Rebirth Arc: Welcome to the World

We never stop to think about death.

Maybe because the idea that today might be the day you die is absurd- you're going to live forever after all.

Or maybe your mind wants to be spared the effort of constantly surveying for every single microscopic thing that might in some small way bring about your demise. Who knows? All I know is that one day my death came to me.

I remembered the gun going off and then the pain- so much pain. What at first felt like searing hot shards embedded in my chest became a squeezing, convulsing feeling as walls closed in around me and forced me out into a blinding light. A painstaking process that seemed to last for hours, until at last it came to an end and my lungs burned with their first breath in an age.

Nothing was right though. My eyes struggled to make out anything other than vague shadowy blobs, and my body jerked uncontrollably as I tried to move it with some form of coordination.

I was alive, but was this living? I was helpless. I had no idea what was going on. I was as helpless as a new-born baby.

Little did I know that I was a new-born baby.

I felt lukewarm water surround me, splashed onto my body by the hands that held me. I cried for all it was worth, even when they wrapped me in a blanket- rough against my sensitive skin.

I didn't like it; being this helpless, being this… dependent on someone else to do everything else for you. I could only hope that this was a temporary thing.

I was gently placed down on a bed, too busy crying to pay attention to whatever was happening. As far as I was concerned my life was over.

How much time passed was hard to tell. There was no way to tell whether it was night or day in here. It could have been days, weeks- even months. Slowly I accepted the fact that I was trapped like this, though little improvements gave me hope that this may not be permanent after all.

My ears were slowly beginning to pick out individual sounds, and not just the muffled noises one might associate with having their ears submerged.

My eyes could now discern the outlines of objects and were beginning to make out the features of the people who came to see me.

They wore a lot of white, though that I expected. After all they were doctors. But what I didn't expect was for them to be speaking Japanese.

"Ohayo, Mirai-chan!" This woman was a familiar presence, though woman might have been too generous. She looked like she was in her early teens, her wide blue eyes set in a face framed by dark green hair.

'Surely that can't be natural…'

She would chatter on about this and that as she fed me, pressing the plastic tip to my mouth.

I'd been confused at first about why they were feeding me like this- and milk nonetheless. But like many other things I'd just learned to accept it.

My limbs still refused to listen to me. That didn't stop me from trying however- I was going to go back to my normal life or die trying. The frustration would get to me on days though and I'd burst out crying from the hell of it all. I just wanted to be back to my old self again- was that too much to ask?

Whenever I did cry, one of the doctors would come in and try to console me. But how could they when they didn't know what was wrong? How could they know the humiliation of even being able to control your bowel movements?!

I was slowly going mad trapped inside this useless body. No matter how much progress I made, I was inevitably reminded that it still wasn't enough.

It was a race to get better before I lost my mind.

As time passed I bounced between days of utter despair, where I could barely be bothered to try, and days of almost manic determination where trying was all I did. The green-haired nurse would watch me often as I did this. She would coo at me and speak in that stupid voice reserved for babies and dogs. I wished I could just tell her to drop the patronising act, but the only noises I could make were just that- noises.

My voice didn't sound right either I'd come to realise. A lot of things weren't adding up and even though the answer danced at the back of my mind I still refused to hear it.

It wasn't possible.

It just wasn't possible.

Eventually I was moved out of the hospital and into some kind of home. I was asleep for that part though, and probably gave my new carers a startle when I started crying again. Thoughts of kidnapping sprung to mind when I had first looked up to this new room. The hospitals sterile white walls replaced with wooden panels and a roof painted like the sky.

My senses continued to improve. My control over my body grew. Each aided by the adult mind that had finally accepted the fact that I was a baby.

I was a baby.

What kind of cruel joke was this? Did I have enough unspent years on my last life to try for a repeat? Was it possible that this was actually some kind of comatose dream? Was I actually lying in a hospital bed back in Exeter dreaming this all up to keep myself entertained?

I began to pay more attention to what was going on around me.

While the green-haired nurse was still the most common person in my life, I concluded she wasn't my mother- my new mother. A concept that didn't quite compute. The idea of having any other mother was strange and foreboding. It felt like a betrayal. I'd replay old memories over and over to remind myself who my real family was and then sink into a depression over the fact I might never see them again.

I'd always dreamed of having a new life somewhere, but that didn't mean I wanted this.

'Is this hell? Punishing me with this useless body and useless memories. Take them away! I don't want to remember!'

Constantly I would fall into this same pit of despair, and constantly I would drag myself out. I needed to be stronger than this. I had to accept the fact that who I was before didn't matter now.

I had a chance to start fresh- to become everything I ever wanted to be. How many people got to say that? These memories could be my motivation to lead a better to life. I wouldn't let this eat away at me. I would start again.

I would be Mirai, not Kadyn.

My new mother was dead. That was the conclusion I came to- or maybe it was the conclusion I preferred. Having no new parents to deal with made it easier, I think. There was no-one to stoke the conflicted feelings in my chest.

I was an orphan in… well, an orphanage. The green-haired nurse appeared a lot because she worked here and at the hospital. Her name was Jueki. She was fifteen or so, and a very happy-go-lucky person. Easily my favourite person in the place.

You see, being a baby meant that people often spoke freely to me. It made it very easy to find out what people really thought about.

It also raised a lot of questions about where the hell I'd been reborn.

Even if my grasp of Japanese had proved non-existent, there was no way I could mistake those words.

Konoha.

Hokage.

Shinobi.

Just a few of the words that surfaced again and again. As nothing more than background noise I had never given them any consideration before. But now…

Let's just suppose for a moment that it is actually possible that I was in another world-

'You've been reborn. Is this so hard to believe?'

'This isn't the same! This would mean I was reborn in a fictional world. As in not real.'

'How is it not the same? Rebirth was fictional for you until it happened.'

I was in another world, where people wield almost magical abilities, where creatures of gargantuan proportions walk the earth and where children are raised to fight? I couldn't accept that. There was just no way that anything like that would ever happen.

Ever.

I think I was only a couple of months old when it happened. When Jueki took me outside with her and sat down on the grass, talking on about whatever small thing crossed her mind. That's when it happened.

I was looking in the direction of the village at the time, peering at the mountainside to see if I could spot any faces in the light of the full moon when it appeared.

A large plume of pale smoke appeared. A feeling unlike any other washed over my skin, chilling me to the core and freezing me in place even as a voice at the back of my mind told me to run. Whatever this… thing was, it was evil. Pure malevolence and a hatred so deep it could be felt even here.

Jueki's grip tightened instinctively on me.

Numerous tails emerged from the plume, trashing about wildly, destroying nearby buildings as though they were made of smoke themselves. As the plume faded we saw more of the colossal shape, watching in terrified silence as the beast threw its head up and let out an ear-shattering roar.

It broke us out whatever stupor we had been in. Jueki shot to her feet in an instant, rushing me back in doors even as the beast let loose another roar. As the moonlight washed over it I was able to see what it truly was.

The Kyuubi.

I saw it only for an instant, and in that instance I understood.

Jueki put me back in my bed, shouting to the others as the other children began to cry loudly.

That was the Kyuubi I saw.

That was the Kyuubi I saw.

So that means… that village really was Konoha.

I was in the Naruto world.

'No! That's not possible!'

But there was no denying that apparition.

The orphanage was set outside the village, on top of a nearby hill where it could be seen by the wall guards- but the reverse was also true and it had just given me all the proof I needed.

No, I didn't need this.

'Why did this happen to me? Why?!'

I joined the other children in their fear chorus, crying out in fear, confusion and anger. Even when the Kyuubi's presence no longer suffocated us and the other kids had been consoled I continued to cry.

It lasted for weeks, I think. The shock of it all- the impossibility and frustration of it all had caught up with me and I wanted nothing more than to dissolve in my tears and be left to actually die.

Jueki was absent during this time, called away to deal with the casualties and the other workers were loath to deal with me. I was left to cry and cry until there was nothing left inside.

'Why' was the word that kept circling my mind, refusing to leave and causing nothing but grief for me.

I couldn't answer that question. There was no way of knowing what or why this happened.

Was this a universal constant? Where we all reborn like this? Or was I some kind of cosmic freak or pet project for some bored deity. How was I supposed to answer these questions?

Around the time of my first birthday, I had an epiphany. Or so I like to believe.

I wasn't supposed to answer these questions. There was no way I could ever possibly find out why the hell I was here, so why worry about it? It had happened and that was that. So what was the point in worrying about it?

The change didn't happen overnight, but I slowly began to cheer up. I pushed aside all the negative parts- brushing them aside as it were- and focused on the positive. This was a new life in a new world, and I was going to make the most of it.

I knew where I was along the lines of the plot now- thanks to the Kyuubi. Somewhere in Konoha right now a little baby Naruto was resting and I was going to grow up alongside him. I was in the perfect position to observe the plot in progress- and maybe even change it.

I doubted I could stop the massacre of the Uchiha clan- the defining moment had already occurred and if Itachi and the Hokage hadn't been able to do anything then how could I? It was a great loss, and also a great relief. One less burden to worry about.

But who was I to go on about changing the future? Just because I was here didn't mean I had the right to go interfering with the plot. The consequences could be devastating, and how did I know the plot could be changed anyway? Just because I was here… I could have just been one of the throwaway background characters.

With all the endless possibilities how could I even know for certain things would play out the way they did in the manga and anime? Or maybe that was it, I had to make sure things worked out the way they did in the plot.

But there was a whole world of people out there, all with their own dreams and desires. I couldn't manipulate them like puppets for my personal satisfaction.

What it all came down to really though was one thing.

My own dreams and desires.

Did I want to go about manipulating the plot because of the one possible future I saw? Would I be able to sit back knowing a person's life was about to end? Was I prepared to face whatever repercussions my meddling would have?

More questions I couldn't answer. I was at war with myself about what to do with this knowledge I had.

With great power comes great responsibility.

This knowledge gave me power alright, but was I prepared to handle the responsibilities it came with? I wasn't even sure what those were.

I had eleven years until the main plot began.

Answers could wait.

I threw myself into the revelry of being a child again, working hard to gain my independence whilst also enjoying this small window to live without worries. I already began my education and began to formulate my plan.

I would go to the Academy.

That was the best way to start. I would become a shinobi who had the power to make these changes.

Over the next few years Jueki helped me learn, teaching me to read and write while I taught myself to be stronger. I ran around the orphanage, joined by other children who wanted to join the academy and we would pretend to spar one another as we coerced any shinobi we could to help us- not many as it turned out.

I wanted to try using my chakra, to feel this foreign energy that was now flowing through my body and so I dared to try the leaf exercise. One of the three chakra exercises I knew.

I would wait until night, sitting on my bed in the moonlight and try to urge this energy through me.

It was weeks until I first felt it.

There are no words to describe the sensation, because no such sensation existed in my old world. It wasn't hot and it wasn't cold, there was no liquid or gaseous feel to it- it just was.

The chakra would sit unnoticed in me until I called it, feeling the energy respond to my touch and moving it to where I wanted to go. The further away from my coils though the harder it was, and it took further weeks until I could stick the leaf to my head for even a few seconds.

The more I played with my own chakra the more I began to notice others- I could feel Jueki's chakra and sense that it was different from my own. It felt so… soothing compared to my own- like an ointment rubbed on a nettle sting. I began to notice it even when she wasn't in the same room, knowing she was back before she'd even walked through the front door.

When the time came I could hold the leaf on my head for ages and with barely a thought I began to wonder about all the other things I could do. Not jutsu mind you, but small things such as… such as… enhancing senses, or being able to walk without a sound.

There were so many possibilities for this, for what I could do with chakra. All the jutsu to be learned and all the skills that went unspoken in the series.

I could see why being a shinobi was so appealing, and so when the time came I was registered with the Academy. School supplies were collected and a nice outfit to wear. But that wasn't all as it turned out.

Becoming an academy student meant that I could have my own place- a small studio flat- because of the fact the orphanage was outside of the village.

I packed up my few belongings, thanked the workers for looking after me and left without a second thought. Any friends had would be attending the academy as well, so there was no need for goodbyes there.

I walked through the front door of my flat that was barely bigger than my room at the orphanage and smiled.

Here was my chance for a better life.

A/N: And here it is, more of a prologue than anything else but still- here it is. My attempt at a Naruto SI fic, inspired by so many others that I couldn't name them all. I'm sure you could guess a few though.