I instinctively moved cycling chakra the moment I could to keep my punctured heart pumping. I dove at the now confused person as I coated my hand in just enough chakra to cut and struck at his uninjured eye. The man reeled back as I blinded him, pulling the sword out of my body. The sword wound started to slowly close as some other type of energy did so for me. 

It was the essence poison. Somehow I felt I could control it, either through my birthright as part snake or for some other reason the poison started to dissipate itself after healing me. I didn’t want that so I controlled it by forming it into a small ball beside my heart instead of having it spread throughout my body.

This took a few seconds and the man had gone from confused I fought back to angry I blinded him. I didn’t give him the chance to call for help now that I recognized him. It was Danzo, the man who was trying to recruit me to his new Root organization. Even the child me knew the man had no good intentions so declined. Well we see where that got me.

I cut his fingers with my chakra blade amazed at how fragile his flesh and bones were and he dropped his sword. Picking it up I didn’t need to do anything fancy. He sprayed out powerful insults having only a single hand with missing fingers he couldn’t do anything. I pierced his heart as he loudly begged for help. 

I spent all of my chakra to keep my body from crumpling and to kill him. I fell down unable to move and soon fell unconscious. When I woke up I was in the Konoha hospital with IVs connected to my body. Looking at the door I see a guard stationed, so no escape. I’m led to another room and there sat the current Hokage and another man. I didn’t recognize him, he must have been killed by Danzo in my original world. He just received his position within the last year.

He stared directly into my eyes, before asking. “Why did you kill Danzo?” I sat in silence as I tried to think of why that man in the corner saying nothing was here. I could understand the Hokage as I had killed an important head of the village but why-. He can predict lies most likely. The fabricated story I had come up with went out the window as I told half truths.

“He asked if I would like to work for his new Root organization. When I said no he attacked me and I t-think he killed me. When I died my body moved like it had the instinct of a war veteran controlling it. As soon as my body finished killing him I ran out of chakra and fell unconscious.”

I tried to put a wavering and trembling lilt to my voice as I spoke in a disassociated way like I wasn’t fully in control. The Hokage looked at the man and he nodded at what I just said. He stood up and walked to the exit before saying. “Go home. Don’t speak about this to anyone else… We’ll say he was attacked by ninjas from outside the village.”

He left. What!? He really just left. I thought for sure I was going to be killed to cover this up. I tucked the scalpel I was palming back into my robes as I couldn’t understand what just happened. Why didn’t he kill me? Every instinct told me killing me was the right thing to do. This was a clear failure of one of the higher ups in the village's hierarchy. It just didn’t make sense to me.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Hiruzen made it to his office and canceled all his appointments. He took off his hat and put his hand over his face. Tears began to stream down his face at the loss of his close friend. He just couldn’t understand it, why would Danzo attack a child of the village? How could a child of the village beat a war hero in a fight? It just didn’t make sense to him.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………….

I went back home. All of the inheritance was spent just supporting me until I was old enough and I had no money to my name. I had gone hungry eating one singular meal provided by the school every day and that was my only sustenance. That wasn’t an option now as I had to consume more calories the higher I pushed my chakra cycling. If I hit twice the strength my body would require twice the food.

I had begun cycling subconsciously and needed to keep stopping myself as it wouldn’t help while I was still so malnourished, only starving me faster. The poison made my body feeble and might have eventually killed me eventually but it did its job. I still felt like it had some use but couldn’t tell what, just instinct told me to try and hold onto it for as long as I could.

I slept for the rest of the day just recovering. In the morning I left and explored the village better trying to place locations with memories. A park where the kids played, a hidden area where people would go to settle arguments with their fists and a river that ran near the back. Everything was similar but slightly different. I knew this place better than anywhere else but the fighting area was twice as large and the metal childrens equipment was made from wood.

I took a trip through the food sections as I stole some skewers of meat without being caught. Thievery was childs play when they expected you to act like a child instead of a veteran with years of experience. The clone technique could loot while I distracted the shop owner and I wondered how the village's economy still functioned.

Stealing enough food for a week of training I made my way to the school. We just graduated but it didn’t feel that way. It felt like I was still missing huge parts of information on how to be an effective ninja. It would still be another two days before I met with my team. In that time I needed to get stronger.

The main way to get stronger is to cycle while consuming more food than necessary to break it down faster. For two days I remained in my home eating and working out then eating some more. My frame was so small, I was just glad I took this body over before it's growth spurt. If I was malnourished in that period I could be permanently feeble. 

I woke up that day and made my way to our meeting point. The blonde haired girl with pigtails is there. I think she’s a Senju. So is the lowest scoring boy in our grade. He casually picked his nose while waiting for our leader. As he approaches I’m confused. Why is the Hokage heading in our direction?