A/N: I've started to work on a new story! This is once again, a Naruto fanfiction, and also with OC. That's just my cup of tea, apparently. This is mainly set in the time near the end of the Third Shinobi War. I just want to write about Team Minato when it's not, you know ... unsalvageable. So in terms of canon characters, it will mainly feature a teenage Kakashi, Rin, and Obito, as well as Minato and Kushina. This story and the design of the OC take inspiration from some Ancient Chinese mythology and Taoism. Because of that, just think of the world in the story as a parallel universe to ours but not quite the same. Similarly, as much as I tried to translate certain concepts into English, it was not going to capture all. So I will mark them with * and make some explanations at the end. I'm quite busy, so I can't guarantee a set schedule for updates, but I'll continuously work on it.
The tags below are for your information. Thank you all for giving it a try!
AO3 Tags: Original Female Character, Team Minato, Hatake Kakashi, Nohara Rin, Uchiha Obito, Namikaze Minato/Uzumaki Kushina, General Ninja-level violence, Third Shinobi War, Deaths but atypical?, It'll make more sense in the story, Transported to a different world, Is that isekai'd?, Supernatural elements, Immortality, Mythology elements, Canon Divergence, AKA I'm about to change Naruto before Naruto was even born, To make things better I swear, Tags subject to change as I write more.
"There was an old saying, that sometimes one had to walk towards death to see the chance of life. Even then, this was taking it far too literally."
A creature's perspective of the world is limited by the ephemeral nature of its time. But when life becomes eternal, what becomes of this transient world?
Chapter 1 - 阵雨 (Downpour)
"I can't believe it! We're here! At the Sydney Opera House!" A young woman shouted excitedly, her eyes glued to the magnificent architectural milestone across the water. In many ways - her body language, the foreign words, the fanny pack - she encaptured the image of a 'tourist' perfectly.
The sound of bells drew closer, but the woman was too absorbed in the scenery to notice the bike breezing past the street. She remained at the edge of the sidewalk, the bulky bag on her back swung into the road when she turned her body.
"Watch the road!" The biker yelled angrily just as a hand pulled the woman away from the sidewalk at the last moment, avoiding an unpleasant crash.
"Um, um …" The woman searched for the correct English word and called out, "Sorry!" She wasn't quite sure what the biker said, but an apology was definitely warranted.
"Su Qi, pay attention! That goes for everyone, especially those with portable instruments!" The director shouted at the front, leaving Su Qi's face red with embarrassment at being called out in front of the symphony. Still, her hands moved on instinct, checking to make sure that her Pipa stayed safe within the padded bag.
"Thanks, Mu Sheng. It would have ended in a disaster if not for you." Su Qi let out a sigh of relief as she turned to another woman beside her - the one that managed to pull her out of the way.
"Don't mention it," Mu Sheng said, giving Su Qi a reassuring smile as she rearranged the Pipa case slung over her back.
"But whoa, you've got quite a grip," Su Qi muttered as a passing thought. Her shoulder was still throbbing a little from where Mu Sheng grabbed her. Upon hearing her whisper, Mu Sheng merely shrugged in response.
"Alright, everyone, we're checking into the hotel first. Make sure the instruments are safe, then it's free time until the rehearsal at four. But if you want to go out, make sure you're with someone and be careful in a foreign country." The Director sent Su Qi a - in her opinion, totally unnecessary - glare full of warning when he handed out the key cards.
Yeah, Su Qi was not as irresponsible and empty-headed as many would like to believe, so, being the responsible and friendly bandmate she was, she asked Mu Sheng after they settled down in their room, "So umm, are you planning to rest here or maybe, I don't know, check out the streets of Sydney? I'd go with you, 'cause you know, the Director said we should pair up, just in case."
Mu Sheng raised an eyebrow at Su Qi, making the latter's face heat up a little in embarrassment. Okay, she was the one that wanted to explore the streets. It was her first time in a foreign country and it was really exciting and scary and confusing.
Mu Sheng was raised overseas so her English was supposedly really good and let's be honest, she was a much-needed help if Su Qi wanted to make it back without stressing the director's receding hairline.
A quiet laughter tickled Su Qi's ears and she saw Mu Sheng shaking her head while slinging a satchel over her shoulder. "I could use a coffee, shall we?" As always, she knew just the right words to say.
When Su Qi made her way to follow Mu Sheng, she glanced at the Pipa case sitting on the tabletop and Mu Sheng's jade charms were hanging by the zipper. For a moment, her mind went back to a distant memory about her bandmate, accompanied by an ancient melody that has never appeared again since.
It was a year back, when she was just a recent graduate from the Academy, still on probational term with the symphony. Su Qi wasn't a musical prodigy - wasn't a one-in-a-thousand that was destined to be heard. She was just a Pipa player with skills that managed to pass the bar but could hardly be called irreplaceable. Unfortunately, that part only became painfully obvious after she made it into the National Academy.
That evening, she went back to the practice rooms to pick up some sheet music that was forgotten, all the while feeling a sense of dread and confusion about what she wanted to do and what she wanted to become in the future. She remembered the nagging of her parents, trying to convince her to find a desk job, something more stable and less uncertain.
You don't have the talent to stand out. her mother told her. We're only saying this because we love you; because we want you to live a secure life.
In her field, only the soloist gets remembered, while the ensemble was always the first to get cut. Su Qi had heard the same words from her classmates, from her teacher, from her parents so many times that she could even hear it in her head, rambling, crying, screaming …
That was until a harmony seeped out of the door that was left ajar, washing over Su Qi's unsettled mind like a river that flowed down from the sky. The melody turned and danced with each pluck of the note, but it might as well be plucking on Su Qi's heartstring.
That was the only time Su Qi heard Mu Sheng playing like that - like she was painting a story as old as time like she was etching a stroke of ink every time her finger plucked the string. She remembered leaving as quietly as she came, hoping that nothing was interrupted by her intrusion.
She didn't get her sheet music, but what she picked up was the courage to call her parents, to tell them that she would be trying her best with the symphony, trying her best to continue her dream, all because she was just reminded how mesmerizing her passion could be.
The next day, the day after, and every day until now, Mu Sheng remained an ensemble member like Su Qi. Her playing was still intricate and skillful, as expected of a musician from a prestigious symphony, but it never seemed to tell the same story as that time.
Su Qi peeled her gaze from the pipa, only to see Mu Sheng waiting by the door, raising an eyebrow at the way she spaced out.
Suddenly, Su Qi had the urge to ask Mu Sheng why she stayed as an ensemble member when she had something that could be so much more. But like many times before, Su Qi closed her mouth and pushed that thought down.
It was just an intuition, but Su Qi couldn't help but feel that some things just shouldn't be touched, for fear that the painting would be torn too easily. Despite how reliable Mu Sheng had been, Su Qi had always felt an air of inexplicable transience around her.
Muttering a sorry, she caught up with her travelling roommate, ducking out of the door before the latter let it close with a click.
-o-o-o-
"The most recent excavation campaign in Yunnan, China has uncovered a series of ancient artifacts. Experts suggest that they might point to an era that was scarcely studied due to the lack of archaeological remains. A rudimentary analysis shows that the numerous artifacts uncovered might display mythical creatures as its subject, possibly used in rituals of worship …"
Mu Sheng paused the video when the barista set her orders on the counter. Putting her phone back into her pocket, she picked up the drinks and made her way to a table by the window.
"Oh, thank you!" Su Qi said before she took the drink from Mu Sheng, sounding as jittery and excited as when they first stepped out of the airport. To no one's surprise, she took a sip too fast and burned her tongue with a hiss.
"So, uh, you stayed overseas for some years, right? Where did you grow up?" Su Qi asked, her curiosity stirred up by the influx of all things new today.
"Canada," Mu Sheng answered, "A small city called Windsor." Su Qi nodded in understanding, even though she had no idea where Windsor was, perhaps never even heard of the name.
Su Qi was the kind to grow restless from the awkward pauses, so her eyes travelled to the menu screen over the cashier, eventually landing at the wide variety of desserts with sparks of interest.
"Do you want me to order it for you?" Mu Sheng asked, but before Su Qi could answer, Mu Sheng's breath froze in her lungs when she saw the figure strolling into the cafe, arriving next to their table.
"Cousin, it's been a while," the man said, his business suit as pristine as the smile on his face as Mu Sheng tightened her fingers around the paper cup.
"I didn't expect to see you here, cousin." It took every ounce of her will to push those words out of her mouth without crushing the cup and spilling the coffee.
"Oh, you're …" Su Qi looked very confused as she glanced between Mu Sheng and the stranger. Knowing that every movement he made would be grating on Mu Sheng's nerves, the stranger flashed her a look of amusement before turning to Su Qi and extending his hand.
"Mu Yun, I'm Mu Sheng's cousin. I'm in the area for a business trip, so when I heard of Sheng's performance, I just had to come here," the stranger introduced as Su Qi shook his hand.
"Su Qi, do you want to get some snacks?" Mu Sheng interrupted before the man who called himself Mu Yun could get another word in. "I'll come with you to help you order."
"Oh, I can totally do that myself. I'll just … point with my hand." Su Qi waved frantically as she stood up from her seat, clearly noticing the tension that was brewing in the booth. Mu Sheng always figured that Su Qi was like a small animal, excellent with her intuition when it mattered the most.
"You two should catch up, sounds like it's difficult for you to meet up." Su Qi left the sentence before she moved toward the counter. Oh, you have no idea.
"So, Windsor. Why not the one in England?" Mu Yun slipped into the booth with ease, acting as if the unnatural tension between them didn't exist.
"I didn't prepare for the right accent," Mu Sheng answered, taking a sip of the coffee, deciding to answer Mu Yun's nonchalance with some semblance of calmness. "Why are you here?"
"To see how my kin is doing, of course," Mu Yun said as if Mu Sheng was asking for the obvious.
"Don't act as if you don't understand. Why did you come to me after …" Suddenly, Mu Sheng struggled to finish the simple words, as if it would spell something that could shatter the veil over this mundane reality.
"After thousands of years, you mean?" But Mu Yun didn't care for that, not when he had never lowered himself into this world of humanity. He scoffed at Mu Sheng's silence. "Mu Sheng, is that the name you've chosen for yourself this time? A human name won't remain with time, only our names will."
Mu Yun made a light sound, uttering an ancient language that seemed to encompass the sound of mountains and seas. It was a short syllable, calling out a name that Mu Sheng had buried in her memory, only allowing it to resurface on rare occasions, just to check that she hadn't forgotten it.
"I'm no longer of any use to our race, Heaven* forbade, remember?" Mu Sheng didn't get caught up in Mu Yun's diversion. She tried to use sarcasm to hide her unease, but a tone of mockery never did come to her as easily as it did her 'cousin'.
"Heaven is dying, unable to fulfill its duty. This world is turning into humans' playground and they have no respect for nature nor for Heaven." In contrast to the spiteful words, all Mu Yun did was reach out to Mu Sheng's stirring rod, blending the cream that had yet to dissolve into the black coffee. "Just like Heaven, we're forgotten by humanity."
"Maybe Heaven hasn't acted because it's not the time yet." Mu Sheng pushed Mu Yun's hand away from her coffee. "You're not Heaven, who are you to decide how it should act?"
"Out of everyone, I never thought you to be the one that would speak for Heaven." Mu Yun looked amused, but Mu Sheng could read the annoyance and impatience that was brewing underneath.
Everyone … Of course, he wouldn't be speaking about such blasphemous words if he didn't manage to convince the rest of their kin to follow him - by force, by persuasion, Mu Sheng didn't want to think, not that she could do anything about it.
As if seeing through her thoughts, Mu Yun gave her a smile while he took her rigid hand and pinned it onto the table with unbreakable force. "You've seen it for thousands of years, how humans repeat the same mistakes. The Cataclysm taught them nothing. They still act as if they own the world despite only bringing destruction to the land. The other creatures are suffering, yet Heaven has always favoured humans, even over its own 'children'."
Mu Yun gave her a meaningful look and Mu Sheng tried to pull out her hand. Yet, in her current state, Mu Yun's strength was overwhelming. Mu Yun acted as if he hadn't felt Mu Sheng's struggle and continued, "it's the goal of everyone in our race, we need you to bring us the key to overtake Heaven. It's your chance to turn the Heavenly punishment that bound you into a rebellion against Heaven itself."
"By pulling out my own spine," Mu Sheng replied, her voice flat and hollow. Mu Yun needed her because of the Heavenly bindings being placed on her, intertwined with her spine to deny and seal everything that made her who she was. But Heaven must have never thought that its judgment would be exploited as an anchor of its power, a manifestation of its drifting presence when it hadn't graced the world for centuries.
"Yes, by pulling out your spine, you might finally perish, but you'll perish for your kin, and you'll perish to break the Heavenly Decree." Mu Yun was unbothered. He was convinced that Mu Sheng was desperate enough for any meaning that graced her life.
She supposed that in some aspect, he was right.
"That does sound like a good deal. I'll do it," Mu Sheng said, she had long stopped struggling to break out of Mu Yun's clutch. However, before Mu Yun could reply, she added, "After the performance tonight. The symphony worked too hard for it to be ruined by the disappearance of a Pipa player."
"Fine, music is one of the few things that humanity didn't mess up completely, after all." Mu Yun finally loosened his grip, allowing Mu Sheng to pull her hand out. Noticing how Su Qi had returned from the counter, he spoke up a little louder, "I can't wait to hear your performance tonight, cousin."
"How exciting is that, Mu Sheng, to have your family in the audience in a foreign country!" Su Qi exclaimed after Mu Yun finally excused himself and left the cafe.
"Yeah, definitely a surprise." An unwelcoming surprise. Mu Sheng took another sip of the lukewarm coffee, feeling the bitterness that touched her tongue. "Do you mind if we drink the rest in the hotel?"
It was as natural as Mu Sheng could make it when she spilled her coffee on Su Qi's T-shirt just when they entered the hotel room. Su Qi didn't mind it a bit, attributing it to Mu Sheng's nerves after knowing that her family would be at the opera house.
Su Qi even gave her an encouraging smile before she escaped into the shower. That was when Mu Sheng got to work.
Within minutes, Mu Sheng changed out of her semi-professional attire and into cargo pants and a sports jacket. She pulled out a folded backpack in her suitcase and filled it with just enough money to survive for a few days and a new set of IDs.
Putting on a cap that covered her face, she walked to her Pipa sitting on the table. Running her finger over the curves of the instrument, just faintly traceable with the case, she pulled the jade charms - three jade disks tied together by a red string - off the zipper and tucked it into her jacket.
Before she slipped out of the backdoor of the hotel, she managed to sneak into the kitchen and found the door to the garbage incinerator. With a light throw, the passport and driver's license belonging to 'Mu Sheng' fell down into the shute, soon to be turned into ashes.
-o-o-o-
The air in the bus felt stale and suffocating. She rested her head on the window, letting the chilling cold from the glass permeate into her skin.
Mu Sheng, wait, not 'Mu Sheng' anymore. Her passport had another name that she should remember. She reached into her pocket and found the string of jade discs. The stony surface was smooth and uncharacteristically warm under her touch. If she closed her eyes and felt, it might even be pulsing a little.
The bus slowed to a stop at the red light, and the suitcases clattered all around her, reminding her how lightly packed she was compared to the normal passengers heading for the airport.
At 3 pm, the afternoon glow of the sun was still bright and blinding, but with an added sleeping spell on everything it cast down, forcing the world below to enter a state of lull before the buzzing street would pick up again before dinner.
Because it was bright, she could see it clearly, the man standing in the distance as the bus passed a quiet park. His eyes followed her, glowing the colour of amber in a warning. He too had discarded the name 'Mu Yun' the moment she had done the same.
At the perfect time, the bus stopped at an intermediate station. The door opened, waiting silently for the sparse few who wanted to exit. She rubbed the jade discs one last time, then she stood up and made her way to the door.
She didn't think she could run for long, but to think she couldn't even make it out of the country. That was a little disheartening.
"Is this how you repay my trust?" The man said, his voice barely restrained by the thought of dignity, but she could see the pulsing veins crawling on his neck, reminding her how much power was hidden under the fake skin. "I thought you had enough pride left to not be scared of death."
She didn't remember him being this easily enraged back in the day, but then again, that was thousands of years ago. Time could shave away the strong emotions as well as it could unmask the unsightly feelings, the kind that accumulated like erosions until they could topple a mountain.
"It's not about my death." Perhaps it was futile to argue, but she tried anyway. "I simply don't agree with what you're planning to do."
The explosion of energy that came after shaved off the trees in a five-meter range. Web-like marks flashed across the man's skin, tracing the outlines of some sort of scales on his arm. The wind swirled around them, wailing under the gray sky, sucking in the branches, the leaves, and even some plastic bags that got littered in the park.
A book even got pulled in as collateral damage as it sailed past her head, hitting the tree trunk behind, before falling to her feet. For a second, she wondered if the owner of that lost book - it was a picture book, wasn't it? - expected to find it again, because she doubted that it would survive in one piece.
Her breath got caught in her throat - more as a visceral response rather than a reflection of mental states - when the man appeared in front of her with an outstretched hand, only for it to be stopped by an invisible barrier less than a metre away.
It was as if his hands were made of gilded bronze with the way his fingertips grazed against the barrier with harshness. There was only a moment of surprise as the man caught the jade discs littered around her. Then. his expression returned to that of irritation and anger.
"You're banished by Heaven, so you no longer feel the connection, but we do! We're born to be adored by nature, yet all we can do is feel its pain and suffering at the hands of humans because Heaven forbids us to interfere." The barrier started cracking under his palm and she closed her eyes, unable to deny his words.
He was right, she couldn't understand their sorrow and pain, not when it had been so long since she had heard the joy and lament of nature, long enough that she couldn't even remember what they sounded like.
"If Heaven will not judge them, then we will," the man declared, the ember in his eyes glowing even brighter. Three hundred years' worth of scavenged energy was put into those jade discs, just an insignificant amount that leaked out despite the Heavenly bindings, and it wouldn't last ten seconds under the claw of her kin.
But ten seconds was enough for one last deed. She was kind of hoping that it didn't have to be so close to the populace, but it would have to do.
"Regardless if Heaven deserves to judge the world, I don't believe that we have that right either," she replied as ink marks resembling chains sprouted from her spine and crawled all over her skin. It was starting to hurt a lot, rebelling against the Heavenly bindings in the hope that they would finally annihilate the rule breaker, thereby dissipating Heaven's anchor on Earth.
Heaven was .. cold and confusing; humans were …flawed and contradicting. As a whole, humanity seemed unsalvageable, but she had walked among them and saw them as individuals without the '-ity' at the end. Some of those humans made her linger; they made her realize that she didn't want them to be punished in another Cataclysm that her cousin would surely bring about.
"I'm not about to change your mind, Cousin, but you're going to have to do it without my help." She had no control over Heaven's decrees, nor could she do anything against her kin's determination, driven by agony and spite. In that case, she simply refused to do something that she didn't believe in.
The jade discs cracked into pieces and her cousin's hand reached in, desperate to stop her self-destruction. The book by her feet flipped furiously, some pages even got shredded into paper dust. The execution of Heaven clawed around her spine, breaking through the threshold of pain to snap the bones of those that refused to yield to its punishments.
The clash of energy made her vision turn white. If she just had a little more attention to spare, then she might have seen the twist and folds of the space, where the fabric of this world was somehow pried open.
A one-way passage was created, linking this world to another that originated from no other than the half-torn book on the ground. The pages were frozen at the depiction of a boy and girl, standing under the cover of sorrowful rain.
The man cursed and screamed as he swiped his hands forward, but he reached nothing except for the remnants of shredded paper. The fabric of the space smoothed itself faster than anyone could blink, with no sign of the person that was just here a moment ago. With a growl of frustration, he punched the ground and the earth cracked under his knuckle.
But the world was cruel like that, never pausing for anyone or anything. It moved on undisturbed, and what was gone was forgotten and erased.
-o-o-o-
Rin was ready to die.
She was ready to die for the village she loved, to protect the people she loved, and by the hand of the boy she loved. The first two clauses, she wouldn't regret, but the last one … she wished she didn't have to subject Kakashi to that fate.
"Run! Rin, just run!" Kakashi shouted as he blocked all of Kiri-nin's pursuit and opened a path for Rin to escape, not knowing - or perhaps, despite knowing - that it was exactly what Kiri had wanted.
Chidori flashed in the mist, emitting a light that couldn't be extinguished even by the downpour of rain. Kakashi was fighting for her survival, for his hope, and Rin was about to crush that. All she needed to do was one more body flicker, to place herself on his path, knowing all too well that he would never expect it.
Kakashi, live on, Rin repeated in her heart, both to solidify her own determination and as a wish that she hoped would be remembered by the universe. Chakra gathered in her limbs, and she had to push down the roar of the ocean in her mind, coming from a creature that had been stuffed within her.
The world seemed to pause a little when Rin landed in front of Kakashi. She took in the look of horror that was forming on his face as the space between them stretched and twisted like a bad dream … wait, is the space actually twisting?
Rin was unable to make a sound when Chidori chipped away the bones and pierced a heart - but it wasn't hers. Blood splashed all over Rin's face as she heard the broken breaths coming out of the body in front of her. Then, the body slipped down Kakashi's hand, hitting the ground with a loud thud, revealing the intruder as a young woman that Rin had never seen before.
Her signs of life slipped away as quickly and abruptly as she appeared.
Kakashi let out a shaky breath as he stumbled forward. Rin's confusion could wait, really, as she reached forward just as Kakashi fell down in exhaustion. He grabbed her arm, trying to hold himself up so he could continue fighting, but his body and his consciousness were already breaking down.
Blood drenched Rin's fingers as she pressed down the slash wound on Kakashi's back. What can I do, how can I save you? She wanted to scream. Every time she used her chakra, the roar of Three-Tail would grow louder and she was terribly afraid of losing the meagre control she had. Yet, there were still plenty of Kiri-nin left, waiting to destroy Kakashi so Rin could destroy her own village.
The sound of air being sliced through forced Rin to turn, just in time to see a Kiri-nin slashing his blade down, aiming at Kakashi. All Rin could do was rotate their bodies, trying to shield her teammate using her own body.
Of course, the Kiri-nin hesitated, but it would only take a moment for the rest of the Kiri-nin to join in, all in an attempt to force the sinister scheme back in motion. Just then, Rin watched in shock as a thick branch drilled through Kiri-nin's chest.
A mesh of tree branches clogged Rin's vision as screams sounded all around her. She forced her vision to focus in spite of the ringing headache, to see past the blurry rain and the bloodied jungle. Eventually, she found the figure standing in the distance, covered by a spiralling shell made of pale white wood.
The figure reached forward with its hand, evoking a sense of familiarity that Rin couldn't place. The spiralling branches that cloaked the figure seemed to twist tighter and somehow, Rin felt as if the person underneath was thrashing and screaming.
It only took a few seconds for the jungle of death around Rin to recede, and along with it, the figure disappeared without a trace. It was at that point that Rin clutched her head. The roars of the ocean in her mind were at its breaking point. Her body was torn between wanting to keep Kakashi safe and pushing him away, for fear that she would transform into something that could only bring destruction.
Rin was running out of hope until hope appeared in a flash of yellow.
"Sensei …" Rin gagged on her own words - or maybe it was her tears - when Minato-sensei cradled an unconscious Kakashi and held tight on her shoulder. Relief flooded into her, helping her clutch onto her sanity as she pleaded, "Something terrible is inside me, you have to seal it."
Seriousness filled Minato-sensei's eyes, mixing together with worry. Still, Rin felt the world around her blanking out for a moment before she could breathe again.
"Don't worry, Sensei is here." Those were the last words she heard before the ocean waves overwhelmed her.
-o-o-o-
The world painted by blood was awfully quiet in the absence of rain.
There was no sound of any strained breaths, meaning that there was no one alive that could see the shimmers of gold that materialized out of the air, pouring into a chest cavity that had been carved open just minutes ago.
Bones were being restructured, vessels were being reshaped, and skins were being repainted. Eventually, life was drawn again when she drew a breath. Her eyelids fluttered open, revealing a shimmer of amber before it faded from the dark pupils.
"Seriously?" There was an old saying, that sometimes one had to walk towards death, to see the chance of life. But this was taking the phrase way too literally.
She pushed her torso up from the ground, only to realize that the mud sliding off of her arms was not naturally red, but red because it was dyed in blood, hence the metallic scents that lingered in the air.
In that instance, ink markings crawled all over her skin in the form of chains, the same as the times she woke up from an untimely trauma enough to kill a normal human. A reminder from Heaven that this blessing of immortality given to her race was only retained because her punishment had yet to end.
But this time, she saw a link of the chain, latched by her wrist, fracturing a little bit. There was a point of breakage, not even enough to loosen the chain, easily overlooked if she hadn't imprinted the unchanging nature of her bindings in her memory. However, before she could figure out what was going on, the ink markings faded into her flesh.
Her other hand touched something cold buried in the ground. When she pulled the metal out of the mud, she recognized, with a little bit of disbelief, shuriken?
Is this Sengoku Japan? She wondered. She had no doubt that she ended up on a battlefield - even got killed in an ongoing skirmish - and based on the weapons littered around, this was a battle fought by shinobi.
But the shinobi in her memory didn't wear these modernized flak jackets, nor did they engage in large-scale confrontations in groups. She didn't recognize the symbols on the foreheads of these corpses as belonging to any factions that she remembered. Actually, the fact that these shinobi had any identifying features linking them to a common group was baffling.
History lessons could wait. After a battle, there was always a clean-up. Corpses had to be disposed of to prevent the likelihood of plaques, weapons had to be retrieved to restock the supplies, and memories needed to be brought back to comfort the families of the dead.
She needed to run, to erase her existence before anyone noticed the survivor and started questioning who she was and how she survived.
Just as she had done for thousands of years, the first order of business was always to blend in. She brought her hands to her chest. The hole in her flesh was long gone, only leaving behind a thick layer of blood, but the hole in her ripped clothes remained, making her frown.
Thanks to that person - a teenage boy with silver hair, the image flashed in her mind - who somehow blasted a hole in her chest cavity, blending in just became a lot more difficult.
This moment, as some would come to realize later, was a turning point for many.
*Heaven: I meant it as '天道', more directly translated as the Way/Path of Heaven, and definitely not the concept of Heaven in Christianity. It's an overarching entity in many Chinese mythologies and Taoism as the principles and rules that sustained the world.
A/N: I know there might be a lot of unsolved mysteries, but that all should be explained in due time as the story unfolds.