I
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Disclaimer:
The Naruto franchise doesn't belong to me and I do not claim any rights to it, except for my own original characters and the overall plot of the story.
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Author's note:
Here is some initial information intended for anyone who didn't directly dive into the story and didn't skip the author's notes. What you need to know is that this chapter constitutes the prologue of the story and it's supposed to give you a rough background regarding the protagonist.
In general, I have added a few AU (Alternative Universe) elements to this world which is where my original character stems from.
For example, magic exists, in a certain sense. To help you to picture it, imagine something along the lines of the Fate series with less op servants, or if you would prefer, think of Harry Potter with less foolish wand-waving or silly incantations which typically consist of butchered Latin.
You may ask why I have I done it in this way. Well, I'll tell you this much, I had to provide my character with a slight advantage to compensate for a fatal disadvantage the protagonist has compared against the classical omniscient original characters who normally, but not always possess an astoundingly detailed knowledge of the future as well as a remarkably good memory.
And last but certainly not least, I had to plan ahead for the insane power creep which occurs at the end of Naruto Shipudden.
*cough* damn Madara and co. *cough*.
As a consequence, any character in all of Naruto has to be, unfortunately for me as an author, strong. Extremely strong in so as to have any significant impact on canon. Therefore, expect a character which can be considered 'slightly' overpowered, or not. Whatever you do, you should judge it for yourself.
As a general rule of thumb, any form of constructive criticism and reviews are always appreciated.
Now with this relatively short interruption gotten out of the way and after I have successfully stolen from you a tiny sliver of your precious lifetime with my verbosity, I hope you enjoy this story!
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Arc I Prologue
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One day, I woke up from my unsettling dreams and I found myself ...
No, no, no, not original enough, not creative enough. I didn't wake up, and I didn't have unsettling dreams. On the contrary, my dreams were actually quite pleasant and I couldn't really complain about them. I need something else as my opening line, something with, with … with … with more esprit. Right, esprit, esprit, esprit.
Whatever, let's try again. Ahem. Drum roll please.
...
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...
Ehm … Well, how shall I put it, I still have no idea. No, wait a moment ... Wait just a moment … Wait for a moment … No, sorry, I still got nothing.
Aargh, to hell with introductions. After all, who cares about first impressions anyway, right?
Long story even longer, I didn't anticipate that I would end up in a situation like this. Considering my incredibly bad luck in the past, however, I probably should have.
I expected some sort of heavy ordnance detonating straight into my face. Sadly, that didn't happen.
No, no, no, instead, there was a lot of vicious close combat with a horde of really pissed off mages trying to bisect me, and that wasn't funny. No, not funny at all.
They tried to pin me down by throwing enough bodies at me until they could practically bury me under their corpses alone. In my opinion, it was a stupid strategy, an incredibly stupid strategy. Unfortunately, it was indubitably effective and quantity proved to have a quality all of its own. In the end, their approach worked. Not that they could ever realistically defeat me or even kill me. No, no, no, that wasn't possible for mere mortals like them. They just came close a few times.
So, who I am to criticize their methods? Well, as long as it worked, it wasn't stupid, even when it was evidently stupid by every standard imaginable.
Unfortunately, my subsequent counterattack didn't go precisely as planned, not to say everything went totally wrong.
So, what happened after that you might wonder? Well, I was surrounded by a lot of cannon fodder and the overall tactical situation was precarious to say the least. Nevertheless, I wasn't some kind of toothless paper tiger and I certainly didn't make it easy for them. Instead, I refused to die without a fight. Ultimately, they were unable to kill me and I was unable to defeat them. It was essentially a draw. Yes, a draw, and I certainly wasn't running out of stamina and definitely wasn't about to lose. No, no, no, that didn't happen, it was definitely a draw and I am certainly not a bad loser.
Therefore, the tricky question was whether it was even possible to defeat someone like me who could be considered as invincible? And if yes, then how?
The first answer was a definite yes. Yes, it was possible to achieve. Everything that bleeds can be killed and I was sadly no exception to that mortal rule. The how was a bit more complicated, however.
So, if you can't beat someone in a fair fight, then what should you do? Exactly, you cheat.
Therefore, someone came up with the elegant idea to simply displace me instead of killing me. A lot of complicated space-time magic was employed and now I had absolutely no idea where the hell I ended up, which was highly annoying.
Nevertheless, I would say that it's important to remain optimistic and I had collected a few clues to my current location.
Since the first day that I was trapped in this never-ending limbo of consciousness and unconsciousness, I registered unidentifiable sounds which could be described as language.
Moreover, I noticed that all mental tasks require an almost inhuman amount of effort, which made gathering information annoying as hell.
Not to mention, that any attempt to move put an even bigger strain on my weak body, or rather what could be classified as moving these days. Nevertheless, I should consider myself lucky that I still possessed a body after this whole catastrophe. Because the mere fact that I could still move is a relatively reliable indicator that I was not some sort of nebulous ghost or wraith floating around in the immaterial world.
Furthermore, I was able to experience a few short glimpses of the world around me. And what I saw could be described as an unidentifiable, bright, warm, and watery nothingness. In conclusion, I had no meaningful successes in that regard.
The most infuriating thing was that I had no control over my own fate. I was trapped here without having any free choice. I felt weak, vulnerable, and powerless. And I despised it, I hated it.
Anyway, let's talk about something more cheerful. Interestingly, I noticed a serious lack of a certain energy which I was quite fond of, an energy that I missed dearly. Where had all my beloved mana gone to? Instead of the typical warming and calming touch of mana, I was surrounded by a cold nothingness. I didn't feel anything about the air, aether or whatever kind of a plain of existence in which I was currently residing.
Everything was just a vast emptiness and I couldn't sense a single strong magical signature in my vicinity. Sure, there were some signatures here and there. Nevertheless, they were are all so incomprehensibly weak and couldn't be actually considered strong.
But to be fair, my own magical signature wasn't particularly spectacular either. After all, my entire mana reserves had simply evaporated into nowhere. All my mana was gone, completely gone, zero, nada, nothing. And currently, I was reduced to just a few tiny little grains of precious mana, how cruel.
Fortunately, my empty reserves were finally replenishing themselves and my beloved mana slowly returned to me. And who knows, some day far day in the future I might …
...
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...
What was that? It felt like I was being … pushed by some mysterious external force?. Strange. And apparently, I was approaching something bright. Its brightness blinded me.
Seriously, was this the famous light at the end of the tunnel? Come on, these were the final moments of my life before I would dissolve into metaphysical dust and what did I get? A stupid lightshow, or what? Well, I have to admit I am just … disappointed, severely disappointed.
To be honest, I did expect more. Because this was lacking. Even death was a surprisingly cheap affair. And evidently, Death wasn't particularly creative when it came to the scenery.
Do you hear that, Death, you bastard? Because I hope so, you asshole!
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A new sensation crawled over my unprotected skin. It was a cold, uncaring and merciless coldness which invaded my weak body. My body shivered and I suddenly missed the ever-present warmth from before, a comforting warmth that I was brutally ripped apart from. I wanted it back, but that wasn't possible. Instead, I felt alone. I was alone now, completely alone and once again thrown into a hostile, unforgiving and frozen world. Contrary to my expectations, it was clear by now that I was somehow still alive. I never thought that dying was such an overly complicated, surprisingly time-consuming, and primarily such an unreliable affair. I should have died, but I didn't. Instead, I survived. Perhaps I was indeed born under a lucky star.
Fresh air entered my weakened lungs and I felt a sudden urge … to cry. But I didn't understand why? For some strange reason, my body told me to cry and I only managed to suppress this instinct with my sheer force of will and mental discipline.
I was swaddled in a soft fabric and a pair of caring hands. It took a small eternity, but eventually my eyes adjusted and I got my first blurry, view of the world around me. That was an admittedly small victory, yet it was a victory nonetheless.
I opened my eyes and was greeted by a pair of affectionate eyes filled with pure motherly love. A woman was holding me in her arms and caressed my face gently. The woman smiled and you could see profound happiness glowing within her eyes.
I examined the Asian-looking woman and noticed immediately her unnaturally pale skin. It was either an indicator of a rich household or was simply caused by being barely exposed to the sunlight, both was possible.
Her long black silken hair. I furrowed a sceptical eyebrow. Yes, she was evidently Asian and her impeccable appearance suggested an extensive use of beauty products.
A petite and oval-shaped face without any sign of manual labour. She had no scars, no wrinkles, no pores, no imperfections. It was almost scary. But she was definitely rich, or wealthy at least.
And her stunning lapis lazuli blue eyes, eyes that were, however, expressing some inexplicable sorrow. Well, her eye colour was simply… strange, not so say highly suspicious and unnatural. They even seemed to slightly glimmer in the dark ... Wait a moment, I might be wrong, but wasn't she looking right at me …
Her was voice tired, yet overflowing with infinite happiness. "You have the eyes of your father."
The eyes of my father? I was understandably confused and I furrowed a , to my dismay, non-existent eyebrow.
Her next sentence didn't help either and only confused me further. "Even when he certainly won't acknowledge you, I will. Don't worry, I will always love you no matter what."
Acknowledge? You will always love … me? No matter? I blinked. What was going on here? What was she talking about? What did she mean by acknowledgement and father? Certainly, there was some crucial piece of information that I was missing. The only question was what exactly? I had to solve this mysterious puzzle. I tried to scratch my head.
The woman took a deep breath and shone a radiant smile at me as she greeted me, "I will give you the name Asami, Minami Asami."
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Whhhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaatttttttttttttttttttttt!?
My eyes widened in realisation as it finally dawned on me what had exactly happened to me. This wasn't possible, this shouldn't be possible. A name, a name, a name. I was given a name, this was my name. I lost any force in my limbs as a feeling overcame me, making me feel as though the world around me had shattered. I cried as loudly as my newborn lungs were able.
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