A/N at bottom

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

Warnings: T for swearing and violence(?)

Reviewer replies:

Princess Scarlet III: *purr*

lizyeh2000: You're welcome! I'm still not sure if summons cover it, but yeah, that's the gist of it!

JigokuShoujosRevenge: Haha, yup, things will get cleared up (eventually) and little Suijami has so much random stuff coming at her later... *cackles madly*

Chap 5 Firsts, Trolls, and Goals

Approximately five months after I had finally left Ryūchi Cave, my family celebrated my first birth-er, hatchday. Among of clan of around a hundred and twenty strong (and close to forty members constantly missing), it was a somewhat monumental occasion. Most people and their partners only showed up with a little trinket, like a tiny scale, polished and with a hole drilled through, or some sort of science demonstration, like the color changing of some crystals after pouring on glowing liquid.

Perhaps it was my own expectations of this world, but with the physics-defying existence of weird energy everywhere, I didn't think that science and etc. would be such a large part of my daily life. But the fact that the science mainly focused around chemistry, biology, and the study of the weird energy though, it made a twisted sort of sense. Not a lot of my fellow clansmen pursued physics as their subject, but those that did only saw physics as more of a side subject. When chakra can allow people to jump tens of metres high and fall from multiple times the same amount, I honestly cannot say that I'm surprised.

Yes, the energy is chakra and not for yoga or meditative uses. As first discovered when the White Snake Sage allowed me to imprint on the summoning scroll, it was chakra that allowed me to be reverse summoned to the Elemental Nations (and isn't that a kick in the pants? Who names a continent after elements?).

Currently November, our clan compound has relocated itself to somewhere along the border of Suna and Ame, the Land of Sand and the Rain respectively. For most of the time I've been present in this side of this world, we have stayed along the border of Suna, sometimes straying to a bit closer to the Village Hidden in the Sand or whatever it's called. When I had just moved over from the summons realm, our clan was positioned along the borders of the Land of Hot Springs and the Land of Fire, gradually making our way back to the Land of Sand.

Therefore, our clan can be assumed to be a wandering clan, or a nomad clan.

Unlike most wandering clans or nomads or tribes however, the Kinme clan doesn't use caravans or wagons to transport our belongings, we use seals. How entire rooms can be fit into a piece of ten cm by ten cm paper, I will never understand. Hence why I had previously stated that in this world, physics is bullshit. If I didn't state so before, I honestly don't give a shit because it is true.

Physics is now effed up, and so are most of the other rules of logic in this crazy, abnormal world.

I clearly recall the first day back in the human realm, after the frightening events with the Giant White Behemoth, my parents, Manda, and I were reverse summoned to the world I currently dwell in. Without Dōsukēru. Funny, Considering the fact that the Sage had literally just stated that the two of us are to be bound together for life.

Then when we all reappeared in a circle filled with alchemic-like equations–me half dead from exhaustion that appeared out of freaking nowhere, the inclination to cry and scream and rant in baby-tongue was not an action that I was going to deny myself.

So as the smoke from the summoning faded, tiny ol me could be seen/heard screaming myself hoarse and pinker than Patrick the starfish (where the hell did that analogy come from?). Sure left a fantastic first impression on my clanmates, didn't I?

After a round of congratulations where the crowd crowded, my parents beamed, I screamed, the clan leader came up, said some words, and did some mojo. I utterly and completely ignored it all. Then I was finally taken to my future home, which is honestly just a couple of square-shaped underground rooms connected in obscure and random ways.

The next few months of my life mainly rotated throughout my underground-bunker of a home, where there are at least ten rooms and two stairwells. Maybe it makes sticking our entire residence in seals easier, but all of the rooms are exactly 4x4x3 metres. Including the stairwells…

After watching my parents (and occasionally Manda) stuff our bunker into seals room by room for the past five months, I came to the conclusion that the little niche in each ceiling corner of each room is a place where the tiny slip of paper is placed, and that the tiny slip of paper will replace the room with dirt and whatever was originally in the space by pulsing chakra into it from the room next over. Maybe through the wall, maybe with chakra threads if my kaa-san felt like showing off. So far, I had never seen them put a room in, perhaps due to me generally above ground when they do so, but also perhaps due to the ground being "unstable" during the "construction".

Well. The constant moving of our clan probably isn't all that pleasant for the surrounding vegetation, considering the fact that the unsealing of each room displaces quite a lot of underground space, thus damaging plenty of roots. Hopefully in whatever dimension the room or displaced ground stuff is stored, oxygen and water exists, or time is paused, otherwise the underground critters will also be rather disheartened.

Anyways, back to the topic. My hatchday was celebrated aboveground, in a large stone pagoda-lookalike that was carved full of seals and sitting(sinking) into the sand of the Wind Country.. For a bunch of scientists, my clan sure knows how to party.

Honestly, I'm surrounded by snake-loving nerds.

An interesting result of so many life forms gathering together was that the energy was incredibly excited. In fact, it was practically tangible, if not already visible. I hope that it's just a side effect of so many in the same place or just showing off, but surrounding everyone was an aura. Snakes included.

Somehow everyone was perfectly fine with so many reptiles in the same place, and most of them being over three metres long. A sizable amount of the smaller snakes chose to hang around the necks and shoulders of their partners, but the rest of them were lounging or twisting about on the ground, skillfully avoiding all the feet that were careless in their path (not like there were many). In the end, no matter where I looked were slitted pupils, most being surrounded by an iris of molten gold while the rest were encased in a rainbow of hues. Ha, goodbye normal human eye colouring, from now on gold is the new brown/blue/green/whatever.

Off topic again, whoops. I didn't get to do much during the party, only being able to crawl and all, but the cake was amazing and gigantic. That's what happens when the entire present clan gets invited, I suppose.

That was probably one of the highlights of the party, my parents trying to get me to blow out the single candle at the pinnacle of the two foot tall cake.

So there I was, a year-old kid held out in front of my kaa-san like a water hose, and her trying to make me exhale a gust large enough to extinguish the lone candle.

"Blow, little Sui-chan, blow like the wind!"

"Don't listen to your kaa-chan," my tou-san whined, "you have nothing to do with the wind."

Don't we live in Wind Country right now?

One of the people beside my folks laughed, "ya two are gonna raise yer little serpent as biased as you are?"

My kaa-san grumbled at that while my tou-san just laughed sheepishly.

Coiled around my kaa-san's shoulders, Manda let out a sigh and slithered up her arm. Currently as thick as an adult human's arm,

Manda stuck his tongue in the little curve in my neck.

Out goes the candle, laughter is power after all (not to mention somewhat stifled screaming).

Then out from absolutely nowhere (probably seals, it's always seals), the entire clan (minus those six and younger) whipped out the largest assortment of instruments that I have ever seen.

From kotoes, to guitars, to shakuhachis, to who knows what else, everyone started playing on the unanimous count of three. To no beat at all, and some tone deaf ears. The hatchday song was an absolute failure. But even then, I wouldn't have it changed for anything in the world.

Of course, now I finally know that the person who was playing the flute during my egg days was my kaa-san, while the one with the weird string thing (*coughkotocough*) was my tou-san. One mystery down, a couple (hundred) more to go!

Once the partying was all over, I was once again brought over to an elaborate seal drawn into a large scroll. As a side note, the scroll was in a higher level of the pagoda, far away from the other party-going nerds on floor number one.

Once again, I was approached by a parent holding a very pointy weapon (whelp).

Once again, my thumb was pricked for a smear of blood over the seal (that was absorbed).

Once again, a puff of smoke engulfed those present (my lungs hate you all).

Unlike the once before, the smoke dissipated to show that we weren't summoned to another world, and that something was summoned here.

"Welcome to the Elemental Nations, Dōsukēru."

I squealed and crawled at top speed (half a meter per second) to my reptilian partner, ignoring all the formal shit that was going on around me. Dōsukēru kept up the formalities for approximately two seconds more before hissing out a laugh and slithering over to me.

"Suijami!" How the heck can Dōsukēru speak already?

I proceeded to stare at her and arch a black eyebrow, even if she can speak, how the hell does she expect me, a one-year old as of today, be capable of doing so too?

Actually, never mind. Logic lost meaning the instant that I hatched. At least her pronunciation isn't perfect yet, otherwise I would be rather depressed.

After the five months that we had spent apart, Dōsukēru had grown quite a lot. Instead of the tiny perhaps foot long little snake that I recalled her being, my little blue serpent is now around three times that length. Talk about a growth spurt. If this keeps up, I wouldn't be surprised if she grows larger than the Sage by the time we hit our teens!

After many wordless babbles on my part and lots of nuzzling from her, our reunion came to an end and my fatigue caught up to me. Even though I have (finally) reached the one year mark, my stamina hasn't improved much and I can still only stay awake for the lesser part of the waking day. Meaning: I can only stay awake for a bit over nine hours. At least my beauty sleep meant that I was still as pale as the day I was born?

LINE BREAK

Now currently a year and four to five months old, I have finally decided that it was safe to try out my first word, or words. During the previous couple months, Dōsukēru would try to refine her vocabulary and grammar while also trying to get me to speak. Speak I did, but in English. Then due to her young age, she also picked up a couple words, and thank kami she didn't respond to it in a way that would make adults suspicious. Instead, we would sort of chat in what my parents have dubbed "baby-speak".

It made communication easier for me, and also allowed for me to tell Suijami in fragmented tidbits that I was alive a long time ago in a different world. I don't think she understood, considering that she was still young, but it got some of the pressure off of my chest just by sharing it with my future lifelong partner. If we can't fulfill the most basic of requirements of a partnership, wouldn't so much that was already done become pointless?

Anyways, first words.

Not knowing much of what is to come (the hell is this world anyway?), I have determined one of my life goals to be the largest troll ever (in this world at least). Perhaps later on I'll mess with little brats by using insane (or inane) teaching methods? Bwahaha, beware the trolliness of a reincarnated soul!

Ahem. So. Us being in the mess hall of our clan is a good advantage for my planned prank, and knowing that my parents (and others) have been competing to make their title the first words out of yours truly here.

However, Manda, the amazing grumpy head that he is, did not participate. Probably because he respected my parents (or at least my kaa-san) enough to not steal their joy in this scenario. Too bad, I'm chucking him under the metaphorical bus that doesn't exist in this world.

Since our entire clan is made up of scientists (*coughnerdscough*), most of our clansmen would forget to eat or sleep if not prompted. Hence why one of our previous respected clan leaders decided that everyone would eat together, in a mess hall set up aboveground. Mess hall is a generous term, considering the fact that it's just an enormous tent-like structure that can fit our entire clan. The gathering in a mess hall for our meals is also in advantage in that it allows the lab potatoes to communicate "scientific discoveries" (gossip like old ladies) and make sure nobody died, not to mention that only a handful of clan members can actually cook, my parents sadly not among them.

Maybe when I'm old enough, I'll bring to them the joy of chocolate chip cookies, or brownies. Or just try to recreate the scrumptious baked goods that my younger sister would bestow upon our family. If, if, I didn't blow up the kitchen, or set it on fire, the latter of which nearly happened at least three times. Long story short, I shall kindly, but firmly, refuse to cook/bake/make edible stuff without responsible supervision.

Whoops.

Being an infant has its advantages, one of which being that I'm constantly protected, or supervised. Now in the centre of the mess hall with another toddler and surrounded on all sides by adults and snakes, I can feel the perfect time for the prank drawing near.

Being a clan of scientists, everyone departs the mess hall at almost exactly seven o'clock (to continue experiments and stuff) while the unfortunate last three people remaining are left with the chore of cleaning up, i.e. resealing the tent and everything inside to be put away into the clan leader's bunker. Now with only five to ten minutes remaining before the designated "end of supper", everybody was preparing to vanish (I kid you not, they seem to vanish into thin air sometimes) so conversation was beginning to wind down, not to mention that my parents and Manda were slowly making their way back to me.

Dōsukēru flicked her tongue above my left eye, as was the signal of our caretakers approach, and I immediately responded with blabbering in actual baby-talk.

As expectedly, kaa-san bent down and cooed in my face, squishing my cheeks. "Say kaa-chan! Kaaaa-chan!" Manda shook his head from his position across kaa-san's shoulders, more that a bit exasperated.

Tou-san was barely a step behind, but he stayed behind kaa-san and mouthed at me "say tou-chan, tou-chan is muuch better."

Yeah… they were a tiny bit competitive.

And I'm going to disappoint them both.

"Maaa-" I gurgled, my parents looked a bit disappointed but Manda and his sixth serpent sense or something could clearly sense the foreboding doom. The large purple serpent began to slowly inch away, only to freeze when kaa-san quirked an eyebrow at him.

I gave a little cough, which would've seemed like me clearing my throat if I wasn't an infant.

"Manda-tama!" I screeched with all the verbal power a midget like me possessed, and I was not let down by my vocal chords (I will wish for cherry flavored Halls later). My Baby-Screech rang out clearly against the receding din of the mess hall, eliciting a silence from everyone near. I love our tight-knit clan, I really do, and so did they. But even with our love of snakes and remaining time of six or so minutes before "curfew", nobody remained to save poor Manda-tama from my kaa-san's slowly growing aura of death. Tou-san looked just as murderous, but nobody was going to stand in my kaa-san's warpath of fury.

To this day, I am not ashamed to say that I cackled like an old madman and his cat when kaa-san roared at "lil'" Manda to return to her my first words.

AN: Sorry 'bout the late chapter, but life (road trip+relatives+Pokemon Go) got in the way. Oops. Longer chapter though? *nervous chuckles*. Ahem. I also apologize for any errors in this chapter, if anyone sees any, please point them out to me so I can correct them, Thanks!

Something important is that this fanfic is going to mostly follow the manga (I don't have enough time to watch the anime), so...yeah.

Thanks for reading! Reviews are Love!

~Cadriona Morningwing

Uploaded: August 1, 2016