Thank to Fullyautomagic and almostinsane for Beta-ing this prologue.

Prologue

It was about four months into my new life when I had finally developed good enough eyesight and brain activity to actually understand what had happened to me instead of living like a brain-dead potato in a gray world of muffled noises and numbed sensations.

Which, at the time, felt like a hellish eternity of absolute boredom.

Though I will say that this whole experience has done wonders for my sense of patience and inner harmony, I'm totally zen now. Or maybe just crazy... we'll see eventually.

But anyhow, now that I could finally look around and take stock of things, a picture began to unfold in my mind's eye and I discovered three very important things:

The first was the most obvious of the bunch, and that was the fact I was now apparently once again an infant. I'm fairly sure that the philosophical and religious significance of this will probably impact me at later date, maybe have a minor existential crisis, but for now, I think I'm just grateful that I'm not dead or something.

Or at least not still dead, as I seem to distinctly remember that my last memory before all this with a crossing a road without looking and then hearing a loud honking sound followed by the screeching of brakes. Kind of embarrassing really, though I do wonder why I can still remember things from before.

Since I'm fairly certain that I'm not going to find the answer by asking someone or reading a book I doubt that's it's a question that will ever be answered. Oh well.

But back to my discoveries. The second thing I figured out was that I was in what was probably an orphanage, as there were children of far too many different ages for it to be just a simple nursery.

From what I could see from my crib and the play areas I was allowed in it was a fairly comfortable, if not very big, building and that while not run down as the caretakers did work hard to keep things running, would not have passed a modern safety examination, what with all the blunt, but still fairly hard and pointy toy ninja weapons laying all over the place.

Probably the only things that the chunin caretaker and the genin helpers could think of to get a bunch of kids.

Oh, and that's the last thing I found out, there were ninjas, and Naruto ninjas at that.

Well, either that or I was born into some sort of anime cult where all the adults and some of the kids wear headbands and weird shoe-sandal-things. That theory lost a bit of its credence after the third time one of the genin used their skills to play the most remarkable game of peek-a-boo; I decided that the anime cult theory was probably not very likely.

Might still be in a regular cult though, as I distinctly remember that being a thing in the story… note to self: cult theory needs more investigation before coming to a conclusion.

This does raise some concerns.

While the adventures of everybody's (ok, let's be honest, not everybody's) favorite blonde were very happy ever-aftery, the world of the elemental nations was depicted as pretty violent and unstable. I'm from a place where wars and such are things that happen elsewhere. I don't even know if I have what it takes to be a soldier, a killer. Hell, if I was to get all philosophical and stuff I'd say that I'm probably against it on a cultural and moral level.

But at the same time I'm going to need to be a ninja if I want to not just survive, but thrive.

Despite what some people might think, living is not the only goal in a person's life. It's the big one, sure, but after that people look to other things, other goals that give meaning.

For me, that is my agency and sense of personal worth.

Individualistic and selfish? Probably, but that is what is important to me right now! Might change with new experiences and time.

Who knows? I like to think I'm a complicated person.

Anyways, what this means is that while I have a moral problem with being a ninja, could I really pass up the opportunity to become one? To learn to walk up walls, to spit fire, to functionally have superpowers? It's a hard question and one I'd probably be thinking about and weighing up for a while yet.

And then there was the fact that the path of the ninja is likely the only one that will lead to me having any importance as an individual.

Naruto has always had a weird mix of modern and traditional Japanese culture with a leaning to the traditional, and in the Japan of the past, the peasant was nearly never of significance.

If I ever want to have any impact I will have to be a ninja or be of noble birth, and looking around the packed orphanage the theory that I'm a noble is as unlikely a hypothesis as the anime cult one.

And while I don't have a pressing need to have a big impact on this new world at the moment, the idea that it would be impossible upsets me on some level. I mean, what if I wanted to use my amazing 'future' knowledge to somehow help the up-and-coming (or past? What point in the timeline am I?) Savior of the world along?

'Though that might not be possible." I thought to myself as I look as pointedly as it is possible for an infant at one of the main caretaker's forehead, a black haired, 40ish woman with a wrinkled but otherwise pretty face and a missing arm.

And on that forehead is headband with a plate of metal inscribed with a symbol of which I do not remember.

hello everyone, this is my first proper attempt at a story. The next bit is will drop later today or tomorrow after a quick touch up and when or if i can get a beta reader to look over it.