I woke up after the majority of the chaos had died down, in a compound that was unfamiliar to me, but I recognized my mom's arms, and my dad hovering nearby.
"Oh thank God." I muttered, blinking away pink tinged tears away from my eyes. My head still hurt, but I could sense chakra signatures around me. Grandpa was here, somewhere to my left, and there were another three signatures around us, one very much more prominent than the others.
The big signature was possessed by what looked like a large monkey in shinobi attire. Who was standing guard, the second largest chakra signature belonged to a jonin who was smoking like a chimney, and the other unidentified chakra signature belonged to an ANBU, judging by the mask on her hip.
"Isshin!" My mother exclaimed, realizing I was awake and clutching me to her chest. Dad and Pop Pop rushed over, and I could see the bags under their eyes, as well as a new patch over my Dad's left eye.
I swore then and there that I was gonna punch a hole in Uchiha Obito. With my bare fists if need be. Still, my internal promises of vengeance were cut short as I was handed over to the Anbu woman, who began looking me over.
"Normal Pupil dilation, you're not pale, heartbeat's fine…Well, cousin, you're the toughest five year-old I know if you're this fine after being out for three days. My name's Nanako." She spoke, giving me a small grin as she leaned back. "You really are a pain, y'know? My coworkers won't stop teasing me that I got caught by a five year old."
"Three days…Is everyone okay? I saw it…So much chakra…it was like a sun." I spoke, shivering at the memory.
"Boy's a sensor… must've been terrible for him." The Monkey King spoke, sauntering over.
"You ain't exactly the best thing to look at right now either, Boss." I mumbled, closing my eyes as the bright beacon of chakra got closer. It didn't help. I felt a furry finger press against the side of my temple and a jolt of chakra, and suddenly the light wasn't as bad. I opened my eyes to meet the Boss Summon, who was chuckling lightly.
"I ain't that ugly, Kid. You're just not used to closing that third eye yet. You'll figure it out."
"We're in Sarutobi-Ooji's house, aren't we?" I asked, earning a round of nods.
"Ryunosuke ran to get us with you tucked under his arm. Just in the nick of time too. A tail came down on our apartment as we were booking out, and now I have the urge to get a boat and a sword." My Dad spoke, trying to stay upbeat, but I could see the strain of being in pain.
"C'mon Dad…Cool guys aren't supposed to look at explosions." I mumbled rubbing away the moisture gathering under my eyes.
"I'll remember that next time, Kiddo."
Yeah… Obito's getting shivved for that.
The next few weeks were spent dealing with the aftermath of the Nine-Tails attack. Grunkle Sarutobi had been reinstated as Hokage, I had been unconscious during the funeral for the Fourth Hokage, and Sarutobi's stupid…stupid announcement of baby Naruto as the jinchuriki of the Nine-Tails.
Ma, Pa, and Pop Pop had retired to the guest quarters of the Sarutobi Compound whilst I was still up. I was scribbling down designs that had burned away in the attack. Asuma had asked a couple questions, but seemed more interested in his cigarettes.
Being in the clan compound of the Sarutobi clan got me access to the clan library. With that information I was able to get my hands on a recipe for 'white flash powder'. It would take me years to get the alchemy and chemistry right to refine it into proper smokeless powder, but it was a foot in the door. Still, if I wanted to be able to change things for the better. I had to tool up.
So that's what I was doing when Grunkle Sarutobi walked through the front door, immediately lit his pipe, took a massive drag and let out a smoke filled sigh of relief. It took him a second to notice me properly, but I think he was more putting on a show. I knew he was still in mourning.
At least I thought he was, until I saw an older woman walk in behind him. She had a rough scar across her jugular. Before I knew it I was muttering.
"Lacerated jugular vein, heavy bleeding, injury usually induces shock, injured party expires in thirty seconds unless immediate medical attention is administered." I spoke, my pen and journal slipping from my suddenly shaking hands. "Apply pressure, pack the wound, get the injured party to surgery. Focus on stemming blood flow. Try to keep the patient calm, accelerated heart beat increases blood flow. Chances of survival…less than 33%."
Memories from my previous life. A flash of a knife, pain in my neck. Blood. Pulsing through my fingers with every beat of my heart. Light fading as I tried to go for my gun. Cold. Cold. Cold.
I didn't make it.
I didn't realize exactly how I had been sent here before. I guess seeing Biwako survive what I didn't unlocked those memories…and it was not a good experience. I clenched my hands and shook my head clear of the flashback, but the phantom sensation of blood flushing my fingers remained.
"Eyes here, Nephew. Breathe." Biwako was an experienced med-nin, and knew the signs of the panic attack I just willpowered myself out of having. She had a grip on my shoulders and was staring me square in the eyes. She had a kind face, if stern. I took a deep breath and nodded, attempting to brush her hands away but she held firm, beginning to look me over, tilting my head back and looking for any signs of scarring.
I brought up a tiny hand and held up my thumb to her scar, just a hair smaller.
"You stuck your thumb in your wound, Auntie." I whispered. "Stemmed the bleeding…then performed medical ninjutsu on yourself."
"And you, my secretive little nephew, were having a trauma response." Biwako countered, before pulling me into a soft hug. "You've had a rough go of it, haven't you, Child?"
I pulled myself out of her embrace and shook my head, retrieving my notebook and pen and tucking them in my pockets.
"I think you've had it rougher than me, Auntie. You had your damned throat cut." I spoke, earning a chakra enhanced flick to the forehead.
"Hiruzen warned me about that dirty mouth of yours. You're gonna keep a tight hold on it in my house, or my name isn't Biwako Sarutobi." Aunt Biwako declared, giving me a stern glare. I gave an age appropriate pout.
"Don't you pout at me young man. You made my first experience back home from the hospital a field medicine test. The least you could do is hold your tongue. Now, you were spouting a lot of field medicine terminology there, Isshi-chan. Am I correct to assume you're interested in such things?" There was a glint in her eyes and a smile that held untold promises
Uh oh, I know that look.
"...Tsunade-sama's book was interesting." I muttered, lying out my ass, and that unnerving grin widened.
"Who do you think taught Tsunade-chan?"
"...I'm already being taught by Pop Pop?" Please no, I have enough on my plate
"I'm sure he wouldn't object to additional help in your studies." oh dear
"Dad's going to need me to take over the shop?"
"Then we'll just have to be time-efficent, won't we?"
God Dammit Tobi. Even when you don't kill someone you make my life harder.
"You know, Nephew, if you want these designs secret, you need to do more than just write them in a made up language." Grunkle Sarutobi spoke, flipping through the notebook I had just put in my pockets.
Freaking Ninjas.
"It's a flare launcher…In case I sense something like that again. I can call for help." It could also chamber a brass shotshell, but I had the sense to not write that down.
"...I pray you never have to sense something of that magnitude again, Nephew." Sarutobi sighed, looking over my diagrams with a discerning eye. "But the idea is sound."
"It's going to happen again, Ooji." I spoke, drawing attention to myself as I straightened myself. "Even if it's not a Tailed Beast. There's always going to be something. Bandits on the road, a treefall pinned someone, or an enemy shinobi in the village. Launching a giant red sun into the sky will tell everyone that there's something bad going down." I moved to the Hokage's side and turned the page to the drawing on the next page.
"Promise me, Ooji, that if you see this. You haul ass." I spoke, tapping on the drawing of a flare at full crest.
"...I can't promise you that, Nephew. You're smart enough to know that." He responded, hitting me with a morose look.
"…politics." I spat out with a sigh. Earning a nod.
"The Hokage mustn't show favor, Isshin. Even to family- Especially to family."
"Uncle you are literally the only Hokage who's believed that. Or at the very least practiced it." I snapped, snatching my notebook back. "I was useless during the attack."
"You're a child!" Sarutobi countered, and my mouth kept moving before my sense of reason could stop it.
"And if this child encounters that orange-masked fuck this child is going to die." I shouted back, and the two shinobi froze. I kept going, too late to shut Pandora's box now. "If there's someone out there that can summon tailed beasts, I at least want to be able to sound the alarm if I see them."
I was shaking at this point, the realization of my fragility mixing with the memories of my own previous expiration. Why send me here, Lord? What purpose do I serve here, in a world that's already set to be saved?
I felt myself get pulled onto a seat, and felt all the more like the scared child I was right now, tears leaking from the corners of my eyes.
"I don' wan' Mama and Papa to die, Ooji…I don't want you to die. Or Pop Pop. Or Auntie, or Asuma or Nanako." I muttered, clenching my tiny fists in my lap. "I don't wanna die, Ooji." Not again.
Biwako had been the one to pull me onto the sofa, and was doing her best to calm me down. I was holding Hiruzen's gaze, fear turning to fury.
"I hate being useless. So let me have this…please." I ground out, wiping away the tears. "I'm going to keep training, keep learning, keep inventing, so that if I see something like this again. Even if I'm not strong enough to take it on with my own two hands…I'll have tools."
Hiruzen stared at me, keeping eyes locked, before letting out a tobacco tinged sigh.
"You're too young to have that steel behind your eyes, Isshin." Hiruzen spoke softly, stepping forward and kneeling to look me square. "You're determined in this?"
"I'm going to make it either way, Ooji, this way, I'll know that there'll be someone on the way when I send one up."
"Then consider this your first mission: when you succeed in producing a functioning prototype. Bring it to me. Now, Nephew." Hiruzen took a seat on the couch taking nonchalant puffs of his pipe. "Tell me what you know of the Orange-Masked Man." He spoke, deadly calm.
Ah shit. Time to lie out my ass again.
"Did Pop Pop tell you that I'm a Sensor, Ooji? I felt a chakra surge before the Nine-Tails appeared. He was so far away I could barely see. If it wasn't such a bright color, I wouldn't have noticed him. But he was there, a moment later the Nine-Tails appeared, and I hit the tree." I spoke carefully, keeping my breathing steady as the memory of that roar shook me. "It's not a stretch to think that he summoned the Fox, Ooji."
"You understand that not everyone knows about the Masked Man, yes?" I rolled my eyes.
"S-Rank Secret, don't tell anyone, if I hear anyone telling anyone, come tell you. That about right, Ooji?" I asked, earning a small chuckle and a ruffle of my hair.
"'Atta Boy. Go on to bed now, Isshin. It's been a stressful day, and I'm certain my wife would like to sleep in her own bed for the first time in a month."
"I'm just glad to no longer have an overzealous nurse nagging me, Hiruzen."
I gave them both a smile and a bow before scampering off to join my family in the guest quarters. Never once noticing the missing weight in my pocket once more.
-Foyer of the Sarutobi Clan Compound-
Hiruzen and Biwako Sarutobi sat on a small couch, the space between them that used to contain Isshin Sekitangara now empty. In Biwako's hand was Isshin's notebook, pilfered from his pockets moments earlier.
"Our nephew's a reincarnate." Biwako spoke, reading through the English writings of the young man. "This script is too structured to be the result of an overactive imagination…and that was a post-traumatic response if I've ever seen one, Hiruzen."
"I was there as well, my dear. I know." Hiruzen Sarutobi took a deep pull of his pipe, leaning back in his seat and let out a few casual rings of smoke.
"Are you going to push him to tell us more?" Biwako asked, snapping the notebook shut.
"I haven't decided yet. Reincarnation or not, he's still a child, still clan. However many years are behind those eyes, he's still fragile. Pushing him now, especially after the attack, may push him over the edge." Hiruzen responded calmly.
"He's stubborn. Think's he's more intelligent than he is. A terrible liar." Biwako listed, tapping on her fingers as she went down the list.
"All things I'm sure you'll iron out of him alongside his grandfather, my dear."
"Oh I will indeed. No nephew of mine is going to be such a half-assed actor."
"And you wonder where he gets his mouth from."
"Shut your mouth, Hiruzen."