ascent, still thinking about it.
Seeing my pensive expression, the man had simply smiled again before wishing me a happy birthday once again and leaving my apartment.
I was two years old, now. It was surreal to think about how young I was, but at the same time, I was getting quite restless at the lack of progress I was making in improving my chances of succeeding in this world, even with the increase in my mental capacities.
Still, not wishing to waste more of my time, I had immediately started pestering my ANBU to show themselves as I stood in the kitchen, demanding they teach me to cook my own meals.
It had not worked for the longest time, and I had no recourse as the fridge was empty, making me realize my meals were usually delivered to me, but one day, I must have chipped away at their patience, or most likely, they had requested and received permission from the Hokage to do so when Monkey had joined me into the kitchen, allowing me wash and cut the lettuce one day, season the rice the next, before slowly allowing me to get more and more experience over the next few days.
I could feel my caretakers' eyes watching my every move in suspicion, but as I achieved my tasks in earnest, they slowly warmed to my offers of assistance in the less intensive tasks.
It had taken even longer for them to start trusting me with a knife, and even then, they had carefully watched my technique, making sure I never put my fingers in danger as I cut carrots into pieces before letting me help, as I slowly gained proficiency with the tool in my hand.
It was somewhat grating to be babysat this much in a world of shinobi, but I was under their care and any injury to the village's Jinchuriki and son of their former leader would end with their head in a basket, so I did not begrudge them their desire to wrap me in a bubble and keep me safe forever.
In time, it was not rare for me to start helping out with frying the rice or boiling the eggs while they concentrated on more advanced dishes, I knew I could prepare as well, though I had not insisted, knowing they were not yet confident enough in my ability to let me take care of myself. They had been so precise in choosing the right moment to let me progress further, I knew I would simply find the ingredients in the fridge one day, when they finally decided I was ready to fly with my own wings.
Even then, the experience was nice for me and I was confident I would not starve to death if I were left to my own devices in a kitchen from now on.
I had on multiple times wanted to ask to be allowed to leave the apartment, even if it was with an escort, but had always managed to not make a demand of it, knowing my desires would not be fulfilled and not necessarily eager to meet the village's disdain towards their Jinchuriki.
More and more, I learned about this world as I read and studied everything the academy taught civilian children, knowing I could probably graduate from the establishment, as soon as I learned to write and gotten hold of some ninja skills.
As a result, my general knowledge was increasing, branching out into unexpected directions, seeing as I read everything I got my hands on and even studied how to differentiate between most precious gems, and minerals, learning in the process that most countries had their own mines of iron which was why the material was the one used in almost all weapons in this universe, from kunai, shuriken, katana to most other forms of weaponry, which made sense, steel being only used for ninja wire, due to it being much more expansive and heavy for barely any benefit if used in a weapon; the velocity of attacks of most ninjas was already high enough to go through any defensive armor.
With two magical exceptions, everything else was similar to my own world, I would assume from the almost inexistant general level knowledge I had in my previous life.
The land of Iron, besides being the Samurai Nation, was the only location on the continent to have access to runite, the special metal that allowed weapons to channel chakra, through them, while the Land of Water was the only archipelago to hold seastone, a mineral of exactly opposite attributes and known for absorbing chakra.
The legends claimed the seven swords of the Mist were made from that material, though no source was provided for that information, and honestly whether it was true or not did not matter to me, as I would probably not get my hands on either of those metals, seeing as they cost tens if not hundreds of thousands of Ryo to render enough of it to smelt a single ingot, let alone craft a blade.
I had even taken the time to read all I could about the process of smelting and smithing, learning all I could about the skill, for the unlikely scenario where it would be required.
It never hurt to add arrows to my quiver, after all.
For that reason, I had sat down one morning with a book on the art of crocheting, discovering methods of sewing, and repairing clothes and fabric together, into beautiful and cute designs alike.
Immediately, after finishing and eager to have a way to work on my dexterity and hand-eye coordination, I had requested of my caretakers to provide me with the tools to try the art, but I was unfortunately met with a silence, frustrating me until I had pointed out that if I was good enough to cut vegetables and meat with the giant knife we used in the kitchen, I would be able to handle all small pointy thing such as a needle.
They had finally relented and I had discovered the next morning that doing something was much harder than reading about it as it took me a very long time before my creations started looking even remotely decent.
By the point I had finally managed to make myself a scarf, time had once again flown by and the day I had waited for so long had finally arrived, as I was now three years old and of age, finally to leave my endless isolation and join the rest of the civilized world.
I would be living on my own for a year before joining the civilian academy as a four-year-old child, as did most clan children.
The shinobi academy, for the most part, was a four years curriculum spanning from ages eight to twelve, with twelve being the youngest age one was allowed to graduate in peace time, but prior to that, the civilian part of the academy was open to all, starting at age six, though clan children, due to the fact that they would require large amounts of personalized training with their relatives to master their clan's craft and more personal techniques were offered the opportunity to spread out their studies more by enrolling two years early.
I had been informed of this development only the day before, when the Hokage had visited me as he had gotten into the habit of doing every few weeks, informing me that I would also be moving out of this location into a more normal residence, though it would be somewhat isolated for my own good and safety, seeing as both my status of Jinchuriki and the knowledge of my heritage, even if secret for now, would make me an easy target for all of Konoha's numerous enemies.
I had beamed at him, in as real an enthusiasm as I had ever shown in either life, throughout the conversation, thanking him profusely for the new freedoms he was affording me as well as the stipend he promised I would be allowed every month from now on to take care of my own needs, as my ANBU would soon be scaled back into a more observational role until they were certain my insertion into the village was completed without any hiccups along the way.
Like always, I had tried to contact Kurama at night, but had once again met with total silence, making me worry, not for the first time, about his absence from my thoughts, though like every day before, I had reassured myself by remembering the real Naruto too had not been able to meet up with his tenant prior to reaching his teen years and only actually conversed with the creature after Jiraya's radical intervention.
Also, note to self, keep away from white haired perverts unless I want to be thrown down a ravine to my death.
I had spent hours turning around in bed, excited about the prospect of finally being allowed to meet children my age, go to the park and run around to my hearts' content. I needed to start training my body as soon as possible after all.
Becoming a ninja, no matter how exciting it sounded was not a willing choice I would be making, but a necessity forced onto me by the circumstances. Therefore, I needed to learn to protect myself and the only way to do that in this world was to go through the academy and climb through the ranks to earn access to the better techniques either from a higher security clearance or from social connections.
Of course, that did not mean to become a machine single mindedly following the path I believed would lead me to greater levels of strength. I just needed to make sure I could survive and that meant at the very least surpassing the original Naruto's level at any given time, which I was happy to already be doing by a long shot with my knowledge on different subjects and the different conditioning I had put my body through even at my young age.
I had woken up much earlier than I needed to the next morning, slightly tired due to the lack of sleep, but just as excited, washing myself thoroughly after brushing my teeth, having bathed the night before just to be sure to make a good impression. I had even gone to the length of using perfume.
Either by some great coincidence, his personal request, or as a result of the Hokage playing games, my escort revealed himself to be the ANBU wearing the mask of Dog, and I had almost gaped at him upon recognizing the uniform and the man underneath it, but the fact he kept as silent as my usual caretakers were prevented me from speaking to Kakashi Hatake as he took my hands and allowed me for the very first time in both my lives to leave the house.
The experience was a new one for me and I was immediately overwhelmed by it. From the fresh air of the chilly morning making me shiver, the sun not having yet had the time to warm the land. I froze for a long moment on the doorstep, lost in the smell of wet dirt and the chirping of birds, enjoying the contrast with my usual shut-in lifestyle.
"Let's keep going." Dog's voice extirped me from my momentary loss to the experience and we started our walk into the outside.
The Village Hidden in the Leaves, I had to admit, was not at all what I expected it to be. Sure, I had barely paid attention to the backgrounds as I consumed all the media relating to this universe, but I had been under the impression it was a relatively harmoniously built village with stone buildings, flat roofs and dirt roads.
The reality of it, was that while broadly resembling my preconceived image, the village was much more unique and quirkier than I had expected it to be, old decrepit circular buildings contrasting heavily with newer shiny rectangular properties, one floor establishments being overshadowed by five floors ones on the left and an unused empty lot of land on the right.
Of course, I knew part of it could be explained away as a result of the Nine-Tails' attack destroying the village almost three years ago, but somehow it felt much more like if rather than having a village, Konoha was a collection of districts with their own personalities, designs and rules, not caring at all for the overarching symmetry of the whole.
I had known the village to be somewhat partial to the different clans' identities, but this was a surprise even to me. I was under the impression the settlement, as a military organization was fully under the control of the Hokage, which meant either I was terribly wrong, or the aesthetics of the village did not matter as much as I would have expected. It would be something Hashirama could have allowed, believing in the organic growth of the family, but I had a hard time believing Tobirama would have put up with any of this nonsense. Either way, I was confident this mismatch of styles did not lower the security of the whole, but the layout of the streets was making my eye twitch, reassuring me once again there was no way my subconscious would not have crafted a perfectly organized, efficient and aesthetically pleasing city if I had been the one in charge.
Proving himself more helpful than I had expected him to be due to his reputation, Dog had pointed out to me the most notable landmarks, from the Hokage Tower sitting immediately in front of the Hokage Monument and directly facing the main entrance, a symbol of strength and a source of pride for all, and an efficient use of real estate, as it was flanked by the Academy on one side and the Library on the other.
Somehow, I doubted the closeness of the hot springs bath house to the tower and the fact it was in the perfect location to be observable from the roof of that old pervert's building to be a coincidence but decided not to remark on it.
I was most excited to see Ichiraku Ramen be a real place, immediately knowing I would probably be spending an unnecessary amount of time there, if not for the food, for the company of the owner, though unfortunately it was still closed by the time we passed by there, unlike the Akimichi-run BBQ joint.
Disappointingly, we did not have the permission to thoroughly explore each clan perimeters or any of the side streets, but my caretaker pointed out to me from a distance the ginormous Hyuuga and Uchiha clan compounds on the south-west of the village, as far away as possible from the bars of the north-east or the Senju ruins and the Nara clan forest on the North-West.
Just like with the asymmetry of the buildings, I was not one hundred percent sold on the shape of the village perimeter, a weird oval-shaped monstrosity through which a river flowed through underneath the wall on two distinct locations.
Despite that, however, I liked the vibrancy of it all, the amount of greenery everywhere, the numerous parks and dozens of training grounds all over the edges of the outer walls, but most importantly, the villagers were real people going on with their days, merchant selling their wares, parents escorting their children to the academy, or the children themselves playing around with balls.
Under the watchful eyes of the police force, the village had a life of its own, enticing and inviting to all with the resonating sounds of laughter and mouth-watering smells of food accompanying the presence of thousands of people happily living in close proximity.
Apparently, I had not yet internalized the existence of others besides me, still living in the mindset of this all being a game or a dream, with myself as the only true player while everyone else was a faceless NPC, even with the visit of the Hokage and my daily interactions with the ANBU, or perhaps because of them, there still was a certain level of detachment in my mind and seeing the populace of this world going on with their day like a colony of ants was making me somewhat reconsider my position.
Even knowing that the only reason I was not yet being shunned was probably due to this being my very first time walking the streets of the village and not yet being recognizable by sight to anyone.
More than once, I had lost myself to my thoughts and on multiple occasions, Dog had to repeat himself several times to get me to pay attention to him and whatever he was showing me, a fact that was confusing him if the side glances he was sending my way every few seconds and the long sighs I could hear were anything to go by.
It was a strange situation for sure to be walking around the village, holding the hand of a teenager, an eighteen years old child just as I had been upon dying, but with a life much worse than mine, losing everything he cared about, again and again.
At this point in time, I knew he had already fallen into darkness and was slowly losing his desire to live, so for a moment, I was happy we could share a human gesture, even as unaware as I should have been, of the maelstrom of emotions he must be feeling at taking his dead teacher's son on his very first walk outside, regardless of how precocious or strange an infant I had turned out to be.
I held his hand firmly and squeezed it gently before sending a beaming smile his way, hoping to improve his day and ease his demons a little, in the best-case scenario, and knowing it was worth it as I was just being a three-year-old acting too familiarly with his guard if he truly did not care about the situation either way.
This second life wasn't so bad, I decided as we walked around the village and towards my new residence, enjoying the warmth of the sun and the caress of the wind. Not bad at all…