Hey everybody! I've always wanted to do an SI kinda story so here it is! It's not really a self-insert, more like an OC-insert. Is that the same thing? Whatever it's called, I'd like to present to you the prologue of Welcome to Hell! Enjoy!

I don't own Naruto!

I've heard before that drowning is a peaceful way to die.

Whoever said that is a filthy liar!

It was too late when I realized I was too far under to make it back to the surface before I needed to breathe. My heart rate sped up and I struggled to keep myself from inhaling. I hurriedly clamped my hand over my nose and mouth in a pitiful attempt not to suck in any water. My lungs were practically screaming for oxygen as I frantically swam towards the surface. I wasn't even halfway there when my body decided it couldn't wait any longer.

I don't know why I expected to be able to breathe when I opened my mouth. Instead of the hot, humid air I'd been breathing all day, I got a mouthful of salty, green water. I choked and tried to cover my mouth again only to sharply inhale through my nose. I was way too desperate for oxygen to stop myself.

My whole chest hurt, making the pain worse as more and more water was taken into my body. The salt water burned my eyes and left a bad taste in my mouth. Honestly, the last thing I should be worried about is how the water tastes.

Panicking more than ever, I start to kick and thrash around wildly. All that adrenaline pumping through my body was hindering my ability to think clearly. If I could have conserved my energy, maybe I could have actually reached the surface. Instead, my hysterical thrashing tired out my muscles and I began to slow down.

My muscles ached and they felt too heavy to move. My energy was rapidly depleting, it was all I could do just to keep my eyes open. I could feel my heart slamming against my rib cage. It was like it was trying to break through the bone and escape out of my body. The pain in my chest was far worse than it had been and my whole body lurched. It seemed like my lungs were beginning to cave in on themselves.

It felt like there was a snake wrapped around my torso. Slowly suffocating me. The more I struggled the tighter it got. It was like one of those nature documentaries you watch at two in the morning when you can't sleep. You don't think too much about it when you see a snake catch a mouse and squeeze the life out of it. It's just a part of nature. Death is a part of nature.

The water is the snake and I'm it's prey. I'm helpless to do anything while it slowly strangles me and crushes my lungs. Once I'm gone, the vast ocean will swallow me up and shit me out on a beach somewhere. How's that for a nature documentary?

The immense pain in body begins to subside. The water, warmed by the hot sun, starts to turn cold. I slowly become numb. Starting at my fingers and going up my arms. The same happens to my legs and the rest of my body. My eye lids grew heavy but I struggled to keep them open. Then just like that, all the pain had disappeared.

I felt comfortably cold as I floated through the water. A school of fish swam by my head, unafraid. I was becoming a part of the sea itself. No longer a predator or prey. The ocean could do with me what it pleased. I was nothing more than a lifeless corpse suspended in the green water.

The world around me grew dark.

I wonder if the sun set?

Have my friends noticed that I haven't resurfaced yet? Did they even hear my frantic splashing over the blasting stereo?

Whatever the case may be, it was too late to save me.

Why haven't I moved on yet? Aren't you supposed to see a bright light or get transported to the gates of heaven? Shouldn't I at least be sitting on a bench at the bus stop to hell? It doesn't make much sense for me to still be floating aimlessly in the dark sea.

Maybe I'm in a limbo. If this is what limbo is like then I'll go insane before the decade is over.

An echoing voice pierced the painful silence. "How unfortunate,"

What? Who's there?

"Death isn't very fortunate in itself. Let alone taking a life it has no right to claim."

Yeah, I completely agree that death sucks. I'm talking to you, but my mouth isn't moving. Is this telepathy? Who are you? Where are you? Why can't I see you?

"So many questions without answers," the voice drawled. "I'll only answer one. Choose wisely."

I thought about asking if this was limbo. It'd be pretty stupid if it was and I used my only question on something like that. It didn't matter where the voice was coming from or why I couldn't see them. That left me with one option.

Who are you?

"Who am I?" the voice hummed.

I literally just asked you that.

"I'm here to guide your spirit after it's abrupt end."

Are you from the R.I.P.D.? I saw that movie, and I promise I'm not trying to escape judgement. I just don't know how to get out of this damn water. I guess that's why you're here. Alright, take me to heaven.

"I'm not here to take you to heaven."

Am I going to hell?

"That's not for me to decide," the voice explained. "Due to your unexpected death, an abnormality has occurred."

An abnormality? I drowned. How is that abnormal?

"A person from another world had a correspondent death to yours."

Are you saying that someone else drowned at the same time?

"Precisely," the voice continued. "This uncanny event has given you an opportunity. One that would have not been available to you if your deaths had not been in sync."

Suddenly, the body of a small child materialized in front of me. His black hair twisted and waved from the rippling of the water. His lightly tanned skin shriveled and softened.

I reached out to touch his round face with my own pruned fingers. If I could still feel my heart, I'm sure it would have ached. It was a shame for someone so young to die in such an awful way. I know firsthand that drowning was a bitch.

I caressed the boy's cheek as we floated in the vast ocean together.

"Because of your accidental passing, you will be permitted to take the child's life."

For someone who's supposed to explain things to me in a way I can understand, you're doing a shitty job.

"Allow me to elaborate," the voice echoed around me. "Your spirit will enter the child's body and you may live on."

So we're swapping bodies? Will the kid's spirit go in my body then?

"No, sadly it was time for the child to depart from this world. You, however, have a chance."

It saddened me that the little boy in front of me was truly gone. It didn't seem right to take his body and live with his identity.

"This type of scenario does not happen often," the voice drawled. "You are being offered a second life. Most mortals only get one. Don't dismiss this opportunity just because you're filled with sorrow for the child."

I didn't like the idea of stealing the kid's life, but I was being offered a second chance. The weird voice even said that this rarely happened. It also said that the child was from another world. I have to know what it's like. My curiosity always gets the best of me.

I want to do this. I want a second life.

"Very well, your spirit will be transferred into the child."

My mouth opened and thick white smoke began to pour out. The small boy's mouth mirrored mine, except the smoke was going into him. It was relatively painless but it made my body feel as heavy as stone. My tired eyes slid closed when the last stream of smoke left my mouth.

When I opened my eyes, I was looking at myself. Well, I was looking at my old body. I stared at the teenage body in awe. It was like looking in a mirror, only I wasn't the person in front of me. Not any longer.

"Soul transfer complete. Good luck with your new life."

Wait! What am I supposed to do now?!

"Anything you wish. You may live any way you choose." the voice sounded like it was getting farther away. "Stay away from the water..."

My vision went black.

The tight feeling in my chest returns and I choked on the salty water filling my mouth. I clamped my mouth shut and fought against the current tossing me from left to right.

I'm drowning! Again! That bastard didn't tell me I'd pick up where the kid left off! I want a refund!

Something sharp digs into my ankle, piercing the skin and turning the water around me red. I open my mouth to shout, causing water to rush in and gag me. I feel myself being pulled upwards by a mysterious force. The pain in my ankle intensifies and I struggle to keep from screaming so I don't get another mouthful of water.

When I felt like my lungs were going to explode, I bursted from the surface of the water. I gasped for air, coughing and spitting out liquid that came back up my throat. Water droplets rolled down my face and stung my eyes. My clothes clung tightly to my body and I shivered.

My teeth chattered and another shudder forced it's way through my body. It was unbelievably cold. What happened to the summer? Right, this was a different world. Maybe the seasons were different.

It was then I realized that I was upside down, suspended in the air. What I now figured out was a hook, dug deeper into my skin and the wire it was attached to tightened. My arms hung limply over my head as I was reeled up the side of a large boat.

The look on the man's face when I reached the top was priceless. It was somewhere between a mixture of surprise and horror.

Still held out away from the boat by a fishing pole, I offered him a weak smile. It may have looked like a frown to him since I was upside down.

My whole body felt drained and I sighed heavily. I closed my eyes and felt the jerking of the pole as the fisherman tried to ease me over the side of the boat. I was too tired to even care that he banged my head against the railing.

Drowning sucks.

That's it for the prologue! I hope you enjoyed it! In case you were confused about the whole conversation with the "voice" the italics were our main character "speaking." He wasn't really speaking, he was just thinking those things. Mentally conversing with the voice. Telepathy. I promise that will never happen again.

This was my first time ever writing something in 1st person. I think I did decent. The more I practice the more I'll improve.

In the next chapter we'll get to see our nameless hero interact with people.

Until next time!