Chapter 1 – A new life.

Disclaimer – I do not own Naruto. I do not own Naruko either. I don't even own Julie.

oOoOo

This morning, getting out of her slumber was more difficult than usual. She could hear the birds chirping in the distance, the wind in the trees, the gentle brouhaha of the villagers starting their day, but she couldn't really focus on her thoughts, her mind was completely jumbled up. She knew she was not a morning person, but today was a new low.

'Okay, let's focus, last thing I remember is drowning in pain/getting to bed.'

This thought stunned her a bit, how could she have two different memories of the previous day, and two completely incompatible? You couldn't drown in the bed of your appartement, last time she checked… Or at least it probably would have been the result of her investigation if she had the need to check such a strange fact.

'Let's try something else. I'm an oceanographer/awesome ninja.'

This last thought did the trick and managed to wake her up.

'Okay! Okay! Pause! Times up! Focus! First, I'm not an oceanographer anymore, I died yesterday, and I'm not an awesome ninja, I didn't even start the academy yet!'

She decided to close her eyes and started by focusing on the memories linked to her death.

Her name was Julie, she was an above-average looking red-head born in France, she had a totally normal childhood, loving parents, boring school life, she graduated at 21 from Bordeaux's university and became an oceanographer. From as far as she could remember, she really loved the water either above or under, she was also a bit of a loner and didn't really care about the company of others, so she was perfectly fine alone or with a small crew on her boat, studying aquatic life, reading manga on her free time, and enjoying the vast openness of the oceans. She could say without any doubt that she spent most of her adult life either on a boat or in the water.

She could also say that it had been her doom.

When she was 41, still single since her job was her life, she finally decided to take a full month of vacations, after more than 3 years of work with only a few days here and there, and she went on the beaches of Australia, to do a bit of tanning, surfing, and snorkelling. The first 2 weeks went without an itch, she had a lot of fun, but then, THE day came.

She rented a small boat to go a bit further of the coast and do a bit of diving, nothing new for her, despite being in her forties, she was really fit and used to exercise. What was new was the little stung that she felt on her leg. At first, it was not really painful, just mildly irritating, she didn't know what it was, and since when she looked around, she couldn't see anything, she just continued her dive. She was pretty far from the boat when the mildly irritating became highly irritating and that she was stung another time. However, this time, she had the time to see the really tiny jellyfish. If she wasn't under the water, she would have had cold sweat. She heard about the Irukandji jellyfish, of course, when you have spent your life with ocean nerds, being an ocean nerd yourself, you're bound to, but she didn't expect them to be that close of the shore. They are just the divers' bogeymen; stories told around a drink, stories that happened to the friend of a friend, you don't really believe you'll see them, like all the bad things, it only happens to others.

Well, apparently, this time, she was the other, and the friends of her friends will share her story around a drink.

After realizing what just stung her, she decided to swim back as fast as possible to her boat, but it was half way that the pain really started.

The pain. No, it deserved capitalized letters. The Pain. Even now, in another body, in another life, she still remembers the Pain. When you take into consideration that one jellyfish is deadly, two are just otherworldly. The worst thing being that they don't kill you fast, they take their sweet time, and that even if you manage to get yourself into a hospital in time, the Pain still lasts for several weeks, if not months. At first, they activate every nerve of your body, then after a while, if you are not treated, they make every one of your organ collapses, one after another, slowly, painfully. And even if you are treated in time, the cure can only stop the organs failures, not the Pain, the Pain becomes one of your closest friends for a long time.

But here, she was alone, still far from her boat, still far from the shore, and even if she managed to reach her boat, no one could pilot it, she had no way to reach an hospital with every nerve of her body screaming to get her attention.

She was screwed. Irrevocably screwed.

Instead of trying to reach her boat, at this point, the Pain was so unbearable that she decided to take off her mask and let herself drown. Imagine how bad the Pain had to be to consider that drowning was a good way to end it.

After feeling the sweet relief of the water entering her lungs, she closed her eyes, letting herself go, finishing her life in the loved ocean where she spent most of it.

And finally, the Pain stopped

But after a moment of unconsciousness, she woke up. No white light, no ghost, no after life, no judgement, no purgatory. Nope, apparently, just a curtain drops, and a switch from a body to another.

And what body… She was a scientist, so she liked facts, proofs, solid theories, she was not a religious person either, and had a hard time accepting the theory of the multiverse, but she had to admit, waking up in the body of Naruto, after reading his adventures during the free time of her previous life puts a big hamper on her scepticism. And not only did she wake up in his body, but also with a full set of his seven years old memories.

And you know what? She's a girl. Say hello to Naruko.

Apparently, when she was kicked out of the orphanage, when she was 4 years old, the Hokage managed to keep her gender a secret. How he did manage that, considering how bad information control was in Konoha was anybody's guess. He probably had a Yamanaka modify the caretaker's memories, but from this day, the Hokage gave her this rundown appartement, and she had to pretend to be a boy.

Seven years old Naruko didn't understand why, but she promised the Hokage, so she did it nonetheless. Forty-one years old Julie did understand why, and was really, really grateful to the old man to make her younger counterpart take that promise.

The glares were bad. The insults were bad. The kicking out of the shops were bad. The 'demon hunts' during her birthdays were bad. But what would happen if they knew she was a girl and not just "the demon brat" would be exponentially bad. So, until she was able to defend herself against a mob of stupid villagers, she would be a boy.

Speaking of birthday, today was the 10th of October. She was now officially 7 years old, and she would start the academy next year, so she still had no way to defend herself against the hunt that would undoubtedly start during the afternoon, so she had better get ready before that and hide herself. For all her previous birthdays, Naruko was an optimist, and always hoped that "Today will be the day they accept me!" but Julie was not stupid and knew that "Today will be the day they'll kick my ass up to unconsciousness if they catch me" and she really didn't want to experience that, even after the Pain of the Jellyfish. Being beaten to a pulp despite a mass of chakra construct in your guts that heal every damage done to you is not an experience she would recommend to anybody.

So, first, she had to take a shower, and get ready for the day. The heater would probably be down again, but it was not a problem. When you live alone on a boat, you tend to take a lot of cold showers, since you tend to lower the power usage to a maximum.

After getting out of her bed, she had to take a few steps to adjust to her body. It was really disconcerting. Julie was a fit adult of 178cm height, Naruko a small underfed girl of 122cm. It was really weird at first, but she still had seven years of Naruko's memories and experiences, so she probably would manage quite fast.

After making her way to the bathroom, she drew the curtains, took off her night clothes and went under the cold water. The good thing with the land of fire was that it was a pretty hot country, so despite being October, the weather was warm enough so the cold water was not a big issue. While soaking under the water, she looked at her body.

'Yep, clearly underfed, I have to cut off on the ramen, it's really not healthy.' She could feel that half of her was totally horrified by the prospect, but the main part of her knew that it was really for the best, and that if she wanted to be able to be strong, she had to have a good diet. Still, she couldn't see the seal supposed to be on her stomach.

'Maybe I have to gather the chakra here to see it? Hum, chakra, how to gather it?' She closed her eye, trying to find a foreign sensation in her body, and it really didn't take long to find it. It was lucky for her that she liked the ocean, because that was exactly the feeling that this huge amount of energy inside her was giving.

'How the hell did Naruko never managed to find THAT?' she thought with amazement, but when she thought about it, she imagined that if she didn't have a first life where she didn't have that feeling, she would maybe haven't noticed it. As far as she could tell, it would be the same thing for the sense of smell, for everybody, it's just here, nobody cares until something stinks. For someone born without the sense of smell, he wouldn't even know that something is lacking since he never knew it, and even if people tried to describe the smell or the sensation, he wouldn't understand. But if suddenly, if this person was gaining the ability to smell after a life without it, it would be overwhelming and he would use it and pay a lot more attention than others. So now, she was feeling this huge foreign energy inside her, and she really had no idea what to do with it. She tried to use it to concentrate both on the energy and her stomach, and suddenly, the outskirts of a seal started to appear. Not a lot, but a good start.

After 10 minutes rubbing herself clean, she walked out of the shower, dried herself, and went to watch herself in the mirror.

'How the hell can I pass for a boy?' was she thinking in wonder. She was cute as heck despite her short spiky blond hairs! She had a cute button nose, a nice smile that could brighten the day of everybody, and the bluest eyes she's ever seen. 'How the hell can the villagers think that THIS is the face of a demon?'

She didn't really like kids in her previous life, she had no motherly instinct whatsoever, refused to do any babysitting, knew more about the gestation of whales than how to change nappies, but she could tell without any doubt that she was the prettiest girl she had ever seen. With a face like that, the 'pretend to be a boy' wouldn't last long. Even her whiskers were to die for. When she read the manga, she was thinking that it was three marks on each of Naruto's cheek like some kind of tattoo, but no, it was really 3 really long straight hairs on each of her cheek, it was really taking all of her energy to not scream "KAWAII" while naked in front of her bathroom's mirror. She was thinking that, if need be, she maybe could cut them off, but when she touched them, they were really sensitive, and she could feel a lot of things from them. It was a little bit like the chakra's situation, she couldn't explain exactly, but when she concentrated on them, she could feel the temperature, the vibrations of the air and a lot of things that she couldn't figure out just yet.

'It's really too big of an advantage to get rid of… And it's way too cute.' She thought, still admiring herself in the mirror.

After 5 minutes of fighting with herself, she managed to stop looking at her reflection, she really didn't want to become a narcissist after all, even if she really was the most beautiful thing on earth, thank you very much, and went to dress for the day.

'I wonder if I really have…' she wondered. 'Yep, here they are, 5 exact replicas of the "famous" kill-me jumpsuit, and only that. Boy's underwear, socks, no bra, not that I really need them yet, but still'. After sadly watching the content of her dresser, she dressed up in the most horrible clothes she ever wore, felling the indignant 'huff' of her younger self at this thought. And now watching her in this… outfit, she understood how she could pass for a boy. This outfit would make a Victoria's secret model looks like an old hag. She finally threw a last look on the content of her appartement, took all of her savings, in case the villagers decided to visit 'the fox den' when they couldn't find her during the fox hunt, and ran out in direction of the training grounds.