Title: Reincarnation

Summary: Because you're more likely to be reincarnated in the Naruto world would as a civilian far away from the ninja villages and I sure as hell hope you're not conscious for the miracle of life.

"You know that feeling where you know you're forgetting something but you don't know what? Well, I've pretty much felt that my entire life. Or rather, since I was born… again. That is, for as long as I can remember since I was born. But I don't remember feeling born so yeah. I could have had an overwhelming sense of déjà vu while being pushed out the birth canal, but hell if I remember that. But that's not what I feel like I'm forgetting. But I'm getting off topic. The feeling you're forgetting something… like, I remember not feeling it, but that was before I was born. Or maybe it didn't happen. It's complicated. Maybe I'm remembering someone else's memories. But whoever they are, we're a lot alike, so we could be the same person. Hell, they could even be my past life, or maybe I'm just having visions of my future, I wouldn't put it past me to have totally missed out on the memo that you're supposed to remember your past and not the future." I trail off and look to my little sister for her opinion on the matter.

"You're weird." She says flatly.

I grin and pull her in for a hug and a noogie. "You've only just noticed?" I laugh.

She gives a mock scowl and pushes me off. "No, just stating the obvious. Stop messing up my hair!" She pouts adorably until I release her. "How do you know they're memories anyway?" She asks.

I shrug. "Dunno. They just feel like memories. Like, when I remember back when you were born, and when I remember when learning to ride a bike, it feels the same." Due to our frequent chats along this line, Seika already knew what a bicycle was.

"You're crazy." She says.

"Maybe." I lie back in the grass and watch the sky. "Or really creative." Seika and I sit in silence and watch the breeze blow the leaves of the trees. As usual, my mind is a scatter, but I don't mind. My family and the village see me as sort of an idiot, but not in a bad way. More like the dreamer, the wanderer, and the town fool who represents human nature's impractical, dumbfounding tendency to think out of the box. I'm the guy who lives in his own world more often than not and who let's his imagination get the better of him. I'm an odd one, but I'm not alone. I love my village, and am loved by my village. I'm the comic relief, much like my older brother in my past life was to me. It's funny how I'm the one who died, or so I assume, and yet it is me who is honoring his memory by being like him. A slight frown comes to my face at that. I only remember my past life up to my current age of this body. As life goes on and I get older, I remember more and more, but I still haven't reached the age that I died in my past life, so I'm not really sure what happened… or if it's even a past life at all. It's kinda like watching an ongoing TV show, only that it's your life. I'm sort of glad that I don't remember everything yet. Not only would that mean the 'show's over' but it would also mean that I died young; only sixteen. I've been remembering some pretty hard times I had back when I was sixteen the first time. I just really, really hope I hadn't killed myself. That would put a real damper on my mood.

It turns out I needn't have worried. Two years later I'm eighteen years old and for the first time in my life I don't feel like I'm forgetting something. It's disconcerting to say the least. I'd gotten over the thing that happened when I was sixteen, rebounded better than ever with the help of therapy and had been confidently going off to college for the first time when I got struck by lightning and killed. I remembered that a fortnight ago, and now two weeks later I see Freakin Naruto standing at my door. Well isn't life just crazier than me?

Mom and Dad are off in the fields since it's harvest season and they couldn't spare the hands to meet the ninja, and so left me and Sister dearest to do the job.

I'm eighteen, my sister is fourteen, and since Sasuke is still with the team, I assume the genin at the door are twelve and the jonin 26. I was a Narutard, what can I say? At least I didn't memorize their blood types and birthdays like some people. Anyway, as soon as I see who it is our little farming village hired to take care of the bandits stealing our food, my jaw drops and I point dramatically at the boy in orange.

"You!" I shout.

Naruto squints and tilts his head to the side. "Eh?" Ahh! It's just like in the anime! My eyes light up as I run over to him and start pulling his cheeks

"Aww! You're so cute!" I screech. "You look just like I remember you!"

Naruto's eyes go comically wide and he yells "Wha- Do I know you!?"

"I used to have such a crush on you when I was little!" I continue on as if he said nothing.

"Where we even alive when you were little?" Sakura, ever the smart one, asks.

"Nope! Just a TV show!" I singsong, as I continue to snuggle Naruto while he struggles to free himself of my grasp. It's about now that dear sister Seika decides to do damage control.

"Sorry about him!" She says, prying me off of Naruto. "My brother is prone to delusions!"

"Awe, Seika, you're so mean!" I whine, hugging her around the neck. "Is that any way to treat your manly older brother?"

Seika rolls her eyes much like I often did at my older brother when I was her age. "You're about the least manly person I know."
I shrug and lean my chin on top of her head. "Makes sense, since I was a girl in my past life." Seika takes one look at our guests' weirded out expressions and sighs. She's way beyond getting embarrassed by anything I do and I'm so proud of her. In my opinion, embarrassment is the most useless emotion and so I beat it out of her by embarrassing her constantly from a very young age, just as my older brother did to me.

"Why don't you all come in and have some tea?" Seika asks tiredly. Team seven gives each other nervous looks but comes in.

After we seated them all at the low table and served them tea, Seika asks them what they know of our situation. Kakashi pulls out a scroll and says, "According to the scroll, it's a C rank mission to deal with a group of bandits threatening your farming village."

Seika nods, "Yeah, every harvest they intimidate us to give a portion of our crop. We figured it would pay off in the long run if we used our savings hire you to get rid of them when they came to pick up the food."

"It's just like 'a bug's life'" I murmur to myself. Everyone looks at me.

"Huh?" Naruto asks intelligently.

"Then again," I say, "then again, no one got banished to find you and you're not circus performing insects."

Seika face-palms. "So in other words it's nothing like 'a bug's life' Ren."

"Hey, it could be!" I argue, "if the bandits were the crickets! No, wait, Oh! Oh! I know! This story is just like 'The seven samurai'! The only difference is there's four of you, and you're ninja, not samurai, and we didn't hide all the women from you. But I guess that would be unnecessary since you're all so young… except for you," I point to Kakashi, "you look like a pervert if I ever saw one."

I smile as the masked nin gapes at me. "Excuse me?"

"Oh, don't worry Kakashi, I'm just kidding." I joke.

"How do you know my name?" Kakashi asks standing up.

I blink in confusion, "What?" oh yeah, he hadn't introduced himself yet. Well shit. I play the idiot a little longer, showing my confusion. Suddenly I burst out laughing. "Wahahah! Oh my, oh my GOD Ha! Your, your parents actually named you scarecrow! That is too good! Haha! I had a lucky guess! Hehe he you really do look like a Kakashi." I wipe the tears out of my eyes as my laughter dies down and see that Kakashi is decidedly unamused while his students appear to be holding back their own laughter. I give a Kakashi sympathetic smile. "S'okay man! My name in my past life meant 'snare', though now that I think about it, that's kinda cool. And nobody knew that's what it meant anyway…" I rub the back of my head and scratch my chin. "So, bad comparison I guess. Anyway, I called you Kakashi because you look like a scarecrow, but having had a bunch of hallucinations about your past and future doesn't hurt either. Would you like some more tea?"

Seika gives me a glare. "Don't rile them up, then offer more tea when you know you're not going to be the one to get it Ren."

"Aw, but Seika, I could make the tea, but you're so much better at it!" I whine.

"Then practice." She deadpans. "Go make some tea. You're giving me a headache."

I make to leave when I hear her grumble, "Seriously, sometimes I feel like the I'm older sibling around here." I couldn't let that go so I pop my head back through the door and say, "I was a younger sibling too once. And in my past life I felt exactly the way you do. It is my duty as loving older brother to annoy and embarrass you as much as possible, just like my brother did to me!" and with that I left to make the tea.

Kakashi watches the girl smile fondly at the retreating form of her strange older brother. Once he's gone, Sakura quietly asks, "Did his older brother die?" Seika looks thoughtful for a moment, before saying, "I guess you could say that." Naruto slumps in his chair, ironically exhausted by the older boy's exuberant personality. "How are you two siblings?" He asks incredulously. "You look the same but you act so different!" Seika smiles. "We get that a lot." Sasuke, as usual, remains silent. Kakashi assumes he's brooding on his murderous relationship with his older brother, comparing it to this ridiculous farce of a family. Kakashi can't help but ask. "Why does Ren keep referring to his 'past life' and what did he mean by hallucinating our pasts and futures?" For the first time since meeting the girl, Seika seems slightly uncomfortable. Strange, since she seemed hardly nonplussed by her brother's strange behaviors, though admittedly by now she must be used to them. Seika sighs. "Ren… is a little… strange."

Sasuke snorts. "That's putting it politely."

The girl's eyes narrow in warning. "Don't insult my brother. He's lived twice the life you have."

Kakashi and Sasuke start speaking at the same time, saying; "He doesn't look old enough to be twenty four," and "What does his age have to do with anything?" respectively.

Seika shakes her head. "He's eighteen. And his mind has twice as many memories as you or I. Memories of a whole other lifetime."

"It's not nice to talk about people behind their back, you know." I say, bringing in the tea set. Brewing the leaves was good for me, and the slight break in conversation helped me come off my high from seeing Naruto characters in real life and come into the room less hyper. My sister always knew what I needed. I sit next to her and lean my head on her shoulder. My head bobs as she shrugs. "You always told me to tell the truth."

I frown at her, "Yeah, but you don't have to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth." I poke her in the ribs and she swats my hand away. "What if I didn't want them to know that I inexplicably know their whole life stories?"

"Then you shouldn't have said that." Seika tells me flatly. I look at the ninja's shocked faces. "Oops."

"Explain." Kakashi demands.

"You want to know your own story?" I ask. "That's a little self centered."

Kakashi glares and I sigh. "Fine." I put on an airy voice and gain a faraway look in my eyes. "~Give me your palms and I will read you your fate. But set forth not, the hand of the cowardly, for once you know, you can never go back~" I hold out my hands expectantly. Seika elbows me hard in the ribs. "Ow! What was that for?"

"Just tell them normally and get it over with."

"Okay, okay," I grumble. "Spoilsport." Seika unfortunately doesn't rise to the bait and start an argument to stall my impending doom. I sigh dejectedly. "You three are tragic sob stories," I say, motioning to the boys. "but you get happy endings. And you are completely normal." I say to Sakura. I see her face fall slightly and add on, "But you'll get really strong once you grow out of your crush on dark and broody here." She blinks and glances at Sasuke.

"Oh! Oh! Will I get strong?" Naruto asks excitedly.

"Hell yeah you will!" I say grinning. "You could say you'd be one of a million!"

"Don't you mean one in a million?" Seika asks.

"Nope. One of a million. A million Naruto's!" I answer proudly.

"Oh!" Naruto's eyes widen. "You mean shadow clones!"

"Maybe." I say. "Just remember to befriend foxy before you make a million."

"What about me?" Sasuke asks quietly. I pretend I don't hear him.

"Anyone else?" Sasuke repeats himself. "What? I can't hear you." He grits his teeth. "I said. What. About. Me."

"Oh you!" I clap my hands together and pretend to think. "Yes, you'll get strong… as long as…"

"As long as what?"

I look him seriously in the eyes. "Sasuke. If a cross-dressing man with a big snake offers you power… he only wants you for your body."