DISCLAIMER: I do not own Naruto, Naruto Shippuuden, Boruto, or any other associated releases. These are owned by Masashi Kishimoto and Shonen Jump. Please support the official release.

Funny thing, isn't it?

Life, I mean.

I had thought my life was going pretty well. For once, everything seemed to be going well for me - I was well on the way to graduating high school, had a pretty good ride to college, was pretty popular with everyone else, had no enemies in particular, and to top it all off, I was working up the guts to ask a girl out.

And then some asshole in a truck wasn't watching where they were going.

Ain't that a bitch.

"Every end is a new beginning."

It was a common saying in my family. It'd come up whenever someone in the family had died. I wasn't particularly religious, but the rest of the family was. Despite this, we didn't really fight about it.

They were cool like that.

Some religions prescribed that after you died, there was an afterlife. Depending on how well you did, you'd go to Heaven, Hell, Purgatory, or whatever other afterlives there are.

I know Hindus believed in reincarnation - depending on how good or bad a person you were, you might be reborn as a prince, or perhaps a snail.

Evidently the Hindus had something right.

When I saw the light, I tried to reach for it, only to find my arm unresponsive. Hang on, were you supposed to reach for the light? I remember there was some guy who came back to life and mentioned he went away from the light.

My legs weren't responding anyway.

I guess I had no choice whether I was going toward the light or not.

I don't remember much about the rebirth process, thankfully. Miracle of life my ass, it's not fun going through that sort of thing.

I got a surprisingly clear look at the woman who gave birth to me. Asian features by the looks of it, black hair that only reached just past her ears, and dark green eyes. I guess this was my mom now? I dunno... it feels weird to call someone else 'mom' after spending eighteen years with calling someone else 'mom'.

I wonder if this is how it feels when your parents get divorced and one of them remarries?

Probably not.

She soon passed me off to a man who I assumed was my new father. Pitch black hair with, oddly enough, a ponytail past his shoulders, even though the rest of his hair was shorter than his wife's (?). My eyes peered into his blue eyes.

The two of them conversed for a bit. I think it was Japanese?

All I could tell was that their names were Ritsuko and Ryoji. And that my name was Rei.

Isn't that a girl's name?

All things considered, it seemed I was reborn to loving parents in a nice home, which was good news.

Once my parents returned home, they introduced me to a couple more people, who I suspected were family members and friends as well.

There were varying brunettes and blackettes (there's gotta be a better word) in the crowd, and even a redhead. Things were going well until my mother passed me to one person in particular.

An old man, wrinkles evident in his face. Black hair adorning his head. A scar marking his chin. Bandages present that covered his right eye.

Danzo Shimura - the Konoha elder who masterminded the Uchiha Massacre. The man loyal to Konoha who's actions created almost all of the Naruto series villains.

Fuck.

My mother called him Tou-san.

Fuck.

I'd say something about Konoha being probably the safest place in the Naruto world to be reincarnated to, but Danzo goddamn Shimura is at my baby shower. The guy kidnaps kids and inducts them into the worst ninja school ever.

Lord knows I can't count on the Hokage to do anything - Hiruzen was content to let it happen and Minato was Hokage for what, 5 weeks?

Alright, if I'm Danzo's grandkid, then that probably means I'm in Konohamaru's generation, right, give or take a year? Then again, this sort of situation tends to put people in Naruto's generation, right? At least, that's how it was in the fanfics I read, but if I'm turning to fanfics for life advice, then I'm already fucked.

Well, I know the future. What can I do about the Uchiha Massacre? What about the Akatsuki, or Orochimaru's invasion, or the next world war?

Could I prevent these?

Yeah, probably not.

But I oughtta stick around and try to make things better.

The first 2 months of my life sucked.

Apparently, babies in the Naruto world weren't born with their chakra systems fully in place. As a result, my chakra system wasn't done growing (forming? I didn't know the right word). I imagine Naruto-verse babies didn't feel much of that, having no reference of a world without chakra.

I, on the other hand, had spent a lifetime in a world without bullshit magic, and I guess my nerves retained adult sensitivity? Fuck if I know.

Essentially, I felt everything about my chakra system growing/forming in. So, I was constantly feeling pain, which led to me crying because, well, how else is a baby gonna relieve stress. I also had trouble sleeping because, again, constant pain. And since I wasn't getting enough sleep, I was unhappy from that, too.

This continued for two goddamned months before the pain settled down. After that, I could manipulate my chakra. I didn't do too much testing because as a baby I didn't have chakra to spare.

With that out of the way, there were several things I wanted to get out of the way.

Potty-training topped the list. Walking was a second priority, reading and talking third.

So I spent the next six months learning how to get mobile. Crawling was easy, walking was more awkward.

I guess I should've seen that coming, but if I was able to inherit my mind and apparently my nervous system (or at least sensitivity?); maybe I'd have motor control too.

Sadly not.

Reincarnation is bullshit. And confusing.

Still, I'd settled into a pattern: wake up, eat, try to walk, sometimes manipulate chakra a bit, nap, eat, and sleep.

Then came October. Fucking. October.

The fucking Kyuubi up and decided to show his face in Konoha and fuck everything up.

My father took me to the civilian shelters. I didn't cry. I couldn't cry, not when the Kyuubi's chakra was a physical force that practically strangled me.

He was a god. That was a fact. Nothing with that amount of chakra could be mortal. He was a god and he was pissed. His chakra was evil, he wanted humanity dead and he'd stop at nothing to see it happen.

And I was in the middle of it.

Eventually, he disappeared.

I looked up toward my father and saw worry turn into relief. I'd made it. He'd made it. I tried to say something.

"Pa," I declared. That'll do.

"Tasukatta," he said.

Good news from the Kyuubi attack: I was right about my hunch that I was in Naruto's generation. That actually puts me in a position to do things, in theory anyway. As far as I knew, there wasn't a Rei Shimura in the show. Whether it's because 'Rei' wasn't a reincarnate in canon, didn't exist in canon, or I did exist and ended up inducted to Danzo's funhouse, I didn't know.

Hopefully that third option wasn't happening.

Assuming my existence makes this a different universe from canon, what will the butterfly effect cause? I don't have a very totalistic view on the butterfly effect, but who knows what minor stuff might change.

If I want to make any big changes, I'm gonna need to get close to the big players of the future, which means someone else is getting fucked over.

Team 10 isn't gonna change. Ino-Shika-Cho is a tried and true team comp, barring some sort of unforeseen catastrophe, nothing will change there. Team 8 is a little more likely. Danzo had tried to get Shino in canon. If that succeeds, then there goes the original Team 8. Even if that became the case though, I doubt I had any sort of tracking ability, right?

Process of elimination means Team 7. Or maybe Team Gai if I graduate a year earlier, but Team 7 is probably a better position for such changes to take place. And that means replacing Sakura. The way I see it, Kakashi's training Sasuke no matter what happens and me having standards about my education means I'm not going to sandbag into bottom level. So, "top kunoichi" it is.

Damn it.

November came; I could walk now, thank god.

What did I look like? I knew we had a mirror in the house.

Obviously I was different. There was no way I looked the same way I did 'last time'.

Finding the mirror was easy enough. I looked in the mirror.

That's not me.

...

It is.

I looked in the mirror to see a girl's gaze looking back at me. We narrowed our eyes at the same time.

That girl - me - had black hair with a natural spikiness to it, as well as red highlights in it. The spikiness must've come from Danzo (I'm not calling him grandpa), but I'm not sure where the red came from. It seems I inherited my mother's eyes though, exact shade of green and all. My nose was smaller than before, thankfully. My ears seemed a little bigger than before though. I blame Danzo.

I turned my head and the reflection did so.

I couldn't deny that I was different now.

Reincarnation is bullshit.

Next up: learn Japanese!

Well, I knew a few words and stuff from spending my first life watching anime, and there are a couple things I learned through osmosis. But most of it, I need to learn myself. Well, not quite myself. I have parents; I can afford to ask them for help.

Reading! Fun little way of involving my family in this sort of thing.

Sometimes it was my mother, sometimes my father; occasionally it was Shinji, who I guess was my uncle or something. He'd show up sometimes if both parents were on missions. And rarely, it was old Danzo himself. And to his credit, he played the part of a kindly grandpa really well.

If I didn't know about his secret lair that he's not supposed to have, I'd be convinced.

I was sure that'd it'd one day start to get annoying with how much I was asking people to read stuff, but that day never came, strangely enough.

I wonder if I was this troublesome last time I was this age?

End Rei 1

This is a bit of an old story idea of mine. Several years old in fact. Rei's knowledge of canon will reflect that. At the time of Rei's first death (and the time I originally came up with this idea), Naruto Shippuuden was still going. Specifically, Madara was the big bad, the great ninja war was ongoing, Tobi wasn't revealed as Obito, and Kaguya, Asura, Indra, and the rest of that mess were all just thoughts in Kishimoto's head (presumably).

Retroactive edit half a year later: So, it's worth mentioning that this chapter was originally two separate chapters that I combined because I thought it'd be better for story flow (why they were separate in the first place can be chalked up to early installment weirdness, I guess). Also features some improved writing.

12-18-2017 edit: big ol improvements to the fic because I wasn't satisfied. Also that bit of Japanese from Rei's dad's gonna be a one off thing.

One important thing about this fanfic is that canon doesn't give much information about the Shimura clan specifically. As such, a lot of the information about the Shimura clan will be headcanons based off of what little we do know about the Shimura clan as well as the large amount of stuff we know about Danzo. In addition, Rei's family (aside from Danzo) will all be OCs. That's what happens when there's only one canon member of an apparently note-worthy clan. Thanks Kishimoto.

Finally, here's an Index of Chapters. As the fic progresses, this list may get spoilery, so you have been warned.

Childhood Arc (Parts 1-9)

1: Rei 1
2: Rei 2
3: Rei 3
4: Shinji 1
5: Danzo 1
6: Rei 4
8: Shinji 2
9: Rei 5

Early Ninjahood/Land of Waves Arc (Part 9 - Part 14)

10: Rei 6
11: Rei 7
12: Rei 8
13: Rei 9
14: Rei 10