Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto.

Chapter 2. Time to Think

I woke up in the medical crib to the rhythmic beeping and chirping of medical machines. Monitors scrolling with sensor data. The sweet scent of formula overpowered by the antiseptic hospital smell.

Thankfully there was little fanfare, mainly there wasn't a crowd diligently trying to work my little lungs. From that I concluded that my physiological needs have been temporarily met, mainly health. Hopefully there's no other hurdles with my tiny underdeveloped body. The couple medic-nin checking monitors and running tests. Occasionally blocking the fluorescent lights above as they check over me. As I focus my chakra sense on the medic-nin. I get an outer warmth of protection as if swaddled. However, though is fuzzy there's a slight coldness of clinical decisiveness under the surface.

My body becomes fussy or irritated at times. Sometimes from a medic-nin placing a cold instrument on my skin or poking with a needle. In these moments, my perception quickens and time noticeably slows. Beeps and voices noticeably drop in pitch like the sound of slow-mo in movies. Individual smells seam easier to pick up on, presumably from being able to focus on the smell of individual molecules. Small and quick movements of chakra are easier to sense

-o-

As my tiny body lay helpless in this hospital. I attempted to do what I do best. Plan.

I closed my eyes and brought my thoughts internally to get my mental bearings. Ideally I could determine what version of this Naruto world I'm in.

If my presence is the only difference in this Naruto universe, then my knowledge of relative future events becomes much more valuable. On the other hand, this could be an alternate universe (AU) where it has completely different history, reality or that diverges in some future point.

I opened my eyes searching the room as if to find anything that could determine the version of reality I'm in.

"Where's the version number of this build, anybody know?"

In my attempt to ask the world for the patch notes, my little body made gurgling noises.

As if to respond to my gurgle, a medic-nin looked over saying "Aww, aren't you the cutest". I could tell by their eyes that they were smiling behind their face mask.

Anyways, back to my hypothesizing.

Some AUs had the summon location on a different plane of existence rather than being able to walk to them. Other's had basic jutsus available at the common library, some required ninja ranks, and then still others horded everything in their respective clans. In canon, many ninja had special abilities they focused on that weren't said to be bloodline limits, like Rasengan and Sai's ink. While in some AUs, ninja's had specialized in jutsu creation or hacking to modify what currently exists.

Worse yet, possibly worst would be that this is a narrative driven world. Where no matter my actions, major conflicts will be thrust upon me for the sake of drama. Am I literally a character in a story doomed to traumatic events for other's entertainment? No, I can't think about that, it makes no difference at this time.

For that and many other concerns, I have no way to know until I find something that diverges from what I know as canon or reality.

Troublesome.

-o-

I began reflecting on the alternatives to my Nara birth, and each thought made me more grateful for my current situation.

The Nara clan's reputation was... manageable. Lazy men and strong-willed women? Hmm... considering my appreciation for intellectual equals and independent partners, this was practically optimal.

The Hyuga, though... that analysis sparked immediate rejection. Their rigid hierarchy and obsession with appearance masked something darker - the systematic enslavement of their own family members through cursed seals. The Byakugan's near 360 degree vision would be fascinating to study, but not worth the psychological cost of growing up in what amounted to a carefully maintained caste system.

The Uchiha presented an interesting case study in timing. Setting aside the potential impending massacre, their perfect visual recall via Sharingan was a double edged sword. Every trauma, every loss, preserved in perfect clarity forever. Though objectively powerful, the psychological implications were... concerning. The source of their infamous pride remained an interesting question. Was it genetic predisposition or cultural conditioning?

A civilian birth? The data suggested limited options. Restricted chakra access, limited economic mobility, and disturbingly high chances of being acquired by ROOT for their "recruitment" program. Though... hmm... the possibility of developing chakra-enhanced technology from a civilian perspective had interesting implications.

I found myself categorizing the various similarities of village brutality. ROOT's systematic destruction of emotion. The Bloody Mist's graduation massacres. Standard execution protocols for failed missions. From that perspective, Danzo's ROOT doesn't seem objectively worse.

The Nara clan's shadows were looking more appealing with each comparison.

-o-

The technology level was... inconsistent. They had computers and television, yet used messenger birds. Advanced medical equipment, but medieval-style warfare tools. The contradiction nagged at my scientific mindset until a thought struck me - I was viewing their technology all wrong.

This wasn't a world that failed to advance past kunai and shuriken. This was a world where chakra became their primary technological revolution.

Think about it: Why develop long-range radio when you can send messages instantly via summons? Why build tanks when a single ninja could level them? Why pursue robotics when you could animate objects directly?

Hmm... but that raised interesting possibilities. If chakra had supplanted certain technological paths, what about combining both? Our world pushed electronics to their limits because we had no choice. But here...

I focused chakra through my tiny body, feeling its flow. This wasn't just magic - it was energy that could be measured, directed, enhanced. A tool that could be studied with scientific rigor. And unlike our world's technology, it was built into every cell.

The medical monitors beeped steadily, tracking my vital signs. Current tools augmented by chakra healing. But what if we went further? Chakra-enhanced computers? Seals that could process information? Neural interfaces that...

My infant body hiccupped, interrupting my grand plans for technological revolution. Right. First priority: survive being premature. Then maybe tackle combining science and chakra without accidentally creating a singularity.

Still... fascinating research potential.

-o-

In some magic systems there's a focus on visualization and for many the primary focus. If you couldn't visualize something, you couldn't perform it. Curious if this would be a permanent barrier for those with aphantasia? Maybe a topic for further research.

For now though, I had a mindscape to create.

I attempted to channel chakra into an abstract space of thought and attempted to place my memories there. It felt like trying to build a dream from scratch. The energy dissipated. Hmm... perhaps too abstract.

On a whim I thought maybe this is all a simulation.

Run Mindscape... Nothing.

If (mind . hasChakra = true) { mindScape . initialize(); } ... Nothing.

Apparently this universe doesn't run on command line or JavaScript.

I tried guiding my chakra to a mental space that already exists... it felt like my chakra would hit walls or boundaries inside my own mind. I slowly tried to trace the outside. I lost track of how long I was trying. An image of a gigantic dial combination lock appeared in my mind with the dial slowly turning. The dial hitched, like hitting the right number. My body instantly recoiled in fear. It was an overwhelming intensity as if I drew the attention of something beyond me. Like the abyss staring into me or with the intensity of the eye of Sauron.

I decided I'll pursue a different tack as I'm not ready for whatever that was.

Let's see, how did they learn the mindscape in the show. Wasn't it meditation? You need to clear your thoughts to do that right? I don't think I've ever had less than 3 thoughts in my head at any given time, but let's try it out.

...

...

...

The thought that if aphantasia can't do things requiring visualization, maybe the opposite is true. If a mindscape requires a clear mind, then maybe I can't perform it. The meditation didn't seem to do anything, but maybe I still need practice. For now I'll give something else a shot.

I visualized how my memories are connected. Starting from one memory, branching to 2, then 4, then 16. I slowly crawled the web of my mind.

I began to see the larger picture, it was indeed a web as in a network, but... it has a pattern. The weave of my mind. The topological structure of my consciousness.

From this big picture view, it's easier to evenly distribute my chakra. I could feel the electrical flow of my chakra through the neural pathways. It was as if I hit a threshold and it was like falling into a dream, but with total awareness.

I felt as though I was the one being materialized in a space that has always existed. It was my mindscape, and the first sensation was pure nostalgia - that distinct library smell. Old paper and wooden shelves with the hint of vanilla from the bindings.

I found myself sitting in a meditative stance uncomfortably on what I expected to be the floor, but was layers of haphazardly strewn books creating an uneven surface beneath me. Every fidget causing mini avalanches of thumping and flopping books from the unstable slopes around me.

I'm not usually claustrophobic, but this tiny room felt more like a prison cell. What little room existed was drowning in books. The one wall I could see the top of had overflowing bookshelves. As for the other walls, books blocked their visibility as more than half of the presumed room size was filled with books.

Is this a representation of my cluttered thoughts or the result of too many memories in too small a vessel?

Am I a hoarder of data? Would I have to purge memories to make room for new ones? The thought of destroying experiences that made up my past life feels like destroying part of that life. Maybe I can compress the data somehow?

I picked up the nearest book. It was slightly damaged and worn paperback with a cover that simply had the title '2015-03-24'. I flipped it open and it began to describe that day in my life however there was faded text that was harder to read as if representing forgotten memories. As I read the surrounding text it started to repopulate the text that was fading. It seems I can refresh my stale memories by reviewing and remembering them.

However, having a separate book for each day is not ideal for organization.

I spent time examining a variety of books and began to see commonalities. There were some books that were not simply titled with the date. These were books that were well-worn where I had painstakingly organized my thoughts on given topics. Technical skills were in thick textbooks.

I picked up one of the programming books, not surprisingly half the text was troubleshooting best practices: 'Step 1: check logs Step 2: restart it'

The memories that formed from my brief time in this world were represented a little differently. They manifested as unblemished scrolls that seemed to have been imbued with chakra. Interesting - It seems with a body that has a chakra network memories are stored differently.

I unfurled one of the scrolls and it listed the few words I've heard in this world. Mainly Japanese represented in vertical lines. My thoughts written next to it in English as subtext.

With intention I decide that I will compress the books that are raw data dumps of days into an archive. This will remove the redundancy, but allow recovery of the specifics if I need it someday. I bring into existence a filing cabinet to represent the archive. I take each of the books representing each given day and disassemble it to be archive.

At first this process is slow, but I start to get better at it. Once I've got the knack for it the visualization of this archiving looks as though I spaghettify the books and draw the relevant noodles of data to their respective folders in the filing cabinet.

On completion of compression and archiving the filing cabinet has folders organizing dates, tags, and topics used as metadata for the raw data contained within. I also can finally see the floor. Wooden boards that seem to squeak no matter how you step on them. A ninja floor indeed.

The 'topic' books get their own bookshelf. As I organize the 'topic' books I find one labeled Naruto. Opening to a random page. The left page shows a summary of a specific episode, while the right page shows an animated video of that episode. That may definitely come in handy.

Beside that bookshelf, I think into existence a scroll shelf to hold and organize the newer memories of this world.

I know that one of the first things I'll need to do is learn the rest of Japanese. I think I had a topic book for that started. With that book I start to fill out and decipher more words by filling in the blanks from past memories. I especially leverage the recent scrolls with Japanese text and pronunciation/phonetics.

I'm snapped out of my focus and back to the real world as my mouth heavily salivates. My body happily informs me there's more milk to be had.

Fascinating how I've organized my vast knowledge and memories thoroughly, yet my highest priority alert system is still "milk goes in mouth hole."