I liked to think my ideas were pretty good. Sure, there were hiccups every now and then, but for the most part they went rather well. I mean, I was still alive, all things considered. Of course, my strategic planning aside, I couldn't for the life of me figure out why I was being chased down by an angry mob of civilians. "Get back here, thief!" The mob yelled as I propelled myself forwards. They were quite slow compared to my full on sprint, but that could also be to my new discovery of my Chakra. I had gotten a little insight to Chakra when I studied my only company and around the cave that Hinata and I commandeered. Even my brief jaunt into the village revealed quite a bit to me. The Byakugan, as I was told was the correct name for the Hyūga's eyes, was very useful for seeing everything. I found that I very much liked seeing everything. Assimilation of it through my specter form aside, Chakra was an almost instinctual energy; everyone uses it without even realizing it. Things like running away from an angry mob, or running after a very handsome thief, even if they weren't a thief. Its what lets them run for far longer than their biological stamina would let them to, and passively increase their basic abilities in general. Chakra was just an all-around enhancer for physical activity. The only reason I had been having trouble was because I was actively trying to move the entirety of my basically ocean sized reserves with little to no knowledge on the subject. On the topic, molding it to use ninja magic like enhancements and telling gravity that you're done for the day is a different thing entirely. I think. Not too sure what to think of it, though. No amount of concentration to my hands of feet accomplished anything. I would have to actively study how a Shinobi uses their Chakra without them trying to murder me in the process to actually understand what the mechanisms of it were. All that being said, I had somewhat figured how to give myself a brief boost by infusing Chakra into my muscles. Even if it was more like an instinctive desire to go faster, and practically flooding my muscles with as much Chakra as I could before it got painful. It bruised them like hell, and probably tore them to pieces from my abysmal control, but I was basically fudging the procedure together from memories of a supposedly fantasy story. My huge reserves of Chakra didn't help at all. Still, it let me outpace the angry mob behind me. I had no idea what they were even mad about again. It's not like I snuck into many of their shops, grabbed as many supplies as I could, and left, but not before being caught. That was not me. I had left the life of stealing long behind. Okay, I played a small, yet entire part in it… Taking the time to slip into a dark alleyway, I hurriedly split myself, losing the feeling of Chakra pulsing through my muscles. The Kyūbi's words of me being a 'half of a whole' rang in my mind as I saw through my two bodies. I had already known what I was doing was weird, but learning I was literally splitting myself into both physical and spiritual Chakra halves was a tad unsettling. Well, only a tad. I learned to roll with my punches, and if my knife came with drawbacks to what was a cheat level of teleportation and advanced scouting, I was too far into using it to stop. It explained why I was having trouble learning Chakra, as I was always split back in the village. I reformed a little ways away from the village that I had just pillaged. My surroundings were just a sea of trees with a large boulder, hidden by growing moss and foliage, laying innocently in the middle of the forest. The only thing odd about its placement was the fact that the moss growing on it had been tossed onto it like a coat. I lifted up the coat of moss to find a small leaf stuck between two sticks that had been jabbed into the cracks of the rock. Finding it there left me releasing a slight breath of air. That was the signal I had asked Hinata to put if she was in the cave. While I trusted that she had enough sense to not simply up and run, I hadn't survived my kidnapping by doing things in halves. She was also not in the most stable of conditions, mentally at least. I split again, and reformed back into the cave that Hinata had claimed via many swords. In fact, it was an effort in futility to find her not clutching at least one sword in her palms. I had thought she would get better when she had fallen asleep next to me, but it seems as if she would just stay awake until she collapsed from exhaustion or sleep deprivation. In my defense, Hinata and I's situation was gradually deteriorating. She was just an innocent and sheltered girl before all this happened, and with all the death that happened because of her- and me- she had become a little bit obsessive on trying to see anything and everything in order to make sure she was safe. Or my being safe. Myself being me, I wasn't the best role model of sanity either. I had no idea how to talk to people after they went through such traumatising circumstances, and I certainly wasn't the best to deal with kids. All I could think to fix this would be to get her back to her family. Which was why I had been going out and committing mass larceny again. Specifically, I hunted down as many maps as I could find, and several sweets that might cheer up the girl. "Hinata, erm, Hinata-chan, I brought back some stuff to eat." I said slowly. Recently I realized that I was using her name without honorifics ever since we met. While she never said anything, my familiarity seemed to unnerve her a little bit. It wasn't even my fault! Okay, it was definitely my fault, but it was just the fact that I kept thinking of her like a character in the original story. For now, all she thought of me was as someone who was kidnapped along with her, and helped in her rescue. While that was quite a bond, being too forceful would probably not earn myself any friendship points. Were those a thing? They were probably a thing. Suddenly not preoccupied with something, the black-haired heiress turned to me from her spot in the middle of a field of swords. I had noticed that her eyes were reddening as the veins around them looked like they throbbed like mad. I didn't know if she could turn off the effect, but having them like that couldn't be healthy. "Thank you, Uzumaki-san." Hinata spoke softly as she stood up with the help from her swords. She moved between them like some kind of wraith, and I noted that she was getting a little scary good at moving through them as if she was ready to use them in a moment's notice. Her actions paused at the other things in my grasp as she reached for one of the snacks I brought back. I shifted one of the fully stocked backpacks her way with another larger rectangular case. The first one was just a regular survival pack I had filled with a sleep bag, water bottles, and various other things that I thought would help an almost four year old survive the woods. The other case was more for Hinata as she seemed to not want to leave the weapons behind. While I disagreed with her obsession with them, I fully supported the idea of taking weapons to protect ourselves. Plus, the more the merrier, right? "So," I drew out the word, trying not to be an awkward little three year old. "What have you been doing while I was gone?" "Um, I was looking at the swords…" Hinata mumbled, embarrassed about something. "I see…" I totally did not see. "Are they, uh, good swords?" "Yes…" Hinata nodded pulling out a rather long sword, and I briefly recognized it as the odachi that had nearly killed me. The healed scar on my right arm twitch like mad. She was cradling the sword like a puppy. I honestly didn't know how to deal with this. Was this normal for Shinobi children? This certainly didn't look like normal behavior. Slowly, I nodded to her word as if I understood it all. "That's nice, Hinata-chan, would you like to join me to eat?" The prospects of food seemed to perk up the girl. "Are we eating rabbit again?" "What, no, I got some candy and sweets from the town I ransac- I mean, I kindly asked for them." I learned that the Hyūga clan had it in their minds that meat was only to be used for celebratory occasions for them. Me simply materializing behind an unsuspecting rabbit, and pulling five of them to eat certainly spurred some happy bone in Hinata. I figured that would be the best place to start helping her. Let's leave it at the fact that theses woods were now rabbit free. Some ravenous wolf pack or something, huh. However, looking at the girl stuffing her face with sweets, it looked like there was something else that she found enjoyable. This was great. Now, there wouldn't be a massive bunny extinction wherever we went. The thought didn't fill me with as much warmth as I thought it would. I sighed as I took some food for myself. It was hard actually talking to people now, I found. With my year or so of waiting to parse together the language, and get the muscles to actually speak, I felt that I no longer had the social skills from my past life. Who knew three years of little to no interaction would lapse me back into no longer being able to hold a meaningful conversation? Maybe my caretakers, all things considered. Though, they didn't seem to be likely to come up with anything that complicated. They thought I was a reincarnation of all things evil. What lunatics. My conversation with the Kyūbi was different in a sense that I knew how to react to it. The monster needed me, and I needed it to heal me. The healed scar on my right arm and all the other smaller wounds around my body attested to that, and even my broken arm had taken care of itself in the small amount of time we had been in the cave. However, this wasn't about healing physical wounds, and the conversation with the fox was more a deal with conditions than a truly meaningful conversation. With Hinata, however, I had no idea what to do. I can't even remember the times she wasn't fainted around the original Naruto, and all I did remember was her getting beaten by her… brother? Clansman? Cousin? Just someone related to her with a vendetta that beat her silly. Thinking about the previous storyline, I found myself asking if I actually needed to save Hiruzen. Because, after all, I needed to fight a monster in the form of a human and save the old man. Or did I even need to do that anymore? Did I even want to? This world slowly making me question how rational I needed to be. My mind was a whirl of random thoughts. I had no idea if I even wanted to be a Shinobi anymore. My past experiences against the Jōnin cemented the fact that Shinobi are definitely at the top of the totem pole in terms of power, and this world is even more messed up than my last one. If anything, getting more power for myself would ensure that I don't end up being someone else's chew toy, but the path to reach that point would not be an easy one. Did I even want to fit in this world? Don't think further on that Naruto, there lies complete madness. For now, I needed to interact with the girl who had just had her life pulled out from under her. She is definitely in shock at the whole situation, and me brooding over what exactly I want to do wouldn't help. "Hey, I, uh, overheard how we're close to the border to the Lightning Country. If we head south then we'll find someone who can get us back to the village." "That's great, Uzumaki-san." Hinata answered simply. She was much less talkative now that she wasn't crying her eyes out. Was it the just the stress of the situation finally building up on her? Or was it some self-conceived thought that she had almost caused my death that made her stress over my livelihood. Why wasn't I a psychologist? It would make this so much easier. "Yeah, did you, um, want to bring your swords?" Her eyes sparkled at my words, and I felt like I had just pet an over excited puppy with how fast she nodded her head. Did the original Hinata have a love for swords? "When are we going home?" Hinata asked suddenly. Yes, she prompted question! Progress! "We can leave now, actually. Just gotta do some things to cover our tracks; don't want Kumogakure after us again." Hinata shivered in response, and I mentally hit myself. Idiot! She still is not over this whole kidnapping thing. Why would you bring it up?! Quick! Brain, help! "Um, well, you know, Shinobi. Can't be too sure when they're involved." "...right." Hinata whispered, and I shuddered at how serious her expression became. Then there was silence. Quiet so thick that I could basically have it as a side to the snacks that Hinata was putting down with a ruthless sort of hunger. I just sat there, hoping that she would do something other than eat and hold her swords. Good god, this is awkward. How do I even go about fixing this? It wasn't that Hinata was the only one needing to be helped, either. I was still reeling from the fact that I had committed murder, and what's worse was that I didn't even feel a hint of remorse after a few days of mourning for them. All I wanted was to finish them fast; to get some rest. During the heat of battle, it wasn't too hard to move on and forget, but after was when I truly understood how callous I was in my actions. Being reincarnated is not as great as it sounds. Identity crisis is one thing, but a whole moral upheaval is entirely different. Still, that didn't mean that I couldn't take Hinata home first. Do that, then get my life together. The perfect plan. What could go wrong? We left the next day and everything went wrong. "Uzumaki-san, the wolves are still behind us." Hinata reported as we continued to run. "I know! Keep running!" I yelled back, as she pulled me out of the way of a leaping wolf. It seemed that since I had cleared the woods of nearby prey, the hunters had decided that we were easy enough. I had no information on the animals besides the few summons that were used in the original story, but wolves were probably no joke to us right now. I mean, we were but two delectable children with squishy flesh and brittle bones. The perfect snack for wolves on the go... God, my brain is being morbid today. Sure, I could probably get the drop on one or two with my teleportation trick, but I would get surrounded and torn apart by the pack later on. Luckily, Chakra was fueling our movements, and that would last for quite awhile. There was also the problem with Hinata. We had both been running at the same pace with pretty bad injuries for some time, and, despite Chakra making up for some deficiencies, Hinata was slowly growing exhausted. As if that was not enough, her and my pack had been loaded to the brim with all the swords we could carry, too. And, on top of all that, she had not once turned off her Byakugan. I knew that they could be switched off to have a normal, boring regular vision. However, ever since she could use them, she had not turned them off until she passed out. They used Chakra from her, I realized. Mine had the benefit of being a completely spiritual version without any drawbacks other than needing to split myself. Hinata's, on the other hand, drained her slowly from simply having it on. It was probably something miniscule, but in our current situation, it would probably be lethal. I watched as Hinata slowed down, and swallowed heavily. In selfish terms, I could probably ditch her, and easily escape from the wolves while she was bait. The other option was dangerously testing my new aptitude in my techniques and Chakra, but that could easily lead to the death of the both of us. We couldn't outlast the wolves forever, either. I hated what I was about to do. However, if I was to fix this, I would have to shed a little bit more blood. Just when we had almost healed, too. I just hate my bleeding heart, but the fact that I was doing this meant I was going all the way and fixing everything. With my resolve in place, I split myself, losing the speed that Chakra presented. Hinata clearly saw me in her almost three hundred and sixty degree vision. "Hinata-chan, do you trust me?" I asked as she paused beside me. The wolves were circling us as I had predicted. We had suddenly changed tactics, and, as an intelligent hunter, they would be wary when a prey was suddenly backed into a corner. Her pulsing eyes blinked at me. "Of course, Uzumaki-san." "Then turn off your Byakugan." I stated, staring into her glossy pupils. They widened at my words, and I could clearly tell that she was having a hard time doing that. For some reason she had convinced herself that having them on constantly would keep her safe. In truth, she was just a scared little girl hiding behind her sudden expanded vision, going on till the point of almost Chakra exhaustion. Which, I remembered, was not very intuitive for living. "I… I can't." Hinata tried. "We can fight them, Uzumaki-san. It'll be fine." "I wasn't saying we wouldn't fight them." I countered, calmly taking out the blades that were slung around our bodies. My right arm still twinged a little in pain as I planted them around us, but I could ignore it if it was just that much. "I'm saying that you won't last the fight if you do not turn off your Byakugan or use it wisely, at least." "That's… The Byakugan is the sacred Bloodline Limit of the Hyuga clan; if I fight, I need it on." Hinata was pleading at this point, and I noted that her voice was strangely sharp for a three year old. She was projecting someone else. A mother? Father? I shook my head in denial, not the time for questioning things. Hungry pack of wolves to deal with. "I'll watch your back. You just have to watch mine." The wolves were slowly crowding around us, using their numbers to overwhelm us. They didn't like that we were placing swords down. They were getting anxious. I need to shock them into pausing further, so I could convince Hinata. If everything worked out, it would be the start on fixing her current issues. "What are y- Uzumaki-san!" Hinata yelled suddenly as one of the closer wolves had broke off from the pack as a sort of probing attack. I had already seen what was happening through my specter, and waited till it was fairly close to us before I reformed right before the wolf, a sheathed sword held firmly in my right hand. My ability to bring inanimate objects along with me was rather finicky in the fact that I couldn't reform if any part of my spiritual self or something I was carrying was directly inside something else. However, there was a brief moment were the wolf had opened its mouth, and let me fit the blunt end of the sword sheath inside the opening I had found. Momentum did the rest as it suddenly found that it was choking on an entire sword. I took out the sword from its well placed sheath before smoothly slitting the beast's throat. I felt like that was becoming a common occurrence in my fights... The wolf pack stilled at the easy looking dispatch of one of its members. It was like they had thought they cornered a rabbit that suddenly turned into a tiger. Perfect. I split again then glanced back at Hinata. She had been setting up her swords in the meantime, Byakugan were still on. "Do you trust me, Hinata." "Yes, Uzumaki-san, I trust you, so hurry back to the swords! It's not safe out there!" She seemed as stunned at my casual display as the wolves, but she had already seen me do my little trick hundreds of times, so the impact wasn't as deep. It was more stunned as if she hadn't thought that I would step out of her Byakugan's range of vision. I shook my head. "Then trust your back to me." "Uzumaki-san, what are you do-" The wolves charged before she could finish, and I thanked them a bit. They were the allowing us to finally talk without as much awkward feelings getting in the way of us. Or was it the adrenaline helping? Of course, it came with the downside of having them try to kill us, but that's besides the point. The point is that I can't seem to talk to people normally without it being a fight. Is this some kind of curse an omnipotent god? The ability to have no normal interaction besides those in dire circumstances? I want a refund on my reincarnation wheel! My anguish wasn't heard as a veritable swarm of wolves approached us from all sides at once. Apparently they had pinned us for quite a big threat, and decided for the common tactic of attack with everything till their opponents die. A very reasonable plan. However, with me having my specter, there was little I couldn't keep track of. I had learned that the extra eyes and nubs that I had seen in my mindscape were all reflected back on the specter form now. While the changing form was slowly becoming more unsettling, there was also the fact that each pair of eyes could keep track of a different enemy. On top of the cheat that was an assimilated, spiritual Byakugan, there was no way I couldn't see all of my attackers while keeping an eye on Hinata. I ducked under a rather excited wolf's leap, buried my blade into the softer parts of its stomach, and slid onto my next target. The wolf I had stabbed would bleed out in a few seconds; my Byakugan made sure that I could always find which organ I wanted to stab. There was little I could do in terms of Chakra because I was currently split, and it wasn't like I had much battle experience between randomly materializing around, but I was strangely talented in killing things. An odd thought to have, but as I stabbed another wolf between its ribs to pierce its lungs, I found that it came far too easily to me. It would drown in its own blood before it bled out. Thinking back to those Chūnin that I had veritably slaughtered causes me to involuntarily shiver. If I was going to continue down this road, I needed to set some rules for myself to follow, or else I might lose who I am under all the blood on my hands. My momentary lapse in judgement gave a rather adventurous wolf the opportunity to land a claw onto my thigh. My skin was like paper to the beast without Chakra to help strengthen it, and it easily cut deep into my tissue, sending a spray of blood into the air. I hissed in pain, then materialized right next to the wolf, and stabbed it in its eye until I felt my blade snap inside its skull. Was it petty? Yes, but it was subtly pleasing. Seeing my injury, the other wolves attacked with a new sort of fervor, but they didn't know that I was finally whole again. And I had the Chakra of the Kyūbi to carry me through. A small conscious thought was all it took to call upon the resource. The Kyūbi had apparently felt I needed it to be as simple as possible to call on it, and the feeling of it running through my body was like someone had just dowsed me in fire. Pits of heated anger built up around my stomach as I called out more of the energy. It burned to have it on for even a stretch of time. I knew it was definitely a corrosive sort of energy. A person's regular Chakra tended to be more neutral, as it never seemed to cause outright damage to use it. However, the Kyūbi's was like having pure malice shoved down your veins then someone decided that you needed to have your blood replaced with acid as well. This only made it even more dangerous as the Kyūbi's Chakra didn't just flow into me; it flowed out in a corona of baleful orange. Wisps of pure dread spilled out of me like an overflowing spring, whipping around at some unknown enemy. It wasn't the best of experiences, but, for the wolves that I had attacked, it was like their entire bodies were being eaten alive. Now, I didn't have any other idea of how to use the Kyūbi's Chakra other than hit things harder, but right now that worked fine. The accelerated healing that it brought along was also a definite plus. With all that as a buffer to ease the constraints of my age, I began to thrash the wolves, and wondered what exactly I had worried about when I thought we couldn't take a pack of hungry beasts. Maybe the sensibilities of my past life were still ingrained in me thinking that a three year old couldn't do any of what I had done. With a sense of fulfilled bloodlust I nearly forgot what I was even fighting for, but I assumed it wouldn't be too bad; my new power was enough to make these mangy mutts know their place. I knew my big mouth was going to be the object of my downfall. When I had looked over to Hinata I had found that she was keeping up rather well against the wall of hungry fur; she danced between her blades just like in the cave, but this time there was no grace, just purposeful killing intent. The wolves tried to corral her smaller body with their larger ones, clawing, gnashing, and trying to charge into her. However, their efforts were easily dodged as her vision was truly on another level. If my slight mastery in the Byakugan was anything than Hinata was on a completely different beast entirely. While I disapproved of her leaving them active all of the time, once they entered her sphere of sight the wolves were either in the palm of her hand, or dead. She used their attempts to corral her against them, leading them into stumbling mess of flailing limbs as sudden thrown swords forced them into each other, or outright killed them in some cases, creating more obstacles to impede the charging forces. It wouldn't be a lie to say that each attack she sent was either some part of a greater trap or some instant kill via Byakugan bullshit. However, as invincible as she was so long as they entered her range, she only paid attention to the enemies that entered her range. A horrifying level of tunnel vision, and that was taking her straight to the center of the pack. Then I watched as her steps fumbled together in a way I knew signified her getting tired. My Kyubi Chakra dosed body exploded forwards, a speed unseen by any three year old ever was reached as I shot forwards. The wolves in my way were either used as battering rams, or had their chests pounded into mush. I had carved a path through the dense pack of wolves, leaving only the dead and dying in my wake. Understanding dawned on Hinata's face about her suddenly dire straits long before I had arrived, and I felt like she had almost given up before I had even arrived. For some reason, that annoyed me much more than her tunnel vision. I really hated that she thought it was okay to give up, but I hated myself even more for allowing this to happen. Hate, apparently, made me rather impulsive when using the fox's Chakra. "Hey, dumbass!" I shouted before even realizing what I was doing. "What do you think you're doing?! Just look in front of you; what business do you have looking behind you when you can't even move forwards!" I had no idea if Hinata had heard my words. I don't even think I understood half of what I was saying, but it sounded cool. That and there was something about the Kyūbi Chakra that reacted too well with anger, and I funneled that into the wolves that had surrounded Hinata's back. My energy wasn't infinite, though, and I was using quite a bit of it to just keep my body moving onto the next opponent. However, I felt like I could deal with these pests quite easily. We finished up the last of our corrallers before the rest of the wolves had decided that we weren't worth the trouble. They ran with their tails tucked between their legs as I found the particular need to growl at them. When I could see no more enemies, I plopped down while releasing the Kyūbi Chakra's hold on me. The feeling was indescribable as I felt like I had just let go of all the tension holding onto my body. Almost like I had dipped my body in the finest hot springs. Hinata fell down in more of a flop right beside me, a sword was held protectively close to her chest. Her clothes were torn in several places, traces of blood flicking her body. I tensed suddenly as she turned her attention my way. That's when I noticed it: her Byakugan were off. A small smile of pure relief seemed stuck to her features. "I trust you, Uzumaki-san." She whispered, exhaustion not even close to hiding a sense of relaxation and something else I couldn't quite understand. I snorted. This was not exactly the way my plan was supposed to go, but it was a small victory I would accept. "Please, just call me Naruto; you're too formal all the time." Hinata's smile was rather sweet at the moment. "Then Naruto-kun, what exactly did you call me during the fight earlier? I trust you enough to tell me the truth right?" "Uh," Oh, shit. I don't think I ever teleported faster in my small time in this world. Hinata's enraged cries behind me somehow brought a smile to my face. As weird as that sounds, I felt that the Byakugan, while letting her see so much, had make her miss on what was in front of her. Hinata, even if just a little, was starting to look forward.