A/N: Yo. I hope y'all are okay with my writing style. It might also change over the process of writing this fic, since this is the first thing I've ever really written. Any tips for improvement are welcome. Especially if they help write longer chapters. Anywho Here's another one!
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. I own only any OC I think up and barely the plot of this fic.
As soon as I woke up I noticed I was alone. I couldn't see or hear anyone around me. Not that that's saying much though. My hearing wasn't all that great yet and my eyesight, if I could even move enough to look around, was pretty garbage as well. My only two options right now were to sleep or stare into the sky. I wasn't feeling very tired right now, so I chose to cloud watch. Even if the clouds were in pretty shapes, which they weren't, I'd still get bored pretty quickly. Though I probably just can't tell that they're in shapes, because my vision is blurry and they're so far away. Curse my baby eyes.
I didn't have to wait long, thank god, before I heard movement coming from somewhere to my left. I tried to turn and look, but unsurprisingly I couldn't move. the sounds got close until I saw a face above me. It was someone older that's for sure. Lots of wrinkles on their face. Their hair was also gray, an easy color to pick out. They had a goatee which was also very gray. So this was probably a man.
He scooped me up and held me right in front of his face. He started saying something, but I obviously couldn't understand or respond. Instead I just stared at him, blinking slowly every so often. It felt like an eternity and all I could do was look in his eyes. Which were a very dark color.
We stared eachother down a bit longer before he looked around. I was then cradled in his arms and we were off. To where I don't know, but I'm hoping it's somewhere better than here. God, I'm tired again. I'm not even going to try this time. I'm letting sleep take me away. You know, I could get used to all this sleep. Goodnight loser old dude. I'm your problem now.
I was, apparently, not his problem. I woke up again to a room full big box shaped things with small pillars. There was blobs of colors I could see inside them. I'm definitely seeing cribs right now. That means I have new annoyances, huh. Being a baby is gonna suck. I can feel it now.
Screw old people. Leaving me here with these things? All old people can go die, for all I care. This sucks major ass. Well, it isn't super bad, but it's still not what I wanted. Being a baby was not something I needed to experience. Especially not with other babies.
To be fair, however, being a baby was simultaneously better and also worse than I had initially thought, though. I never had to do anything. I could sleep all the time and no one stopped me from doing it. I had no work, school, or obligations of an sort. The downside was that I had no control over anything. My personal space, my bladder, the babies around me. I had no way to stop people from moving me, or just touching me in general. I was in an inescapable hell. So yeah, screw that old guy.
But wait, it goes from bad to worse. Diapers. Wearing diapers has to be the most embarrassing and also disgusting thing I've ever experienced. They don't know it, but I am an adult, dammit! Having people I don't even know wiping my ass and bathing me feels like some sort of hell all on it's own. Not to mention I can barely stay awake for maybe an hour at a time. Damn my stupid baby brain. And don't even get me started on the people. Not only did I have to suffer through the absolute monotony that is infanthood, but I also had to deal with the one's who are currently in charge of me. I have zero clue as to who they are or what they're saying. They just give me their stupid looks and make annoying noises. Every time they attempt I just stare at them, unimpressed.
The only thing I know for sure is that, in between my long naps, I haven't seen my new parents or the geezer again. The only adults I've seen so far have been young, and have light natural colors like blonde and that ashy brown color. So definitely not the life-giver, who I remember had dark hair or the odd colored hair of my 'father'. I don't really care about that old coot anyway though. I'm honestly surprised I remembered them at all. I think it's the new brain. Usually, my memory is pretty bad. And now that I think about it, apparently worse than a baby's. Aren't I great?
Although, if we're being honest I think the new parents are both dead. I haven't seen so much as a glimpse of odd hair at all, and if my parents were even here I would be with them, would I not? I also seem to be in an orphanage of sorts, which explains the babies. So either they're dead or they abandoned me. Not that it matters all too much. I already had one family who didn't want me. I can deal with another. Friends are what's important anyway. Then you can at least choose who to accept.
With that in mind I've always tried to be social. I'm noticeably awkward when I first meet someone, but I loosen up by the second conversation. It's all about smiling with the slight eye crinkle and relating to their issues. That usually gets them talking enough that I dont have to lead the conversation. It does get ruined, though, by my complete ambivalence. I've always been that way as long as I can remember. Not caring one way or the other about most of the stuff going on around me. Any time I tried to care it blew up in my face. It just means I need to care less than I already do. It's just like they say, fake it 'till you make it. The difference being I'm not gonna go past the faking it.
Which is why I'm not looking forward to growing up with who knows how many kids hanging around me. Pretending to be a child is hard. I tried to interact with kids in my past life plenty of times, but I always fail. I'm just not equipped to deal with them. That means, unless one of them is somehow an amazing conversationalist, I doubt I'd be making many friends yet. If you could even call it friendship when it involves me.
I still need to learn the language anyway. It's not like I can just mime my way through this new life. I know that asian languages can be tricky, but I'm putting a lot of faith into this baby brain being able to soak up evreything and more. Let's see how far that gets me.
I'm only a few months into this life and I know my own name now. I am called Utsuro. Weird name for a kid, seeing as to my knowledge, it means empty or hollow. I'm not very far into learning this language at all yet, so I could be wrong still. I have no family name which only reinforces my belief that my parents are long gone. Also, I can't believe I didn't notice it sooner, but I'm a guy in this life as well. That's probably going to make puberty way less of a bitch to deal with, thank god. Speaking of my discovery, I only even found out because I was getting antsy and wanted potty training. I'm not going into more detail than that. If anyone else knew that little tidbit I'd feel so stupid. Of course, I know I'm trying way too early seeing as I can't even really crawl yet, but I want no more diapers and touches and closeness.
Once I have the strength to make my way around I will then go straight into potty training. I can only really wiggle and kind of roll around currently, but I am working harder than I usually do. That has to be saying something. Every time I worm my way into somewhere I'm not supposed to be I just smile my stupid toothless smile and attempt a small baby gurgle. It only seems to unnerve whoever catches me though, and I get thrown in baby jail. Which is just a small crib with limited toys. As if I want toys at all.
A little farther down the road, maybe slightly over half a year later? I dont really know. Time is a big blur, what with me only ever sleeping and moving around. I learned to crawl now, and I am embarrassingly not the first one. Nor am I even second. I'm the third baby to crawl. That just means I wasn't working as hard as I thought I was. I just need to work harder to walk and talk than these pint-size hobgoblins.
Potty training is still a ways off, sadly. Crawling is unfortunately not quite fast enough to get away from my watchers and into the bathroom. It feels like they're watching me more intensely than the real babies. How they haven't pieced together what im doing is beyond me. Honestly, it's not like I'm being subtle. I must have some unfortunately stupid caretakers.
They stopped making their annoying cooing noises finally. Actually, I think they're actively trying to not play with me. That's perfectly okay with me. I don't like being touched, and they always turn it into some sort of tickle-fest. I'm much happier when I'm alone. Now they just walk around me, ignoring my existence I assume.
I am not, however, ignored by the babies. They reach for me when I get too close, and the ones who can crawl are even worse. The ones who can't just lay there trying to reach me, but the babies who can also move are relentless. The more I run away the more they chase after me. I need to get them to stop somehow, but I don't know how to do that with my uncoordinated baby body.
Right now I'm situated in the corner of the main orphanage room with the most toys. Oh yeah, there's more than one room, obviously, but I haven't been to those. everything's off limits except the main room, and the crib room. Come to think of it I haven't even seen a child older than two in here at all. This is either a baby orphanage or they keep us separate. If they do keep us apart then I might have to say I like them a bit more, just a bit though.
Anywho, I got a little off topic. I am currently facing off against a legion of slobber monsters coming at me. I picked the area with the most toys for a reason. There's more stuff to throw at them. I usually avoid this corner of the room for the sole reason that more toys equals more kids, but these damn babies just follow me anyway. I'm not very good at throwing things yet but that's to be expected. I am just a baby after all. I, however, am just good enough to accidentally hit one of them in the face. Immediately it starts crying and the others just turn to stare at it, as if not understanding what that noise means. My victory is short lived, though, because soon they all start crying.
One of the caretakers comes over, presumably to find out why everyone's crying, and her face turns to me. I can't imagine how this must look to her, but it is not good for me. I'm surrounded by crying babies and just sitting there staring at her. She gives me this look as if to say that this was all my fault and she blames me for everything that goes wrong in her life. I was the one who made them all cry, that is true, but I didn't want her to know that. I too attempted to cry. I never was good at crying, it just seemed beneath me, but I feel like I did a good job. My obviously annoyed caretaker most certainly thought otherwise. Her stare turning full on into a glare. She was glaring at a baby. I mean I'm not exactly a normal baby, but she was glaring at me. She at least had the decency to look a little conflicted in her now animosity towards a baby.
She stared a bit longer before she decided to pick me up and place me in my wooden prison. I know that the whole thing was really my fault, but could you blame me? Kids are gross. At least now I know how to stop them from annoying me. This is gonna be a long and boring life, isn't it?
Another good story to check out.
Spirit of the Triage
by emily4498 - second book (attached to the first) is in progress.