A/N: I had the idea for this story while looking for similar works. Posted on Reddit about works where someone from our world ends up in the naruto world. Instead of trying to become a solo mountain shattering badass though they try to make their clan and village more powerful as well.
This story will have a secondary focus on the love of the family and clan politics on top of the military might aspect. Political marriages, backstabbing, shadow wars, Clan technique improvement, squad based tactics, loss of loved ones etc etc. If that doesn't sound like the story for you here is your advanced warning I suppose.
This is also my first fanfic, so if you spot anything I've done wrong don't be afraid to say it. I won't chew your head off for criticism, unless of course it's not criticism and is actually just flaming.
Enough out of me, on to the story!
They say drowning to death is a fairly peaceful way to go.
Not entirely true, not in my case at least, the panic was the first thing I remember feeling. You hear warnings about swimmers being dragged under by down currents. Cramping up out at sea as well. You hear these things fairly often when you live surrounded by the ocean.
"Don't go swimming immediately after eating!" The words of my mother.
She probably said that a hundred times to me in my young life. Fortunately, my death wasn't quite so awkward as that. No, my death was more of the god looking down and saying: "Wrong place wrong time fucker." variety. Honestly, It hadn't been my idea to go in the water, odd as that may sound. But when you live in Bermuda the sea is never truly far from reach as it were.
But I'm getting a bit rambly here, hard to focus when you've just drowned to death it would seem! In any case, the story of my death goes like this. On a Monday afternoon, because shitty things always occur on Monday it seems. I was driving my happy little backside home to wind down for the day. You know, order a pizza, hit up some video games, enjoy being single you know?
Well whatever divine, or demonic, being who was watching over me that day decided that I should go fuck myself. Because in the next instant two things happened. Some teenage bimpert on his pedal bike came down the hill popping a wheelie. Which would have been fine by me at any other time honestly. Because he was far ahead of my car and I could have slowed down, or hit the breaks, rather comfortably. Who couldn't hit the breaks fast enough was the bus driver coming towards the both of us. Who veered out of the way of the kid, which was good, but hit the rear end of the bus against the side of my car. Which, as far as I was concerned, was pretty damn dreadful.
Thus I gave a headbang to the steering wheel that any metalhead would have given me a free drink for. Moreover, a moment later I'd flipped off the road and into the water. By the time I'd stopped reeling I was stuck in a car with a door that wouldn't open. With blood gleefully dripping down my face. My right arm and leg were broken as well, not to mention pinned to my side. So, as you can imagine, I kind of freaked out a little.
That's when the already cracked windows on the right side gave out to the water pressure. I'm sure you are smart enough to figure out how that ended, aren't you? A lot of panicking, a lot of flailing, a failed escape attempt, burning lungs and a lot of mental cursing out of that dumb kid.
Dying a twenty five year old virgin, ain't that some shit? Never should have followed that celibacy nonsense the church preaches.
I'm running out of the air in my lungs, I can feel my lungs straining for it I...
I gasped for air, I screamed at the top of my lungs. My eyes snapped opened and I saw something that made me scream harder still. Looking up at a massive woman in a doctor's uniform. I ran out of air again and had to breathe. Confused as she pushed down on my chest with a glowing green palm. She smiled at me as I cried out yet again in no small amount of shock. Mostly because a colossal woman was holding me in the air. She held me to her chest for a moment lightly. This gave me time to notice I was trapped again, although this time it was in clean tan material. I squeaked indignantly when the enormous doctor handed me to another equally enormous lady. Now I was staring up at the second woman, wondering what these people were eating to get so damn huge. Hopefully not tiny men as I was increasingly beginning to fear. She was young and had deeply tanned skin. Tied-back silky brown hair so dark it bordered on black. Then I noticed that she had completely black eyes.
No, you don't get it, not really dark brown eyes that look black like you're used to seeing on some guy walking down the street. No, ladies and gentlemen of the future. No whites or irises were surrounding her pupils and those pupils were tiny white pinpricks on this field of blackness.
Not gonna lie to you, I damn near passed out. That's some horror movie level absurdity right there. I sputtered and wriggled in my clothy prison, desperate to make a getaway from whatever current hell I had landed myself in. The thought froze me, was this hell? I haven't done anything to deserve eternal suffering, had I? Certainly, I didn't go to church as frequently as I'd used to, but I still did good in my brief life, hadn't I? Then I heard a deep rumbling laugh as a man's face, with human-looking eyes this time thank god, appeared above me.
There was some kind of cloth half mask on his lower features as he looked down at me. Looked like he was wearing some kind of body armour. Like the regiment soldiers I would sometimes see when I visited my uncle outside the base. He poked my cheek, his hands were scarred and rough. I gave him my best glare as he reached up and undid the mask. He was kind of plain looking really. He had no beard, or moustache for that matter. Thin lips and kind of pale when compared to the woman holding me now. Said woman handed me to this man and I was immediately made aware of how much larger he was then the other two. He looked down at me and gave me an intense stare for a time before speaking.
"You are a fighter, my son, a worthy heir for family Mukade." He said softly, a smirk slowly growing on his face.
This time I actually did pass out.
I died, I was pretty certain about that at least. I'd drowned to death, was pushing up water daisies, napping with the fish. So why in the name of all that was holy in god's green earth was I in a desert? I was on a sub-tropical island, ok so drowning in the waters next to it. Now I'm in a desert. How the hell does that happen?
My confusion knew no bounds even a week later. Also, deserts are really fuckin hot. It got hot in Bermuda certainly, but that was a humid kind of hot, wet kind of heat. This was 'suck the h2O out of your skin' kind of hot and it sucked balls.
My thoughts took a slight pause as my mother, holy crap, by the way. Lifted me ever so slightly higher. The reason you may be asking? To avoid brushing me against the seven foot long, four foot tall, centipede now coiled around her feet protectively.
Before I continue, I'd learned a lot about the world in my week of new-life. At least, more than any week old boy had any right to anyhow. Firstly I was in a desert, oh, pardons I've said that already. Secondly, there were big ass bugs around here, or whatever a centipede counted as. Which leads me to my third point. Clearly, my father is some kind of centipede whisperer because he uses them as guard dogs. Which, I have to agree is really cool. Or at least I thought so after my minor freak out about the SEVEN FOOT TALKING CENTIPEDE. That had rubbed against my face with its own while I was in my crib one day. Which had promptly been told off by my father for making me cry. No, you didn't read that wrong, the damn thing talks. She's actually pretty nice once you get to know her, which is not something I thought I would ever say about a predatory seven foot bug. This world is strange like that.
Sure we had centipedes where I came from, but when WE said 'giant centipedes' we're talking like seven inches long to ten max. Not seven foot, how does this thing even support its own weight? Apparently, she's a baby too, so she's gonna grow bigger. A blessing to the living world for sure.
My new life was getting stranger by the day. I was still trying to figure out why I could even understand everyone and suddenly knew what their terms meant. Then bam, giant killer hell bugs! Mukade, the name of my father's family was pretty fitting it turned out. My mother's clan had begun merging due to their marriage and my birth supposedly. Look at me, a week old and already bringing people together with love and junk. Or at least through political significance.
There was just one issue with that though. I let out a little baby sigh as I watched as a twelve foot scorpion dashed past the window snapping claws at some comparatively small, but still pretty big, desert gerbil. He was one of the smallest ones, they could get bigger, much bigger in fact.
So yeah, scorpions and centipedes in one big happy family. The Mukade family and Sutinga clan brought together to terrorise the world with giant demon bugs. Well, arachnids in my new mother's case I suppose. I'm rather sure my first mother would have had a fucking heart attack.
You gotta give it to my dad's family for good choices in a marriage alliance. Admit it giant killer scorpions and centipedes would make you reconsider attacking someone am I right? I know I would have hightailed it if some guy had attack scorpions or centipedes in my former world. Now they had both!
Speaking of the family, I don't have any siblings, which I probably should have suspected since I'm the 'heir' apparently. But I do have a metric buttload of cousins, aunts and uncles. These people don't play around when it comes to babies I guess. Maybe I'll get a few siblings next too?
My aunt, on my mother's side, is the one that takes care of me the most. At least she is when my parents are away doing not baby stuff. Even though she has this habit of doing the baby talk thing she's not too bad. She's my mother's twin, they would be pretty hard to tell apart. If it wasn't for the scar on the side of her face running from the left of her lip to just under her ear.
Her name is Sasu. She's one of the clan's Jounin believe it or not. You'd think an elite ninja would be more silent, then again people like Might Guy and Naruto exist in this world so hey. She's is nice even though she looks like half of the joker. Or maybe she's just friendly to me, who knows? My mother is Niko, which I thought was a strange name for someone who lived in a desert but whatever. Dad's name was Daichi, so I assume my grandfather had high hopes for him too.
My name, Jinsoku, I feel is comparatively less heavy on the expectations.
I babbled at my mother and her black eyes glanced down towards my own dark pools. Not happy to have horror movie eyes by the way, just declaring it now. Her left hand came up to stroke my cheek for a moment before her sister burst into the door like a sandstorm.
"Where's my little Jin?" She practically squealed, before a heavy hand cuffed her across the back of the skull.
"You're going to agitate the boy." The younger man spoke firmly.
This was my uncle Akio, father's side if you don't want to guess. He was of the 'hardass warrior guy' variety of men and he did it well. A special Jounin that excelled in hand to hand combat and assassination. He had a large nasty looking burn on the right of his strong jaw but otherwise was fairly handsome. In the brooding tough guy kind of way that all the girls back home seemed to love. He was young, everyone I had met so far was, barring my new grandfather. Who was really, really old. Which makes me think that something happened to the middle generation. But he was the youngest of my uncles and aunts even then. Apparently, there was some war going on out there. Which is where my father jetted off to from time to time I imagine. Something about guarding the border from the Stone, or was it helping the Leaf? Probably the name of some other clan or family. As long as he came back in one piece, or close enough to it, didn't matter to me. My parents were younger than I had been when I died and I'd been 25 so baby fingers crossed.
My week old mental baby ramblings were put on hold as my aunt scooped me away from my mother. She whispered assurances about how I would be so powerful and she would teach me all I needed to know as she held me. Which I'm positive was my parents' job but hey more power to her I reckon.
My own aunts had never been this caring in my former life, they were far too busy to fuss over my siblings and I. No time for their youngest brother and his kids when they had their own lives to live. It was nice to have this, even if it came at the cost of whoever this kid should have been.
The body I now wore, this child, had been stillborn as far as I understood. A medical miracle that I had survived my father said. Only the child hadn't survived, not truly. Perhaps I had just filled the void of his soul when he had expired. Perhaps I had even destroyed him myself on entry. It didn't matter, all I knew is that I was wearing this woman's nephew like a glorified skin suit. That was not a good feeling, they would never recognise this child had truly died. Even if came out and told them who would believe me? Hey, guys, I possessed your son's body. Not sure if he was already dead or I'm some soul-eating parisite but yeah! Sorry about that, hopefully, we can move past this ok?
Yeah, that sounded deranged to me and I knew it to be true.
"Aww sweety what's wrong?" My auntie cooed tickling my belly.
I laughed, seems my being insanely ticklish from my last life was still a thing. My mother gave a short laugh, the only sound I'd heard her make all day that wasn't her breathing. Not a very talkative woman my dear momma. Which suited me just fine since it gave me time to think about this crazy circumstance I was in.
My uncle grunted at the older woman's antics. I knew what he was thinking. A warrior of your stature should conduct themselves with dignity and elegance. Or something along that line of thought. He was like that...pretty much all the time really.
The centipede, the name of which I don't truly know now that I'm thinking about it. Uncurled it'self from its place at my mother's feet. Shifting into what I could only describe as a sandpit that leads outside of the house. Probably feeling it wasn't needed now that the three of them were watching over me. Well, it was either that or she'd gotten sick of the cooing from Sasu. She'd probably be helping the scorpion hunt down those little furry pests soon enough.
My stomach grumbled and I found myself in my mother's arms in short order. Having to depend on others for everything isn't something I can say I overly enjoyed. Absolutely, it was sort of embarrassing sometimes. Although despite her mostly silent nature my mother's actions were gentle and loving. Plus, apparently, a mother's milk tastes really good to a newborn. I leaned into her as she stroked my back softly. She was warm and her movements were steady. I stopped after a short while and received a duo of taps that caused a far too large burp for my small size. Causing my aunt to snicker behind me and my uncle to grunt disapprovingly. Not that the man ever seemed to approve of anything. She drew me to her bosom and rested me there. Her heartbeat was soothing and her bust soft. I was more than content to nap there. Or I would have done if the massive centipede hadn't slid back in and jostled my mother.
I gurgled disapprovingly as my soon to be rest was taken from me. What can I say, kids gotta sleep am I right? I opened my freaky eyes slightly and saw my normally bubbly aunt silently holding up a parchment for my mother to read. She sighed as she finished, the second sound I'd heard from her today. But made no motion to put me down or otherwise leave as my uncle took his turn to view it.
"Fuc-." He took an elbow to the abdomen from aunty for his troubles.
He straightened his posture. Coughing into a fist before casting an apologetic look mom's way, to which I could feel her nod. Guess the twins have a bit of bite to them after all. Or I suppose it would be a sting, maybe a pinch, considering their clan.
"Kinji and Kumi both?" That was just about the longest sentence I had heard from Niko all day.
Considering there was a war going on and the tone of voice she was using. I could very well speculate what had befallen Kinji and Kumi had either been crippling or fatal.
"How many does that make now?" I could feel the fire in Akio's voice from here, even in the desert heat.
"Twelve, assuming your cousins don't also pass." She answered tensely, fatal then.
"Excuse me, my lady." The man was out the doorway before she'd even responded.
My mother simply hummed, going back to caressing my back idly.
"It could be worse..." Her sister spoke up. Her uplifting words didn't have the usual vigour they normally carried.
"Yes." Her twin responded softly.
I couldn't stay awake any longer...
I was on a mission for freedom. Well ok, that may be stretching it a bit. I was trying to get out of my small crib without breaking anything. I would have gotten away with it too if it wasn't for my good friend pinchy the scorpion. Name in pending, suggestions are welcome. He had a habit of picking me up and putting me back when I attempted that. This had to have been the third time today, I swear he was never in the room when I started. But lo and behold there he was placing me back in my crib as if he could just feel me trying to escape. Actually given what little I know about scorpions that may be exactly what he was doing.
The scorpion is a cheating bastard.
Dad is back home again, he's kind of beat up and has a couple of new scars but is generally ok. At least I think so, he likes to sit and brag to me about his encounters. I think it helps him unwind or something. Heavily edited, of course, less he feels the wrath of scorpion momma. Who was off to have her own battles out there on the front somewhere. I wonder if I'm the reason they don't often go together or if it's some kind of military law about a family serving on the same front as in my world? Considering what I know about this world now I very much doubt it. On that note I've learned something pretty important from these little storytimes, this world is the world of Naruto. Or the elemental nations if you want to be all politically correct.
I honestly feel kind of stupid for having taken this long to get it. You'd think the talking centipede or the jounin flak jacket would have tipped me off lifetimes ago. But no, I'm a grade-A dumbass it would appear. I'd seen the show, well most of the show anyhow. Before I'd started focusing more on real life and less on tv shows. I had skipped some of the filler ok? Sue me, I had a lot of shit to do. I used to watch it with my sister back on earth, god how long had it been since I'd thought of her, almost every Saturday on Toonami. Yeah, yeah, laugh it up I'm a filthy dub watcher I get it. But you know what, that knowledge would be invaluable in the future I think.
Because if there was one thing I knew about Naruto as a series it's that the Sand village was pathetically weak. The village I had been reborn in was probably the weakest of the five around this time, especially since the Mist wouldn't be doing that whole bloodline purge nonsense till later.
I could kick myself for not reading up on the wider lore of naruto right now. Not that the other villages got nearly as much screentime or lore as the Leaf did, but still it was out there. I knew that we were on the ass-end of the third ninja war. Which placed me smack dab in the middle of people like Itachi and Naruto in terms of age. Which sucked, why did this suck you may ask? Because that means that I'd be of age for the fourth ninja war when it started. You can't tell me you would want to be one of the poor bastards that had to fight people like Madara?
But before any of that, I'd have to survive Gaara's crazy ass! Just wake up one day and see a bloodthirsty Biju outside my window, talk about an alarm clock.
I laughed and applauded when my dad talked about how he had blown a group of stone ninja into their allies' own Jutsu. Kind of messed up, but it was funny, which is the greatest kind of messed up!
Kind of fucked up for a one year old, not gonna lie, but hey ninja kid needs to like ninja things.
The war is over it seems, or at least winding down now, having both my parents around is nice. I'm sitting around, practising my drawing, and no I'm not trying to make seals. I'm trying to make a map, with little success sadly. Why am I not trying to make seals? For two reasons, first I'm one and a half and don't know the first thing about making them. Two, because even if I did I have no experience or teacher. If I know anything about seals, ruins, and spacetime nonsense from mythology it's that messing with them with no idea what you are doing can lead to disastrous results. Pandora's box anybody? Knowing my luck I'd end up with the one tail in me somehow or some other equally implausible craziness.
Oh, I was almost assassinated the other day, that was fun. So quick note did you know that the majority of the families in Suna are referred to as such? Families I mean and not as clans. Because personally I sure as hell didn't know that. I didn't even know anyone in Suna had a last name or not any I could find in my world, I'd looked to believe me. Did you know the sand siblings don't have an official last name? I'd thought it was 'Sabaku' for a long time, but no, that's just Gaara's title. I figured all the families in the naruto world were referred to as clans but apparently, it's different here. Evidently, my mother's clan isn't originally from Suna which is why they still call themselves a clan in the first place. They are originally from the mist and they fled for some reason or another. The Third Kazekage, who is probably dead by now anyway, welcomed them into the village. Because let's be sincere the sand kind of needs all the manpower it can get. And later on, my father's family proposed marriage and merging to my mother, the clan head. That's where I come in, also the assassin. You see some people don't seem to like the idea of my dad's family getting more powerful. Or they may hate the idea of a Mist clan wedding into Suna and gaining more political power as a result. I'd suspect as much from the kind of mixed feudal/ww1/1960s era that the naruto world has going on. Even if my fathers' is a relatively 'middling' family. So they tried to smash my baby face and make it seem like my mother's clan did it to break them up.
Little did they know I had my mother's new seven foot centipede and her personal twelve foot scorpion as a couple of near-constant guard hounds. I'm reasonably sure what happened to that fellow would have given normal youngsters nightmares. Hell if I remembered any of my dreams I probably would have woken up in a cold sweat afterwards.
So now I have around the clock guard of a different clan and or family members at all times when my parents are gone. This is nice because I get to meet more of my kin. Like my Uncle Ikera, my mom's younger brother, whom I had secretly called Ikea in my head at least three times now. He was tall, about six ten and corded with muscles on top of muscles. Dude looked like he ate tanks for breakfast. He always wore goggles and used that same cloth mask my dad sometimes wore so I'd never actually seen his face. He was a gentle giant though, at least with the immediate clan he was. He and my dad didn't like each other much I think. Considering he looked like he could crush a semi with one hand I'm glad he liked me though.
Or my cousins Atsuki and Suho who were six. They were my father's youngest direct cousins. They normally watched me when an adult couldn't, like during clan meetings. The tomboy and girly-girl duo that seemed to love and hate each other in equal measure. Atsuki was more boyish than half the boys her age, her bob cut dirty blonde hair was often seen sneaking about somewhere. Always seeming to be roughhousing or dragging other kids off somewhere to do something. I'm sure it gave her poor mother headaches. Suho, on the other hand, was the picture of grace and girlishness. She had long sand coloured hair and an amazing singing voice she'd gotten from her mother. I'd fallen asleep more than a few times to her lullabies.
But for all the good of this, it also kind of sucks. Because most of the time my family is more focused on keeping me from getting stabbed in the face rather than playing with the baby. Or at least the older ones are, I appreciate the thought though, even if it's an order rather than an actual desire to do so.
My uncle Akio is pacing around the clan training grounds with me on his chest via some primitive baby backpack. Which if the twenty or so six to eight year olds he's instructing in clan techniques think is funny they don't have the metaphorical balls to laugh at it. His face is thunderous at the moment, I can't blame him either, the sling his fractured left arm is in prevents him from doing missions. So here he is teaching the kids how to use clan techniques and babysitting his nephew while the rest of his stronger family is out there doing missions. For someone like him, I'm sure this is the greatest embarrassment.
Despite his anger though, he is a good teacher. Although I kind of suspect half of that is his students being too scared of his wrath to piss him off. The merging of my dad's family and my mother's clan means that they both need to know how the techniques of both works. Even if they are not good at, or even able, to use them.
My mother's clan, for example, has a bloodline. Which I am super excited about. It's no Uchiha super hack eyes or anything but it's pretty deadly all the same. Unfortunately, it's also got a pretty serious drawback. The members of my mother's clan and possibly myself one day assuming my dad's blood didn't override it. Had incredibly poisonous chakra, you remember Shizune, Tsunade's apprentice? She had that poison fog Jutsu and poison needles, right? Imagine that but it wasn't a particular technique or weapon, it was the chakra it'self that was poisonous. This had many ups and downsides, firstly, it meant that we didn't have the issue of having to wear masks or risk killing people just by speaking to them like that Hanzo guy. Which is great because I'm not sure I would have ever been born. Either that or using gas masks in the bedroom. Which, while incredibly funny, would kind of suck for me in the future. It also meant that any technique that was used with chakra was amazingly poisonous.
Let that sink in for a moment, ANYTHING, that used chakra.
Tree climbing, poison.
Wind Jutsu, poison.
Explosive tags, poison.
Coating weapons with chakra, poison.
Water Clones, poison.
The number of ways you could kill someone with this bloodline was horrifying. The number of ways you could kill someone, on accident, was staggering.
This brings me to the downside of the bloodline, it was incredibly easy to hurt allies with it even if you didn't mean to. It also stopped you from using many support type ninjutsu. Like medical ninjutsu and water walls. Or at least you couldn't use it on allies.
I don't know how using a toxic healing Jutsu would affect the human body but I'm betting it's something the enemy would want to avoid. As for the poison it'self the best comparison I can make is to that of the manchineel tree. I'm actually pretty sure that's exactly what it is. Since my mother comes from the mist-covered islands that are Kirigakure and warm wet places are where they tend to grow in my world. There's a reason the fruits of that tree are called 'death apples'. The toxic chakra has an eerily similar effect to the dangerously toxic tree. I'm not sure why exactly my mother's clan had fled her homeland, especially years before the bloodline purges began, but I'm sure the mist desperately wants them back.
Adding hunter ninjas to the long list of things that may want to kill me in the future.
Even the scantiest brush of this toxic chakra causes blisters and chemical like burns. Smoke from fire style Jutsu causes immense pain to the eyes and lungs. Enough to make even a seasoned ninja go into shock given enough time. Some incredibly devious and in my opinion kind of evil ninja of the clan even used a water technique to poison an Iwa forces' water supply. Apparently, when drunk the water was actually very sweet in taste, although from what I hear the aftertaste was to die for. Anything the Chakra touched it affected, it was so potent the water Jutsu of the clan had been recorded to strip paint off of ninja puppets. A chunin had attempted to clean it with an E-rank Jutsu. It was that deadly. The only way to counteract it besides the antidote was to have some way to completely stop the chakra from touching you. Such as that sand shield Gaara uses, or the lightning cloaks from Cloud. In any case, the entirety of the clan was immune to the effects. Unfortunately, my dad's family was not and had taken to carrying multiple vails of antidotes almost all the time since the merge. The clan had a natural affinity with water and like many ninjas from the mist practised swordsmanship. As well as a summoning contract with giant scorpions of many breeds. The largest of which I had never personally seen but considering the size of some of the summons in the series...
My Father's Family, on the other hand, had no bloodline. Much to my unspoken disappointment. But they did train and raise giant desert centipedes as partners. These were natural animals rather than summons, much to my shock. Kind of like the Inuzuka clan with their ninja dogs and unlike say Kakashi. Then they fashioned many clan techniques around fighting with them. They could focus chakra as well as any humans could and were smart enough to speak. The family held techniques leaned more on the close range side of things. They didn't use swords like mom's clan did, preferring instead a duo of chakra metal forearm blades. Which I was very interested in. Evidently despite having less in the way of things like money or water the sand had much in the way of metal. Which I suppose made sense. Considering the Kazekages of the past generations had to be getting all that material for iron sand from somewhere no? They prefer ambush tactics but are plenty good at hand to hand combat as well. The curved foot long blades reminded me of a Khopesh and they were strapped to the outside of the forearm. They could be used in their resting position as extra defence or a surprise weapon by being extended via a mechanical mechanism.
The centipede inspired Jutsu was the real kicker though. They focused primarily on attack rather than defence but the piercing ability of the wind style ninjutsu was something else. I had seen my father carve through my aunt Sasu's steel blade one time on the training ground. Much to her extremely vocal annoyance, she had pouted for a week after. Their battlefield tactics relied mainly on misdirection and sudden hard-hitting strikes. A clan favourite was to distract the enemy in melee while their centipede partners snuck up on them from below. Dragging the enemy ninja down to be consumed after injecting them with venom. The centipede's natural armour was also very good at blocking smaller blades like kunai and short swords. It could even be hardened with the animal's chakra to block larger weapons and C to B-ranked ninjutsu. Not to mention their habit of coiling around prey to crush them, in a way that I was assured was an absolutely horrifying way to die. Some of the really strong men of the clan even used them as weapons, like some kind of hellish chain sword from an insect hater's worst nightmare.
Still, their true talents rested in the art of assassination, ambush and sabotage. I suspected my youngest uncle was in whatever Suna's version of the ANBU was. I had no proof of this of course, but then that's rather the point of black ops units isn't it?
Speaking of him he was showing off an antidote for the poison of my mother's clan, it wouldn't stop the immediate effects of the toxin of course. The blisters and such. But it would stop the long lasting effects, especially useful if the chakra got inside the body via a medium. Such as that aforementioned water trick.
The younger children were just starting to train with their weapons. Smaller wooden versions of the swords and forearm blades that the adults used. In hindsight, where does the sand get so much lumber? Has to be through trade right? I know that they have a fertile patch of land out there somewhere given by the first Hokage. But surely it doesn't have enough trees to supply multiple generations of puppet specialist?
"Rika your stance is unsteady, Sakabe you're leaning too far to the right!" Akio snapped at the two farthest kids suddenly.
Rika, one of my mother's nieces from a long-dead brother if I remember correctly, tightened her stance at the admonishment. Delivering a brutal overhead swing to her Opponent, her older stepbrother Sakabe, who simply twisted out of the way and punched her in the stomach.
"Yes sir!" They called back as they distanced from each other, sweat matting down their black hair as they sparred.
He glared at the two for their failure in their stance as he unscrewed a flask and took a sip before giving me one as well. Babysitters had never been so damn scary in my world, not in my experience anyway.
"Ah," Atsuki the young short haired tomboy of my father's family hit the sand face first spitting sand. "You jerk Suho!" She yelled as she twisted up into a roundhouse to the other Mukade girl's side.
A soft grunt and a forced smile was the only response she got from the more feminine lass. Well, that and getting her leg clamped in a vicelike grip so Suho could flip her back onto her face. She laughed as the other girl repeated her sand spitting routine, brushing her tongue with her gloved hands for good measure.
I laughed and clapped at the scene making one my cousins blush hotly and the other one smirk and flip her long sand-coloured hair at my approval.
"Seems the little prince approves of my methods." She sang teasingly.
Her cousin growled at her, sweeping the longer haired girl's legs out from under her before they both started to wrestle on the ground.
"Good, you will need the practice in grappling." My uncle said walking past them.
I could never tell if he was joking or being serious...
I looked at my mother, who was fixing me with the most powerful stare I had ever received. Her focus was absolute and I wondered if she would ever blink. She was always so quiet and observant but this was on another level.
I focused on her, at her face, as this monumental achievement really seemed possible after so long. Confidently I drew closer to her, arms outstretched towards her own until I fell into her breast and Sasu almost broke our ears with her cheers of delight from the side of us.
"Good boy." My mother praised as she patted my back affectionately.
I could finally walk again, ok so it was only for about ten steps so far, but I could do it! I looked at my aunt who I'm sure would be taking pictures if she had a camera. Clapping, squealing and telling me how cute I was. Hard to believe she was one of the clans' best Jounin sometimes. My mother rested her head on mine briefly before I detached myself and baby walked back to my father who was waiting on the opposite end of her.
I'm proud to say I haven't tripped in like three whole minutes! My parents are very proud of me I'm sure.
My aunt Ichiru, my father's only sister and a Chunin rolled her eyes from her position next to my father. Either at the sight of her powerful brother and his wife doting over a child. Or perhaps at my other aunt's reactions to said doting. She shook her head, causing the silver chain with the symbol of the hidden sand to jingle against her throat. She looked directly at me after a moment and the most moderate of smiles was there for but a moment. Gone so quickly I wasn't even sure I had truly seen it or if it was a trick of the light. She was good at making seals, not so much at human interaction. People would probably call her an introvert or autistic back where I came from. Just her and her twenty foot long centipede in a dark candlelit room drawing seals all day.
Speaking of Centipedes, I would get my own one day. Not sure what I'll name it. But I'm sure all my enemies would fear me the day we strolled out on the battlefield.
I...am not as excited as I seemed. The world of naruto was more or less one of child soldiers. Even in my old world, fifteen was generally the lowest any 'modern' country was allowed to even begin training soldiers. But not here, where they had eight year old killing machines out there in times of war slaughtering grown men. Even outside of wartime most genin graduated at the age of twelve. I'm pretty sure the Geneva convention doesn't exist here either, we talk about how cool the naruto world is all the time. But honestly, this place is really damn scary and let's be real as the future clan head I didn't actually have a choice about becoming a ninja. Especially in the sand village where they desperately needed strong ninja constantly.
My aunt Ichiru picked me up and placed me on her shoulders, her silver blond hair bunched up under my tiny hands. I'd obviously missed something during my inner monologues...again. Because no one made to stop her or even say goodbye. We ended up on the top floor of the clan compound. Looking over the village, although the city may have been a better name for it. The night air was surprisingly cool and the lights of many a window glinted and shown against the night sky.
I heard steps behind us and my uncle Akio sat down next to his sister's heels without a single word uttered. His arm was out of the sling and he looked happier for it. Ok so wrong choice of words perhaps, but he didn't look like he wanted to rip someone's head off and use it for volleyball anymore.
This is nice, I want to protect this so that other kids can see this in the future.
It's been a few years and today I became a brother for the first time. Well at least in this world. The tiny baby my mother brought home was the spitting image of my father. Barring the fact that she was...well a she. They named her Tachi. Her eyes were open for now looking at the baby sleeping beside her. My uncle's child if you can believe it, Akagi Hoki, a young lass with a tuft of black hair sleeping soundly.
He actually found a woman that could handle his brooding attitude. Not even one of those 'I can fix him' types either. A woman from another family in the Sand, Amagi Hoki or something? He even took her last name, which my father finds to be absolutely hilarious and teases him about it every chance he gets. She's a pretty, skinny thing. Although oddly enough she seems to always be wearing makeup for some reason. Maybe she has a scar or it's a tradition or something, who knows.
Today was the day I finally got my companion, I can't say I'm not excited. Even if she's a giant centipede she's MY giant centipede. She's only five feet long right now and can't talk yet. But as I scratch her sandy carapace she makes a clicking sound that lets me know she relishes it.
She'll be with me for the rest of my life, or so I can only hope. So her liking me from the start is nice, could have had an Ash and Pikachu thing going on. And considering she's a five foot centipede I feel like she could make her displeasure known very loudly.
She's the runt of her clutch of eggs, barely made it her first week, with sand-coloured armour and a jet-black head. She was meant to be around six or seven feet by now but had yet to grow that large. But I knew that I wouldn't trade her for another partner, not even for the world.
My training, real training, would start today as well. I would be expected to be better than any member of my family in my age group. I'd have to be the best swordsmen, the best brawler, the best at my families special ninjutsu, the best of my bloodline and the best with my companion.
It was daunting, to say the least. My father was kind, kinder than many fathers raised in the Sand to be sure. But he needed his heir to be strong, lest my claim as the next head be put into question. When I rose to be the head the two clans would truly merge and I needed to be the representative of our combined strength.
I wouldn't fail them, my mother and father. I wouldn't fail my sister, my cousins, my aunts and uncles.
I had a chance to make sure our clan prospered in the future, but I had to be strong. Strong enough to survive Gaara, the invasion, the war far into the future.
The sand lacked a strong core, the economy is crap, we had a few extremely strong ninja like the Kage, Baki and Pakura but the rank and file were just about weaker than any other nation.
We'd needed to ally with what was effectively a minor village in the future just to attack another major village for fucks sake.
I had to try to improve the Sand village however I could, weapons, Jutsu, even more skilled ninja from my clan for the fourth war, maybe even try to befriend Gaara from the start so he was just a little less insane...
But even more than that, I had to make sure my kin were strong, strong enough to survive it all and into the years beyond far after I was dead.
I had to, they were my family, no matter if I had chosen to come here or not they were my kin.
This was my home, I'd been pushing the thought back, but after years of living here how could I think of it as anything else?
I would protect them, with everything I had, no matter what it would change...
My blood came before anyone else, I love them more than I care for the lives of anyone who got in our way.
My thoughts were interrupted by my companion pushing her head into my palm. I resumed scratting her head, much to her audible enjoyment.
"I need to come up with a name for you..." I mused to myself. She didn't respond naturally.
"Big brother!" A small cannonball yelled as it smashed into my ribs.
"Oof," I grunted looking down at the small projectile. "Hello, little sister." I groaned as my couch nap was interrupted.
After a full day of training, I figured I'd get some sleep in, apparently my sister had other plans. Though, it was so cool it here right now too, who knew ninjas had air conditioning?
"Come play with us big brother!" She bounced off of my ribs, much to my relief.
"Sorry, Jin..." My Centipede companion, Kyoko, actually looked apologetic with her head bowed like that.
They'd both grown over the past three years, my sister was the textbook definition of a tomboy. I've had to suffer through Akagi's, futile in my opinion, lectures in an attempt to make her into a 'proper lady' enough for a lifetime. This with her short shoulder length hair and preference for shorts even adults sometimes incorrectly called her my little brother.
Kyoko, on the other hand, had grown explosively, she was now a good eight feet long. She had also taken up the habit of curling up at the foot of my bed. It was oddly adorable.
"Nooo, sleep good." I tied and was thwarted in my attempts to roll deeper into my pillow.
"Come onnnn," She drew out the last word in an annoyingly high pitch voice. "You can sleep later." She spoke as she literally dragged me out of my comfortable couch.
I couldn't sleep later, my aunts would be back from their joint escort mission soon and that meant more training in the night when they returned.
But, she wouldn't understand such things or care even if I told her so up I got to my feet.
"Wut you want my little brother?" I rubbed my eyes.
"I'm your sister, you don't even have a brother!" She stomped her feet.
"Don't be silly little brother you're right here." I blinked as I pointed at her.
I heard laughter from my father as he carried some scrolls past the door. Making my smile widen just a tad.
"I. AM. A. GIRL." She growled at me.
My eyes widened in surprise for a moment, my jaw dropped open so far it was in danger of hitting the floor.
"You are, since when," My shocked expression hardened. "Who are you and what have you done with my brother?"
"URG you are so dumb!" She pouted crossing her little arms.
"Jin, if you and your brother are going to argue go outside." My mother addressed us as she went past the door for more scrolls.
She'd become more talkative after her second child. Also, my father's sense of humour had corrupted her. Not sure if I'd consider that a good thing honestly.
"MOMMA," Her daughter certainly didn't think so. "You know I'm a girl."
My mother's footsteps stopped then she moonwalked backwards with scrolls in her hands.
"You are, since when?" She didn't smile, those were still rare, but I could hear it in her voice that she'd really wanted to.
"Love you, mom!" I called out as she left the doorway.
I got a kick to my shin for the trouble.
I rolled the leg a bit and cracked my neck making my sister shudder. She's always hated that, my aunt Ichiru too, now that I'm thinking about it.
"Come on short one." I waved goodbye to Kyoko over my shoulder. Getting a nod in return.
"Not short." She huffed.
She wasn't, actually, she was really tall for her age being only a half inch shorter than most of the boys.
"Shorter than me," I smiled. "And that makes you short in all the ways that matter." Unshakeable big brother logic.
She ran ahead of me and into the upcoming training ground where her birthday twin Akagi was waiting, surprisingly.
The black haired girl spoke to her quietly for a moment, which was odd since they hardly got along half the time. Then they looked at me at the same time, heads tilted. I felt like they were gonna pull some kind of prank on me. I dipped my gaze downwards to check if any of the sand had been recently upturned, it hadn't and I felt a bit silly for being so paranoid.
I squawked when both of my aunts popped out of the ground holding my legs, I knew what was coming, I just wasn't fast enough to stop it. I glared at my female kin as they high fived and giggled at my predicament.
"Domestic abuse," I protested dryly from my position in the ground."Also, it's the middle of the day and really hot so please help."
"The first lesson of the day, how to escape the headhunter Jutsu." Ichiru replied blandly, walking off.
"Hi, jin." Sasu waved as she pulled out a water flask and placed it just out of reach.
That...was a dick move auntie.
God, what I would give for that weird tongue Jutsu Orochimaru uses right now.
It took me ten minutes to get out of that hole, I was gulping down the water like my life was on the line now. My uncle had shown up in the middle of it, I asked him to help me. He'd taken one look then told me that this was my path to strength and to assist me would diminish the sense of achievement I would feel when I got out. Then the fucker had given me a thumbs up and walked off. He definitely had a messed up sense of humour, I'm pretty sure aunt Sasu damn near cracked a rib at that.
"Told you he'd be out before fifteen minutes." My sister beamed proudly at me, it took everything I had not to flip her the bird.
"Should have done it in five." Wow, for someone born in Suna and a future medical ninja Akagi could be really damn cold.
"You'll be headed for the academy soon, Jin." My father drawled like all my effort had made him sleepy.
I paused, when had he gotten there? I wasn't sure but endeavoured to answer the family head anyway.
"Yes, lord father." I nodded respectfully.
He looked upward tilting his head to the left, then the right before sighing and focusing back on my sweating form.
"Son, you will lead the next generation of our clan," He licked his dry lips."You must represent our clan well, in these years to come."
My heart dropped slightly, I didn't feel ready to lead anyone. However, I had sworn to myself for a long time that I would do what was required to protect my family.
"I will do more than that," I looked at my father's eyes."I will make it the greatest in wind country."
His eyes widened, then he smiled, "I like your spunk brat, but let's try making Genin first yeah?" His rough hand came up to ruffle my hair.
I shook my head, my messed up locks shifting out of my face. He was gone, hadn't felt him behind me, hadn't seen him leave. That was the vast ocean of strength between myself and my family head.
And yet compared to the strongest of this world. That man, who I couldn't hope to do so much as making a mark on his skin, would be tossed aside like so much trash in a storm.
My heartbeat sped up at the thought, would he die in the war, or maybe even sooner than that? My fist clenched hard enough that it would likely later leave bruises but I didn't care. I turned my gaze back to my aunts with a hurricane in my soul.
"Let's get back to it." I ground out, steeling my heart.
They looked towards each other with an unreadable look on their faces, nodded, and then leaned down to tell the two younger girls to leave.
They seemed confused but complied and waving goodbye dashed away to find the other children. My Aunts, my teachers for the last year in the ways of both Mukade and Sutinga. Now focused their full attention not on their family member but on the future leader of their people.
They placed their hands over their hearts and bowed in tandem.
"Let us begin." They spoke in unity.
I smiled at them, for but a moment, before it was gone and all I was focused on what I needed to become.
I would see my clan thrive, even if it erased my kind heart, even if I would die trying.
A/N: I hoped you enjoyed this first chapter reader. I plan to continue the story, although future chapters are unlikely to be so large. I'm hoping between 4-5k words in the future per chapter. But this first one was a bit longer because I wanted to lay the ground work. We will see I guess.
Not sure if there is a lot of interest in this kind of story, it's certainly not the norm. But I'm hoping that I can add to this little sub genre of naruto fanfics.
Good day and good luck!