Here's the first chapter of the rewrite. AN at the bottom.
As per usual, I don't own Naruto. Wish I did.
There are a few religions that believe in reincarnation. She didn't belong to any of them. Reincarnation is the belief that a soul is caught in an eternal cycle. A never-ending circle of dying and coming back. Some of said religions believed that what you came back as was entirely dependent on your karmic due. You lived a good life as a good person? Hey, you're in luck and can try out life as a human again. Bad life as a bad person? You will be an ant. So, no. She didn't believe in any of it.
Then again, it didn't matter in the end. Her beliefs meant nothing. She was reborn. Not that she actually knew she had been at first.
An infant's brain isn't fully developed after birth. It isn't capable of the higher functioning thought processes of an adult. So, those fuzzy colors and blurry blobs that occasionally popped into her head never set off any alarms for her. The weird noises didn't register as abnormal. Her new brain couldn't put two and two together. Those things just... were.
That was her theory anyway. She had no way to test it, of course...
Once the realization that she was a baby again had actually taken root, she was beyond glad she couldn't remember it. There are some things that she just didn't want to remember. Being changed was bad enough, but being breastfed? No, thank you. Yay for infantile amnesia!
She wasn't entirely sure of her physical age when finally settled into her new head. Given the fact that she was teething (and it was no wonder why babies cried so much. That shit hurt.) but was not yet able to take more than a few steps without assistance, she'd guessed she had just entered the toddler years. At least she could roll over and crawl successfully. That was something.
The woman that was in charge of taking care of her left her to her own devices for the most part. The part of her that was an independent woman in her mid-twenties was perfectly fine with that. However, physically, she was practically a baby. Her caretaker should find a new profession. She'd toyed with the idea that the woman was her mother, but discarded it. This woman could barely remember to feed the child regularly.
Her caretaker was rather pretty, all things considered. Perhaps a bit of a space case. There were times the woman would stare vacantly at nothing for hours or just set the infant in an enclosed space and then fall asleep on the couch. In those moments she would need to resort to crying when she soiled herself and the woman would seem irritated. She couldn't help but think the woman should try sitting in a dirty diaper and see how she liked it. It wasn't her fault that she still didn't have enough control over her own body yet to do it herself. Even if she did, she wasn't big enough to use a toilet.
It wasn't all bad, of course. There were moments when the woman would rush into the room as if she was worried. She'd scoop the child up and speak softly with words that were decidedly not English. (That was, however, how she found out her new name was Nazoko.) She'd cry while she rocked Nazoko gently from side to side.
After a while (she'd estimated about a month, though don't ask her how she came to that conclusion. She spent a lot of time sleeping herself. This new body of her tired easily.) of the bipolar routine, Nazoko had concluded that she'd been orphaned in this new life. She did wonder how she ended up with a woman like this though. She really had no right to be put in charge of a child.
However, that conclusion was shattered the moment a man entered the room she was in. He came over to her and picked her up, hugging Nazoko tightly to his chest. A feeling of love, comfort, and rightness filled her with his actions and she knew this was her father. So, she let her head rest against his chest, content as he peppered kisses on her forehead. Then he walked toward her caretaker and did something that shattered yet another of Nazoko's conclusions. He kissed the woman.
The woman, the bipolar and negligent woman, was her mother. Her mind didn't want to comprehend that revelation. Nazoko hadn't even realized she'd started crying until her father was rocking her gently and speaking in a soothing tone. Her mother's behavior in this life so far did not bode well for her.
...a couple months...(1/2)
Her father was only home for short periods of time and Nazoko truly cherished those moments. Her mother seemed to come into her own when he was around. Her eyes were bright and clear. She'd laugh and play with her. She'd really be Nazoko's mother. They were happy. An actual family.
Then he would leave. Usually for weeks at a time. Her mother would revert to her confusing self and knowing she was her mother meant that she saw the woman's behavior in a new light.
Now, Nazoko hadn't been a doctor in her old life but she had suffered from depression herself. So, she knew the signs. She also had an odd habit of researching weird things Before, but that was a story for a different day.
Given that Nazoko was still young, she might have said her mother had PPD, or Postpartum Depression. However, she was older than a few months. Which made the behavior that much more concerning. PPD didn't usually last more than a couple of months after the birth of a child. Going by her progress, physically, she must have been older than a year.
As it turned out, Nazoko was actually closer to two. She found that out during one of her father's visits home. (She still had no idea what the man did that would take him out of the home so much.) She'd heard a conversation between her parents about her second birthday. Her grasp of the foreign language was far from perfect, but it was better than it had any right to be given her age. Thank goodness for the sponge-like absorption of a child's brain.
Nazoko had tried her hardest to make it easier for the woman. She kept her crying to a minimum and only did so if she needed to be changed or if she hadn't been fed by noon. Since she wasn't capable yet of holding full conversations, the "being there" approach was the best she could do. It hadn't seemed to work much.
So, while her mother was out to gather the required ingredients for the birthday dinner, chicken udon, and yakitori if anyone wanted to know, Nazoko thought it might be a good idea to let her father know about difficulties her mother faced in his absence. Sure, she didn't feel as strongly for the woman as she did her father, there is something to be said for those books on bonding with your child after all, but she was still her mother. Nazoko did feel something akin to love for her even if it wasn't love itself.
Her mother was struggling. Just as Nazoko herself had struggled Before. She didn't want people to give up on her then, she wasn't about to give up on her own mother now. Of course, trying to tell her dad was easier said than done. Her ability to speak the language was hardly on the same level as her comprehension of it. She still had to try.
"Tou-san..." She felt her heart swell at his smile.
"Yes, Nazoko-chan?"
She frowned as she tried to get the words out properly. "Kaa-san... Kaa-san sick."
He tilted his head and mirrored her frown. "What do you mean?"
"Kaa-san sick. Kaa-san not... okay." Nazoko made a frustrated noise. She really needed to get to work on some speech therapy. How was she supposed to convey that her mother was suffering from a mental illness when her own tongue was against her? That, and the fact that she still didn't understand how sentences were structured in this new language.
"Kaa-san sick here." She pointed to her head and sent him a silent plea to understand.
"You mean she has a headache?"
"No." She shook her head. "Kaa-san okay now. Tou-san gone then Kaa-san sick. Sad. Angry..."
He silently considered her words for a few moments. "Okay. I'll talk to your Kaa-san."
Perhaps he hadn't understood fully what she was trying to say. At least he hadn't brushed it off as two-year-old nonsense. Then Mother was home and the conversation was over.
...a short while after that conversation...(2)
"Nazoko-chan, would you like some onigiri?"
She looked up from her crayon squiggles, she was working on getting better hand-eye coordination, but she'd keep letting everyone else believe it was just squiggles. Her mother was standing in the room with a gentle smile on her face. Her mother really was quite pretty. Her hair was a very light brown and her eyes an odd mixture of purple and dark brown. The purple was still very evident.
Ever since the conversation with her father, things seemed to get better. Keiko, she finally found out her mother's name, had finally taken to spending more time with Nazoko. She'd play with her, read to her, and she rarely ever missed a meal now.
"Nazoko-chan?"
With a start, Nazoko realized she's been staring at her mother for a little too long. She felt the blood rush to her face, and oh did she wish she had full control of her body so she could stifle the awful heat, and sent Keiko a shy smile. "Okay."
She heaved herself to her pudgy feet and followed her mother to the table. She hid her grimace at the umeboshi. Perhaps it was her taste from Before, and she had no idea how that worked since she was in a brand new body, but she just couldn't stand pickled plumbs. All the same, she munch without complaint. Nazoko could appreciate the effort her mother was putting forth.
Her mother sat at the table with her and stared at her with her head tilted. "Nazoko-chan, I think we will go out into the backyard after this."
Nazoko blinked a few times, her cheeks puffed out like a chipmunk after a particularly large bite. She swallowed painfully and coughed. "Okay, Kaa-san." She didn't miss the way her mother's lips quirked up at the sides and her insides warmed a little.
'This. This is what it's supposed to feel like,' Nazoko thought. It had worried her when she didn't feel the same love for her mother that she had for her father, not that it was all that shocking given the circumstances. It was nearly twice as worrisome since her mother was the only constant in her life. Her father would be gone for a month or two at a time and was only back for a week before needing to leave again.
There was a process that, to most people, was natural. Simply doing things like holding your child or taking a few minutes here and there to play with them was enough, in most cases, to form a bond. PPD, or postpartum depression, made it hard for the mother to do that. It was likely due to the sudden decrease in hormones. It wasn't a fun situation.
Nazoko had gotten so lost in her thoughts she didn't even realize she'd finished until she was standing outside with her mother. Time outside was a rare thing when her father was gone. She still hadn't left the house(someone was nice enough to deliver basic groceries, though she had no idea who), she was too short to see through the windows, and no way could she see over the fence in the backyard.
"Come here, Nazoko-chan. I'm going to show you the proper way to stretch."
The stretches her mother showed her were a little more intense than the ones she'd learned in gym class once upon a time. Or maybe it just seemed that way to her since she was still only two. It took about half an hour to go through the simple routine.
Her mother sent her a tiny smile. "Good. Now I want you to run around the yard. I'd like you to keep going until I ask you to stop."
Nazoko tilted her head slightly. Her mother probably just wanted her to run off any excess energy. She shrugged it off mentally. "Okay, Kaa-san." She decided to just run along the side of the fence that sectioned off their backyard. It was a fairly large yard and it only took three laps until she was thoroughly winded.
"Keep going!" Her mother snapped.
Nazoko jumped at the sudden noise and ended up falling to the ground getting a face full of dirt and scraped knees in the process. A second later a hand gripped her upper arms and pulled her up. She couldn't help the small trill of fear that rippled down her spine when she saw the ugly sneer that twisted Keiko's beautiful face. It was replaced by a horrified look the next second.
"Nazoko-chan! You're hurt. I'm so sorry! I- Let's get you cleaned up. I think we're done here."
Her mother cleaned her up mechanically. She pulled her pajamas over her head and placed her in her crib before leaving the room. Nazoko didn't eat supper that night.
The next morning came with her mother rushing into the room. The relief on Keiko's face was... Well, it made Nazoko feel a little relieved as well. It must have just been a small relapse. She was very attentive all day. A little after lunch, Nazoko decided to bite the bullet and ask her if it was okay to do the stretches again. It was selfish of her, she'll admit, but she really wanted to go outside again. With crossed fingers, she hoped it wouldn't cause her mother to revert again.
She didn't have to worry, it seemed. Her mother agreed and stood patiently while she did the stretches. The laps around the yard were fine as well, though Nazoko did push herself to make it to five. She was tired after that but her mother decided it would be a good idea to teach her even more stretches, although this new set was for her hands. She just shrugged it off. It hadn't triggered her. Things were going well.
...(2)
"Kaa-san, could you read this to me?" Nazoko asked her mother.
Her mother didn't answer and just continued to stare out the window.
"Kaa-san?" She placed a hand on her mother's arm. Faster than she could see, her mother's hand moved. A resounding slap echoed in the quiet house and Nazoko's cheek was left stinging. Her little palms were raw where they had slid across the wooden floor. She brought one up to her cheeks, tears gathering in her eyes from surprise. "K-kaa-san?"
Her mother stared at her with a blank face. Her odd purple-brown eyes were cold. Slowly, she turned her head back to look out the window. There had been no recognition.
Nazoko took a quiet, shuddering breath before she walked back to her room. She slid the door closed and curled up on the floor by her crib. Today was a bad day. Unfortunately, it was the first of many.
...(2)
Nazoko was getting really worried. Kenta, her father, was due home a week ago. He wasn't back yet. Why wasn't he back yet? What job could he possibly have that would keep him away for an extra week? She really needed him to get home.
Padding to the door of her room, she slid it open soundlessly and poked her head out. Her mother was in the kitchen.
"Red bean mochi is your favorite, right Kenta? I need to pick up some more green tea powder, then I can make enough for the both of us. Doesn't that sound nice?" Keiko paused for a moment. "I think so too. There is this really nice restaurant that just opened up. Another Akimichi one. They always have the best food. We could go on a date. Just like we used to before the fighting..."
Nazoko pulled her head back in and slid her door shut. Keiko was still speaking as if there was someone else there. As if her father was there. He wasn't. There was no one else in the home besides the mother and daughter. Keiko had gotten a lot worse over the last year since Nazoko's second birthday.
Nazoko slid down the wall she had leaned against and pulled her legs to her chest. She resigned herself to staying in her room for another day. It was too dangerous for Keiko to see her when she was having one of these episodes. This went beyond depression and Nazoko was scared. She was scared, and tired, and hungry. It wasn't supposed to be like this. She shouldn't be afraid of her own mother.
Luckily, this episode seemed to motivate Keiko to go out shopping. An hour later, the woman left. After waiting fifteen minutes to be sure she wasn't going to come back unexpectedly, Nazoko practically flew out of her room and into the kitchen. Having never had the chance to see outside, Nazoko didn't know how long she had before her mother would return.
Ever since her mind had settled into the new body, and become more aware, Nazoko had come to the conclusion that she must have been born into a rural area of Japan. She'd never heard any vehicles outside. So, her home must be in the country or an out-of-the-way village.
If the first, the countryside, then she would have some time before Keiko returned. If the second, an out-of-the-way village, then she might only have minutes. She needed to hurry if she wanted to get any food. It was a risk. A very big one. But dammit! If she was going to die again, starvation was not going to be the way she'd go!
Then again, she still had some very vivid bruising from the last time she tried to sneak into the kitchen the other night. She shook her head. No. She would survive by any means.
It took all of her body weight to open the fridge. Being tiny sucked, she decided as she rubbed her sore bottom. There was some onigiri on the top shelf. Keiko would probably notice if one went missing, but seeing as Nazoko was still so small, trying to cook anything was out of the question.
Now, she just had to reach it. She wasn't all that heavy. She could do it. She carefully placed her foot on the bottom shelf and gripped the outside edge of the frame and hoisted herself up. She grabbed a single rice ball before her foot slipped and she tipped forward. Her chin hit the second shelf and her temple hit the base as she fell. Milk splashed over her and the floor. She tasted blood from where she bit her cheek on impact. Yet she could only stare at the mess in horror.
Every muscle in her body refused to move for a few precious seconds until her brain overrode the paralyzing fear. That needed to be cleaned up yesterday. Her head whipped around as she frantically searched for a towel. When none were within her range of reach, she yanked her shirt over her head and set about wiping up the spill as meticulously as possible. Keiko would be so much angrier if more than one onigiri was gone and now she had to deal with the substantial drop in milk too.
Part of her was a little frustrated that she would get into trouble for this with nothing to show for it. That milk didn't go into her tummy after all. It was wasted.
Nazoko heaved a sigh and sat on her heels for a moment and eyed the fridge. Nothing else looked out of place to her. Maybe Keiko wouldn't be too hard on her? It was hard not to be bitter as the feeling of incredulous disbelief welled inside of her at that, rather stupid, thought. Her gaze turned to the now misshapen ball of rice that was the cause of this mess. If trouble was headed her way, this pathetic excuse for a meal better give her enough strength to get through it.
She tried to eat slowly but her stomach took on a life of its own and the rice was gone before she knew it. She hurried back to her room and grabbed a new set of clothes and rushed to the bathroom. She struggled to get her bottoms off before she turned the shower on. That presented its own difficulties. She could reach the handles but after the fiasco in the kitchen she was tired and it was difficult getting them to turn. She didn't bother trying to use both to moderate the temperature. Time was the enemy after all.
She took the quickest shower of either of her lives, taking a few more seconds to swallow a few mouthfuls of the cool liquid, and struggled even more to turn the water off. Her hands had lost a bit of feeling by the point and she couldn't stop shaking. The cold and fading adrenaline not helping her any.
She used a spare shirt to dry herself and floor off then dressed clumsily. She raced back to her bedroom and threw her dirty clothes into her hamper. Only then did her heart rate slow.
She couldn't climb into her crib, so she settled down into the blanket and pillow on the floor next to it. The little excursion out of her room took what little energy she had. She was out in seconds.
... later that night(around midnight)...
Something was wrong. That much was clear to Nazoko before she was even fully awake. The air felt heavy and thick with ill intention. She drew in a slow steadying breath as she opened her eyes and turned her head. That same breath left her in a startled exhale.
"K-kaa-san!"
Keiko's eyes were blank as she stared down at the trembling form of her daughter on the floor. The tone she spoke in was just as flat as her gaze. "You've been a very naughty child." Nothing. There was no emotion to be found. Keiko was empty.
Lethargy fled from her limbs and she blinked the sleep from her eyes. The moon was the only thing that gave off light and its silver rays bathed Keiko in an eerie glow. She looked like some sort of angel of death. As she shifted, the light illuminated an oddly-shaped metal object in her hands.
Keiko's expression shifted to tranquil. "I'm going to make everything better. Kaa-san is going to fix everything." Her tone was so gentle. So kind and soft. Her lips lifted into a small, tenderhearted smile.
Nazoko's already racing heart lurched painfully in her chest. This wasn't real, right? This was just a very bad nightmare. It had to be.
The pressure in the room increased. Breathing was nearly impossible and she was sure her heart was going to escape her chest. Keiko raised the metal object over her head and the light glinted viciously along one of its edges.
For a brief moment, time stopped and Nazoko knew what the oddly-shaped object was. A knife. A four-sided knife that was oddly familiar.
Time started again, and Nazoko let out a bloodcurdling scream. She flung herself up and away from the thing that was supposed to be her mother. Her head bashed against the edge of her crib as the door to her room was thrown open. She caught a glimpse of Kenta's horrified face, as well as a headband that stirred the feeling of deja vu, before he lunged forward.
Darkness crept forward to claim her sight and the last thing she saw was the maliciously gleaming kunai headed straight for her. And then, she knew nothing but black.
...19 hours later(roughly 7pm)...
A steady beeping and her soft breaths were two of the first things Nazoko became aware of as she slowly waded her way through the fog in her head to consciousness. The third thing she became aware of was this buzzing in the air that was almost tangible and seemed to be emanating from somewhere to her right.
Her eyelids fluttered a few times before finally allowing themselves to stay open. It took them a minute to adjust to the mix of fluorescent and natural lighting but when they did, she saw a white-tiled ceiling.
'Hospital.' The knowledge didn't invoke any particular feeling. It was just a fact. She was in the hospital, simple as that. What knowledge didn't immediately make itself know was why she was there. It took a few more moments of deep concentration for the images to rush forward and she regretted ever trying to remember. She closed her eyes in a futile effort to stem the onslaught of memories. The beeping became more frequent in response to her increased breathing.
A rustle of fabric came from the corner of the room, the "buzzing" getting louder for a brief moment, and Nazoko could practically feel an aborted movement to come closer to her. The monitor skipped a beat and she struggled not to whip her head in that direction. Her heart was working overtime now and she slowly turned her head. She felt the tears building as anxiety and adrenaline coursed through her small body.
Her eyes landed on a solitary figure. Dressed in all black besides a grey chest plate and arm guards. A white mask covered his face with red-rimmed eye holes and two thick red lines on each cheek.
If the details from her memory weren't so clear, her father wearing a green flak jacket, the headband with a stylized leaf, and bandages around his thigh, she might believe it was an elaborate cosplay. As it was, the facts started slotting together. Her father's apparel and long absences, this man's uniform, the language, the stretches for her body and the specific ones for her hands, and the kunai knife glinting-
A very startling and completely terrifying reality was beginning to set in... A fictional world.
Being reborn was one thing. It took her a while to accept that. But the thing was, she could accept that. Reincarnation was an accepted theory Before. But this? How could she possibly accept this? And yet... glinting kunai, stylized leaf, red-rimmed eyes against a white mask, GLINTING KUNAI- A fictional, anime world.
She wanted to laugh. To cry. To scream. To run. To hide. This was just too much. The fictional, anime world of Naruto.
In the end, she did nothing. The conflicting emotions and feelings were pulling her in too many directions and her brain couldn't decide which one to settle on. A fracture formed in her mind and the result left her feeling muted. The feelings were still there but they seemed to slip through the crack in her mind and allowed calm to claim her.
The Anbu man tilted his head the slightest bit. He probably found it odd that the heart monitor had gone back to a steady rhythm seconds after she spotted him. She was a two-year-old who was just attacked by her own mother and was now alone in a room with a stranger wearing a fairly menacing-looking mask. Any normal child would be crying right now.
Then again, she wasn't a normal child. Turning her head to look down at her body, she looked even smaller when compared to the size of the average hospital bed. An IV was in one arm and one of those sticker things on her chest for the monitor. After briefly tensing and untensing her various body parts, she ascertained that she wasn't injured so she pushed herself upright. Her head began pounding. Reaching up, her hand landed on a patch of bandages.
Oh. That's right. She'd hit her head. She shrugged it off and pulled her pillow into a better place to keep her upright. Once she was satisfied with her new position, she turned back to the Anbu.
She studied him a little more closely this time. His posture was open but tense. So, he didn't want to appear threatening but he was ready to move if the need arose. His head was still tilted. He was curious. About her, yes, but she didn't know what he was trying to figure out. She had no doubt that he was studying her too, but the mask did its job of hiding more than just his identity.
"Are you allowed to talk?" She swore she felt his surprise, though he made no outward sign of it. To be fair, that wouldn't be the first question a toddler would ask. Assuming the toddler even knew enough about Anbu to know talking wasn't something they probably did a lot of in uniform.
"I am." His voice came out distorted somehow. It made sense when she thought about it. Anbu was supposed to be the shadow ranks. You weren't supposed to see them coming, much less know who they were. The oddest thing was that their hair and voices weren't disguised in the show. Then again, the author must have needed a way to show the reader/watcher who was behind the mask when it was relevant.
This wasn't an anime though. Here and now, it was real. -kunai glinting, coming closer- It was Nazoko's life now. She was just as much alive as anyone else. The last year had been enough to show her that much.
"How long was I..." She frowned when she couldn't think of the word she wanted. "Asleep?"
"You were unconscious for nineteen hours." The distorted voice sounded as if he was trying to speak gently. As if he were facing a frightened animal.
She filed the new word away as she bobbed her head once slowly. She probably had a concussion then. It could have been worse. A couple images of just how much worse briefly entered her mind before pushing them away. She didn't want to think about that right now. It would probably be best to ask the obvious question that she should have asked first. "Where is Tou-san?"
The man didn't tense, yet that was the impression Nazoko got. That buzzing seemed to intensify the slightest bit. "He'll be along shortly."
She blinked once, slowly. Even with the distortion, she could hear that his tone was the slightest bit tighter. Hm... was it disapproval?
A knock at the door interrupted her from her thoughts. Probably a good thing... She changed her mind when the door opened as three people walked in.
'Oh... Fuck!' The monitor registered another skip. 'No. Relax. It's fine.' Her heart slowed down, though it was still faster than it was before.
The female nurse walked forward first. "Nazoko-chan. I'm so glad to see you awake." She gave the little girl a genuine smile as she looked over the equipment and asked Nazoko some general questions before marking a few things down on her chart. After sending the girl one last smile and bowing to the men in the room, she left.
She finally returned her gaze to the other two. One was ignored in favor of the one that was wearing a rather identifiable hat. The Hokage. The third Hokage. And he looked rather young. The little goatee still had its mostly brown coloring and there weren't nearly as many wrinkles lining his face as she would have expected. There was no way Hiruzen Sarutobi was in his sixties.
Well, that was fairly significant. She now had a better idea of when she was. She put that line of thought on the back burner for the moment and shifted her attention to the other man.
Blond hair, closely resembling straw, in a long ponytail. Teal pupilless eyes. A Yamanaka. Why was there a Yamanaka? She hadn't done anything wrong. She was two! He couldn't possibly be here to do a mind walk. Right? There was absolutely no reason for that.
'You've done nothing wrong. Keep calm,' she repeated as her eyes moved back to the Hokage as he stepped forward.
"Hello, Nazoko-chan. I am Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Hokage of Konoha." His voice was a little gravely and he looked at her with grandfatherly concern.
She sent him a timid smile. 'Nothing to see here. Just an innocent little toddler.' "Hello."
He gestured to the other man. "This is Inoki Yamanaka. He is the head of the Yamanaka clan."
She repeated her greeting while pushing that bit of info with the rest. "Where is Tou-san?" Because if this was going to end up being interrogated, she was gonna have her father present. Weren't there laws against questioning minors without a legal guardian?
Actually, she wasn't sure that they had anything like that here. It was essentially a military dictatorship. If someone was a threat to the safety of the village, it would make sense if the Hokage had the power to have anyone, of any age, questioned with or without a guardian present. Nazoko also didn't recall if there was such a thing as a lawyer in this world.
"Kenta will be along shortly."
That was almost the exact same thing the anbu had said. Were they keeping her father out of the room on purpose? Why?
"May I sit?"
She nodded slowly.
His expression turned serious. "Can you please tell me what happened, Nazoko-chan? Do you remember why you're here?"
She didn't miss the sharp look in his eyes, nor the fact that he expected her to understand him. So, he at least knew she was a fairly intelligent toddler.
"Kaa-san is sick," she repeated what she said to her father so many months ago. At least her vocabulary had expanded a bit since then. "I wait for Kaa-san to leave home then I go to get food. Kaa-san got mad. She going to hurt me." Nazoko nearly sighed in frustration at the difficulties that she had properly conjugating verbs. It's not like she had a lot of people to talk to, but it helped her maintain the image of a toddler. Even if she was a rather focused one capable of understanding the situation.
"Kaa-san is sick," she said once more. "Are you helping her?"
Hiruzen let out a slow breath. "Aa. There is supposed to be a system in place after a mother gives birth. Check-ups for both baby and mother. I've never had a reason to enforce it before now, but I will. For my lack of action, I am very sorry, Nazoko-chan."
She furrowed her brow. There were a lot of words that she didn't understand fully but she was able to determine his meaning given context clues. "You didn't make Kaa-san do it. You not be sorry."
"That is very kind of you to say." He was amused. This child had the focus and awareness of someone much older, yet spoke like the toddler she was, if slightly more advanced. He wondered briefly where she would be if she had been in a different household. "Nazoko-chan, do you know when your Kaa-san's sickness got so bad?"
She shrugged. "Long time. Told Tou-san."
Inoki cleared his throat. Hiruzen dipped his head and the blond stepped forward and gave Nazoko a genial smile. "When you say sickness, what do you mean?"
She bit her lip as she tried to think of what to say. "Kaa-san is fine when Tou-san is home. When Tou-san is gone, she get sad, and mad, and be blank-"
"Blank?"
"Um... She look at wall for long time. Not be there?" She hoped she conveyed her meaning well enough.
"I see. Anything else?"
"Um... She not remember to feed me all the time. She sleep a lot." She had a sudden thought. What if they took her away from her father for this? He wasn't home a lot. Was that why they weren't letting him in right now? "Tou-san remember to feed me. Tou-san play with me a lot. Tou-san good."
Inoki put his hands up. "I'm sure he is, Nazoko-chan. Your Tou-san isn't in trouble. Neither are you. In fact, neither is your Kaa-san."
Now she was confused. They weren't going to make her live with the woman that almost killed her -metal shining in the moonlight, coming closer- were they? "She not?"
He shook his head. "It's as you said. She's sick. She's going to get the help she needs."
"I won't have to see Kaa-san?" Just to clarify.
"No," Inoki stated firmly. "Not until you're older and only if you want to."
She breathed a sigh of relief. "Okay." She could feel the emotions she'd pushed away start to creep up on her. Her eyes started watering. "Can I see Tou-san now?" She wanted a fucking hug and Kenta gave the best ones.
Hiruzen stood. "Of course. I'll send him in." He and Inoki tilted their heads to her and walked out of the room.
Barely a minute passed before Kenta rushed into the room. "Nazoko!" The anbu slipped out of the room silently.
Her lower lip trembled against her wishes. By the time her father had scooped her up and settled her on his lap, the sadness and anxiety had won out and she was bawling unattractively with snot dripping from her nose. The feeling of SAFE enveloped her.
...Maybe 1-3 months later...(3)
Nazoko stared at the clouds as she worked to get her breathing under control.
"You did well, Nazoko-chan. That was six laps this time."
The praise warmed her as it usually did and she sent her father a tired smile. She only seemed capable of giving him tired ones. It had been very hard for her to sleep through the night for weeks after the Incident.
While the crying episode in the hospital had helped, it hardly took care of the problem. Someone she should have been able to trust had tried to kill her. Someone who was supposed to love her had neglected and abused her. That isn't something that just goes away. Although she wished a couple of months was enough time to move past it, it wasn't. Honestly, she just wanted to be able to sleep.
Her father, that wonderful man, had been very patient with her, though she had no doubt he had his own feelings to deal with. It made her feel even worse when her own anger would boil over. She'd just yell and scream for no reason at all. Her father just let her vent then held her tightly until she calmed down.
"I love you, Tou-san." She said it so sincerely that no one would ever doubt the claim. She meant it. She might have the memories of a life before this, but here and now, this man was her father. It was only slightly alarming at just how easy it was to accept that fact. Or maybe it wasn't. Kenta Fuji loved her just as much as she loved him.
He crouched down and ruffled her hair lightly with a smile. "I love you, too. Think you're up for doing some kata?"
Nazoko nodded and scrambled up. Her dad watched as she started on the kata, gently correcting her if she did something wrong.
There was another reason that she couldn't sleep well at night. It was when she had the most time to think. Accepting that she was in a fictional world was hard. She managed to, but it led to other questions. Why was she here? Was she supposed to change things? Could she change anything?
Technically, everything turned out okay in the show. So, would her interfering make something worse? Should she even try to make a plan? She'd finally seen the Hokage mountain when Kenta brought her home from the hospital. There had been three heads up there.
So, she knew Minato hadn't been made Hokage yet. That threw her for a loop. It meant Naruto hadn't been born yet. She also knew that there was a war going on(she finally found out that her father was being sent to man border station when he left for so long) thanks to some gossiping nurses. Second or third, she wasn't sure of (she wasn't going to ask Kenta about it. He deserved to relax during his time off). And while knowing that Inoichi wasn't the head of his clan was interesting, it still didn't help her pinpoint her whereabouts in the timeline.
Then there was the small issue of whether or not what she knew was even accurate. There was always a chance that things would be completely different. In reality, the only thing she could decide on with any certainty was that she was going to become a shinobi and she'd have to make sure that she stayed off the radar for a certain megalomaniacal madman with a hard-on for a specific dojutsu.
That choice made, until she could figure out when she was, her hands were mostly tied with how much she could meddle. She needed more information, but it wasn't like she could go looking. At three, and given previous events, Kenta was rightly paranoid about letting Nazoko out of his sight.
He'd been given the better part of two months off to spend time with Nazoko and help them both through the Incident before being sent out again. Luckily, the Hokage was nice enough to also shorten his duration on the front. Now he was only gone for two weeks at a time.
Speaking of, he was due to leave again very soon. Which usually meant... "So, am I gonna stay with Atsuko-san again?"
Atsuko was the wife of Kenta's genin teammate. She was a civilian through and through. She was nice enough, but she believed that women should stay at home and leave the fighting to the men. At least, she was more than willing to help Nazoko with her reading and writing. And between Kenta and Atsuko, she could speak without making too many mistakes now.
Atsuko was also the first person to put Nazoko in front of a mirror in this life. That was a bit of a surreal experience. She still half expected to see her dyed purple hair. Instead, she had Kenta's hair color, a dark chocolate brown, and she could see traces of his facial structure beneath her round face. Her eyes, however, were an exact replica of Keiko's. They were pretty, she couldn't deny that. Still, she didn't really like the reminder.
"I'm afraid not. Atsuko is sick. You'll be staying with a different person this time. While my friend may not be there much, seeing as he's a shinobi too, his wife is on leave because she was injured. So, you'll have to be on your best behavior and try to help her out as much as she'll allow, okay?"
Nazoko shrugged. "Of course. Does she have a name?" Being left with a stranger didn't bother her much. Having Kenta leave at all was her problem. She'd gotten rather clingy recently... She was working on it.
"Mm. Her name is Okami."
She paused. Wolf? "Is she an Inuzuka?"
It was her father's turn to pause. "She is," he said slowly.
Ah. She realized her mistake. She shouldn't know about clans yet. Whoops. The sooner she learned how to read and write, the better. Then she could blame her knowledge on books. As for now, she'd have to hope that her father would just shrug it off or assume she learned it from Atsuko.
"Well, her last name is no longer Inuzuka. Not since she married my friend. But she does have a ninken. His name is Haru."
She smiled. "Okay."
Her father sighed. "I'm sorry, Nazoko-chan. Even after everything..."
"Tou-san, I understand. You're a ninja and have a job to do. By protecting the village, you are protecting me. As long as you try to be safe and come home, I can handle it."
"You shouldn't have to handle anything. You're only three." He ran a hand through his hair and looked at her a little sadly. "You are far more mature than you should be, Nazoko-chan. Come on. Let's go get something to eat."
There ya go. So, there were a couple scenes that I left alone, but I did rewrite and add more to some other ones. Like I said, it isn't going to differ too much from the original at this time. Chapter three is where that happens. Let me know if this one was better?
I forgot just how difficult it is to upload stories here. Ugh. So, I've had quite a few people suggest posting to AO3. Well, I have an account there now. rosechan27. Same name without the "." so you can read the ORIGINAL version there, plus the adult scenes. Keep in mind that I'm not bulk posting there though. Once a week only and I've just posted chapter 2 over there.
I do welcome criticism as long as it is constructive. For those of you who don't know what that means, here's the definition- a helpful way of giving feedback that provides specific, actionable suggestions. Rather than providing general advice, constructive criticism gives specific recommendations on how to make positive improvements. Constructive criticism is clear, to the point and easy to put into action.
It take a certain kind of courage to post something you've been working on very hard and is very dear to you for EVERYONE to see. Keep that in mind if you don't like something you read. If what you want to say to the author is not positive or a respectfully said way for them to improve, then it's best to no say anything at all (unless said author specifically states they welcome flames)
Thanks for reading and giving this a chance.