Praise the Log

Let him just say, Anko’s direction giving skills kind of sucked. 

What followed his quick escape was a wild goose chase across the streets of Konoha. By the time he found the first landmark he was looking for, a half-hour had passed and he was tired of sliding his way through the foot traffic.

The next half-hour was spent following the directions as best he could. The trip could be summed up in a few words. It was stupidly stupid. And he ended up not far from where he had left Anko sputtering on the rooftops. 

He really needed to think about things more, or at least learn to notice things better. The trip could have been cut short if he didn’t think about the directions in such a linear way. 

Nevertheless, he soon found himself walking into a rather dark alley. And the red fern he was supposed to turn by? It was a bar. Not an actual red fern like he’d been expecting. Like a dumbass, are red ferns even real things? 

He didn’t think they were. 

But the Red Fern. A rustic looking bar that looked more like something he’d find in a small town in his past life than anything else. Already he could see people making their way into the establishment. Making him wonder if they served food alongside the booze or not. 

At one end of the alley sits a shop hidden by the midday shadows. Only the hanging sign above the door with the logo of a kunai and shuriken on it gave it away. The building didn’t look like much. There was nothing besides the sign that said it was anything other than an abandoned building. The shop didn’t even have windows. 

With a sigh, he shoves the slip of paper back into his pocket and makes his way to the door. He hesitates for a moment before cracking the door open enough for him to enter. A bell jingles over his head when he enters. 

The inside of the shop is lit by lanterns spread around the room that send the corners of the room into deep shadows. There are rows of weapons that fill up the room, kind of like the shop he was at earlier, but while there it felt more showy and expensive, here it was done in a cluttered, homey kind of way. He didn’t know how a weapons shop could be homey, but this one managed it somehow. 

Despite Anko’s words about it being popular, there doesn’t seem to be any other customers inside at the moment, but he takes that as a win. People made him anxious.

“Be there in a minute!” A woman’s voice from somewhere in the back of the shop startles him. His eyes flicker around the room and he realizes there’s nobody in the main part of the shop. The counter at the front of the store is empty of its clerk. Behind the counter is a wall filled with what looks like scrolls of some kind and he wonders what’s in them. 

Shaking his head, he steps fully into the shop and starts to wander the aisles. Weapons are clustered together in a way that seems like the shop is overflowing with the things. And yet, somehow they are all evenly spaced enough to minimize the potential for accidental damage. 

Every kind of weapon seems to line the shelves. Swords. Small swords. Large, unwieldy swords. Long sticks with pointy bits at the ends. Just straight up pieces of wood, what the hell? That’s a two by four. He comes across a section that is literally just metal pipes. That’s it. Pipes. The kind you would see at a construction site.

He doesn't know the names of things, okay? Give him a break.

The craftsmanship looks nice, but he doesn’t know much about weaponsmithing to have a defined opinion on the matter. What he can tell you though, is that nothing about most of the weapons looks fancy like the shop earlier. Everything he comes across looks like a tool to be used instead of an art piece for decoration. 

And the prices match that aesthetic. Anko wasn’t lying when she said dirt cheap. Most things he looked at would only cost him a fraction of what he feared it would. 

‘The possibilities.’ 

He glances around the room with new eyes. There were so many options he could choose from. He could buy any weapon he wanted as long as he had the money for it. 

Things were cheap, but still would cost him a good chunk of his budget. These were weapons of war, not kitchen aids. 

He shook his head and kept wandering. He needed shuriken only right then and anything else would have to wait until a later date. He couldn’t afford to get lost in the delusions of grandeur and glory. He wasn’t strong enough yet to allow himself such a thing and who knew if he would even graduate yet, let alone live long enough to get there. 

He finds the kunai and shuriken easy enough, the display offering all sorts of regular looking weapons that are a fraction of the price the other shop had offered. But, all he can see is a few sets on display and they don’t seem to come with any containers. He looks around and sees what he was missing. There’s a note on the display, telling him to see the clerk to get a premade batch at the counter. 

Hmm. 

Shrugging his shoulders, he walks around the shop some more. Just kind of browsing the selection of weapons and tools he sees around the shop. There are things he thinks he could use. A lot of things he thinks he could use, but his need for them is not urgent like the shuriken are. He could come back later on and splurge when he had the money for it. 

With a sigh, he resigns himself to only getting some shuriken at the counter when he stumbles across what seems to be a training section. Weapons of various forms that come in either wooden or blunted versions of themselves. His eyes alight on a wooden sword that seems to draw him in. 

He raises a hand and grabs the wooden sword from the shelf before he can stop himself. It’s heavy in his hands, but it feels comfortable. Soothing in a way that makes no sense at all. He runs his fingers along the wooden blade and finds his will crumbling.

So much for only getting shuriken. Curse the cool-factor of swords and his obsession with them. 

Checking the price tag, he lets out a sigh of relief. It’s not too bad. In fact, it’s cheaper than he thought it would be. Basically the equivalent of like seventy bucks. Ryo is hard to quantify for him. Let him make it simpler. And that would leave him with around the equivalent of a hundred and eighty out of the two-fifty he’d left his apartment with. 

Plenty enough to make his other purchases and have money left over. He’d just have to find some training material to help him get started.

He makes his way to the front of the shop and steps up to the counter. There’s still no one behind it, so he wonders if the woman from earlier forgot he had entered. He sets the wooden sword down on the counter - Bokken! It’s a bokken, - and glances around in confusion. 

On the counter is a sheet of paper with the prices of premade sets of kunai, shuriken and senbon. Along with a few specialty packs that look more like combo deals than anything else. Buy this, and get these things for a cheaper price. Next to the sheet of paper, is a metal bell with the sign ‘ding for a surprise’ under it. 

‘That’s just asking to be touched.’ 

His hand twitches and he lets out a sigh. Whatever. He goes to press the damn thing and braces for a surprise. He presses the bell about halfway down before his hand stops moving. The reason? There’s another person's hand holding his still in a tight grip. The hand is covered in small scars and a bandage or two, and when he follows the hand up to the face that it belongs to, the owner is glancing around the room with wide, frantic eyes. 

‘Why the hell do people keep popping up from nowhere?’ 

It’s a face he recognizes. And not just because he has memories of it from a previous life. 

There’s a girl in the orphanage that spends her free time roughhousing with the boys. She’s young, barely five but she hit like the second coming of Tsuande of the Sannin and the entire time she was there, she had been his friend. They’d grown up together in the orphanage. Just two little orphans with nothing but the names given to them by the matron. 

Then one day she disappeared and he was sad about it. He didn’t see her again until he’d caught a glimpse of her years later at the Academy. She was a year ahead of him, and she didn’t seem to remember him at all. 

It hurt, but he understood. She had a family now. And he was just the same old orphan he’d always been. 

She moves his hand away from the bell and lets out a sigh when it doesn’t make anything louder than a dull clank. Clearing her throat, she lets go of his hand and clears her face of anything but mild pleasantry. 

‘The customer service smile. Familiar.’

“Welcome to The Sharp and Pointy, I’m Tenten. How may I help you today?”

There’s a bandage across her nose that scrunches as she blinks her wide eyes at him and he feels his heart stutter a bit in bewilderment. The back of his neck feels weirdly hot under his collar. 

‘Great. The boy had a crush.’  

He glances away and wills the embarrassing feelings away. He didn’t want to deal with this right now. His day has left him socially exhausted. 

He clears his throat and nudges the bokken with the hand she had let go of. Ignoring how the touch lingers on the back of his skin like a phantom ache. “This, and two dozen-packs of shuriken.” 

She smiles at him and nods, turning around to grab a scroll from the wall behind her. She looks much like his old life’s memories of her. Her hair is done up in the signature two buns on her head and a headband across her forehead. 

She sets the scroll down on the counter and smiles at him again. “Two dozen shuriken.”

He looks down at the scroll and raises an eyebrow. It’s just a scroll. He doesn’t see any metal bits attached to it. Until he remembers that seals were a thing and he’d just freaking forgotten somehow. 

The shuriken must be stashed inside a seal written on the scroll. And oh boy, does that open up a whole new avenue of thought. Sealmasters where valuable in this world. Prized in a way that could be beneficial to him later on. Not to mention that most of them were super strong and feared. Who knew what could all be done with seals. 

Tenten must read something in his face, because she looks sheepish. “Oh. Would you like me to show you how it works?” 

He nods and watches her grab the scroll and unravel it in front of him. There’s some kanji written in the center and he has a hard time understanding what it says. He thinks he could mean several things, but he thinks he sees the kanji for storage written in dark ink.

“This is a basic storage scroll. All you need to do is add some chakra.” She puts a finger over the seal and it flashes blue before it releases a puff of smoke. Once the smoke clears, a bunch of shuriken sit innocently on top of the piece of parchment. “And boom, instant stuff from inside.” 

He hums and picks up a shuriken. It’s lighter than he was expecting, and that’s really the only observation he has on the matter. He sets it back down into the pile. “Nice.” 

“Yeah.” She nods and then gestures back to the pile before her. “And to put the stuff inside, you just repeat the process while the thing you want to seal is on the parchment.” 

A flash of chakra later and the shuriken are tucked back into the scroll and she’s rolling it back up. She sets the scroll near the bokken and ducks down to rummage under the counter. He can just barely see the top of her head before she’s popping back up with a pamphlet in her hand. She sets it down on the counter and then starts to ring him up at the register. 

“Two dozen shuriken, one bokken and a basic training manual to go with it. Is there anything else I can help you find today?” She asks, peering at him through long-lashes. 

‘Ah.’ He’d wondered what the pamphlet was for. Good to know. 

He shakes his head, and she lets out a hum as she presses on the register. 

“That’ll be thirty-one thousand, four-hundred and forty-three Ryo.” 

He lets out a sigh and digs out his wallet. The insane number caused him to feel off-balance. But it wasn’t worth dwelling on. Despite the frankly ridiculous number, the price really only came out to about a hundred bucks in USD. And he had about two-fifty in total to spend on shit. 

Still, handing over the money felt like giving up a part of his soul. It sounds so expensive but it’s not. Not in the grand scheme of things. 

Once he hands over the money, the register clicks open with a whirl and he can see various seals decorating the machine. He can only assume it’s a marvel of technology that he doesn’t have enough time to dedicate himself to. But it tickles his brain, something fierce. He glances up at the wall of scrolls and feels questions rising within him. 

“I thought sealing was supposed to be rare?” He asks. Pointing towards the various scrolls and the register when she looks up at him. 

“It is,” She clicks the register shut and waves her hand over at the wall behind her. “But Kaa-san has a lot of time on her hands and we needed the space to store everything.” 

He raises an eyebrow, “Are all those scrolls filled with weapons?” 

She nods vigorously, a grand, genuine smile springing to life on her features. “Tou-san got a lot of orders when he first set up shop, so he came up with a system to make sure he wouldn’t run out. He makes the standard stuff in bulk and often goes overboard while he’s smithing. So we needed a way to store it all while keeping it accessible. And Kaa-san is amazing, she knew just how to do it without making a mess.” 

“How do they make so much of it all?” The wall is filled with scrolls. Hundreds, thousands maybe. And he can see them stuffing out of cupboards behind the counter as well.

Her eyes light up in what can only be hero-worship. “Tou-san and Kaa-san are really strong! They can make Kage Bunshin like they’re nothing! And they’ve been teaching me how to smith since I was young, so part of this is my work as well.”

“Really?” He asks and she seems to get a bit shy at the question for some reason. 

She nods and makes a shy gesture towards the scroll he had just bought. “Those are from a batch of mine.”

He raises an eyebrow and hums a bit, eyes glancing down at the scroll still sitting on the counter. He hadn’t realized she was already making weapons. He couldn’t tell the difference between her shuriken and the ones from the shop this morning. 

She must be really good already. Maybe he could come to her for any other gear he might need? If she was already making such fine weapons, maybe she would make him stuff in the future? 

“A-ano,” He twitches and snaps back to awareness to find her looking a bit red in the face. Her shoulders slump a bit at the ends. “O-or I c-could get you some from Tou-san’s batches if you don’t like them?”

He smiles and pulls the scroll to his chest alongside the bokken, “No thanks. These will be more than perfect.” 

She beams at him and his stupid heart does a flutter. Damn brat and his stupid childhood friend crush thing. Her hand slides the training pamphlet across the counter for him to grab. “Great!” 

‘Did I just get swindled? I’m not sure.’ 

Her turn around had been rather abrupt. 

He sighs and glances at the door. He still had some shopping to do and he was no closer to finding a shop that sold shinobi clothing than before. He tucks the scroll and pamphlet into his pants and tucks the bokken under his arm. 

“Did you want the scroll returned?” He asks. Figuring something so valuable would be wanted back. 

But Tenten shakes her head and smirks at him. “Nope. It’s all yours, free of charge.” 

“Thanks.” He nods and turns to the door to leave but stops before he can take a few steps. “Ne, you wouldn’t happen to know any good outfitters that sell shinobi-grade clothing, would you?” 

She tilts her head and puts on a thinking face. Her eyes light up and she ducks down under the counter again. By the time he steps back in front of it, she pops back up with a piece of paper and a pencil. She jots down something on the paper and hands it out for him to take. “The Fawntastic Hide is a Nara-run shop on the edge of the clan district. They sell good armor at a cheaper price than most. Plus, some of their clothing is laced with genuine deer hair.” 

“Isn’t deer hair rather itchy on sensitive skin?” He asks. Memories of a past life flashing before his eyes. He lived in the midwest of the United States for twenty-six years. He’s felt a few deer under his finger tips. Make of that what you will.

She shrugs, dangling the paper out in front of him with a little sway back and forth. “I heard they soak it in a solution before they work with it.” 

“Thanks.” He takes the paper, brushing his fingers against her own and grinning when she blushes a bit at the contact. He’s about to say something else when an oppressive aura emanates from the back room. Pitching the entrance into darkness as a soul-sucking void whips out in shadowy tendrils. 

Tenten lets out a groan and hides her face in her hands. “Tou-sannn.” 

“Hime,” A creature of the void lurks in the doorway. He stares into the void and the void stares back. Two pinpricks searing into his soul. “Hath this fiend tried to sully thou?” 

Rei blinks. And then realizes the creature known as her father had seen his grin at her blush. Great, just what he needed. An overprotective father. Though he doesn’t know why he’s being glared at so much. Tenten is technically older than he is. 

And what’s with people using doorways as an intimidation tactic? Was it a genjutsu or something? 

Tenten huffs and stomps her foot, a kunai materializing in her hand. “What did Kaa-san say about you talking like that!” 

He should probably leave. 

“I be only looking out for thy innocence.” The creature hisses. And somehow, it sounds wounded. The words are followed immediately by a yelp when the kunai disappears into the void. 

“I’m gonna go?” He gestures to the door and inches away as Tenten lets out a rather loud shriek. 

“Tou-san!” 

Right. Time to go. 

He doesn’t look back as he leaves to shop. Infinitely glad for the escape. He has more shopping to do yet today and there was no need to be skewered before he was good and ready to be. 

He stops for lunch on the way to the Fawntastic Hide. 

The place he picks is a small mom and pop shop at the edge of the Clans District. It gave off the same appeal as a small town diner he’d occasionally visit in his last life. The menu is simple and easy to pick from. And it’s cheap too. A plate of Tempura and an Onigiri, chased down by two cups of coffee is less than twenty bucks. It’s the equivalent anyway.

He didn’t really know what he was ordering, but the guy in the booth next to him ordered it and it looked good, so that’s what he ordered. He probably could have searched the kid’s memories for his favorite dish or something, but he didn’t know if the taste buds would be the same or not. 

They should, but food has a way of changing a soul. 

Anyway, he eats quickly and makes his way back into the world. He wants to train later and so he needs to finish up shopping soon. He still needed to visit the convenience store as well, damnit. 

The trip to the store is uneventful. And when he gets there, there is little fanfare upon his arrival. The shop is rather large, and through the windows he can see several people inside doing their own shopping. 

With a sigh, he makes his way in. The inside is rather simple. Looking more like a small clothing store than anything else. There are clothing racks spread around the room. Unlike his last life however, there are no convenient signs above the sections to tell him what is the men’s side and what is the women’s side. 

Or the child’s section for that matter. Considering he’s so small. 

Like he’s done for most of the day, he resigns himself to a period of meaningful wandering as he browses the aisles. The walls are decorated with various pictures of deer doing all sorts of things. There are small statues of deer spread around the shop made of an old wood that he can feel the chakra in when he touches one in curiosity. And hanging from the ceiling are multiple chandeliers made of deer antlers that have candles flickering inside them. 

‘Man they really went all in on the deer theme.’ 

The clothes themselves are good quality. And because of that, they are still rather expensive. They are thick and sturdy, weaved in a way that has the shinobi lifestyle in mind during creation. 

There are armor sections. Ranging from a steel mesh all the way up to steel plates that are meant to go under your clothing for protection. Despite that, there are no big pieces of armor that could inhibit movement too much. They were ninja after all. And all the armor is expensive. He‘d known that going in, but to see it really drove it home. He would have to do a lot of missions in order to afford some of the stuff in the shop. 

Finally, he manages to find some clothes his size and feels his wallet wail in protest. 

With a sigh, he grabs two long-sleeved shirts, one in a off-white grey and another in a dark blue, and continues his trek around the store. The shirts are sturdy and don’t seem likely to rip easily at the seams. Plus, they have the benefit of being a size too big so he can grow into them. 

On his way to the counter to pay for the shirts, he stumbles across a section of the store that has his interest caught within the second. 

Black fabric peaks out at him and he feels a grin tug at his lips. Eyes lighting up at the thought. He sees that there is a deal on the fabric, three in a pack, and says screw it. Grabbing the pack and heading off to the counter. 

He pays for his prizes and dashes off back to his apartment. He still wanted to train and carrying around his purchases was only asking for trouble. 

Half-way to the apartment, he stops at the convenience store and picks up the miscellaneous things he needs. Penny and diming it in an attempt to save some of the money he had. He got some dish soap and toilet paper, and immediately forgot what else he needed. 

He felt rather awkward then, standing in the line to the register with a pack of toilet paper, soap and a wooden sword in his hands while people gave him weird looks. He ignored them the best he could though, so whatever they were thinking meant nothing to him in the end. 

There was only like seventy bucks left in his wallet by the time he made it home. And maybe he shouldn't have stopped to eat because he now needs to stretch that seventy dollars for the rest of the month. 

He’s such a fool. But the excitement of it all got to him and there was nothing he could do. Never let him go gambling.

Once back at the apartment, he stashed his purchases away and then lingered in the doorway to the bathroom. His eyes locked on to the innocuous pack of black fabric. 

Minutes later found him standing in front of the mirror in the bathroom, a black mask covering his nose and the lower half of his face, running down under the collar of his shirt. 

“Maa,” He squinted his eyes up, trying to eye-smile in the way he’d seen Kakashi always do it. He’s not sure if he manages it, seeing as he can’t really see anything. But he thinks he gets it down. 

He felt ridiculous and was insanely glad no one was around to see him right then. But the mask was comfortable on his face. And it hid the fact that he had a baby face. Or it would, if he wasn’t such a short little shit.  

Maybe he’d take to wearing the things? 

Less than an hour later he found himself down at the same river as earlier in the week. Face bare and a wry twist to his lips. He’d left the mask back at the apartment after a bit of a debate. 

Well, not really a debate so much as he’d gotten nearly out his door and felt absolutely foolish with the mask on his face. He’d never worn one before and it would seem weird if he just started wearing the damn thing out in public. Especially as an orphaned academy brat. 

Maybe he’d just wait until making Genin before he started wearing them? Then maybe he wouldn’t feel so weird about it. 

Anyway, now that he was down at the river, he took a moment to stretch his limbs a bit. Sure, he’d been walking all day, but it never hurt to loosen up a bit. 

He eyes the river in contemplation and reaches into his pants pocket to pull out the small training manual Tenten had given him. He’d brought the bokken and he figured what better way to work out his chakra and water walking skills than to learn sword kata’s on the surface at the same time. 

It felt a bit ambitious of him, but he had literally nothing better to do. 

Opening the manual, he sees the paper is decorated in little pictures of some basic forms. Nothing very advanced really, basically just the bare-ass basics. Meant for literal children with how simple they looked. 

Good thing he was a child then, wasn’t it?

He memorized the forms to his best ability, taking the moment to force his stance into a mimic of what he sees. It’s awkward to hold and try to mimic at the same time. And he tries to think of a way to look at the manual and practice at the same time and comes up with a blank. 

If only there was some way he could hold it in front of him without using his hands. 

Hmm. Hmm. Hmm. 

‘Humming isn’t going to do anything, dumbass.’ 

And then, in a rather rare flash of genius, he has an idea. He studies the manual intensely and then summons his chakra to the surface of his skin. Then, with barely a thought, a simple Bunshin pops into being beside him. 

It’s holding the paper up in its hands and showing it towards him. And he can see the forms on it plain as day. A smirk twists at his lips. 

He didn’t think it would work. Best not question it too hard.

With a sigh, he shoves the paper back into his pocket and wraps his hands around the bokken. It feels comfortable in his hands. Like it belongs there and he feels himself relax a bit. A part of himself connects with the wooden blade in a way that just feels right. 

He shakes himself and focuses back on the clone holding up the forms. He cycles through the forms as best as he can. Taking his time but not too long in doing so. He didn’t know how long the clone would last and it was best that he got used to things quickly. 

The bokken swings through the air with an ease that seems unreal. His body is basically moving on its own. And he could probably attribute that to the body’s previous Taijutsu training. 

Once he feels comfortable switching his stances and adding the swings and swipes, he dismisses the clone with a swipe of his hand and steps out onto the surface of the water. He sinks in a bit for the first few steps, but otherwise doesn’t fall in and get soaked. He gets to the middle of the little river before he stops and takes a breath. 

It’s not really deep, maybe four to five feet at the deepest, but it still causes an awkward feeling to rise inside him. He is barely taller than that anyway, so he didn’t really want to fall in.

Once he calms himself, he slides into the first stance and raises the bokken in a defensive hold. Then, with another breath, slides into the second stance. Bringing the blade before him in a slow swipe. It’s awkward and he doesn’t think he does it right, but he continues on with a single-minded focus.

He lets himself continue to move until his mind is numb with focus. His only thoughts on sliding into each move and not letting anything distract him. His feet sticking to the surface with nary a thought. 

It’s calming. Almost like mediation in how it relaxes his body. He thinks he could get used to this. 

The breeze ruffles his hair gently, and the sun kisses his cheeks with feather-light tenderness. And for the moment, he can pretend. 

Pretend that he doesn’t have the weight of the world on his shoulders. 

That he has a chance at survival. 

That it’s not all completely hopeless-

“Oi!” An annoying voice interrupts his calm. A voice that is coming from the edge of the water. “How are you doing that, nee-chan?”

He feels an eyebrow twitch in sudden irritation. There should be nobody else around him, which meant the brat was talking to him. He turns to scold the kid and finds himself stopping rather abruptly. There at the edge of the water is a whiskered little boy dressed in bright orange. 

Naruto. Ugh, what is he doing there? 

He sighs and goes back to slowly moving through the stances. Whatever he’d planned to say had left his mind the second he saw the main character of the show. “Doing what?”

The kid squawks, sure as shit. And he can see him doing a wiggle of frustration out of the corner of his eye. “That! What you’re doing right now!”

“I’m practicing with my bokken.” He purposely misunderstands the question and continues his movements. 

“Not that!” The kid groans and damn, his voice is loud. “The water, nee-chan! How are you on the water, dattebayo?” 

He hums and throws in a slow spin into the next move so he can see the kids face. The boy looks awe-struck and it makes something uncomfortable rise up within him. Naruto should not be looking at him like that. 

Quick, deflect. 

“This is special water,” He hums and does his best to keep the grin off his lips. “For one night a month, it becomes consistent enough for a person to walk on.” 

Naruto gasps and seems to light up. Unfortunately gullible. “Really, really, really? Sweet!” 

He watches the kid take a hesitant step at the edge of the river and sees him soak his pant leg up to his ankle. The kid’s pout is monstrous. “Oi! Nee-chan, I thought you said it was special water?”

He sighs and spares the kid a tolerant glance, “Only the middle is special. If the whole river could be walked on, then it wouldn’t be very special, would it?”

Naruto squints at him from the shore and it looks like the kid finally caught on to his deception. He should have known better, the kid was training to be a shinobi and who knew what his life had been like up to this point. 

He slides through the next few movements in the resulting silence. He felt kind of bad, messing with the kid. But he’s had a long day and frankly, kids were annoying at the best of times. 

“Yosh!” He turns just in time to see Naruto take a running start, leap through the air and splash rather impressively in the center of the river. And then sink to the bottom of it. 

His heart sinks into his gut. What was he thinking? Did he just kill the main character? 

Before he can fully panic, the kid comes up to the surface with a sputter. And he lets out a sigh as he walks over to stand over the kid in the water. Naruto looks like he barely touches the bottom with the way only his head is visible. 

“You tricked me!” Naruto scowls at him with squinty eyes. The kid ran a hand through his wet hair to keep it out of his eyes. 

Rei sighs again and crouches over the kid to pat him on the head sympathetically, “I'm sorry. I didn’t think you would fall for it.”

“Nee-chan!” The kid whines and scowls up at him. “That’s not funny!” 

He crushes the next sigh that wants out. The river echoes with the absence of any laughter. “It’s not.” 

Naruto pouts, cheeks puffed up in a way that makes him look more like a fox than ever. “That’s mean, nee-chan.” 

Why does this kid keep calling him nee-chan? He doesn’t even look that much like a girl! Does he? Sure his features could be considered a bit soft, but he just hasn’t grown into his manliness yet. He’s still a mere twelve years old. “I’m a boy.” 

“What!?” Naruto squints up at him and tilts his head questioningly. “Are-are you sure?”

“Tch, brat.” He flicks the kid in the forehead and feels such immense joy at the resulting offended squawking. 

‘Serves him right, damned brat. Do I look like a girl now?’ 

Naruto rubs his forehead and peers up at him through squinted eyes, “How are you doing that anyway? Is it a chatora technique?”

He tilts his head at the brat and wonders if the kid was really that forgetful or if he simply didn’t know anything about such a massive part of being a shinobi.. “A chakra technique?” 

“Yeah, yeah. A chakra technique! Is it a jutsu?” The kid looks way too excited despite the fact that he is neck deep in water and soaked to the bone. He gasps rather suddenly, eyes lighting up gleefully. “Can you teach me? Can you, can you, can you?” 

He sighs and stares down at the kid blankly. Mind running miles a minute. Should he? He could probably teach the kid but didn’t he have like a whole ass arc surrounding surface walking? Sometime during the mission to Wave?

But the kid is looking at him so pathetically and it tugs at his barren heartstrings. He kind of wants to pinch the kid’s cheeks. He squints down at the kid and the kid squints back. 

With a sigh, he tucks his bokken under his arm and strengthens his arm with chakra, then he grabs Naruto by the scruff and pulls the kid from the water. Ignoring the kid’s squirming, he carries him to the edge of the edge of the shore and sets the kid down gently. 

Naruto shakes himself like a dog, sending droplets of water flying everywhere. Rei sighs and wipes a drop of water from his cheek. 

“So will you?” Naruto asks again, eyes wide as he pleads his case. 

He doesn’t sigh, but it’s a near thing. At this rate, he’s going to be all out of air. Peering at the kid, he slowly shakes his head. “Not yet, I can’t teach you-” 

“What! Why?” There’s genuine outrage in the kid's face and it looks like he’s gearing up for further persuasion. 

He raises an eyebrow and the kid falls blessedly silent. “As I was saying, I can’t teach you to water-walk until you learn the technique that precedes it. Tree-walking.”

Oh god, what is he doing? This is going to fuck with canon, isn’t it?

Naruto looks like he’s seconds away from vibrating in place. And he wonders if the Kyuubi plays a factor in the seemingly endless energy. It would sure explain a lot. 

“Really, really?” The kid throws a fist into the air when he nods at him. “Yatta!” 

Rei sighs and tries to think of a place he could bring the brat to teach him. A place that wouldn’t make it seem like he was about to attempt murder. And the only place he could think of was the academy training ground that he had learned in. 

He glances at the sun and thinks it was probably only around three or four in the afternoon. “Do you know the training ground near the Academy? The one with the big Hashirama trees in it?” 

The kid nods and so he mimics him. “Meet me there in a half-hour, I’ve got to get something first. And you need to change into something dry.”

Naruto squints at him suspiciously for a second before he nods, a beaming grin springing to life on his features. “I won’t be late, believe it!”

He watches Naruto bound off, still dripping wet and feels himself growing weary. What has he gotten himself into now? He didn’t even need to grab anything. He just wanted a moment of calm before the storm. 

How was he going to teach this kid how to walk up trees when he himself barely knew what he was doing? He doesn’t think stubbornness and desperation will work for Naruto and his abysmal chakra control. Stubbornness sure, but desperation? Not as much. So he needed to come up with a way to break it down to its easiest form of understanding. And then somehow apply it.

With one last sigh, he laments another lost chance to practice his water walking and heads away from the river. He’s not sure what he’s going to do. 

Hopefully it comes to him on his walk through the village to kill time. 

“The key to walking up the tree is patience. Patience and careful control of one’s chakra.” 

Naruto is looking up at him in wonder. And Rei feels a bit ridiculous because of it. He’s standing on the side of a tree in the training grounds, staring down at Naruto as he gives the kid a basic lecture on how to do so. 

He doesn’t know why he’s still on the side of the tree, but Naruto had asked for a demonstration when he’d arrived and Rei couldn’t think of any excuse to not do so. 

He crosses his arms, bokken tucked under one, and narrows his eyes down at the kid. Pushing past whatever embarrassment he can feel rising within him. “Too little chakra and you won’t connect to the tree. Too much and the same applies.” 

“Ne, ne?” Naruto raises his hand. Legit, like he was in a fucking classroom. “How do you know how much chatora to use then?” 

“Chakra.” He sighs and feels a headache start to throb behind his eyes. He gestures at the base of the tree with a lazy wave. “Try it.” 

“Yosh!” Naruto backs up and then takes a running start at the tree. 

He can see the exact moment the kid starts molding chakra to his feet, because he’s suddenly surrounded in an impressive light show of swirling energy. And he knows the kid is going to fail because of that alone. That was way too much chakra in use. The kid barely gets one foot on the tree before he’s being blasted backwards ten feet through the air.

“Too much.” Rei sighs and watches the kid thud against the ground. Though, it doesn’t keep Naruto down for long. The kid hops back to his feet quickly, a fire in his eyes.

“I’ll get it right this time, believe it!”

He rolls his eyes as the kid makes another attempt that results in the same thing happening once again. “Too much, again.”

Naruto squints up at him and Rei feels himself wilt a bit inside. He didn’t know how to explain it properly. Or at all really. Certainly not in a way that would help Naruto understand it better. From what he remembered about it, it still took the kid like a week to do it in canon. 

‘Maybe some motivation might help?’ 

With a sigh, he reaches into his weapon's pouch and pulls out a kunai. Then, he crouches on the side of the tree and scores a slash mark near his feet. “Tell you what, you make it to this mark before nightfall and I’ll buy you a bowl - a single bowl - of ramen to celebrate.”

He was only like ten feet up the tree, so maybe he would be buying the kid a bowl later anyways, but he couldn’t stand to see the put upon look that had adorned the brat’s features.

He tossed the kunai down and it landed at Naruto’s feet. He nods at it. “Use that to mark your progress.” 

Naruto glances at the kunai, but soon goes back to squinting up at him. And he feels himself slumping in defeat. Why did he think he was going to be able to teach this kid anything? He barely knew anything about chakra himself, let alone enough to teach someone who struggles so badly with it. 

He sighs, again. “You’re using too much chakra, that’s why you’re being sent flying. You need to limit your output by a lot.” 

Naruto scowls but bends down to pick up the kunai at his feet. He watches the kid inspect the knife for a few seconds before he’s being squinted at once again. “How am I supposed to do that, dattebayo?” 

“Mold some chakra and when you stop seeing the swirly lights surrounding you, you’ll know you’re on the right track.” He glances up at a branch further up before he grabs the bokken in one hand and starts making his way towards it. Might as well get some training in.

He walks his way up to the branch and steps out onto it. Only, instead of standing on the top of the branch - like a normal person - he walks along the underside of it. Hanging upside down, he sets his feet and slowly starts working through the kata’s as best he can remember.

Thank the gods for chakra, otherwise this would mess up his brain. 

He was sure there was some medical reasoning why his blood didn’t flood his brain and mess him up inside. But the best he could come up with was that chakra was magical and that was that. No need to go searching the universe for answers. 

Underneath him, Naruto scowls but starts to mold his chakra while still on the ground. Once again, the swirly lightshow springs to life causing the poor kid to scowl even harder. He leaves Naruto to it and focuses back on moving through the stances he can remember. He still pauses in confusion between every movement, but those pauses are getting smaller and smaller.

Why did he agree so quickly to Naruto’s plea for training? He wasn’t much of a social person by nature and his day has been a long one. His social battery has well and truly run out and it would take him the rest of the weekend to recharge it to the level of tolerance he needed for his classes come monday. 

He could have blown the kid off and went about his day. Could have sent him to someone else even. But no, he made the spontaneous decision to spend time with the kid. Why? 

‘Because Naruto’s the main character and I’m a sucker who felt like I resonated with him whenever I consumed the media.’ 

Oh, that’s why. The mild, mild, hero-worship and the fact that he could so easily put himself into Naruto’s shoes and empathize with him. 

He felt that same empathy twice-fold now. Due to his orphan status and general loneliness he’s lived through in both lives. But the hero-worship?

Glancing down, he watches Naruto get sent flying once again, though this time with less accompanying lights to go with it, and he sighs. The hero-worship has pretty much flown the coop. And good riddance, Naruto - though an inspiration to all - wasn’t really a figure to look up to, ability-wise. The kid was born with cheats written in his DNA and is literally favored by the gods. 

‘The Chosen One.’

He would need to do a lot in order to even have a fraction of the power that the kid has had within him since birth. From everything he’s seen and read, the kid is basically the reincarnation of a demigod. 

It’s hard to compare as a mere mortal. 

And yet, there is a part of him that still thinks he could get that strong. Foolish, but-

“Oi!” He lazily turns his head to stare down at where Naruto is crouched on the ground. The kid is tilting his head up at him, a furrow in his brow. 

“Yes?” He raises an eyebrow and wonders what the kid wants now. He didn’t really have any other observations for the kid’s technique quite yet. Granted, he wasn’t watching too hard in the first place. But whatever.

“What’s your name anyway/” He can only assume it's the lack of tact that has made the kid’s manners so bad. But then, he’d be ignoring the giant problem he knows exists in the kid’s life. Lack of actual guidance and care. 

“Rei.” He ignores the kernel of disappointment that rises within him. Disappointment that comes solely from the twelve year old version of himself that has spent the last few years in the same class as the loud-mouthed blonde. “And your’s?”

Naruto shoots to his feet and strikes a pose, why are people posing around here? “Uzumaki Naruto! Remember it, I’m going to be Hokage one day, believe it!”

“Yes, I know.” He grumbles and ignores the tiny part of him that kind of, he said kind of wants to be a Kage in his own right. “I’ve heard you scream it once a week for the last four years.”

The paperwork alone would drive him to an early grave.

“What?” Naruto’s eyes get wide as he yelps, pitch rising with the finger he points up at Rei. “A-are you stalking me!”

“No.” He sighs and asks the world to give him patience. “We’ve shared classes for the last five years. You’re loud.” 

“But-but you look so young!” Naruto flounders on the forest floor. “How’d you get so strong already?” 

“I’m older than you are.” He grumbles. By nearly fifteen years, thank you very much. 

Damn this small body. 

“Eh? But I’ve never seen you- wait.” Naruto snaps his fingers and points up at him accusingly again. “You’re that weird kid who sits at the back of the class! I remember you now.”

He slumps in defeat. 

‘Here lies Rei, killed by the main character. Orphan, Loner, Weird Kid.’ 

“Gee, thanks.” He mumbles, suddenly feeling less empathetic than he was before. Hero-worship, gone. 

“You’re just like me!” Naruto crows. “We’re both orphans.” 

“Yeah.” He sighs, sympathy trickling back alongside in the despondence the subject brings to life inside him. “But we’re not the same.” 

“We are!” 

“Not really,” He sighs and just gives up on the conversation. “Your parents at least gave you their last name.” 

Technically. 

Naruto scowls and wow, why is he so scowly all the time? “Jiji won’t tell me who gave me my last name. But I think he just says that so he doesn’t have to admit that he gave it to me himself.” 

He scoffs and feels like he’s years older than what his body is. He was, but still. “Why would your Ji-san give you the name of a near extinct clan?” 

“What?!” Naruto squeaks rather loudly. “What do you mean by clan?” 

He scoffs and ignores the jealousy that sits low in his gut. Burning like it would continue to smolder for eternity. Sue him, the Uzumaki were freaking cool. And he would have rather been born as some unknown Uzumaki before their village was destroyed than as some no name brat destined to be forever unknown and unloved. 

“I mean that the Uzumaki clan has-” A sudden chill runs down his spine. Like someone was broadcasting their killing intent right through him. He glances around and sees a shinobi perched in a tree nearby. It's an ANBU, but it’s not his ANBU. The shinobi’s mask looks more like a bear of some kind than anything else. 

The ANBU raises a finger to where the lips of the mask and shakes their head, killing intent rising just enough to make their point. 

‘What the fuck. Are those guys just on-call all the time?’

Does the ANBU and the Hokage have the name of the Uzumaki clan cursed like a taboo from Harry Potter or something. Damn ninja. 

“The Uzumaki clan what?” Naruto protests from below. Unable to see the ANBU agent lurking in the foliage of the nearby tree. Nor able to feel the pointed killing intent. 

He sighs and shoves down the scowl that threatens to overtake his lips. “That’s something you’re going to have to find out for yourself.” 

“Rei! Why!” Naruto’s pout is massive. 

“Because that damn Panda is going to get me if I say anything else!” He points right at the hidden ANBU and feels an intense amount of satisfaction at the way the shinobi freezes. 

The ANBU stares at him for the audacity and then disappears a second later.

Naruto glances wildly around the training grounds before he takes a huge sigh of relief. “Don’t joke about panda’s, Rei. They’ll get you when you least expect them.” 

His brow starts to furrow, but he stops it half-way. Killing the rising questions violently inside his mind. He didn’t need to know. He might just live longer that way.

“Are you sure you won’t tell me?” Naruto asks, and he notices that the kid has been standing in the same place for a while now. Training being the last thing on his mind. 

“I’m sure.” He sighs, wishing that an adult of some kind would freaking step up to the plate in Naruto’s life and actually be one. “Sorry.”

He was barely a functioning adult in his last life, how is he supposed to be one in this one too?

Give him a few years and then ask him again. 

Naruto sighs and stares at the trunk of the tree, stuck in deep thought. He lets him be, choosing instead to focus on the feel of the bokken in his hands. Like when he first held it, he can feel himself connect with the wooden sword in an odd way. He doesn't know why, and he’s not in the mood to have it answered quite yet. 

It’s quiet for a few minutes as he moves through the kata’s. His legs start to ache at the constant use he’s put them through. And he can feel his chakra levels starting to drop. When he glances at Naruto, he finds the kid seems to be going through an internal crisis of some kind and leaves him to it. 

No need to get involved in whatever that was.

“Why?” A quiet voice comes from below him after a little bit of time. He glances down to see Naruto staring up at him, goggles glinting in the light atop his head.

“I told you,” He sighs and straightens from his stance. “The Panda will murder me in my sleep.”

“Not that!” Naruto sighs explosively. A hand rubbing at his head in frustration. “I meant why…why are you helping me?” 

‘Because I don’t want you to accidentally murder me on your rise to power.’ 

He shrugs a negligent shoulder, “Why not?”

Naruto huffs and fiddles with the kunai in his hands. “Why not? Because why would you? What do you want?” 

He rolls his eyes, “You have nothing I would want.” 

But, this line of questioning is making him a bit weary. What is the kid aiming at now? He wasn’t about to be made fun of again, was he? 

“Then why?” Naruto squints up at him. 

He shrugs again, “Because I want to?” 

And that’s what it came down to, wasn’t it? He wanted to help Naruto. He had plenty of reasons why he would want to do such a thing. Whether it be the hero-worship, empathy, or just straight up novelty of it all. He wanted the kid to grow strong. 

He also wanted to live long enough to see that, but that was a whole nother issue that wasn’t related at the moment.

“But-but,” Naruto groans and frantically runs his hands through his hair, knocking his goggles askew. “No one helps me!” 

“Then everyone sucks and should be ashamed of themselves.” 

Naruto freezes and stares up at him in wonderment. “Wha-what?” 

Rei sighs and lets himself drop from the tree. Pushing chakra into his legs to soften his landing. He stands before Naruto and crosses his arms to tuck the bokken in his armpit. “Look, kid. One day, you’re going to stand before this village and no one is going to question your place in it. The road there will be long, but when you get to the end, everyone is going to regret their bullshit.” 

Naruto opens his mouth, but he puts a hand on his shoulder to stop him. “They’ll regret it, so there is no point of giving a flying fuck about it right now. They’ll see their folly and hate themselves enough for the both of you.”

“I-,” Naruto cuts himself off, his head tilting down to shadow his eyes in the low light. He squeezes the shoulder under his hand in an attempt to offer comfort. A low sniff causes him to snatch it back like he was almost bit by a snake. It’s followed by another sniff and then little glints of light fall from the kid’s face. 

“Are-are you crying?” He asks hesitantly. 

“N-no.” Naruto rubs his eyes quickly. “I just got some tree bark in my eye.”

Rei raises an eyebrow, but calms himself at the denial. “In both of them?”

Shit, he hadn’t meant to do that. 

Why was he having such a deep conversation right now? He didn’t even know this kid besides what he had in his memories. 

‘This is the second heart-to-heart today, what the fuck?’

The shinobi of this village need therapy. Fuck.

Naruto nods and shoves his goggles down over his eyes. No doubt as a way to mask the sudden tears. “Y-yeah. Stupid trees and their sneak attacks.” 

He barely said anything, why the hell did he start crying?

He sighs and tilts his head back to look at the sky. The sun was starting to get low and he guessed there wasn’t much sunlight left for the day. 

“How about we get that bowl of ramen?” He pats his pocket and slumps. He didn’t have a lot of money and this would cut into what he had left. But, looking at Naruto, he feels like he might as well. 

It’s alright to indulge a bit in this new life of his. He could die within the week, or worse. No one would begrudge him enjoying this life a little bit. 

“What about hitting the mark?” Naruto asks, pointing at the tree. The kid only got about half way up to the ten-foot mark, but it didn’t matter. He’d learn it eventually. 

He shrugs, “You can work on it at any time. As a matter of fact, keep the kunai. You’ll figure things out and you can use the kunai to help you.” 

Naruto glances down at the kunai and then lays a rather deadpan look back at him, “But Rei, not even my kunai are in such bad condition. You can have this back.” 

“Tch,” His eye twitches. Damned brat. “Brat. A souvenir then.” 

Naruto tilts his head, “Why would I want such a chipped and ugly looking kunai?”

‘This damn brat.’

They made it to the noodle shop eventually. Rei bought the kid only one bowl and no more. No matter how much little Naru-chan pouted at him.