I was back in the dark.

The wheel still creaked before me, eliciting a wince at the sound. This time, the sound didn't escalate, thank god, but I was still left with the lingering question of just where the heck I was. This didn't seem to be any particular memory from my past life.

Mortal.

I jumped, whirling around to find the source of the rumbling voice, but could see nothing but darkness. "Who's there?" I called out. My voice did not tremble.

There was a low sound that sounded almost like a laugh, or at least a sound of amusement. You have been causing a disturbance in the balance.

"Show yourself!" I cried with more courage than I had. Fake it 'till you make it, am I right?

I can feel your fear.

Yeah, I wasn't very good at faking it.

"Excuse me for not being a big fan of speaking to a disembodied voice," I bit back. I continued to turn in place, looking for where the voice could be coming from, but it almost felt as if the voice was coming from everywhere and nowhere at once.

Very well.

Suddenly, a figure phased into place next to the gigantic wheel. I jumped again, stumbling backwards. The man was colossal, sitting criss cross applesauce with a hand resting on the side of the wooden wheel, and his face almost resembled an opera mask. But one of the scary, angry, red ones. A long black beard hung down from his face, probably longer than my entire body. It didn't take more than a second in the man's presence to feel the pressure he exerted and know instantly that he wasn't human.

"Wh...who are you?" I forced out, steeling myself. "I-I've got a lot of questions, and you best be able to answer all of them, Nightmare Man."

A large, bushy eyebrow raised at me. I am the overseer of death and reincarnation. I govern over the cycle of rebirth and have existed longer than life itself. I have no name nor do I have an identity, but the mortals of your current world may know me as Enma-ō. His mouth didn't move as he spoke, like a freaky apparition. I gulped.

"Wh...reincarnation?" I frowned, my eyes narrowing. "So you're the guy who messed my situation up? Did I actually die in my past life? Why am I here?"

Enma didn't seem impressed with all of my questions, but I couldn't help myself. I was finally getting answers. It is your soul's attachment to two worlds at once that is slowing this wheel's turning, and it is my duty to remove the source of the problem.

Remove me? "Wait, no! You can't kill me yet!"

And why not? Your life passes in the span of one blink to me. What can you possibly hope to accomplish in the entirety of your mortal life?

Well, that was a little harsh. "I…"

He had a point, though. Did I have any goals by staying in this universe? Why was I even there?

No, I didn't know anything. All I knew was that I didn't want to die yet.

"Give me time, okay? When you remove me, that means I'll die in both worlds, right? All I want…" I trailed off.

What was something I wanted that I could accomplish in this world that would buy me more time?

"Futaba-chan, wake up!"

I rolled over blearily, groaning at whoever it was that thought it to be a good idea to disturb the sleeping dragon.

"Get up, sleepyhead! We're going out to play for a bit, okay?" I could now recognize the voice as Imiki's, but man, was I not in the mood for outside time right now.

I had to mull over what I had just seen. A big demon man claiming that I was a glitch in the system that had to be removed? What did I eat last night?

Actually, I had no right to be questioning the absurdity of the situation. Here I was, living and breathing in the Naruto universe, after all.

But the dream did confirm something troubling, and that was that I was still alive in my other world. Or at least, somewhat alive...

Before I could start thinking deeply into it, Imiki pulled me to my feet forcefully. "Wah!" I yelped. The world became fuzzy like static as the blood rushed to my feet.

"We're going out for some lunch, Futaba-chan, and that's that," Imiki insisted.

Scrunching my face in confusion, I looked up at Imiki. "Why are you in my house, Imiki-nee?" It was a weekend, and Imiki didn't usually babysit on weekends.

"N-no reason," my aunt chuckled nervously. I narrowed my eyes. My aunt may have been a seasoned shinobi, but she couldn't lie to me to save her life. "Get washed up now, quickly, quickly!"

By Imiki's dema—request, I slipped into some casual wear and trudged towards the doorway to my house. On the way out, I heard my parents busying around in the kitchen. It's awfully rare for both my mom and dad to be home at the same time…

"Okaa-san? Otou-san?" I peeked into the kitchen cautiously.

Dad leapt a meter into the air and whirled around. "Futaba, you're up?"

"Yeah, Imiki-nee wants to eat lunch with me," I said, eyeing my parents suspiciously.

My mother, ever so composed, turned around calmly and smiled down at me. "Then you should get going quickly, ne?"

Still wondering why exactly my parents were acting like they were in the process of stashing a dead body, I conceded and sighed, turning back towards the main entrance. "I'm off," I called back into the house before slipping on my sandals and promptly closing the front door.

The soup shop we frequented was called Shiro's Soups, and the path to it had become all but the back of my hand to me at this point. I could probably navigate the streets leading to that delicious zoni soup in my sleep. Well, if I stopped having those stupid dreams.

"Say, Futaba-chan," Imiki drawled next to me. I could hear the beginnings of an idea in her voice, and I wasn't sure if I was going to like where this was going.

"Yes?" I replied suspiciously.

"Why don't you—hey, why do you sound so doubtful of me, Futaba-chan?" Imiki pouted, swinging my arm with more gusto. "I'm not some kind of traitorous fiend, not to be trusted!"

"You told me you wouldn't tell Otou-san where the dent in the wall came from last week, but the second Okaa-san saw, you spilled your guts," I deadpanned.

We had started physical training shortly after I'd requested it, just a few months ago. It was pretty standard, even by real world standards—sit-ups, push-ups, general endurance training, the works. Still, I'd never been that physically adept in any universe. I wasn't the most coordinated toddler, either—resulting in the unfortunate dent in the drywall of my house when some stretching practice had gone a bit too far.

"Your Okaa-san is very intimidating," Imiki whined.

I hmph-ed and turned away from my aunt.

"As I was saying, Futaba-chan, you haven't had the chance to make many friends now, have you?"

Oh no. I'd definitely rather not. "No thanks."

"You can't no thanks friends, Futaba-chan!"

Making friends my age ran the risk of getting involved with certain canon people that also happened to be my age, but I couldn't exactly explain that to her without sounding paranoid and crazy. "Don't wanna."

"Seriously, Futaba-chan…" Imiki sighed and redirected her attention to the path in front of us. I could sense we were getting close to the soup shop, but suddenly and unexpectedly, Imiki stopped.

I lifted my head, breaking my childish silence, and saw nothing more than a playground mostly deserted. A man around my aunt's age sat on the bench, head lolled back and snoring audibly.

"That's one of my old pals from my chūnin days, Futaba-chan! I'm going to go catch up with him. Go have fun on the playground for now." With that, my aunt effectively ditched me for the snoring guy on the bench.

Around ten minutes later, I found myself on a swing gloomily, scuffing the ground with my sandals. Imiki hadn't stopped talking to the bench guy since we got here, neither of them seeming to have time to cast me any wayward glances. Such a responsible caretaker Imiki was. Luckily for me, no significant toddlers appeared to be in the vicinity.

"Hey, you!" a voice called.

My head snapped up to meet the eyes of a young boy. A young boy with black eyes, black hair, pale skin, and a fan insignia marked on his tunic. An Uchiha.

O God, what have I done to forsake thee?

My heart resumed beating when I realized it wasn't Sasuke, but another Uchiha. His hair was flatter and less...duck-butt in the back. The look in his eyes was also more snide than a three or four-year-old's should be. Whoever it was, he hadn't appeared in canon.

"Yes?" I replied quietly.

"That's my swing," he snarled. I felt my eyes draw into a firm stare. What a brat. "Get off," he demanded.

I blinked. "Why?" I nodded my head towards the swing next to mine, which was vacant. "That one's empty."

He stomped a foot. "No!"

Oh man, I did not have the patience to handle this. "I'm not about to give up my seat for some four-year-old that thinks he's better than everyone else when there's a perfectly empty seat right there!"

"I'm FIVE!" The smoke was practically billowing from the boy's ears now. So much for calm and composed Uchiha.

He was about to say more when an older girl, maybe eight or nine, stepped up behind him and grinded a fist into the top of his head, messing up his hair.

"I'm so sorry about my brother," she said. "He has a bit of a complex concerning his height. I am Uchiha Kouko. This brat's Uchiha Shuu." She tugged at his collar to punctuate her statement. "What's your name?"

"Asagiri Futaba," I replied evenly, my eyes still narrowed and fixed on the fuming Uchiha Shuu.

Before our conversation could take off, Imiki interrupted. "Futaba-chan!" She came over to my swing, presumably done with her teammate, and immediately scanned Kouko and Shuu. "Oh, you've made friends? What're their names?"

Kouko spoke up. "I am Uchiha Kouko, and this is my younger brother Shuu. It's very nice to meet you, Asagiri-san." She bowed low, dragging her brother down to do the same.

Imiki smiled brightly. "Oh, I'm just Futaba-chan's aunt. Just call me Imiki. I'm so glad Futaba has finally made friends! Do you two wish to join us for some yakitori and soup for lunch?" I ignored the urge to glare at my aunt for the "finally made friends" remark. Never mind that Kouko and Shuu were hardly my friends at this point.

Kouko gave an amiable smile, while Shuu continued to scowl silently. "We'd love to."

And that was how I found myself in a booth in Shiro's Soups across from a disgruntled Uchiha boy with his sister next to him and my aunt next to me.

"So your parents are retired genin?" Imiki asked Kouko.

"Yes," Kouko replied. "It's quite rare in our clan to retire as genin, but Shuu and I are eager to become shinobi ourselves. My mother and father did not possess the Sharingan and chose different paths. But my brother and I are suspected to possess the Sharingan." She bit into the yakitori. "I've already started Academy training. I intend to graduate in a couple years."

Imiki nodded with interest. "One of my teammates back when I was a genin and best friends today is an Uchiha!" The two seemed to converse in a world of their own, leaving Shuu and I in a tense silence.

After many minutes of awkward silence, Shuu spoke first. "I'm sorry for being mean about the swings. And stuff." He sounded pained, as if admitting his mistakes twisted his gut.

I widened my eyes in surprise. To tell the truth, I wasn't too keen on getting close to someone with such heavy ties to the too-present-in-canon clan of Uchiha, but there was something about this kid that I couldn't find myself staying mad at. There was no twisted, malicious intent in him, just brattiness and a temper typical of normal kids that were actually five years old.

"Uh...it's alright, Shuu-san. I'll, uh, let you sit in whichever swing you want next time. Or we could take turns?" He seemed to breathe a sigh of relief that I hadn't rejected his apology and embarrassed him, so I took the opportunity to start a conversation."So...Shuu-san, what weapons do you like?"

Shit, what kind of question was that!? The kid was like five! When I was five, I thought stupid was a curse word and that a kitchen knife was a sword! But he was raised in a clan, so maybe he'd have an answer. I mean, I was pretty young and I already knew which weapons I would want to use in the future. Ah, yes. The bo and naginata. Such beautiful stabby-sticks...

He seemed to debate responding, fixing me with some sort of uncertain stare, but his will crumbled. "I wanna use the katana. It looks cool, and my clan has a whole collection of really sick ones." His eyes lit up, and I could tell this was something he'd put a lot of thought into. "And all the heroes in movies all use katanas 'cause they're super epic!" He seemed to catch himself at the end, turning a little red at his outburst.

I grinned. Maybe there was a little bit of—dare I say—fun under all that snooty Uchiha. "I like the bō and naginata. In the future I'll use it to jab people from behind." I acted out the motion clumsily with an imaginary bō. "Or maybe I'll use it as a back scratcher." Shuu snorted. I let myself feel victorious at making a small boy laugh.

"You kinda talk funny, Asagiri," he said, cocking his head to the side. I cursed myself internally—still couldn't drop the slight accent, it seemed. "But I don't mind."

Imiki chose this moment to join our conversation. "Shuu-kun, Kouko tells me you're quite the shinobi-in-the-making already!"

His chest puffed with pride. "Chichi-ue's been teaching me!" He shot a look at his sister and she rolled her eyes, waving him on. "Chichi-ue even thinks I could be the Hokage someday."

I started. Another Hokage wannabe? Naruto had competition.

"Is that so?" Imiki hummed. "Well...if you'd like training from a jounin like myself, you can join Futaba-chan and I starting next week in the afternoons."

My head turned at the speed of light. I nearly gave myself whiplash. I embarrassed myself way too much in those training sessions to possibly allow another to see. I had hoped the fire in my eyes conveyed that to Imiki, but she kept smiling, clueless.

Shuu turned red. "I..." He swallowed. "Yeah! Maybe I will!" His sister patted him on the head.

The overwhelming number of smiles in the room took all of the fight out of me, and I sighed and accepted defeat.

The afternoon went on without incident. At the end of our meal, Shuu excused himself to use the little men's room and Imiki went to go pay, leaving me with Kouko in the booth.

"I apologize for my brother's actions, really," she said. "He wasn't feeling very well today. One of our cousins, Sasuke-kun, got into a scuffle with him." I raised a brow at the familiar name, trying not to let my panic show on my face. Kouko continued. "Shuu's a really happy kid. He hasn't had much interaction outside of the clan...so I'd appreciate it if you treated him well. Don't let first impressions fool you."

I nodded vigorously. In truth, I was already starting to like Shuu. He was a cute kid and could be fun when he was in a good mood. Already I was seeing how different he was from the Uchiha clan we'd grown to know in canon. The boy was so vehemently enthusiastic about becoming an "awesome" ninja to impress his family. And his love of emotional movies (Kouko had let it slip that during a tragedy romance movie her young brother had shed more tears than herself)? I could definitely respect that.

As much as I liked to pretend I was strong and silent and put-together, I was really just a girl that never really grew up in an even smaller body. I couldn't help it, I'd already taken a liking to Uchiha Shuu and Kouko.

When Imiki returned, we said our goodbyes and headed our separate ways. I felt particularly satisfied. No encounters with canon characters and two new friends gained? That's a win in my book. Let's just hope it stays that way.

We headed back home after the lunch, my mood significantly better than it had been before. As long as I kept out of the way of the canon Uchihas—that is, Sasuke and Itachi—I could manage to stay out of trouble even with my new friends complicating things.

Upon reaching the door to my house, Imiki suddenly paused. "I can't believe you haven't said anything all this time, Futaba-chan."

I crinkled my brow. "About what?"

Imiki didn't answer me, instead opening the door, ominously silent. I peered into the darkness uneasily, not knowing what to expect, and was met with the sight of...a cake.

"Happy birthday, Futaba!" my parents chanted in unison.

I stood there blinkingly for a few seconds. "Huh?"

"It's the first day of spring, Futaba-chan," Imiki told me. It began to click together in my mind. "Your birthday, silly."

All the drama with the dreams had made me forget my own birthday? I rubbed my head bashfully and couldn't help but grin at the sight of the four candles. "Wah, what kind of cake is it, Otou-san?"

"Green tea," he proudly informed me. "We made sure to make your favourite."

Staring at the cake before me, I decided to put the meaning behind the dreams on the backburner for now. I eagerly bounded up to the cake and waited for my aunt and parents to finish singing the customary happy birthday song, then, with all of the breath I could take in, I blew out the four candles.

"Strong breath, Futaba," my mom remarked. "You'll be a great kunoichi someday."

"What did you wish for, Futaba-chan?" Imiki asked me.

I thought about all of the times I celebrated my birthdays in my past life and current life, and what I had been missing from both. Yes, I'd come up with a pretty underwhelming purpose for this life, just so I could stick it to Enma the next time I happened to see him, but a purpose was a purpose nonetheless, no matter how underwhelming.

I was going to finally live past my sixteenth birthday, no matter what.

Looking Imiki in the eye, I crossed my arms like the four-year-old child I was. "If I tell you, it won't come true!"


kouko and shuu are finally in the game now! :D

alts