Chapter 1: Humble Beginnings

AN: In lieu of my One Piece story being written, I'm going to start on my... Naruto story! *Cue children cheering in the distance*

This is another OC fic, but if you aren't stupid you could just read the summary and find this out. It will be a male, as I am a male and cannot write female characters well. I am also going to try out first person perspective.

Don't be shy with constructive criticism or reviews. TELL ME WHAT I CAN DO TO IMPROVE.

Blegh, brain fart... can't think right now.

He-Who-Lances-The-Sun

"Talking"

'Thinking'

"Attacks (Translations)" (Although being the first chapter there isn't much of that)

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What a crappy day to die.

Don't get me wrong, the day was great, considering that it was my birthday. It was raining and my family and I were having a nice quiet day indoors with myself gazing out of the water-streaked window.

My eyes opened, and wakefulness came slowly. A wheezing noise came from my throat, my lungs desperately trying to take in air. My ears rang, and big spots were dancing in my vision. What was with the funny designs in the sky? Oh, dammit! My glasses broke!

That's when my brain started to tell me to feel again, oh what a mistake that was. Falling from a second floor window was not like jumping into a pile of pillows. Not at all. My back hurt to say the least, and I could not move my arms or legs. For that matter, I could feel nothing below my chest. Fan-frickin-tastic, now I'm going to be a vegetable.

I don't know how long that I stayed there laying in a large puddle for, gasping for breath and clinging onto consciousness. What a pity it'd be if I broke my spine. Mom would never let me outside again. 'Gerald is gonna kill me.' I thought before my gut wrenched.

Gerald.

My best friend was dead.

'No, that's impossible. He can't die, we've been through too much together.' It became even more difficult to breath as my throat constricted. Tears welled in my eyes, unnoticed from the pounding rain. 'Watch, Vince, he's gonna come right out of that door and yell at me for being such an idiot and for waking him up. Just you wait.' That thought calmed me down somewhat.

Time passed, too much time. I knew my greatest friend was dead. Great sobs of despair made my paralyzed body twitch a little.

After a while I calmed down, possibly due to oxygen deprivation. My thoughts started to wander, and I could hear the voice of Yahiko from the Naruto Anime in my head.

To know peace, you must first know pain.

Yeah, great. Exactly what I wanted to hear in this situation, that I'd find peace. to be honest, I'd rather find my past-self and not let him go outside today. Then this whole situation would be solved... Well, besides Gerald getting blown up by crazy people with dynamite issues. I grimaced, flashes of his scared face coming to the forefront of my mind.

That's what landed me in this situation. Gerald was apparently being targeted by these insane cultist guys who thought his death would bring some sort of balance to the world. Gerald, being the paragon of virtue that he is, spared me from death by explosion by pushing me out of his second-story window

I needed to distract myself, but what could I do? Fester in my thoughts, that's what.

Well... what would Naruto do? 'Well he would never be in this situation in the first place now would he?' I thought scathingly to myself. I barked out a weak humorless laugh, so this is what Lee must've felt like before Tsunade did the surgery to fix him up before the fight with Kimmimaro. At least I could be at peace with knowing how his pain felt.

Jeez, now I'm taking advice from a lunatic with a God complex. 'But he's soooo strong!' I argued with myself. 'But he wanted to destroy the world by having everyone feel like he did, miserable. Naruto's dream of becoming Hokage and protecting all of his friends was way better than disillusioning yourself to be a god because of your eyes.'

Voices. Off in the distance.

The weight of the world was lifted from my broken body for all of two seconds before I realized to my horror that the voices were all of children.

A group of three boys came to my broken form and surrounded me. One of them jeered and hurled some sort of insult at me. Naturally, I was offended but my head was so fuzzy I couldn't make out any words..

I coughed, hardly able to get enough air.

That one's face curled into childish anger and he yelled at me rapid-fire in gibberish. He aimed a vaguely gun-shaped object at my head.

One of the other boys forced the gun holder's hand down, and soon they got in an argument. Probably over my death. The third boy stood there innocently while the two jabbered.

I looked at him with dead eyes, trying to give him a look that would haunt him for the rest of his life. He averted his own eyes and the boy with the gun started screaming the same phrase over and over again.

The gun boy turned away from me and put the barrel of his gun between the other arguing boy's eyes.

The trigger finger tightened and the gun went off at the same time a bolt of lightning struck a nearby tree.

The boy fell next to me, his blood staining the small pond in front of Gerald's burning house.

The gunner looked remorseless and turned to me, pointing the revolver at me now. I growled at him the best that I could with my limited breath.

He smirked at me and surprisingly, spoke in some kind of English that my befuddled brain could comprehend, "I was told to point this at these people and pull the lever!" He looked excited, "I'm going to be in the Inner Circle now! They gave me pictures of the people I had to point this thing at! Look!" The horrifying prepubescent murderer reached into the pocket protector of his ratty polo shirt and pulled out four photos with big red 'x's over their faces.

Mom, dad, Eric, Stephanie. All dead because of me being friends with Gerald.

What have I done? What kind of bastard am I?

The boy smiled at me with childish joy in his eyes. It would be cute given any other circumstance. Now, it just made me sick. "Aren't you so happy? I can't wait!"

The finger tightened over the trigger and I could hear Yahiko's voice again.

Now you shall know pain.

Darkness.

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I gasped heavily, like I was waking from some terrible nightmare. A bright light stung my eyes in the silence, 'Ah, this must be Heaven.' To be honest, I didn't really know what was going to happen when I died.

I felt some kind of... pull to... somewhere. I opened my eyes, but was nearly blinded by the sheer brightness. My precious lids snapped shut and I pressed my hands up to cover them.

Wait, hands? I could feel myself laying down too. Does this mean I'm not paralyzed anymore?

I pulled my hands from my face and forced my eyes to open. I peered down and saw something very wrong. My body was very naked, and to make matters worse, there was a cold breeze.

My body jolted upright and I whipped my head around, trying to find something to cover my decency with. Hey would ya look at that, I can move again. All I saw was whiteness, everywhere and in all directions.

That darn... pull kept drawing my attention to, surprise surprise! More whiteness!

I squinted, trying to focus on whatever the heck has got its grip on me. Seeing nothing, I got up and decided to head over to whatever the thing was. The more I walked, the stronger the pull was.

How would one describe this... pull? It wasn't physical, like someone tugging on your arm, but more like a feeling. A yearning to go somewhere. Being the doofus I was, (or was I smart for listening to the pull?) I followed it. The more powerful the feeling, it seemed that my body responded stronger. I picked up the speed.

Strangely, I wasn't fatigued and I decided to go faster. I wanted, no. I needed to get over there. Wherever 'there' was.

By now I felt like my heart was going to tear out of my chest to make its own way to the pull, ignoring whatever I thought. I was full-out sprinting, but my body still didn't feel the strain. I tried to consciously stop, but to my horror I couldn't, no matter how hard I tried.

There was a black speck in the distance, rapidly growing as if I were travelling far faster than any human should.

Like a Star Wars ship exiting lightspeed, I was jarred to a stop and I fell flat on my face from the inertia. I popped right back up like I never fell in the first place and stared at my hands. The pull had stopped completely. I looked back up and saw the biggest doorway I'd ever seen in my life, it looked the night sky with its star-dotted brilliance. It was so impossibly large that I felt like I was looking at an endless horizon, the blackness never ending even when I looked to the sides. There was depth to the strange door too, like I was standing among the stars in space.

It all held a serene beauty.

One of the stars darkened, drawing my attention to what looked like a massive ripple in the distance. A fast-moving object shot towards me from it, but I couldn't move away. No sensation existed below my chest.

I'm a frickin vegetable again!

The object collided with my once again broken body, and I got a good look at it. The thing was a light purple arm with dark rosary beads trailing along next to it. Cold fingers wrapped around my torso, dragging me into the darkness.

The arm of The Shinigami from Naruto? That's impossible, Naruto isn't real. This must all be some freaky dream.

The arm stopped and there it was. The death god was truly terrifying. Clothed in a robe of the whitest silk, the light purple-skinned being reached a hand up to its face. In its pointed black teeth-clad mouth was a black tanto with a paper-wrapped hilt, which the hand grabbed. The Shinigami's face was indifferent, it's black eyes boring into my soul as it raised the knife. Before the inevitable downward slice the Shinigami spoke with a gravelly voice belying great age. "A life stripped away at far too young an age. You know you were destined for greatness before you died, mortal."

Oh, so I really am dead then.

"Indeed, young one. Perhaps you will fare better elsewhere." The Shinigami said, apparently reading my mind. The black eyes closed, and a blue light issued from it's mouth, wrapping around the blade of the Shinigami's tanto. The blade of the short sword started to glow. "I give you chakra, mortal. The power of shinobi. With chakra and a new life, your existence shall never be the same again. Your destiny has changed from what it once was."

The blue-coated glowing tanto fell onto my body, and white-hot pain wracked my entire being. Under the guidance of the death god, the knife drew spirals all over my body, leaving blue light in its wake.

The blade retracted and I breathed a sigh of relief, but too soon. The knife returned, jabbing all over my body with a ferocity unlike I have ever seen. Every stab of the tanto piercing my very being and leaving some of the blue light behind.

I was screaming my head off, of course.

Suddenly, the Shinigami stopped, withdrawing the blade from my chest. "All three-hundred sixty-one tenketsu," It murmured, "Be grateful, mortal. Such a gift I have never given. If you die again before your time again mortal, eternal damnation is all you shall receive."

My entire self ached, and I could feel some kind of foreign energy emanating from inside of me. Is this chakra? It was calm, comforting, and filled me with a protective warmth. Where had this been my whole life? I felt... whole with chakra.

It brandished the now black knife again, holding it high in the air. "Your old soul must be destroyed in order for you to have a new life."

I could see the Shinigami's muscles tensing, preparing to swing down, but there was something I absolutely needed to know. "WAIT!" I yelled. The Shinigami hesitated. "Why are you doing this? I'm a nobody, what do I have that deserves that I be reborn?"

The massive being's jaw tensed, not that I noticed. "Nothing. I was summoned to take a life against my will, so I found a loophole. The life wasn't specified, so I took yours. Now you're going to a new world."

Well, that was rather abrupt.

The black, menacing tanto fell.

"Be reborn to fulfill your new destiny."

The blade pierced me and I felt nothing, saw nothing. Only darkness.

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And that's how I died, was revived, and killed again only to now be reborn into the Naruto universe. Yup, I'm not joking either. Why would I joke if getting my soul torn out hurt so damn much? You can bet money on the fact that I'm not going to die again, the offer of eternal torture from Shinigami if I died young was one that I must woefully reject.

Also, when Shinigami told me that I was going to be reborn, I didn't expect him to be so literal! My consciousness was transported to some small, dark, warm, moist place for NINE FREAKING MONTHS!That was the longest time I had ever spent in one place... when I had intelligent thought, that is. To make matters less than desirable, the simple action of thinking was taxing. I remember trying to figure out where I was, and I slept for at least three days after realizing I was in a uterus!

Now here I was, in the bright room of a hospital wrapped in a blanket being held gently. My mind apparently decided to repress the memory of the whole birth experience, good. I don't want nightmares already.

I was so tired, but I forced my eyes to open. A mass of sky blue crowded my vision and a round shape appeared, murmuring softly in a vaguely familiar language, but I couldn't understand a word the thing was saying. I caught a single word from the shape, 'Oh, that must be a face,' I thought. The word was "Kaa-chan."

These people were speaking Japanese.

My vision was too blurry to distinguish anything other than a tan blob for a face and the light blue hair. This woman holding me was my new mom? So the whole Shinigami thing wasn't a dream then.

I felt my body turned to face another shape, another face. This one with hair so dark that it seemed to draw the light in. The soft voice of the woman said some more words, but I managed to understand "Tou-san." This was my father? All I could make out was his hair, not really all that much to tell him by.

I was too tired to deal with this crap, and my infantile body was unable to stay awake. So I simply fell asleep in this blue-haired woman's protective arms, it was really comfortable and the woman rocked me gently, aiding my journey to dreamland.

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A couple of days later I was taken from the hospital at night by the woman that called herself Kaa-chan. My senses weren't exactly developed per se, but I knew that I was moving extremely fast in the arms of the woman, and she was jumping. This was a really strange experience for me. 'Is this how shinobi travel? Is this woman a ninja?' I idly wondered. Somehow this woman... my mother? Managed to keep me completely still and comfortable for the entire journey to her home. I could feel the woman, my mom's incredibly strong arms holding me firmly, yet with a tenderness that only a mother could have.

I kept having these feelings, like another sense interfering with my stunted infantile vision. It was really annoying and distracting to me.

The woman stopped, landing softly in front of a brown blur. She held me up so I could see it, not that my sensory organs could process the sight. "Hariken-kun o sansho shite kudasai? Koreha-kadearimasu!" Ah, my mother's voice was melodious, I could listen to that all day long. After showing me whatever the heck the blur was, she tucked me back into her arms and stared at me smiling softly.

I had no idea what she said to me so I just gurgled happily, a typical baby response. Apparently this was the right response because she gave me a toothy grin. To my shock this woman had two long fangs in her mouth instead of canines. Unfortunately, my mature mind was overtaken by my infant nature and I began to cry at the sight of a potential predator.

The woman stopped smiling and immediately tried consoling me. When that didn't work she looked around frantically and darted to the brown blob. Now that I was closer, I could see that it was a small house. The woman handed me to the man with the hair the color of darkness who was suddenly standing there next to her and bit her thumb. After doing that the woman's, (I suppose I should start calling her mother, or 'Kaa-chan') hands became blurs as she went through rapid hand-signs. Once she was done, she wiped her blood on the door of the small house.

All over the house kanji lit up in bright blue and faded a couple seconds later. My mother opened the door, ushering the man holding me into the house. I heard a huge splash behind my small family and my father tensed, "Oinin!" He growled. The two of them shared a glance and I was passed back to my mom, my father taking off in the direction of the suiton jutsu.

My mother closed the door behind him and held me nervously, "Kami, Taimu-kun ge anzen mi kitaku sa sete kudasai!" She prayed fervently.

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My father never came back. My mother cried every day for a week. Her depressed behavior continued for an innumerable amount of time after that.

Now, about two years later, I had spoke my first word (Hebi, my mother was both ecstatic and nervous, undoubtedly remembering the wary glances I sent her occasionally) and my senses finally sharpened to an acceptable level by my standards, which was strange. In my old life, it took until I was about four to be able to see with precision. I explored the small house eagerly, happy to finally be able to travel around on my own power for once in this life.

Every night, Kaa-chan left through the hidden hatch in the floor I pretended I didn't notice and returned with some fish for the day's food a couple of hours later. It seems that my tastebuds had carried over because I still absolutely hated seafood. But now, with fish being the only readily available food source, I was forced to get used to it.

Whenever she was gone I felt an overwhelming loneliness take me, and I was so filled with emotion I cried in her absence. I cried for my past family, Gerald, my other friends, Tou-san, and sometimes for the people in my old world, a life without chakra must have been so empty. Thank the Shinigami for chakra, though. The comforting embrace of my own power always soothed my aching heart when I was sad. The night became my time of sanctuary, the darkness making me feel like I had less a part of this world than I actually had. The little 'destiny' thing that the Shinigami said before I was transferred to the Naruto world still bugged me.

I crawled over to a corner and faced the door, making sure that the corner I was in was not in the direct field of view that Kaa-Chan would have when she emerged from the hidden hatch. Boy, was I glad it was the night time. I closed my eyes, concentrating on finding that familiar feeling within myself. It came slowly, but I had all the time in the world to reach my chakra, or at least until Kaa-chan came back.

Gradually, a blue aura began to glow around me and I basked in the warmth, letting my chakra comfort me all around. I became very tired, very quickly as was the consequence of expelling chakra from the minimal chakra coils of a two-year old, but the short time of tranquility was worth it in my opinion.

Through my now-drowsy haze, I heard the hatch open. With my tired state loosening my tongue, I called out. "Kaa-chan! Look I do!"

My mother's blue eyes snapped to where I was in the corner, the reason being was that I was a very quiet child. She shimmied herself out of the small opening and turned to face me. Kaa-chan was a very pretty woman with her blue eyes and long blue hair, strangely her pupils were slits instead of circles like most other people. Her hair was worn down, framing her face in a way that, when she smiled would probably make men gape. She had a delicate nose and a very angular face. Her pink lips were almost always in a smile ever since she got over the death of my Tou-san. She was fairly tall, but anybody would be a giant when compared to my infantile frame, so I really couldn't tell for sure. Kaa-chan had long, powerful legs that could probably kick the jaw off a donkey. She always wore clothing that hid nearly all of her skin but her face, but even through the thick clothes I could tell that she was a dangerous woman.

As for her clothes, sea-blue was her favorite color, as she always had it on, accentuating her blue eyes and hair. She wore a blue long-sleeved shirt under a heavily armored kiri jounin vest and black shinobi pants. Over her pants was a deep-blue skirt that reached her knees and closed-toe boots with metal shinguards and faded blue pinstriped padding around the back. She had pinstriped arm warmers and black gloves over the long sleeves of her shirt. Because of the skirt, she wore her kunai holster and equipment pouch on the front of her vest. Her shirt had a turtleneck that was to both conceal her skin and to prevent chafing from her vest.

I reached within myself for as much chakra as I could, actively pushing it outwards to show what an awesome skill I had. The blue aura around me glowed brightly and she gasped, dropping the armful of fish she had and reaching me quickly. "Hariken-kun!" She shouted happily, placing her hands on my small shoulders. "You unlocked chakra! Ooh, you are so smart!" Thank the lucky stars that the infant's brain could pick up language extremely fast. Her expression changed from happy to worried, "You have to be careful, okay Hariken-kun? Only do that when Kaa-chan is around. Will you do that for Kaa-chan?"

I smiled and nodded, filled with joy that I could make Kaa-chan proud of me when my old family barely acknowledged me. No matter what, this time around I'd protect my family!

A wave of dizziness overcame me and I collapsed into Kaa-chan's arms, smiling happily. She looked at me and grinned her fanged smile, holding me close. I reached a weary hand up to her face and touched one of her fangs and asked, "Kaa-chan, why you have those?" She only rocked me gently and leaned down to kiss my forehead, "Later," She said. "I'll tell you when you are awake and will listen."

"I'm not tired!" I protested weakly, yawning explosively after saying that.

Kaa-chan laughed, such a pretty sound. "Sure you aren't," she said. "All I can say is that we're special. You and I." She started to hum a soft lullaby and I snuggled in closer to her warmth.

"Sweet dreams, Hariken-kun."

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Two years later

It turns out that showing Kaa-chan my chakra was the best sleepy mistake I'd ever made. The very next day after I showed her my flare of chakra she had me doing all kinds of exercises like push-ups, sit-ups, running, and the like. And in the night time right before she tucked me in to sleep, she had me forcibly push my chakra out of my system to stimulate my chakra network to expand. I could safely say that she was a slave driver when it came to fitness, and since I was fed nothing but fish (commonly called brain food, boy were they right in calling it that), I found mental tasks to be far easier than in my previous life. I was the educational equivalent of a straight-A student too.

At four years old I was a bag of skin, bones, and small muscles, but what muscles I did have were toned to the point of rock solidity when I flexed. My mother was all too happy to announce that I would be starting taijutsu practice after the first couple of weeks of rigorous conditioning. The only bad thing so far was the itching in the small of my back.

Oh, and by the way, I still lived in the tiny shack that I was brought to as an infant. Yeah, it was starting to get a bit crowded even though there was only two residents. Thank goodness that Kaa-chan taught me how to wall climb so I could run in a straight line all around the roof and walls instead of having to run in small circles.

Kaa-chan had proven to be an adept teacher too. The geography of the Elemental Nations was driven into my memory along with its history. Learning Japanese was tough, but I persevered through her excellent teaching and my sheer determination. I had excelled in science to the point that even she was impressed, so she only taught that for a short period of time each day.

She still hadn't answered my question about why she had fangs two years ago, and now my own set of children's chompers came with normal-sized canines. I had waited long enough, two years is a long wait for someone as impatient as I.

I walked over to the mirror on the wall, pulling my cheeks to see the inside of my mouth. Why did Kaa-chan get fangs and I didn't? I had a sneaking suspicion that she had a Kekkai Genkai. But if that were true, where was the rest of our clan? She once showed me where we lived on the Elemental Nations map, the Westernmost part of Mizu no Kuni, very close to the border of Hi no Kuni.

But we still lived in Mizu no Kuni.

I had a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach as to why Kaa-chan lived almost alone and had a Kekkai Genkai. I steeled my resolve and was about to take my fingers from my mouth when a hand landed on my shoulder and I whirled around, startled. My back twinged and I desperately needed to scratch it from the sudden movement. Kaa-chan grinned her toothy grin and asked, "Wondering about the fangs I have, Hariken-kun?"

I nodded mutely and she kneeled down next to me, pulling me into her lap. I grimaced when my itchy back rubbed against her firm shinobi-muscled stomach. She sighed and ran her fingers through my short dark blue hair, a mix between my Tou-san's midnight locks and Kaa-chan's sky-blue hair. "You look so much like your Kaa-chan, did you know that?"

Where had this come from? And why was my back so cursedly itchy!?

She continued to stroke my head until I relaxed in her embrace. She moved so that I could see both her face and mine in the mirror. We really did look alike with our slitted blue eyes and angular faces. She rustled my hair and said, "All you got from your Tou-san, Taimu, was dark hair. I miss him so much."

We sat, mourning silently until Kaa-chan spoke up again, "Taimu-kun was a member of the Shiro-Herarudo clan and I am a member of the Umi no Dokuhebi clan. Both of our clans were small due to the first and second Shinobi World wars, and both clans were too small to regrow on their own, so his parents decided to arrange a political marriage after the Shiro-Herarudo clan dwindled to only one extended family. My clan had..." Kaa-chan winced, then cleared her throat before continuing, "Had, two full extended families, but was still too small to repopulate without some... bad things happening."

I didn't need to be a former medical student in training to know what that meant. My back twitched.

"The arrangement was between Taimu-kun and my cousin Aoa, but it didn't happen that way. I was seventeen and Taimu-kun was nineteen. On the day that she and Taimu were to be wed, the Mizukage himself showed up at the altar and declared that all people with Kekkei Genkai were to be put to death, as they were unnatural beings and the rampage of the Kaguya clan made the people of Kirigakure angry for blood. He said, that any clan without a Kekkei Genkai that married into a clan with one would also be killed." Kaa-chan wiped a tear from her face, and I saw her blue eyes cloud with sadness. "The Mizukage, Yagura" She spat, "Took a kunai and plunged into Aoa's throat right as she was about to put on her ring. I was a bridesmaid and Yagura was about to kill me when I was grabbed by Taimu-kun and shunshinned away with him." Kaa-chan couldn't go on and dissolved into sobs.

I reached up to wipe my Kaa-chan's hair from her face as she cried. She clutched me closely and I realized that I was crying too. My Tou-san was hunted down and killed just because of who he married? That wasn't right, people shouldn't be killed for choosing who they married.

Kaa-chan sniffled loudly and spat to the side, "Damn that Yagura." She said weakly. "Taimu-kun and I traveled as far away from Kirigakure as we could, to a secret hiding spot that my clan set up for emergencies. None of both of our clans survived." Kaa-chan gestured around herself, "This is where Taimu-kun and I lived for three years. Like any boy and girl that are cooped up together long enough, we fell in love with each other. He was so charming and handsome… He gave me the wedding ring from his own finger for my birthday, and he told me that it doesn't matter who gets between us, we'd still be with each other forever." She slipped the too-large ring from her left hand and showed it to me. "A year later we found the stash of sake in a loose floorboard and... well, I discovered that I was pregnant with you."

I was a drunken mistake? Seriously? The inability to scratch at my back from my mother's hold was maddening.

"Nine months later, the greatest thing ever happened to me, my little hurricane was born. But the Mizukage was not sitting idly, he sent his Hunter-nin to track us down. It took them three years, but Yagura did not care." Kaa-chan held me closer and I gritted my teeth, stupid back. "Just like that, one of the best things that ever happened to me was taken away."

She choked out another sob, "When you cried after seeing my fangs, it hurt so much. My own son was scared of me."

I jerked back, aghast. "No Kaa-chan! I would never do that! I love you so much, you're the only one that cares! If anything happened to you, I don't know what I would do!"

She shook her head sadly, "If anything happens to me, there is a hidden hatch beneath the rug next to the dining table. It will be filled with water, but you can escape to the lake next to the house."

"How will I breath?" I interrupted.

Kaa-chan laughed and ruffled my hair, "I suppose that I should tell you about our Kekkei Genkai, that is all you wanted to know, right?" She placed a finger on the back of my neck and pulled my shirt down a little, leaning me forwards a bit so I could look at myself in the mirror. "Feel these ridges Hariken-kun?" She brought one of my hands to the back of my neck and I could feel three long ridges going all the way from one side of the back of my neck to the other. "These are gills, if you are underwater and these are exposed, you don't need to breath, only keep these in contact with the water."

She rubbed them a little bit and I shrieked, lifting my shoulders and bucking to try to vainly escape the sudden ticklish sensation. "Kaa-chan!" I protested.

She giggled, "It just so happens that the gills of our clan are very sensitive. I have them too." She flipped her hair forward and brought my hand to the back of her neck, sure enough, there were three long gills jutting from her. I decided some revenge was in order and I rubbed them slowly, trying to see what reaction I'd get from her.

Her back went more rigid than a board and I snatched my hand away, "K-kaa-chan? What was that?" I know Kaa-chan said that the gills were sensitive, but what the heck was that?

Her eyes snapped open and she blushed tomato red, "T-that never happened!" She squeaked in embarrassment, "L-like I said, our gills are a bit... sensitive." She said, emphasizing the word. "You'll understand when you're older."

Oh, that kind of sensitive. "A-ano, do we have anything else other than gills, Kaa-chan?" I asked.

She seemed to reign in her thoughts and swallowed, "Yeah, our most powerful weapon is the venom we carry in our fangs." I pouted, and she laughed, "Don't worry Hariken-kun, you don't get your fangs until a high-stress situation. Once you get them, you can retract them and ready them whenever you want. Look at mine." She said, baring her teeth to show her long canines slide back into her gums, now they just looked like unusually long teeth. "Getting them out is kinda strange after your first time, because of a special muscle in your mouth is used." With a 'schnick' the fangs were back in place and ready to poke some holes.

Kaa-chan sighed, "Sadly, the only way to build up venom is to have food or drink that have been poisoned. The venom is concentrated over time, so the longer you go without biting someone, the more potent your bite can be." She picked up a fish from the counter, "Every single thing that I've ever fed you has been poisoned."

I gasped, my hands flying to my mouth, "Are you trying to kill me?" I asked.

She smacked her forehead, "No, Hariken." She said wearily, "Think. If the only way to gain venom was through poisoned food, what do you think we would have?"

I pondered for a moment with a fist propping my head up, "Hmm..." I said, "An... immunity to fish?"

She smacked my forehead this time, "No, baka! We are naturally immune to poison!"

I perked up, "We're invincible to all poisons? Isn't that impossible?" I asked.

She rubbed her head, "Yeah, it should be, but this is a Kekkei Genkai that I'm talking about, they just defy logic. Like the Kaguya clan, their power was the ability to shoot bones from their body! How does that make sense?"

"Chakra?" I asked.

Kaa-chan raised a hand to say something, but slowly placed it on her chin in thought. "I..." She started, "Don't see why that doesn't work... I'm pretty sure that they are passed down through family lines, so each family has different chakra? It really doesn't matter, except that Kekkei Genkai exist and they give different abilities than regular chakra does."

"Yes Kaa-chan." Best not to argue with the person that is in charge of my training. "Is there anything else to our Kekkei Genkai?" I asked, idly scratching my back. Kaa-chan noticed and grinned, reeling me back into her embrace. She snuck a hand under my shirt and softly scratched the exact spot that was tormenting me. I went stock-still and started groaning in ecstasy.

There is no better feeling than when your mother scratches an itchy spot, no matter what universe you are in. I felt like a dog and my leg almost started to bounce. "Yesssssss" I groaned. "Feels soooo... goood...mmmmm."

She suddenly stopped and the torturous witch cackled, retracting her hand. I wailed out and planted my face into her shoulder, "Why'd you stop?!" I whined. She continued to laugh at my misery and showed me what was in her hand. It was a... big ol' flake of skin. My discomfort was forgotten as I stared at the offending object in shock. I reached around myself and felt where Kaa-chan scratched and felt... smoothness? Kaa-chan turned me so that I could see the small of my back in the mirror. My back was a myriad of dry, red, flaky skin with one patch missing. I looked closer and saw a shiny dark blue... scale? Its color was a little bit lighter than my hair.

So this means I'm a fish?

I must've said that out loud because Kaa-chan ruffled my hair and giggled, "No, Hariken-kun! You're so cute. That's not a fish scale, that is your skin. It consists of a intricate network of scales that can deflect small, light, projectiles, like senbon, but heavier weapons like kunai will break through. Shuriken will probably pierce the scales, but will do minimal damage." She said, shrugging.

"I have scales? Scales that are also my skin? Do I have to shed them like snakes?"

Kaa-chan smiled, "Yes, yes, no. In that order. You were asking about the other parts of the Kekkei Genkai? That's the last one. As part of the Umi no Dokuhebi clan you have the characteristics of a sea-viper, and that includes having scales along with your fangs and venom."

"But why do we have gills?"

"Not a clue. Chakra? Mutation?"

I nodded, that was a reasonable answer.

Kaa-chan pointed to herself, "As a matter of fact, my name is Uroko, it means scales, as in snake scales. All members of the Umi no Dokuhebi clan have scales, but when they emerge is determined by gender. It is the same case with fangs. A male's scales come out very early in their life, but their fangs only come out in a situation much like the Uchiha's Sharingan. Do you remember what I taught you?"

I scratched my back again, "Uhh, yeah. People of the Uchiha clan awaken their legendary Dojutsu, the Sharingan in a life-or-death situation. Does that mean that I get my fangs if I am in a situation where I could die at any moment?"

My Kaa-chan, Uroko, nodded "Yes, exactly. Females from our clan, on the other hand, get their fangs at a young age, and their scales do not come in until after they give birth to a child." She smiled at me and brought me into a warm embrace. "This means that you're the reason that I have my scales now!"

I whooped in joy and hugged her happily, "I did something great for Kaa-chan! Ooh, can I see them Kaa-chan? Your scales must be so pretty just like you!"

She blushed from the praise and smiled, "Of course! You gave them to me... in a way." I jumped off of her so she could move. Kaa-chan took off one of her boots and the corresponding sock, revealing shiny sky-blue scales covering her foot. She undid the fastenings on the shinguard of the same leg and let it slide down her leg to the floor. Her leg was uncovered from the calf downwards, and every part of exposed skin was covered in sky-blue scales. I reached out and looked at her hesitantly, she met my eyes and nodded. I placed my hand on them and marveled at how smooth and warm Kaa-chan's scales were.

I was amazed, "Is it... like this all around you?" Kaa-chan nodded and I smiled softly. "I did something." I whispered. "I did something and I did good." I looked at my Kaa-chan, "I can't wait until I get all of my scales!" I paused. "Why isn't your face scaly?"

She sniffed disdainfully, "It is. I henge them to look like normal skin. Just keep scratching, and you will get awesome scales like mine!"

At that reminder, I collapsed on the ground, scratching my back. It was downright burning it itched so badly. "Thanks for nothing! It itches so bad now!"

She laughed, "And it will continue to feel like that until you get it all off. Be careful around the face area, it hurts when you peel the skin there."

She paused for a moment, then continued. "We have these openings on our foreheads as well. They're called pit organs, and I personally didn't know what they did until I got my scales. According to the elders of the Umi no Dokuhebi, they allowed us to see things in a different way, but so far all I've noticed is that everything comes out in different colors. Hot things are generally red, and cold things look blue. I don't know why though."

An idea formed in my mind, but I was far too busy scratching to dwell on it.

\/

One year later

I was discontented, not from the fact that I was some sort of snake-person-creature in the Naruto universe, but from the fact that I was just going stir crazy from being held here all this time. There was good points to being like this though, as Kaa-chan was starting to teach me how to utilize my chakra more efficiently. It turns out that control is the most important part of using jutsu, so Kaa-chan had me working on control techniques.

I was starting to learn shinobi subjects, instead of the stuff that only civilians learned. I pestered Kaa-chan to teach me how to be a shinobi so much that she relented and started teaching me in the ways of the shinobi. If I thought her training before was difficult, well, that was a thing of the past.

The one thing that stayed constant was the expelling of chakra before bed. I asked Kaa-chan one day if other people did this and she replied with a no. If this was how to increase chakra coils, why didn't people do it?

Alongside chakra control, my mother kept up all of my academic studies, but there wasn't time to do both on a daily basis, so she just figured to do both at the same time. Taijutsu stayed pretty much the same, with Kaa-chan beating the ever-living stuffing out of me every day despite my scaly protection and me never landing a hit on her.

I still had not gotten my fangs to come out, and stared at myself in the mirror dejectedly when I looked to find them not popping out of my gums.

Now I was still a highly-toned skin bag, but I had grown more tall over time like all kids were wont to do. Most of the muscle I had, had come from me trying to condition myself to running long distances and jumping around the house. It drove Kaa-chan nuts, and every day after about thirty minutes of me running and jumping, she called me down so I could do something more useful to condition my legs. She had me practicing kicks and punches instead of running around.

I needed to get the heck out of this house. I looked at myself in the mirror, and liked what I saw. I was already going to be considered tall by five-year old standards with my 49 inch tall frame (nearly four feet tall). The color of the scales, like Kaa-chan was a fine royal blue, the same color as my old school colors.

I was proud of my scales and didn't want to hide them, so my Kaa-chan tailored some of my Tou-san's old clothing to be smaller. I wore my Kaa-chan modified black shinobi pants with basic toeless sandals and Kiri pinstriped legwarmers acting like the bandages on Konoha pants. For my shirt I had a simple black tee-shirt with short sleeves. My face was still angular, but my tongue had split into a fork, allowing me to have a superior sense of smell much like snakes do. Kaa-chan had never told me about that those few years ago.

This was the outfit I wore just about every day, but I was growing explosively under Kaa-chan's superb eye. Soon we would no longer have clothing to modify for me to wear. Kaa-chan was running out of clothes too.

We both needed to get out, I decided.

I was staring at the map of the Elemental Nations and placed a finger on the border of Mizu no Kuni and Hi no Kuni. I traced a straight line to Konohagakure, the village hidden in the leaves. 'Hm, from where we are now, it would take a while to get there. Once we arrive I'd be able to tell exactly what time we're in. Stupid Masashi Kishimoto doesn't have a reliable timeline to reference.' I though to myself.

Kaa-chan's face appeared next to mine, "What'cha lookin' at?" she asked cheerily. I, being the manly man I was, definitely did not shriek like a little girl and trip to the ground. Uroko laughed at me and helped me up, "Hee-hee! Little Hariken-chan got scared by little old Kaa-chan!"

I pushed out a lip defiantly and acted mature about it.

"DID NOT!"

"Did too!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Did not!"

"Did not!"

"Did to-ARGH! Dangit Kaa-chan!" I can't believe that my mother hit me with the classic Bugs Bunny maneuver. Wily old woman!

She giggled at me again and stroked my gills, adding insult to injury. My head jerked back and I felt like I was being tormented. "Kaa-chaaan," I whined. What? Just because I had the mental age of twenty-one didn't mean that I couldn't use the advantages of the five-year-old body.

My mother sighed wistfully and turned serious, "Now Hariken-kun, you know that doesn't work on me. I've been around you your entire life and know you are much more mature than you like to appear."

I frowned at her childishly in response. I didn't think that my maturity would be figured out so quickly, even if it was five years. My gaze was drawn back to Konoha on the map. I needed to know what time we're in, and I needed to find a safer spot than the emergency shelter I lived in for the past five years. Right Now, my mother and I were too exposed out here in the middle of nowhere, and I knew for a fact that a hidden shinobi village would be the best spot for us if we wanted to survive. That was my main goal, survival. The Shinigami didn't give me another chance for nothing, and I'd be damned if I gave up this last chance and was tormented by the deity for eternity.

Kaa-chan followed where my eyes were looking and looked to the map of the Elemental Nations herself, her eyes drawing the same path my finger did. Uroko frowned, her head dipping down in acceptance and sighed wearily. "Hariken, you're right, we need to get out of this place."

Huh? Was my face really that easy to read or was it my mother's ninja training that let her see what I was thinking?

She shrugged shamelessly, "I'm a ninja, Hariken-kun, It's what we do."

'Great a mind-reading mother, exactly what I wanted.' I thought sarcastically. I sighed and rubbed my forehead, my scales making a slight raspy sound as they rubbed together. "What are we gonna do, Kaa-chan? I'm not stupid enough to think that that Mizukage didn't leave some hunter-nin in the case that we do escape." I got up from the ground where I fell after being startled by my mother and started pacing the small room.

Coincidentally, I walked a path next to the table and tripped over the slightly ajar hatch handle. The moment my toes came into contact with the handle I got both the gut-wrenching sense of impending doom and the elation of inspiration striking. I toppled onto the floor, hard. I was flailing my arms wildly, so I luckily didn't become very well acquainted with the wood and braced myself with my hands.

Being the smooth guy I was, I made the fall look like I was spontaneously going into exercises and did a round of push-ups. I stood back up to see my Kaa-chan raise a cynical eyebrow, as if saying "Really?"

I harrumphed and crossed my arms petulantly, "I planned that entire thing out, you just don't want to admit how much you were in awe of my smoothness."

She scoffed, "Uh-huh."

I ignored her and crouched down to look at the 'hidden' passageway out of the emergency shelter. I opened the door and pointed into the muddy water, looking at Kaa-chan. "We can go out this way to the lake you said was there." I closed the door and went back to the wall with the map of the Elemental Nations on it and made and 'x' with my fingernail over where I knew we were now. "We're here now, and if we move into this river and into the ocean," I said, trailing my finger along the line that denoted a river and into the blue mass. "We can avoid the Hunter-nin altogether if we stay underwater the whole time. We can breath underwater while they can't, so we swim in the ocean and head to Nami no Kuni." Here I pointed at the small island nation next to Hi no Kuni. "We can catch our breath there and then go into Hi no Kuni where the Hunter-nin have far less jurisdiction than here in Mizu no Kuni. After we're in Hi no Kuni, we can just go at our leisure to Konoha! What do you think, Kaa-chan? We can do this!"

While I was talking, Kaa-chan had sat down in our one chair and took up a thinking pose, stroking her chin. "Hmm. Your plan is a good one Hariken-kun, but you didn't factor in that Konohagakure might not let a missing-nin with a Kiri flak jacket into their village."

"That doesn't matter, when we get to Konoha, we can just stay outside the walls or heck, even just stay in the surrounding forests! The main thing is that we get some resemblance of safety." I told her. "I thought about this a lot. Konoha is the only place we can go. Kiri is out of the question, with the bloodline murders, Kumo would definitely accept a new bloodline, but to get there we need to go through the whirlpools of Uzushio. We can't go to Iwa because they just hate everybody and are way too far away, and Suna is in the middle of the desert. We'd be lucky if we survived getting to Suna, not to mention having to manage to live in the desert outside the village if they don't accept." I shook my head sadly, "We can't go anywhere but Konoha, Kaa-chan."

In my head, I didn't want her to know that I really wanted to see the Sandaime Hokage if he was still alive.

Kaa-chan sighed. "I know we really don't have any choice at all. It's either die here or go and live somewhere else. I monitored the safety seals on the walls, and those are deteriorating rapidly too. They wouldn't last for another week."

My mother got up from her seat and pulled a storage scroll from a pocket on her vest, "You do remember how to use these, right? Just channel some chakra to open it up, then place the item you want sealed in."

I nodded.

"Good, pack whatever you feel you need for a long journey. We're going to Konoha."

\/

AN: Update from February 19, 2016. I fixed the age issue. Whereas before it said that Kaa-chan was thirty-six, now she was seventeen. I designed her to be the same age as the Sannin, and if she were thirty-six at the wedding, she'd be way older than them by the time the story hits the canon timeline.

Update from November 2, 2017: I fixed the cringiness level and the issue where the people who killed Vince are terrorists. Now, the cringy part to the death scene is somewhat lower, the Vince backstory itself is shortened so that people still get the general idea, and the killers are just crazy brainwashed cultist kids.

I hope you enjoyed, and don't hesitate to send a review, as I'm open for suggestions and positive feedback.

I guess I better get back to working for my next chapter.

Lancer-of-the-Sun