Naruto: Fire's Will

"Hinote-nee-san, can you help me with my homework?" A small child no older than ten years of age looked at the sickeningly pale young woman laid out in bed, whose dull blue eyes slowly sparked to life.

"Of course Imout-" The woman on the bed was cut off by a brief yet horrendous coughing fit, causing the young girl next to her bed to hurriedly move forward, only to be waved off. "I'm... I'm fine Imouto. Why don't you get washed up and have Takako-san get things set up?" 

The younger sister shifted nervously for a minute before nodding. "Okay! I'll be right back!" As the soft pattering of her younger sister's feet faded away, Hinote fell back to her bed, coughs wracking her body. 'You didn't... need to see this.' Her blue eyes slowly dulled again, and flecks of blood shone ominously on her white bedsheets in the low lighting of the room. With a peaceful smile on her face knowing that her sister would not see her last moments... her eyes closed.

BEEEEEEEEEEEEPPPPP! As her heart slowed and alarms began to ring across her hospital room, a childish inane thought struck her. 'I never got to read the first chapter of Boruto... I wonder if it's any good?' 

Her mind faded, succumbing to darkness akin to falling asleep. Her mind froze in that strange semi-sleep state for a few moments, before she found herself viewing her hospital room from the perspective of a giant, staring down at her room as nurses and doctors hurried about. 'Wha-' one of the nurses rushed right through her. 'Oh. I'm... a ghost?' Logically speaking Hinote knew she should be reacting a bit more to her death and subsequent ghosthood, at least in the first few seconds, but all she felt was relief. Relief from the pain, from the struggles of holding on for her sister, and relief from that itch she could never quite scratch ever since she got that blasted IV. 

"Well, I must admit that's a new one, you're an interesting one, ain'tcha?" A smooth smoky voice echoed out behind her, and confused Hinote wheeled around, only to be met by a purpled-haired darker-skinned beauty. 'She isn't one of the staff, wait I recognize that bu- face! I recognize that face!...?'

"Names Yoruichi member of the Multiversal Reincarnation Core! Nice to meet'cha Hinote! I'm exactly who you think I am." The last part was said with a wink, and one of her arms snaking under her bust popping it up.

Hinote's face instantly turned multiple ghostly shades darker. 'AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-'

Yoruichi stared for a few moments, letting the internal screeching go on for a bit before cutting Hinote off. "Don't worry about it! Souls don't really have filters when in the presence of, well." She waved her hand towards herself, showing off the modified- but clearly still Shinigami garb from Bleach. "Don't feel too mortified, honestly that's the 3rd tamest reaction I've gotten so far, of course, most notice different assets~"

Hinote continued to blue-screen of ghost for a few more moments before slowly nodding. 'Right, it's fine as long as you're fine with it!' Bullrushing past her still obvious embarrassment a question poked through her thoughts, 'Multiversal Reincarnation Core? Like, memories disappear and I go to my next life? Or Isekai to become the protagonist type?' 

Yoruichi grinned at her, "You compose yourself and catch on quick, good. Closer to the latter, but we guarantee nothing. No guaranteed destiny to become a God, none of that. We just pass you along the cycle to your next life, and if you're lucky we pick you up again on your next life, or even offer you an invitation to join us." Yoruichi wiggled her fingers at Hinote, "So what do you say? Grab my hand, and I whisk you off to your next life. Or, you stay here for a while till the typical Reaper comes." 

Was there any question? Hinote reached down, and her spectral hand grabbed Yoruichi's. "Smart choice kid! Now keep your hands inside the ride at all times, and remember to keep your eyes closed. Wouldn't want any abominations to notice you!" There was a horrifying sucking feeling, akin to her full body being stuck in a Chinese finger trap. A few moments later it once more went all dark and with a flash of bright light Hinote disappeared from the room through a crack in reality, leaving Yoruichi the only 'dead' person in the room.

"Wonder if she'll be given one of those gifts the higher-ups sometimes give out?" With a curious tilt to her head, Yoruichi thought about it for a few moments before shrugging. "Eh, I'll know one day, whenever I get my [Reincarnation Points] when she dies again. Wonder if she'll be rewarded with another Reincarnation or an Agent?" Shrugging to herself with a smile on her face, with a quick step Yoruichi too disappeared from the room through a crack in reality.

-Hinote- 

Her eyes snapped open, and in the brief second it took her to realize she was in fact alive again, her eyes adjusted to the darkened wooden room she found herself in. 'Woah...' Looking about the room, she wasn't shocked by it - after all it was rather sparse. No, Hinote was shocked by the clarity of everything. 'I had 20/20 vision before, but this is...'  The sheer difference was indescribable. She had no difficulty making out all the objects in her room, even though it was in the middle of the night and there was no light on. She could see the closed closet, the nightstand, a small wooden desk, and a clock on the wall. Hinote could even make out every single detail and pattern on the thin slide door that presumably led out of her room. Looking down to observe her body, she froze for a second before a chuckle escaped her. 'Of course, child - no toddler? Yes, toddler, that seems right.' Slowly moving her hand she was then struck by the next revelation.

She could feel how air flowed around her hand, her muscles rippling across her body as it slowly soared through the air. She could feel the small stretching of tendons as her fingers curled, and now that she was focusing more, she could feel the thumping of her heart, could hear every single small breath that passed in and out of her nose, and as she focused even harder, identify the pulsing of her blood throughout her body. 'This is insane.' Her vision twitched over to the clock, watching as it clicked second by second.

'It's slower than I'm used to. Are seconds different here? One-one thousand, two-one thousand, three one-tho...' Trailing off she continued to stare at the clock for a few minutes before finally coming to one conclusion. 'I'm perceiving time differently? No, not that. My mind is significantly, absurdly faster. Perhaps I'm used to being fogged over and on medicine. But this much of a difference? No, it's like I'm perceiving things multiple times faster. Am I even a human?' She could feel her heart speed up and nose flaring in slightly faster intervals. 'What AM I?' 

Then, as if at her command, memory after memory washed over her. Kind, yet hard red eyes stared into her as large, muscular, yet feminine arms cradled her. Then, a brown-haired, brown-eyed man with rumbling laughter carried her as well. She saw a funeral, one tombstone bearing a sigil, another bearing two. Overwhelming grief, an empty house. An empty birthday without the two stars of her life - even if others showed up.

A gasp escaped her as one name rang throughout her head. Sarutobi Hinote. Then, a last memory struck, of going to bed hoping for a bed tomorrow, with her starting the clan's training tomorrow. 'I... I see.' Temporarily flummoxed from all the knowledge and memories now banging around in her head fighting supremacy, a slightly unhinged giggle escaped her. 'At least I'll see what Boruto is like?' Another memory popped up, of a titanic mountain with only three stone heads on it, and one thought finally managed to win out of the madness of two lives clashing. 'Shittttttttttt.'