AN: Chapter two! I wrote one chapter per day, two days in a row. I can't say this posting is gonna be consistent nor will I imply that it will be. I was really unsure about this chapter and I made a lot of gaps. Main character being a toddler barely past one year ( not that they know it ) I struggled a bit with the POV, it feels slightly different than the last chapter but I've been trying to keep it consistent with the mobility and actions capable for the age.

Also panning to flashbacks is hard , smooth transitions do not exist to me, everything feels rough, I am thinking this in a morty voice even though I've never actually watched the show, only clips.

Anyways~ To the Story

I decided to wait until all my front teeth have grown in to say my first word.

Working out pronunciation during supposed nap times, trying to get control of my untrained tongue.

I feel it's only right my first word is mom as I have no father. Deep inside I want to comment on how men just run off and are good for nothing, but I know that is just spite from my last relationship. My father in this life is probably dead seeing the current world around me.

Speaking of the world around me, it's pretty terrible looking. Mom took me out to the village the other day, carrying me in a blanket tied around her torso. I wouldn't blame her for putting me down, I am getting pretty large now, I must be nearing the one year mark.

From my spot on my mothers back I got a good look at the town my mother and I live in.

Over half the buildings are broken in some way and people sit in the streets covered in snow looking like they have lost all hope. An eerie reminder of what I became in my last life.

The food at the stalls is mostly gone and what remains is bruised and appealing, a kind vendor handed us the best of what remains, seemingly sympathetic towards a single mother in poverty.

I have also noticed that this world doesn't have large amounts of literacy. The signs at the food stalls consisted of carved pictures and simple words on wood planks stuck into the ground.

I listened closely and tried to get an understanding on this world's number and writing system.

Numbers are easier than letters, coming in sets of ten similar to my own world. I don't know how I would have coped with maths if I had to relearn everything in sets of eight or eleven.

Coming back to now , I am teething on a slice of the cold fruit my mother just cut, the cold soothing my angry gums. I am pretty sure all my front teeth have grown in at this point.

I used to hate the snow but having a source of cold to freeze stuff to put in my mouth has been a great commodity these past four months.

SLAM

I hear something fall to the ground in the direction of my mom.

She is on the ground curled up in pain. Her internal energy flaring rapidly and she clutches her abdomen in pain.

Bad. This is bad. Is she dying? Who will take care of me if she is gone? That's such a selfish thought, but I'm a selfish person, I have to be, but not right now. How do I get her help? I am not even a year old yet.

I run towards her, and stop before tumbling into the ground next to her. Her hair is turning red.

Red is covering her mouth and hands. Is that blood? Why is blood coming out of her mouth? Is she sick?

I feel dizzy, I think I'm screaming, I can't hear anything but my own blood rushing to my ears.

" Mom! Mom! No!"

I heard that, now I am screaming.

The last thing I can comprehend is my mothers purple eyes looking up at me and darkness seeping into the edge of my vision.

I black out.

—-

Waking up I panic.

I have to get help, my mom is sick but what?

Why am I in my crib, wasn't I in the living room with mom?

Is mom ok? Did someone help?

Taking deep breaths I calm down and focus on the soothing energy within me, reaching out and searching for my mom. I find her nearby and feeling more stable.

Reaching to the top of my crib and crawling out, not a skill I wanted to expose quite yet but I can't bring myself to care at this point. I creep into the living room and see my mom. She is sitting at the couch writing something onto a scroll on the coffee table.

She gives a weak smile that anyone but a toddler could understand was strained.

"Good morning Enkai."

I just stare at her unsure how to proceed. She laughs softly and sets the brush down and comes to pick me up and set me on her lap.

"Enkai I love you more than anything in the world, you know that right."

Shakily I nod my head, afraid my own words would betray me.

"Mom is gonna go away for a while."

Is she really trying to give me the 'everybody dies and becomes a star' talk, I am a toddler, why would I understand that?

My mother picks up a brush and pulls up my shirt and starts to draw on my belly, close to my left hip.

I flinch at the cold ink. I don't understand anything. I am an adult in a toddlers body and I still don't understand.

Tears gathered in my eyes and I try my best not to sob.

My mother sets me on the couch before gathering up the scrolls she had set on the coffee table and bites her thumb, making it bloody. She presses it onto the drawing on my hip and my energy floods to my hip for a split second and the scrolls disappear. The ink shrinking into a small diamond shape.

Is she sealing scrolls on me?

Her hair drains to red, I gasp.

She seems to understand my surprise.

"It's red enkai, hidden with a seal. I don't have quite enough chakra left to sustain it."

I look at her like she is insane because this woman, who has cared for me, changed my diapers and taught me how to clothe myself is performing magic ninja bullshit right before my eyes and expecting me to take it in stride.

" You have red hair too enkai, just a few streaks of it though." she seems to attempt to explain.

I reach up to my hair and pull the short straight strands into my eyes. It is brown as far as I can see, but I might be missing it.

" It's under a seal, not that you know what that is."

She pokes my forehead and my hair seems to bleed into black and red under my hands.

Ninja magic. Bullsh-

Her hand glows again, a warm cyan focuses on her pointer finger as she seems to draw on my forehead with her finger. My hair bleeds to brown again and I feel a small tug on my energy that was just previously so drained by whatever she did to my hip.

I look up at her with a face of pure confusion.

" Our little secret alright Enkai?" mother says, putting a single finger over her lips that is pushed into a strained smile in a shushing motion.

I nod quietly and she picks me up yet again and starts to feed my fruit while carrying me to the door.

We walk through town and reach the edge of the town in about ten minutes.

Mother raises her hand to my forehead and smiles.

It's a sad smile, filled with love.

Don't do that. I'm not even your real kid.

I am too focused on that strained sad smile to notice the glow of energy on her palm.

My world goes dark.

—-

Opening my eyes to the loud banging of doors I look up expecting to see my mom.

Instead I see a tanned older woman with brown hair. Sitting at a desk across the room from me. Looking down I see a cheap wooden cot beneath me. I shift in the cott and try to get up, the boards of the bed creak and alert the woman behind the desk that was previously engrossed in paperwork.

She gets up and walks up to me and squats down to match my eye level.

Who is this lady? Where am I? Where is my mom?

I am frozen with fear.

"Hey kid" the woman says, her voice so rough it could be an ogres

"Kid!" she snaps her voice to get my attention

"What's your name?"

I look at her like she is crazy.

She lets out a tired sigh like she has dealt with far too much in life.

" Look kid, you're gonna be staying here for a while, we need to know your name so we can call you out from the other kids."

Other kids? Why are there other kids here? Where is my mom?

Am I in an orphanage?

Oh kami I am in an orphanage.

I swallow all the spit from my mouth, it feels dry anyways.

I choke out words with my toddler teeth and stupid tounge.

" E-enkai"

The matron looks at me with disbelief

" Kid, are you sure that's your name? Sounds like a boy's name to me."

I nod my head, once again not trusting myself to not stutter my words.

The woman shakes her head and sighs

" Alright kid, it's your name not mine."

She takes my hand and helps me hop off the wooden cot and leads me down a nearby hallway. I sense a gathering of small energies past the door at the end of the hallway.

As we approach I can hear the sound of children talking and bantering.

An offhand thought I can still feel the tug of energy towards my forehead and hip but it's such a small amount in comparison, not nearly as draining as it was when first applied.

She opens the door and pushes me through.

" Welcome to the Land of frosts western orphanage, one of the few in this god forsaken rock, we hope you enjoy your indefinite stay." She says with a tone I believe is supposed to mock a tour guide.

Then she promptly opened the door, with her on the outside, leaving me in a room full of kids of varying ages.

I gulp down the drool forming from my still sore teeth.

This is not going to be fun.