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Disclaimer: Naruto doesn't belong me, otherwise NejiTen would be canon.

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Enjoy.

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Chapter 7. New life

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It began at the end.

That was the first indication that had to be taken into account when a soul was installed in a new host. Everything was going to begin at the end, the first memories to be had were those of the final moments of said living being. That didn't necessarily mean it would be a bad thing, sometimes simply such a memory was a meal before bedtime.

But she knew that wasn't going to be her case, at least not this time. Since her second life she had requested that her body on the new planet she arrived to be that of an adult or a mature specimen, she wasn't willing to live another stage of larva, infancy or whatever they called it in each species, nor that middle point before getting the body to have all its functions developed.

Besides that she had been developing a certain profile through her lives, so she had known beforehand that her new body would be 'complicated' if that word could be used. Humans, she remembered the beings of that planet were called, the human she was to become was part of the planet's resistance, or something like that. So her end hadn't been a peaceful one.

She watched the images appear, her body filled with a sensation she had never experienced as her breathing quickened. Immediately noticing how decisive that human had been in running without hesitation to the edge of that high place, she could hear a thousand sounds at once, including one coming from within herself. Suddenly, contrary to the previous sensations, she felt the calm that was so familiar to her, but it was out of place, how could there be so much calm in a being that decided to attempt against her own life?

The pain that invaded her was so great that her whole body convulsed and a strident sound was heard all around her. That being the moment when she woke up, her eyes opened and then closed again because she couldn't tolerate the light around her, feeling something like a hammering inside herself.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," it was a very low sound that was heard next to her while something touched her to stop shaking, "I'm sorry," it was repeated, "I know what you saw and I'm sorry," she couldn't understand where all the sensations came from or what each one meant, but she tried to focus on knowing what kind of communication and language her new host was using.

"It was horrible," she heard what was her own voice, noting that the shrill sound that had been heard earlier had been her own producing it but at a very high volume. A scream as far as she could tell with the knowledge that was coming a few at a time to her mind, "this human had a horrible end."

"Good!"Logic said that this must be her healer, who had implanted her in that body and was now accompanying her until he was sure she was fully attached.

It was a man, that the sound was deep meant that whoever was communicating with her was most likely a male specimen. Although the emotion with which he had expressed himself didn't match the words she had uttered about the end of her human.

"Do you remember what species you are in," she opened her eyes slowly, moving her eyelids several times to notice that the light had been dimmed and no longer made her as uncomfortable, "do you remember the name of the planet?"

"Earth," she began to gently move her limbs, she had seen the shape of her new body in the humans who were also accompanying her before she threw herself into the void, so she wanted to be able to feel them one by one and get used to them.

"Very good," celebrated the human, so she turned her head towards him, checking that he was a man as she had assumed by the tone of voice. "How do you feel?"

"Different," she tried to modulate the volume of her voice, "there are many sounds and sensations, too many sensory points."

"Here they call them nervous endings, you'll learn a little about them in the next days," she noticed the man, he didn't look like the ones she had seen in the memories. His eyes were black with a silver halo that revealed he was a soul just like her, his hair was greyish and short, "are all your connections well made?" she closed her eyes for a moment before nodding, "do you want to try standing up?"

"Are all humans bipedal?" she sat up and stared for a moment at her upper limbs.

"Yes, their evolution led them to be so, they use their arms for many things, especially those that require precision."

"Arms," she repeated to herself turning them, noticing at that moment that on her left forearm there was something.

"It's called a tattoo," he explained, apparently understanding her confusion because it didn't seem to be something natural, "some humans liked to put drawings or phrases on their skin, we didn't remove it because maybe it can help you to access the memories of that body," she hadn't taken her eyes off the blackish mark, for the moment no memory appeared, "you can remove it when you finish your initial mission, but we can talk about that later," she saw the extended hand and understood that she should take it, being the moment to move her lower extremities while she saw them, they were covered by something, "they're legs."

"Legs," she iterated, leaning one on the ground and for a moment she feared she would lose her balance, "I've never been bipedal."

"Don't worry, humans learn more or less in their first year to walk like this."

"First year?" she moved her left leg and then her right, still holding on to the man's hand.

"Then we'll talk about how to count time on this planet," she nodded, releasing her grip to try to move on her own. It shouldn't surprise her that she wasn't really unbalanced and that it felt natural to be in that position, after all for that body it was normal to do so, walking was the word.

"What am I wearing?" she asked after taking several steps around the room when she heard that with each one of them she heard a rubbing, she was starting to get used to her size a little at a time.

"You mean the clothes?" she turned to look at him.

"Clothes?" she touched what covered her upper body and moved it, "that's what it's called?"

"Yes, it's... necessary," he advanced towards the wall and moved something, increasing the intensity of the light that fortunately no longer bothered her, "it's a mix between survival and modesty."

"Modesty?" never in her multiple lives had she heard such a word.

"It's something that only humans have, for some reason they are ashamed if they are naked in front of other humans," that didn't make sense, "of course, there are exceptions like babies with their parents in their first years, or couples when they are about to mate."

"What about survival?" she didn't want to know anything about mating.

"Their evolution has led them to not be able to survive the conditions of the environment without clothing, this skin gets hurt if it is too long exposed to the sun without proper protection, they can also freeze to death if they're not warm."

"I understand," at least partially, she had never been on a being that needed more than its own fur to survive outdoors. Though it was clear that that thin layer of blonde hairs covering her arms wouldn't protect her from anything, "haven't anyone thought of developing some protection to do without it?"

"The clothes?" she nodded.

"I don't think so," the answer confused her, "it's... well, it's a bit complicated... at first those of us who arrived in the vanguard had to get used to the clothes, you know how it is, following all the habits of the new species to go unnoticed until new waves were arriving," the man went to a corner and a moment later returned with two objects in his hands, handing her one, "the older ones couldn't get rid of the modesty no matter how hard we tried, the new ones have gotten used to it, they even find it amusing to change their appearance by changing their clothes," he took the object to his mouth and drank, so she imitated him feeling a slight relief, "soon you will learn to know your body's needs."

"I've never spoken directly to someone who has been in the vanguard before."

"It's one of the hardest jobs, at least at the beginning, then let's say we get a head start on the newbies and help them get better adjusted, after all that's what we healers do," she drank again, "in any of your life have you ever been in the first waves?"

"No, it's not like new planets open up so often either," he took the object in her hands which was now empty, "although I was offered it, my choices were this planet or being of the vanguard on a new planet a couple of jumps away from here."

"Why did you choose here?"

"I'm not sure, I think I did because when you arrive in the first waves there are not so many options to choose the age of the body or gender, at least here I was offered that."

"How old is your body?" she cocked her head to one side, "all humans measure age in years and have it completely internalized, it shouldn't be too hard for you to access that memory."

"How old am I in human years?" she asked to herself, seeing the answer appear, "this body is 23 years old. How much is that in its life cycle?"

"The average longevity of these bodies is over 75 years, surely by the time you reach that age it will have been extended."

"This body has lived almost a third of its life cycle," she concluded, "How old is your body?"

"45 years, I would say that some time ago I passed the half," at that moment there was a sound that she hadn't heard before, so she looked for its origin and saw him take out a black device from his clothes and check it.

"Is it always like this?"

"What do you mean?" The man's thumbs moved over the device and then he put it away.

"The sensations, it's..." she closed her eyes for a moment, "there are too many sounds, my body produces some, that machine produces others, even the light seems to sound?" it was a bit overwhelming, "there are also the smells, all the colors that I can see, the textures..."

"Yes, it's a little overwhelming at first," he conceded, "but you'll get used to it, somehow the brain of these creatures has learned to silence various sounds and focus on others, it's a matter of..." a new sound interrupted him, but now it came from outside and the man walked to where it came from, letting another human into the room, it was a woman with hair of a color she could only describe as pink, "I told you that I still needed more time."

"Yes, I read you, but I want to be able to talk to her as soon as possible," green colored eyes landed on her, the silver halo almost seemed to glow brighter at the sight of her, "hello."

"Hello," she answered and the woman entered the place, advancing to her with quick steps, extending her hand that she took doubtfully without understanding the gesture.

"I'm Ino," she didn't answer, "I'm your seeker."

"My seeker?"

"I will work with you to find whatever humans are in your memories," oh, right, "do you already have something for me?" she shook her head.

"She woke up barely 1 hour ago," the man spoke, "I haven't finished explaining to her how everything works here, we haven't even talked about her name yet."

"You still don't have a name?" she didn't like the way the woman spoke to her.

"It's what I just said," it was the man who answered, "come back in half an hour."

"All right," only at that moment she noticed that her hand was still being held by the seeker, "I heard many things about you and your past lives, I'm looking forward to work together."

"Thank you," was all she could manage to answer, finally retrieving her hand and listening to the clattering of the clothes on the woman's feet as she walked away. Heels, they were called heels, "What is your name?"

"I'm Kabuto," he extended his hand and she took it, "this is the gesture that humans usually do when they meet someone for the first time, they also use it for other things, but you will see that in your memories."

"Kabuto," she pronounced the name, "did you choose the name for some reason or was it chosen for you?"

"A little of both, as I was in the first waves I had to adopt the name of this body at the beginning, by the time we came to light and I could change it I had already got used to everyone calling me that way."

"It tends to happen with the first waves," or at least that's what they said, "what did your body do for a living?"

"He was a renowned surgeon," the man seemed to realize that she didn't understand that word, "a doctor, in their species there are several types of healers, my human was one of those," he shrugged, "it was quite a coincidence that we had the same profession and that our gender coincided," a clear apology to what she had said shortly before, "So... have you thought anything about your name?"

"My name?" she needed to learn to ignore sounds or choose which ones to pay attention to, now it was her own breathing that had thrown her out of focus.

"Do you want to choose your name?" she said nothing, "Can you remember the name of your body?"

"Temari," she said after checking a little in her memories, "the name of this body is Temari Sabaku," something inside herself felt wrong when she pronounced those words out loud.

"Temari, Huh?" the unpleasant feeling returned when she heard it again, " do you want to keep that name?"

"No," she pronounced automatically, "the healers usually name me, initially they chose something that was in accordance with the planet and then they have been mixing it with my lives."

"I was hoping you would say that!" she had to get used to the fact that besides modulating the volume of the voice, you could add emotion to it, "since I knew they would send you with me and I saw your profile I started looking for ideas. Do you want to see?"

"Sure," she had never seen any healer so happy to give her a name, usually when the confusion of the first awakening was over the healer would tell her what her name was and that was it.

"It's... do you know anything about kanji?" she shook her head, "this body had a certain fascination with the subject and some of it stayed with me," now he showed her a sheet with several things that she didn't know what they were, "I was thinking that given the fact that this is your sixth life and you have furrowed the space much more than many of us, you could call yourself Cosmic or given that here they usually refer to the sky maybe Celestial."

"Cosmic, Celestial, or Cosmic Celestial?" although none of the options appealed to her as much as it should have.

"Well, this is where kanji come in," now he switched to a bare sheet, "kanji are a way of writing words, kind of like a representation with a symbol," it sounded complicated, "this is the kanji for the word cosmic," he made some strokes, "and this one for the word celestial," he drew something else, "do you notice the difference?"

"They are the same."

"Exactly!" she repeated to herself that it was a matter of a short time to be able to better understand the emotions of those bodies, "and the pronunciation of this kanji is Ten, I thought both could be your name."

"Ten..."

"It seems to me that it would be better if it is not a single syllable, remember that the kanji is repeated."

"Ten Ten."

"I think it sounds better as one word instead of separating them, just Tenten," she mentally pronounced the word, "what do you say?" she was still thinking, "Or if you prefer it could be Cosmic, or we can look for other options."

"Tenten," now she said it out loud and extended her hand as she had seen them do to Kabuto and Ino, "I'm Tenten."

"Nice to meet you, Cosmic Celestial!" he closed one of his eyes in her direction and then smiled, "welcome to Earth, Tenten."

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The seeker had returned in the time she had said, plaguing her with hundreds of questions about her body's memories, something she still couldn't access. Jade, that was the color that came to her mind to describe the exact shade of the woman's eyes, and the color of her hair was definitely pink, even if it didn't seem entirely natural. Reluctantly Ino had agreed that she would return the following week, after she made her passage through the adaptation center.

In some respects humans were simpler living beings than those of other planets the souls had colonized. But in others they were much more complex, for example related to the sensory, no other species of any planet had the amount of nerve endings that humans had.

That is why on that planet they had created some centers in which the newly arrived souls, like her, could calmly remember the basics about the functioning of their new bodies at the same time that they were learning important data about the maintenance of those bodies. In none of her lives had she ever had to do anything like that, and she thought she could skip it because she had asked for an adult specimen, but she still couldn't access much of the basic information so it would be safer to be in that place at least for a couple of days.

Kabuto had accompanied her to what would be her home for the next week, introducing her to Yugao, the healer who ran the place. She said goodbye to the gray-haired before going to the woman, who showed her the facilities while telling her the story of the souls that were passing through. There were souls in bodies of various ages, but it stood out that there were more infants and some teenagers present. With the exception of herself, there were no newcomers in an adult body.

She didn't ask about it, many souls when choosing to start a new life on a different planet chose to live the life cycle from the beginning, so they asked for a body as young as possible. She found the differences in bodies fascinating, the different eye colors, hair and skin tones. Apparently no two humans were alike. She couldn't remember another planet where there were so many differences between specimens of the same species.

Yugao left her in what would be her bedroom, explaining to her that there were clothes in the closet, when she left there she could choose what she wanted but for the moment they were limited to some clothes very similar to the ones she was already wearing. The woman also told her that if she was hungry she could eat some of the food that was on the small table next to the bed or if she didn't feel like it, she could go to the dining room where there was a great variety of food available at all hours.

Slowly she began to understand her body's signals, for example that she needed to empty her bladder, so she went to what she had been shown was the bathroom. When she was back in her bedroom she realized that so far she hadn't seen what she looked like, or not beyond her limbs and knowing that if she took off the seeker's heels she was sure she was taller.

Next to the closet was a mirror, so she walked over to it and took a good look at herself. Like the tiny hairs on her arms, the hair on her head was also blonde and reached just below her shoulders. Her height was about the same as Yugao's, from what she could surmise was about average for women on that planet. Her build was slim, but there were curves in certain areas of her body that showed under her clothes.

It was then that he stopped at her eyes, her eyes were a color that wasn't green like the seeker's nor blue as he had seen in other humans he had come across while being shown around. No, the color of her eyes was a mix between the two, it was a color that reminded her of that life she had had under the sea. Aquamarine, that was the name. Her eyes were aquamarine decorated in the center by the silver halo that denoted her presence. She was dumbfounded in her own reflection when a voice screamed inside her head.

"GET OUT OF MY BODY, YOU DAMN ALIEN!"

Her left hand moved on its own rising into the air and with her right hand she held it to immobilize it returning it to its place, what was going on?

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Hi there!

I know I've been missing, but it's the blame of my inspiration, which is more chaotic than usual. But I couldn't stay without stopping by today because: it's my birthday! So my celebration is to finally update (even if I don't know when I'm going to bring the next chapter).

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All corrections and comments are always well received, they help me improve a lot.

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Best regards,

Sally K