"Conspiciunt in abyssum irent et ipse facturus."

I'm here again.

Darkness shines brightly in my eyes, and the expanse is all that I can see. The emptiness hollows my soul and freezes my heart and sets my throat ablaze. The blank feeling prevails despite the distant warning bells in my mind that it hurts, breathing hurts, being hurts. I am empty. I have felt something similar before in the days when I lost my will. The times when I laid in bed after crying into the darkness with a silent wail no one heard, the days when everything just stopped and everything was meaningless and futile, where I existed, but I meant nothing. That was what it was to be within the void of death.

The feeling gets worse as sharp pain erupts in the vein inside of my elbow, and then I see it. The thick, black tendril worming its way into my veins from The Abyss of nothing, it's steel tooth digging deeper, and deeper, and deeperanddeeperdeepdeepeerDEEpERANdHeLPIT'siNME-

Thorny, mangled daggers pierce through my abdomen and twist. The pain is roaring at me and I'm choking on nothing- I wasn't a screamer when in pain, and I didn't want to start now- but tears streamed down my face and they were burningburningburningBuRNnIngbUrNiNGmE-

I can hear them whispering. It itches my ears, my mouth, my hands. Their uttered words creep and crawl and close in on me and I can feel their stares crawling on my skin. They're all looking at me. They don't blink. Their malformed mouths moan and scream and whisper in agony at me, their melting hands scratch and tear and drag me down, I scream, cry, and beg for help, but nobody came.

I stare into The Abyss.

The Abyss stares back.

I shot up, heaving and frozen in fear. A light sheet of sweat had doused some parts of the futon beneath me, and I could practically feel my hair coated in oil and sweat. The cold air of early morning soothed away the uncomfortable humidity of my accumulative heat trapped between me and the covers. Birds chirped outside of the half-open window just above and to the left of me, a gentle blue glow that reminded me of the fluorescent lights I favored before I came here was seeping through the cracks of lilac clouds on the horizon. It felt very serene and normal, something I was torn on hating and adoring. It was almost the perfect weather for me; cool, crisp and with a light breeze, just enough to frost standstill water but not enough to conjure snow. It wasn't dark, and neither was it too bright. The blue was awakening but comforting to the eyes, and songbirds gave a very welcome chorus of soft chirps that sounded in the air with a gentle tone that my used-to-be-wake-up-call sisters lacked.

I was almost a little annoyed at how peaceful it was.

It was so calm that I just wanted to sit and revel in the silence, take a moment to breathe, and calm down.

But then again, it was pretty much the butt crack of dawn.

And I was in desperate need of a cold shower.

I groaned and fell back on the lumpy mattress-like bed, letting my arms flop to my sides as I stared at the void, blank ceiling of wood. Pine, I realized. It smelled good. Silence enveloped my small room, and the curtains on the window shifted with the flow of the wind. I kind of hated the pine ceiling. It was so different from home. I really wasn't sure what to feel about being shoved into another universe, because being transported to another dimension was a thing of fantasy that I only dabbled in to forget about later, and I wasn't in the habit of acting out my tale in the shower like I did with conversations. So, I was a little at a loss on what to do, much less feel. I was never good at that.

So, since it was too early to go outside and take a bath in the giant barrel (I made the mistake of filling it too early yesterday- I was greeted with a splash with the temperature equivalent of Antarctica) I decided to try and imagine my way into my old world. I visioned the ugly, knotted pine planks surrounding me into hardly off-white walls, the dark wood below me sprouting white bits of fluff and carpeting, a fan whirling on a never ending circle. I could see the oak nightstand behind me transporting next to the door, becoming taller and wiser and the same white color as the ceiling. But the thick bog of energy that seemed to swim in the air kept my mind from megalomania of a room resembling my origin's aesthetics. It had no feeling, no scent, no sight, but I could sense it. It was like the feeling you could feel radiating off of someone who was angry, except it was neutral in my case. It came from the birds, the trees, the grass, people; anything that was living. I was rather ignorant of it a few days ago, but now it was only a mildly irritating sixth sense that I only recently came to name- chakra. There was a lot of reasons that I could possibly sense chakra. I had a lot of theories, but I had narrowed it down to one. I was able to sense it so greatly as I could (I could tell that the old woman who sold squash was out gardening, and she was on the other side of the village) because of sudden exposure. I had previously lived in what could be described as a chakra-dead world, and now suddenly immersed by it, I adapted and could now sense it and determine the size and nature. Some natures were extremely easy to pinpoint- lightning chakra tended to hum or spark, fire was constantly swaying or pulse in most cases, though water and wind were still hard to distinguish. Earth was relatively easy only because it was a complete standout. Still, never-moving earth. It was like determining the dead fish in a tank with a few different-colored fish.

I guess you could say it was a dead giveaway.

Haha, I know I'm funny.

All things said, I was now coping better with the nightmares. It had been a week since Ren and his Takikage had dropped me off in a ho-dunk town on the border of their land and the country between them and where Otogakure would be in the future. I had no clue what this land was called- all I knew was that it had the Mountain's Graveyard way up north from here. Never really remembered what significance that place had in the plot of Naruto, but then again, my memory kinda sucks. Oh, well. Maybe I'd remember in the future.

Anyways, the sun began bleeding into the blue and glared into my room like an unwelcome guest reminding me that, yes, I had to get up now, or I would be late for work. I made a deep whine one would expect from a huge, lazy dog and rolled over onto my left side, pulling up the covers and curling into the crappy mat. 'Green... can you take care of me?' I called to the darkness in my mind, feeling a prick of attention in the back of my head.

"Of course."

In my mind's eye, a young man arose and stood. He was about twenty-nine in actual mental terms, but he appeared twenty. His hair was golden and wavy like ramen, bangs framing his forehead. A set of square glasses sit low on his nose, and a red hair ribbon and cloth tie his mop of hair at the end over his right shoulder. He wore a light green haori and a beige kimono underneath, completed with brown sandals. His eyes were kind and soft, a light gold honey color. However, the moment he took over my actions, he donned my skin and flesh like a meat suit. I watched in lazy fascination through my own eyes as Green lifted my body up and combed a quick hand through our hair to assess the nightly damage. He grimaced when he felt a light tug on his own head, and I smirked lightly. Green was a bit different than some of my 'other selves.' He was capable of fusing with me so that I was in control of my mind and could see, but he also used my own eyes to see and guide my body to do as he wished.

Essentially, I was Pinocchio on strings. My own mind and stuff, but the mastermind pulled at the lines that made me move. Although a bit clumsy, a direct insult to his graceful self, he managed to get me downstairs and out to the bath house in a brisk walk. I let him have full control, however, when I saw two workers here at the inn I had taken residence in. I was not very well-favored in the eyes of the townsfolk. I was a stranger who came randomly from an unknown land, and frankly, I couldn't seem friendly enough to deal with them all smiles and happiness daily.

That was where Green and the others came in.

With a calm assertiveness and a confident stride, I could feel the metaphorical ghost of Green possess my body. Green smiled naturally at the two with my mouth as they glanced at us walking by, using a charming crease of my eyes and a wave of the hand. Green was so laid back and welcoming in a way that seemed to enchant people (though he was a bit useless at other things- don't tell him that, though) and the employees were instantly swayed into returning smiles and a set of waves at the serenely chipper Not-Really-Me-'Me.'

It always made me feel a bit like an alien in my own body.

Well, that's enough of that. I'm awake now, and Green wordlessly hands full control to me as he ebbs back into my subconscious. I trip a little at the sudden shift, but it isn't enough to make me fall flat on my face. Practice made me perfect. Somewhat.

Shaking off the train of thought my mind tended to derail on without fail, I entered the bath house. I was the only one here, according to my chakra reads. The only other living souls were the two employees and the blazing, giant depths of someone else in the male side of the place. For a split second, I hesitate. Shinobi were not uncommon visitors here in the town of Tachigai, but this person's reserves were huge. I'd already known he was here when I woke up, but reflexes happened for reflex's sake. I'd made a habit of avoiding shinobi (especially since that Tesshuga girl or whatever had cleaved a good-sized notch in my right ear) that were distinctly not from Konoha. Reason for the matter is that I did most certainly not want to end up in the hands of what is currently known as the Chigiri (bloody mist) or Iwa in the possibility I'm drafted and wind up dying at the hands of a Sannin or one of my favorite characters. The Second Shinobi World War is raging hard and fast, the Sannin are just beginning the make their debut, and I'm pretty sure that Minato's a lump of squiggly human in his mom's stomach at the moment.

...That was the weirdest way I ever described a baby.

"Aww, what, didn't feel like inviting me to the party? And where were you yesterday, anyways?"

Ah, yes. The bane of my existence.

'Hello, Hidrian. How nice of you to pop in.'

I responded in the most bland and disappointed tone I could muster in my head, blanching in real life as well. Hidrian sputtered angrily in my head as I swiped a towel and placed it beside the door as I entered one of the small bathroom cubicles completed by a giant barrel of water waiting to be heated. I blocked out his mental cursing and instead focused on manually heating the water with a provided match. The flame flickered on and off as I irritably struck it against the abrasive surface of the lighter box again and again before it sputtered to life, the match turned crazy-dangerous fire sparkler in the hands of the incompetent (me) spat and burned my fingers as I screeched and tossed it at the firewood.

I hate matches.

Minutes passed until the water began steaming and filled up the small room with the mist. I doused the roaring flame with a bucket of water, coughing a bit when the fire sizzled out, a bit of black smog filling the air before it dissipated in the white steam. I stripped of my clothes, bearing my tattoos and scars to the hot air, sighing when I felt my hair starting to frizz in the humidity. I glanced into the mirror behind me and lingered my gaze on the Ourobouros-enveloped wolf, the trail of portrayed blood slowly dripping down the length of my spine and slowly morphing into black iron. It stopped at the bottom of the small of my back, morphing into a crow before it met my glutteus maximus. I managed to hide the extremely large tattoo with relative ease, which made me stupidly proud considering I was up against ninjas who were watching my every move a week or so ago. The tattoos had appeared the moment I had come into this world, and were gradually growing. The blood and metal trail had slowly appeared over a course of days, but the pied crow had come in a matter of just two days. I had suspicions as to why they were there, and I came up to the conclusion that they had somehow been sealed there. Sealing was the only thing it could be connected to, according to the way I probably came here.

It's the small victories, y'know?

I scrubbed off within ten minutes as the water rapidly cooled off and allowed me an icy escape the I floundered in for a while (water is nice. Water is friend.) as I ducked under as simply existed. I could feel the way it moved around me, invisible currents rippling from my every movement. I could feel the hidden power the water held, its gentle yet powerful force making my body sway slightly under its surface. I could imagine swimming in the sea, a tempest stirring the still waters and spraying salty foam from bitterly sloshing waves. I hear the wind howling as the skies shrouded in dark clouds. The sound of the wind whips through the leaves as their trunks bend and snap at the howling wind. I could feel the rivers in my blood and the storm in my heart. I could taste the wind dancing on my tongue, and the fires of the depths in my eyes. Lightning roared in my lungs and electricity hummed in my throat. A cold, empty void was centered in my core, the vastness swirling on forever and ever in an endless stream of subzero ice and space, I could feel it drawing me in, closer and closer as it calls me, and I belong, and it swallows me whole in the darkness and despair wells-

I open my eyes.

I shoot up out of the water line and gasp for breath, heart pumping maniacally at my episode. I was suddenly afraid- the water around me was slowing down as if it had been swirling, but I blamed that on my (possible) use of chakra. I was afraid of myself. I had felt the void within me- that dark, deep abyss of nothingness that had devoured me. My time in the void was not forgotten- only repressed. I...

I got out of the bathtub vigorously, sliding on my new outfit. I didn't want to think about that again. I numbed my mind to speech and instead let Green's personality take over, a smile replacing my thin frown and furrowed brows and a slight sway to my hips gave me uncharacteristic natural swagger. I wore a dark kimono with a silver butterfly pattern and had a violet pin clipped into my hair. The owner of the tavern insisted I wear this, much to my displeasure as the color purple was none too flattering on me and the pattern was really quite common and bland, but I did not complain. I already caused the poor man plenty of reason to worry when his customers' main entertainment source would jump boat and dart off. I have spent my days talking to he shinobi and travelers making their way through our town trying to set myself up with a caravan or traveling group to travel the Naruto world, and, hopefully, land in Konoha. Shinobi obviously wouldn't escort a helpless citizen (unless I filed for a convoy mission, of course) across the continent, so I mostly pestered them for seals. It involved a lot of alcohol and time and charming them, but eventually they tended to give in after about six bottles (shinobi could seriously hold their weight. It was freaky) and I now had a collection of seals with different uses. Most of them were storage seals since even a severely plastered shinobi who couldn't tell a woman and an underage devil apart still had enough of their bearings to not give a jutsu scroll to a civilian over her head.

Kudos to them.

Nevertheless, it didn't stop several clusters of storage to heating to cooling seals to accumulate in my room lined up in slightly messy stacks. I used them mostly to store musical instruments or survival supplies gifted to me by the wanderers (militia or not) who I had enchanted with my violin skills. It turned out that such a thing as a violin was not something yet invented here (which explained the carpenter and the seamstress's befuddled faces when I placed in my oddly-shaped orders) and thus entranced the curios ninja and dumbstruck merchants. I had already been hounded by traders who wanted to learn the secret of creating a violin and those who wanted to buy it, but a rock or two to the forehead thwarted off the ones who were particularly pushy. Biwa were the main instrument here. A newcomer with a much wider range of sound definitely blew Mr. Three or Less Strings out of the water. It had blown the money I'd gathered as a waitress out of the water for its creation, but it was steadily refilling my poor wallet as the days droned on. However, I had a night-only shift and had an entire sunlight day to spend. On which I will spend in the most boring way possible.

The seals.

Fuīnjutsu was like the metaphysical calculus of this world. Boring, hard, and a pain to understand unless you have an extreme motive for pushing yourself to become at least somewhat adequate in it. It didn't help that I was horrible and all forms of kanji due to how diverse the whole language was and the million different ways of saying one simple thing. My studies were to learn how to make my own seals or replicate them before I used them. In my mind, playing with seals was like poking a crocodile. Why? Because you were screwing around with something that could bend the laws of the world with the simple activation of the stupid element known as chakra. I was never particularly smart or anything, but chakra was a concept that I could grasp, yet could not fully understand. It was vast and unlike anything I knew of or could imagine.

(A part of me feared that it was the void.)

But still, I tried. It was stupid to me regardless.

I entered the quiet tavern and went my way up the stairs, trying my best to not step on a creaky board in fear of waking up and residents. The tavern doubled as a hotel room, and served both shinobi and civilians alike. Kind of like a bed and breakfast, but more Japanese-y. I was naturally good at having a silent walk, but the shinobi customers were especially hard to keep asleep due to their insane paranoia and hearing levels.

What a pain.

I made it to my room without any trouble, and locked the door quietly behind myself. Shifting open the blinds and shutters of the two windows on the outer wall just enough to let some light in the illuminate the room, I glanced at my inventory. Sitting down under front of my hoard of papers and fabrics (who knew that fuīnjutsu embroidery was a thing?), I counted out how many I had of each and what they were.

In the pile of given seals, I had about fifteen inventory seals that kept items inside of them, two of which were differently designed from the others. Two of the total were silencing seals of the same kind, and split evenly from ten were a mixture of heating and cooling seals.

In the pile of self-made seals, there was one crumpled paper.

Okay, so maybe I sucked at trying to be a ninja.

Sighing in dejection from my lack of sealing ability, I grabbed a new sheet of paper from an unused pile and put it next to a spread silencing seal.

I really couldn't understand how to get these to work. I had copied them down to the finest detail the first time (being an artist had actually helped with that. Even if the brush instead of a pencil screwed my and about thirty sheets of paper in the beginning) and attempted to transfer chakra into it. Nothing happened. Hell, I even took lessons from a ninja on how to channel chakra, and on the second time squat happened. I got frustrated and asked the handy helper why it wasn't working, and he just shrugged and said that maybe it had to do with the nature of my chakra or lack thereof. He had told me that I either had such low reserves that ninja couldn't sense it (which was probably what gained me suspicious looks in the first place- what would a civilian be doing hiding their chakra when they shouldn't be able to?) or my chakra really just didn't adapt well to the nature of seals. When I asked him if it was possible if I had no chakra at all, he'd snorted at me and gave me the most condescending sneer I'd ever seen.

"You'd be dead without chakra." He said. Well guess what, bud? I've lived almost fifteen years without it. And then it hit me.

Oh Lord, I was an idiot, wasn't I?

I smacked my forehead and groaned.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

This was all stupid, I was stupid, and unfortunately, stupidity never dies.

My body hadn't changed at all since I'd been in this world (minus the weird tattoos).

Why would my innards be any different?

According to the Naruto franchise, all living creatures (somewhat including plants) had to systems by which they maintained life.

Number one and the simplest of the two, the cardiovascular system. Red was the color of life, and if it was drained from you, you died. The second was the Tenketsu system. It pumped an incomprehensible element throughout your body and kept you alive, even if your blood was mostly gone. Such explained the Plasma Pill. I, however, must be screwing over that system entirely. I, by all rights, should be dead right now. I had no chakra system. And I'd wasted my time with these stupid seals. I groaned and resisted the urge to slam my forehead on the protruding corner of a wall out of fear of waking up the ninja.

I hate me, I hate my head, I'm done.

I flopped backwards and splayed myself on the floor, accidentally giving myself a deep paper cut in the process. I hissed but made no move to coddle my bleeding thumb.

"Take me now, Buddha." I grumbled, rubbing the now sticky blood onto a random sheet of paper. Then something started glowing. "What!?" I sputtered, scrambling backwards, eyes wide and finger stinging. One of the papers, the silencing seal, had my blood smeared across it and was steaming a glowing blue. The effect only lasted a few seconds before the blue faded away.

What.

Ó0Ò

After a lot of experimenting later, I came to a few conclusions. Number one, the seals would not work at all unless I added blood to he picture. Try anything else, and you'll be severely disappointed. It was like using a summoning scroll. Sort of. I couldn't summon anything, unfortunately, if you don't count my little succulent plant Mr. Ukki that I used as a Guinea Pig for the storage seals. The amount of blood didn't have an effect on the amount of time the seals could be activated, (so far, at least. All seals I set aside with varying amounts of blood were still activated five hours later) however, they did determine how strong the seals were. I found this out by taking a heating scroll and applied exactly one drop of blood to it, and the resulting glow of activation was horribly dull. Touching it, it was only slightly warm. So, I added a whole smear (my poor, poor thumb...) to the seal and the result nearly burned my hand off. It was blazing hot, even if the seal itself didn't look much different other than the white ink and heat waves warping the air around it. Second discovery was that, despite my lack of chakra, the substance somehow existed in my blood, which was the only possible explanation as to why the seals reacted to my blood alone. As far as I knew, this was not normal. In the series, they explained that the Tenketsu and cardiovascular system were two separate things, and that summoning sometimes used blood as a medium between the chakra and the bodies being summoned.

So, what made little old me so special?

Not much, really. The ability was squat if all I could use was seals. If I decided to be dedicated, I could learn to do things like the Hiraishin jutsu, even if I'd need the seal design beforehand. However, seals could only get so far. It was the nature of my chakra, however, that astounded me.

Leaving my chakra-infused blood on the seals would have made the stains run out of chakra at some point, but they didn't seem to waver whatsoever. That meant a few things. Numero uno, either my chakra somehow drew natural chakra into it as it consumed the original within activation and used the natural chakra to draw more of it, but unfortunately, I don't have a chakra microscope to see if that's happening, so me trying to find out if it was true was a moot point. Another possibility was that my veins held an extremely large quantity of natural chakra. It is a widely unknown energy, but even I knew that in large quantities, one would have the Medusa effect turned on them. So why did I harbor it in such large quantities, if I did? It couldn't be normal chakra because normal chakra tended to die off after a while. Had I somehow adapted? Self-imposed metamorphosis? I didn't know, and I wouldn't find out unless I happened upon a mad scientist. Regardless, I got started on applying seals right away.

I placed and activated two silencing seals of the highest blood order on my feet, surprising even myself by how absolutely no sound came from me even jumping up and down, and was very grateful that the seals didn't glow. It would be very awkward to explain to someone why I had glowing feet. Next, I got a calligraphy pen from my hoard of lost items belonging to careless travelers and wasted shinobi and, on a very tiny slip of paper, wrote the words for 'hearing' and 'amplify' within a circle of complex kanji referring to the inner ear parts. Good thing Ren had given me a child's dictionary before he abandoned me. I'd have to get an ear cuff from the market if I wanted it to be any use, however.

Quickly as possible (not quickly at all, try another hour adding up to seven hours of this in total) making a second copy and shoving aside all the inactivated seals in a corner and properly securing the papers in my chest bindings, I set out. Now properly silenced, I darted through the hallways and nearly ran into and scared the crap out of nearly twenty people like the Ghost of Christmas Future in my flight.

I snickered when I realized my sneakiness would add to my abilities as the town rebel.

I fluttered and weaved through the crowd with ease that came with years of practice (church got really crowded sometimes) and made my way to the street side vendors. I liked them better than actual stores, mostly because they actually made the stuff or bought it themselves and had no reason to try and rip me of my money without fear of authorities. Avoiding nearly being run over by a man-drawn chair on wheels, I practically zipped over to a jeweler's stand. The now late afternoon sun gleamed off of his wares, silver shining white and gold shining. The man (in his fourties, probably) selling them smiled at me and held up his finger in the universal signed to wait a bit. Confused, I tilted my head and smiled patiently for him while trying to ignore the blazing sun trying to melt my head off. Strange how no one else seemed effected by it. Maybe I was actually a mountain troll, like in The Hobbit?

The man dug around under his cart for a little bit before puffing with satisfaction and brandished two, small, thick silver loop earrings in front of me. I smiled and held out a vertical hand to politely refuse, as they really weren't what I was here for, but he shoved my palm aside and lurched up to hook the small loops on the lobes of my ears. Not really sure how to react, since I'd never really met such a pushy merchant, I waited patiently as he moved onto the other ear, fingering the new accessory. It hugged the lobe of my ear and only looped down a little. I actually kind of liked it. Smiling proudly, he stepped back and nodded his head in approval. I gave him a timid smile back before selecting a pair of matching steel ear cuffs. I wound up paying for both, because it turned out that the man wasn't giving out any freebies, and I didn't have the heart to tell the guy that I really didn't have that much money to spend. He was kind of cute. That worked for him, too.

Curse my bleeding and thirsty black heart.

Determined not to get hustled again, I sped my way out of the marketplace the fastest I could go without dying of overheating in the accursed heat. Knowing my butterfingers, I didn't attempt to connect the seals to the cuffs just yet- instead haunting the tavern halls again and making a few screams sound.

The owner was gonna be pissed, but I can't change the past... in this circumstance.

As soon as I hippity-hopped my way into my room, I set to applying the seals onto the steel.

... at least I would have, if I didn't forget to buy blue while I was out.

I wasn't kidding when I said that stupidity never dies.

Does glue even exist right now?

I blanched in complete and utter disappointment in myself. But then I am struck with another idea. I had chakra! Not usual chakra, but chakra nonetheless. Nen was similar to chakra, and if Hisoka could make his Nen sticky, why couldn't I do the same with my blood?

I immediately swiped my pocket knife from my chest bindings (no one ever suspected anything to be there, and very few had the gall to check in fear of righteous wrath of a scandalized woman) and swiped it across my wrist (just another to the collection of old ones) to draw blood. Using my palm was too painful and took a long time to heal. I applied the coppery liquid generously to the back of the paper seals before sticking them on the steel. "Okay, okay, come on, be sticky...-fied!" I pleaded to the paper, applying a little bit of mental concentration (only a little, really. It was more of a whim than a choice) before, somehow, the seal melted into the metal and combined with it.

Well, there goes the potential of re-applicable seals.

But then again, maybe this wasn't such a bad thing. Now that the steel had been permanently dyed with the pattern, it couldn't be washed off by water or rain. That could be quite useful in the long run. I decided to try the same with my silencing seals, and surprisingly, they molded into my skin like a tattoo and remained activated. After a lot of experimentation, I was able to build up a mastery level ability to switch the seals on and off. My chakra was still part of me, dismembered or not.

The best seal I made, however, was a translation seal.

Seals, I discovered, were like a circuit. The 'battery' was chakra, and kanji and symbols were the copper and conductivity that formed the circle to morph and manipulate the chakra. Lines and the centerpiece were the end results, and in the mindset of geometry, the 'postulates' that held the seal in credibility and kept it working. The thing was, I had absolutely no idea what kanji to use and didn't know if Japan or the Narutoverse in general had the same seals as I did with English. Plus, they didn't have translation seals here nor had a need for them, so I had to start on my own from scratch. But hey, what did Naruto do when he couldn't learn the clone jutsu?

Improvise! On my Mbti score, I got a good score for perceiving, so this was right up my alley.

Drawing a simple circle as a guideline, I began thinking my way through the problem. Geometry was the greatest thing I had in my repertoire of skills for this, so I would stick with it to make this. I began with 'x' to stand for chakra, followed by a midline dot for multiplication and connected them to form an equation with the word 'sound' written in English. I placed it as a tangent line acting as part of a radius for the circle, setting it as the 'rule' or grounding for the seal. I'll call it line A. I began a negative reciprocal of Line A (dubbed Line B) by writing y equals z, afterwards writing on the bottom half of the circle (that I will call major arc ADB) that y is equivalent to sound and z stood for Japanese. On the top half of the circle (Now major arc ACB) I wrote m with the is greater than symbol followed by z. That completed my translation seal. It was designed with the idea that it would translate all Japanese to English in my ears. I frowned and added a few more guidelines to the equation, finally balancing it out.

Fully satisfied, I pressed at my slowly closing cut and used the last remnants of the wound to activate it and shrink it down to the size of my thumb, sealing it to the back of my ear. It blazed white before etching into my skin. Now, I could only wait to test it. I felt oddly empowered by my newfound ability, my heart racing and eyes shining at the magic that I seemed capable of, and I felt the desire to discover more.

However, stupidity is immortal and genius only lasts for so long so I ran out of creativity to last for weeks. I hit a wall on what to do next and decided to just drop the project for now until I was struck by inspiration or I happened upon a sealing master (cough Jiraiya cough) who wasn't swept away by the war. So, I was stuck with master sneakiness and extreme hearing. Oh, maybe I could add a smell-enhancing seal...

Which I cannot do today. Oh well.

I had a terrible sense of time, such being recognized as the sun began setting under the horizon, a deep, bloody red staining the orange and yellow sky. It was almost time for me to preform. I smiled slightly. I was introverted through and through, but even I got a thrill from performing. Especially if my self-proclaimed original songs were actually just some songs some artist wrote in my world.

Thou shalt not lie, but it's not a lie if the person who made it doesn't technically exist.

I grabbed the ear cuffs and slid them securely onto the helix of my ear, squeezing them shut around the cartilage for good measure and making sure that they were turned off. It would not do to have my ears bleed an early death by violin.

The tavern was already starting to fill in with patrons, a few recognizable and occasional repeat customers giving a wave to me as I stepped off of the bottom stair to make myself known. A few shinobi gave me a few looks, probably because they hadn't heard or sensed me coming, but avoided me for the most part. No harm done, at least. My boss, Akatsukage, was giving me a sour look as I sheepishly made my way to the slightly raised stage, but just shook his head in something like resigned defeat. I was a good employee despite the timely occurrences when I scared someone with my antics or me general weirdness, so he really couldn't complain since I also brought his mini hotel a bit of infamy with my musical instruments. The night began then and there with me pulling out the violin locked pad and key and seal (courtesy of a Hot Springs ninja who felt it would be a shame if I couldn't play any more of my instrument was stolen) and all. I played a plethora of all the Lindsey Stirling songs who had been my role model for a bit before I played dimensional hopscotch until I discovered I preferred the darker and smoother, more solemn tones of the violin rather than the high-pitched, erratic sounds she was famous for. But regardless, the hollow sound of Sadness and Sorrow echoed from the depths of my soul into a musical note that enthralled my small, rowdy, alcohol-poisoned crowd. I played every other Naruto song I knew ranging from Loneliness to Fighting Dreamers, of which the latter evoked roars of approval from the younger and shinobi sections of the customers. After an hour and a half, my hands were becoming cramped and my wrists tired, so I placed the Violin back into its chest in favor of talking to merchants.

But unfortunately, my skills at being a social bee were rated an F. I just awkwardly shuffled around until my eye caught someone else's. He had green eyes and strawberry blonde hair, fair skin and a kind face. We locked gazes and my stomach instantly became a pit of dragonflies screaming bloody murder as he smiled at me and waved over. I was panicking as I gave him a wobbly smile, my strides choppy and fearful. However, a simple switch turned my fretful smile to a charming grin and my steps became welcoming and confident. And I watched this all through the window of my eyes. Green was not behind this- he was far too formal for this kind of atmosphere. It must be Fenryl, a feminine persona that came out when it was time to actually behave like my age.

Fenryl's grin grew more wolfish as we neared him, her teenage mindset humming in approval of the, while average, not bad-looking and apparently well taken care of man. I felt the urge to grimace in embarrassment and smack myself just to offend Fenryl, but I had no control at the moment. Unless I really wanted it, of course. I was never fully out of control.

"Hello." Fenryl purred to him, sitting down on the chair directly across from him and placing an elbow and forearm on the table. He raised an eyebrow in what seemed an approving appraisal and smirked. "Hello to you, as well. What gives me the pleasure of such a talented lady's attention on little old me?" He hummed back, leaning forward onto the table to match Fenryl's bold standing. While I inwardly danced and sang that my seal gave perfect translation, Fenryl's grin only grew wider and her eyes twinkled with determination and resolve. "You see, now, I'm in the search to join a merchant group or caravan, and from what I can see, you've got yourself in a good one, from the way you're dressed." She eyed over his silk kimono, silver and red and all sorts of prestige. "Of course, I'm willing to offer my services as a musician and help as a laborer, at the mere cost of ten yen a day, passage within the carriages, and food just as much as he other workers are given. If that is fulfilled, I'll sing and play as a songbird to you and your men's content." Fenryl announced, sitting tall and proud as she steadied her proclamation with the merchant who only seemed to grow more amused the longer she went on. Until, at the very end, he burst with roaring laughter that sent his head back as he clutched at his chest. All of Fenryl's swagger slowly faded at his north and was replaced by my withering form, the almost spell-like experience having been broken. I could hear her huff in embarrassment in the back of my mind, but I was apathetic to her behumblement as she was the one who abandoned me after she took initiative by herself in the first place. We got a few looks from the other customers, and I blushed as I avoided looking at them while he calmed down.

"It's been a long time since someone's made me laugh that hard. Your bluntness is appreciated, but I'm afraid I'm in no need of a new worker right now, so I'm going to have to say that I can't comply." I frowned and sighed, feeling like disappointment had just come over for a sleepover into my life. "But I do find you rather interesting. Your name?" He inquired smiling kindly even though I could see the humor in his eyes at my blatant dismay. I shook my head and held out my hand, giving him a tired grin. "Masamune Kakonoshi. Hajimemashite." I greeted as he took my hand, giving it a firm, single shake. "Nobunaga Haruno, at your service."

Oh. Haruno, that's a nice surname.

OH WAIT WHAT.

I was in the Second War times. If I was correct in my reasoning, this dude had to be Sakura Haruno's grandfather. I was absolutely flabbergasted and if it was evident on my face, Nobunaga took notice of it. "Is something the matter?" He asked, tilting his head. Oh. "A-ah, yes, you see, I just- uh," WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO SAY!? "you see, I'm a bit of a... an oracle."

Oh, would you look at that. I'm a genius.

His eyebrows raise to his hairline, but instead of looking at me like I'd grown a second head, he gained a sheen of interest in his gaze. "Oh, really? Did you see anything about me?" I blinked at him. Uhh..? "You believe me?" The words came out before I could stop them, but he just responded patiently to me. "No one comes out with something like that on a whim, not people like you. You may be able to fake confidence, but it's plain as day that you aren't stupid and that, if not true, you would have never made such a claim. Now, on the matter of my future?"

I could see where Sakura got her intelligence from.

But now, I actually had a chance to use this to my advantage. This guy was rich, from the way he was dressed and the fact that the Haruno had once been a merchant clan. A little bit of yen sent to a poor, wanderlusting child wouldn't hurt him, right? Not without a little something to gain, of course.

"Well... I could tell you a few things... at a price, of course." I slowly drawled, much more cautious of the somewhat stranger now that Fenryl was back grumbling in the pits of my subconscious. He seemed unaffected by this, and simply swished a glass of wine around in his hand in contemplation. "Of course. Nothing too grand, of course, something little perhaps. What did you want?" He questioned me, verdant orbs trained on the wine red sea held in his hands. I knew exactly what I wanted. "A genin escort team. To the land of Water and it's Hidden Village." My first goal was to see if Kisame was alive. I really want to see if I can spark his life a bit- he was a good person deep down and I want to see if I can save a little bit of that. A single salmon eyebrow quirked at my odd request, and I could only hope he would comply. The Hidden Villages were at war, but there were plenty of rogue genin and low-price chunin in the world, so perhaps it wasn't quite so unreasonable. He smiled once again in a satisfied way and he set down his glass. "Of course. I know exactly who to commission for you." He announced, and my spirits soared. I grinned and relaxed for the first time since Fenryl left.

"Well, boy do I have a bit to tell you. You see, one of your descendants is going to be able to split the earth with her pinky finger..."

O0O

"Look for Darkness, and it is all you will see."

-Iroh, Legends of Korra

So. Freaking. LONG. And a bit weird. But I can say that it is so for a good reason. This is a self-insert. Now, you may be asking why I am telling you this and repeating what you already know. But, as a self insert, I am shoved into the story, and so are my problems. The people in my head are one of them. Don't hesitate to ask about them, please. Anyways, vote and comment as always! I like talking to you guys.

Bonus Fact; I actually do own a plant named Mr. Ukki, dubbed after Sakura's cactus plant from one of my favorite one-shot KakaSaku authors.

Also, any thoughts on the new writing style?

Constructive criticism is very appreciated!

Any questions? Future possibilities you'd like to conspire? Write 'em all in the comments! :D

Also...

LOOKING. FOR. BETAAAAA!!!!