Chapter 1: Everyone Choose Sides

Sam had read his fair share of isekai novels and manga, and they always seemed to focus on the sights and sounds of being born--for him, though, the feeling was the worst part. He couldn't see a thing, and the only sounds were muffled murmurs coming from all around. The sensation, though, god it was terrible. He was wrapped in this tight, wet darkness which undulated against his skin over and over again.

He tried to breathe-big mistake. His lungs were perfectly able of making the motion for breathing, however, no air entered them, creating a vacuous feeling in his chest which immediately made him think he was drowning. Samuel had actually drowned once-or, at least, he had vague memories of drowning a long time ago. He couldn't be sure, his memory was quite hazy.

The most uncomfortable part of the whole situation was the fact that, despite not breathing, he really wasn't drowning. You'd be surprised how used to breathing your body gets over the years-and to have it suddenly removed made Sam unnerved to say the least.

What seemed like an eternity later, his circumstances changed drastically. Suddenly he was being evicted from his void--not that he was complaining, but perhaps a bit of notice would've been nice. His eyes still seemed glued shut, but he could tell that beyond them stood a vast light. A warm light. And a breeze! His ears were still pretty new, so his hearing wasn't the best, but he could definitely hear voices-unfortunately speaking a language he couldn't understand, though it was a language he recognized: Japanese. 'Well great' Sam thought. 'Now I have to learn a whole other language'

To be fair, if he truly was just born, he should be in a critical period for language learning so it wouldn't be too difficult to learn, especially if he was going to have constant immersion.

It took a few minutes for Sam to acclimate to the outside-but once he did, he enjoyed every minute of it. The breeze, the heat of the sun, the smell of grass and wood, the light beyond his eyelids--What a wonderful world!

But hold on...there's something else. Sam thought it was just a sort of shock that made the world seem so much more alive, so much more...present-but it actually seems as though there's some sort of energy in him and around him. He couldn't really tell what it was, the sensation was faint, and hiding behind his senses, but Sam could swear he felt something.

-

A few days later, the answers to many of his questions became apparent. When he opened his eyes, he saw a world unlike anything in from his own. The people were wearing vaguely eastern inspired clothing, with building materials that seemed out of the 16th or 17th century Japan-with strange elements of much further technological development from the 18th or 19th century.

Moreover, his mother seemed to have finally settled on a name, or at least what Sam guessed was his name:

"Kannin," she said "what are you doing over there?"

His mother was doting to say the least-irritating to more fully developed consciousness, but understandable for a baby. Her hair was fire orange, and her eyes were an icy blue. Her face had a hard look about it, and she always seemed to be upset when absent-minded, but when she was with Sam she became more kindly and caring.

From what Sam could gather, he had been reborn into the Narutoverse. His mother had the hair of an Uzumaki, which was exciting, but he didn't know who his father was; he was never around, and mom never mentioned him around Sam, but compared to an Uzumaki, who could really ask for more?

Now in his mother's arms, he took the time to sleep. Being a baby is tiring-and irritating-so sleep is always a good respite from the world.

-

So it's been a few years. 4 to be exact. Sam is definitely in the Narutoverse. It turns out that he had been born in Konoha-which is a relief. Furthermore, it seems like he was born in one of the interwar periods, with the Second Great Shinobi War starting just last year-the current Hokage is Hiruzen, and it seems like he still has a number of years left of his reign.

In the meantime, Sam, now Kannin, had been trying to feel out his chakra. He remembered that Naruto hadn't even really learned anything about chakra until his first mission, so Sam assumed that it wasn't something that you normally taught to children until they were ready. He quickly found out why: while trying to work out how he remembered chakra to work in the manga, he ended up causing himself a significant deal of pain in his stomach area.

"Kannin, what's going on over there?"

His mother could tell by the grimace across his face that something was wrong with him.

"I'm okay" Kannin responded

That's another development from the last year or so. Sam was worried that learning Japanese would be a large roadblock for him early on, but his child's mind seemed to soak up linguistic information like a dry sponge, and his proficiency with it was increasing with the day.

The reason he was trying to unlock his chakra was not only that it was a crucial element of life in this world, but also because tomorrow he would start at the academy.