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Dreaming of Death Note

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(Chapter 1's format and Story Disclaimer updated on 1/30/2016)

Overall Story Disclaimer: Death Note, Naruto, Avatar, and Shikako Nara do not belong to me, I'm just borrowing them for a while. There are references to other stories and series throughout, and no, I don't own them either. This fic does contain Original Characters that do play important roles, and I do own them. If you don't like OCs then you'd probably better not read a recursive fanfic of a fanfic starring one. I use OCs in world building and for plot advancement. (The world is bigger than the canon cast, after all.) Shikako Nara is an OC who belongs to Silver Queen. She is the only OC in this story that I did not invent.

Author's Note: This fic is listed under Silver Queen's Heliocentrism list, alongside many other recursive fics for her DoS series. Check them out as they are much better. :D

First posted in the forums under Recursive Fanfiction thread for Dreaming of Sunshine Naruto fanfics. This is a fanfic of a fanfic in an alternate series, like a crossover of an OC in Naruto being reborn as Light Yagami's older sister in Death Note after spending some time in the Avatar universe. The premise for the ficlet was originally: "I was thinking about Shikako and L bonding over cakes and it made me think they'd be playing a chess game at the same time. He'd be slowly making her see the truth of the matter with every turn they play, between overly sugared bites of cake. He could dole out logic and she would be responding with acceptance or denial, that Kira is actually her newest family member that she desperately wants to save, all whilst slowly breaking away at her false mental construct of the perfect little brother with cold hard logic. The same logic which her ninja-trained mind knows to rationalize with."

Thanks to PondRiverWilliams for the idea of crossing them over with Shikako as the older sibling. I originally envisioned her as being reincarnated as Sayu, but your comment changed my mind and got me actually writing her as an older sibling. (And actually writing it as a fic!)

That spawned this story:

Fair Warning: You need knowledge of Death Note to be able to follow this story, as it's not from Light's perspective, but rather it follows Shikako's reincarnation. Also, it helps to know Naruto/Shippuden and something of Avatar The Last Air Bender, and of course, Dreaming of Sunshine by Silver Queen.

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Dreaming of Death Note:

Chapter 1: Meeting in Shadows.

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This wasn't her first time in a world of modern technology. It might not even be her last. Shikako Nara, as she now thought of herself even lifetimes after bearing that name, had been reincarnated once again.

She had lived in a more primitive world before, and the jump from one extreme to the other was quite disorienting at first; going from walking everywhere on foot to having motor vehicles, or simply washing your clothes in the river versus a washing machine in your home, the extreme differences always stood out the most. Having lived in a technologically advanced world in her life Before her first reincarnation into the Naruto-verse, she quickly adapted to this one that was very much the same level of advancement. She fell into it easily, whereas in less modernized worlds and lives before, it was a conscious struggle against the elements- sometimes literally. At least in this world she didn't have to dodge fireballs on a regular basis, as she had once done as a member of the Water Tribe in the world of the Avatar.*

This world was kind to her so far, even if she was clueless as to the story it followed, and she was certain it followed one as every world she had been reborn into thus far was one from popular media in her world of Before. She did not dislike it, but was always looking for the danger it could hold. Modernization had perks she had often missed in other incarnations, so she was enjoying them while they lasted. Having the world of information readily available for her perusal was one of those things. You don't realize how much you missed something until you lose it, and it is gone from your reach for forever- unless it somehow comes back to you, then you can't take it for granted ever again. Having access to the internet, she used it every day to learn something new, knowing full well the value of knowledge at your fingertips. Her ability to learn was her greatest tool and weapon, for the future.

She'd taken a part time job while attending University, and had been working there ever since her younger brother Light had begun attending as well. She occasionally took the odd job here and there just to amuse herself when she got bored, but this was about money. She didn't think it was fair to be a financial drain on her parents, as her father was a hard working police chief, and her mother was staying at home to take care of her three children, and supporting two of them in a good University was a burden, no matter how they disagreed. They were proud, and wouldn't admit that.

Even in this lifetime, she couldn't distance herself from the family she was born into, and had plenty of time to decide she didn't really want to. She was close, attached to them, even if the strangeness of having a new family would never wear off, it was really more like with every incarnation of her soul in a new world her family just... grew. She wanted to help as much as she could, not out of obligation but of fondness. She truly cared for them, and wanted to protect them.

She was perfectly capable of contributing her own fair share with the money she earned from the pizza job, she was buying her own necessities and school supplies and texts. It wasn't a bad job, though it wouldn't have been her first choice either, until she saw the uniform on an employee stepping out to make a delivery and eyed his strangely familiar looking orange flared jacket with large wide black stripes that sent a wave of nostalgia through her unexpectedly. She decided then and there to go with it, ridiculous as it might look, as it reminded her of someone dear.

The neon red sign proclaiming they were hiring was lit up like a beacon in the night, and so she tied her bike up outside and went for it. (In hindsight, seeing that a business had a neon sign for new hires was not really a good advertisement for job security, but it's not like she intended to keep working there indefinitely.) If she'd have known it would end up being the very convenience she needed, in a tricky situation months later, she would have doubled over in laughter.

No, she'd chosen the pizza place on a whim. She could have gone to the coffee shop, or the bookstore, but might have been too easily distracted there, though she'd have had a bit of time to study at the library on and off. Besides, riding her bike to deliver pizzas (-in under 10 minutes out the door, anywhere in the local neighborhood, take that! HAH! Kunoichi's still got it-) was actually good exercise, and she wanted to keep her body in top shape, out of habit. It wasn't worse than D ranks at any rate. Lifetimes worth of conditioning tended to catch up to a person, even when they're reborn. She would know. And as with every life time, she did her mother's morning song and routine habitually. She kept it fresh in her memory, always.

Today was a decisive day, though no one else in the world knew it. (Well, she didn't know that for certain.) Today she was going to get answers to some very disturbing questions. She'd smelled her father's cologne as she came home days ago, and she knew he'd been in her room. He'd been gone all week, working on the international mass murderer case (also referred to as the Kira case, since that was popular media's moniker for the murderer.) The rest of the family were starting to get worried about him.

Things in her bedroom had been moved, oddities out of place. She had every scrap of paper and every line of dust (left there intentionally as a tell) memorized. Someone had left fingerprints where they didn't belong, in the dust on the side of her desk, the headboard of her bed, the left doorknob of her double-wide closet which she never needed to turn as it pulled open once the other was moved, several books she hadn't touched in months. Someone had moved her blankets, her textbooks, her little piggy bank that reminded her of Tonton, (thankfully, her money was untouched) and her decorative figurines shaped like deer. Her clothes (both dirty and clean) had the pockets turned inside out. Everything she owned had been pawed through. A ninja knows when someone's invaded their territory, and the signs were so obvious anyone would notice eventually. The entire house had been examined. But by whom?

She entertained a few possibilities, like old acquaintances she'd met at school, then dismissed that as a ridiculous notion. That acquaintance would never have need to do such a thing, so it was a moot point.

Her father knew what was going on, one way or the other. He had been there. That unique scent was his, a cologne she had bought him for his birthday. It was imported and rare as she had splurged her allowance and savings to get him something truly nice. So why did she smell it in her room? The scent of cooking food from the kitchen didn't even make it through her door on a daily basis so it couldn't have wafted in while she was gone.

Today was the day she was going to find out what he was doing and why. She knew he was investigating Kira, the mass murderer. And then there were the cameras, which got her blood boiling, and made the hair on her arms rise in paranoia. This did not bode well. She'd stayed calm, acted normal. She had tricks up her sleeve. Nothing wrong here, nothing...wrong. It had been three days, and she finally had her chance.

Signing off from work for the night, she grabbed a small pizza she'd bought at discount (perks of the job) and headed out the door. Her dad had said he would be at the police station to pick up the clothes and supplies Light dropped off for him. Even though he'd been home, and she knew it, she didn't tell the rest of her family. They insisted he needed the items and Light volunteered to deliver them at a certain time for him, cutting her off before she had the chance to volunteer herself.

She would have mentioned her fears to her family, but... She didn't want to scare them with the knowledge that there were cameras all over their household and the head of the family was involved, somehow. She also had no real proof that this wasn't something sinister. For all she knew, until she had a statement otherwise, this might be a hostage situation in which Kira was holding her very life in his hands! She wanted proof, before she outed anything, and for that she needed to talk to her dad. He should be arriving at the station any minute now, so she balanced the pizza on the specially shaped basket she bought for her school books which doubled as the perfect size for strapping pizza boxes on, and raced down the busy Japanese street, easily avoiding colliding with passersby.

Why the pizza? She could say she was worried he hadn't been eating enough. It was her valid excuse to see him, just in case she was being observed by a crazy mass murderer, after all. And it fell in line with Light dropping off clothes for him, so that excused her timing.

...It didn't hurt to be cautious.

She arrived at the station just in time to see Light leaving. He was walking down the sidewalk, talking with some woman. She watched as her brother let the woman borrow his cell phone. Paying him little mind, as her real target was inside the building or coming out soon, she pulled out her own cell phone (which she kept secret so no one would pester her with unwanted phone calls, though at the moment the cell she usually used, the one that Light bought for her as a gift, was not in her possession,) to try to call her father and see if he would answer. The phone rang, repeatedly, then dropped to voice mail. Her father had his phone off a lot lately.

Something good caught her eye, just in time. Matsuda, a man she recognized as working with her father before, came hurrying out of the station carrying a familiar bag, one which she knew she'd packed that morning for Light to take with him. "Bingo." She hopped back on her bike and quietly, slowly followed him down the street, keeping her distance. He walked for a long time, until finally he reached a hotel and darted inside. Cursing her slowness, she frantically tied her bike to the nearest immovable object (A tall sidewalk ash dispenser) and, grabbing the pizza, rushed to get into the building before she would lose sight of him at the elevator. She pulled her delivery uniform hat further down snugly to hide, allowing her hair to fall free on either side of her face. If there were cameras watching, she might not be recognized that easily as luckily, her dark hair was down and messy from the bike ride. At a clipped pace, she made it to the elevator to see the number it stopped on. When the elevator next to it popped open she almost knocked down an old woman in her rush to get in.

Tapping the floor number in to the panel, she waited for it to arrive at the appropriate floor, hoping she hadn't completely lost sight of Matsuda. Well, it wasn't the end of the world. She was actually equipped for this, and the other passengers that clambered in behind her had floors that would take them higher than hers, thus hers would be the first stop.

Climbing out of the elevator she took stock of her surroundings to discover the floor was completely empty.

Time to knock on doors. "Pizza delivery!" The door opened to reveal a busy blonde foreigner hanging out of a slim dress with badly smeared lipstick, tangled hair, and a disheveled appearance.

"I didn't order any pizza." she says in badly accented Japanese. She smirks to the side at someone or something unseen before a hand appears from behind her to shove the door closed. That probably explains the smear.

The next three doors down that hallway were empty, and the other occupants were the wrong people. She was familiar with everyone that worked at the police station, as she and Light had helped them with some insurance fraud cases in the past. She would know their faces upon opening the door- but if they were worried about Kira, they wouldn't open it to reveal their faces, would they? So far every door that was occupied was opened wide, and was completely wrong.

By the time she reached the second to last door down this hall, she was positive the universe hated her. Knocking politely and announcing her delivery, she almost startled when a tall, beefy musclebound man in oddly unsettling tiger striped spandex shorts ripped open the door, took one look at the pizza and proclaimed it, "The devil's food, how dare you tempt me!" then turned on himself and began to beg her to give it to him, with tear-filled puppy dog eyes and everything. "Even just a slice!" He could have been Maito Gai reincarnated. Considering her current circumstances she wouldn't put anything past the universe on this one.

Stammering as she suddenly had the mental image of Maito Gai wearing this eyesore, and fervently wishing that she hadn't just thought that, she calmed herself with a slow blink as she rattled off a ridiculously high price for the pizza. If he was sane he'd never pay it, if he was crazy (and she thought he might be a few bananas short of a 'bunch' here) she'd be able to afford next semester's text books. With a high-pitched gasp of outrage, the door slammed in her face.

'Well.'

'Moving on.'

There was only one door left, and by the noise she'd been making they knew she was coming. Still, she steeled her resolve, walked up to the door, and politely repeated her knock and announcement.

Matsuda's normally cheerful voice came through the door, though it only opened a crack, the chain still in place. "Sorry? We didn't order any pizza, thank you." He sounded distressed.

"It's for Yagami." she said quietly into the crack so that no one else down the hall would hear them.

The door closed, only to be opened a full minute later. Matsuda stood behind the door, his voice suddenly stern and demanding; a sound she'd never heard from him previously, "Come in, and set it on the table."

She entered, walked to the nearest table, a coffee table, which had been lain out with several mugs of coffee and tea, containers of cream and sugar, and a pile of cellphones, one of which she recognized as her father's. He was definitely here. With a smile, she set the pizza down amid the mess, then turned and realized there was a gun in her face.

Looking up into Matsuda's frightened gaze, the two of them backed away from each other. Matsuda lowered the gun when he realized he was holding a weapon in his boss's daughter's face. "You! I... I mean... I... how did you get here?"

"I followed you, Matsuda. Sorry, was it a bad surprise? I wanted to bring some food for dad since Light brought his clothes and stuff. But, I didn't make it in time! I just got off work at the pizza place, saw you leaving the office with dad's bag, so I... figured you... were taking it to...?" she trailed off, her eyes falling to the dark shadows at his feet out of habit. She shyly scratched the back of her head, playing on the 'oh shucks, it's just harmless little me' image, realizing this probably did not look good. "Is, is he here?" she tentatively asked. She didn't like playing meek but sometimes it got her what she wanted.

A voice called out from the other room, "Matsuda, come to the bedroom. It's fine." She didn't recognize this voice, had never met this person before.

Matsuda put his gun away and headed into the other room. Not knowing what was expected of her, she stayed and waited, thinking maybe her father would come out to talk to her. Right on the money, he appeared seconds later. He came out and gave her a hug. "What are you doing here?"

"Uh, I just explained..." she trailed off again.

Her father glared down at her, not in anger but in fear, "Yes, but this is the middle of an investigation. Someone could have followed you! You can't just-"

She cut him off, her arm emphasizing her words in a sweeping gesture, "There are cameras in our house! Someone's been in there, dad! I needed to talk to you! You never answer your phone anymore."

"You... how long have you known?" The sound of his voice implied he knew there were cameras there. So that was one answer, but even more questions reared their ugly heads in its wake. Like 'Why?'

"I noticed them this morning," she wasn't sure why she felt bad that she lied, but there were some things she wanted to keep to herself; her skills at observation being one of them.

"I've decided," the voice came from the bedroom again. "Send her in here, please, Yagami."

With a choked sigh, her father motioned for her to go in the room. He settled himself down on the couch next to Matsuda, whom was munching on a slice of the pizza already. With a sheepish grin, he offered Yagami one. (When had he left the bedroom? She was so engrossed with calling her father out that she didn't notice he'd reentered the room. Sloppy of her. Guess she needed to hone her observation skills.)

Curiosity winning out, she walked in, wondering who it could be. She knew from watching the news and from her father's own admission last week that the entire police force was working with the famed detective, the man of mystery, 'L'. Could this be him?

Standing in the darkest shadows at the back of the room, right in a position where in another world he would be unknowingly in the most danger from her, the man with the strange voice waited for her to approach. She eyed him slouching in the dark, gazing into his black rimmed eyes intently, and came to a conclusion. He reminded her a lot of Gaara, so he probably didn't get much sleep, with eyes like that. Probably a deep thinker, a problem solver, or someone just addicted to work?

She could wing it, why not? The worst that could happen would be having to admit she was wrong about his identity.

Not wanting to monologue an explanation on her conclusion, (she'd learned her lesson on monologues, thank you very much!) she decided to get to the point, "Hello, L."

Hearing that name from her lips, he stood rigid, and his mouth parted in a surprised "Oh!" which morphed into a strangely delighted grin which might have been welcome on one of Kankuro's many puppets. He then instantly deflated to a slouch once more, wandered almost aimlessly toward her, and found his way to a lone wing-backed chair in the middle of the room, upon which he seated himself in a most uncomfortable looking position.

"I have no illusions that you don't know my name. You've been watching us for a while, haven't you? I found cameras, you know." she continued, her voice carrying a sharp edge to it.

"Ah, yes, I observed the moment when you found them." Did he realize she had lied about when she noticed them? She couldn't tell. He sat awkwardly with his feet pulled up on the chair, toes bare and wiggling, hands resting on top of his knees, chin positioned just above them. That strange grin was back. He was close to her now, and half enveloped in the cool shadows of the dark room.

"I bet you did," she muttered. Huffing in indignation, she asked, "I expect you got an eye-full? The bathroom, really?"

"It was the most logical thing to do, otherwise you could get away with anything unseen under the guise of privacy. Crime does not remain private in the eyes of the law and justice." He said with a wide-eyed smile that looked a bit out of place on his pale face. "Plus, I got permission from your father."

Raising one brow, she crossed her arms over her orange and black jacket. She did have to admit his point was valid, if only it applied. "Get away with? I wonder what you're implying as I am not a criminal. Well, I see you're the morally superior type."

"Indeed." She honestly couldn't tell if he was joking or serious.

"So you really were watching, and you do know who I am. So, it wasn't... So it wasn't Kira watching us, then?"

"You believed it was Kira that planted the cameras?" L asked, suddenly sitting up in curiosity, eyes wide. "Ah, yes, Yagami told his family whom he was investigating," he stated with a nod.

She raised her chin and nodded back in his direction, letting out a breath of air she didn't seem to realize she'd been holding. She decided to go for broke, and get some answers while doing so, "Well... then you know why I'm here. I want to help."

He gazed at her intently for the span of a minute, as if weighing the value of her words, and assessing his next move. If he turned her away now, there was really nothing she could do. He actually looked like he expected this and for a moment her certainty faltered though she stared back, strong and focused, and not once did she fidget, "Of course, Michiko Yagami. I'm certain I could find a way for you to assist us. Or... for safety's sake... should I give you an alias? How about-"

"Shikako." She hastily whispered, eyes suddenly watering. "You can call me Shikako Nara." If he noticed the curiosity of how her voice had broken a bit at the quiet proclamation, he kept it to himself. He did, however, raise his brows at her quickly chosen name.

"Thought this through, did you? I'd like to assess your abilities." With one finger to his mouth, he motioned to a set of chairs around a table set up in the corner. She had long ago noticed the standing lamp near that table was the primary source of light in the room, aside from what filtered in from outside, casting the harshest shadows immediately below it. "Please, let's play a game of chess."

Now this, this she was used to.

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Author's Note: * The Avatar: The Last Air Bender references take place in ficlets and comments on the recursive fanfiction forums only and are not, at the current moment, a reference to an actual DoS recursive fic. The rest is referencing DoS events for Naruto-verse.

Also, Thank You for all the helpful reviews! I've been trying to improve my writing so if you see something that needs improvement, even if it's a minor thing, let me know! Thank you.