2 years old
Learning to read Japanese was a pain in the ass. Clearly whoever came up with the system was a sadist with too much time on his hands and decided to screw over future generations by making them learn three alphabets. Learning it took a lot of effort, but since I wasn't allowed to leave the orphanage yet, I always had too much time and not enough things to do to fill it. I was a very quiet baby, no doubt what resulted in my favoured status amongst the caretakers. Now when I say favoured, I mean they mostly let me do whatever I wanted as long as I didn't cause trouble or get myself killed. The orphanage was an alright place to be, not nearly as bad as it could have been, and for that I was grateful. We were fed enough and kept warm and sheltered with all our basic needs met. However, most of the caretakers were rather indifferent to us. I assumed it was because they had seen so many orphans come and go that they had used up any affection they had years ago. Only the younger ones gave us any real care, and the needy children gravitated towards them. It's no wonder all the orphaned ninja turn out odd, they start having issues from a young age where we were left to raise ourselves.
Luckily for me, I didn't need, nor want anyone hovering over me, and as such I explored the orphanage. It was a rather large building, filled with hallway after hallway of rooms. The older children were in a different section from us, but it was no trouble for me to go wandering through the halls and observe everything. The children were very helpful, all I had to do was give them the affection they craved in the form of warm smiles and an awed look, babbling away about how awesome my nee-sans and nii-sans were and they would sometimes read to me. Soon enough, I had access to all their books, and while I often stumbled over a words, it didn't take too long for me to learn. Once I had done that, I devoured every book in the orphanage at a furious pace; fiction books, history books, academy texts. The academy texts were fascinating. They raised more questions than they answered, but they were a glimpse into the world of chakra and power.
I had planned to wait until I was three to start experimenting with chakra because I was so young. I would probably use up my tiny reserves and die of chakra exhaustion before doing anything. But even though I didn't mould any, I made sure to meditate every night, feeling it flow through my coils like a comforting stream.
Chakra is a wondrous thing. The textbook explanation of it being a mixture of physical and spiritual energy is, while true, somewhat lacking in my opinion. It was only after an incident around my first birthday that led me to the theory that chakra actually stemmed from the soul. You see, your soul is essentially where the spiritual energy comes from. It is the sum of your determination, personality, convictions and experiences. This spiritual energy enters your body and is mixed with the physical energy produced by your body in the hara of the stomach. This mixture is called chakra, which then flows around your body, permeating every cell. Because my body no longer contained its original soul and now has my unique spiritual energy flowing through it, I developed a new trait that was never originally there.
It was a few weeks after my first birthday, not that I knew that at the time, and I was toddling around. It was as lunch approached and I went looking for food that one of the caretakers, a young woman named Naomi, caught sight of me. She had been holding a baby and nearly dropped it when she yelped in shock. She then proceeded to freak out and instantly dashed from the room, leaving me in a state of confusion. She returned soon after with the most senior matron, Honoka, and said something too fast for my still burgeoning language skills to catch. The matron took one look at me, swept me up in her arms, and after telling Naomi she would be back, promptly shoved some shoes onto my feet and left the orphanage.
That was the first time I had been out, and despite not knowing what was happening, I was curious. Unfortunately, instead of being able to see the sights of Konoha, I had a hat shoved on my head and the elderly matron held me so that I was looking only at her shirt. We finally entered a building that I could hear was bustling with people and filled with sounds. Despite my squirming, the matron held on tightly and wouldn't let me see what was going on. She spoke to someone and we were led into a room where we waited for fifteen minutes, me growing increasingly impatient. Finally we were ushered into another room, and I caught a glimpse of where we were. The hospital.
"You said there was an emergency ma'am?" The nurse asked politely.
"It's Honoka. And yes, look at his eyes. They were normal yesterday, and now they look like this."
My eyes? They feel normal, and I haven't noticed anything different about my vision.
The nurse came over and after an intrigued look, took out a penlight and shone it into each eye.
"Pupil contraction looks good, let's see." The nurse lifted green glowing hands to my face while I looked on in fascination.
"Oh! This is interesting. It seems he has a high amount of spiritual energy. It's also very strong. His body seems to be producing more physical energy as an attempt to balance it."
"What does that mean? And why do his eyes look like that?"
"As he ages and his body grows, I theorize that he will continue to produce more physical energy than a normal child his age as his body seeks to correct the imbalance. He will have more chakra. As for his eyes, do you know who his parents were?"
"Not really, all we know is his mother gave birth to him at the orphanage and that she was an… entertainer from Wave country. According to her, his father was most likely some minor noble from Wind. It's how we made up his last name. They were both civilians in any case."
Holy shit, I've been here for a year and I don't even know my own damn name! Oh Shinigami, please tell me my name doesn't mean something stupid, like 'noble entertainer'. I'll have to change my name when I become a god.
Unaware of my internal musings, the nurse continued:
"Ah, well some people with unique chakra can develop new physical characteristics. It seems he will be an excellent shinobi." Turning to me the nurse continued. "Congrats young one, you've just gotten a scholarship to the ninja academy."
Huh. I hadn't even realised I would need a scholarship; I had assumed that every orphan was allowed to apply. Thinking about it now though, I suppose that with the number of orphans, there would be a lot of kids who don't have the intelligence or natural talent to make it far. I was very pleased, but I still didn't know what had happened to my eyes.
"Nurse-san, may I see please?" I spoke up for the first time since this whole debacle began. The nurse look shocked that I was already speaking at such a young age, but recovered quickly.
"Of course, I'll get a mirror. Honoka-san, do you have his file? I'll have to update it and make a copy for the hospital records." She asked, turning back to the elderly woman.
"Yes I have it here." She handed the file over, and with that the nurse left the room. I sat there prodding around my eyes trying to feel something different but couldn't discern anything new. Come to think of it I've never seen what I look like either.
The nurse re-entered the room to find me staring impatiently at her. She smiled, handing the mirror to me. Lifting it up to my face, I was greeted with bright eye-catching features. My face was cute in the way all young children were, the actual shape would become more obvious as I got older. My hair was what first grabbed my attention; it was bright. Brighter than any blonde in my old world, it was a shining golden-yellow that didn't look natural to me, but in this world where people had blue skin and gills and pink hair, it was probably quite normal. My eyes, the cause of this whole situation, were a brilliant sky blue. However, what also stood out was the golden ring around my pupils.
Whoa. That looks cool. Come to think of it, I look familiar...
The nurse spoke up from where she had finished photocopying my file:
"Everything seems to be in order, Honoka-san. I also have a notification for a scholarship for one Namikaze Minato."
And that was the time I had learnt exactly who I was reincarnated as.
~~~~~~~~Four years old~~~~~~~~~
The red light district of Konoha is your typical collection of shady streets and people you would find in any city of my old world. It seems like no matter what dimension, some things never change. The orphanage where I live was actually one of the nicer ones for civilian children. The orphanages for children from ninja parents were naturally much nicer, and they were not located in the red light district like mine was. In my past life I had rarely been to the red light district, and as such I was fascinated. The people were new and there were so many things to see. Of course, I knew it wasn't safe for a four year old to go wandering, but I had been experimenting with my chakra for the past year and I had finally come up with a solution.
Like I had promised myself, I started working with chakra when I turned three. Chakra is incredible. I couldn't get over how amazing it is. It's a wonder that more ninja don't go crazy with power. Even as a midget I could feel the raw power coursing beneath my skin. The power was wild and strong, and even when I didn't channel it I could feel the potential bubbling underneath.
I started with the regular chakra control exercises, trying to draw chakra to various parts of my body. It was an instinctive process that was somewhat like trying to move a limb. Of course this was a limb I hadn't moved once in the three years since I had been born, so it was like trying to walk all over again. It wasn't easy by any stretch of the mind, and just because I had always been able to feel my chakra didn't mean I could move it easily. Knowing your arm is there is very different from moving it. It took a lot of work, frustration and passing out from exhaustion, but I finally managed to stick a leaf to my forehead six months after I started. From there everything else was much easier. I could stick my feet to the walls, but I didn't dare try to walk up them because I didn't have anywhere near the upper-body strength to attempt that. After that I was walking on my bath water and finally, finally I achieved my goal of forming chakra strings.
Moving chakra is merely an exertion of will; it was want you to move, so you will kind of determination that made it respond. Forming chakra strings was actually very easy; I just thought them into existence. The problem was the strings that shot out were the width of my fingers and used up so much chakra that I had passed out almost immediately after forming them. It took two months of effort after that to make them really thin so I could sustain them without exhaustion. And even then, I only created two. Controlling them with objects attached to the end was hard. Hours spent with two pens whirling around the room and hitting myself with them was enough to give me massive respect for Sasori and his hundreds of puppets. He must have been incredible at multi-tasking.
Ever since coming back from the hospital and being carried through the city I had realised where I lived. It wasn't hard to figure out from the hookers walking down the streets and the prevalent smell of sex and cheap alcohol floating through the air. Once I knew I lived in the red light district, I immediately knew I needed a way to protect myself if I ever wanted to leave the orphanage and explore the city; and by the Shinigami, did I want to explore. Konoha is beautiful; tall, majestic trees strategically placed to still allow sunlight down on the streets, old-fashioned Japanese homes, lanterns lining the paths and tall buildings with ornate kanji. It was like something out of an old samurai movie dropped into a forest with random electricity lines. I had only seen a very small part of the city and I was dying to see more. Waiting until I could defend myself was a trial, but wait I did. A few months after turning four, I deemed myself ready.
I snuck into the kitchen at night and picked the lock on the knife drawer with my chakra by connecting a string to the latch mechanism and sliding it. Taking two small knives, I then went on to re-appropriate a needle and some thread. The next day I sowed the knifes into the insides of my sleeves and practiced pulling them out with my strings. It took the whole morning to do it as fast as I wanted, but I was finally satisfied. After lunch, I opened the window of my room that I shared with two others and climbed down the wall in a gecko imitation. Once reaching the bottom, I set off.
The red light district of any town is where all sorts of people gather, from common crooks to the wealthy businessmen who have cash to blow and little inhibitions. As such, I knew it was also the place for information. Taking a leaf out of Jiraiya's book, I set off to find the classiest brothel in the district. After wandering for a good part of an hour I came across a building painted dark red with golden dragons and fans decorating the sides. Sneaking in after a group of men, I found myself in an old-fashioned room with wooden floors and red curtains lining the walls. The smell of perfume and incense filled the room and men and women were drinking sake at some of the tables, all watching a group women at the front of the room. They were dancing. The only light in the room was from the candles and as they moved the light flickered and glimmered off their revealing dresses. They glided across the stage with such confidence and grace as their limbs swayed, fans in their hands. They were stunning.
I want to learn that.
I suppose learning to dance isn't a very masculine thing to do, but I had been female in my previous life, so that didn't really bother me too much. And one day I would be a god, and why should a god be constrained by things such as gender?
Unfortunately, my hair doesn't lend itself to stealth very well, and I was quickly spotted by one of the serving girls. She was also very beautiful, with silky black hair spilling over her shoulders, and her steps were smooth as she glided towards me.
"What could a young lad such as you be doing here?" She asked coyly, smiling attractively at me. "Could it be you're looking for entertainment?"
My mouth reacted before I could get my brain to stop it:
"Well I suppose it really depends on how well you entertain, doesn't it?"
The woman look shocked before bursting out in laughter. "My my, such words from someone so young." She said looking highly amused.
"Well you were the one coming on to a four year old, so I figured turnabout was fair play." I jibed back. The dancer, and she had to be a dancer while moving with such grace, smiled at me again.
"As nice as this is, this is no place for one as young as you. How did you get in?"
"Snuck in behind some men." I said shrugging my shoulders. "Where did you learn to dance?"
"I was trained here. The owner of this place used to be a dancer and she taught everyone here. Now you really should head home child. What's your name?"
"It's Minato. Do you think she would teach me?" I asked, giving her a full blast of my puppy-dog eyes. She looked amused again, and asked, "Why would a young boy such as you want to learn to dance?"
"Because you look beautiful and so graceful, even when you walk. One day I will look like that." I swore with nod of my head.
The dancer hmmed, tilting her head to think. I could see her made up her mind to indulge me.
"Well, I don't think you can convince The Mistress, but I suppose there is no harm in taking you to her."
Beaming up at her I gave her my most sincere grin.
"Thanks nee-chan!" I chirped out. Smiling back at me, she took me by the hand and led me through a door I hadn't even noticed before turning down a hallway. Ignoring some of the sounds coming from the rooms, we reached a sliding door and she knelt down on the floor before knocking twice. A stern "enter" sounded and she slid the paper door back to reveal a room decorated in the same style as the rest of the brothel. Beautiful wall hangings and paintings lined the walls and a pair of fans was on display on top of a cabinet. The woman sitting behind the desk was an aged beauty, her greying hair piled elegantly on top of her head. Looking up she examined us silently before speaking.
"Masaki, why do you bring this child here?"
The dancer, Masaki, bowed her head before replying "I found him in the front room watching the girls dance. He says he wishes to learn."
The Mistress turned her gaze towards me and I made sure to keep my own strong as I looked back.
"Why do you want to dance child?"
Smiling up at her, I gave her a serious answer.
"Because one day I will be a ninja, and I intend to be the best. I will be so graceful that my every move will be captivating, and people will be inspired by my presence alone. Dancing is the way to achieve that."
Giving me a piercing stare, she gazed at me for a few moments more before saying dismissively "And why should I waste my time teaching you if you're just going to go away and become a shinobi?"
Drawing myself up, I allowed my chakra to bubble close to the surface of my skin. Fully dropping any pretense of a normal child, I allowed her to see me.
"Because one day my name will be spoken with fear and awe in every corner of the world. I will be the greatest shinobi to ever walk the earth, and I will change things. And should there ever come a time when you are in need, I will come to your aid. This, I swear."
Silence echoed after my proclamation. I could see in the corner of my eye Masaki staring at me with wide eyes, but I didn't turn my gaze from The Mistress.
She too looked shocked, and I began to worry I had gone to far when a weighty silence stretched out. As I was considering saying something she spoke:
"I will teach you. Tell me, what is the name of the one who will change the world?"
"Namikaze Minato." I replied, smiling widely at The Mistress in both relief and excitement.
You won't regret this, I promise.
~~~~~~~~~~S.o.t.S~~~~~~~~~
I was walking back to the orphanage that day, extremely pleased with the agreement to meet every morning for three hours. The Mistress was clearly a strict woman who would accept no less than my best. But that was exactly what I wanted. It was as I was nearing the orphanage that I got into my first fight of this life. In retrospect, I should have thought of covering my hair before leaving, it was going to get me into a lot of trouble with it being so bright. But I was vain. I'll admit it, I like my new looks. They're unique and one day I would earn the moniker 'The Yellow Flash' just like the original Minato, and people everywhere would see me and know who I am.
Being reincarnated as Namikaze Minato didn't bother me overly much. Yes, he was an amazing badass, the Fourth Hokage and father of Naruto, etc. etc. And although I may be Minato now, I am still me. No matter what, I would not let anyone dictate my life, whether it was fate, destiny or even Kishimoto himself. Now that I am here, the plot will be disrupted because even if I tried to, there's no way for me to do exactly as Minato would have done. I certainly wasn't going to be having any babies anytime soon, for one I didn't know if I was straight or not. I had liked men when I was a woman in my past life, but who's to say that won't change now that I'm in a male body? Regardless, I figured if Naruto is destined to be born, he will be, whether he's from me or someone else.
The only thing that being born here does give me is an advantage. I know some of Minato's life and how it would have gone, which gives me time to plan accordingly. The only thing that I feel the pressure of doing is completing the Hiraishin because if I remember correctly, the leaf were losing the war until Minato wiped out a thousand of them in one go. I was going to be on the front lines, and if I was going to be fighting a war, I wasn't planning on losing. So Hiraishin it is, which I would have learnt anyway just because of it's badassery.
But right now, I was a four year old with golden hair and blue eyes and no jutsu to my name. It was obvious that I would catch the wrong type of attention.
They were two men, grungy looking and rather plain. You wouldn't have thought they were slave traffickers just by looking at them. Slave traffickers like unique people, both in my old world and this one where there was even more diversity, and as such they swaggered up to me, confident that they would be making profit today. And why wouldn't they be? I was four, alone and tiny. Unfortunately for them, I wasn't a normal four year old by any stretch of the mind. They started out with the cliché approach. In fact, it was so cliché I would have laughed if I hadn't been so disgusted.
"Are you alone little boy? Do you want some candy?"
Reigning in my repulsion, I made sure to keep it off my face. Giving them a superior look I replied:
"Didn't your mother ever tell you not to accept candy from strangers? So naughty, rebelling at your age. You should know better."
I shot them my most disappointed look, inwardly cackling at the gob-smacked looks that appeared on their faces. I could see myself making this a habit.
The other man stepped forwards, an angry look forming on his face making him look rather comical with his badly cut goatee.
"You little shit, I'll –"
The candy-man who had first spoken put out a hand, stopping Goatee from moving closer. Turning back towards me with a fake smile, he spoke again:
"Look, you seem lost, how about you come with us and we'll help you find your way."
I let out a derisive snort and said with disgust, "How do you live with yourselves, you disgusting excuses of human beings? Targeting children. Its repulsive."
Even as I spoke my heart sped up and I curled my hands while subtly extending chakra strings from my index fingers to my knives. I could see my words get to them and both Goatee and Candy stepped closer, looming threateningly over me. With my heart thumping almost painfully in my chest, I gave them a chance.
"You don't want to do this, trust me." I said with all the seriousness I could muster, cursing my high-pitched voice. Surprisingly my voice was steady, so I went ahead and chalked a point up for myself regardless. Goatee just laughed patronizingly before taking a step towards the teenager standing nearby, scaring him off, the teen leaving with a guilty look aimed in my direction. I didn't blame him in the slightest. These two however…My eyes darkened as I felt anger overcome fear. What disgusting pieces of trash.
No longer waiting, I lifted my arms and with a flick of my fingers, knives came flying out of my sleeves. I sent one towards Candy's face, flying right past his eye and slicing into his ear. With Goatee, I wasn't nearly as kind. My other knife buried itself straight into his right foot, leaving both men howling, one in pain and the other more from shock. Pulling on my chakra strings, I willed my knives back to my hands and grasped them, one dripping blood. Candy was grasping his ear looking at me in horror while Goatee had collapsed to the ground, holding his foot.
"You freak! What did you do?"
I smiled coldly at them. "No less than you deserve. Be thankful I left you your limbs intact. If I ever hear of a next time, I won't be nearly as merciful. "
Hearing that, Goatee got back up with mindless rage burning in his eyes.
"I'll kill you, you little shit! Selling you is better than you deserve!"
Rage filled my own eyes as I thought about what could have happened to me. What had happened to other children before me.
Never again, not by these pigs, I thought savagely, baring my teeth. I launched both knives forwards again, sending them through Goatee's hands and pinning him against the wooden wall of the building behind him. He screamed, and as I stalked towards him I felt my chakra bubble ominously under my skin.
"You're a despicable piece of shit. I was going to let you go with just your foot, but now I've changed my mind." My voice was calm as I cornered my prey. "I won't kill you, oh no. After all, I've decided that death is better than you deserve." I flung his words back at him viciously. Ripping one of the knives out of his hands with no care, I flicked my fingers bringing it up to his face, ignoring the whimpers he let out. Sending out another chakra string to attach to his face, I yanked it so he bared one cheek to me and couldn't move. Another twitch brought the blade into contact with his skin.
The man was begging now, but I had never been particularly merciful in my past life, and just thinking about how many times this must have happened before only fueled my rage. Carefully, with the precision I had learned from months of controlling chakra strings, I carved the kanji for 'pedophile' onto his cheek. A detached part of my brain idly thought this would never have fit in English. Maybe the writing system here isn't so bad after all.
Releasing the man from my strings made him collapse against the ground. Turning to the other man who was still watching in horror, I lifted a knife and spun it threateningly before flicking it into the air and whirled it around in a bout of showmanship, enjoying the way the man flinched. The sound of running footsteps broke me out of my thoughts of teaching them a lesson, and I looked over to see the teenager who had run away earlier come back with a large muscled man in tow. They stopped suddenly and I could see them drawing conclusions as they stared at the bleeding man by the wall and the other one in front of me backing away in terror. I saw their eyes reach the bloody knives in my hands and they shot to my face, horror and disbelief written on their own. The man, he had to have been a bartender because he still had a towel draped across his shoulder, swallowed and stepped forwards.
"Hey kid, you ok?"
"Fine. What should I do with these guys?" I noted that I was being way too calm for the situation, and concluded in the back of my mind that I must be in shock.
At that the candy-man scrambled over to the other man still crumpled in a heap and helped him up. They stumbled out of the alley while I just turned to the barkeeper.
"We're going to let them get away?" I asked, although I didn't really feel up to a chase.
The barkeeper snorted before replying, "There's so many of those types here, even if we caught them all more would replace them almost instantly. It's best to just take note of the faces and warn everyone else here. Us Reds gotta take care of each other, you know?"
Frowning at this, I asked, "Why doesn't the Hokage do something? He must know this is happening."
The man snorted again. "The Hokage does do something. The Daimyo officially outlawed slavery in the Fire country, and the Military Police patrol around here sometimes. But you can't stop all of them, and the Hokage doesn't like to interfere with the Reds too much. He likes to keep an eye on this place for information, and doing that only works if people aren't too scared to come here, so he takes a hands-off approach. If he finds out that some of the underworld gangs are getting to bold, then he goes straight to top of the food chain and delivers a warning, usually in the form of dead bodies. Most people here know to stay within the unspoken rules."
"How do you know this?" I asked, intrigued, eyeing the barkeeper more intently.
The man grinned sardonically at me. "Kid, everyone here who's been here long enough knows this. You're still young, but I wager all of the older kids at the orphanage know about it. Bedsides, if you're ever running low on cash, then you can always pay a visit to one of the contacts in the area with information the Hokage might find useful. Those guys are the official ones, but I'm sure the Hokage has tons more hidden that we don't know about. He's a wily man, our Hokage."
I should have expected something like this. It makes sense, but I never thought about it because it didn't come up in the story. Stupid! This is real life now, not a story. Of course there's going to be a lot going on behind the scenes.
As I was mentally berating myself, the man spoke up again.
"Say kid, how did you do that earlier? It must have been impressive for a sprout like you to chase off two grown men."
Breaking out of my musings I looked at him sharply. Is he digging for something?
"I guess I just got lucky." I said shrugging it off. No way was I going to reveal secrets if I didn't have to. The man looked skeptically at the blades in my hands, but didn't enquire further.
"Well head home kid. Don't want something like this to happen again."
"Sure. And thanks." Belatedly, I realised what the man was looking for. Turning back, I said, "The name's Namikaze Minato. Having my name will get you a higher pay out, ne?"
Bullseye, I thought as the man looked briefly surprised before grinning at me
"You're a sharp one kid. Willing to tell me anything more?"
I laughed before turning back around and giving him a wave. With that I tucked my knives away, grimacing at thought of scrubbing the blood out of my clothes.
It was only after I got back to the orphanage that my body started to shake and I spent the rest of the day wrapped up in my blankets, curled up into a little ball on my bed. The only guilt I felt was at the fact I didn't feel more guilty about what I had done to those two men.
Yep, I know its odd how Minato can suddenly stab someone with little remorse, but it'll be explained in the next chapter. Reviews are always welcome!