I just want to say thank you to anyone who clicks on the story and that this is my first time ever posting a story so don't be harsh but definitely give reviews so I know what to work on and please enjoy. Also, as a disclaimer, I don't own anything about Naruto.

I was suddenly aware, and I realized it was an odd feeling of being aware. The feeling was very muted like slowly waking from a dream but instead of eventually opening my eyes and going about my day the fogginess persisted. Perhaps I had been drugged but why would I have been?

The first thing to come to mind was the salty fresh smell of the ocean, and then the rest came back in waves much like the ocean. I remembered looking out over the edge of a cliff and it was beautiful. The waves crashed against the base of the cliff sending sprays of water and seafoam up into the air generating small rainbows when the sun caught it just right. Voices to my left seemed distant. They were familiar and an emotion connected to the sound of their voices marking them as friends and co-workers, but the details were still a bit fuzzy. I glimpsed a small beach further off to my left at the base of the cliff that was our goal. The locals had mentioned that the reefs further out were great for snorkeling and that was the way into the sea. I turned to follow them along the path but the rock gave under my foot and I gave a startled sound.

I fell. I vaguely recalled them calling my name more than once as I fell before a sharp crack echoed from my head hitting the sharp rocks at the bottom and then all was black.

Well that would explain the fogginess in my awareness but it seemed to last much longer than I would expect. Time was hard to follow without something to go by and thankfully there was a noise I could follow that seemed to follow a beat like a heart. I had thought it could be at first and I was in the hospital, but it was a dull thump and not the sharp beeping it should be and it didn't change as I became ever so slowly aware.

The thumping continued for a very long time and I was growing bored of it though it was comforting in the way a mother's heart comforts a baby. That should have raised a red flag in my head. Some part of me realized exactly what was happening even if it didn't make much sense and so my conscious mind took over.

I took the time to pull from my memory random things as entertainment. I am a US Marine stationed in Okinawa which is why my friends and I were out at the cliff in the first place. I replayed some of the fun adventures in various east Asian countries that happened in my travels. There were a lot of events that were dulled by alcohol, but they were memorable none the less. I recalled some of the things I didn't repress about my time in boot camp and looking back it wasn't as bad as it seemed at the time though it was still pretty rough. College was more worrying about the classes and relationships than studying for the classes which were one of the reasons why I decided to join the military. Man I needed that kick in the ass to get self-discipline even if I was still kinda lazy, but I could at least now get my work done. High school was a breeze academically, which in hindsight was part of why I didn't know how to study for college, even if it was depressing socially since I didn't have many friends. Middle and grade school were much the same. Even preschool and earlier were pretty lonely since I lived in an isolated rural area but I grew a fondness for nature.

All in all I had lived a pretty good life I suppose. My family may have been just shy of poor but we never went hungry, always had a roof over our heads, and clothes on our backs. I never was one much for fancy things though I did enjoy video games when we could afford them. My parents loved my sister and me more than anything but didn't spoil us and raised us with strong morals and could be strict when they needed to be. I think I turned out pretty well and even if there were times I regret I wouldn't have changed anything if I had to do it again.

Wait! The thumping sped up! It had before a few times but not quite so much as it was now. It almost held a sense of panic to it that it hadn't before. I was aware of movement and felt pressure on all sides and I could hear screaming. It lasted a disturbing amount of time as well and the pressure increased along with the frequency of the screams. More movement and less pressure on my head and suddenly it was shockingly cold, and I couldn't help but give a sudden scream at the vast change in temperature. Distantly past the coldness I noted that I hadn't breathed until just then as the cold burned my lungs as well.

"It's a healthy young boy." said a voice though I couldn't understand the words.

I found myself quickly cleaned and wrapped in a blanket and once everything settled I tried opening my eyes and was presented by a blurry image of a woman up close. Even though my sight was blurred I could tell that this woman was beautiful. Black hair framed a pale heart-shaped face and striking blue eyes looked lovingly back at me, and at that moment my conscious mind caught up and I realized I was looking at my new mother. A part of my mind wanted to deny what was happening but the love in those eyes was more real than anything I had experienced since my tumble down that cliff.

A common phrase in the military, especially on long painful hikes, is "going internal" which essentially means blocking out everything going on and just doing the task in front of you with no thought. An example would be like follow the man ahead of you and don't fall behind no matter how much the pack on your back weighs you down. I went internal for a long while after that realization. Some part of me noted that she spoke to me and that it was in a different language though not an unfamiliar one.

Time passed and I was moved around never making any fuss and before I knew it we were in what I assumed was my new home. I still couldn't give anything much thought but I distantly recognized it, with what little I could see, as a small one-person apartment. She laid me down on a swath of blankets in a crib and left to do something once again speaking in a language I didn't know but I did catch a word I recognized that was in Japanese.

My mind eventually booted up again and I couldn't help but have a thought similar to the thought that went through my head as I fell and that was 'Well shit'. What was I supposed to do now? I guess the simple answer would be to move on and live this life but that sounded a lot harder in practice than in theory. I was used to being a 24-year-old US Marine not a baby in Japan somewhere, and things like feeding myself and going to the bathroom by myself were complicated by a factor or two more than they had been. The only mechanism I had to communicate was crying when I was hungry and crying when I shat myself. I really should have studied Japanese more in my time at Okinawa though to be far a talking infant would probably be a little weird.

I did a lot of crying for many days and I felt for the woman every time I saw her come back with tired but loving eyes. And in the days that followed I adhered to another common phrase in the military which was "embrace the suck". It was a sucky situation not being able to do anything for myself so I sucked it up and did what I had to stay clean and fed until I could do it myself.

As the months grew I could move better quickly turning over and crawling until I built enough strength to stand and walk. Food upgraded from breastfeeding to baby food and from then it was developing motor skills enough to be able to grab and use the spoon myself, so that was one big hurdle jumped. I also paid close attention to any words that were spoken by my new loving mother and her friends when they visited. I was slowly understanding the language enough to grasp that kachan meant mommy, and boy was she happy to hear that one. A fun time was when I learned my name and while I would always be John I would from now on be, and I shit you not, Fuji. I had a kick out of being named after a mountain though to be fair I had a tattoo artist in my past life named Fuji as well so it wasn't unheard of.

A year had passed and with mobility, an understanding of the language, and some ability to speak my independence was around the corner. I had recently overcome the hurdle of potty training probably earlier than most. My mother and her friends began teaching me letters and words as well. Progress was progress but there were a few things that stood out as time passed and that: one was that daddy dearest was nowhere to be seen, and two my mom and her friends worked nights and that they were all very attractive. The few times I was taken along to get groceries or shop I noticed a lot of red lanterns where we lived. If there's one thing a marine knows how to spot, aside from an IED, it's a red light district. A bit troublesome to find out that your mom is a prostitute but I had respect for her to raise me herself and I got to know a few of the other girls, so I had a good support system even without a father.

Though there was another realization that happened on those trips to the market and that was when I saw three heads carved into a nearby mountain. Three very familiar heads and then the architecture of the village we lived in seemed to line up with something more than just a random Japanese town. And thus my second existential crisis since being reborn!