-Hey Naruto!

I finally managed to catch up with Naruto after being detained by the mess that happened in the orphanage.

I had to run all the way to come here...it was tiresome, but I have to play my cards right with Naruto in order to make him happy...I just don't know if I will be able to play this charade long enough. 

-Homura!(Naruto)

I looked at the surprised Naruto in front of me with a bit of a cautious look, but immediately relaxed when I realized that he was or seemed genuinely happy to see me...people like him are hardest type to deal with.

-Sorry to keep you waiting, been busy at the orphanage!

-No worries, I got here just now too! (Naruto)- He said flashing a beaming smile that seemed a bit forced.

I had no idea on how to react to that...in fact it left me a bit confused.

-...Sure! Anyway what are we doing today!

-...You know today is my birthday!(Naruto)

(so,  that's what it was...?)

-Really? Happy birthday!

-Thanks!(Naruto)

Naruto then looked at me while doing a weird motion with his hands!

-What? What are you doing?!- I looked at him with a puzzled look at to what was happening in front of me.

-? I heard when it is someone's birthday they give you a gift! (Naruto)- He said happily!

(This bastard!!)

-What!? N-Naruto I am an orphan like you! I have no money! Super broke! The village barely gives me enough to live by! Besides you are supposed to tell people about your birthday before it happens!

-Really?! I had no idea! (Naruto)

The shock from the revelation seemed to have sent him in a spiral of doubt!

It almost made me wonder what type of common sense did this guy have?

-Also, yesterday was my birthday too! Where is my present?!

-You didn't tell me!! A-ah I see now...Wait! Did you get presents?!(Naruto)

-*Sigh*...again Naruto I am an orphan like you. Besides at the orphanage we have like 10 birthdays every month. All we get is a small cake at lunch and that's pretty much it.

-You got cake?!(Naruto)

-Is that all you took from my story...besides it was a small cake...very small *sigh*

-I guess you have it hard too, huh?!(Naruto)

-You have no...well let's forget about that!

As I was about to finish that sentence I realized how this kid was perhaps the loneliest person in the whole village.

(I guess being surrounded by morons is still better than being completely alone. Even if those guys at the orphanage are annoying...they still provided me with more or less stability...while this guy has been all alone for this entire time. I can't even begin to imagine what it must do to a child...)

After I reincarnated into this world I was so confused.

...It was scary.

I felt so alone...lost...

My memories came in small chunks, I always felt like pieces of my mind were missing.

...I was afraid that I wouldn't be me anymore...with every piece that was being put together I could feel myself changing...and not always for the better.

Like everyone...I have parts of myself that I hate...becoming whole once more...it's not always for the better...in fact I wish that my memories did return. 

I feel that I would have been happier this way...but it's far too late now.

There's no going back.

I am now the best and worst of both lives that I've lived...or living is the better way to express it?

Regardless, now, this foreign world is my home.

Even, though I have not always felt this way in the past.

Not only that, but I couldn't understand what the people were saying.

...not entirely, but it was nonetheless unsettling.  

I did watch Naruto with the dub version (sinful I know), so Japanese was super foreign to me to some degree.

Thankfully my kiddie brain was able to pick things easily like a sponge and by the age of 2 I could already hold a short conversation.

Nothing too complex, but you pick up a bunch of things as baby.

There's pretty much nothing else to do, besides looking around and listening to people's conversation all the time.

However, it doesn't mean that you would fully understand everything from tidbits of conversations here and there.

That was why at first, I wasn't exactly sure of where I was.

The Naruto world is a bit weird and somewhat medieval, or should I say feudal Japan-like.

What I am trying to say is, depending of the area where you live; it is not so easy to tell this world apart from others.

From the visual cues I uncovered...

I could have believed that I was in a random medieval Japanese village, Samurai champloo or some other anime with more or less similar background, because of how rustic the orphanage I live in is!

Not that my first thought was, that I had somehow reincarnated into a world belonging to an anime that I used to watch as a kid.

The human mind is not that optimistic and most people would not come to such a conclusion, off the bat.

I certainly didn't!

I didn't even remember the part that I had chosen bloodlines before coming to this world.

But after regaining a few of my memories, especially the ones about anime, that I was able to put things into perspective.

Also, it wasn't that hard to figure it out from stories and the tales that I heard from adults, that this world was somewhat magical in nature.

Hearing grown ass adults, with a serious demeanor talking about people who exhibit supernatural feats without a hint of sarcasms and disbelief was puzzling to me.

What cemented to me that this was the shinobi world or a world similar to Naruto's, was the casual usage of words such as shinobi, hokage and whatever other word related to ninjas.

Those words, were so commonly used that in less than a couple of months of being born I was more or less aware of where I was.

...and to some extent who I was.

Just did not piece together where within the timeline I was in, exactly.

Because mentioning the Kyuubi incident is a big no-no.

Not like any of the adults were going to mention that in front of me.

And when people mentioned the hokage it was always the 3rd, so at that time I was debating to either go to the Uchihas and maybe stop the massacre and all that.

Since the third has been around for so long I'd believed that I was probably earlier within the timeline, but couldn't disregard other possibilities.

I was creating my own fan fictions on how events would be changed forever, such as me inventing the rasengan...and other stuff.

Only when I was 3, I would get the answer to some of my questions.

When I had reached the mature age of 3 years old, by this world's standards, I was deemed mature enough to be somehow responsible walk around on my own.

Thus, I was allowed to go to the village and saw the stone head of the 4th for the first time plastered on a huge rocky wall, and that was when my hopes went to sh*t!

I had resigned myself to play a low key role.

Since it was obvious, that I was reborn  after the Kyuubi incident or something in that vibe, and my plan to join the Uchihas went down the crapper!

Not that it was set in stone.

Now that I think about it...the face of the 4th should have been a dead give away that Naruto was alive in this world.

-Hey! Hey Homura are you listening to me?! (Naruto)

Naruto had so rudely interrupted my very calm and deep introspective time, with a stupid question.

Not that I would ever tell him that though.

-Yes, I am.

(This kid talks too much that I sometimes zone out to do my own thinking.)

-Pfft! Whatever anyway I was saying that gramps is going to join us!(Naruto)

(...so, he didn't believe me?... gotta be more careful from now on)

-Gramps?

( Aren't you a dirty orphan like me? How come you have a gramps?!)

-I think he is talking about me.(???)

I looked behind me, due to the fact I got surprised at hearing a voice that I had never heard in my whole life prior to this instant, coming this close to me.

It was only by looking to the individual's face and overall appearance did I understand, who this gramps that Naruto had mentioned was!

 

-Hiruz-I mean Sandaime-sama!?

Yes, the person that stood there behind me was none other than the man, and overall legend of the shinobi world.

The kage that managed to survive and assist in all the previous wars and will come back to life to fight in the 4th ninja world war...was none other than, Sarutobi Hiruzen!

Him!

Naruto had met him!

No wonder Naruto lately started talking about becoming hokage non stop, he must have met him or something.

Wait! Is that really true?

Then, who was taking care of him all this time?

chapter end