Chapter 1 – With a pinch of salt

She could say this for certain: god must truly hate her right now. I mean, leave her alone: she didn't ask for another god-forsaken life after the last one! Shinigami, why pull the strings on this one?

She also could say that she hadn't cried like that in…what, five years? It was actually rather cathartic, in a morbid way. She was a fully-grown woman of age 30 damnit!

...well in mind anyway.

Her heart throbbed painfully when she recalled her previous life. Blinking furiously, she rubbed her eyes to stop the oncoming waterworks. (Definitely not crying. Yup.)

Muttering some unspeakable obscenities about meddling gods and their meddling actions, she sat up and shifted her position so that she was sitting on the edge of the bed. A small mirror on the wooden stand next to her bed showed a young, black haired girl with matching murky onyx eyes. Huh. She noted dimly that she had a small cowlick on top of her unruly dark hair.

Ignoring the baby fat on her face, she'd say in her oh-so-humble opinion that she looked rather…cute.

Shaking her head quickly, she wondered then what her name was, after all everybody has a name right? Glancing at the plaque next to her bed were a few mysterious symbols, "うちは まゆえ."

Great. Bloody Japanese. She hadn't done so much as look at any Japanese for a good decade or so since she left...

Quickly diverting her thoughts, she tried reading the familiar yet foreign characters again.

Ma-yu-e U-chi-ha…

Mayue Uchiha.

Uchiha.

Uchiha.

Where did she hear of that before?

Wait.

…Please no. Let it be a dream.

She borderline ripped the white curtains open, the bright light of day slightly blinding her as she stared outside.

A large city, no, village met her eyes, something out of a certain loud ninja's manga she had read nearly two decades ago. She would never admit it, but she was rather smitten with the story at the time.

In any case, the newly christened Uchiha Mayue decided that it was a good time to swear.

"F%!#."

Coincidentally, a nurse overheard her not too flattering curses and quickly apprehended her before she pulled 'a ninja,' as they called it. Apparently, it involved, 1. Getting out of the bed, 2. Walking up to the window, and 3. Jumping out of the aforementioned window and booking it out of the premises.

Not that she could do that, though she sorely wished she could. These four white walls were getting infuriatingly boring.

The nurse also informed her that she was suffering from a head injury, which was why she was in hospital at the moment. What a convenient excuse; amnesia.

Not a second too soon, a raven-haired man and woman rushed in and started asking about her well-being.

"Are you alright?"

"Did they give you enough food and water?"

"Oh Mayue, we need to get you to a bath!"

She sweatdropped as didn't even get a word in edgewise until the verbal onslaught was over, not that she minded: If her memory served her right, this was a sight to behold, for the Uchiha were the clan with the biggest sticks up their collective backsides, only rivalled by the stuffy stuck-up Hyūgas.

Was hell freezing over right now?

Putting that aside, she guessed that these two were her…well, Mayue's parents. Not hers.

Leaving those feelings on the backburner for the moment, she sighed and resigned herself to being doted on. She hadn't been doted on for so long she barely even remembered the last she was.

'Well, it could be worse,' she thought, a small smile adorning her face as she was unceremoniously carted off to the Uchiha's bathhouse.

Does she need to say that ninja-jumping through the air feels amazing? Faintly she heard shouting from the window as they sped across the village. She realised with a start that they had ran (escaped) from the hospital, not that she disagreed about it, not one bit.

It was awfully boring there after all.

The water was crystal blue. She stared at the odd sight. Since when all onsen or baths have clear crystal water? She shook her head as she thought it must be a 'Naruto' thing.

It also made her feel strangely self-conscious, as she was rather…exposed. The idea of someone spying on her in the water made her involuntarily shiver.

In a neighbouring town, a certain white-haired pervert sneezed and fell out of his tree. He then cursed the person who had interrupted his 'research' and started running like his life depended on it from the hordes of furious women clamouring for his head on a stick.

(Must be my imagination.)

The sensation of her tense muscles relaxing was heavenly, a stark contrast from what had happened in the last few days. The time in the onsen was also a good time to get her thoughts in order.

She sank into the clear water and watched her hair spread and fan out, rippling with the waves she made.

There was a weird, but not uncomfortable thrumming throughout her body, like an dormant energy just waiting to be released. So this is chakra? She tried fiddling with it, but it seemed to be unperturbed by her attempts at drawing it out. Cheapskate.

...she couldn't prolong ignoring the elephant in the room anymore.

She was in the Narutoverse.

...

Yeah, that was a tough pill to swallow.

On the brighter side, she was an Uchiha…

A wave of guilt and revulsion came over her. Putting it bluntly, she felt dirty; this wasn't…her. This was Mayue, someone else, who had had a life before this.

And she'd taken it away. (How could you?)

Sophie didn't belong here, Mayue did. Did she even deserve to take up her name? (No.)

Did she have the right? (No.)

A/N: Some vocab to fill you in if you didn't know!

onsen – 'An onsen (温泉) is a Japanese hot spring; the term also extends to cover the bathing facilities and traditional inns frequently situated around a hot spring.' - Wikipedia

uchiha – A slightly different way of saying uchiwa, or paper fan. A reference to a paper fan fanning (see what I did there? No?) the flames. (Which is why they are predominantly fire natured!)

Going to need some angst here to build up her character (sorry ;-;). A bit next chapter, but that will end pretty soon. Here marks the Academy Arc!

Also, yes, I really like Cowboy Bebop. Einstein is bae, must be protecc-ed, period.

-Maki

EDIT: Quick clarification here, she just feels like she doesn't deserve to take over somebody else's life (where they might've lived a lot longer) and also feels like she doesn't belong in that world, but she resolves this guilt later on! Can't have that perpetual angst in this fanfic, nope, nuh-uh!

YOU'RE GONNA CARRY THAT WEIGHT