Chapter 3. Deer Scarer

I was startled out of my sleep as I felt a sharp pain in my thigh. In my panic, time seemed to freeze as if it was for the sole purpose of allowing me to experience this sharp pain more intensely. As my eyelids slowly opened I impatiently waited to see the cause of my suffering. It felt like an eternity, but it couldn't have been more than a second before I could see.

One of the med-nin were giving me a shot. Though I found the source of my pain, my body wailed as it was still worked up in confusion and fear.

As I became more relaxed time seemed to return to normal.

My body's wail dying down to a whimper as the med-nin reassures and comforts me. My mind torn between being insulted and appreciative. This certainly is a precarious predicament.

-o-

I reflected on my blessed/cursed time perception ability.

On the one hand I was cursed.

Cursed with little control of it's activation. Cursed with coughing fits by slight slow downs in time interrupting my normally rhythmic breathing patterns. Cursed with spells of vertigo as my brain processes events faster than it takes my inner ear to send signals for external changes.

Cursed with any pain receptor signal seeming to last ten times longer than it takes my body to handle the offending cause of the signal. Everything from the sting in my eyes for needing to blink to an itch that my little body struggles to reach.

Cursed with needing to relearn how to do almost everything while this ability was active. Every sense had distinct side effects. Some that were small adjustments, but others that felt like it might make mastery near impossible.

On the other hand I was blessed.

Blessed with the power to subjectively slow down time.

Who wouldn't want to subjectively live longer or have more time to make decisions. Who wouldn't want more time to cherish a memory by focusing on every detail as it occurs.

Every miniscule molecule of smell noted.

Every individual visual update from rods and cones as it's processed.

Every opportunity to divide out vibrations into their respective sounds.

Every haptic signal given sufficient attention.

Every flavor discerned.

And additionally every personality perceived through chakra.

Of course all of the above would require mastery, but something to shoot for. Really I've already begun.

I contemplate the last time my time perception ability activated. In the very beginning it's like time stops, but that doesn't last long. Then time still feels slow as if 2 seconds pass for every one second of real time. Though it only lasts for a short while, like 5 seconds of real time. Perceiving twice as fast as normal is no joke, but I wonder if I can improve it even more.

I should come up with a cool name for it and catalog it's properties:

Overclocked Cognition - Nosoku no Jutsu:
-Fight or Flight Activation:
-Perception and thought rate: 2 seconds per 1 second real time (2x speed)
-Duration: 5 seconds real time
-Cooldown: Unknown
-Side Effects: Headaches, hunger

-o-

I was again pulled from my thoughts by a compulsion of comfort and protection. My body fidgeted with uncontained anticipation of being held by its mother.

My new parents have come for a visit. I guess I have to come to terms with the fact these are my parents now and drop the new or second parents thing. Not only because this is my new reality but if I keep framing things like that I'll probably eventually slip and that could have very bad consequences.

I could only pick out a few words that were discussed between my parents and the medic-nin. They were "feed", "milk", and "home".

Considering we're not home yet, I'm guessing they are seeing if I'm stable enough for "traditional milk". If that all goes well maybe that means I can leave this medical room?

Focusing my chakra senses to my mother I again was confronted with a warmth that surpassed mere words. Though to describe a fraction of it; it was like the outer warmth of a blanket, warmed by fire stones combined with inner warmth of a cup of tea.

Turning to my father, even his warmth was more pronounced than before. Like resting my head on a peaceful fuzzy animal, feeling the warmth of it's skin while hearing its steady calming breath.

As my mother swaddled me in her arms and fed me. My father was speaking to me. I could only pick out a few words.

"-you're going to make it, Shikatsu."

-o-

I was finally leaving the hospital room. My mother carrying me in cloth beside my father. Upon leaving the building, my body experienced sensory overload from the tumultuous bustling city. The shock triggered my hyper perception giving me some time to reflect on each of my senses.

The seemingly unending aisles of buildings and shops with the strong midday sun beaming down from above. The crunching of gravel under hundreds of feet. The dozens of overlapping conversations. The contrasting smells of food courts and markets.

After I got my senses under control, something caught my attention. The plateau like cliff with faces chiseled into them. Hokage Rock with only 3 faces, Hashirama Senju, Tobirama Senju, and Hiruzen Sarutobi.

That points to it being before Naruto's born, though they could have taken a while to add the fourth Hokage's face.

In front of that, a giant cylindrical like building with two slightly smaller cylindrical buildings jutting attached to the sides. Hokage mansion.

The architecture was unique. A lot of buildings had a similar build to earth, flat vertical walls forming a rectangle with slanted roofs. However, many of the buildings were circular. Large cylindrical walls with wide wooden planks used for roofing. Some of the cylindrical homes had smaller second floors that were also cylindrical, like short silos.

Another unique element of the architecture is how the piping seem to be haphazardly draped across the roofing. With some more sensible piping around the lip of the roofs connecting to others running horizontally on walls.

We eventually made our way to my parents home. My new home. My mother laid a blanket down in what I assume is the living room and laid beside me. Shortly after, my father laid on the other side. It seems my parents may have taken the day off as they stayed like that for most of the day. Talking, smiling, joking and occasionally bickering.

My body loved the attention as its two most important people in the world doted over me. My mind was busy memorizing every spoken word to help with learning the language.

While I listen to my parents go back and forth, I notice a pattern where my father commonly answers with a single muttered word. I infer based on the tone and consistent use that it's a very specific word. I begin to wonder if Nara baby's learn to speak this word first. Of course that word being...

Troublesome.

As interesting as those quirks are, there's also an atmosphere of concern and worry. I can't make out if it's about me specifically, the family, or something bigger.

My mother made her way to the kitchen and pulled out a scroll that I saw she was given from the medic-nin while we were still at the hospital. She unrolled the scroll and then applied chakra. There was a puff of smoke and a stack of boxes appeared over the scroll. The stock reached to the ceiling with a couple of the boxes labelled "milk formula".

My mind reflected on this information as simply a useful data point. However, my body upon understanding this fact cooed in anticipation.

-o-

During the nights I studied and experimented with chakra. I mainly use my chakra to practice my perception speed.

I began my nightly ritual of focusing chakra in my brain. Over the nights of practice, it's becoming easier and it feels as though time is slowing around me after each session. There were no clocks in my room, but thankfully my parents had shishi-odoshi in the small garden outside the house.

If you're not familiar, a shishi-odoshi is a short bamboo stalk on a hinge that fills up with water causing it to become top heavy, tip and empty out in fixed intervals. When it tips down from becoming top heavy it makes a distinct *thunk* noise from the hollow bamboo. Fun fact, "shishi-odoshi" means "scare deer." Slightly ironic given the Nara's predilection for deer, but I guess even the Nara want to keep some of their garden free from them.

So in absence of a clock, this gave me fixed intervals that I could test how fast I was perceiving.

When I focus on slowing time relatively, it seems to barely slow, which makes it hard to judge how fast I'm perceiving. However, if I had to guess it's about 20% faster than normal. Put another way for every 5 seconds that pass, I feel as though 6 seconds have passed.

Intentionally activating does not yet have a strong effect, but I can hold it for significantly longer. It feels like I can hold it for about 30 minutes of real time before I begin to run low on chakra.

I need to add the manual activation to my mental catalogue of abilities:

Overclocked Cognition - Nosoku no Jutsu:
-Manual Activation:
-Perception and thought rate: 1.2 seconds per 1 second real time (1.2x speed)
-Duration: 30 minutes real time (due to lack of chakra or physical energy, not inherent in the ability)
-Cooldown: None
-Side Effects: Peckish

After my training and experimentation I retreat to my mindscape for reflection and organize memories. Some nights I somehow manage to stay in my mind palace during sleep as if I'm able to lucid dream and use that time productively. My mind palace has slowly grown as I have. It now resembles a large library room.

-o-

Though the nights were memorable, the days were fulfilling with so much of the culture to learn. I would focus on learning the language and acquiring information. I mentally reviewed some of the more notable details.

My name is Shikatsu Nara.

Shikatsu (死活) means life and death.

My parents are Shikaku Nara and Yoshino Nara.

I'm no longer the size of a rodent and am resembling the size of a normal human baby, if not slightly smaller.

Physically, my body is 6 months old.

I understand about half of the language.

I'm born before Naruto.

I attempted to think of any important facts as my mother carried me through the streets. As my body was just happy to be nestled up against it's mother, I was more concerned about hearing the conversations between the villagers at the market stalls we were passing.

I catch the end of a sentence partly from noises in the crowd, but mostly because I don't know the language perfectly.

"-White Fang's fault-" a husky man says in frustration to a thin older woman.

The older woman leans over her food stand and glances around conspiringly. In a nervous whisper I can only make out "-means war-".

As I study my mother's face and chakra, I can feel the unease and anxiety. With my chakra sensing I can get an overall vibe of the village and it paints a vivid picture. It's the feeling of losing balance at the edge of a cliff. While that alone only feels unnerving, up higher on this metaphorical mountain, an avalanche has begun.

The emotional weight puts my body in a daze and my body grips my mother tighter and lets out a small whimper.

-o-

Before I know it we're back home and Mother sets me down in the living room and I struggle to recollect my thoughts.

White fang, that was Kakashi's father. I remember he chose his teammates over an important mission and the village hated him for it. It was said that it was the catalyst for the third shinobi war.

...

That means I've been born before the third shinobi war, but presumably too late to stop it. Definitely positives and negatives to this time period. The double edged sword of being able to prevent some terrible things with the risk of making them worse...

I contemplate potential actions or worse letting preventable calamities happen for the hope of "staying on the best timeline". Like not pulling the lever on a trolly about to run people over for fear that there's unseen people on the other track.

The downstream effects are too chaotic to try to thread a needle from years before they happen.

I muse about all those fanfics that fret about not wanting anything to change. I admit it is tempting, but I know my presence alone already throws the proverbial wrench in the plans.

Well you know what they say-

'If you can dodge a wrench you can dodge a ball?'

Well I was actually going to say - when life throws a wrench, catch it and start buildin...

Wait, who said that?