Against The World

"You can trust someone with your life, but not your secrets."

-x-

I didn't realize anything was wrong at first. I woke up from my nap, and assumed mother was still sleeping, so I opted not to disturb her, and pulled out the math books Hanako had given me before she moved to the hospice. It was high school level math, but it was better than nothing, and it was my goal to do every question in the textbook.

I was broken out of my work by the growling of my stomach. A quick glance at the clock told me it was nearly midnight—well past dinner time. I frowned. While mother often took a nap after a long shift, she was usually awake in time to make dinner for the two of us.

I put aside my textbook and papers and made my way to mother's bedroom door. I knocked, and let myself in when there was no answer.

The door caught on something, and when I turned on the light, I saw it was her work uniform, which was stained, presumably from the soup that was spilled on her. I kicked it away. When I reached mother's bed, I noticed something was off. She was tucked under the covers with only her head and shoulders visible, but there was a strange, angry red mark on her neck.

"Mother?" I murmured, reaching for her, only to find that her skin was cold. I pulled my hand back. Something in my chest tightened. "M-mother? Mother!"

Hesitantly, I moved my hand to her neck. There was no pulse.

"No..." I shook my head. "No. No! No, no, no... This—this isn't happening! What happened—this doesn't..."

I pulled the blanket away from her, and inhaled sharply. Mother hadn't bothered with proper pyjamas, and was just wearing a tank top and underwear, so the red, puffy welts across her legs and shoulders were on display. I pulled up her top slightly, and found the welts present on her stomach as well.

I backed away, shaking my head in denial, and tripped on mother's uniform. I hit the ground hard, but I ignored the pain, and clumsily stood back up.

I took a deep breath, and left the room. "I—how—what... What do I do...?" I asked myself. I wasn't prepared for something like this. Prepared to find my mother's corpse.

"I want Hanako... She would know what to do... What do I... I need to tell someone. Yes. I need—help. I need help." I rambled. "But who? Who... neighbours. Yes. Neighbours. Right. Okay."

There was no answer from the first two doors I knocked on, but fortunately a young woman answered on my third try. (Third time's the charm! I thought hysterically.)

"Can I help you?" she asked hoarsely, her voice sounded like she'd been coughing, and though her tone was polite, it was obvious she didn't want to be bothered.

"Y-yes. I, um." I licked my lips. "I live a few doors down... with mother... but—I... Uh..."

The woman's demeanor immediately changed from distant to concerned. "Are you okay, sweetie?" she inquired, crouching down to my level.

"No. My... mother—she's dead. I think she's dead and I don't know what to do."

The woman's already pale face turned white, and she stood back up to her full height. "Can you take me to her, sweetie?"

She held out her hand. I took it.

-x-

Nine

Shortly after I started spending my evenings in the archives, I learned from listening to other people in them that in the C-rank archives, they had basic personnel files and more information about department heads. Apparently there was nothing classified there, but I didn't need that at the moment—I just needed their faces, and I was more likely to find photos there than anywhere else.

The C-rank archives could be a huge help in figuring out the identity of my father.

I also learned that they are open only to chuunin and above, and chuunin still needed two jounin sponsors. Which meant that unless I found a different lead, I was stuck until I was promoted.

It was disappointing that I couldn't pursue my lead, but the feeling was outweighed by the fact that I had a direction to go in, instead of wandering around aimlessly waiting for information to just fall in my lap.

Sometimes, I wondered if I should even bother looking for my father. He obviously wasn't a good person—he raped my mother, because he was a ninja and had the power to, and my mother was a civilian who couldn't do anything about it.

If he was important, and arranging things for my benefit, who cared? It helped me get ahead in this godforsaken world.

But I dismissed my doubts about searching for my father every time they passed through my mind, using the argument that if he was powerful, he could at some point make things worse for me, to justify my burning curiosity.

-x-

I hated the fact that I couldn't take anything out of the library. Reading and studying while sitting still would only hinder me in trying to improve my imbalance, but there was nothing I could do about it but push myself harder physically in my training.

It didn't help that I kept getting side tracked by the math section. I was curious about how advanced math was in this world, and was pleased to see they weren't too far behind The Before. I couldn't help but pick up some of the books to review material I had covered in my first two years of post-secondary education. I was disappointed to realize how much I had forgotten, and ended up taking notes in the notebook meant for my study of the brain until it was full of definitions, theorems, proofs, and exercises to work on in my spare time.

Ah, real analysis and linear algebra, how I had missed you.

Suffice to say, it took me awhile to actually learn about the brain. A lot of the information was review—I'd learned a lot of it back in high school in The Before, but it was review I needed.

I wasn't sure how much I needed to know for genjutsu. I knew the parts of the brain, about the cerebral cortex and the four lobes... But did I need to know the excruciating, boring details of precisely how all that worked?

And I didn't even have anyone to ask—Kushina-sensei knew how to break out of genjutsu and a couple type one genjutsu, but she knew fuck all about true, type two genjutsu, and Shisui-senpai and the other person sensei recruited weren't in the village. I think senpai said the other guy was his cousin, Taichi or something? It didn't really matter.

After a lot of deliberation, I resigned myself to studying the tedious details, deciding it was better to know too much than too little.

Besides, I told myself. I can justify studying and copying the math texts as a reward for my hard work.

-x-

It was six weeks after graduation when they assigned team four our first C-rank mission.

Aiko, Sakura, and I were excited to finally do something other than D-ranks. We'd done quite a few of them, and all of them were as annoying as our first. A C-rank was a welcome change, and this time it was Kushina-sensei leading the mission.

"This should be a pretty quick mission, girls." Our redheaded sensei said with a smile. "We'll be leaving the village, so take your mission packs, just in case. Meet me at the north-east gates in thirty minutes, okay?"

"Yes, Kushina-sensei." The three of us chorused.

With that, the four of us went our separate ways to prepare for the mission. Aiko and Sakura presumably returned to their homes, and I assumed Kushina-sensei had jounin things to take care of before we departed. As for myself, I had all the supplies I needed sealed away in my left arm, so I opted to head straight for the gates.

While I waited for the rest of team four to arrive, I pulled out my math notes and a pencil from my storage seal and placed them on the ground, so I could position myself over them and do one-armed push ups while I practised evaluating triple integrals.

"What are you doing?" Sakura asked when she arrived, looming over my shoulder.

"Triple integrals." I told her. I could practically hear her confusion, though she didn't say anything. "It's math. Multi-variable calculus."

"You can do calculus? And triple integrals?" Sakura's tone was incredulous. "I don't even know what a single integral is."

"Well, given a function f of x that is continuous on the closed interval—"

"I don't think she actually wanted to know, Sekai-chan, or that she even cares." Aiko interrupted. "And I don't really care either."

"W-well, I wouldn't say that, exactly..." Sakura argued weakly.

"Yeah, you're still too polite to say it outright like that," My bespectacled teammate acknowledged. "But it's what you're thinking." Sakura flushed. "Relax, you don't need to worry about offending us or hurting our feelings, or just being rude. Sekai-chan may be quiet a lot of the time, but she can be mean as hell, and man, is it hilarious! And I'm her only friend, so I've learned to let the mean comments go, since when it's me she doesn't really mean them."

"Really? I find that hard to believe."

"One time, Sekai-chan was stuck partnering with this one guy, right? And he was a complete moron. He asked some stupid question about chakra—I don't remember what, and Sekai-chan just stared at him for a moment until he asked if she heard him. She told him that yes, she did, it just took her a moment to comprehend how stupid he was." Aiko recalled.

"I said it took me awhile to comprehend how much the human race was failing, if it produced someone as moronic as him." I corrected. "And then I asked if his parents were siblings."

"Close enough" the blonde dismissed. "Point is, she slays."

"A shame you're not a mind reader." I commented as I packed up my study materials. "Then as long as you had me around, you'd never be bored."

"I don't need to read your mind to avoid boredom—I just need to set you free in a building full of idiots and watch what happens." Aiko retorted.

"Set who free in a building of idiots?" A cheerful voice interrupted, startling us.

"Kushina-sesnei!" Sakura squeaked. "Where did you come from?"

"Well," Kushina drawled. "I originally come from Whirlpool count—"

I snorted. "Mission?"

"Ah, right." she rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly. "I suppose I ought to give you lot an overview of what we'll be doing.

"There's a small watch station about one hundred and fifty kilometres from here. Our job," Sensei reached behind her, into her waist pouch, and produced four scrolls. "Is to deliver these."

"Scrolls?" Aiko wrinkled her brow.

"They contain basic supplies for the watch station."

"So we're just doing a long distance pigeon mission this time." Aiko scowled.

"Pigeon mission?" Kushina gave her a strange look.

"Like carrier pigeons."

"Carrier pigeon? Do you mean, like, the hawks we send out with messages—messenger hawks? Except a pigeon...?" Kushina-sensei looked utterly baffled. "But who'd use a pigeon to send messages... that's a bit strange... unless it's a summon?"

"I don't know!" Aiko huffed. Her arms were crossed and she was fighting a blush. "Sekai-chan came up with the name for them! Ask her!"

I blinked. I hadn't realized that carrier pigeons weren't ever a thing here. Since this world actually sends messages with fucking birds, I figured it was.

"I had a dream about it." I lied.

"A dream." Aiko repeated. "You're really weird, you know that?"

"I am well aware."

She didn't know the half of it.

-x-

When sensei said it wouldn't take long, I think she wasn't aware of how slow my teammates were. Not that they were slow for genin, but Kushina-sensei was fast, even for a jounin. I was pretty fast too, with respect to my rank. If it had just been the two of us, we probably could have shaved a lot of time off the trip, but alas, neither Aiko nor Sakura were able to keep up with such a pace.

The other two members of team four had substandard speed and stamina—not horrible, but it was a bit below average. So we let them set the pace, and so it took us just over three and a half hours to reach the watch station.

Upon our arrival, Kushina-sensei sent us to the mess hall to rest up while she met with the jounin in charge.

The mess hall was mostly empty, but for a handful of older ninja scattered about in small groups. Most of them looked to be at least twice my age, if not more, and the ones that looked at us when we entered seemed to wonder what three little girls were doing there. I ignored them, and led Sakura and Aiko to an unoccupied table. As soon as I was seated my fingers started to tap against the bench. I felt slightly ridiculous at the table—the top of it was nearly as tall as my shoulders.

"Why are they looking at us?" Sakura muttered.

"Because I look like a three year old." I replied dryly. That was a slight exaggeration, but I was very small for a seven year old, and could easily pass for a five year old. Still, the comment seemed to relax Aiko and Sakura, which was my intention.

I had no idea what to do or say next, so I took out my canteen and chugged down a litre of water to avoid speaking.

"...Do you have any left, Sekai-chan?" Sakura inquired hesitantly. "I drank all mine and I'm not comfortable going to get a refill with all those guys over there."

Well, I certainly had enough to share. "Pass your canteen." She handed it over, and I poured all the water in my canteen into hers.

"You don't have to give me all of it!" Sakura protested.

I ignored her and asked Aiko to pass hers. Once Aiko's was in hand, I poured water into hers as well.

"What." Aiko said. "How did you—I just saw you empty it!"

Mentally, I smirked. "I have a seal at the bottom. I have about thirty-six litres of water stored away, and when my canteen runs dry, it automatically refills."

"And it's even cold!" Sakura added.

"That's so cool!" Aiko marvelled, and took a sip. "Sekai-chan, if it's not too much trouble..." She bit her lip. "Could you make one for me? And Sakura-chan?"

I blinked, surprised at the request. With a mental shrug, I figured Why not? And nodded.

-x-

A few hours later, Kushina-sensei entered the mess hall, which was nearly empty aside from the three of us. She led us up to the serving station, and pulled our four numbered boxes from the fridge. She grabbed a clip board that was hanging on the side of the fridge and wrote out each of our registration numbers beside the numbers corresponding to the ones on the boxes.

"They're very strict with supplies—everything has to be accounted for, including who took what." She explained as she handed out our meals. "Any discrepancies can lead to a formal reprimand for anyone who's been here since the last inventory. Never take something without recording it."

Opening the box, I found a bowl of rice with some sort of (mystery) meat and vegetables on top. It didn't look appetizing, but I went to warm it up with my teammates anyway.

After the first few bits, I found it didn't taste appetizing either, but I forced my self to finish it, so as to not waste food. I mentally made a note to cook up several large meals, then portion them and seal them away.

After eating, we signed ourselves out of the encampment and took off towards home.

The trip back took even longer, as my teammates hadn't fully recovered from the trip out. By the time we reached the village, the sun was setting.

My teammates each handed me their canteens, and sensei blessedly allowed us to go straight home, instead of going with her to report the mission complete.

I wasn't tired from the trip, exactly, but it was a long day and I was happy to go home.

Once inside, I stripped down to a t-shirt and underwear, and got to work on their canteens. The seal itself wasn't too difficult, but it was tricky to draw it on the bottom of a relatively tall and narrow object.

Using a long, thin needle dipped in sealing ink, I carefully drew out the seal. Despite my best efforts, I messed up and had to restart twice, but I got them done. From there I set the seal to intake, and brought the canteens to my sink, where I proceeded to slowly fill with water over and over again. It was monotonous, but it was something you did for your friends.

My brow furrowed. Friends. I've thought of Aiko as a friend for quite awhile, but it seemed that Sakura wormed her way into that category as well.

It was baffling to me—I didn't do the whole friend thing, really. I mean, not real friendships. There was never anyone I felt I could trust or talk to about my problems.

But now, in this life, there are two of them.

I had always considered this life, this world, to be horrible. To be a dystopia compared to The Before. But despite how horrible this culture of murder and war is, I supposed there were a few good points.

Even if there were still things I'd never speak about with those good points.

-x-

My next genjutsu lesson wasn't with Shisui-senpai, but his cousin, Itachi-senpai. While Shisui-senpai had been rather cheerful and expressive, Itachi-senpai was quite stoic. His hair was a shade lighter than his cousin's, and was long and straight, held back in a thin ponytail. His eyes were the same black colour, but he had deep bags below them, giving him a permanently exhausted look.

If I had to guess, I'd say he was constantly stressed and had too many expectations placed upon him. It almost made me feel guilty for taking up his time, but I consoled myself by believing that teaching genjutsu is probably more relaxing and less strenuous than most of the things he has to do.

Shisui-senpai had left him notes on what he'd been able to cover with me and what he'd asked of me a couple of weeks ago, so the first thing Itachi-senpai did after introductions was quiz me.

"Each cerebral hemisphere consists of which lobes?"

"Frontal, parietal, occipital, temporal, and insular."

"Which of those is secondary?"

"The insular lobe."

"Largest?"

"Frontal. It occupies about one third of the hemisphere."

"The thalamus is important in..."

"Sensory motor integration and speech-language functions."

"Functions of the parietal lobs?"

"Spatial computation, body orientation and awareness."

And on and on it went...

"Which chemical has bearing on the body's ability to experience pain and pleasure?"

"Dopamine."

"Which chemical is responsible for arousal and alertness?"

"Norepinephrine."

Senpai nodded. "Well done, you were able to correctly answer the entire list of questions, Sekai-chan. We can proceed to discussing how to use your chakra to manipulate the pathways in the brain..."

The ensuing lecture was long, but fascinating. He discussed how to use your chakra to stimulate the production of various brain chemicals, and how to interfere with executive functions.

Apparently, there was a lot more to genjutsu than visual illusions. You can affect mood, hearing, spatial computation, judgment, and even things like a person's breathing.

You could use genjutsu to stop someone's heart.

You could convince them that they're breathing when they aren't.

You could be in complete control of every bodily process.

The power of genjutsu... It was phenomenal. I definitely needed to learn it.

Even if most of those things were incredibly difficult to do and required years of training and excellent chakra control, as senpai said.

I would do it.

-x-

After that first C-rank, we started taking more and more of them, to the point that we rarely took D-ranks anymore. A lot of them were pigeon missions, but not all of them. Once we were sent out to help clear an important trade route that fell victim to a landslide, and we also played bodyguard to someone travelling all the way to Red Bean Country. Usually they don't send genin on bodyguard missions because of the war, but since Red Bean is south east of the village and most of the fighting is to the west or north, it was deemed safe enough. That mission took us nearly a month.

But after months of missions, I finally had saved up enough money for shopping. And so I found myself wandering through the business district with Aiko and Sakura.

"Alright, Sekai, clothes or home items first?" Aiko inquired.

"Clothes are a more urgent necessity." I decided.

"Why? It's not like you've grown." Aiko teased.

"I'm still wearing clothes from the orphanage—I want my own." I replied, though I doubted she wanted one.

"Makes sense." Sakura agreed with a nod. "I usually go to Needles and Wire. They have a good selection."

"Mine are clan produced, so I can't really help you with recommending a place," Aiko admitted with a small shrug. "But Sakura's clothes are good quality, so we might as well go there."

"Very well then." I said with a nod, and gestured for Sakura to lead us to the store.

Compared to Ninja Outfitters, one of the biggest names in the industry even though their wares were of mediocre quality, Needles and Wire was fairly small. The building was white, with a faded sign over the door, and a small display window.

Sakura ushered me inside, and bells jingled as I stepped inside.

"Ah, Little Haruno!" An old woman crowed in a hoarse voice as she stepped out of a back room. "Back so soon? And you brought friends!"

"Hi Arima-baa-san. My friend Sekai here needs an entire wardrobe." Sakura told the woman.

"Is that so?" The woman hummed. "I'm not sure I have much field quality clothes that size—mostly just lower quality merchandise for academy kids."

"Oh." Sakura faltered. "I'm sorry then, I guess we'll have to check elsewhere."

"Oh no, Little Haruno, you and your friend browse around the store and find what sort of thing you like, and I'll do a custom order for your friend." The woman protested. "That is, unless she needs them right away?"

"No, I can wait." I assured the old lady. "I appreciate your willingness to accommodate my... stature."

"Oh, think nothing of it!" She dismissed. "Little Haruno's family has shopped here for ages, doing a custom order for her friend is the least I can do to repay that loyalty. Just grab things that you like and I can make them in your size. Bring them up to the counter when you're done, alright, little ninja?"

"Thank you, ma'am." I bowed to her in gratitude.

"Oh, you can just call me Arima-san, dear! None of this ma'am business, alright?"

"Of course, Arima-san."

"C'mon then," Aiko declared. "Let's browse!"

With Aiko and Sakura trailing behind me, I wandered down the aisles, taking note of what my options were as I went. After a bit of deliberation, I picked out a set of mesh armour to protect my torso, a thick, hooded vest, both a long sleeved and a short sleeved t-shirt, a pair each of cargo shorts and pants, and a pair of slightly taller ninja sandals.

With things picked out, my friends and I approached the counter and Arima-san came bustling out of the backroom again.

"I should have just told you to bring it back to me, instead of the counter. Oh well, follow me please." She said.

I nodded and followed her down to the back room, which turned out to be a workshop. Arima-san gestured me to stand on a tall stool. "Come along, dear. I need to measure you up!"

I stepped up, and then a measuring tape was flying around me faster than I'd expected from a civilian. "Hm... You're small, but young." She commented. "You'll be growing a bit for awhile, so I'll make things that will fit alright even if you grow a few centimetres..."

She gestured me to step down, and then asked if I had any colour preferences. "Perhaps to match such beautiful hair?" she suggested.

"The shirts can match my hair." I said after briefly contemplating the matter. "But the rest should be black."

"Of course, of course." Arima-san nodded eagerly. "Now, how many of each would you like?"

"Three pairs of shorts, one pair of pants, three short sleeved shirts, two long sleeved ones, and one each of the mesh, vest, and sandals."

"Alright, little ninja. It should be ready in about two weeks. Do you want to pay now, or later?"

I decided to pay right away, so I didn't have to worry about overspending at the next shop.

Once everything was hashed out, the three of us left the store, Sakura calling out a fond farewell as she stepped out the door.

"They seem to know you well, there." Aiko commented, looking at Sakura out of the corner of her eyes.

"Ah, well..." Sakura's cheeks reddened. "My grandmother was her first customer. And ever sine then my family has shopped there, so she knows us quite well. Two of her grandnieces work there too, as her apprentices, and we're quite familiar with them as well. Sometimes they give us special deals and favours."

"Wow, really?" Aiko's eyes widened. "That must be really nice!"

"Thank you, Sakura." I told my blushing teammate. "I appreciate you bringing me."

"Of course!" She smiled. "Where to now? I don't exactly know anything about buying furniture. Do either of you?"

Aiko and I both shook our heads. While I had experience doing it in The Before, I wasn't really sure about things here. A lot of things were different. For example, there wasn't mass production on the scale of The Before, so there were usually only a few pieces that were the same.

So from there, we decided to wander the business district and just wing it.

-x-

"Thank you so much, Sekai-chan!" Sakura squealed when the aforementioned girl handed back the modified canteens to both the pinkette and blonde, with instructions on how to refill the seal when the water supply runs out. "I really appreciate it!"

"Me too!" Aiko added. "Thanks Sekai-chan!"

Sekai shifted awkwardly, and mumbled incomprehensibly.

"What was that?" Aiko prodded.

"I said... you're my friends, so you can just call me Sekai... Since I don't really bother with them anyway, for you guys... Honorifics, I mean..." Sekai offered awkwardly.

Aiko felt a burst of warm affection fill her. After a year of friendship, her best friend gave her permission to drop honorifics. It felt like a major milestone in their relationship, to the blonde. Sekai tended to be a rather closed off and solitary girl, someone hard to get close to.

But at that moment, Aiko knew she'd managed to worm her way past the cold exterior and into the younger girl's heart, knew that Sekai trusted her, and cared about Aiko as much as she cared about Sekai. It was a wonderful feeling.

But a small part of her couldn't help but feel just the tiniest bit jealous of their other teammate, who managed to earn the same privilege in only a few months.

-x-

Notes: Just some world building and character development in this chapter. Sekai is very introverted, and doesn't let many people get close to her, especially now that she's in the Naruto world, so it was pretty significant for her to acknowledge Sakura and Aiko as her friends.

Oh, and we get an idea of how Sekai's mom died. This scene takes place directly after the intro scene of Eight.

For a sense of timeline, Sekai graduated in April, and by the end of this chapter it is September. So she's been a genin for about six months.

Any who, so I tried to look around about how fast ninja can run, and all I could really find was speculation of about 60 km/h. Jounin can run probably up to 80km/h, I decided, and that's if they're fast even for a jounin. I decided team four probably ran at about 45 km/h.

Since like thread, wire is thin, though much stronger, so to I called the store "Needles and Wire" to symbolize the strength/durability of the clothes. Or something. Mostly I just suck at naming things...

I got my information on the brain from a couple of websites, and the book "Neuroscience For the Study of Communicative Disorders, second edition" by Subhash C. Bhatnager, which I found laying around my mum's place. It was a lucky find. Any inaccuracies are probably from the websites.

Genjutsu apparently works by manipulating the chakra flow in the brain. Considering the brain is literally responsible for everything, I figure you could use genjutsu to interfere with anything the brain controls, not just seeing things or hearing things. That said, those will be things only the very best of the best can do, and isn't something that can be done on a large scale. So it could be used for say, assassination, but wouldn't be very effective on a large scale battlefield.

Thanks for all the reviews, favourites, and follows everyone,

The Mathemagician