Naruto : Monsters

"Will you damn brats keep it down?" The living legend grumbled, never removing his eyes away from the tiny hole in the fence that he was using to peep into the women's hot springs. "What are you going to do if I get caught?"

I stared at the Sannin, my mouth unable to form words as my mind shut down, incapable of comprehending what my eyes were telling me.

Naruto, however, had no such problem.

"Wait, are you peeping at the girl's hot spring? You-you-you..." Naruto's voice grew steadily louder, filling with growing indignation and righteous fury. Pointing at the white-haired ninja, Naruto all but screeched. "-YOU PERVERT!"

"Pervert?" The Sannin turned to look at us, an offended look on his face. "Did you just call me a Pervert? I'll have you know you little brat, that I'm far more than a mere Pervert." He rose up from his crouch, crossed his arms and puffed out his chest.

"For I am Jiraiya!" Thrusting his left palm at us while his right swung behind him, he dropped into a low stance.

"One of the three Legendary Sannin, an S-Ranked Ninja, veteran of two wars, lover of beautiful women everywhere, author of the famed Icha Icha series and above all else," He slammed his hand onto the floor, releasing an eruption of white smoke that quickly dissipated, revealing a giant orange and blue toad that he stood on. 

"I am a Super Pervert!" He announced out with shameless pride.

Beside me, Naruto gaped at the self-proclaimed super pervert who struck a pose on the toad after his grandiose introduction, a hand pointed straight up in the sky while the other rested on his hip. He wore a self-satisfied smirk as he gazed down at us from atop the toad's back.

"Sa-Sannin? You mean the Sannin?" Naruto took a step back in pure shock, eyes wide with disbelief. The Nine-tailed Jinchuriki's head shook in denial. "Ne-ne, Hikaru. The old geezer is lying, right? There's no way that this pervert could be a Sannin, right? Right?

"…Hikaru?" The confusion in Naruto's voice was clear to anyone listening. I felt a tugging on my sleeve as the blonde tried to get my attention. "Hey Hikaru what's wrong? Your face is turning all white? Hey! Answer me damn it, you're scaring me here. Hikaru? Hikaru!"

I could hear how the confusion quickly turned to worry and then panic when I didn't reply, but I could not bring myself to care. Not when my worst fears were beginning to come true. Again. No, no, please no. Not him too. Not another one!

But no matter how hard I tried to reject it, the reality before me would not change. And soon my denials began to fade, steadily replaced with a growing sense of horror as the truth of what I was seeing became irrefutable.

For there before my very eyes stood Jiraiya, but not as I knew him. His hair was just as I remembered, a spiky mess of white that stretched past his waist, and his clothing too was the same, a short green kimono with matching coloured pants covered by a red coat.

All in all, he was exactly like he should have been. Save for one tiny detail.

The distinctive bulging in his chest was certainly not supposed to be there.

"Ho~," A smirk making its way to Jiraiya's face as she followed my line of sight to her breasts, "Sorry Kid, I ain't into men. Or little brats for that matter." Misinterpreting my horror with fascination. "Can't blame you for having good taste though."

Yes, Jiraiya, one of the Sannin, rival to Orochimaru, teacher to the fourth Hokage, and one of this world's living legends, was a woman.

My knees gave way beneath me, dropping me onto the hard wet floor that ringed the hot spring. Vaguely, I heard Naruto calling out to me in concern, but over my despair, it sounded like it came from a thousand miles away. I just stared at him-her, her damn it, while misery built up inside of me until I could not hold it in any longer.

I tossed my head back and howled out to the world.

"Oh dear God Why? Why him too? Kishimoto you bastard!"

...

At first, I could not understand what was going on.

In those first few weeks and months, or however long it was, the world was nothing but a confusing blend of colour and noise, of shivering cold, followed by comforting warmth. My mind refused to function properly. 

It was as if I was in a fevered dream, the few thoughts I could form were nothing but a jumbled up mess that followed neither rhyme or reason.

Not that it would have done me any good even had I been able to think, as I couldn't even stay awake long enough for it to matter. Back then my consciousness was a fleeting thing, coming and going like the tide. Sometimes I would feel myself rousing, my mind on the brink of truly waking up, only to feel it slip through my grasp as I faded back into the embrace of slumber long before I could begin to comprehend anything, dragged back by the perpetual tiredness I felt.

Then one day, I simply woke up.

And nothing made sense.

Above me, staring down at me with those pale eyes of theirs, something straight out of my childhood stories, was a man and a woman. They loomed over me, appearing like giants to my new infant eyes. At the sight of them, at their pale pupilless eyes, a name instantly popped into my mind.

Hyuuga.

They gibbered happily to me in a language I couldn't understand or even recognize. Though it sounded vaguely Asian, it certainly wasn't Japanese. I knew the language and whatever they were speaking it was something else entirely.

For a while I just laid there, staring up at them as they smiled and cooed down at me, trying to collect my scattered thoughts. Well, it's not like I could have done anything else even if I had wanted to. I didn't think I had enough strength to lift my oversized baby head, let alone stand up or even crawl.

So for what felt like several hours I just watched them from where I lay cradled in my new mother's arms – and wasn't that a strange thought to wrap my mind around – as the happy couple chatted with one another, occasionally glancing down and sparing me a few cooing words whenever I caught their attention.

Even when the time came for them to leave, and they gently set me down into my cradle, exiting the room and shutting the lights behind them, I did nothing but continue to stare up at the dark ceiling, putting my thoughts together.

I didn't even bother trying to delude myself with pretences of this being nothing but a dream; as ludicrous as the situation may have appeared everything felt all too real for it to be one. I had always prided myself in being a logical person, even under illogical circumstances, so I didn't try to make up excuses to deny reality. So as absurd as it was, I forced myself to face the obvious truth.

I was reincarnated, into a new world at that.

One that was supposed to be just fiction and fantasy. I wonder if this made Kishimoto this world's God? I hoped not. Considering the absurd twists and stunts he liked to pull, I'd hate to see what he'd do to me if he was.

Anyway, after the shock of everything finally passed I merely accepted the situation as reality and moved on. It wasn't as if I could do anything else anyway.

Maybe the reason why I found it so easy to accept what was happening was that I remembered all too clearly how I died. It's rather hard to forget being murdered by one's own son. The searing pain along with the numbing shock of betrayal still remained fresh in my mind.

Even now merely thinking about it felt like placing my hand on a hot iron, my mind instinctively flinching back and scrambling to find something else to focus on anything else rather than dwelling on the memory of that night. After going through something like that what was reincarnation? Nothing.

So as I lay there, helpless as the babe I had become, I asked myself what should I do now? I had been an old man before I died. I've already done everything I've ever set out to do. Grew up, got a job, started a family, had a couple of kids, grew old and then died. 

All the typical things you'd expect in life. Sure it ended badly, but does that mean I have to repeat the entire experience again? Was that what my life was supposed to be? A never-ending circle of reincarnation where I did the same thing over and over again?

No. I refused to accept that. I wanted to do something else with this second chance of life, something more. What was the point otherwise?

Were I still I child, well were I still a child mentally at least, I would have wanted to be a hero. To go on grand adventures, to save the world, explore lost ruins, enjoy a life full of excitement and adventure. In this world, it would have certainly appeared possible.

But I was old, I knew better than to walk that path.

Heroes were not real, nothing but myths, stories we tell ourselves to make the world appear a better place than it did. And the few heroes that might have existed, genuinely good people that wanted nothing more than to help others, never lived out happy lives; all that awaited them was pain and betrayal. I learned that the hard way. So, the question remained what should I do?

I didn't know but the question lingered in my mind, clinging to me and refusing to let go. Even as time slowly passed around me it remained at the forefront of my thoughts.

Even if I did accomplish something, would it matter?

Death was inevitable and now I knew for sure there was no afterlife. No heaven or hell. No better place. Just another place. Another life, in another time as a different person. Reincarnation it appeared was all that awaited us in the end.

So what was the point of all of it?

It didn't matter how many friends or family I ended up making, everyone I'd ever love would eventually die and be reborn as someone else. As someone completely unrelated to who they were. Everything we would ever do together would disappear. 

All that we felt for one another, our memories, our hopes and dreams, gone. Like tears in the rain. They'd go on and live their new lives, with a new family, marry new people, not knowing of the life they left behind.

Only to do it all over again by the end.

Again and again, for all of eternity.

Everything they ever did would be meaningless.

Everything I ever did would be meaningless.

It would be like slamming the reset all over again. Like deleting a save file to a game. Reincarnation was still death, just the death of the self. Of the mind. Everything that made you, you, gone.

That scared me.

Would I be lucky enough to remember next time I died or was this a one-off thing? I didn't know. But I wasn't willing to count on it. How to escape? Was it even possible to escape?

And it was then, lost in my thoughts in the darkness of that room that I remembered.

I couldn't explain the feeling that overcame the moment I thought about it. A blend of deep-seated longing and nostalgia.

In this world there existed something I wanted. A power unmatched by any another. Those Divine eyes of God. Eyes that held power over life and death, that presided over time and dimensions, it ruled over it all. Everything that laid beneath the Heavens were for it to command.

Ultimate power given physical form.

The fabled Rinnegan.

It was at that moment, laying in my cradle surrounded by darkness, that I made my choice.

I will have those eyes.

No matter what it takes.

A strange feeling began to rise in my chest, an emotion that couldn't quite place but felt almost familiar. It was something between hope and determination but far hungrier than either. And as I felt it take root in me I knew that I meant those words. The Rinnegan will be mine, no matter what.

I felt my lips twist in a manic smile as laughter bubbled up from my chest and poured out of my throat.

"Ha…Haha…Hahahaha-*cough**cough*" Ouch, my lungs! My underdeveloped baby lungs, by God do they hurt! I broke down into a coughing fit for several seconds and then the next thing I knew, in defiance to any will of my own, I started crying like a damn baby, "Wa-Wa-Wahhhhh~."

Summoned by the sound of my wailing, the door slammed open and my new apparent mother rushed to my side, lifted me from my bed to cradle me in her arms. She quickly began rocking from side to side, making comforting sounds all the while.

Okay, change of plans. Before I aimed for the Rinnegan, I better start working on growing up first… and maybe get toilet trained or something because holy shit I think I just soiled myself.

This is going to be a whole lot harder than I thought.

...

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