Good news, I'm alive! More good news, I'm gonna try and respond to the reviews that people leave in hopes that it'll force me to read all of them. Whenever I see that someone had left a review I get really and try to ignore it as much as possible until I psych myself up enough to read it. By responding to them I hope I can also grow more comfortable reading them.

Guest 1: If the translator is working correctly, I'm glad you like it, and hopeful this continues until I reach the ending that I want

Guest 2: I would rather written one about Kumo honestly, but this is only my second fanfiction and I wanted to stay with something I'm very familiar with. While I'm not of the mind for 'Best defense is a good offense' you're not wrong. The real reason why I didn't have the Mc use scorch release is because in my dragon ball fic (go check it out) my main character has scorch like abilities. I don't want their power sets to be that similar, so I went with lava release. You are super right with the fact that I seem to justify every decision I have the MC make. It's something I didn't realize was a flaw of mine, so thank you for pointing it out.

Fluffiest: Thanks for the compliment! I'm trying hard to improve because I actually enjoy writing this stuff, so it's nice to know that people like how I write. The very first idea for this fic actually involved a system, but it was swiftly discarded. It's been done a lot and by people better than me so I decided to do something at least a bit more original.

.

.

.

I didn't realize where my feet were taking me until I arrived at the orphanage. One of the adults had heard me and was standing in the back door trying to figure out what was going on. When he saw me he immediately guided me upstairs to the bathroom.

When we got there he asked if I needed help to wash up. I thought that was a really weird and creepy thing to ask, but then I realized that I was four and covered in blood. He was just trying to help, so I just said no thank you.

I was confused by how weird the bathroom looked until I realized that this was Japan. Well, Japanese at the very least. It took a moment to adjust, but it wasn't terribly different from what I was used to.

When I was going to get in, something had frozen me in place. My reflection. Underneath all the crusted blood was skin so pale you'd think I didn't have a drop of blood in my body. A greasy, mangled head of black hair. Gray streaks were lined across both sides of my head; the kind of gray that you can only get from stress.

Then there were the eyes. The only things that looked like they belonged to a child. They were a deep, dark purple. They were sunken into a gaunt face, like I'd never known a decent meal in my life.

Actually getting into the tub made me realize how thin I was. I didn't look too far off from a corpse, with my bones showing everywhere I looked. It's a miracle that I was even able to walk around the village today.

I don't know how long I'd spent in the tub. I know I had gotten all the blood off a while ago, but I scrubbed more just to make sure. It never felt enough though.

Once my head cleared I realized that it was dark outside and I'd probably spent a couple of hours in the bath. I dried off and changed into clean clothes that someone must have left before leaving the bathroom.

It smelled like dinner was still going, but I didn't feel like eating so I went straight to bed. What surprised me was that Akira was there with a plate of food.

"Ms. Yamada said that it happened again." He stated. I only gave him a shallow nod in response. "She made this for you, ya know." He said, gesturing to the food. "She says it'll make you feel better."

"I'm not hungry." I told him while I climbed onto the top bunk. I had already buried myself in the thin sheets before he began to talk again.

"I heard it was bad today." Akira said. I debated not elaborating, but I'd found myself already telling him.

"A rabbit blew up when I pet it."

I could almost hear his wince. I did hear him tell himself that today was worse than usual. I wasn't a fan of what that statement implied. After a moment I felt the bed frame lean letting out a massive creak.

Taking a peak from under the covers I saw him in my bunk holding the plate of food. I was about to tell him to go away before he snatched away my blanket.

"Hey! Give that back you bastard!" I yelled at him.

"Not until you eat your damn dinner you little shit!" He yelled back.

"I told you," I said. "I'm. Not. Hungry."

"Then I guess you're sleeping without a blanket tonight."

His threat hung in the air as we both went silent. We stared at each other until I snatched the plate from him and ate my dinner with gusto. He muttered something along the lines of 'not hungry my ass' but I couldn't hear him over the sounds of my own eating.

Once I'd polished the plate Akira climbed down to his bed saying that he'll take the plate to the kitchen in the morning. Though not before throwing my blankets at my face.

After that he just told me about his day at the ninja academy. How he met kids from different clans and that they are going to learn about chakra tomorrow. It was nice listening to him talk about his day at school. It was so ordinary, even if he's learning how to kill and use chakra instead of how to count.

I didn't even realize when I had fallen asleep.

The storm was far too quick for it to be natural. One moment it sat on the horizon, then the next it was directly on top of us.

The crew was scrambling about, bringing the lighter stuff below decks and tying down anything that was too heavy for them to carry. The lanterns remained still and lit, despite the heavy wind and rain.

I was stuck at the helm. Even if the boat was perfectly still, I knew that the second I let go of the wheel the ship would capsize. Even when thunder rumbled overhead they were still running around.

When lightning struck the first person, leaving behind an area where the light didn't reach I yelled for everyone to go below decks, but no one listened. They were all still securing everything on deck.

The storm kept taking more and more people. A flash of red and white took a young couple. A rogue wave took a man built like a mountain. Everywhere people were disappearing, leaving behind a spot of growing darkness.

I don't know when I let go of the wheel. I just suddenly found myself trying to get to the main deck as fast as possible. When I let go of the wheel, the ship started lurching in every direction. Suddenly the massive waves were having an effect on the ship.

I tried to get people to safety, but no one would listen. Whenever someone passed by I would try and grab them, but I could never keep my grip.

Slowly, people kept getting taken. It was always The Storm, but it wasn't always the weather. Some would disappear with sounds of scraping steel. Some would simply double over and be gone when I blinked. That one scared me the most.

Eventually, one by one, they all disappeared. And I was left on the deck in darkness so thick I couldn't see my nose.

It was my turn now. The front of the ship went up and up until it was completely vertical. I tried to grab something, but it was useless. I crashed into the freezing cold ocean, unable to breathe. And as I sank deeper, drowning. I could hear the laughter of the thunder. It's mocking glee apparent from underneath the water.

So I sank. Sinking. Slowly drowning while being mocked by The Storm. I tried to swim. To reach the surface and be able to breathe again. But the water was dragging me deeper into its depths.

I woke up drenched in sweat and out of breath. The nightmare was still vivid in my mind. Looking out the only window in the room I saw that it was mostly dark, with a hint of blue in the sky.

'Must be around five in the morning then.' I thought to myself. I'd stayed awake all night enough times to know what the sun just barely rising looked like.

Not wanting to go back to sleep, I decided to take me and Akira's dishes downstairs. It was the least I could do for my… friend, I guess.

Making my way downstairs I couldn't help but notice how easy it was to see in the dark. 'Either all those years staring at screens messed with my eyes more than I thought, or some chakra bullshit is at play.' I wondered. It could also be a more passive effect of having a dojutsu. Food for thought.

When I reached the downstairs I was surprised to see that there was a light on. Moving towards it, I saw Ms. Yamada was already making breakfast in the kitchen. Guess she needed to start early in order to make breakfast for forty something kids.

I didn't want to bother her so early in the morning, so I tried to quietly put my dishes in the sink and leave the lady undisturbed. Unfortunately, as I was placing the dishes into the sink she turned around to throw out some potato peels.

"Lord almighty, you scared the life out of me Fukushi." She gasped. So much for trying to leave her alone.

"Sorry Ms. Yamada." I apologized. This is exactly what I wanted to avoid. "I just came down to put me and Akira's dishes in the sink." And after a moment I said, "Thank you for dinner last night by the way."

After calming down she merely waved her hand in front of her face. "Don't you worry that little head of yours Fukushi," she said while rubbing my head. "It's what I'm here for." It was strangely nice to hear her say that.

"Do you want help?" I blurted out without thinking. I don't know why I said it, but I immediately wanted to take it back. Unfortunately she just smiled at me and handed me a knife. So after briefly questioning her decision to hand a four year old a sharp knife, I cursed my stupid mouth and began peeling.

I'd only ever peeled a potato with a peeler, and then I'd always do a poor job. I was getting all of the skin off, I definitely could have cut out less of the flesh inside.

I'd like to say it was relaxing, but really it was boring. It took a kind of patience that I just didn't have.

Then Ms. Yamada had me rinse the potatoes one more time before adding them to a big pot. After I washed a few it seemed that she wanted to ask me some rather difficult questions. It started with 'How are you doing?' and 'Did you get hurt?' Typical things a concerned adult would ask a child who went through a traumatic event.

Then she asked, "Why were you by yourself?" That was an odd question. I couldn't just ask what she meant because it's obviously something I should know. The truth would also cause problems, but not the 'Who are you what happened to Fukushi?' kind.

"I wanted to practice my writing." I told her. "I'm… really far behind and I need to practice so I can go to the ninja academy like Akira."

It seemed to be the right thing to say, because I swear she almost cooed at me. "Fukushi," she said, "If you needed help why didn't you ask? You know it's not safe for you to be alone like that."

That second part seemed normal on paper, but the way she seemed to signal me out irked me. 'You'. Like it's only dangerous for me if I'm alone.

Then everything clicked. The kids are avoiding me. The dream. The prophecy that had burned around me; 'The shinigami's wrath awakes.'

A god of death hates me because I was unwillingly put here. He's made it his personal mission to ruin my life until I can kill him. I could hear Ms. Yamada talking. I think she was offering me help with my writing, but I was barely listening.

When the prophecy said I was cursed I thought it was a metaphor. I didn't realize that it was going to make this life a literal hell. I tried to give myself as much of a chance with lava release and a dojutsu, but it seemed extremely lacking now.

"Fukushi?" Ms. Yamada said, stopping that train of thought for the moment

"I'd love some help Ms. Yamada." I told her. I don't actually know if that's what she was asking, but it was what she was talking about before I tuned her out.

She smiled at that. "Fantastic. Come find me after lunch. I have some free time then." She told me.

I gave her my best smile and said, "Thank you Ms. Yamada. You're the best."

After that she just shooed me away and said I should try and get some sleep while I could. Unable to deny the nice lady, I went back upstairs and crawled into my top bunk. I had to many things to think about instead of sleeping.

It took a while to pull myself together. The revelation that a god is targeting me and it wasn't some sort of metaphor for something had shaken me. I hadn't fully come to terms with it, I doubt I ever will, but I managed to push it to the side and think about more immediate problems.

'When the fuck am I?'

I'm not immediately sure how much the plans I make revolves around when I am. I also don't know when I have to fight the Shinigami, so the faster I get stronger the better.

I might sound like a scumbag, but knowing when I am will help me figure out who I need to be friends with. If I'm the same age as the sannin then I know that I need to cozy up to Jiraya and Orochimaru. Despite how the latter… ended up, he's still one of the most knowledgeable shinobi ever.

Despite not wanting to go out on my own, I need to get a view of the hokage mountain. Despite how cliche it might be it is a really useful way to determine when I am. Unless there's only three up there, then I'd only have a vague idea.

Hopping out of bed, I head over to the window to see if I can catch a glimpse of the monument. Luckily I could see part of it, but I need to get a better angle.

'Desperate times call for desperate measures as they say.' I think to myself as I silently open the window. There's a very small slanted part of the roof underneath the window that I could probably shimmy on until I got a better view.

Swallowing my very healthy fear of heights I swung a leg through the window and very slowly began to climb through it.

Now completely outside I had a much better view of the massive heads, but there was a building in the way. Then I came to the realization that I need to climb up to see the damn rock.

'I've never even climbed a tree before,' I thought to myself as I started to move. 'Now I'm trying to scale a fucking building.'

Good news, there was that vertical gutter part that went all the way to the top of the orphanage. Which was also higher than the building blocking my view across the street.

Bad news, the thing was rusty as shit. I couldn't even guess what the original color used to be. I knew the smart thing to do was to go inside, wait until class was over, and use my break to find this out in a much safer way.

That's not what I wanted though. I needed to know and I needed to know now. It felt like I'd lose my mind if I didn't start planning on how to kill a death god as soon as I could.

So with that in mind I gave the thing a good shake, and when nothing gave I went on up. Actually climbing the thing wasn't too bad. It had plenty of space behind the pipe for my fingers and the bands of metal holding it in place were thick enough for my feet.

The thing creaked and groaned plenty of times, but it held my weight. When I reached the top though I couldn't throw myself over that edge fast enough.

Despite how hard I was breathing due to how scared I'd been I immediately went to look at the mountain.

'Just my rotten ass luck.'

Carved onto the cliff face were the heads of Hashirama Senju, Tobirama Senju, and Sarutobi Hiruzen. Meaning that there was a giant forty year period I could be in.

Today could be the day when construction finishes, or tomorrow they start working on the fourth's head. There's, like, two world wars that happen during the third's reign along with a lot of things I don't know about, and I don't want to deal with either.

I'm not a hardcore fan, I don't have the whole timeline memorized. I skipped most of the filler in the original show. Hell, I didn't even finish Shippuden! I got bored cause nothing really happened for like twenty episodes. I just had to be where ninety percent of what I know is useless.

"Fuck!"

I wish I had picked Kumo.

Well hot damn, this took a while to get out!

This was supposed to be released shortly after the first chapter. Finals had snuck up on me and I hadn't paid attention in any of my classes, so I had some serious studying to do.

As you can tell from the description of characters of this fic, Fukushi is the same generation as Minato. I've done a lot of research, though admittedly there is a concerningly little amount of information about Naruto's parents. So if you know some niche tidbit about this era, or a character that is often overlooked, and stuff like that let me know.

As always like, comment, subscribe, pledge your soul, or something.

Or don't that's fine.