There's a certain torture famous in china, the Death of a Thousand Cuts, in which the victim is slowly cut to pieces while alive. At the current moment, with what felt like billions of papers rushing past me at speeds most would consider insane, I truly believed that this was the papercut version of it. I felt my body painfully disintegrate into what looked like paper and ink, floating around, as the bright white light turned blinding, and the rustling of papers deafening, my internal voice howling in pain until eventually even my consciousness was cut into a billion pieces.

A Black Room at the bottom of the ocean...

"Fuck, FUCK That HURT! FuCK!" I say, trying to curl up, but my sore body was crushed flat to the ground by an unseen force.

"YO, Editor! WHAT THE HELL?!"

"…sorry, I forgot about that part…" It's voice echoes softly and with a tinge of discomfort unique to those with a hangover.

'Hope that sonofabitch got the worst headache this side of existence.' I think spitefully,

"Where the hell am I?" I ask, pain now dulled to an annoying ache,

"You're in the In-between, I've still got to modify your body and spirit to match up to the Naruto's Universe."

It says, a weird shifting feeling moving my non-existent guts around, silence followed by a tentative statement.

"Thank you for not yelling that time."

"Why? IS IT PAINFUL?" I yell out.

". . . I currently have my hand on the nerve clusters leading to the nervous system of your lower body, do you really wanna tempt me right now?"

I feel a numbing sensation climb my legs.

"Nonononono, I'm good, so sorry Editor...Sir?...Ma'am?" I say nervously, a sweat drop forming on the side of my head.

"That's what I thought. You'll wake up with a complete physical understanding of yourself, so no having to relearn how to walk or speak, you're good with the common tongue of that Universe, so Japanese is now your default,"

His complete disregard for the implied question made me sigh before there was a tweak or two, a pinch in my head, a fuzziness in my chest, the feeling like hot sand was being poured into my body through my stomach, it was disconcerting, to say the least but also kinda comfortable.

"That's your chakra, by the way. You'll start with average abilities across the board and wide open potential so it should be a good starting point. Oh, and you'll have a bloodline limit, its one of your favorites, a nice little niche utility."

"That's cool, which one?" I as

"You'll see, now, I've pre-loaded the memories and info you'll need, but you'll still have your personality, to some extent, the factors of the world resulting in the same final product. There's not gonna be any background information there for you to directly work on, more like a deja'vu kind of feeling, your intuition will be gnarly."

It says, distractedly, as I feel myself start to shrink. It had the same tone I had when I was cooking or cleaning or doing something almost annoyingly easy. It was...intimidating, how expertly and blandly he broke every rule and understanding of the universe I thought I knew.

"You'll be 5 when you get there, so you'll have a clean slate and plenty of time to train yourself physically. Other than that, have fun. And good luck!"

It says cheerily now. Too cheerily.

"This is going to hurt isn't it?" I ask apprehensively,

"Oh Yeah!" It chortles.

"Fuck."

A Crushing pressure, my scream swallowed up by the darkness, no sound, just vast, unintelligible amounts of pain, than nothing.

Somewhere In The Middle Of a Forest in Fire Country...

The smell of dirt and wild decay filled my nostrils…and my mouth. I didn't blink, didn't open my eyes, didn't even twitch a single inch of my sore body. Wind blew through the treetops around me and brushed some of the hair on my head slightly. Apart from rustling sounds the area was silent, not a single insect or birdcall.

'Silence? In a forest? That's…'

A sudden blow to my stomach, knocking me against a tree and definitely bruising some of my ribs informed that my situation was NOT GOOD.

Taito had just been woken up rather abruptly when this little kid slammed into his stomach. He hadn't eaten in days, and had finished the last of his sake off the night before. He was hungry, hungover, and in pain. When he saw the kid apparently asleep next to him, he'd taken the chance to land a kick on the little brat. Taito had never been accused of having either compassion or a good temper, so his first thought was to punish whatever had hurt him, even if it was a kid.

"Fucker *cough* what the Hell?"

A rude little shit of a brat especially.

I groaned out, holding my stomach, sitting up and glaring at the asshole who had kicked me, trying to quickly understand what level of shit I was in ontop of where I was, how I had gotten there, basically how to remember everything about myself. I must've hit my head harder than I thought.

'Let's see, no hitai-ate, no vest, looks about early forties-ish, dirty, obviously drunk as shit, and holding a crude staff.'

"What you say, fucking homeless trash?"

'And an Asshole. Can't forget that bit.'

I think, getting up, feeling the cloth peel off the blood caked on my skin.

'That's...really not good.'

"I'm asking why the hell you'd kick a defenseless kid, Asshole."

I spit, the vocabulary not matching the young tone of my voice, sizing him up as I see him look at me then scowl. A second later he tried to slam his staff into my head, smacking against the tree with impressive force, snapping the top of the staff off as I just barely ducked below the strike, my instincts or muscle memory saving my ass as I felt my heartbeat rocket, the adrenaline flooding my system.

'Fuck!'

I ran into the surrounding forest, trying to hide in the thick underbrush but he catches me by the collar of my shirt, lifting me up and slamming me to the ground, bouncing me off it.

"Shut up ya fuckin trash."

Taito grumbled angrily, staring at this little smart mouthed kid he found out here, asleep on the ground, and he started for him again. The little shit could dodge, was fast on his feet. It just made him angrier, the shit was making him work harder than he wanted to while hungover.

I roll to the side, yelping as the adrenaline only dulled pain so much, and try to get to the bushes again. Scrambling to my feet, I make a few paces, thinking enough to pick up the other end of the staff, now a stick maybe a foot long with a thick, knotty end, as I feel him catch me again.

'Fuck if I'm going to take another hit like that,'

I think, swinging behind me with all the might my 5 year old self could manage, smashing into his arm and smacking his elbow, a yelp of pain ripping from his throat as his slightly numbed arm dropped me, whipping it around into a haymaker as I just barely tumbled out of the way of his other arm snatching forward.

"Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck"

I breath, turning and trying to take stock of my situation, noticing a knife handle sticking out of his raggedy boot through a pounding headache and then assessing my own condition. Which was namely, shit-on-a-stick. His own was mildly better than my own and he had height, a surprising amount of strength, and the other 2/3rds of his staff, which featured a brush of nasty looking splinters, he also had a knife stashed in his boot.

'Not the best match up, I'll admit.'

My blood was surging through my veins as adrenaline coursed through my body making me a little jittery. I had managed to stay as calm as possible and based on the fact that I could describe the bruises already forming on my chest and the burn of my muscles as I almost twitched, I LOVED this. I was smiling even as the pain radiated through my body, even as I knew I was probably dead, I loved it. I had a fucking death wish and was in a terrible situation and I couldn't even recall my name right now, and it didn't really matter because I was alive and I needed to stay that way.

'Fuck me. This'll be a problem one day.'

For now, I formulated the basis of a plan and was about to put it into action. Or, to put it lightly, I was going to hope and pray and do whatever it took to not be the one left dead.

"YOU LITTLE PRICK! I'M GONNA FUCKIN KILL YOUR ASS!"

Taito yelled, lunging at the source of his pain with a heavy over-head strike with his improvised morning star. I dodge back a step and strafe around the adult, striking the side of his knee, sending him to his knees as he back hands me in retaliation. I feel my lip split open and warm liquid start running down my chin and a briny taste fills my mouth. Blood. I licked my lip and grinned even more, catching myself before I fall, I needed to slam the end of it against his face, now near my level, unbalancing him and putting him on his ass. Another yowl of pain as he reached up to cradle his bruised face, I can assume it was bleeding as well from the slight bit of crimson I saw leaking between his fingers. I throw my makeshift cudgel at his face and hands as I jump for his legs, shoulder pressing against his stomach as I was fumbling for his knife amongst his kicking legs. His rotten, unwashed smell filled my nostrils as I grunted with effort. I feel one hand grab the back of my shirt and start to pull me up off him as he leans forward. I panic and slam my tiny fist into his nuts.

'No such thing as too underhanded when you're trying to kill somebody fuck face.'

He doubled up with a pained groan, his legs freezing as he flexed them instinctually, letting me grab his knife even as he threw me to the side. I rolled, remembering to keep the beaten up, half-rusted knife pointed parallel to my body as I rolled to keep from stabbing myself. I coughed from the impact as I heard him struggle to his feet and stumble towards me. I struggled to breath, finally getting a breath in before I was kicked onto my back to see the leg raised again to stomp down onto my chest. Eyes widening, I slashed out reflexively.

'OH FUCK!'

I manage to land a hit, cutting the side of the leg his weight was on, sending him tumbling onto his back. He hugged his leg to his body as I rolled up, lunging forward desperately to plunge the blade into his stomach, pulling myself forward across his body, even as an animalistic scream filled the clearing. I pulled it out and stabbed towards his throat, a panicked, angry scream tearing itself from my throat in response to his. Somewhere along the line, my panicked pleasure had turned to desperation.

"Why couldn't you have just let me go?"

I ask, feeling the sickening warmth of his blood cooling and congealing on my skin, a cool wind blowing against my wet skin, a crow the only witness to my first kill. I gagged, then vomited, still staring into the face of the man i murder before collapsing to the side of the body, eyes fluttering closed, a small stained figure next to the corpse of a grown man.