My SI Stash #5 - Revolution by black9 (Naruto)

-Pretty impressive fic~ With some feels trip too, I gotta say underdog MC stories goes hard, the way our MC fought so cleverly against an opponent that is supposed to be extremely powerful was just gratifying! And the death of *REDACTED* showed us that the author isn't afraid of making a beloved character die, in a realistic and reasonable way with plot relevance of course. I can really respect that as most authors INDULGE themselves by allowin their fav characters to live and just ignore overall the flow of the story.

Synopsis: SI-OC Naruto fanfiction. Mostly canon until Tsunade becomes Godaime, changes snowball together at some point. MC will do his damn best to become strong enough to survive, while trying to bring some civilization in a world where 12 years old are taught how to kill.

Rated: T

Words: 109K

Posted on: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13519657/1/Revolution (black9)

PS: If you're not able to copy/paste the link, you have everything in here to find it, by simply searching the author and the story title. It sucks that you can't copy links on mobile (´ー｀)

-I'll be putting the chapter ones of all the fanfics mentioned, to give you guys a sample if you wan't more please do go to the website and support the author! (And maybe even convince them to start uploading chapters in here as well!)

Chapter 1-3 (exceptional)

This is my first attempt at SI-OC Naruto fanfiction. As I said in the title, my character will focus on staying alive, at least at first...

I don't think I will put lemons in it, because quite frankly I don't think writing what the MC thinks about anal sex is character building. There is a fuckton of smut out there if you need to wank, use a bloody porn site.

English is not my mother language, so I could do it with a beta-reader.

I'll write what I can when I want, so there it is.

P.S.

I said it on my profile already, but I shall repeat: suggestions and constructive comments and reviews are welcome. If you don't like what a character does or does not, save yourself time and don't tell me since the characters will do what the hell I want them to (that's the whole point of fanfiction).

If something doesn't add up feel free to tell me. Especially if the logic behind it doesn't make sense!

Thank you, and have fun!

Chapter 1:

Awakening

The first thing I clearly remember is feeling somewhat confused.

For a lot of reasons: I was no longer twenty-two years old (at least judging by my pudgy hands, blurry vision, and attention span of a mosquito), other children were roaming around, the adult people around me were not speaking my home country language, and I was enthralled by a bright orange wood cube.

Don't get me wrong, I normally don't despise orange, or wood, or regular geometrical 3-D objects, it's fascinating, really, but before this first memory of me in a little body, I am quite sure I was just about to submit my thesis for my Bachelor degree in History.

From there my confusion.

It most definitely was not a dream, simply because if you can think about being in a dream while you are sleeping, it's easy to distinguish it from reality. At least this is always been something I could do.

My confusion was slowly subdued by my rising panic.

WHAT THE FUCK!?

I was almost hyperventilating, and boy is it not something stupid to do? The other children would notice something was wrong with me, so would the adults, and I would found myself in some secret military lab being dissected for some reason or another.

Because seriously, what else it could be? I wasn' t two years old! And yet I most certainly appeared as such. I forced myself to calm down.

Looking around curiously, I noticed a distinct lack of cameras or soldiers or even mad scientists for what mattered.

Maybe the cameras were super small though, so I couldn't start studying my environment like the paranoid adult I was.

Following a gut feeling, I spent the following hours crying, playing and mindlessly roaming on my unsteady legs, blending in with the other children.

From what I could observe, they were regular annoying little toddlers, I looked to be in an orphanage of some kind. I didn't hate them, I was the same slobbering mess at their age, but that raised other questions. Like why was I the only adult in disguise? And why they were all talking in what my limited experience with animes identified as Japanese?

Not that there was anything wrong with japan, just, I had always thought that strange experiments regarding transplanting an adult into a baby were more up America's alley.

Another problem was that I couldn't read Japanese. That meant that even if I managed to somehow find a random document that explained everything, I wouldn't understand it. I only hoped that the official documents would be in English.

At the end of the day, I wasn't equipped well enough to properly investigate.

Laying low was my only option until my body caught up with my mind and I found a way to escape.

That is, in the worst-case situation.

Maybe I simply had been struck down by an aneurism and reborn into the body of a Japanese. Which was worrying, but workable with.

For a time that I could hardly define, it could have been a few months or a year, I tried to fly under their radar.

I started recognizing some words and the mysteries of Japanese were slowly start to unravel in front of me.

However the orphanage had some inconsistencies, like the wooden floors, that I thought was something for more refined environments, and bad food. I mean, if you can afford posh wooden floors and their maintenance you can afford something different than rice at every fucking meal. Bread! I needed bread and cheese! And what is it with the fish? It was everywhere! Sometimes pork, okay. But what about beef? Hell, pasta! Ravioli! whatever! I needed something that at least could remember Italian food!

I could make do with noodles, noodles were awesome, but it wasn't the same.

The names of the other kids had been something I could seldom say just right, at least until I became (At least following my gut) four years old. Around my 'fourth' birthday, the Japanese suddenly clicked, the cadence of the language fell in place on my tongue, and I started directly thinking in Japanese without noticing. It was then that I realized that I already had the reputation of being a dimwit, it was subtle, but the way the matron of the orphanage waited just a little more for me to answer to her question was proof enough.

Excuse me if I had to learn a whole new language on my own. I thought bitterly at the time, before realizing that it could be something that kept me even more sheltered from scrutinizing eyes.

Another strange thing that I had noticed was the complete absence of newspapers, and there wasn't television that we orphans had access to. And also, the games: there wasn't a single western chess board anywhere, or a monopoly, for what mattered. All the books the children had access to were filled to the brim with ninjas or more rarely samurais. Animals and trees were still And while I had never been allowed to leave the premises of the orphanage, I never heard a single-engine, nor saw a single airplane crossing the sky. My being dimwitted had kept me from being shown off to the occasional couple of parents wishing to adopt, but that had not stopped me from noticing their clothes: often kimonos of some kind, almost always sandals. I thought that I lived in some kind of Amish reserve in the middle of nowhere.

I was maybe five when I saw it for the first time. It wasn't a coincidence that I hadn't noticed it until then after all the courtyard of the orphanage didn't face the mountainside of the city.

It was a sunny, cloudless day. Late autumn, I would have said. We were in a time of the year which didn't belong to either summer or winter, but the mornings were becoming colder and the afternoons shorter.

Probably, my asking her how to write my name on the previous day had helped in her decision. It had been a strange moment.

I had been sitting alone under a window, absentmindedly tracing my fingers over the few kanjis over the illustrated book. I was trying to decipher them, but beyond recognizing the same symbol here and there, I was having little luck.

The orphanage's matron leaned over my shoulder out of nowhere: "Reading, are we?"

I summoned all my cuteness and stared at her with wide eyes, grabbing my Japanese and stringing it together in what I hoped was: "Teach me?"

It worked. The woman smiled and ruffled my hair, making me smile impishly. She chooses to teach me only how to write my name. I was skeptical, but it turned out learning how to write was more difficult than I had previously thought.

My name was Daiki, and the woman had shown me that it was written with 大 (dai) meaning "big, great" combined with 輝 (ki) meaning "brightness", or 樹 (ki) meaning "tree", or even 貴(ki) meaning "valuable". She told me that while all sounded the same, the meanings were very different. I told her that I wanted to be 大輝. She told me that I was a 'big tree' instead. I didn't care, it was my name, I would bloody write it as I wished.

And while I had to resist the urge of rolling my eyes at her patronizing tone, I found the idea of kanji simply beautiful. Oh, it wasn't effective at all, I knew that. E... that alphabet was extraordinarily versatile and precise. But in my opinion lacked the subtle elegance kanjis were capable of. I asked her if she could teach me how to properly write, and that I think surprised her. She had simply told me that I could start learning from the following week. I had a couple of months of catch up to do, but I could sit along with the others six years old kids.

Back to us, after my display of what I guess could be called maturity, I was allowed to play in the park on the other side of the road. Luckily, maybe because of my often blank expression (unnatural on a child) or general quietness, the other kids tended to leave me alone, and the matron, besides the occasional bout of kindness, was far too busy to keep a close eye on me. So my general loneliness, while swinging between nerve-wracking and welcome, went unnoticed.

It was then that I decided I was reborn into a cult of some kind. Seriously, why in the fucking hell there would be a Mount Rushmore with an anime character on the north side of the city?

All the inconsistencies had come together that way. The magically being reborn in there raised a shy objection in my mind. After all, I had read enough fanfictions to recognize the beginning of an SI-OC fanfiction of Naruto when I was starring in it. I stared at the monument that was the trademark of Konohagakure no Sato for what looked like a lifetime. My blood rushed into my ears and I could only hear the beating of my heart. I forced myself to look around and try to find out if it was only a big cosplay moment or not.

The park had a low wooden fence and benches, with an abundance of bushes and skimpy trees, slides and even a sandbox. I walked around a bit in my short legs, casually noticing how most girls had frilly dresses and jumpers while the boys (myself included) wore cargo pants of some kind and tracksuit covering our torsos. The popularity of sandals was mind-blogging, even if I had little choice but to go with the flow. Everything us orphans from the orphanage wore only second-hand clothes, but the material was sturdy and managed to keep me warm, so I couldn't complain.

Trees were sprouting everywhere between the condominiums, and while there wasn't a single cloud in sight, leaves were fluttering everywhere over our heads. Looking back, even cultists wouldn't give wooden kunais to children to play with. Or would they? After watching The Following I thought that everything was possible for a cultist.

A noise broke the pattern of children squabbling and I turned to see three older kids walking down the road laughing among themselves, I immediately recognized their hitai ate (forehead protector). They had forgettable faces and moved... well like civilians actually, no show of magic chakra powers of any kind. I was starting to relax. It's only a cult of Naruto. I thought somewhat relieved. The situation still had a lot of problems and issues I needed to solve, but I had to deal with humans, no strange shit. Physics was still real, and I wasn't going to attend Hogwarts, not a strange ring to toss into an active volcano. Surviving was doable.

I blinked, and in a gust of wind, a man with a shiny hitai ate appeared in front of them, scaring everyone shitless. Probably the trio had done some bullshit, I had other thoughts running amock in my head. It is real. sounded in my head.

I stumbled towards an empty patch of bushes and puked what was left of my lunch. Shit shit shit shit shit it cannot go worse shit shit shit shit.

"Hey did you eat a slug?" a kid asked, triggering a waterfall of laughter out of the other children that choose exactly that moment to look at me.

I looked up from my vomit to stare at the laughing kids in the eyes, before stopping my gaze on the one that expressed such a refined example of humor.

"Yeah." I deadpanned. "Yeah, I ate a slug."

Chapter 2

The academy was a curious place, I decided. It had been a long day for my young body, but I had learned loads.

The Academy was a huge building in Konohagakure located directly at the base of the Hokage Mountain. It was where prospective ninja got trained and where genin without a team received their missions since it turned out that the Genin Corps were not only a fandom thing.

It had been founded by the Second Hokage out of military necessity. The Academy was quite large and was comprised of several buildings which were erected over time. There was an unmistakable tree in front of it which had a swing on it, and it was easy to recognize also thanks to the giant sign with the kanji for "fire" (火) on it. Classrooms in the Academy were large with high ceilings, based on a theory that larger classrooms lead to expansive education, expanding even to the blackboard itself. In my head that qualified as 'feng shui bullshit'. In front of the blackboard there was a podium, situated far from the students' desks and put in a position where the teacher could view everyone at once.

It was exactly like in Naruto.

My first self imposed job had been understanding exactly how much this world was similar to the narutoverse. I still had to observe a single difference.

A week after learning how to write my name, I had told the matron that I wished to become a ninja. Her smile had become somewhat fixed, surprising me. Her reaction, which had been a carefully disguised distaste, didn't match my vision of propaganda deeply rooted into the head of everyone.

But since then I had been allowed a single room, and I thought that the size of my riceballs had increased. It was a disgusting thought. Selling the life of the shinobi to the orphans through little privileges. I understood I could even relate with the Kages, but it was disgusting. I forced myself to listen to the stories the caretakers of the orphanage told us children before going to bed and I cursed my previous choice of ignoring them, I would have known where I was sooner. Everyone loved the Yondaime, and the Kyubi was a taboo topic. No references anywhere.

I learned how to write my name a few months before. Since then, I started learning how to read and write, hating the fact that even the numbers had to be written with kanji. Joining the other kids in the informal lessons that taught us how to write and read had been a necessary pain. The genius kid's humor had stuck with me, but the joke was on him since I assumed eatslug as my surname. 食蝓 was a pain to write correctly, but hell, Kanjis remained an idea that summoned deep fascination within me.

I entered my little room briefly looking in the mirror that hanged on the door. I was a boy (thank you god, buddha and Spongebob) with hair of a dirty blond, which tended to form an untameable mop over my head. I had normal eyes, with irises of a grayish-blue. Normal since people that walked around without pupils were real. From what I could divine beyond the pudgy appearance of my six years old face, I would end up having high cheekbones and a square jaw. But it was too soon to tell. I shrugged off the outer layer of my tracksuit before collapsing tiredly over my little bed. I just had dinner and I felt a little dizzy. I was glad that I could simply retire in my room, no longer mandatory 'playtime' with the other orphans. Today we had what could be called an 'open day' during which they showed us the academy. Again, it had been a long day for my little young body.

It was appropriate. Little bed, little window, little desk, little closet. I was just glad that being an aspiring shinobi meant that I was excused from performing the duties of maintenance. So no dishwashing! Which was only another policy to push children into the arms of the military. But that wasn't my problem. From the following day, I would start attending the academy, I was... not excited, but it was something that I needed, simply because living in that world meant belonging to one of two categories of people: predators and prey. Like hell I was going to stay a civilian.

Sitting at the feet of my bed I forced myself to pick up a pencil and smoothed down the stack of paper on my desk.

The paradoxes were mind-blogging, really, they didn't have cars or planes, but the paper was exactly like the one of my first life. I took a breath and started writing down what I knew about chakra and stuff. In English, no need to leave around stuff that could point at me like some super spy. Besides shinobi were prone to become paranoid, suspecting of everyone was something that usually kept you alive.

And there was my brilliant idea: in the same way, I couldn't learn how to write in Japanese on my own, they couldn't decipher whatever I wrote down in English.

Then I remembered about the Yamanaka and their mind-reading Jutsu. I could only hope that thinking in another language could drive them off. My first line of defense should still be 'fly under the radar'.

I read what I had been writing down:

Jutsu(術, Literally meaning: skills/techniques) are the mystical arts a ninja will utilize in battle. To use a technique, the ninja will need to use their chakra. To perform a technique, the ninja will bring out and release the two energies of chakra. By forming hand seals, the ninja can manifest the desired technique. Because of the extensive number of hand seals and different combinations, there are thousands of potential techniques to be discovered.

Ninshū (忍宗 Ninja Creed, Literally meaning: Shinobi Cult) is the religion and the peaceful precursor of modern ninjutsu created by Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki, the first one to understand and teach the mystery of chakra. The teachings of ninshū were meant to give people a better understanding of themselves, as well as others, and lead the world into an era of peace. Ninshū would eventually come to be known as ninjutsu, a more weaponized version of the Sage's teachings.

There are three basic types of techniques: ninjutsu, genjutsu and taijutsu. Subcategories existed, including fūinjutsu and senjutsu. There were also kekkei genkai abilities which aren't techniques, but inherited abilities passed down through certain clans.

"Summing it up," I murmured to myself "Chakra is some kind of energy, split in yin and yang. Jutsu is everything shinobi do that uses said energy. Taijutsu is martial arts enhanced by chakra, ninjutsu is spitting fireballs and genjutsu illusions."

I kept reading what I spent hours jotting down, hoping to find a trick to become very strong, very fast.

Most ninjutsu require chakra and hand seals, but this is not always the case since the mere usage of weaponry qualifies as ninjutsu. The huge range of ninjutsu's uses is illustrated by its several sub-classifications: medical ninjutsu, reincarnation ninjutsu, space-time ninjutsu, barrier ninjutsu, sealing jutsu, and cursed seal jutsu.

Most ninjutsu use shape transformation, which deals with controlling the form and movement of the ninjutsu, while nature transformation deals with changing the ninjutsu's physical properties. Ninjutsu that uses nature transformation tends to follow a naming convention of their nature type followed by a more specific name. With practice and experience, certain ninjutsu can become second nature to a ninja, allowing them to perform it at will.

Medical Ninjutsu (医療忍術, Iryō Ninjutsu, Literally meaning: Medical Ninja Techniques) is a branch of ninjutsu associated with healing, as well as the manipulation of their own, or another's body, practiced by shinobi categorized as "medical-nin". The use of medical ninjutsu requires very advanced chakra control, as well as extensive knowledge of such things as herbs, medicines, the human body and even poisons.

The knowledge of medical ninjutsu can be used for a variety of purposes apart from simply healing. It can be used to create poisonous gas, deranging the target's nervous system, or directly attacking a target with chakra scalpels. Tsunade, renowned as the greatest medical-nin in the world, was able to apply the extreme chakra control required for medical ninjutsu to create chakra-enhanced strength.

"What overpowered skills are out there?" I asked myself.

I looked up and down my notes until I found again the Mokuton.

Wood Release (木遁, Mokuton: Wood Style) is a nature transformation-kekkei genkai, a combination of earth and water. It was famously used by Hashirama Senju and is not known to have naturally occurred in anyone else. Because of Wood Release's power and versatility, there have been various efforts to reproduce it after Hashirama's death. Wood Release techniques are commonly affiliated with the Snake hand seal.

At its simplest, Wood Release allows the user to create wood, essentially converting their chakra into a source of life before, at its greatest, becoming mighty trees of various sizes and shapes. The vegetation can sprout from the user's body or grow from the surroundings; Hashirama created a forest that served as a foundation for Konohagakure, contributing to his selection as First Hokage. Wooden constructs can also be created, ranging in complexity from cages to complete houses. It is not necessary that the created wood take any identifiable form, allowing users to focus on its inherent pliability to ensnare targets or its durability for brute force attacks.

Wood Release can produce very detailed, ornate constructs. The Mokuton: Transformation essentially creates a costume around the user, allowing them to convincingly pass as another person. By using senjutsu, Hashirama could create a gigantic, many-armed wooden statue that he fully controlled; its barrage of punches was chiefly responsible for the Valley of the End's formation. Wood Release's most versatile application is the Wood Clone Technique, which makes a fully-functional duplicate of the user that is indistinguishable from the original and is even capable of performing other jutsu. Sturdier than the Kage Bunshin.

The Wood Release was also equally famous for its power to manipulate, suppress, and/or absorb a target's chakra. Hashirama's mastery of this ability earning him recognition as one of the few people able to fully control a tailed beast. This would be done by ensnaring a target with the Wood Release and upon such physical contact would then control the chakra until they were finally too weak to escape.

Only those with Hashirama cells could use it.

The last period gave me pause. That meant something that nobody else ever noticed. It wasn't a Senju bloodline. It was a skill of Hashirama, which had been stolen by Obito, Madara, Danzo and copied through the cloning of Yamato. And white Zetsu. All of those used Hashirama' cells. Given my scientific knowledge, the thought of implanting the cells of another on oneself was mindboggling, and that it could gift a superpower that was simply absurd. So I thought that Hashirama discovered something that he either didn't understand or simply had deemed too dangerous to share. Mokuton was more about manipulating life force than it was about chakra. Probably that was why the tailed beasts were so affected by it. It was worth investigating.

Well, Sharingan and rinnegan are the top two, being a jinchuriki closely follows. I thought, skimming over the notes. Then I thought about the Kages, who stood at the peak of the food chain. Those without bloodlines, that I clearly could not copy, were Tsunade Senju, Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Raikages and the Yondaime Hokage.

Sarutobi used at least four chakra natures, which meant that every nature could be learnt. And that was Hiraishin was the most OP jutsu in the whole series, or close to the top. And there was some kind of fuinjutsu involved. The Rasengan helped, and it was versatile, I was confident that I knew enough about it to reverse engineer it, one day at least.

Tsunade was some kind of juggernaut. Besides her immortality trick, being able to heal your injuries looked like a must.

What did I know about fuinjutsu? It could seal away things. Every kind of thing. Souls and Tailed beasts included.

"Oh, yeah, I had forgotten that souls exist here." I said.

Becoming a sage was something that could likely help, and I knew that Hashirama was one without a Summoning Contract. So summoning animals was not necessary, even if it could grant me access to very nice skillset, after all, Jiraya had learnt the Toad taijutsu.

From what I remembered, to become a sage one needed vast reserves of chakra. So I couldn't bet on it. Also, speaking in general terms, the better chakra control one had, the longer he could last, and that meant more chance of survival.

I took out a blank paper, listing down what I believed I needed to learn. In a spark of twisted humor, I choose a title that made me laugh a little. Seriously, the narutoverse needed a cultural revolution. I missed my first life's music.

Stayin' Alive

Stuff I can start working on

1) chakra control

-Medical Ninjutsu

(along with its lethal applications)

-Tsunade's strength

-Genjutsu ( maybe? )

2)fuinjutsu

(endless applications, one day hiraishin)

3)taijutsu

(top can be reached with sheer hard work)

-Exercise

"Ninshū does sound like some kind of hippy religion," I reasoned "But understanding chakra, nature, and stuff is likely the best long term game I could play."

My objectives were clear, and the possible things I gad to learn to achieve those seemed clear enough. My natural inquisitiveness would probably push me toward ninshū anyway. Sure, I would need to adapt along the way, but it was something that resembled a plan. Now, I knew enough to get started on my chakra control and exercising my body, fuinjutsu... I would figure something out.

I slid down from the edge of the bed and sat cross-legged on the floor. The first thing however, was feeling my chakra. From what I had understood, everyone could become a shinobi, and it made sense, since chakra is basically life force, and everything alive has it. It was interesting considering the influence it had on the evolution of the species different from humans, that I believed ended up to be the Summon Tribes.

I breathed slowly. I knew that chakra was produced at the pit of the stomach, flowed through coils and could be expelled through tenketsu, which were a kind of little holes placed everywhere on the body. They all were kind of symmetrical, all but one over the heart. I hoped the academy explained that. I lit a candle and placed it in front of me.

I started regulating my breath to not disrupt the fire that shone brightly into the otherwise dark room. The night outside of the orphanage was pitch black, dark clouds hiding moon and stars from view. The silence in my room was heavy and thick, from time to time disrupted by a sound coming from downstairs. Along with the vague chill of the room, it made for a slightly uncomfortable environment.

I breathed slowly, erasing the presence of the occasional goosebumps on my skin, the light rustling of his clothes against my chest moving, the almost inaudible breeze outside.

The only sounds that registered on my perception were then only the very rare flicker of the candle and my blood rushing through my body. Soon, even those disappeared.

I had felt cold in the beginning, but slowly, my body stopped worrying about cold and hot, there was only the silence, and the flame sitting atop the candle. I close my eyes, letting the surrounding darkness swallowing me.

Even more slowly, my thoughts about my day faded into the background of my mind, my general worry about my situation no longer existed. Along with those thoughts, time stopped having any significance.

When my entire being was floating in nothing, my senses slowly falling asleep, I turned my attention inwards, looking for something. At first, I couldn't feel it. The simple act of looking for something disrupting my meditative state.

It can't be that hard, Naruto was an idiot and managed it without difficulty.

Quickly as it had appeared, even that thought disappeared into nothingness.

I reached inward, not with my will, mind or intent, since none of the parts that made me existed on their own. I simply was, and with my whole being, I reached until I could feel a warm center of something. A heat that started flowing like warm water through what I supposed were my coils. It didn't hurt, it wasn't searing hot, it was just there. Like finding again a friend I had forgotten about.

I opened my eyes to see the candle that had burned through half of its length: that meant that I had kept meditating for almost an hour. But it didn't matter! I had found my chakra!

I let out a delighted laugh! "I did it!"

I was overjoyed. In that world of death and surprisingly deep characters, I too had superpowers! I lost my focus and the glorious warmth faded from my limbs. But I could still feel it, like an ember at the pitch of my stomach, ready to ignite at my command.

I rose from my seated position and placed the candle on my desk, before blowing on it. The room was completely enveloped in darkness.

My tiredness couldn't be denied, and I climbed into the bed, still smiling at my success. And like that I fell asleep, honestly happy at the prospect of being able, one day, to spit fire.

Chapter 3

The first year of the academy- 15 November

It had been two weeks, and I only wanted to die most of the time. Muscles that I didn't know existed pulling and screaming without warning. Without endorphins I would have taken my own life immediately.

The abyssal stupidity of the children made me want to throttle them, but I couldn't. I could get away with being lonely, active despise could have raised all sorts of alarms in the wrong people. I had no doubt each student of the academy was watched like a hawk, after all, it seemed unwise to teach anything to someone that would fail under pressure, or become a psycho.

Well, an independent psycho. I thought to myself, after all, I could hardly define sane a society that proudly produced child soldiers.

I had nothing against soldiers, humans at the end of the day were only extremely efficient animals, it was good that we had a section of the population dedicated to keeping in check each other.

Every morning, I woke up at five, snatched stuff from the kitchens, and started running. Well, firstly I climbed the fence that was the border of the orphanage courtyard, then I ran in the park on the other side of the road. I reached the half an hour of non stop run before my legs started getting wooden. I stretched and drank from a drinking fountain. Some push-ups, then I reached one of the strange construct made of pipes (probably thought to teach the children how to climb), I stuck my legs in there and started working on my abdominal muscles. When the strain became too much, I left it and after drinking some more I walked on my hands. My balance was good enough, even if I wobbled a lot at the beginning.

I could have used chakra to enhance my strength, but I had no intention of doing so. For two reasons.

One, chakra augments the ability of what's already there, so the stronger the body, the stronger the power up granted by letting chakra flow in my coils. Well, it wasn't right. Since that first night, I've always been aware of my chakra, like a warm weight put on my stomach, and it was always flowing in my coils. But it's presence was passive, like a distended muscle: unless I willed it to, it didn't strengthen me. I did a lot of stretching after finishing my exercises. I wished there was a river with water at 22C for me to swim in so that I could wash while training muscles that were difficult to condition otherwise. I stopped only when my arms trembled too much to go on and run some more in the park.

I went back into the orphanage and hogged the bathroom first, then the washroom, where the early risers were already washing.

I had a giant breakfast, and meditated half an hour in my room, trying to become more aware of the flowing of my chakra. It was like having a pool of warm water held into a spherical bubble. Flexing metaphysical muscles, I made it twirl in one direction or another, following the little outpour that flowed through my coils. I wasn't really worried about hurting myself, after all chakra was a part of me in the same way my heart and lungs were. So killing myself while feeling my chakra was off the table. It would have been like dying because I held my breath for too long, impossible. The human body had mutated to accommodate the chakra, and at the end of the day it was a life force kind of energy.

I attended lessons at the academy, performing to the best of my ability on the practical aspects of it, that for now were simple obstacle courses while being less than bright in my academic performance. I still had difficulties in juggling around kanji. It brought with it a different way of thinking, and that made it difficult to follow a few details. At lunch I ate alone, not that anybody wished to play with 'eat slug', and I was grateful, loud children became annoying quick. Even with my additional training, or maybe because of it, the obstacle course was demanding. I insisted on not using chakra to augment my capabilities since the teachers didn't mention it. I thought that they would teach us about chakra after enough of us dropped out from the Academy, for now, it was history and basic math. It made sense, I wouldn't want to waste resources in teaching that stuff to a future civilian either.

The lessons finished at 17:00, when I bolted back to the orphanage and helped around our caretakers for an hour, in exchange the matron kept teaching me how to write and read kanjis always more complex, and even some poetry from time to time. The bare bones of it were memory exercises, but the elegance one could express through kanji was breathtaking. The matron's name was Chihiro, which meant 'a thousand questions', and while I was the one asking them, she was kind and patient answering them all. She was a note of innocence in the otherwise grim song of the shinobi nations.

After dinner, I spent several hours meditating, and performing the infamous leaf exercise. I was still performing it only with my hand, but I was keeping track of the time and I kept getting better. I understood what chakra control was all about: not wasting it. The chakra flowed through my coils and out if my tenketsus, the objective was letting it out only from the tenketsu I needed, and even then, only the amount necessary to the task, not even a drop more. After that there was the problem of keeping the flow even. It was hard work.

I had no idea about how to increase my chakra capacity. It stood to reason that it was something that behaved like a muscle, so, the more you use it (with the opportune rest) the more it grows. But working on suppositions was risky, so I choose to wait for the academy teachers to break in the topic.

The routine was lulling, and I had understood that the world I ended up in was the more adult-rated version of the narutoverse portrayed in the manga and anime. I could work with it. But I had one problem. The Yondaime wasn't dead yet. That meant that the Kyubi still had to attack.

I had no illusions, I couldn't prevent it, not if I wanted to stay under the radar. And my safety came before one of the other fictional characters this world was made of. Hell, my life came before the storyline, so fuck it all.

10 October- second year of academy

I didn't even realize it, but when I was five Konoha was at war. The Third Great Ninja War. I had to work on my awareness, having difficulties with the language was an excuse that I could use no longer. I was seven, and finally, I could speak and read Japanese fluently. My choice of keeping thinking in English slowed me down, but my hope of making my mind not compatible with the Yamanaka mind-reading Jutsu was a hope too bright to ignore.

On the side, at age six, Itachi Uchiha enrolled in the Academy, where he consistently scored the highest in each subject and quickly learned any skill taught to him, resulting in him being praised as the best of his generation. The academy started in September, and since the first of October, Itachi had been placed with the second years. I did not doubt that he would be pushed forward once November came, after all I remembered that after four months his teachers unanimously agreed to let him take the graduation exam early due to Itachi being more than advanced enough for genin.

Another complication had been his awkward loneliness and general quiet demeanor. Fangirls existed (already?) but were shy enough to steer clear of him. And my reputation as slug eater was enough to finish the job of keeping them away. Itachi would sit close enough to me during lunch, quietly enjoying his riceballs.

Since April I had been spending my afternoons on the academy's grounds, using their obstacle courses or training posts for better conditioning my body, often going back into the orphanage late into the night. Sneaking in and out had quickly become child's play, and on the rare times I had been found out, a couple of times even by the Uchiha Police Force, I insisted that I needed to train, that always led to being left alone. Turns out curfew existed only when war was in full swing.

That was the official reason, my real motive had been preparing for that very night. The only place I was sure hadn't been destroyed and was accessible to me was the academy. I remembered Naruto's birthday was on the tenth of October. And I was still trying to understand why they used a Roman calendar. That was yet another paradox of the world I had fallen into.

Itachi had taken to stay behind with me after the academy closed, probably pushed by a wrong sense of pity. He thought I was lonely! Ha!

Well I am a bit lonely. I admitted, tilting my head to look at my younger companion. He was the human version of the drawings of him I remembered from the manga. Dark eyes and hair, almost delicate features.

I looked around. The light wind had turned chilly, and the autumn was making itself known with leaves of bright yellow and blood-red twirling around, uncaring of the disaster that was about to take place.

We were sitting at a wooden table, under one of the street lamps that stood on the border of the academy' grounds.

Itachi moved the piece on the crude board that I had engraved on the table. "Checkmate," he said quietly, his face blank, but I could see a spark of amusement hidden deep into his eyes.

I studied the western chessboard that I claimed was my invention, the pieces engraved crudely with kanji for samurai (pawn), genin (bishops), chunin (knights), jonin (rooks), Kage (queen), and peace (king). We both found amusing that our pieces were waging war to protect their peace. Another way through which Itachi showed he was far more mature than any six-year-old child had any right to be. I had thaught him the rules two hours before. It was our fourth match. Annoying genius bastard. I thought.

I carefully hid my frown behind a bland expression. "It must be very boring being a genius." I sniffed.

I wasn't a great chess player, but I had hoped to kick the ass of the secretly smug bastard.

"The worst of it is that I know that you aren't feeling the tiniest bit smug about winning," I whined. "What's the point of a game in which the only one can win if the other does not enjoy it?"

"We had a bet." he reminded me. "One that you requested."

"Bothersome," I muttered.

"But since you taught me this game, perhaps it would be better if we shared stories instead of winning them." He added.

"Mostly because I'd be running out of stories very fast," I answered. Not bloody likely. I've always been a fan of mythology, fantasy, and videogames in my first life, I have enough stories to keep talking until I die of old age.

We decided that I would be the first one to share a story. Why did I ask for a story? Because mythology is a good way through which a culture can be understood, and there weren't books anywhere about the origins of the world. I took a deep breath, and let my young seven years old voice take a somber timbre, setting the appropriate mood for a story shared around a fire. Even if there wasn't fire anywhere.

"Before this world came into existence, there was in its place a confused mass of shapeless elements called Chaos. These elements becoming at length consolidated resolved themselves into two widely different substances, the lighter portion of which, soaring on high, formed the firmament and constituted itself into a vast, overarching vault, which protected the firm and solid mass beneath. Thus came into being the two first great primeval deities, Uranus and Gaia. Uranus, the more refined deity, represented the light and air of heaven, possessing the distinguishing qualities of light, heat, purity, and omnipresence, whilst Gaia, the firm, flat, life-sustaining earth, was the great all-nourishing mother. There were no shrines or temples made for her, instead, Gaia was held in such veneration that her name was always invoked whenever the gods took a solemn oath, made an emphatic declaration, or implored assistance."

I stopped briefly, observing the six-year old kid in front of me. He looked interested, he went so far as to sit on the edge of the bench, thirsty for more.

"Uranus, the heaven, united himself in marriage with Gaia, the earth, and they are married today still. After all, the smiles of heaven produce the flowers of earth, whereas his long-continued frowns exercise so depressing an influence upon his loving partner, that she no longer decks herself in bright and festive robes, but responds with ready sympathy to his melancholy mood. Such is the power of the sky's mood, that we call it summer or winter. The first-born child of Uranus and Gaia was Oceanus, the ocean stream, that vast expanse of ever-flowing water that encircled the earth. And you'll see that Ocean is still the son of his parents. After all, the ocean is formed from the rains which descend from heaven and the streams which flow from the earth. Uranus, the heaven, the embodiment of light, heat, and the breath of life, produced offspring who were of a much less material nature than his son Oceanus. These other children of his were supposed to occupy the intermediate space which divided him from Gaia. Nearest to Uranus, and just beneath him, came Aether, a bright creation representing that highly rarified atmosphere which immortals alone could breathe. Then followed Aer, which was near Gaia, which is the atmosphere we mortals can freely breathe, and without which we would perish. Aether and Aer were separated from each other by divinities called Nephelae. These were their restless and wandering sisters, who existed in the form of clouds, ever floating between Aether and Aer. Gaia also produced the mountains, and the Sea, who chose Pontus as his name. She united herself with the latter, and their offspring were the sea deities Nereus, Thaumas, Phorcys, Ceto, and Eurybia."

The child in front of me looked enthralled by the strange-sounding names, and to treat him, I picked up a paper from my bag and scribbled them on it with a pencil.

"Along with Uranus and Gaia there were two mighty powers who were also the offspring of Chaos. These were Erebus, which is the Darkness, and Nyx, which is the Night, who formed a striking contrast to the cheerful light of heaven and the bright smiles of earth. Erebus reigned in that mysterious world below where no ray of sunshine, no gleam of daylight, nor vestige of health-giving terrestrial life ever appeared. Nyx, the sister of Erebus, represented Night, and she was the greatest of all since only Uranus could rival her. Uranus united himself with Nyx, but only in his capacity as god of light, and their children were Eos, the Dawn, and Hemera, the Daylight. But still, the world was empty to the eyes of the gods, and so, Uranus and Gaia produced two distinctly different races of beings called Giants and Titans. The Giants were unrelenting strength alone, but the Titans united to their great physical power a keen intellect that shaped their names. There were three Giants, Briareus, Cottus, and Gyges, who each possessed a hundred hands and fifty heads, and were known collectively by the name of the Hecatoncheires, which signified hundred-handed. These mighty Giants could shake the universe and produce earthquakes simply stomping their feet. But they each had fifty heads, and as such could not be reasoned with, since each of the heads tried to rule over the impossible strength and many limbs. The Titans were twelve in number; their names were: Oceanus, Ceos, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetus, Cronus, Theia, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, and Tethys."

The memories of my old readings coming forth, I almost drew a family tree, before remembering that Itachi could not recognize the alphabet I was using.

"Now Uranus, the chaste light of heaven, the essence of all that is bright and pleasing, held in abhorrence his crude, rough, and turbulent offspring, the Giants, and feared that their great power might eventually prove hurtful to himself. He, therefore, hurled them into Tartarus, that portion of the lower world which served as the subterranean dungeon of the gods. To avenge the oppression of her children, the Giants, Gaia instigated a conspiracy on the part of the Titans against Uranus, which was carried to a successful issue by her son Cronus. He wounded his father, and from the blood of the wound which fell upon the earth sprang a race of monsters, the second generation of Giants were then free to roam the earth. Assisted by his brother Titans, Cronus succeeded in dethroning his father, who, enraged at his defeat, cursed his rebellious son, and foretold to him a similar fate. Cronus, who wished to be the last to ever rule, became invested with supreme power, and assigned to his brothers offices of distinction, subordinate only to himself. Subsequently, however, when, secure of his position, he no longer needed their assistance, he basely repaid their former services with treachery, made war upon his brothers and faithful allies, and, assisted by the Giants, completely defeated them, sending the ones that resisted his all-conquering arm down into the lowest depths of Tartarus."

Itachi for a moment acted like his age and asked: "What happened then?"

I smiled gleefully, happy to have brought a spark of wonder in a kid with such a sorrowful story ahead of him.

"Cronus was the god of eternity, of time. He married Rhea, daughter of Uranus and Gaia, the older sister of Cronus. They had three sons: Aïdes, also known as Hades or Pluto, Poseidon also known as Neptune. And their youngest: Zeus, also known as Jupiter. While their three daughters were Hestia, Demeter, and Hera. Cronus, the heart heavy with the future foretold by his father, feared that his children might one day rise against his authority. Therefore, to render the prophecy impossible of fulfillment, Cronus swallowed each child as soon as it was born, to the sorrow and indignation of his wife Rhea. When it came to Zeus, the sixth and last, Rhea resolved to try and save this one child at least, to love and cherish, and appealed to her parents, Uranus and Gaia, for counsel and assistance. By their advice she wrapped a stone in baby clothes, and Cronus, caution forgotten in its fear, swallowed it without noticing the deception. The child thus saved, Rhea asked Gaia for a safe place, and with Pontus help, the infant Zeus secretly to a secret island, where he was nourished, loved, protected, and educated. A sacred goat, called Amalthea, supplied the place of his mother, by providing him with milk; nymphs, called Melissae, fed him with honey, and eagles and doves brought him nectar and ambrosia. He was kept concealed in a cave in the heart of Mount Ida, and the priests of Rhea, by beating their weapons together, kept up a constant noise at the entrance, which drowned the cries of the child and frightened away all intruders. Under the watchful care of the Nymphs the infant Zeus grew rapidly, developing quickly the gifts of his heritage, and was blessed by extraordinary wisdom and intelligence. Once grown to manhood, Zeus met Metis, which was Wisdom, and married her. On her advice, he masked himself as a servant and tricked his father into drinking poisoned wine. The wine made Cronus vomit so much that he ultimately disgorged Zeus' siblings, intact and ready for revenge. His siblings had no problem acknowledging his authority. The rival forces ranged themselves on two separate high mountains; Zeus, with his brothers and sisters, took his stand on Mount Olympus, where he was joined by Oceanus, and others of the Titans, who had forsaken Cronus on account of his oppressions. Cronus and his brother Titans took possession of Mount Othrys and prepared for battle. The struggle was long and fierce, and after ten years Zeus, finding that he was no nearer victory than before, remembered of the existence of the imprisoned Giants, and knowing that they would be able to render him most powerful assistance, he hastened to liberate them. He also called to his aid the Cyclops, which were the sons of Poseidon and his wife, who had only one eye each in the middle of their foreheads, and were called Brontes, which means Thunder, Steropes, which means Lightning, and Pyracmon, which means Anvil of Fire. They promptly responded to his summons for help, and brought with them tremendous thunderbolts which the Hecatoncheires, with their hundred hands, hurled down upon the enemy, at the same time raising mighty earthquakes, which swallowed up and destroyed all who opposed them."

I noticed the spark of interest in Itachi's eyes dimming a bit, he hated talking of war.

"Aided by these new and powerful allies, Zeus made a furious onslaught on his enemies, and so tremendous was the encounter that all the world is said to have throbbed in accord with the mighty effort of the celestial deities. The sea rose mountains high, and its angry billows hissed and foamed; the earth shook to its foundations, the heavens sent forth rolling thunder, and flash after flash of death-bringing lightning, whilst a blinding mist enveloped Cronus and his allies. Only then the Fortunes of war began to turn, and victory smiled on Zeus. Cronus and his army were completely overthrown, his brothers despatched to the gloomy depths of the lower world, and Cronus himself was banished from his kingdom and deprived forever of the supreme power, which became vested in his son Zeus, who still sits among the clouds, ruling over the sky." I concluded my story and walked to a drinking fountain. All that talk had made me thirsty. I went back to my seat to find an Itachi that had lost his usual blank expression to wear a more thoughtful one.

"Since you gifted me what I can tell is an old story, I'll do the same. This one has been said to me by the elders of my clan, so do not share it." Itachi warned me.

At my assent, he took a deep breath. "From the mists of time emerged two deities, Izanagi-no-Mikoto and Izanami-no-Mikoto, the divine male and female gods of creation. Seeking to fill the misty void, they devised the marriage ritual and engaged in sex, but had to repeat the ritual due to a mistake on Izanami's part. This second, successful attempt yielded a multitude of kami, spiritual beings which were the natural world. The last of these beings was Fire, who killed Izanami." Itachi paused, looking at me to see if I was still listening. I was hanging from his lips. The Shintoist mythology was something I was no expert of, but neither I was unfamiliar with it. It was, from what I could tell, the same as one of my first life.

"Wrought with grief, Izanagi journeyed to Yomi, the shadowy land of the dead. Searching far and wide, he eventually found his wife and was shocked to find her rotting flesh full of oni and other demons. Seeing his rejection of her, Izanami flew into a rage and attempted to chase him past the gates of death; however, he managed to block the gates with a boulder. Izanami swore that if he left her there, she would kill one thousand people every day. He replied that each day, he would create five hundred more lives than she could destroy, thereby ensuring the survival of the earth's population. Disgusted by the taint of death that lay upon him, Izanagi found a pool of pure water nearby and bathed himself in it. As he washed his left eye, Amaterasu emerged, fully-grown and glowing with the light of the sun. He washed his right eye next, and from it emerged the shining Tsukuyomi, the moon who reflected his sister's light. As he cleaned his nose, a storm emerged and took the shape of Susanoo, the storm god, and ruler of the seas. These three Izanagi tasked with ruling the heavens, with Amaterasu as their leader. As was the natural order of things, Amaterasu married her brother Tsukuyomi and together they ruled the day and night. The marriage produced children, but Tsukuyomi lacked Amaterasu's naturally glowing disposition. Whatever goodness he had was merely a reflection of her light. Ultimately, Tsukuyomi revealed his true colors at a banquet when the goddess Uke Mochi created a bounty from which food could be grown. After she spat fish into the sea and game into the forests, she proceeded to pull crops from her rectum. Disgusted by her actions, Tsukuyomi killed her on the spot. Amaterasu rejected her husband's disgust and banished him for his evil actions. Thus, day and night became separated for all eternity. Though Izanagi tasked all three of his children with ruling the heavens, Amaterasu's claim was strongest, as Izanagi's firstborn, she held the divine right to rule. The youngest of the three, Susanoo, resented his elder sister's right to rule and questioned it openly. Eventually, Susanoo's arrogance led his father Izanagi to banish him. But before his departure, Susanoo went to bid his sister goodbye. When his actions were met with suspicion by Amaterasu, Susanoo issued a challenge to prove his sincerity. As the challenge began, Susanoo took Amaterasu's Yasakani-no-Magatama, the Grand Jewel, as she took his sword. Using these vessels, they each birthed goddesses: Amaterasu produced three goddesses from the Heavenly Blade while Susanoo produced five gods from the Grand Jewel. Since she owned the Grand Jewel and more gods were birthed from it, Amaterasu claimed she had won the challenge. Outraged by her claim, Susanoo went into a rampage, destroying much of Heaven and earth. He annihilated Amaterasu's rice fields and threw animal carcasses around. One of Amaterasu's attendants died during the rampage, causing an already angry Amaterasu to mourn as well. Ashamed that her actions had led to such chaos, she fled to the Ama-no-Iwato, the Heavenly Rock Cave. With Amaterasu in hiding, the world plunged into darkness and chaos. Thus began the first winter, a hard time for a world used to bask in the sun."

I was staring at him with wide eyes. I was unsure if the knowledge of japan myths had bled into the narutoverse through the hands and mind of its creator, or if, and that thought was far more worrying, these stories were the same as the ones of my first life because we were simply in the far future, perhaps after a nuclear disaster and a new dark age, from which emerged the sacred three, and from there the origins of the narutoverse.

The six-year old took out a blank scroll from his bag, and a simple brush with an inkpot, distractedly writing down the names of the gods he had named. I envied the elegance of his movements, but it wasn't something I could bother to learn. A the orphanage they didn't have the resources to teach calligraphy. Once again, Itachi kept talking, satisfied by having my undivided attention: "The kami looked down upon the world and, seeing the chaos left in Amaterasu's absence, decided they must bring her back. Though they asked her to return and described the chaos caused by her absence, Amaterasu refused to listen and blocked the cave entrance with a rock. After almost a year, wise Omoikane determined that if she would not come out of her own volition, they would have to lure her out with curiosity. To this end, a grand party was thrown. The plan worked, like the music, dancing, and joyous cries of the gods did indeed peak Amaterasu's attention. The noise intensified when the dawn goddess Ame-no-Uzume performed a particularly revealing dance. Curious, Amaterasu drew closer to the cave entrance and there discovered theYata-no-Kagami (八咫鏡), the Eight-Fold Mirror. Fascinated by the light of her reflection, Amaterasu, at last, came to the mouth of the cave. It was at that moment Omoikane drew back the stone that blocked the entrance. As he did so, Amaterasu's light reentered the world, illuminating the chaos that had been left in her wake. Winter ended at last, and spring and summer brought life back to the land. Ashamed, she begged forgiveness for her actions. It was given freely, for Susanoo's behavior had been nothing less than abhorrent. His banishment was henceforth carried out, and Amaterasu returned to heaven. She later reconciled with her brother, who gave her the Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi(草薙の剣), the Grass-Cutting Sword, that is also known as the Ame-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi (天叢雲剣), the Heavenly Sword of Gathering Clouds, as a gift."

Almost distractedly, he had traced the kanji of the divine objects he had spoken of. Impeccable strokes of his brush against my distracted scribbling with a pencil. We shared a smile, and I could feel the beginning of a routine made of shared stories and appreciative silences. It wasn't bad, and I had never managed to relax so much before.

Ultimately, it doesn't matter if I am in the future or a manga. I thought. Staying alive still takes precedence.

Maybe I could find a way to travel through words, but that was a blurry and far away objective. Every consideration lost importance when I felt it.

Dread.

Pain.

End.

Bloodlust.

Like a battering wave, a tsunami, the feel of death washed over us, and we both turned as one toward the point of origin.

In a quickly dispersing cloud of smoke, stood the giant nine-tailed fox.

Hope you guys are having a great week! Off to FF.net for more~!