Ayaka is named for the state of the world upon her birth.
She is born in a burst of reds and golds, in wildfire whirling around her, set against the backdrop of a hazy summer sunset. Her cries are lost in the howling of the fire, in the harsh voice of called out water jutsu that struggle to extinguish the strong flames.
Though she manages, perilously, to survive, her mother does not, and she is soon shipped off to the local orphanage, already overflowing after the Kyuubi attack not a year ago.
Ayaka means colourful summer, because the matron of the orphanage has a dark sense of humor.
-o-
With her dark brown hair and coal black eyes, Ayaka is as nondescript as they come. At first glance, she looks like just about every other civilian in Fire Country, since most of the crazy colours only come from long ninja bloodlines.
A closer look reveals a certain delicate aristocracy to her pale features, one that suggests she will grow to be a great beauty, and that, likely, she is the bastard child of a union between some noble and the hapless farmer's daughter who died in a summer wildfire.
That same wildfire has left its mark on her, in burn scars that stretch across her growing arms like twisted up tattoos. Even as a baby, she'd had enough sense to cover her face from the flames with her chubby hands, it seems. The caretakers dress her up in long sleeves to cover them up, but Ayaka likes to rip them off, likes to poke at the sensitive tissue the same way she always picks at her scabs and presses against her wounds until they bleed.
People call her scars ugly, but she thinks they are beautiful.
-o-
Her surname is one of her few connections to her deceased mother, because the fire took everything else, and even her face, if the caretakers are to be believed do not share too many features with her. But Satō is as generic as they come, being one of the most popular surnames around and it is even shared across various orphans in the orphanage who have no relation, rendering the connection meaningless.
Are there real Satōs out there, ones who knew her mother? Like most orphans, she daydreams, sometimes, of some distant relation of hers, a real Satō coming to "assist" her, as their kanji implies. But these are idle thoughts, and they vanish like mist when she opens her eyes to see the four familiar walls of the orphanage once more.
Still, she wonders, and she is not quite sure which option is worse: that they simply do not know she is here, or that they do but they have chosen to abandon her to the orphanage regardless.
-o-
For as long as she remember, Ayaka dreams of fire, red and gold and white, whirling in a deadly dance around her. They cling to her, searing at her skin and it hurts so much, but she is not afraid. She is never afraid. There is fire in her blood and smoke in her lungs and this is the way she was born, the only way she knows how to live.
When she wakes up, she gasps, the comparatively cold clean air of the crowded rooms in the orphanage scraping against her lungs.
-o-
Sometimes, she dreams of other things.
She dreams of cities unlike anything she has ever seen or heard. Towering structures of metal and glass that rise even higher than hokage mountain. She dreams of noise and lights, a mass of bodies that merge together in sweet, sensual symphony. In them, she dances, wild and free and laughing giddily. She dreams of a world that cannot possibly be real, that is beyond her imagination, but some part of her, some gnawing in her bones is sure she has been here before.
A few times, she dreams of wavy blonde hair and bright green eyes that glint wickedly. Sometimes, there are other faces, another girl with blonde hair but ice blue eyes, a frowning blonde-haired boy with the same icy eyes and a lone girl with dark hair and dark eyes. They appear and blend together, a haze of colours that all get swallowed up in a whirlwind of fire.
Always, when she wakes up, she remembers only the vaguest of wisps and impressions. No matter how hard she tries, the images slip from her fingers like water, and she is left feeling cold, her inner fire muffled.
-o-
Ayaka makes both friends and enemies with startling ease, often within the same breath.
She is easygoing and gregarious, with a sharp sense of humour. Even at a young age, she exudes an air of confidence that allows her to easily drag others into her orbit (occasionally with force). But she is also ill-tempered and reckless, easy to anger and quick to grow violent.
Some say that wildfire she was born in has grown inside of her all these years, a fiery creature that bursts out at intervals, taking over her until she is no longer a little girl but some wild untameable force of nature.
-o-
Whatever the truth, as Ayaka grows, she proves as hard to discipline as punishment, in the form of a leather strap or rattan cane across the hands or sides, is quickly ineffective, as does any scolding or shouting.
The very first time an adult hits her in punishment, she is struck still, eyes wide and glassy, as though she is recalling a painful memory. After, for the rest of the day, she grows unusually silent and sullen (and when she sleeps, she dreams of pain and breaking of her bones and hears screams she only belatedly realizes are her own).
But the second time, and every time after, she only growls, a vindictive laugh that is out of place in her childish voice. Pain only seems to add fuel to her fire, and words of anger are thrown back with greater, vicious force. Because she is wildfire, she thinks, and any attempt to contain her will only burn those around her. Even if she herself goes up in flames in the process, she will take everyone with her, she thinks.
In the end, the only punishment that ends up rattling her is isolation. Ayaka hates to be ignored more than anything, and being locked in a room with no company but her own proves to be a worse punishment than any number of welts across her scarred arms. Alone, ignored, she is cold and clammy. A fire needs air and things to burn. Alone, it will snuff itself out.
Perhaps if she were someone else, Ayaka would learn discipline and fear. Instead, Ayaka learns to escape.
-o-
Uzumaki Naruto is a fellow orphan one year younger than her. Because of the age and gender gap, Ayaka does not see much of him at first. Even when they do run into each other, during mealtimes or playtimes, he does not register much, beyond just another body in the crowded halls to avoid or mess around with, depending on how her mood strikes her.
But Ayaka is observant and intelligent, and it does not take long for her to notice something different about him. The caretakers not-so-subtly encourage the other orphans to pick on Naruto, turning a blind eye to any bullying and even discouraging any friendships with him, by making them share in the blame for when the boy is inevitably punished for some minor infraction of another, and even outright scolding anyone who spends too much time with him.
Of course, this only makes Ayaka want to do it more. Ever eager to disobey, she wants to do it just to be contrary, to feel that familiar fire welling up inside her. But after a few days of observing the boy from afar, she finds more even more reasons to do it.
The Uzumaki boy is quiet and solemn, and loud and brash by turns. He cringes from the caretakers' hands and watches the other children with big, sad eyes.
None of it makes him much different from any other boy in the orphanage, where pathetic, discarded children are left to rot, crowded together until they are only some nameless, faceless mass of human suffering.
Of course, Ayaka doesn't see it that way in so many words. She only sees a scrawny brat, nothing special, and grows ever curious. She wants to know where the fear comes from, with all the stubborn recklessness of a child.
Observant and intelligent she may be, but Ayaka has no head for planning. Even if she could, she would not want to. She loves the feeling of making decisions in the heat of the moment, feeling the rush of adrenaline of jumping headfirst into action, the utter freedom of just doing whatever comes to mind.
-o-
This is how the one of the greatest friendships the world has ever seen begins:
"Yo, Uzumaki! We're friends now, yeah?" Ayaka tells him casually one day, when the kids are let out to play. She doesn't bother waiting for an affirmative response and just plops down next to him, grinning at the bewildered expression that crosses his face.
"Huh?" Naruto replies dumbly, before his face scrunches up in suspicions, already wary, at five years old. "Are ya playin' a trick on me?"
Unable to help herself, when given this great opening, Ayaka responds, with all the solemnity she can muster, "Yup."
Naruto reacts as expected, spluttering in confusions before he shifts into anger. Ayaka laughs then, and tries to tell him it's a joke, but he tackles her instead. The dark-haired girl only laughs harder, and the two end up wrestling in the dirt until one of the caretakers comes to pull them apart.
A/N: So, as you can see, this is not your typical Reincarnated!SI-OC, in that Ayaka does not actually remember her past life much, beyond some faded dreams but it will start to trickle through as she grows up, and there are plenty of little things that slip through too, like her enhanced intelligence, her dark outlook, etc. Other canon characters will show up in later chapters (esp. once they enter the Academy), as well as a few other OCs (only minor roles though).
Inspired by all the great SI-OC fics out there (you know who you are :P)