CHAPTER 1

Chapter Summary: Suzuki Hiroshi faints at his Genin Test for a Jonin-sensei. After waking up though, he remembers another life where he watches the succeeding events and future of his current life. He plans for the future and decides to grow in strength as much as possible. However, he is conflicted on whether to take actions that could change the future or not. He resolves to protect the village and live life to its fullest this time around.

My head hurts.

I could hear muffled noises and shouting. I could also feel someone shaking me, as if asking me to wake up.

Just what the hell happened? I don't think I'm in my room anymore… Wait.

Several memories assaulted my still hurting head – memories that I don't think should be possible. Some memories were

A blond kid with whiskers? A brooding emo with family issues? A pink-head with fangirling syndrome? A Kakashi that's not a stickler for the rules? I somehow doubt the last one though.

Several more memories popped into my head which just were very impossible

Five heads in the Hokage Mountain? An invasion? Why is everyone wearing a different hitai-ate in some parts of the memories? Did they defect? What kind of war were they fighting? Uchiha Madara?! And Uchiha Obito?!

Together with familiar (yet unfamiliar) memories, more unrecognizable memories assaulted my already confused mind.

What's a pizza? Fries? Shawarma? And why do I remember so many countries? I don't think there's a 'United States of America'? And a China or India or Japan? What is a phone? Internet? Twitter? Instagram? Snapchat? Entertainment? TV shows? Cartoons? Anime? Bleach? Fairy Tail? Oh Kami! Naruto?!

It took a little more while before the headache started to subside. I was still left baffled and confused though. What were those memories?

After a moment, I could finally hear the muffled noises and shouting more clearly. There were three distinct voices I could hear.

"I to- he wasn't- how-", a young voice said. I couldn't hear everything yet but his tone seemed condescending and rude.

"It's fine- thought I- weak?-", a gruff voice followed. His tone was slightly lazy but was laced with concern.

The last was just high-pitched screaming and complaining so I just tuned it out. It was clearly a girl. How could she live with that voice of hers?

It took another minute for me to be able to open my eyes. It was blurry at first but after my sight cleared, I saw a man with narrow eyes looking down at me.

"Hiroshi-kun, are you okay? I'm sorry I hit you with the blunt part of my kunai. I didn't think you would faint after just one hit. It wasn't even that hard a hit." I remember him being my Jonin-sensei-to-be, Nara Taida.

"This is why you civilians should just remain civilians. We really couldn't expect anything from a civilian-born, much less an orphan like you. It would be better to just quit you know.", a white-eyed boy, Hyuga Taisetsu if I recall correctly, spoke to me with disdain. I've always thought of this before but, I think he's gay seeing how he really enjoys having a stick up his ass. No offense to the gays, of course. They probably wouldn't want to be associated with this prick in any way.

The girl on our team, Satou Yua, was screeching (talking at a very high-pitched voice, actually) that, again, I just tuned her out. I think she was saying something along the lines of me being stupid, weak, and useless and how her Taisetsu-kun! and she were much ready to be shinobi.

Her last statement caught me though, "I agree with Taisetsu-kun! Orphans should just stay as civilians since you guys clearly have no talent." Shut up. We live in the same orphanage for Kami's sake. Stop being a hypocrite and a fangirl.

My Jonin-sensei-to-be just sighed and stood up from his squatting position. He held up a hand at me, "C'mon, take my hand. Let's get you to the hospital for now – let them check if you're completely alright."

I took his hand and he helped me up. We walked out of the training grounds and went to the hospital.

It was decided that I stay at the hospital for a night for observation.

The moon was bright and up but I was still thinking of the unknown memories that suddenly came to me.

Was that a past life or something? Or did I just see the future?

The first thing I should decide is whether those memories were some sort of vision from the future. It was surely too detailed to be just a passing thought.

I think it's real though. No. I'm sure they're real.

What cemented that idea was the unrecognizable parts that made up the majority of the unknown memories. There were ideas and facts there that weren't present in my current life. I have read most of the books accessible to me in the village and they don't reach even half of those.

Maybe I could use those memories to my advantage?

There were a lot of information to sift through. But what really caught my attention was the body conditioning plans and regimen from a place called a 'fitness gym'. They seemed easy enough to attempt on my own without anyone supervising me so I'll try those later.

My body was very weak ever since I could remember. I could have possibly asked for help from the academy teachers but I hated how they just focused on attending to the clan kids. It was sickening to be honest. The clan kids have the resources provided by their respective clans so why were they the most attended to even at the academy?

I remember just giving up in trying to ask for tips after being told off.

###

"Sensei! Could I ask how I could safely train my body to be strong? I read in the books at the library that one shouldn't hastily exercise the body since you would risk damage instead of promoting growth, so I wanted to ask you for help.", I asked the sensei during the class' break time.

"Shouldn't your clan arrange that for you already? I'm pretty sure they could help you."

"Oh. No, I don't have a clan. I'm an orphan."

The teacher looked at me with uncertainty. "Oh. Well, sorry kid, I don't know much about body conditioning exercises. You should ask others."

I tried asking the other teachers and they said the same thing. I just accepted it with a little bit of suspicion but after seeing the very same teachers that I asked for help before give detailed exercise plans to a clan student, I just lost all motivation in training my body.

###

I was quite smart though. I belonged to the top ranks of my class in the brains department. It was a given, though, since I had an eidetic memory. I could easily recall anything I read so I was the best at anything that deals with memorization. And even without it, I was still intelligent enough for complicated maths, strategy, and tactics.

I don't know why I'm remembering a life before my current one but I'll make sure to use it well.

My concerns then went through what the memories recalled as 'Naruto'. Will these happen in the future?

There was a lot of complications if the events in 'Naruto' were really going to happen. I would be forced to choose whether to change the outcome or just leave it be.

The latter was what I needed to survive. If I knew what was going to happen, I'd be able to prepare better for them and even avoid ones that I think I wouldn't be able to survive from. This choice would need me to be cold and heartless, though. Even if I was quiet and reserved back at the academy, I saw some classmates have very bad futures. Not moving to change those would just haunt me for the rest of my life.

The former was what I needed to have a clean conscience. It would be very hard to live knowing that I could have changed things. A future that was filled with smiles was something to look at, especially if the smiles came from familiar faces.

I was much more inclined into choosing the former but then there was the clincher. The future of the latter created a much more peaceful future in the end.

Sure, there were a lot of deaths and there were tragedies. But are we not moving in the present to make the future better? After the Fourth Ninja War, the five major villages were all friendly to some extent with each other. The latter choice had a better future already.

What if I chose to do the former and screw up everything? I couldn't control every variable within this world and every variable still has their own circumstances that even the variables themselves have no control of.

With my head in a cycle of morality and practicality coupled with past-present-future, time-space theories from the unrecognizable memories and a little bit of rational thinking, my thought process came to a lock. I decided to just stop for now and think of it the next day.

Whatever. I need to sleep. There's still tomorrow.

I woke up to three people making a ruckus in my hospital room.

My Jonin-sensei-to-be was holding his forehead with his hand while mumbling 'Troublesome' while the Hyuga was fuming with a red face – he was clearly angry. And still arrogant, apparently, judging by his words.

"Why should I fail for that weakling?! Can you see my eyes?! I'm a member of the esteemed Hyuga Clan! I cannot fail due to a weak peasant!", the Hyuga was not amused, obviously.

"Taisetsu-kun is right! How could you fail us just like that?! If there's anyone that should fail, it's that useless orphan over there on the bed! He didn't even do anything yesterday during the test!", the shrieking banshee – err, Satou Yua – added.

Oh. We failed his test. What a bummer. Not.

Nara Taida saw that I was already awake went to me. "Hey, Hiroshi-kun. Are you okay now?"

"Yes. Thank you, Nara-san."

After my confirmation, he went down to business. "As I told them before, this team has failed my test. However, since we are currently at war, this team will still function as is. The test was supposed to determine you have the ability to work together but since we established that you cannot, we will need to polish that – even just to the point of adequate combat-effectiveness."

The two were quite relieved while I got to thinking. I still needed to train my body. I won't be able to keep up with them. I don't think I could work with them. For now. Forever.

Taida-san was going to continue on with team plans when I talked. "Nara-san, I think I'll have to pull out of the team for now."

The Hyuga then retorted. "You must have realized already that you cannot stand by the side of a Hyuga. You thought right."

The shrieking banshee just nodded to what the Hyuga said.

Nara Taida was a little shocked and asked. "Why though? If you're worried that you can't keep up with the rest of us, then you can train and I'll be there to help you.", he was quite sincere.

"I'm aware that I could train and still grow. But a war is going on. I'll only be a liability on the field and could cause trouble for the team. Even if I train my body during the time that we will be working on teamwork, I wouldn't be able to reach my best and would still be a liability by the time that we'll be deployed."

Nara Taida contemplated on what I said and analyzed the situation. "I think it best if we pick out someone from the Genin Corps to replace you if we go through this. One that would be able to keep up with the team. I'm not sure if an arrangement like that would be temporary but I'm willing to bet that it would be likely be permanent. Will you be okay with that?"

I thought for a while and nodded. "Yes. I wouldn't want to be the reason for your deaths just because I was bringing you down."

The Nara's face flashed with regret upon hearing my words but still nodded. "That's a shame. Okay then. I will be telling the Hokage and we'll be arranging for your transfer to the Genin Corps. I hope you know what you're doing. I'll be wishing you well."

He led his team out of my room without looking back. The Hyuga didn't even bat me an eye while the banshee only had her eyes on the Hyuga. That is one dysfunctional team. I just hope their fourth member would be alright.

Now that that's settled with, I'll need to go back to my apartment.

My apartment was very small – as small as Naruto's. Probably the only grace was that I had an okay landlord and the place was as clean and tidy as it can possibly be.

I had the barest furniture – a bed and a table. I also had a kitchen with the barest of utensils. It doesn't feel very homey now that I paid attention to it. Well, beggars can't be choosers.

I wanted to restock on some shinobi supplies like kunai and shuriken only to find out that I was running out. Guess I'll need to run by a weapon shop.

I was ready to leave the apartment when I stopped by the door. I looked at the place once more and realized that, compared to the life I may have had in my possibly past life, I wasn't really living in my current one.

The food in the other life was great. My house there seemed warm and comfortable. And… I think I was even happy.

I shook the thoughts off my head and just closed the door after going out.

I was walking down the streets of Konoha and the faces of the civilians were quite bright despite the knowledge of the threat of war looming above our heads.

How could they still smile like that?

I was thinking on how these people could still live on with their lives despite the fact that killing in this world was normal compared to the world of my past life when I saw a familiar boy with googles helping an elderly woman.

'Uchiha Obito.', I thought seeing the boy I went to Academy with.

He seemed very normal. He was walking side by side with the elderly woman while holding a bag of groceries. Very opposite of the one I may have seen in the show.

I was then hit by a few thoughts. Even Obito thought this world could change for the better, right? It was one of his reasons why he wanted to be Hokage and it became his main reason for being Tobi. He may have just stuck with being Hokage though. Being Tobi was too much.

'Maybe I could change-', No. I immediately stopped my line of thinking.

I was walking to the weapon shop when I saw the Hokage Mountain. It's quite weird only seeing three faces when I have memories of it being five. I inwardly snorted at the thought.

I stopped at a weapon shop and started looking around when the shop owner spoke to me. "Hey, kid! What can I help you with?", he asked in a happy tone.

"Aren't you too happy, today? Anyway, I need kunai and shuriken. Two sets of each, please."

The shop owner laughed at my comment. "Haha! Sorry, it's just that my wife gave birth to our child yesterday. The little boy was quite the bundle of happiness for me."

I was inwardly shocked. He had a wife? But he looks- No. Never judge a person by face. I just feigned a surprised yet bright face. "Oh! Congratulations! I heard children will be a handful though. Good luck!"

We did more small talk until I paid for my weapons. I walked out of the shop and thought.

He seemed like his boy was the treasure of his life. Another reason to change the future perhaps?

I realized that the Konoha Archives was finally open to me because of my Genin rank so, I made a quick trip to it. And it was quite big.

Saying that the Archives was full of books and scrolls was an understatement simply because it was full of A LOT of books and scrolls. I'm sure I almost shed a tear after the chunin assigned to the archives helped me, seeing I was completely lost at where to start.

I explored every nook and cranny of the place that was accessible by me and only the advanced version of the Academy style taijutsu really caught my eye. It was pretty understandable knowing that my body was still developing. As it was, I could only peruse and remember the interesting ones for later.

I also tried searching for low-level ninjutsu and there were a few that caught my attention. There was the [Water Release: Hidden Mist Jutsu] which was a signature jutsu to shinobi belonging to Kirigakure no Sato. It was a D-rank Jutsu and it was a supplementary one, meaning it aided in whatever I wanted to do. I was planning on using it to run. There was also the [Water Release: Mist Clone] which was a little useless since it couldn't attack but maybe I could use them to do something else.

After exploring the Archives, I walked to the heads of the Hokage Mountain where the whole village could be seen. And it was quite the sight.

It's beautiful.

I remembered the disaster's that would befall the village in the future. The Invasion. Pain's Attack. The War.

Could I really let that happen?

I thought back to my thoughts last night.

I decided.

'Why not change it so that the ending would still be the same despite the events that led to it were different?'

I vowed to it. And Suzuki Hiroshi always gives his best when he intends to.

A/N: Hey, guys! As you could probably see, I am very new to this site and the genre of FanFiction as a whole. I used to read as a coping mechanism with having to be holed up inside our homes since COVID-19 became a thing. I read so many fanfics about Naruto since 2020 and there are a lot of good ones out there. I found it so disappointing that most that were completed had an antagonistic OC, which I deeply despise. If it still wasn't inferred, I like and love fanfics where the MC is actually someone with a righteous heart and does righteous things through righteous acts. I'm writing this fanfic as a way to diversify the Naruto fanfics out there because all the MC wants in other stories is to become a god or to have a harem and ughh could they have some morals, please?

Any and all criticism is welcomed, assuming that this story is going to gain attention and readers. I would love to hear about what you think of the storyline and how you would improve upon it. Your suggestions will be heard and thought out.

Currently, I have 26 chapters on standby. I will update as soon as I could edit it and make it as readable as possible. Along with the storyline chapters, I intend to insert side chapters that would glean on the point of views of other characters within the story so updates may not be regular as these side chapters are created much later than the storyline chapter that precedes it. I employed something like this because I find it hard squeezing everything I want a chapter to have into a single chapter. I also think it could be a way to refresh from the storyline chapters that is heavily reliant on the MC's point of view.

There are so many good fanfics out there that are either incomplete, dropped, on-almost-forever-hiatus, or discontinued and it drives me crazy. So, no matter how hard life may get, I will finish this story. If in the very unfortunate situation where I am forced to drop it, I will want it to be adopted by other writers. Anyway, this may not really happen since I'm currently in university and I'm free most of the time because I couldn't secure the classes I wanted. FYI, I only have two classes this semester.

I think that's all. Please be good to me. Until next time!