A/N at bottom

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

Warnings: T for swearing and violence(?)

Reviewer replies:

Not-Gonna-Update: Fear the trolling of a future troll! Bwahaha!

JigokuShoujosRevenge: I loved writing that scene, first words makes interesting impressions after all!

lizyeh2000: Poor Manda, oh well~

Thanks for reviewing!

Chap 6 Goodbye Sane Mind

Thankfully, Manda didn't end up as a snake-skin bag. He deserves better. Even though he still acts somewhat like an asshole. But still, whenever he looks at me, there may or may not be a glimmer of protectiveness in those green orbs, or at least a bit more than before the incident. Or perhaps I'm just being as wishful as always. My parents also got off of Manda's tail when they heard me call them out two days later, earning me a lot of cooing and hugging. If I think about it now, It's a bit strange. I used to hate hugs before It but now, not so much? I think? Or perhaps it's only because of them being my parents? But that should've meant that I would've shied away from my pyromaniac aunt (obasan) and her demon toddler… Well, I definitely ran (crawled as fast as possible) from her kid, but my aunt was ok.

I think I'll just blame brain structure, hormones, and an infant's need for social contact.

Thankfully I became capable of standing up a month after first messing with Manda (if you don't count being baby-burped onto his head) and walking on stumbling legs two days later. Once I started running, Hikaru had never caught me again (cue evil laughter). For a boy who was named after "light" or something, he isn't a very bright toddle. Maybe that's just me being biased, but the three year old child really doesn't incorporate logic into his life. At the very least, his brown-black hair is very very fluffy and his partner Kuroryuu (black dragon or something, why does everyone else get normal names?) is a gentlesnake?

Life hasn't changed from its strangeness even a bit ever since I was born. Every time I round a corner of life's extremely heavy milestone, it seems as if someone chucked an iron soccer ball into my face, completely and utterly unavoidable. Case in point: when I stood up on shaking legs for the first time without support, my parents (and Manda) celebrated, like normal people. Then they decided that it would be a good idea to hand me a wooden dagger with a ring on its end, unlike normal people, proceeding with showing me how to throw it properly, like crazy people. At least I potty trained myself right after the crazy? Diapers were the bane of my life.

Anyways, praise the world for the existence of Dōsukēru, otherwise I would go rather insane. Despite her being able to speak first, she's a damn better listener than anyone else that I've ever known, choosing to listen to me as I blabber in English and only occasionally attempting to answer back in the same language. Unfortunately, she fails a bit more than not and Manda always appear a bit disgruntled when we blabber in his presence. For some strange and obscure reason that probably relates to "for Science", My tou-san actually encourages my blabbering while kaa-san just watches on with what resembles a facepalm, without the face in the palm. I think my tou-san is one of the few people that actually believes that baby talk is a language only understood by infants, before being replaced by whatever tongue is spoken by the people around them.

That being said, it was downright creepy when my tou-san butted into my conversation with my lovely partner. It probably went something like this:

'Why father stare at us again?' mumbled yours truly, just a tad creeped by the fashion that he glances (and forgets to turn back) at us every few seconds. My grammer being largely zero due to the need for Dōsukēru to understand the vocab first.

'Stare?' She parroted back with a tilted head, the same response every time to an unknown word that she wants to learn.

'Look for long time, strong intent,' I gurgled back, vocal chords still in the stages of development.

"Intent?'

'Feel purpose, here meaning focus,' thankfully she understood the phrase "here meaning-" blah blah blah, otherwise the context part of vocabulary would go horribly wrong.

This was where my tou-san decided that hey, why not try to baby blabber and scare the living daylights out of my daughter in the middle of my lab?

Yes, I was in his lab, and no, that wasn't the point. The point was that he walked away from the rotating and sealable lab table le gasp! and knelt down next to me, then in a perfectly serious manner, said to me "'father stare meaning focus'". Of course, his accent was horrendous, but the grammar was somewhat understandable and my hook or by crook (whatever the saying is), he managed to use words to get words across.

I will be the first to admit that I'm not a very emotional person (or so I think, Dōsukēru laughs at me whenever I state that in English) but I did not assume that my baby hormones would get the best of me, resulting in me getting up, picking up Dōsukēru and settling her around my shoulders, and run off crying.

Somehow I ended up in my own rectangular prismed room and sat down on my raised futon, before tilting (coughfallingcough) over and curling into a ball.

Now that I think back on it, I think kaa-san ended up yelling at tou-san after she poked her head out of the washroom, berating him for making me cry when all she wanted was to take a shower. How us underground folks take a shower, I'll probably never know, but it's probably seals or chakra, logic hasn't applied to those in a while. Hello scatterbrained-ness, haven't seen you in a while, eh?

Anyways, at least that was the best of tou-san trying to mimic my words. The rest of the time consisted of him actually making up words that I don't even consider real, something that will get me to laugh for years to come. Occasionally though, I would repeat random swear words with Dōsukēru repeating after me. Being a troll meant that I have solemnly swore that I was not good a looong ass time ago, and therefore I had indirectly taught my tou-san how to swear in English. He'll never know, right?

Ahem. Another random milestone was that Dōsukēru shedded for the first time since I've seen her. That was a rather private but still celebrated occasion, with Manda literally bouncing off the walls and tou-san being drunk.

I suppose the snakes celebrated the shedding of skins instead of hatchdays? It would make sense with how grumpy Manda was so enthusiastic. From most point of views, it somewhat seems like Manda had stuck himself in a fatherly role to Dōsukēru, or at least a very neglectant uncle…

Line Break

I recall acutely the first time I had seen myself in a mirror. Granted, this is random, but having your parents pounding a mirror into the training room wall can be sort of jarring. Who attaches a training room to the bathroom anyway? If anything, attach it to the dining room slash living room so that there's a place to chill after training, like oba-san's. Even if I'm still a not-yet two year old toddler. Screw this life, it ain't making no sense no more.

So, first time seeing myself in a mirror.

It was certainly a blow in regards to how far I've already left behind my first life. A small pointed nose, pudgy cheeks, and fangs of all things stuck out as somewhat normal characteristics in comparison to the pale-as-death porcelain-like skin the features were contained on. What probably stood out the most was the goddamn blue markings around my eyes and the eyes themselves. Genetic proves strong in me, as two glowing lamps of molten gold slitted by a sliver of black (the lights were very bright) gave the me in the mirror a lifted brow.

The midget in the mirror repeated the action.

The strange thing though, was how my eyes and eyebrows were the exact same as those of my last life. Asian, monolid eyes were similar enough to my parents of this world to not deny the resemblance, but anyone who knew me from before would be able to tell through the eyes. However, if closely looked at, they were rather unique in this world where facial features can be identified as those that can nearly align with those in a comic or manga. My eyebrows though… Still a weirdass pointed thing that was randomly thick at the start before angling and tapering off at the end. Much too masculine for my face, but I've honestly never really cared. That said, it's still a weirdass trait that confused most people I know nowadays as none of my present parents have anything that even vaguely resembles a pointy eyebrow.

Of course, my hair decides to imitates tou-san's with a random streak of blue smudged among the black of my future bangs. Genetics are weird here, have I mentioned that yet?

With appearances out of the way, it was just a tiny bit scary how many of my original features, physical or spiritual, or just plain habits, that I retained from Before.

Not delving into too many details at the moment, but it surprised Manda when I ran around on the tips of my toes. I think my habit of apologizing and thanking people people too much/repeatedly also confuse the heck out of my parents. Once a Canadian, always a Canadian, I suppose. Now, all I need is hockey (although I'm not much of a fan, le gasp!) and some Tim Hortons to complete the set... Of course, scatterbrained-ness (and tardiness) were also some of the traits I had before, but only fully realized in the body of Suijami the toddler.

Basically, the me from Before wasn't as gone as I had first assumed, a fact that's both good and bad because the past will never just stay in the past. Me blabbering my heart out to Dōsukēru had proven such.

During the month after my second hatchday (still not used to this..), my parents seemed especially agitated for some unapparent reason. Manda was cool as a cucumber though, but only on the outside, it might not have been so obvious if for the fact that he was losing scales all over the compound…

I love my family now, I really do, but a toddler can only cheer people up so much. Welp, trying is caring?

"Up." I jutted out my bottom lip at my tou-san, who was (once again) sitting at his lab desk and frantically scribbling while muttering under his breath and poking at unidentifiable objects contained in jars. I avoided looking at the jar that had a twitching salamander tail twitching within. I understand that he's a biologist/chakra-ist/ something or another, but the fact that most reptilian tails look similar didn't sit well with me, surplus when I have a blue snake coiled around my neck.

Despite his rather harried appearance, tou-san didn't deny my request.

He grunted when he lifted me up to sit on his lap, the white lab coat with too many pockets made a rustling and a clinking(?) sound as I made myself comfortable, "you're getting heavy, Sui-chan," he huffed in a fake mocking tone.

Even if I'm only a toddler in body, I am still a teenager in mind. A teenage girl that does not appreciate her weight mocked by others, unless the others are her parents. In this case, he is. But however, he is a male and so i shall not be tolerated.

"Tou-chan mean!" I wailed. Yes, I will certainly extort all of my toddlerness for all its worth while still in this age period. Proceeding with bopping him on the head a couple of times, I turned and leaned back against his chest, his lower-than-normal-human body temperature still being the perfect furnace for me. I don't care if everyone in our clan is rather –cold-blooded, because it is rather literal.

Not just our body temperature is lower than a normal human's (and wasn't that a surprise), but it's even hard for us to keep our body temperature stable, perhaps our people are more snake-like than I had previously thought, even more than when my kaa-san was stretching and bent two right angles in her spine. In opposite directions. Anyways, a multitude of air vents and seals are used to keep our compound at a constant warmth. Air vents for circulation, and seals to adjust the temperature of the air at the entranceway of each vent.

A sudden shift reminded me of my position upon my tou-san's lap and I looked up at him, before beaming at him with my full set of teeth. Good grief, teething was a pain, at least it's over now. But I want to eat steak dammit.

"Is little Sui-chan still mad at tou-chan?" He questioned.

I pretended to give it some thought, and my not-so tiny partner lifted her head off my collarbone to look at the male half of my pair of parents."Maybe if you read us a story about the snake who swallowed the sun, we would not be mad at you anymore." Dōsukēru punctured her sentence with a dip of her head and flicked her tongue.

My tou-san chuckled sadly, "perhaps another time little blue, I'm approaching a breakthrough on regenerative abilities…"

"Why tou-chan so tired and fu-aus-twa-twed?" I hate my tongue and its stupid pronunciation.

He looked away, and I could practically imagine sweat dripping off of his face like a very selective waterfall.

"Ummm…" I both employed our trump card.

"Tell meh!" I never said I was mature, did I?

"Well…"goddammit tou-san, stop stalling!

"Whatdoyouthinkofasibling?" What.

Apparently my dear tou-chan decided that I wasn't able to interpret his incredibly garbled words and repeated for the benefit of what might've been a toddler's. So taking a huge breath to calm himself, he said (albeit a bit shakily): "Sui-chan, what do you think of a sibling?"

Around a month after my second hatchday, my kaa-chan vanished to the Cave of the Great White Snake Sage. Unlike her "business trips", she did not come back after a couple days, or even a couple weeks. Instead, the rest of our misfit family went to the summons realm to retrieve her, and admire the egg that was layed not even an hour prior five months after it was announced to me that I was going to gain a sibling.

Thankfully, we were allowed to visit her while she stuck around in the summons world with Manda and every other unsummoned snake, but every time we reverse-summoned ourselves, I ended up a little pile of spazzing goo on the cave floor because I had to supply the chakra necessary for both Dōsukēru and myself. (And because I refuse to be left behind, only being two years old be damned.) No matter how much of the nature chakra stuff is filtered out by moi to keep Dōsukēru in our realm, it did not substitute for the amount of my chakra needed for reverse summonings. Unfortunate, considering the fact that Dōsukēru just wouldn't. Stop. GROWING. Trust me when I say that it's difficult to summon a meter long snake that has a chakra system complete with all tenketsu points and enough intelligence to rival a ten year old human.

Back to the topic. The visits to kaa-chan while she bunked in the Snake's Cave was semi-weekly, with each visit being around eight to ten hours. We weren't allowed any more time due to our being part of a nomad tribe, and being left behind is not something our clan will allow. After all, snakes of a scale, slither synchronal. Or something. Point is, I watched my kaa-chan's stomach grow bit by bit over the period of time, and was finally able to converse with some of my childhood caretakers. Manda was extremely protective of laa-chan during the five months, and wouldn't leave her side at all. Since we didn't reside in the nursery(where I spent the first couple months outside of an egg shell), I was able to see a bit more of Ryūchi cave and the area outside nestled in tou-chan's arms.

The cave is big, much larger than the nursery behind the throne the White Snake Sage resided on. Multiple tunnels branched out of the main chamber where the Sage rested, and one of the main tunnels lead to an enormous hall, the entrance hall so to speak. The ceiling was open to the sky, and if our trip there was late in the day, we can see the stars peeking over the edge. There wasn't enough time to confirm if the constellations were of the human realm or not (the multiverse theorem seems more and more likely by the minute), and I blame our need for a constant body temperature. Although it seemed that tou-chan and kaa-chan could keep themselves warmer, it helped to watch the stars a while longer then what I could on my own though.

I remember running off once while my parents and Manda was occupied with a game of "guessing the hatchling's gender and element" and stumbling into the lair of an old snake, partially hidden by the outcropping he lay under.

"Who may you be, human child?" He rasped, a pink tongue flicking in and out of his car-sized head.

"Suijami," I replied, "and this is my fwiend, Dōsukēwu."

"One of our clan's summoners, I presume?" A harsh chuckle, "Maybe you won't die early like everyone else." Only when he tilted his head and emerged from the shadow did I realize that scars crisscrossed his burn-red coloured skull. Like a map of cruelty, each scar spoke a story, but none more than the two jagged bolts over what used to be his eyes.

Predictably, I screamed, so did Dōsukēru (and wasn't that weird?). Then we ran/slithered off and proceeded to get lost before Manda came to lead us back.

Impromptu adventure aside, the five months passed smoothly.

After kaa-san returned, we still made frequent trips back to the summons realm, and now because I had more chakra, they were every second day.

Like a real snake egg, the egg that encapsulated my future sibling grew with the passage of time, something that made only a modicum of sense as the shell was a blend of calcium carbonate (normal egg shell stuff) and chakra. Chakra of the fetal, probably, as the shell was a violet lit with dimly pulsing webs of dark purple.

It was one of the days where I was just listening to my kaa-san play her flute to the violet egg that it happened.

The chakra inside stilled, and burst like a coiled snake bursting into action. Our entire family watched on intently and sure enough, two nerve wracking hours later, I gained a little brother, and Dōsukēru gained one also.

"As per clan tradition," my tou-chan exclaimed, grinning widely from ear to ear, "the progenitor of the human child shall name the new hatchling of the Snake clan." He turned to the violet coloured little serpent that had just emerged from the smaller egg next to my brother's.

Kaa-chan bopped tou-san on the head with her flute, and with a muttered sentence that sounded along the lines of "You named Dōsukēru, I will name this hatchling.", she cradled the newly hatched snake to her chest and proclaimed, "From today on, you shall be named Sugiryuu."

Now with only Manda left to speak, he slithered up to the non-existent spotlight and cleared his throat. "As per clan tradition, the partner of the human hatchling's progenitor shall name the new child of the Kinme clan." Lowering his head, Manda gently nuzzled the bare black fuzz that covered my brother's head. "From today on, you shall be named Orochimaru."

Shit.

AN: Sorry for lateness? Yay for longer chapter? (I swear these things are growing faster than little Dōsukēru)

So. Our first canon character finally appears! Sorry if this is a bit messy, but I only had my younger sister look over it before posting it. So, please correct any errors you might want to point out via pm or replies, not flames though! Thanks!

Thanks for reading! Reviews are Love and Motivation!

~Cadriona Morningwing

Uploaded: August 17, 2016