Sailing Across River Styx

"What, if some day or night a demon were to steal after you into your loneliest loneliness and say to you: 'This life as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and innumerable times more' ... Would you not throw yourself down and gnash your teeth and curse the demon who spoke thus? Or have you once experienced a tremendous moment when you would have answered him: 'You are a god and never have I heard anything more divine."

―Friedrich Nietzsche

Part One: Baby Days

Prologue: The Heartbeat is Your Best Friend

Disclaimer: Insert witty I-do-not-own-Naruto disclaimer 'here'.

Beta'd by: the fantastic Midnight Phantasma

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B…

… …

My world started out with the feeling of water rushing through my ears. My eyes were squeezed shut and I could feel nothing else but soft, comfortable warmth.

..mp..

Strangely enough, I didn't feel afraid. Even when I realized―Minutes? Hours? (time did not register here in this place)―later that every thought I had dimmed and grew meaningless over time, I had no worries of being abducted or drugged.

..a…mp…

I sobered slightly as I dissected my last thought. Drugged? What was that? I briefly pondered the meaning of the word, only certain that it was considered something harmful, before my concentration slipped from me once again.

…a-dump…

The place I was in was quite odd. Every now and then it felt as though my world would flip. My senses were rather sluggish and my ears were constantly clogged.

It was because of this that it took me a while before I finally realized that I could hear sounds, even if they were slightly muffled.

Ba-dump…

No, that statement wasn't completely correct. Not everything I heard was muffled. There was something that never failed to pound reassuringly in my ears. It had made me feel safe.

Ba-dump…ba-dump…

Almost like a best friend, the thudding was something that was constantly beside me. In fact, it was something I was certain I had heard (and loved) before… before I ended up in this place.

Ba-dump…ba-dump..ba-dumpba-dumpba-dum―

My thoughts ended there quite abruptly as I was hit with a strong sense of vertigo. My surroundings expanded and convulsed, and I was suddenly aware of how that beating sound-friend-sound had sped up into an almost frantic rhythm.

And―

Then―

Something ―cold air, my mind supplied helpfully, though not helpful enough to tell me where I had even learned that from―blasted my face and then my body. The mufflers on my ears were gone, and quite abruptly the world around me erupted into sounds of perfect clarity.

I gulped, taking in what was my first breath of air before I screamed.

And with that, the place exploded into what could only be described as flurries of movement and noise.

Hands touched me gently; they sponged me down, getting rid of the body fluids still clinging to my skin. I shifted weakly, though not at all in protest.

It was cold. Why was I cold? …What was 'cold'? Wait, no. Cold is the opposite of warm, my brain supplied me.

Finally, I was wrapped in something warm and fluffy. Curious, because I could not do this in the place before, I attempted to open my eyes. Blinking them open slowly, it quickly became apparent that opening my eyes didn't do me much good.

Everything appeared to me in a multitude of blobs. Sometimes, something would drift closer to me and I would be able to make out what seemed to be hair and maybe the bottom of a chin. Most of the time, however, I would see shapeless blobs dancing in and out of my sight.

Other times, I'd open my eyes when I awoke and would see absolutely nothing but a sea of bright white. Every time that happened, I scrunched up my face in a disgruntled manner.

Like now, after I decided to open my eyes after a nap, I was once again blinded by what little vision I had.

Something, or rather, someone beside me made a weird sound. My mind once again supplied me the action; a giggle.

That was another new thing. Unlike my current non-existent sight (I wondered if I was blind, though I couldn't help but feel a wrongness from that thought), my hearing was excellent. I could hear every thud and echo, and the world was so alive with sounds it often left me breathless.

I listened to the wind blowing and something―birds, yes of course―chirping. The crunch of dirt under someone's shoe was familiar, and of course, there were multitudes of voices that filled the air.

Being aware of human speech, however, didn't mean I automatically understood it. Though my mind was able to stay lucid for longer periods of time, instead of easily drifting away, it was unable to catch every sound. A few words would register in my brain each time, but everything else seemed to fade away.

It was only what seemed to be a few days later (time was only a bit easier to measure here than the place before), did I realize that all the words I'd heard so far were in…

Japanese.

Ha, take that, Mom, Dad! I felt a small stab of…of smugness (the words came more easily to me now; much easier to me than before) at the thought. Even if Japanese was not my first language, nor my second, nor even my third (and here I wonder again what those languages were), it seems that all those years of watching anime finally paid off.

I drifted off to sleep wondering what the heck anime even was.

(And who my Mom and Dad were.)

A few more days―maybe even a few weeks―passed once more. The person who was in charge of taking care of me kept me in a bumpy, old wagon, in which we had travelled in day after day. I think it broke somewhere along the way though, because most of these days they would just take me and walk.

I liked it better that way though. Being held while they were walking was very soothing, almost like they were rocking me. They had never jostled me much.

Every day, I began to feel more and more alert. Likewise, holding onto my thoughts became increasingly easier. My vocabulary also began to improve.

Perhaps it was because of this that I began to suspect that something was wrong.

A few days later, with my thoughts even less fuzzy, I began to know that something was wrong.

Like, very, very wrong.

After all this time, I had finally managed to put two and two together.

I was a baby.

A small, tiny, little little (the word needs to be repeated along with its many synonyms because I was getting the feeling that I was born premature) baby.

And I certainly did not remember myself as a baby before I got to the place of, well, before.

That also soon proved to be another problem. My memory wasn't complete. I would instinctively know some words, some little and random things, but I wouldn't know how I got them. I didn't know much about myself either, at this point.

All I knew was that I wasn't a baby ―and ohmygosh, had I been reborn? Ew. Ewwww. My brain for once decided to not supply me with information (thank, thank you), despite the fact that I probably had it stored in there somewhere. After all, I remembered being top of my class for Biology.

Anyway, I was―had been, once been?―a teenager, I think. Or maybe even a young adult.

So why the heck was I a baby now?!

Something poked my left cheek, startling me out of my thoughts.

"L..ttle one, what's g…ten you thinking?" My caretaker's voice rang out, loud and clear.

That was another concept I had discovered. If I concentrated hard enough, I could now make out most of the words and noises around me. Of course, it left me tired and grumpy and in need of a nap, but being connected to the world like this made me feel much better.

I suspected that I had never studied Japanese before, but it turned out that thanks to whatever 'anime' was (and I still don't remember what that was, even after all this time), I seem to be able to understand 70% of what was spoken to me. It probably helped that I was a baby and my caretaker only used simple words with me, if any words at all (cooing sounds and babbling seemed to be some of her ―or his, even now I cannot place their voice as a female or a male―favorite things to speak to me).

Realizing that my caretaker was waiting for me to make some baby noises, I did exactly that. Cooing softly, I stretched out a tiny hand to the blob I assumed to be their face.

I had long resigned myself to looking at blobs. Somewhere between realizing that something was wrong and realizing that I was a baby, I had remembered out-of-the-blue that newborns tended to be near-sighted.

Something along the lines of being able to see 8 to 12 inches in front of their face. Or maybe it had been 8 to 15 inches.

Honestly, I was just surprised that out of all the concepts I chose to remember after being reborn, it was a random biology fact. And it was that random biology fact.

Really. I couldn't even remember my own name!

(Though I was also a bit thankful. At least I found out that contrary to my first thoughts, I wasn't blind or something.)

My caretaker either knew this lil' biology fact and was purposely trying to not let me see them, or had no clue. Judging by how no sane person would think that a tiny baby like me would actually remember them, I was leaning towards the latter.

However, I wasn't wrong in assuming that they didn't want to get close. After all, in all this time, I haven't seen their face even once. Perhaps they just didn't want to get so close to a baby?

I was again drawn away from my thoughts as my caretaker patted me on the cheek gently.

"D…n't worry, ch…ld. We're al…ost there…"

I blinked, my eyelids getting heavier. Softly, my caretaker began to hum under their breath. As I let it wash over me, I realized that it was the soft song they'd sang to me once before. The song had been very pretty, though I didn't understand all of it.

However, it was a small miracle that I recalled the pretty melody, considering how tired I was feeling. Before I succumbed to sweet sleep, I wondered briefly if the place my caretaker was taking me to was important. Wouldn't it be, considering the amount of time they were taking just to get me there?

In any case, I never did get to see my caretaker's face. After all, that was the last time I was ever in contact with them.

It was only much, much later, when I started to think back, did I realize some weird things. One was that in all the time I spent with my kind caretaker, I had never once assumed he or she was my parent.

I had never believed that they were my mother or father. I had always thought of them as my caretaker; as someone who would leave very soon. In my defense, they did.

Another weird occurrence was that on that day, I had only just woken up from a nap.

…It would have been impossible for me to get so sleepy again.

I awoke to cold wind aggressively biting my face. I was buried in what I felt to be a bunch of fluffy blankets (therefore, my body was nowhere near as cold as my poor face), and upon closer inspection, I seemed to be in a little gift basket.

Huh.

Upon closer, closer inspection, which involved a great deal of awkwardly flailing around, I realized that my gift basket had a rather pretty looking red ribbon on its handle―

―and that there was a note tied to my right wrist.

…Uhuh. Cue more flailing.

Finally, finally, after almost tipping over the basket twice, I managed to bring my tiny hand closer to my face to read whatever was on it.

波風美帆.

…Ugh. Of course it would be in Japanese! It seemed like whatever 'anime' was, it did not help me at all in reading Japanese. Because the note tied to my wrist was literally rubbish to me.

The wind slapped me on my face yet again, and I started to feel a definite drop in temperature. I experienced a brief surge of irrational panic, because what if my former caretaker had left me here to freeze? What if they had abandoned me to die?

Die; such a nasty word. I had never really thought about what it could mean, being reborn. Of course, to be reborn, you had to die first, didn't you? That means…I had died.

I didn't have much memories of myself, but I knew something like this ―abandoned as a baby― had never happened to me before. I couldn't write everything off as time-travel. After all, I hadn't been sure before, but now I was certain that I had been happy in my old life.

If that was the case, how did I die?

It wasn't until I heard the hurried footsteps getting increasingly louder that I realized I was full-on wailing, tears streaming down my face and hiccups bursting out of my little mouth. If I had been any less afraid, I would have marvelled at how much noise a baby could make.

The creaking of a door being slammed open jolted me out of my sob-fest. Blinking away the tears, I focused on listening as a sharp gasp was heard.

Something warm touched my freezing cheek (what was it with people and my cheek?), gently wiping away some of my tears. The whole basket, me included, was lifted into the air and moved. Moments later, I realized the chilled air had warmed and presumed I had been carried inside.

I mentally slapped myself as I felt my irrational thoughts disperse.

…Of course my caretaker didn't leave me to die. If they did, would they have bothered to keep me warm and wrapped up in so many soft blankets?

I sensed my basket being set down. Immediately, they picked me up and began to fuss over me.

"Oh, you poor sweetie! Were you outside for a long time? It's so cold, whoever left you here should have at least knocked before le…ving!"

Whoa. That was the first time I'd heard someone talk so much. Geez, I should get a reward for being able to catch most of that.

The person (I identified her to be a woman from her voice), expertly scooped me up into her arms. She peered downward at me and cooed softly.

My breath caught.

She came into my 8 inch bubble. For the first time since I'd been reborn, I could actually see someone.

The woman was beautiful. Judging by the faint laugh-lines on her face in addition to the slightest wrinkles, I concluded her to be someone in her late thirties.

However, no matter how interesting seeing a person's face was, it wasn't what drew my attention the most. No, that was reserved for her rather strange looking headband.

It was navy blue, with a metallic piece attached to the middle. And, was that a swirly…leaf engraved in the metal…?

Her head moved out of my range of sight and I was, once again, left to decipher the blurry blobs. However, for once, I wasn't the least bit bothered by that.

No, the unease I felt was because of that headband.

I was so sure I'd seen it before. Why? Was it perhaps the symbol of a famous clothing brand? Though that was the most probable explanation, I couldn't help but feel that it was the wrong assumption.

Ah. Wait. The poor lady was probably still waiting for me to make some noise. After all, I had been full out wailing before, right?

Using one little hand to clumsily wipe away my residue tears, I gurgled softly. The woman laughed.

"Ah, are you feeling hu…gry?"

She started to move away, with me still snuggled in her arms. I heard her walk, before the sound of…something ―the refrigerator, right― opening filled my ears. Deciding that there was probably nothing more to hear until I got my food, I decided to drift off.

By now, I felt as if the maturity of my thoughts had caught up to what they'd once been.

I wondered who was going to take care of me, as it seemed certain that I was now an orphan. But didn't orphanages (and I assume I was given to one, because while the lady seemed surprised to see me, she did not seem to be overly shocked) and giving up one's child take a lot of paperwork? Was it even legal to drop a baby on an orphanage's doorstep?

That brought up more abnormalities I hadn't thought about. Was it normal to travel by wagon? Or by walking for days (I assumed, since I don't really know how long it's been since my birth)? Didn't people have those…cars?

Perhaps I was in an underdeveloped country?

"Open up!"

Startled, my mouth dropped open, perhaps to make a questioning noise. I did not expect, however, something to be stuffed into my mouth.

I flailed slightly, and maybe it's a pre-built reaction included in all babies, but I started to suck whatever was in my mouth. Milk, with the tiniest hint of sweetness, filled my senses.

... That was quite surprising. I did not remember being fed before; had my mind skipped over it?

Soft laughter filled the air as I lazily drank my meal. It tasted pretty good, and I dreaded the time for me to start baby food. The mushy things I saw at the supermarkets were not appealing in the least.

Baby milk I can deal with. Baby food…not so much. And please don't get me started on puberty. Oh God. Do I really have to relive that?

"Ah, wh…t do you have there swe…tie?" Once again, my thoughts are interrupted by my (new) caretaker. This time, however, I felt her gently lifting my wrist. My right wrist.

…Oh right! There was a note attached to it. I had completely forgotten in the midst of all the drama.

The nice-lady-who-fed-me carefully untied the string that had the note. Seconds later, I heard her make a strangled noise.

Oh no. No no no no no. Please don't let it be something bad. What was on that note that could have been so surprising? There were only like, 4 characters!

I had originally thought that it was just my new name or something!

"Namikaze…Miho?" my caretaker mumbled in shock.

Wait. So it was a name. What could be so surprising about that…

…Huh…Please don't tell me I'm some criminal's love child or something. Please.

I made a soft, whimpering noise, the ones that are usually reserved for those cute and sad puppies. Immediately, my caretaker snapped out of her apparent shock.

"Oh! Did I sc…re you, sweetie? Don't w…rry, it's not…ing! I just need to m…ke sure of s…mething…"

I mentally frowned at her confusing words, before my caretaker again lifted my right wrist, this time gently taking my thumb. And then―

Owwww!

"Ohhh, b…by, don't be like th…t! It was only a lit…le prick! For medic…l re…sons, you see."

I started to cry, more out of shock than out of pain. Immediately, I was fussed over again. Medical reasons? Well…that did make sense, I guess. Don't hospitals do that with newborns, to check if they have any diseases?

A wave of exhaustion hit me and my crying quieted to small whimpers. A hand patted my cheek knowingly, and I was immediately rocked. The kind woman even started to hum a soft lullaby.

I fell asleep listening to a new song hummed by a new caretaker.

Soft noises drew me out of my sleep. I blinked my eyes open tiredly, slowly registering a flurry of murmurs and hushes.

Slightly curious despite myself, I focused on listening to what was going on.

"Hōki-san! I-I think she's waking up!"

The voice definitely sounded male, despite the high pitch. Perhaps it was a young boy? On the other hand, the boy sounded clearly panicked. Actually, I would bet that he was slightly hyperventilating.

(I tried not to feel too smug from knowing the suffix –san. Used when addressing anyone, it acted like a 'Ms.' or a 'Mr.' in English.)

"Minato-kun, please calm down. I'm sure she'll love you."

Hey! That was my new caretaker's voice! So she's called Hōki, huh? And I'm guessing that 'Minato-kun' would be the nervous boy who had first spoken.

(Yes, more honorfics! –kun is used for boys or a fellow worker, right?)

Wait…Minato…? That sounded awfully familiar. I felt as though I was missing out on something super big, even though it was being carefully spelled out for me.

However, all thoughts about that were thrown out of my mind as I remembered the rest of Hōki's sentence. She. The woman had called me a she.

That meant I was a girl, right? I felt a rare sense of…rightness. Huh. I guess I was a girl in my previous life.

"B-But…"

That was the nervous boy again. I heard Hōki sigh and then I was shifted (oh, she was currently carrying me) before I was―

"Ah! No, Hōki-san!"

…Dropped unceremoniously into the nervous boy's ―Minato-kun's― hands.

Uh, I wasn't a pro at caring for babies, but I was pretty sure that you didn't give them to little children. And that was what Minato was. His hands felt much smaller than either of my caretakers.

Contrary to my belief that the poor nervous boy would drop me (and I wouldn't hold it against him; he was shaking like a leaf), he quelled the trembling in his hands and took a deep breath. With soft comments from Hōki―

"Support her neck, Minato-kun. You're doing great."

―I was eventually being held by Minato rather professionally. Honestly, I feared for the children of this orphanage. Who gives random kids a baby to hold?

"Bring your face closer, Minato-kun," Hōki murmured softly "Babies as young as her can't see that far."

A pause. It was clear to even me that Minato hesitated, before he slowly started to lean forward. I watched, mesmerized, as the details of his face became more clear.

Spiky hair colored a gold that rivaled the glowing sun. Kind, cerulean-blue eyes. A small, hesitant smile coupled with cute, chubby cheeks.

The boy gulped nervously. "H-Hello, Miho-chan," his voice wavered, but he plunged on with what seemed like blind determination, "My name is Namikaze Minato. I'm your older brother."

Namikaze Minato.

Namikaze Miho.

…

…Oh my gosh.

Uzumaki Naruto.

It felt as if one of the dams in my brain holding back information had suddenly burst.

Naruto was an anime. An anime was a Japanese television cartoon, and Naruto was one of the most famous.

I was quite fond of anime, despite my parents' dislike for it. Naruto had been one of the first I had ever watched, and though I had never finished it, I had kept up-to-date with it through fanfictions and forums.

But-but. I had been reborn. And with Minato here ―Minato, oh gosh, Naruto's father!― didn't that mean I had been reborn into the universe of Naruto?

Was that even possible? Then again, I hadn't really believed that reincarnation was possible, not until I was very clearly reborn. Unless Minato was a very die-hard Naruto fan, I doubt I was on Earth.

…Wait a minute, Hōki's headband! Wasn't that a Konoha headband?

…So, unless they were all die-hard Naruto fans, I was really in the Naruto world.

"H-Hōki-san! D-Did she just stop breathing?!"

Despite the panic I was suddenly feeling, Minato's words made him sound even more panicked than I was (if that was possible). The thought was refreshing, if not a little funny.

Deciding to give poor Minato a break (in all honesty, I hadn't even started to comprehend anything he had said other than his name at this point), baby-me giggled, before I reached for Minato's bright gold locks and tugged on one gently.

It seemed to me that puberty was going to be the least of my troubles.

A/N: To be perfectly honest, I've avoided reading SI's like it was worse than the plague. However, for better or for worst, I decided to embark on writing one. Yes, I know, I'm stupid. Please show me your support and stay with me for this journey! Reviews are very welcomed. Flames shall be used to roast marshmallows. Thanks!

Fun Facts!

Minato is translated to 'harbor' in English.

Miho is translated to 'beautiful' and 'sail' in English.

That is also a reason why I picked the title I did.