4 Pause

THIRD PERSON POV:

"Fox, describe the child's behaviour" asked Hiruzen Sarutobi, the third Hokage. He was seated in his office overlooking the leaf village as he questioned one of his subordinates on a child he had a vested interest in.

"Lord Third, approximately 14 hours after being removed from the tank the child awoke. He laid awake for a while, pretending to be asleep before letting the hospital workers know he was up. Since he did so, he did not break eye contact with either worker, I hypothesize that he was testing their reaction to him or has little social awareness, the latter is more likely. I do not believe that the notes kept by the doctor were factual however, his mental capabilities are far from lacking for a child his age considering his actions." reported the subordinate, speaking through the fox mask on his face.

The third Hokage hummed and mused on this for a while. Since he met the child he too found him to be strange, however that wasn't unusual considering his… unique circumstances.

'Did Orochimaru's testing truly not fry the mental capabilities of the child? The scans the doctor reported surely suggested it, at least up until the last month or so.' he thought, remembering the strange uptick in both chakra reserves and mental functions of the kid reported by the doctor recently.

"And of the hospital staff?" asked Hiruzen.

"I have confidence in their silence." said the man in the fox mask, a little ominously.

"Keep watch over the boy, after his panic set in I had to leave before my presence caused him more worry, I'll visit the boy again soon but inform me of any changes to his situation." said the third Hokage.

"I understand Lord Third." Fox said resolutely. 

The third Hokage nodded and dismissed the man with a wave, resulting in him flickering away faster than a normal human eye could see.

Hiruzen sighed and pushed his guilt-ridden thoughts away from him once more, it was only recently that Orochimaru's betrayal had been released to the public and he still had many more investigations to pursue regarding his former student. Not to mention the godforsaken hellish stack of paperwork that weighed his desk down.

The old man turned to look at a mountain, with artistically crafted faces adorning its cliffside. He stared at each of the faces with a wistful expression before once again sighing and returning to his paperwork.

No matter his student's betrayal, the mysterious child or whatever else came his way, he had an oath to fulfil, one his predecessor and successor also shared. The man turned to the paperwork and slid one out from a stack in front of him.

It was time to work.

-----

POV ____

I was staring at a boy who looked strange. He did not look like me.

But if he was not me, then who is?

The boy had tanned olive skin and a round face, signifying his youth, he had soft black hair that fell over his eyes. As I swept the hair back, a pair of unnatural-looking, blood-red irises stared at me.

'Creepy.'

I tapped the eye to check if they were contacts, but I just ended up hurting myself. These were natural.

As I moved my hand, the boy in the mirror did so too.

Copycat.

Get your own hand.

'I still can't believe it.'

Actually, give me another 10 years, I don't think I'd believe in then either. I'd been put into a random kid's bod-

Pause.

I was transmigrated, unknowingly without my permission or will.

'I mean usually, before this ain't there a wheel some R.O.B is supposed to spin? Some type of "you were good in your previous life so I shall bestow on you three wishes!" type deal?' I thought exasperatedly. 

I was simply too tired to take this seriously, I knew that I would have to eventually just… not yet.

I stared at "myself" in the mirror for a bit longer, other than my eyes the most striking feature I had was my hair which seemed to be as floppy as an overboiled noodle, the thing must've been shampooed and conditioned, or maybe it was just that naturally soft?

'Could be, of course, this world has stranger things than naturally soft hair…'

It was now that I could look back on all the shit the doctor had said and understand it better with context, his talks of chakra, eyes and cells made a lot more sense to me.

'Orochimaru huh' I thought, remembering the creep from the series. He was likely the one who funded my… creation? Abduction? What was I really?

Before the Hokage left he said that he would look for my closest family but I could tell from the look in his eyes that it was pretty much just a hail mary, I held no hope that there was anyone out there for me.

'But maybe that's a good thing, I don't know how to treat a second pair of parents anyways. But hey, if children of divorce could do it then maybe I could too' I thought with a chuckle.

I appreciated the levity that I was capable of in a situation like this.

I turned away from the boy in the mirror and stared out at the window again, it was truly beautiful.

Bustling streets of people rushing back and forth, civilians of all ages laughing and working with each other, occasionally I would even spot a few people in headbands jumping from building to building. More interesting than the people, however, was the architecture and greenery.

The anime didn't do it justice, it was beautiful.

And goddammit there were a lot of trees, Hashirama Senju went all out.

I tried to find a few spots I knew from the show but no dice, I couldn't find Ichiraku or Yakiniku. What does it say about me that the only places I searched for were food places? It said I was hungry.

The food they served was some strange form of what I thought to be oatmeal. I hate oatmeal.

I ate it reluctantly cause I knew I had to, but it was tough to slog down.

The nurses were much nicer to me for some reason, maybe they remembered that I was just a kid now? I didn't know but I appreciated it. More than that, I appreciated how they would answer some of my questions.

I asked them where I was.

'The village hidden in the leaves, or the leaf village for short.' I remembered their answer. I expected it but to hear someone say that was pretty damning.

'I'm in Narut-'

Pause.

'I'm in the world of Naruto.' saying it, even if just in my head, made it feel more real.

I felt many emotions, sadness at the fact that my old life was lost, grief at what my family must be going through, excitement at what the future may hold and finally, guilt for feeling as happy as I do.

I should feel sad. I should collapse and cry, shouldn't I?

But this was the first time in a long time I had walked around for so long with no troubles, my body felt perfect. The air smelled fresh. The future seemed… not devoid of hope.

I looked down at my hands, I was currently going through a lot of complicated feelings. I needed time to sort myself out before I did anything or said anything drastic. I steeled myself for the future, whatever it held for me, I would face it head-on.

But first, there was something I had to do.

I couldn't help it. 

I walked up to the open window, a smile crept up on my face unknowingly as I gripped the bottom frame and stared out to the fresh world in front of me, I knew of its dark underbelly, the truth that lay beyond the emerald green leaves that spiralled through this village, but I felt no dread nor fear.

I felt free. 

I threw my hands up and shouted.

"Hello world!"