Cured Fish Whirlpool!

Gingerly, I placed one foot on the wall, dragging it down to measure how close I was to being able to stick fully. It gave way after a moment but the second that it was fixed in place gave me hope.

Perhaps it's due to my strange Chakra, but pulling enough into my feet to walk on the wall was tough, I barely managed to stick a few leaves on my foot before they fell off.

However, wall-sticking hadn't eluded me fully.

I placed both my hands on the wall of my bedroom, making sure Numa was still asleep before I reached further, smacking my hand on the wall and pulling myself up. The Spider-Man theme song played in my head as I climbed higher.

This was an exercise I had come up with all by myself, the pathway of Chakra I needed to create when sticking my hands to a wall was the exact same as my feet, the only issue was that spooling enough Chakra to the bottom of my feet was too difficult.

I guessed that I might be able to handstand on water before wall-walking with my feet, my Chakra was too damn strange.

I let go of the wall after an hour, taking breaks whenever Numa stirred so he wouldn't be scared by me crawling on the ceiling, horror movie style.

Afterwards, I recounted the past few weeks of my life, meditating on my bed and stilling my mind.

I was tempted to write down my plans, goals, and theories but decided against it. I had read too many novels where a villain got hold of a character's diary and destroyed them with it to feel comfortable doing the same thing; I instead opted to routinely reflect on my memories to keep a sharp mind.

Operation "Guy-bait" (name needs to be reworked) hasn't been successful but has bore unexpected fruit. I've acquainted myself with a few characters that I never dreamt of meeting anytime soon.

The first of the bunch was resident Scarecrow Kakashi, I've seen him quite a few times, but the first was when I was belting out one of my self-imposed challenges. I saw him from the corner of my eye tilt his head quizzically at the sight. It was interesting to see a character I've only seen the 2D version of in real life, I remember wondering what he'd think of all the fangirls he had in my last world.

There was a small part of me that worried whether he would connect the dots and somehow guess that I was trying to meet with Guy but there was no reason for him to think that, especially considering the fact that he doesn't know me at all… I hope.

Secondly, I met another man who was hard to miss, quite literally. Choza Akimichi and his family were strolling through the village, I didn't interact with them at all, but I noticed a short Choji waddling along beside his parents.

Finally, there was a young boy who looked a little older than me nibbling on some skewered mochi, he had the Uchiha clan's crest on his back and was exploring the village with a similarly aged girl by his side, when seeing this sight I had every reason to believe it was Itachi but honestly… I couldn't tell at all.

I had come across the unfortunate realisation that if they weren't characters like Kakashi or Choza who had distinct characteristics you could notice, they were almost impossible to identify with my knowledge alone. Anime to reality didn't translate well at all.

On the bright side, this would allow me to meet most characters organically instead of noticing them from afar, allowing for more natural meetings to take place.

Dawn was going to break soon, usually, I'd wait till I saw sunlight peeking through the curtains before getting to work, but now, I got up whenever I felt ready and slept whenever I felt tired. My body doesn't work the same as everyone else's, so it doesn't make sense to sleep and wake as they do. I usually only need 4 hours of sleep maximum before I'm ready to tackle the day!

I brought Numa downstairs into the bed and began my morning exercises in the front yard with the door ajar, this way I was within earshot of the child if he decided to wake up. Once I heard Tomo come down, I set off for my morning run after notifying her.

Instead of being disappointed that I hadn't met Guy yet, I doubled down on my plan and started running in the morning as well. There were a few others who also ran at dawn but no one near my age was present, they were mostly middle-aged civilians building up a light sweat to start their day.

'Don't be embarrassed Aoki, this is all for your future…' I repeated in my head, placating myself from the odd looks I was getting. I was used to being the centre of attention everywhere I went by this point, even though I kept my pride, it'd be a lie to say it didn't affect me.

'Ignore them Aoki. Ignore…them?'

'Hm?'

I slowed down my run as I noticed that people weren't looking at me anymore, I was very thankful for that, but it was too strange to brush off. On further inspection, I noticed a small crowd that people were gravitating towards, so I rushed forward to join in.

My small frame was able to push through the crowd easily and I reached the inner circle, only to be shocked by who was in front of me.

A little boy, no older than 5, was holding two bags that threatened to overflow if he moved too quickly. His yellow spiky hair was shorter than I remembered, and he had a frown on his face, surveying the people looking at him.

The boy was only able to keep eye contact with the adults for a moment before he backed down, his gaze falling on the floor as he hung his head low. Naruto took a step towards the crowd and the people reacted by dispersing, making way for the boy so as to not touch him.

'That's him…' I realised, shocked at meeting the namesake of this universe.

When you asked me who Naruto was, I could list off a thousand of his feats, Jutsus and skills… but looking at him right now there's only one thing that stuck out to me.

'He's just a kid…'

My eyesight was sharper than most so I could notice things others couldn't. His cheeks adorned with whiskers were flushed and there were small trails of tears that reflected in the sunlight. Even if anyone from the crowd also noticed it, I doubt they'd care.

It was bizarre, not a word was said but their gaze spoke a thousand curses.

*Step*

Naruto took one step forward and the crowd spasmed in shock, moving away so that none of them were any closer to the boy. Naruto gripped his bags harder and took off running, shocking the crowd into making way for him to leave, as he ran, he dropped a trail of cup ramen on the floor.

I didn't know what I was doing, I had spent so much of my time worrying about when I should break canon that I never thought I'd do something as brash and stupid as this. But my body just moved on its own.

"Kid! Here!" I caught up to him and shouted, shocking Naruto as he turned to meet me.

His eyes were distrusting, and he held the bags closer as if he feared that I'd steal them from him. I know that people never went as far as to physically hurt him, but for a child as young as him, mental trauma could be just as damaging.

'So short…' I thought, once again noticing how small in stature he was in comparison to his image in my mind.

"You dropped this…" I said, displaying to him a handful of the ramen that he'd dropped. There were more on the ground, but I only managed to pick up these few before catching up to him.

The boy looked at me for a little longer, only registering the ramen a little while later and softening his eyes "Oh… ok…" he said, shuffling forward a little. Naruto held out his right hand, signalling me to place the ramen in his bag, and I followed suit. It felt closer to interacting with a paranoid kitty than a little boy. When I placed the ramen in his bag, he shot his arm back and gave me a nod.

"Thanks..." the boy mumbled before turning away from me and clutching his bags tighter to not spill them. He didn't spare me another glance as he bolted away at the same speed as before, running into the distance as a chorus of eyes followed him.

I took a moment to look at his visage blend into the bustling nature of the village.

Seeing that boy brought back long-forgotten memories that I had locked away, memories that hurt to remember. I shackled those away, I don't have time to reminisce now.

I already had plans to break canon, this was just a reminder that I needed to hurry my plans along even more.

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[A/N: Cured fish is the ramen ingredient called Naruto! And Uzumaki means whirlpool! I wonder if anyone understood the title

Power stone goal: 250]