Death.
What happens after death?
The question of what happens when you die is something humanity has mulled over ever since time immemorial. Cultures, religions, and civilizations had offered answers but ultimately no one can give something concrete.
But I think I have the answer.
===
Death.
It was the result of the stupid dare that I stupidly said yes to.
Skydiving.
An extreme sport that takes you parachuting off of an aircraft.
Sounds dangerous? Because it is! But no... I stupidly agreed because you only live once, right?
Yeah... you only have one life. One stupid mistake and you're done. Like what happened to me.
I vividly remember watching as the person behind me struggle to activate the parachute connected to the both of us. I don't know what happened next because I just straight up fainted from fright (and possibly the thought of dying.)
After that nothing really happened. I did not feel anything. And all of a sudden it was like I was floating on space, but instead of feeling cold, it was warm and like I am embraced with this invisible thing.
I was aware I am dead (or at least not a member of the living). But at the same time, I doubt if I am really dead. I mean, I am thinking, I have my memories, I can (somewhat) feel things around me. Clearly, this is something a dead person cannot do. But I put aside the doubt and shoved it down at the back of my mind. I had better things to think about.
What is the ending of One Piece? I have not seen the release of Lord of the Mysteries donghua adaptation! The Harry Potter tv series. I have so many things I regret not seeing. What would be my friend's reaction to me dying? For sure they'd be sad. It was their idea that got me dead in the first place. My parents died when I was 15, so no one in my immediate family will miss me.
I was not a sentimental person, but in this dark and empty but warm-kind-of place, I feel sentimental. About my life in general. Thoughts like; was my life enough?, did I live a good life?, was I a good person for other people? No one would answer me and that made me feel lonely.
But then something changed.
I started to hear muffled sounds around me. Time inside the dark and empty but warm-kind-of place is weird. I don't have any sense of time, but I would occasionally hear sounds and try to move towards the sounds every time I hear it. And when I don't hear sounds for a long period, I would move to hear sounds again.
I was hoping to communicate to the sound, and it went on and on. Then the dark and empty but warm-kind-of place started to feel suffocating. It was starting to feel small, and I moved more and more.
And then the craziest thing happened. My surroundings started to compress on me, and I was moving to who-knows-where. Everything is bright and blurred and incoherent and loud, and I wanted to scream.
"Waahh!! Waahh!!"
A cry of child came out of me. What the fuck?!
"Waahh!! Waahh!!"
There was more of it. Then I heard a familiar sound. It was one of the sounds I heard before and I started to feel calm. The one speaking, held me and I felt small, and the realization hit me.
I was reborn, reincarnated, to this new life and the dark and empty but warm-kind-of place that I was in before was my mother's womb, the sounds I heard was my parents talking to me. This realization sent me to into a shock, and I think I passed out.
===
The next few weeks after my birth were weird and is sure an adjustment on my part and on my new parents' part.
My blurry vision and my undeveloped vocal cords are seriously against me. My new parents were awkward, and I knew for sure I am their first child. They can't quite get my diapers right at first.
My father (I knew because he had a masculine voice) struggled really hard and I had to whine and express my dissatisfaction whenever he changes my diapers, it was tight at some time, very loose at another. My mother (a very gentle person, based on her voice) was awkward when it comes to feeding me. This went on for a few days and they eventually get used to it.
My vision started to clear up, and I started to see clearly. The decorations were... well, rustic. Something you would see on a house from the coastal province. At first, I thought I was born on a remote island somewhere on earth, but thank god for electricity! The refrigeration! And a TV set that looked like from the 1930's.
Odd... but anyways, that is not the point! The point is what I see and what I hear. I see my parents' features, they look like East Asians with blood red hair. Strange, very strange for a hair color. I have only known brunette, blonde, and red (orange, why did they call it red?) hair, not blood red hair. I also hear a different language, similar to Japanese and Chinese but not quite.
Time slowly passed. Now, at this point I was around four months old, it was my first time outside the premise of the house, not the backyard or the front yard (which was surrounded by woods, even though I saw fishing tools commonly seen on coastal places), but outside the fence.
While I was in the arms of my father, my parents walked for at least, to my estimations were 20 minutes, before we arrived at a populated place. I finally got to see the place I would be living for the next part of my baby life. It was a very lively place full of people that looked like my parents that for a second, I thought I was seeing doubles. But when I saw a particular insignia, my heart dropped.
A red spiral that looked suspiciously familiar. It was plastered on every surface I saw. Their clothing, the walls of the houses, banners, name it and there was the red spiral. Something in my memories stirred when my eyes landed in this particular insignia. A name came into my mind.
Naruto.
Oh. My. God.
Of all places, of all the pieces of fiction that I have read in my entire life, why, oh why, was I in Naruto. To add to my utter disbelief (horror), it looks like I was an Uzumaki (or from Uzushio).
Recalling the plot quickly while I swung my head left to right to make sure I wasn't just seeing things, made me literally shiver. To the point where my father wrapped me tightly on the baby carrier (made with a long piece of cloth).
I don't know where I was in the timeline. Is it before or after the attack on Uzushio? Before the canon or after? Or (in the extreme case) the Warring Clans Era?
Where the fuck?! What the fuck?!
While I was having an existential crisis, my parents stopped at a building. It seemed to be largest and grandest building in the place. It was circular, with four floors and with a platform on top.
We went inside, and for a while I forgot my dilemma and was amazed with the view. It was spacious inside, with a row of desk on the middle, two staircases on each end. There were lots of people going about their days, all of them where like my parents, blood red hair with some variation in shades, but nonetheless red.
My existential crisis came back when my parents closed in a cubicle and was registering my name, Uzui Shinami. Uzui? I have not heard of that surname in Canon Naruto, while reading fanfiction, sure.
Oh. My. God.
Maybe I was born into an AU version of Naruto. But what kind of AU?! I have read hundreds of Naruto Fanfiction, what story was this? Or maybe an alternate timeline of Naruto where Uzushio was not attacked?
I was not sure, I am just a grown woman inside an infant's body. No matter how I contemplate and think about it now, I cannot physically do anything but stay put and bid my time. I was now called Uzui Shinami, My previous name meant nothing anymore. My life was ahead of me. And no matter what happens, I want to treasure this second chance at life.
With that, my restless mind calmed down a bit. My fussing stopped. I was so unsettled that tears welled up while thinking, my parents stopped at a shade of the tree and started to comfort me.
After seeing me stop fussing, my parents heaved a sigh of relief. They started walking home. While I was in the arms of my father, I started to make plans, plans for the future.
===
Time passed just like that.
I had adjusted to my life here. It took me quite a lot of time to learn the timeline I am in now. Because I can't possibly ask 'hey guys, is this after the Uzushio massacre or before it?' That would be insensitive of me.
So, after a lot of observing and subtle questions, I have now learned I am born just a few months after the fall of Uzushio. We were inside a hidden village near the east border of the Land of Fire. It was hidden because the survivors of the massacre decided that they would leave the outside world alone. Specifically saying 'Let the world know the value of the Uzushio, let them see a world without us.'
How do I know this? This is something that is taught to children in a daycare. They said 'It's better to let them learn our astory at a young age, than to know what happened from unrelated people.'
So... yeah. I had to learn that from the very first day I entered the Fuinjutsu School, they just teach fuinjutsu and little bit of fighting. The Village is called, conveniently, Sea Village. I know, boring. Just because they live near the sea, they just can't call themselves Sea Village. But what can I do, it's already done.
Okay! After the info-dump, where gonna go back to the present.
"Shinami, be careful out there okay? You have to listen to Kazuki-sensei. Make sure to always activate the seal, okay? I heard from Uncle Kou that there were some of our people being captured and experimented with. Maybe you should not just go?"
"Kaa-san!" I was already turning purple from embarrassment from my mother's nagging. I can already imagine the faces and hear the voices of Chikara and Hiroto behind my back, mocking me.
My mother only sighed. "I can't stop you from going. Here," she beckoned my father, and handed me with a small box a size of my palm. "I don't know if you will ever be coming back, but here is our photos. It will remind you of home."
My embarrassment immediately vanished. Tears started to form. "...Kaa-san, Tou-san."
"Aiyo... What are you crying for?" my father patted my head. "Every child leaves the nest. Me and your mother had been preparing for this ever since you started to have interest in ninja arts. We have braced ourselves that one day, you would want to go to greater heights and not be locked up here in this small place." he leaned to me closer and whispered. "That is also the reason why I had pestered your mother for another chi--!''
A loud slap to the back of his head was delivered to my father. "What are you telling your daughter?!" My mother turned to me. "My child, you can be rest assured, we were adventurous once. Not as much as you, but still."
I sniffed. I really liked being their daughter. The memories we made were some of the best I had in both lives. "Kaa-san, Tou-san. I will make sure to write letters! I will send to the shop the members frequent. Make sure to read it." My tears couldn't stop flowing.
Seeing me cry, my parents cried too. They hugged me tightly. "Of course, dear. Remember, if you want to come home, the village is always open for all of you."
Kaa-san released me from the hug, she turned to Chikara and Hiroto, whose parents were also crying and hugging them.
"Make sure to look out for each other, okay? And remember to always listen to your Sensei. And your seals, always maintain it in mint condition."
After that, a series of lectures and warnings came from each parent. Always look out for dangers. Do not be stupid. Don't trust strangers. And so on.
It took a while before our Sensei arrived. He was a tall man with a bulky body; he was as handsome as any man in our village. He was a teenager when the massacre happened and had been trained to be one of Uzushiogakure's ninja. The teachers at the school said that if the Uzushio did not fall, he would become one of its elite jounin.
He became our Sensei when we graduated at age 8, it's been three years since that day, now we were going to venture the world. We had to persuade him for quite a long time before he agreed to our request, but all of it was worth it.
He had already activated his seal. His blood red hair had turned into murky brown. His feature still stayed the same, but his overall chakra has been hidden to at least 70%. He was an Uzumaki, one of the main clans of Uzushio.
"Okay, that's enough. Our guide is already waiting for a long time." Then he greeted our parents.
After saying goodbyes, our parents saw us out the barrier. After closing the barrier, I looked around the place. It was the same trees, the same sea breeze. But it felt different.
The feeling is different. Maybe it was because the first time we went outside of the village. Maybe because it was the nervousness. Or maybe it was me.
Naruto was very dear to me. Because of the show, I met all of my friends. I had spent most of my teenage years obsessing about it that it was like I was there. That I was with Naruto when he made all those adventures. To be able to actually live and see the plot move forward would have sent the young me into a coma.
Countless fanfics, head canons, and arguments were made. Memories were made. All because of Naruto. Now, I will be exploring this same world, see them with my own eyes. What adventure awaits me?