Disclaimer: As you could have guessed, I don't own Naruto.

Re:Shinobi

Chapter 1

What I had expected to follow my death, I wasn't too sure myself. None, however, were anything close to what actually occurred to me after my untimely death. Or, at least, that's what I assumed to have happened, as once I fell asleep, I was no longer on the planet I was born on, let alone in the body I inhabited.

The only thing that was still intact from my previous life was my consciousness, and even that might have been altered unbeknownst to me, since at the moment memories of the new body I was in were flashing to me.

One second, I was deep inside an unreal realm of thoughts, and another, alive and well was what happened to me. Looking down, I spotted that my clothes were nothing like the 'modern' look I usually wore. Instead, I wore a comfortable, almost full black sleeveless tracksuit with some white accompanying the zipper. The headband, which I knew what it was and what It represented for reasons I didn't understand, was tightly knitted across my head, with a few red hair strands going over it. Besides the hair, I felt as if I didn't stand out at all. Though that probably was a good thing for the Shinobi, from the knowledge I gained just previously.

As I was weighing it all in, I felt a slight flick to my head, and upon turning, I saw a girl with a Chinese-like fashion style and brown hair tied in two buns.

"Hey, Saitou! Did your lights turn off or what?" she asked me as she motioned her hand along my face to wake me up. "I had to come looking for you! Our mission should've started a whole damn hour ago, and you're here daydreaming?" she angrily asked and took my hand, dragging me along with her.

Tenten, I realized. Despite really seeing her for the first time, I already knew a lot about her. I was in Team Guy, an unorthodox team to say the least.

The streets were full, as one could expect at the peak hour of the day, with most people going to their jobs. As I kept awkwardly looking around with my mouth slightly gaping, Tenten kept giving me a look with slight worry.

"You still haven't answered my question. What were you doing there in the middle of the street doing nothing?" she questioned, to which I had no real answer. Surely, I'm not telling her right away that I came from a completely different universe. For starters, I don't think I could even properly put it all in my thoughts, let alone words. The bizarreness of the situation still felt surreal.

"Finally, he's here," I heard it just barely from a distance, as Neji probably intended to. Despite gaining the knowledge of the previous person, I still didn't know all too much about the Hyūga prodigy. Right next to him stood our team leader in all of his tall glory. Despite being late for an hour, he didn't seem to mind it at all. "So let's get our mission started!" he exclaimed loudly, pulling his fist into the air.

I still felt the glare from Neji, but it seemed to ease after Might Guy's enthusiastic chant for the beginning of the mission. Our job this time didn't seem to be all too difficult — a C-rank mission to capture dead or alive bandits/cultists in a small village not so far away. Seems easy enough.

We quickly took off from the enormous Konoha's entrance. Quickly being the key word. Our sensei with a black bowl haircut was obviously leading the way, but as every second passed, he increased the pace with a notable amount of speed, leaving my thoughts in a mess, not leaving any time to reflect on what the hell had actually happened just a few minutes ago.

"Hurry up! Push yourself through your limits!" he shouted loud enough for anyone in a mile radius to hear. It was a good thing that he wore an entirely green outfit, since if he hadn't, he would have stood out so much as a neon light in a dimly lit room.

I could feel my heartbeats ringing loudly in my ears, and I saw that Tenten wasn't doing much better than me. We were both far behind Neji, who was also a mile behind Might Guy. Even if I didn't have the knowledge of the previous owner, I would have surely understood that I'm a black sheep of this squad. At least, Tenten has talent for Kenjutsu, but me? Nothing at all. It's beyond lucky that I made it past the genin test.

"D-d-do you think… we'll stop for a b-break?" I asked between intervals. Tenten just shook her head at that, not being able, or not wanting to waste breath on words.

Each minute, I felt I could break down at any moment. Yet, I kept pushing as far as I could, but... I wasn't made for this at all.

As if he could sense it, Might Guy halted his sprint through the forest and waited for me and Tenten to catch up. "We'll do a short break here," he informed us as we came closer.

"The mission the Hokage gave me… is a bit puzzling for me," he scratched his head with an odd feeling of awkwardness. "Even if they are some sort of low-level thugs, the fact that it's some weird religious cult should make this at least a B-Rank mission."

Neji, who didn't seem to be affected at all by the exercise, asked, "Does it matter that much?"

"No. No, it doesn't. Still… it's kind of odd. With how little information we have, I'd have expected the mission to be taken a bit more seriously. Apparently, the assignment also came from a neighboring village, rather than the one where the bandits were last seen," he mused uncharacteristically in thought.

Tenten slowly nodded. "We don't even know the possible number of these thugs," she added once she got the hang of her breath.

"Though, from the records, they're apparently incompetent, and some of the cultists got beaten by some random farmer," I added unconsciously.

A minute later, Might Guy finally broke the lengthy thought-infused silence. "The break is done! We should move and be done with it as soon as possible." Despite the still hearable enthusiasm, I can't help but feel that the all-unwavering and unbeatable Might Guy had a bad feeling about this C-rank mission.

XxX

Struggling, I made my way to the small village called The Village Hidden in Shells. Previously I had little idea why it was called that, but as the view of it came to me, I saw it clearly. All the houses around the small fence, which surrounded the village, had a shell-like stone structure holding it all together. Most were shaped in an upward spiraling triangle, making it quite a sight with the windows placed in seemingly random places.

The two Shinobi guarding the gates, if you could call it that, were alert and looked directly at us, tense. "You know the drill," one said, and Might Guy gave him a scroll. When they gave us their approval, we entered the village, but I couldn't help but feel the many glares of the villagers directed at us. It seemed that Might Guy and the rest of the team also felt them. As I made eye contact with one of the villagers, it made me even more uneasy with how primal and animalistic his eyes looked. It was almost as if one wrong move would provoke an attack.

Following the rocky path, we finally reached the 'main' building of the Shell Village. It did stand out, but not by much — it was twice as tall as the tallest building around, and that's about it. Climbing the broken stairs, I spotted a sweat drop on our sensei. The only thing that would make our teacher sweat on such a mediocre mission is that we all had a sixth sense that was now screaming at us for the imminent danger.

For what seemed like an eternity, we slowly entered the tall, metal door. At the end of the wide room sat a man with short grey hair and a red scythe between his hands, with three sharp curved blades.

"You know, I've been waiting for someone tough for a long time," the man smiled widely that couldn't be mistaken for kindness. "I believe Jashin would want better meat delivered for him."

"What the hell?" I asked Might Guy, but it seemed that he himself was at a loss for words upon spotting the many heads spiked on the chair with spears the leader was sitting. The blood was still dripping down on the floor. As I glanced at my other teammates, they all looked equally disgusted, even Neji couldn't hide it.

"Just who are you?" Guy demanded with a powerful voice, which echoed loudly in the darkly lit room.

The man started chuckling until it became a full-fledged laugh. "I'm Lord Jashin's most devout follower, Hidan!" he exclaimed and jumped closer to us. He then made some sort of sign with his eyes, which I soon found out what it meant. A dozen, or rather, thousands of needles came at us, piercing most of my body. I would have never been prepared for such a thing, but the rest of the team managed to remain mostly unscathed. Neji used his Byakugan to deflect most of the needles, while Tenten pulled a metal-like shield out of a scroll at the last second. Might Guy was just too fast and strong for such a cheap trick.

"Shit!" Guy roared as he saw me in my bloodied state. I did my best to dodge, but they were just too quick, and I had too little to deflect them.

"I-I'm sorry," I managed to say, just barely. I could feel that one of them had gone through a part of my lung.

Might Guy glared at the man and said with an unarguable voice, "STAY HERE AND MAKE SURE HE MAKES IT!" Soon after, Guy became enveloped in a green aura, emanating power. Clearly, it was the legendary Eight Gates.

With a roar, Guy closed the short distance and delivered a punch to Hidan's guts, making him crash into the wall. Not wasting a second, Guy accelerated and reached him again, trying to hit the gray-haired man with his leg, but he managed to dodge.

"Finally, someone worthy of Jashin!" Hidan roared as he rushed forward in counter-attack, just barely managing to slice through Guy's arm as he dodged.

A devilish grin appeared on his lips, and he said loudly, "Thanks for your sacrifice for our lord and savior!" Then, he licked the blood with his tongue, which made his skin go mostly black, with some bright white left, leaving him with a skeleton-like look.

Everyone was left in shock as to what happened next. He swiftly sliced through his own body after making a bloody hexagram symbol on the floor. Our surprise was soon changed into pure terror as we watched the same wound that he inflicted on himself appear on Guy.

"W-what…" Guy said as he fell to his knees in pure anguish.

"Hahaha," Hidan roared in laughter and soon delivered more slices to his own body, which were transferred to Guy once again, leaving him unable to continue.

"You can come in now. I don't care much about those ants when I have a trophy like THIS!" Hidan exclaimed as he took the now unconscious Guy from the floor.

As the battle unfolded, I noticed the pure terror on Tenten's face, her legs visibly shaking. Neji, however, looked completely blank, accepting what was to come.

"Maybe... it's our fate," he said lowly. I wasn't sure whether that was supposed to reassure us about our imminent death.

I was feeling dizzier by the second. In the last moment, as I was about to pass out, I saw the same villagers from before coming in and taking us hostage.

XxX

As I finally woke up... The sight made me wish I had never woken up at all. Hundreds of people were scattered around, lifeless. Guts and limbs were strewn about, some so mutilated that they no longer resembled humans.

I gulped loudly and glanced around. I saw the rest of my team hanging on similar-looking crosses, just like I was myself. Our sensei was clearly lifeless, while Neji looked utterly defeated.

"T-Tenten," I managed to say with all the strength I had left. I tried to say more, but I had no words. There was nothing to do, nothing to change, and no way to find a happy ending. We were all dead.

She just glanced at me and put on a terrifyingly genuine smile. "I guess that's as far as we're getting in our lives." After a minute of deadly silence, she continued, "I... I wanted to make a name for myself. I wanted to be somebody. But that's as far as I'll make it." She couldn't help but start crying quietly.

As I was about to reassure her, ironically, the men who were tasked with killing us entered the basement. "Y'all are lucky that Hidan couldn't be bothered by flies like you. He's a real monster, even among us," one said with a sadistic grin.

"If I had to be honest, I don't care too much about you two... but you…" the old man with whom I had a long eye contact right as I entered the village said as he placed his hand on Tenten's chin.

"We could have some fun with you," an old man further back added.

"But first..." he said as he took a knife out of his pocket, which he quickly placed on Neji's knee, expecting a loud reaction, but he barely flinched. All the life was already gone from him.

"That's no fun!" one of the men grimaced and then placed his knife in his neck. In no time, Neji was out of breath and went limp.

They then turned their attention to me, and... I'm not even sure what I felt. Was I afraid? Obviously, but even more so, I was filled with sadness. It hadn't even been a full day since I seemingly reincarnated in a new world, and I was dying right here? By all means, I wasn't all too happy with my life in the previous world, so gaining another chance in a completely different place sounded pretty good.

Sadly, it wasn't meant to be, I thought right before my head was decapitated.

Everything went dark. I was dead, I thought.

XxX

A strange ringing filled my head as I found myself in the same place once again—the bustling streets of Konoha. I stared blankly at the ground, the memory of my hands being pierced with nails and the sensation of needles going through my body still haunting me.

Yet, I was breathing. To confirm my continued existence, I heard Tenten's familiar voice calling out to me, and a flick coming to my forehead once again.

"Hey, Saitou! Did your lights turn off or what?" she asked, taking my hand. I responded by limply following her, though part of me yearned to stop myself from and moving, and to just lie down forever. But I couldn't. Perhaps the sight of those lifeless bodies or experiencing the gruesome beheading had left me unable to speak or act.

I felt like a robot, following any command given to me at that moment. Nothing made sense.

A few minutes later, we rejoined my team. This time, I could see Neji's lips moving, but I couldn't hear anything over a strange

'bleep' sound that drowned out his voice.

I knew for certain that this was no dream. I had returned with my memories intact, while they remained blissfully unaware to what had happened to us.

"So let's get our mission started!" our sensei declared, and it felt like déjà vu. We ran, and when I lost my breath, Guy stopped for a break. Again.

Shaking off the doll-like stupor took me a while. By the time I regained some semblance of awareness, I was back at the Village Hidden in Shells, walking across the rocky path once again.

I had no idea what to do. I was overwhelmed by the sheer amount of horrific things In such a short time. Panic set in, and I began to hyperventilate. My team took notice.

"Is something wrong, Saitou?" Tenten asked compassionately, and I must have given her a terrifyingly blank look in my eyes to make her startled.

I nodded weakly. "T-there's something I need to tell you, but I don't know how to explain it. You'll have to believe me. I just—"

Right before I could try to explain, a deep, dark voice interjected, I dare you to tell them anything about us. I immediately collapsed to the ground, coughing loudly, the strange buzzing sensation that accompanied my return to life ringing loudly yet again.

"What's wrong, boy?" Guy asked seriously, scanning my face, and later his surroundings.

What could I possibly do now? It was too late to prevent us from coming here in the first place. Maybe... maybe if I had stopped us from going on this mission, but now it was too late. However, I would never, under any circumstances, want to experience the same excruciating death as before.

"I-I'm sorry," I managed to say, my voice heavy with regret.

"Hmm?" Neji mused curiously as he found himself perplexed by the oddness of the place and the various emotions etched in my face.

I forced a weak smile and said, "I'm fine. Let's keep moving."

After a long moment, Guy nodded, though he appeared unsure. Tenten, on the other hand, took my hand and pulled me to get up. "Don't worry, what's the worst that could happen here?" she tried to reassure me, but I knew better than that.

I'm not doing it. I'm not doing it. I'm not doing it.

Even if I don't respawn as I did before, I refuse to live through that sense of powerlessness once again. The powerlessness to do anything, to help my team or myself. I'd rather die.

I retrieved a kunai from my pocket and quickly pressed it to my neck, putting it all to an end. I died quickly, not even noticing the surprised and terrified faces of my teammates.

XxX

I found myself back at the same spot, the eerie bell-like sound still echoing in my head. Tenten's hand gripped mine after she delivered the same flick to my forehead.

"Hey, Saitou! Did your lights turn off or what?"

But as I gazed into her brown, hopeful eyes, a sense of misery washed over me. If I followed along with this mission again, those wonderful eyes would vanish, and everything except my memories would be wiped away.

I must find a way to not let something like that happen ever again.

Hope you enjoyed it! Leave a review if you can.

Until next time.