Chapter 2
Naruko stared up at the glowing white words before her not quite understanding. "What do you mean new game? What is this?"
Tamiko grandly gestured up at the display, "This is the interface that your father designed for the training and evaluation seal. As I said, other people came in and changed it and added things, but the overall structure is your father's. I'm sorry to have to be the one to tell you this Naruko, but your father was more than a bit of a nerd. So the whole thing is set up like a video game. That means while you're still fixing the crack, you're going to be experiencing the entire world as if it were a video game. To get started you should go through the tutorial so you can get the hang—"
Naruko had already made the selection to start a new game and skip the tutorial. A wall of pictures of Naruko in various outfits and poses floated in front of them, at the top of the wall big white letters read Avatar Selection. "What is this for?"
"You should really go back and do the tutorial Naruko." Tamiko's forehead wrinkled and her lips pursed.
"I've played video games before with Kiba, I don't need a tutorial. What I need is for you to explain what this is." Naruko gestured to the pictures of her having gotten over her own inability to see her body.
"Each of these represents an important person in your life, selecting one will enable you to live life from their perspective. Their soul will inhabit your body just as yours inhabits theirs. Keep in mind that when you complete your mission, all souls that have been moved by this process will go back to their original bodies." Naruko selected the avatar that looked like herself, not wanting to mess with the souls of any of her friends. After the avatar selection page faded Naruko realized that she could see her body again. She would have jumped for joy if not for how heavy her eyelids felt. Before she knew what was happening, she was asleep and her body started to fade.
Naruko woke up to the loud beeping of her alarm clock. She rolled over and put her pillow over her head. "Five more minutes." Was her muttered plea from under the pillow. Why did she put the clock so far away from her bed? So I can't hit the snooze button without getting out of bed. She smirked into the pillow and summoned a shadow clone. "I don't have to get out of bed if I get somebody else to hit the snooze for me!" She waited for the clone to do as she commanded, but the alarm clock kept beeping. It was at this point that she noticed how big her bed was. She threw the covers off of her head and looked around.
"What the hell? My room hasn't looked like this since... what's wrong with my voice?" She jumped out of bed and ran to look in her mirror. She was a child again. "Tamiko! What the hell is going on?"
The pink fairy flew in from out of the corner of Naruko's eyes. "Well if you had listened to me and taken the tutorial you wouldn't be confused. You've gone back to the start of winter break the first year you were in the academy. Your mission is to fix an unintended hole in the universe, so Kami-sama is granting you some leeway in what you can get away with karmically, but be careful traveling backward in time makes it easier to rip new holes in the universe, and doing that would be bad. Even if you go back again, holes like to stay open once they get that way, so you'll have to work to close any that you accidentally open in addition to the big tear that Sasuke m—"
"Wait, back up. Did you say I'm starting over at the Academy?" Naruko threw her arms in the air, "I can't believe you're making me go all the way back here! You should have just sent me back right before Sasuke stole the stupid scroll. I could have taken care of it easy!" She crossed her arms and sat on her bed pouting.
"That's what I was trying to explain just now. Naruko, I need you to understand what a big deal it is that Sasuke, a human, was able to tear a hole in the universe. And it was a big hole Naruko. We had to go back at least this far to ensure we got away from all the cracks. Now I can't be flying around with you all the time, explaining things that you would have learned in the tutorial." Tamiko reached behind her back and pulled out a necklace. "Concentrating chakra on this will bring up your menu," she started to flicker and fade, "I'll check on you when I can. Good luck Naruko." The necklace dropped to the floor. Tamiko was gone.
Naruko got off of her bed and scooped up the necklace. Walking over to her closet, she put it on. I'll figure out this game thing later. Right now I need to figure out why I can't make shadow clones. She grabbed her orange jumpsuit, threw it on and headed over to her bedroom window. Giving her room one final look, she opened the window and jumped out. Her foot connected with the wall, but instead of sticking like it was supposed to, she began slipping and then falling and then crashing into the ground.
Naruko opened her eyes to the new game screen. "What the hell? Why couldn't I stick to the wall? Tamiko?" Naruko looked around, trying to find where the pink fairy might be. "Hey Tamiko!" Naruko waited as long as her patience could tolerate before deciding that Tamiko was just not going to show up. Again skipping the tutorial, she started a new game.
Beep Beep Beep Beep. Naruko jumped out of bed and turned off the alarm. Determined to figure out what went wrong last time. She threw on her clothes and left her apartment through the front door, not wanting to risk becoming a pancake again.
It was early, the village was just starting to wake up as Naruko made her way to Training Ground Three. As such, she made it almost all the way there before she ran into someone she recognized, "Good morning Ebisu-ero-sensei!"
Ebisu spun around, gobsmacked, he wasn't anyone's instructor, and where did this little girl get off calling him a pervert? So stunned was he, that it took him longer than she was in view to realize that it was the demon brat who had addressed him so strangely. He set off again to report to the Mission Assignment Desk, certain that he was the target of her next prank, but wholly unsure as to what that might entail.
Naruko looked around Training Ground Three and marveled at how much it had changed in the give or take decade and a half since she last saw it— She stumbled midstep. Now there's a thought, since she last saw it? Since she will have seen it? How was she supposed to think about this whole time travel thing, let alone talk to anyone about it? She shook her head, the whole thing made her head hurt too much to worry about right now, she just needed to focus and figure out why she couldn't make shadow clones or walk on walls without turning into a pancake.
Staring at the tallest tree she could see she reached behind her and drew a practice kunai from her weapons pouch, took a deep breath and ran headlong at the tree. She made it one step, almost two, before she fell flat on her back unable to even mark her progress on the tree. "What the hell?" She sprang to her feet. "Tamiko! What the hell is going on with my chakra?"
The pink fairy was nowhere to be seen.
"Come on Tamiko, where are you?" And then as if a lightbulb went off in her head, she remembered the necklace. Grasping the crystal with both hands, she closed her eyes and concentrated her chakra, not knowing what to expect, she peaked one eye open. The leaves in the trees rustled in the wind, one fell off and ran along the ground, nothing else seemed to move, that is to say, nothing else was different. The world hadn't changed.
Growling, she yanked the necklace off of her neck and threw it as far as she could. "Fine! I'll figure it out myself." She threw her hands down to her sides and began marching toward the exit of the training ground.
She made it to the fence still grumbling to herself when, in a swirl of leaves, Ebisu appeared blocking her path. "Training grounds are to be used strictly by individuals registered with Hokage-sama as ninja of the Hidden Leaf and their guests." he pushed his glasses up his nose, "You clearly are not a ninja, and I don't see any accompanying you. What were you doing trespassing on these fields?"
Naruko pointed a finger accusatorily at Ebisu "I don't have to answer to perverts! I'm not trespassing, I was training."
"I find that highly unlikely. Come with me, Hokage-sama will want to deal with you personally, I'm sure." Before Naruko could react, Ebisu grabbed her roughly by the shoulder and they both disappeared in a swirl of leaves.
They appeared again in the middle of the Hokage's office, the leaves accompanying their appearance fell to the floor and a gentle breeze rustled some of the paperwork on the Hokage's desk. Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Sandaime Hokage, looked up from his desk and smiled as he recognized the new occupants of his office, "Good morning Ebisu-kun. What trouble has young Naruko-chan managed to get herself into this time? Starting a bit early today, aren't you Naruko-chan?"
Naruko stood slack-jawed as Ebisu began to answer the question that her surrogate grandfather had just asked. "I was taking the long way home after reporting my mission's completion status to the Mission Assignment Desk when I found her exiting Training Ground Three. She clearly has no business being there so I thought it pertinent to apprehend her before she could cause any more mischief."
"I see," Hiruzen leaned back in his chair and knitted his fingers together, "Thank you for bringing this to my attention Ebisu-kun. I will handle it from here, you are dismissed."
"Yes Hokage-sama." With one last withering look toward Naruko, Ebisu walked out the office doors.
"Now Naruko-chan, you know training grounds are to just be used by ninja. Trespassing is a serious crime, can you please explain what you were doing there."
As if coming out of a trance, Naruko ran around the Hokage's desk and enveloped him in a tight hug. She began openly weeping as she said "I've missed you Gramps."
Hiruzen picked her up and wrapped her in his own hug. "There there Naruko-chan," this was not the reaction that Hiruzen was expecting. Naruko was normally quite coy about her actions surrounding her pranks, at least until her trap has been sprung, at which point she'd bleed it for all the attention she could. But this didn't seem like a ploy to distract him from what she had been doing, those were real tears staining his robes. "I suppose it has been quite some time since we last got a chance to chat, hasn't it?" he quickly surveyed the amount of paperwork that he had to face, judging that he could spare a couple hours and not get too far behind he wiped at the tears streaming down Naruko's cheeks. "What do you say you and I go for a walk? We could make our way over to Ramen Ichiraku for breakfast. It'll give me a chance to escape this blasted paperwork, and I'd very much like to hear about how your first year at the Academy is going."
"No, Gramps, you don't understand! You died!" For a split second, Naruko saw Hiruzen shift to how he looked when he died, his faced aged another decade, blood dribbling down from the corners of his mouth, an open sword wound in the middle of his chest. She shuddered and grasped his robes even more desperately.
This took the old man by surprise, "Naruko, as you can see, I am still quite alive and I plan to be for some time. It must have been a bad dream. It's ok—"
"It wasn't a dream. You died seven years from now when Orochimaru attacks the village!" This again took Hiruzen by surprise, he hadn't heard mention of his old student for many years. Naruko again saw him take on the visage of his future corpse, "I know it sounds crazy, but I'm from the future"—the whole office shifted in and out of how it looked when Naruko died—"and there was this portal thing"—the view outside the window showed Konoha flashing to look how it did after Pein's attack—"and I fell into it"—the sky momentarily went dark—"and now I have to fix the universe..." a bolt of lightning cracked down from the sky, crashing through the window, striking Naruko squarely on her forehead. She fell over promptly, quite dead.
"What the hell was that?" Naruko shouted at the New Game Screen, not really expecting a response at this point. Frustrated because nothing was making sense and no one was bothering to explain any of it to her, she angrily navigated passed the tutorial and quickly started the new game again.
Waking up in her old bed for the third time in what to her felt like less than an hour, she threw off the covers of her bed and marched out her front door, not caring that she was still in her night clothes, leaving the door adjar. She stomped her way toward the apartment of a man who she had come to see as an older brother. All the while on the way there, she puzzled over what she had done last time that led to her being struck by lightning.
Reaching the door of the apartment, she took a moment to calm down before knocking. She waited a minute and when there was no response, she knocked again louder. Waiting another minute and still not hearing movement inside, she knocked again, practically banging on the door, "Iruka-sensei, are you in there?"
Finally she heard sounds of life from within, a moment later a very agitated Iruka Umino stood at the door in a sleeping gown and nightcap, his eye twitching. His eyes narrowed as he recognized whom it was who had awoken him at this ungodly hour, "If this is part of some prank, get it over with so I can get back to sleep."
"It's not a prank Iruka-sensei, I need to talk to you. I'll make tea," she started at pushing passed him to get into his apartment.
Iruka put his leg out to block her path, "Listen, kid, I'm no one's teacher, especially not... well not yours. And there's no way I'm letting you into my apartment. I don't know what you're trying to pull, but it's not going to work on me. Try it on Tsuko. He's a lot more gullible and he lives right over there." Iruka spun her around and pushed her away, "Goodbye." He closed the door, Naruko heard him lock it and then shuffle off back to bed.
Naruko crumpled to the floor, crying. She couldn't help it, one of her first and most precious people had just rejected her completely. Somewhere deep down she knew that her Iruka, the one from the future who loved her like a little sister, was still possible. That he had grown to not resent her before and that he could again. But that didn't erase the sting of what had just happened. She touched her forehead, where the forehead protector that he had given her used to sit.
She laid there silently crying until she ran out of tears. She didn't care when Iruka's neighbor left for work. She didn't care when another neighbor came to investigate and offer help, only to sneer and walk away when he realized which little girl it was. She didn't care about the people passing by as the early morning gave way to mid morning. She didn't even care when a dog came by to sniff her hair. She only got up when the door behind her finally opened again. She sniffled and wiped her face, "Sorry, I-I'll leave now. I didn't mean to bother you." She bowed deeply and turned to run away.
Iruka caught her by her elbow, "Wait... you said you needed to talk... why don't you come inside and I'll make that pot of tea you mentioned and you can explain why you've been crying on my doorstep for the past three hours." He stepped aside and gestured into his apartment.
"Thank you," Naruko slowly walked inside, made her way to the kitchen and took a seat at the table.
Iruka followed her and set about preparing a pot of tea, "Alright kid, what's on your mind."
Naruko watched as Iruka set the pot to boil on the stove and took his own seat, "I don't really know where to start."
"Well how about you start with what led you to bang on my door at five o'clock this morning and see how far you get. You'd be amazed at what you can say if only you begin." Iruka said with a smile. He honestly didn't hate her for what she was. It was just hard to look at her with what Kyuubi had done to his parents. And the fact that she dedicated most of her time and talents to pranking everyone in the village and in general being a menace didn't help. But right now, she was just a little orphan girl in need.
Naruko took a second to think, she had to choose her words carefully, "I ummm... I talked with Hokage-jii, about a problem I have... but he couldn't help me," she gulped remembering the feeling of the lightning as it burned through her, "and he's said before that you're one of the smartest ninja that Konoha has. So I thought you might be able to help me. I'm sorry about waking you, I didn't think about what time it was or that you'd probably be asleep."
Iruka was flattered to hear that the leader of the village had spoken so highly of him. It made him consider not for the first time becoming an instructor at the Academy. "So what is this problem that Hokage-sama couldn't help you with? I'm not sure how much help I can be if he wasn't able to, he's called The Professor for a reason."
"Well... I uh have this friend, and she— I mean he, he's an older guy. And he's got this, ummm he used to be able to walk on walls and summon toads and do all sorts of cool ninja techniques. But something happened to him. Something went wrong with a fuinjutsu and he got turned into a kid again, like me. And now he can't do any of his cool ninja tricks! He can't even make clones anymore. And I don't know what's wrong or what to tell her— I mean him." Naruko drummed her fingers on the table, "So what do you think I should do— I mean tell her— him to do?"
Iruka smirked, he figured out her game. He had heard that she had started the Academy this year, and that she was already falling behind. She wanted him to tell her how to mold chakra ahead of her class. "Hmmm... I see what you mean. That's quite a problem for your friend to have. I think his best option would be to contact Jiraiya-sama and see if he can help figure out what with wrong in the seals. That shouldn't be a problem for him if he and Jiraiya-sama are close enough for him to have signed the Toad Summoning Contract."
Naruko's face drained of color, she didn't think she'd get an answer like that, "Uh... yeah... but Gramps said... that Jiraiya-ero isn't in the village. And if he's out perving on bathhouses, Kami knows when he'll be back. My friend needs to be able to use his jutsu now! He's got a... an important thing, that he needs to do like right now."
Iruka had to give her credit, it seems like she actually knew who Jiraiya was if she knew enough about the man to know about his perverted inclinations. And she was just as crafty as some of her pranks led him to believe considering how on her toes she was. But that didn't mean he was going to endanger her life by teaching her how to mold chakra before she was ready, "Well then I guess your friend is just going to have to be out of luck. He still remembers how to mold chakra in his head, but his body hasn't learned how to yet. That's a big part of what you're going to be learning in a couple years at the Academy."
The soft woosh of the tea kettle began to blow until it became a full whistle. Naruko got up to finish preparing the tea. The rich smell of the tea leaves entered her nose as she steeped the pot, "I know that chakra is all about balance between mind energies and body energies, my friend Sakura taught me that when we were genin— I mean playing genin, at the park. But I don't remember having to train my body to be able to use chakra before. I mean hearing about older students training for that." I really need to work on how I talk about this stuff.
Again Iruka was impressed by how much she knew. Sure it was just the basics, but the fundamentals of chakra manipulation wasn't taught until third year. It made him wonder why her grades were so low, "That's true, chakra is a balance of our inner energies. But the reason your friend can't use chakra is only partially related. Think of it this way. When your instructors at the Academy start to teach you taijutsu, they're going to start by giving you a handout that has pictures on it showing you the right way to do the techniques. Then they'll lecture about how it's performed, which will include them demonstrating it." He figured he'd humor her about her ‘friend' long enough to get the message across that what she was trying was too dangerous for her. "Think of this as what your friend already remembers about how to use chakra. You can watch somebody else throw a punch a thousand times, and you can read a dozen books about it, but that doesn't mean your body knows how to do it. You have to train and practice actually throwing punches, and have an instructor there to tell you what you're doing right and what you need help improving on."
Naruko set two cups of tea down on the table and put the honey and lemon away before sitting back down herself. "So what what you're saying is that my friend just needs to practice?"
Iruka took a sip of his tea enjoying the sweet, earthy flavor, "Not quite, even though he's not able to fully access his chakra in a way that allows him to shape and mold it, he would still be expending chakra. If he doesn't do it right, he could give himself chakra exhaustion and end up in the hospital. That's one of the reasons why learning to mold chakra isn't taught as early as taijutsu, young bodies need a chance to develop more before it's safe to try. It's also why teaching how to access chakra is done under strict instruction and supervision of the Academy instructors. Your friend really shouldn't be trying this on his own. I have to ask, this tea is exactly how I like it. How did you know?"
Naruko hid her face behind her cup, taking a long sip of her own tea, as she thought about what he had just told her, "Oh, I just made them both how I like it. Pretty cool that you like it the same as me." She hid her smile behind another sip, "So there really isn't any other way for my friend to be able to use his ninja powers besides getting Jiraiya-ero to fix the seal or learning how to mold chakra the long way again?"
"Not unless he's willing to scare his body into accessing it for him," Iruka threw his hand over his mouth as soon as he said it, but Naruko was absolutely beaming. "Naruko, activating chakra through a fear response is a very foolish and dangerous thing to do. You'd have to put yourself in a real life or death situation, and the process itself could kill you. Even if it does work, it would hurt, it would feel as though every tenketsu in your body was on fire. Promise me you won't try to activate your chakra like that."
"We were talking about a friend of mine, not m—"
"Naruko promise me neither you, nor your friend, will try to access your chakra like that." Iruka was standing over her now.
Naruko scooched by Iruka as quick as she could, "I gotta go Iruka-sensei, thanks for the tea and advice. Don't worry, my friend and I won't do anything that a competent sensei wouldn't do. You have my word." She ran through the apartment, only stopping at the front door to call back, "Jiraiya-ero is a competent teacher, right?"
Iruka followed Naruko out of the kitchen to answer, "Jiraiya-sama would never use fear of death to activate someone's chakra."
"...because he's a competent teacher, right?" Naruko asked leaning from the doorway.
He stood over her again, "Yes Naruko. Jiraiya-sama is a competent teacher. Which is why he wouldn't do it. Why do you ask?"
"Because he trained Yondaime-sama. I'm going to be the greatest ninja that ever was, believe it. That means I have to be better than he was, so if his sensei wouldn't do something because it was too dangerous, then neither will I." Naruko stood resolutely as she spoke.
"Alright Naruko. Have fun with your friend, and be safe." Naruko turned to leave, "Oh... and Naruko?"
"Yes?" She looked back up at him.
"If you have any more questions like this, they're probably better for your instructors at the Academy. They're there to teach you. But on the off chance they're busy or don't know the answer, feel free to stop by again, just maybe not at five in the morning next time." He smiled closing his eyes at the young girl.
The next thing he knew he was being embraced in a hug, "Thanks Iruka-sensei. You don't know how much that means to me." Iruka patted her on the head and she took off.