Chapter 1

Yup, I'm doing this.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Given the site this is on, it shouldn't be a surprise.

Stuck between both small and big balls of fur, waggling and stumbling, struggling to just move. Caught between the legion of overactive fur balls, thrown to every edge of the pen.

Eventually, one of them flung backwards, catching me at my side and had me ricocheting into the backside of another.

Dog butt. Lovely. To be perfectly honest, I should have seen this coming. Given my last name, this is the one thing I shouldn't have been surprised over. I should be perfectly happy with this situation. Rolling around in the dirt along with the rest of the ninken, having the time of my life. Thing is, I don't. Don't get me wrong, I like dogs and all. But being one? No thanks. So, how did I end up in this situation? Well I don't really know, but maybe recounting the past can get me some answers.

You see, I'm not meant to be here. No I'm not that kid. I'm being as serious as possible about this. I'm not meant to be here because this is not my world. I'm not meant to be in a world that selectively breeds and trains children to be emotionless killers. Not meant to be in a world that starts a world war every other decade. And definitely not meant to be in a world where people can literally split the seas and wreak havoc on the earth, able to bend reality itself on a whim. This is a manga. Or an anime, either one or a strange mixture of both, I don't really know. Simply put, it's the Naruto universe.

I never truly believed in the concept of reincarnation. Sure, it sounded nice. But it was just another half-hearted explanation for the afterlife among the many many others before it. No one truly knew what happened after death. But that's the only logical explanation for my being here that I can think of. As logical as you can get with death, at least.

In the last world, I was an average guy. Just about ready to head off to college, filled with hopes and dreams (if a bit apprehensive) for the future. A little introverted, but not enough to actively keep me from socializing. I didn't have any major flaws or talents, either, so I couldn't have possibly been chosen for something. Though I suppose that hardly matters now.

In this world, I am Inuzuka Arata, second born to the clan head, Inuzuka Hisao of the Inuzuka clan of Konohagakure. My mother, Inuzuka Yuuna, initially wanted to name me Kiba, but decided that it "was too fierce for my cute little face".

Being an infant again after so long was terrifying. Not being able to see, along with barely being able to move my body was torture. To add on, a few weeks into my new life, I began feeling a…something under my skin. Like twenty-something strangers very softly tracing a finger over your entire body. Constantly. When I wasn't being fed or sleeping, the only thing I could focus on was that feeling. Combined with my decreased vision and loss of control over bodily functions, well let's just say I wasn't the most mentally stable of children. I probably drove my new parents up the wall with how much I cried. What I learned later was that the feeling was actually my chakra system developing. Chakra in and of itself was foreign to me, so of course I would notice when it's literally worming itself through me.

On a happier note, by the time I was 6 months old, my vision started getting better and I gained some control over my body again, though the feeling of chakra coils shaping and weaving themselves around my organs didn't really go away.

I also got to know my parents a lot better right around this time since I could, you know, actually see them. I took it upon myself to also start learning the language they were speaking too, which didn't turn out to be all that hard. They were speaking Japanese after all, although slightly different from what I remember. I studied Japanese before in high school for quite some time, so it wasn't too foreign to me. Some words though I've never even heard of before, and some grammar rules I had to relearn entirely. It made for some interesting mix ups. With my increased vision also came better hearing and smell, way better than my old life's ones, which should have been the first indicator towards what and where I was.

My parents are... interesting, to say the least. After the breastfeeding stage, they weren't around very much anymore, frequently vanishing for weeks or months at a time, leaving me taken care of by whoever was in one place long enough to spare a few hours. When they were there, they were big bundles of energy smashing through the monotony of infant life, though I could tell they were very tired, coming back home. When they could make time for me, they would bombard me with all kinds of love and affection. Sometimes, though, when they thought I wasn't looking they would carry this world weary face and stare off into the distance, like they were searching for an answer to a forever unanswered question. With their long absences and weary appearances, I could guess what type of period we were currently in. I silently hoped we would all get through it without losing anyone.

A few months after my birth, they left again, and didn't come back. From what I heard, they were still alive. That's the only word I had from them.

Being the new head's child I was naturally expected to be a ninja, and was thus treated accordingly, which as soon as I found out about was greatly mortified by. I didn't have long for coming to terms with it however, as when I found out I was being hauled to a different place then my usual room.

The Inuzuka have a very strange concept of child rearing. As soon as I was old enough to crawl I was immediately thrown to the dogs. Not literally of course, throwing a child is never a good idea. But still. Early childcare didn't have much parental involvement, preferring to raise them somewhat communally in the kennels alongside the ninken. Supposedly it's to help tuning in with our 'primal selves' or whatever, which is what brings me to my current predicament.

You see, during my stay in the kennels, I noticed that the ninken basically owned the place. The human children, at the bottom of the hierarchy were thus naturally inclined to follow their leads and imitate them. Not knowing any better, they ate and slept and played just like any other dog, but I know better. Almost two decades of knowing better. To say I didn't fit in was an understatement. The caretakers would often send me weird looks every once in a while, and not wanting to attract suspicion, I had to try to imitate the rest. It was awkward and frankly a little condescending. Being a baby again and not being able to do much because of it has been a very humbling experience, but to have to literally grovel in the dirt is a new low. Can you imagine? Humans tend to touch their face a lot, but now I'm basically forced to do that with my foot. My FOOT. Over and over and over.

So now I've gone full circle. Still in dog butt and none the wiser. What now?

A/N So. A Naruto SI. I know, how original. I have a rough outline to where to go with this, but nothing concrete, so I'll just be writing as I go.

Also, doing the research for this I noticed something about Naruto, Shippuden in particular. It don't make no sense. Taking this into account, I'm going to be conveniently ignoring various parts of Shippuden. Including almost the entire war arc. That means Obito's dead, Kaguya doesn't exist, and Naruto and Sasuke aren't reincarnations of demigods. If you don't like that, this ain't the fic for you my friend. Still appreciate you for staying till the end of Ch.1 though. :)

Revised 4/23/2020