Ninja Doorman

Chapter 2

I can sit here and tell you what happened since I was rescued, but to be honest I can't remember much. Nothing more than blurry shapes and mumbled noises I could not even begin to understand.

It was hard to remember what was going on around me back then. It was like everything was put in a blender and thrown in my face and I was only able to pick up bits and pieces.

And my new body was not really that responsive. It was really frustrating.

So my time as an infant was spent eating, pooping, and then sleeping.

I can only vaguely recall the times I was alone in my crib. This time stuck out because something weird had happened.

I could feel something around me. It was like air, but at the same time it felt alive. I waved my pudgy hands through it and felt how it slipped between my fingers.

The feeling was hard to explain. Was this a new futuristic baby toy? Maybe it was some kind of fog machine, or something that reacted to my movements.

But as time went by I started to realize this stuff was everywhere. No matter where I went I could feel it all around me.

Imagine how shocked I was when I found out this stuff was actually coming out of my body.

Not like I could ask what was wrong with me, so I was forced to adapt to the weird sensations I felt twenty-four hours a day. Over time I noticed it less and less until it was natural to me.

My eyes started working right by that time. Everything looked so big. I saw little kids running around, playing some kind of tag. A lady had just placed me in a crib with another baby who was chewing on a rubber ring.

He must have been teething.

As time went by I started to notice some strange things. Things like the strange cloths people wore, all the trees I could see through my window. The biggest thing was that I finally recognized what language everyone was speaking.

After a while I had found out my new name was Hajime. That was my biggest clue.

Everyone was speaking Japanese!

Am I Japanese now?

In my past life I was a Caucasian guy with some Italian blood in me. So I was a little shocked the first time I saw myself in a mirror while a lady was preparing my bath.

Turns out my skin is a little tan compared to those around me, and my hair was some dark color that ended up being dirt brown as I got older. And my eyes are a light bronze color. Other than that, my facial features looked Japanese.

But my eyes zoomed in on something strange in the mirror.

There is some kind of tattoo burned onto the left side of my chest.

I was reminded of that hot pain I felt on the day of my birth.

It wasn't a tattoo. It was a brand.

The boxy shape ended up being 四 the kanji for 4. One of the corners went over my caller bone and almost touched my throat.

That number haunted me. Why the number 4? Fourth of what?! I just had to shut out those thoughts. They made me feel uneasy.

The next shock of my life had to be the biggest so far. I got too big for the crib I was in and was moved to another room with a bigger one.

This room was on the other side of the orphanage and had a window. And in the time it took the person holding me to put me in the crib, my eyes were as wide as they could get.

Instead of the trees I was used to, I saw buildings off in the distance. No big ones, but short ones clustered together with a slightly bigger building here and there. Some were oddly shaped and I could see bright colors.

But that was not what my little eyes were so transfixed on. This town, city, whatever, had a mountain towering over it. And on this mountain were four faces.

No. Not Mount Rushmore.

I was in Konohagakure, the village hidden in the leaves.

So do you want to know what I did when I realized I was in an anime?

I wailed like there was no tomorrow.

So… yeah. I am in an anime. Not much one can really say about that, other than a few profanities.

It took me a long time to come to terms with this. Not like I could do anything about it.

As I got bigger I moved on to an actual bed. I got along with some of the other kids, but not in a friendly way. More like we were all here at the same time, and that was it.

This was mostly because I isolated myself. I never played with others, mostly because the screaming of kids annoyed me, and I would always move away from the groups.

This eventually started up some whispered conversations from the other kids and our adult caretakers. At one point I started to understand some of the things said around me. So I started talking a little. Nothing big, but I became quit the little smartass.

You know that little kid you were trying to talk to, and no matter what you said the little brat would respond with why?

That was me.

I know I was a brat, but if you asked me the adults deserved it. They never let us have sugar, and they send us to bed way too early. Now that I think about it, most of the food we ate tasted really bland to me.

But those were not the only reasons. How did you think Naruto ended up on the street before the third Hokage got him that apartment? I can't really remember how Naruto ended up alone, but I'm betting these people kicked him out.

I didn't really know what I was supposed to do. Since the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze is alive, that means Naruto has not been born yet. So I had some time.

Turns out I did not have that much.

I was almost two when I listened in on two of the adults talking to each other, just some gossip. I didn't care much for it, with me having such a small vocabulary at the time. But as soon as they mentioned the name Kushina I stopped drawing and tilted my head.

Now that my body was a little more responsive, I had to be careful not to give away how smart I really was. I didn't want to end up being a prodigy, and by extension ending up in ROOT.

Back to the gossip.

It was hard for me to understand, but I picked up a comment about how much the woman's belly was growing.

I would have smiled if I did not fully comprehend what that meant. Soon, Naruto will be born, and the Nine Tails would be released.

Naruto would lose his parents before he could even get a chance to remember them.

I felt sorry for the blond boy. And there was nothing I could do. No one would believe an almost two year old kid. And that goes for the Uchiha Massacre. And even if they did, I would most likely end up interrogated.

Damn Danzo! Damn Obito!

Actually I can't fully blame Obito. Before he became Tobi he was a nice guy. He sacrificed himself for his friends, only to end up being molded into a monster by Madara.

The point was I can't do anything. I am worthless! What was the point of me being here in this time? Why make me witness these events?

I felt pathetic.

There was nothing I could do.

A month later I turned two. Birthdays at the orphanage were not really that big of events. Most of the adults just performed their tasks in a way that almost screamed they wanted to be anywhere else but here.

They were not paid to care much.

The next month I suddenly felt a fiery energy in the night. I found out that the strange energy I have been feeling was actually chakra.

I could mess around with the chakra with my hands and found out that I could feel chakra from other things as well. And over time I found out everyone has their own feel to their chakra. For example, mine felt like I had dipped my hands in a mixed pile of saw dust and dirt.

I guess I was aware of this because chakra does not exist on earth. That does not mean I am chakra sensitive though. I can't feel the chakra of someone across the room. I have to be in contact. Or touching something the person did.

So I can't sense where someone is, but I can identify things someone has touched. For example I know which one of my caretakers made my breakfast.

I guess that makes me some kind of chakra bloodhound.

That does not explain what I was feeling right now in the middle of the night. There was no doubt what was going on. Sirens were going off, children were crying, people were screaming.

The Kyubi is loose.

The only reason I could think of for me being able to feel the Nine-Tailed Fox's chakra is that the fox had so much of the stuff that it covered the whole area.

That was a scary thought. So much power in one entity… the feeling was overpowering. It was hard to breath. Felt like I was trying to breath underwater. My limbs felt like they turned into lead.

I was both terrified and in awe of this power.

I knew the beast had been sealed in Naruto when the chakra in the air started to thin out. But even though the danger had passed, I couldn't move, I could hardly breathe.

I felt so small.

In this world I could be killed at any time. There was nothing I could have done if the Nine-Tailed fox just stepped on the orphanage.

This was like a wakeup call for me. The Fourth Shinobi War was going to start in my lifetime, and if I turned out just being a civilian chances are I would die when Sunagakure and Orochimaru attacked.

Hell, I could die before that. I might run into Gaara before the exams and find out he was in a rotten mood.

Sand Coffin. Need I say more?

So that left me no choice. If I wanted to survive, I had to get stronger. And that meant becoming a ninja. Sure, I could train on my own, use what I know from the anime to boost my chakra and things like that, but eventually someone would notice there was a potential ninja just floating around the village.

That brings me back to ROOT. Don't want to be brainwashed and forced to be a member. I could end up as just one of those guys who vanish off of the street.

So that did not leave me a lot of options.

In order to avoid ROOT, I have to get myself registered and recognized as a shinobi. That was my only chance. Would ROOT target already publicly known shinobi?

Kabuto was picked up at a young age, now that I think about it.

So that meant I have to be even more careful then I originally thought.

I hate my life.