Here's the sixth chapter! Haha I know I originally said every two weeks but I'm generally an impatient person so... yeah. This chapter is just a rough transition before I do a teeny tiny time skip. I hope you like it!

Rabbit Holes–

A few minutes after the demon children had left I was placed on the ground so my dad could search his pockets. I was looking around in an attempt to find my sunflower as he patted himself down. I glanced around and spotted it lying in the dirt by the upright log. Oops, I must have dropped it when his hands started glowing. I had just started to crawl over to get it when the masked man finished his search.

With a subdued "aha!" he opened the scroll my mother had given him and placed it on the ground a few feet away from where I was sitting. I stopped moving and looked over at the strange scene.

Curious, I watched as he pressed his thumb down in the middle of a strange looking symbol. His thumb glowed briefly with the blue light from before and I stared with my mouth wide open as white smoke condensed in a little cloud and faded, leaving all the things my mom had gathered earlier in the day. I couldn't even come up with an imaginary friend in my old life, now I'm dreaming up scenes straight out of a magic act!

I shook my head in disbelief. Things had been wacky all day. First the ninja conversation, then the freaky kids, and now this – if it were possible, I had no doubt that I'd check myself into an insane asylum. My day was turning out to be some weird down-the-rabbit-hole experience and I was not enjoying it. Of course this reminded me of shrinking, tea, and creepy cats. I shuddered, that movie had always creeped me out; even death wasn't enough to cure my dislike.

At this point you may be wondering why I was choosing to focus on an old Disney movie rather than my predicament. Frankly I just couldn't deal with the unfamiliar weirdness so I focused on a familiar kind of weird. That, and my baby mind tended to get distracted and go off on tangents if I wasn't careful.

By the time I surfaced from my reverie I belatedly noticed that my father had spread my blanket over the ground and stacked my other things to one side. He walked over to me picked me up and placed me on the clear side of the blanket. I was still somewhat in a daze and it took me a moment to see the bottle Kakashi held in front of me.

I stared at it, uncomprehending, before letting my eyes drift away. Suddenly my focus returned as I spotted the scroll, still lying in the grass. Maybe I could come up with a reasonable explanation for all this…

I crawled over slowly and made my way to the edge of the blanket. I leaned towards the scroll and carefully reached towards the symbol. I held my breath and poked it quickly, drawing my finger back as fast as I could.

Nothing happened.

I heard a soft laugh and looked up. My dad had moved so he was squatting across from me and even with the mask on I could've sworn he was smirking at me. I didn't bother to get worked up; I was too preoccupied with the magic scroll in front of me. I gave my best impression of puppy eyes and gestured to the scroll. In response he took my bottle and put it on top of the scroll. He then deliberately lifted a finger and moved it towards the scroll.

I followed his glowing finger with wide eyes as he gently pressed the scroll. A moment later the bottle was gone and white smoke was already dissipating. Once again I was left confused and astounded. I wasn't crazy (hopefully), but I couldn't figure out what was happening. I examined the scroll and saw nothing out of the ordinary – though I couldn't be sure since the symbols were incomprehensible to me. I then came to the conclusion that my father's blue glow was responsible. It was, after all, something very clearly magical. Eager to make sense of the trick I crawled into his lap and grabbed his hand.

He just looked on with a bored expression as I prodded his hand with my chubby fingers. He had black fingerless gloves on and I pulled at the material to see if I could detect anything strange. When I couldn't, I leaned in and stared hard at his finger tip. Finally, after finding only the normal swirl of his finger print, I gave up and leaned back against his stomach.

Seeing that I was done with my impromptu investigation he freed his hand and reached for the remaining bottle. As he did so I noticed my hunger for the first time. From the placement of sun I guessed it was around one o'clock, the time I usually fed and took my afternoon nap. Babies are notorious creatures of habit and I was no exception. I greedily drank and gave in to the drowsiness that followed, hoping that when I woke up things would make sense again.

…

I woke up after roughly two hours, if I had to guess. My naps tended to be frequent, not lengthy. As I shook off the last of my lethargy I rolled onto my stomach. I was still on the blanket in the clearing and the sunflower I'd forgotten about was now next to my head. I smiled and reached for it with my tiny fist.

Just as I was about to grab it I remembered the events that had occurred before my nap. I snapped my eyes wide open and surveyed the scene around me. It was silent, with only the sound of a light breeze rustling through the trees. I was the only thing on the blanket – all the baby items had disappeared, aside from my stuffed dog, which I hadn't seen earlier. I was left alone in the gentle sunshine. Something about that made me uneasy, then I recalled the fact that I was a baby and as such should not be left alone!

Gasping I scrambled to sit up and find my father. After a moment of panic I spotted him a few feet to my left and behind me.

He was sitting on the ground with his eyes glued to an orange book. Noticing my scrutiny he glanced up from the book and gave me the eye crinkle that I'd come to interpret as a smile. I couldn't help smiling back, though I wondered why he so hastily tucked his book away.

I was secretly a little embarrassed that I'd thought he'd abandoned me, but I chalked it up to the fact that I wasn't used to having a father. My insecurities regarding male role models were somewhat ingrained and I was having a hard time believing he could accept my existence with such ease.

The idea of having someone other than my mom there to take care of me was utterly foreign, but I couldn't help the fondness I already felt towards the strange man. I decided to showcase my only just-then-realized affection the only way I could, "Woof?" The stuffed dog was now hanging by its tail in my tiny fist.

He raised an eyebrow and I couldn't help the giggle that escaped. Honestly! Why wasn't he utterly freaked out by my strange behavior? Even someone who knew nothing about kids should have realized I understood too much at this point. My mom was one thing; she could be utterly clueless sometimes and chalked up my outbursts to infantile whims. Anyone else though, at least anyone with sense, would've noticed the moments of advanced thinking or reactions.

I studied the man a bit closer, without ceasing my smile of course, as he sighed in resignation and came to crouch in front of me.

He seems like he could be perceptive, though I could be very wrong and he could be even more oblivious than my mother… I was interrupted from my thoughts when the man in question reached over to take the dog from my grasp with a bored expression. He held it in front of my gaze, "Um… woof?"

I promptly fell over laughing and gurgling. He was just so, so… ridiculous looking! He gave me a distinctly unimpressed stare and I pushed aside my mirth in favor of playing my favorite game. Regaining my composure I shifted to my hands and knees and started crawling to the dog in his hand.

I yipped and barked to the best of my ability and I swear his eyebrow shot past his hairline. Hehe… I'll admit it, it's kind of a weird game, but my mom loves it! She makes the dog "play" with me as I pretend to be a puppy myself. Anyway, I crawl rapidly towards the stuffed toy and nudge it with my head, "Ruff! Ruff!"

When he fails to make the toy respond I shoot him a glare and do my best impression of an intimidating growl. He sighs heavily, "Woof. Ruff. Grrrr…"

He's so unenthused that I roll onto my back to giggle uncontrollably. Who knew it was this fun to torture a practical stranger? He didn't seem truly annoyed though, if anything it seemed like he was faking it, but maybe that was just wishful thinking on my part.

I picked myself back up quickly and made to rush the toy, which I still hadn't given a proper name. I just called him "Woof" – What? It's not like I knew any Japanese names anyway! Just as I was about to pounce on Woof he disappeared only to bop me on the head a second later. I froze, turning my head slowly I saw my father with his eye squinted in a smile. He seemed to be waiting to see how I'd react.

If I hadn't retained some of my memories I might have cried, looked confused, or laughed. All of those would have been within the realm of normal. Most babies my age would probably fail to see the connection that their parent was controlling the dog at all. I was not, however, your typical baby. I snatched the dog from his grasp, smiled sweetly, and swiftly chucked Woof at his head.

He didn't move for a moment and I feared I'd pushed him over the edge. I held my breath to see how he'd react. Less than a moment later he slumped and heaved his most exasperated sigh yet, "Was that really necessary?"

I snorted then took to cracking up in a mixture of humor and relief. By the time I was finished I was out of breath and feeling lighthearted. Kakashi was giving me an appraising look and waiting out my laughing fit. If I were paying a little more attention I might've noticed the suspicion in his eyes, but I didn't.

I finally calmed down, already feeling a tad worn out, though not enough to fall asleep again. Mid to late evening was my most active time of day. I glanced up and noted the impassive look on my father's face; he was clearly thinking about something. Deciding it was time to do my own thinking I imitated his look.

Hmm. What to think about? My life I guess… It's pretty simple, boring even. Wait. How the hell am I okay with this? I'm almost 18(sort of)! Or am I really just a baby? But I seem pretty advanced, I continued to argue with myself, maybe I was supposed to forget my life by now.

I paused in contemplation. Am I still Victoria? I don't even miss anything about my old life… The emotions disappeared just days after my birth. But I still remember how to read and write, not that it helps me much since I'm probably in Japan now.

I halted mid-thought. Japan? This place isn't exactly full of Asians; heck people have pink hair here! And then there's the blue light… Can't be normal. I don't think I'm hallucinating either, I sighed heavily.

I JUST DON'T KNOW! GRRRR!

I looked up to make sure my new dad didn't notice anything strange about my expressions but he was still lost in his own thoughts.

Of course I'd already questioned my situation on multiple occasions. After less than two months in my new life I'd doubted I was in Japan. There were no Japanese people to back up that particular idea. Plus all the weird hair and eye colors made it hard for me to pinpoint where exactly I lived. For a while I'd thought that I was in some third world country since I never saw cars, but there were too many modern conveniences other than vehicles that made my theory implausible. The blue light was making it harder and harder for me to believe I was even on earth anymore, let alone any country I'd heard of.

I'd entertained the thought that I was in some new dimension, but I didn't think it would be a magical one! I cursed my wretched luck. Only I would get electrocuted only to be whisked off to some crazy place where people glow. It would be one thing if I were reborn without memories, now I had a lifetime worth of memories that would be utterly useless in this new world. I'll have to push my idea of "normal" out the window if I want to stay sane and lead my new life.

I nodded to myself. Really, my only option was to just go with the flow. A new dimension-slash-world-slash-whatever wasn't that big of a deal compared to being reborn. As for the issue of being reborn with all of my old memories intact… Meh, I'd just have to use it as a blessing to get started on my new life. I mean, it may make it harder for me to accept all the weirdness but at the same time it'll help me get over all the hurdles most little kids face. At least, that's how I was going to look at it – I've never been one to pointlessly depress myself.

I was pretty impressed with myself. I'd thought all this and more on separate occasions, but this was the first time I'd felt so… resolute. I'll admit it. It's probably the fact that I now have a father that's made me so willing to accept the cards that fate chose to deal me. The chance to grow up with a male role model (especially one who had weird glowing powers) was too good to pass up over some lingering resentment and confusion. I died. It's about time I got over it.

I chose this moment to glance back at my dad, "Thank you!" He looked at me curiously and I pretended not to notice. He'd unwittingly just made my life a whole lot easier.