Comment: 03/15/2018

This is my first attempt at SI/OC. Hopefully I'll do well.

Edited: 04/22/2018

Nothing important was changed; my writing style just changed a lot after three years, so I edited the chapter to match my new style

The moment her consciousness flickered on was the same moment she realized she was being squished to death. The soft walls surrounding her contracted around her, jostling her left and right. She squirmed around, trying to move her limp arms and legs, but the trap she was in had too tight a grip on her. She wanted to move, to jump, to escape—and escape she did. She felt herself exit the wall, her head first to be hit by the cold air. The rest of her body followed the next second. But she couldn't fucking breathe.

Her heart hammered in her chest. She tried to inhale through her nose, but it was like trying to suck on a straw while covering the opposite end with a finger. She opened her mouth instead, and quickly realized what a big mistake that was. Something hard and long was shoved into her mouth, down her throat. She reflexively gagged, tears welling up in the corner of her eyes. The pipe vanished for a second, and reappeared in her left and right nostrils. The process repeated until finally, the blockage in her throat was removed.

As soon as she felt all was clear, she gathered a ton of air into her lungs, feeling the ice cold air fill up her lungs. Her throat and chest burned in pain, and she just barely missed the warm swipes made with a wet towel.

The blinding lights above her didn't help calm her. She finally began to hear the voices and sound of the people around her. Who were these people? Why was she here? Where was she? And why did they sound so goddamn happy?

The chuckles around her died down, and she felt herself in the arms of someone else. It was a very strange sensation. She was pretty sure she wasn't someone easy to carry, and she was most definitely sure she was not small enough to be handled so easily. When she inhaled—without difficulty, this time—she found herself surrounded by a familiar scent of dew and pine.

A woman cried softly from nearby, and she found herself being given to the woman. She'd never heard this woman's voice before, but found herself comforted by the smell of citrus and soft cooes. The girl jostled her head to get closer to the woman, who let out a sound of pleasant surprise.

The woman's chest rumbled as she said something in a language she did not understand. A man, the one with the smell of wood, replied back. Both their voices dripped with affection and excitement. A sarcastic old woman said something, and the two couple laughed.

A soft hand brushed against the girl's cheek, and the girl leaned into the touch. The woman let out a soft sigh, and said something that the girl could not understand. But she had a feeling that the woman was saying loving things.

She was rarely properly conscious the next couple of days, but it definitely wasn't out of her own choice. She wanted to stay awake and observe where she was, and who the people around her were. But sleep came like a tall wave, approaching her covertly and engulfing her before she knew it. The only times she was awake was when she was hungry (which seemed to be every two hours) or when she'd soiled herself. The latter part was humiliating for her, no matter how often it occurred. She supposed it helped that the woman changing her diapers didn't mind.

Frequently, the woman and man took turns holding and speaking to her. From what she could pick out, it seemed like they were speaking in Japanese. To be honest, she didn't like how possessively they treated her at first, holding her close to them and speaking to her like she owed them her attention. But over time, she became accustomed to the two of them, and even found them amusing at times. Besides, watching two grown ups making strange faces and sounds was the only form of entertainment she had in the state that she was in. (She carefully discarded the idea that she may be experiencing Stockholm Syndrome)

It didn't take her long to realize she was in the body of a newborn. She had no idea how it was possible, seeing as she still remembered herself being a healthy 23 year old. But she couldn't really deny the truth when she saw herself in the mirrors around her, watching her reflection mimic her movements the way only shadows or reflections could. In all honesty, it scared her. It scared her to know that she was in a body in a foreign country surrounded by people she didn't know, that she was helpless, held hostage by the limits of her own body. (That was her justification for crying every time she saw mirrors.)

And no matter how long she thought about it, she couldn't come up with a rational explanation. So she did the only thing she could: she accepted her fate. After all, that must've been what brought her here, right? Fate.

She couldn't really remember much about her past life, besides her having been 23 years old and living in California. She tried to recall whether she had a family before, any parents or siblings; she wondered what kind of life she had before; she questioned how she died. But she couldn't remember any of that, much less her own name. She could remember things she'd been taught, things like math and geography. But those were things that didn't explain who she was, who she had been. Unfortunately, every time she tried to remember who she was, she was left with a dull headache. After numerous attempts, she gave up; the pain wasn't worth the resulting failure.

A couple weeks after her birth, she learned that her name in this world was Namikaze Eri. Her parents, Kushina and Minato—as she had gathered from her short span of consciousness—were very intent on calling her this every time they picked her up for a hug or kiss. She humoured them often, and turned her head or looked towards whoever called for her by that name. The two's faces would split with a wide smile, and they both let out a sound of glee. (The Japanese names seemed very, very familiar to her, but she just couldn't remember why)

And speaking of strange things, the girl noticed something cloudy in the air, in herself, and in her parents. The mists had colors unique to each person. The ones around her father and her mother—which were very concentrated and strong—were light blue and soft pink, respectively. The mists' lights flickered on and off, but seemed to get stronger and more vivid whenever either of them felt intense emotions. Interestingly, her mother's mist seemed incredibly concentrated and tinted red near her belly. Eri could not see the mist within herself, even in the few times she saw herself in the mirror, but she could feel it inside her veins and arteries, traveling from the bottom of her tiny toes to the top of her bulging head. It was easy to ignore, most of the time, because it seemed to be a part of her, just as her blood, her bones, and her muscle were.

The mist around her, however, were an entirely different story. The color itself was an intensely concentrated moss green, and the mist jostled with energy. There wasn't much of it in her room-certainly not enough to obstruct her view of the furniture around her. She observed this phenomenon, but couldn't really do anything with it. She thought about asking her parents, but immediately gave up the thought once she remembered she couldn't speak a single word of japanese. Being stuck inside the body of a newborn with the mind of a conscious adult was really hell in and of itself.

In the few moments she was awake, Eri was stuck staring at the ceiling of her room. She recited lyrics of songs she could vaguely remember or went over old fairy tales and stories. In other words, there was absolutely nothing to do (it was all so fucking boring). Sometimes, she was jolted awake from the pain of lying down in one position for too long, and then she'd have to cry so her mother could come and flip her (because she was too fucking weak to do it herself). If Eri was lucky, her mother stayed for an hour or two to read her a book before leaving the room, probably to get some beauty sleep.

Despite the somewhat amicable relationship Eri had with her mother and father, she always felt like the bond between her and her parents existed because of the chemical reactions that occured in their brains. There was, after all, no reason for her to love "strangers." At least, that was what she thought until three months after she'd been "born."

On the destined dark night, Eri woke up and found herself alone in her room. The room echoed with silence, the barest gleam of moonlight contrasting heavily with the dark expanse of the shadows. In that moment, she realized just how utterly alone she was. No one knew who she was, not even her. No one knew what it was like to be stuck in this small body of hers, helpless and completely dependent on strangers to feed and clean her. A feeling of homesickness washed over her, but she didn't even know what she was so (fucking) homesick about (because she didn't remember anything, so how could she?). She heard, rather than felt, herself sob and weep, slowly erupting into a full wail.

Her mother was quick to stumble in, alert but still slightly sluggish, and dragged herself to Eri's crib. Kushina gently lifted up Eri to feed her, but (that's not what she fucking wanted) Eri pushed her away. Kushina sighed, and laid Eri back down in her crib to check the her diapers, only to let out a groan of frustration when she saw it was still clean. Through her tears, Eri watched Kushina's face slowly turn from pale to bright red.

Kushina shouted something long and unintelligible, her arms violently swinging around her in exclamation. Eri stopped her wailing, her eyes wide. In response, Kushina stopped, her chest heaving from the shouting and her face pale. Minato ran into the room not long after, looking from Kushina to Eri before walking over to Kushina. He laid his hand on her shoulder, and as if on cue, Kushina began to terrible sobs, hiding her face behind her hands.

(I didn't mean to hurt you, she thought)

Eri reached out her palms for her mother, and when Kushina saw this, she only seemed to cry harder. Minato leaned down to pick Eri up, and pushed her onto Kushina, who enveloped Eri in her arms and gave her a tight squeeze.

When Eri tilted her head up and looked into Kushina's eyes, filled with remorse and love, Eri felt overwhelmed. Something in her chest squeezed tightly (her heart). She clasped onto her mother's hand, and squeezed it tightly.

(I'm sorry)

She felt a soft hand brush her hair, and her eyes traced the arm back to its source, Minato. He looked at her with the same, heavy kind of love that she found in Kushina's eyes. It was overwhelming, in a way. She'd been so sure there was nothing she was sure about in this world, not even her own identity. (But now, there was these two people's love) Her chest swelled with something she didn't recognize.

That night, Kushina brought Eri to the larger room, and the three of them—Kushina, Eri, and Minato—laid on the same bed. Before she was pulled by the tide of sleep, Eri felt the beat of her father's heart and the warmth of her mother's hand.

(She decided she could learn to love them)

After that night, the monotonous days continued, though Minato began to visit her less and less. It was only after his absence that Eri realized she missed her father. But Kushina did a great job of keeping her entertained—most of the time.

One day, when Kushina finally had deemed Eri to be fit and healthy enough, she dressed Eri in warm clothes, and took her outside of the house for the first time.

When she left the small house, Eri was flabbergasted, to say the least. (There were so many people around her. How had she never seen them before?) Her gaze never left the faces of the children who passed by, but when any came approached her, Eri turned away, nervous. Kushina responded by laughing and clutching the girl tighter to her chest.

Once Eri was brave enough to look back out at the world again, she saw herself and her mother in front of a strange red building. It loomed before her, and Eri hiccuped (she wasn't scared, but the building really did loom over her like one of those evil towers in dystopian movies). Kushina laughed again, softly this time. Once they were inside, Kushina led them up a spiral of stairs, down a couple hallways, and around so many twists and turns Eri's head hurt. The two stopped before a big, brown door. Kushina opened the door just a tiny bit, and the two slid in. Eri had to admit she was pretty impressed by her mother's ability to quietly slip in unnoticed (it was almost like she was a ninja).

When Eri shifted her focus to the men in front of her, she found her father and a much older man in the middle of an intense discussion, frowns pasted on both their faces. The elder had tan, brown hair, with numerous wrinkles and spots on his face. He was not very tall, only reaching her father's shoulder in terms of height. Eri tightened her clutches around the collar of her mother's dress (who was the man in her father's skin?). The light, joking face Minato always had when he played with her was absent, replaced by a much scarier and morose version.

When Eri hiccuped, both men turned around in surprise. Eri stared as her father's looks melt back to his usual soft features (she decided she didn't like her father's other face very much). She turned to stare at the old man. There was something strange about him… The brown mist radiating from his core drifted protectively around him. Eri's heart thudded; she knew this man from somewhere! She did! But from where, or how, or when, Eri could not say.

Minato strode over to Kushina, giving her a kiss on her forehead. Eri pouted, craving her father's attention, and stuck her arms out. Her father laughed, and took Eri from Kushina, bouncing the child lightly on his hips. He walked Eri over to the old man, who was staring at the young girl with what seemed like amusement and adoration.

"Eri-chan," Minato said. He turned and pointed at the old man, and said, "Hokage-sama."

The Hokage chuckled, and waved his hand, as if dismissing Minato's words. The Hokage said something, before pointing back at himself, and saying, "ojiji-chan."

Eri smiled, until what her father said finally hit her. Hokage-sama? Hokage-sama? Eri's mouth gaped a bit, and she looked from her father to the old man before the 23 year old mind finally grasped onto what this meant. Quickly, she looked outside, and saw on her left, very high in position, the Hokage Monument. Eri's left eye twitched, and she hiccuped again.

How the hell had she missed the three large-ass faces pasted on a mountain? And more importantly—she turned to stare at the badge on her father's forehead, then at the symbol of 'fire', if her memory served her right, on the Hokage's large hat—the signs around her that basically screamed 'Konoha'?

Eri closed her eyes, and slowly reopened them to meet the eyes of an amused old man. But her attention was not on him or the spots on his face. Her attention was on the following truth: She was in the Narutoverse.

…Well damn.

From that day onwards, Eri watched the people around her carefully, with reasons none other than because she supposedly knew them. As she laid in the crib in the living room, chewing on her prison bars, she watched her mother and father flirt incessantly with each other.

(How had she missed it? How had she missed this?)

Yes, in her defense, neither of her parents wore their shinobi outfits at home, and they certainly did not wear their headband—hitaesomethingorwhatever—at home. They never said the word 'Konoha', at least when she was around, and they had never taken her outside until that point.

But really? Uzumaki Kushina and Namikaze Minato? They were her parents? Good god. Eri's left eye twitched again.

Once again, Eri simply accepted the truth, and tried to move on.

With that realisation set, Eri finally understood how much of deep shit she was in. If her memory of this anime was correct—and when exactly had that memory managed to resurface?—there would be various attacks on Konoha. And… her parents would die in one of them. Her heart began to thud violently at the mere thought of losing them. She couldn't lose them. She had to prevent their deaths from happening. She needed a plan to make sure she could protect them. But how?

First of all, she actually needed to tell them about the dangers to come. If they knew of the dangers to come, then they'd be able to protect themselves from said danger. This meant she was going to have to significantly increase the speed of her learning Japanese. She cringed at the thought; she had never been good at learning new languages.

Second, she needed to be a believable source. After all, who in their right mind would believe a child? She needed to prove herself. And, from her memories, she recalled prodigies were pretty respected in the Narutoverse. Surely, it wouldn't be surprising if the child of Kushina and Minato was capable of speaking and walking and doing everything faster, would it?

(Of course it wouldn't. Her parents were strong, if not the strongest. No one could beat them.

Except Obito.)

Right. There was that. The monster who managed to kill both her parents and attempted to take Naruto's life—Naruto. Eri's left eye twitched.

Naruto.

When was Naruto born?

That was it. That was the mark, the start of everything. She just had to watch out for Naruto's birth—if things went as the canon had. But how would she know when Naruto was born? What if she had been born instead of Naruto? Brief euphoria washed over her at the thought of keeping Minato and Kushina to herself, but she slammed the door to that feeling as soon as she felt it. It wasn't right. Naruto needed to be born. He was important to her parents, and she wasn't going to steal him from them. (She ignored the small part of her that danced in joy at the idea of having a little minion to have follow her around everywhere)

"Eri-chan," her mother called, catching her attention. Kushina exchanged a look with Minato, who, with an equally nervous face, nodded. Eri's mother turned back to Eri, pointed to herself, and said, "Okaa-chan."

Eri stared back at her mother like she'd grown another head.

(She wants me to say it back)

Oh. But could she? How old was her body, anyways? Was that even possible?

Kushina broke off her stare, and sighed. She turned to speak with Minato, frowning in the process. Eri tried to calculate the days and months. The day she fell in love with her parents, the day she met the Hokage, the days spent thinking… She was almost, what, seven months old? Eight? She frowned. Didn't babies usually start talking nonsense at twelve months old and—Eri attempted to groan, but only made a weird, moaning sound, catching her parents' attention. Eri paid them no mind, and instead tried to smack her face in contempt.

'I'm a ninja child,' she thought bitterly. 'Of course they'd expect me to start talking soon.'

She turned to her parents, and looked at Kushina expectantly. As expected, the red-haired jinchuriki repeated the word, "Okaa-chan!"

Eri opened her mouth, and tried to copy the sound. What resulted was a soft, "O-aa-chan." Eri wanted to smack her face into the bars of her crib at how stupid she sounded, but restrained herself once she saw how Kushina's face gleamed.

Then, before Minato could say anything, Eri turned to him and quickly said, "to-chan."

The room was silent. Both Minato and Kushina attempted to veil how surprised they were, but Eri smugly enjoyed how shocked they were. She was going to be recognised as a prodigy one way or another, and if that meant shocking them into realising it, then shock them she would. Mission Prodigy had begun.

Minato and Kushina spoke to each other quickly, keeping their eye on Eri the entire time. She ignored them, and went back to chewing on the crib bars.

During the next couple of days, Minato and Kushina had bought around twenty books to read to her. When Eri pointed to a picture, Kushina told Eri the words, which Eri tried to engrave into her brain. And by the following month, Eri could say a couple words to communicate with her parents. Both seemed very happy with her progress, but Eri was most definitely not satisfied.

Eri needed to be able to converse with adults, but at the rate she was learning Japanese, she wasn't going to learn words like 'international relations' or 'government' anytime soon. Of course, she understood the importance of basics and made a lot of effort to memorize as many words she could, but she was still frustrated. By the time she was nine and a half months old, she could make very, very short sentences. (So maybe she had to give herself a little bit of credit)

But one thing that Eri couldn't change, no matter how hard she really tried, was her abilities to do anything physical. While her brain could process things at a much, much faster rate than that of an average baby, her body was still bound by the same limits of any nine month old. She couldn't even stand up and walk by herself.

Still, she needed to investigate on the world around her, whether she could walk or not. That was why, on an otherwise normal, chilly November day, she turned to her mother, who was sharpening her kunai, and called out loudly, "Kaa-chan."

Kushina, now used to the demands of her (spoiled) daughter, turned and smiled at Eri. Eri's heart skipped a beat. (Her mother was so beautiful). "Yes, Eri-chan?"

"To-chan," Eri exclaimed. "Go. To-chan."

Kushina's eyebrow quirked, but she smiled gently, "No, to-chan… team. Training. Team."

Eri nodded enthusiastically, "Nn. Go! Eri, kaa-chan, go to-chan!"

Kushina stared at her daughter, and the two held onto the staring match until Kushina gave up. "All right. In two minutes, ok?"

"Nn," Eri confirmed, before focusing on the picture book filled with hiragana and katakana. (She had no idea why there was katakana in the Narutoverse. She was pretty sure katakana was the Japanese alphabet for foreign words, and as far as she knew, there weren't any foreigners in the Narutoverse)

True to her words, after two minutes, Kushina stood in front of Eri, a basket slung on one arm. Eri reached out for her mother, who effortlessly collected the child into her arms. Once the two left the house, they travelled at an insane speed from their home towards the training grounds.

Eri had long become accustomed to her parents' speeds, but this comfort came after many trial and errors (made by her parents). The first time her parents had travelled at such a speed, Eri had ended up a confused mess, puking on her mother. Her parents had rushed her to a hospital, only to be chastised by both the hospital nurses and the Hokage, who screamed something along the lines of What the hell were you thinking and You idiot buffoon couple. (At least, that's what Eri guessed the Sandaime had said. She hadn't been very good at Japanese back then.)

Finally, after ten minutes of running, the two arrived at the edge of a training center. Eri could faintly hear thuds from farther inwards of the center, where the mother-daughter duo were walking towards. As soon as Kushina got close enough for Eri to see two children throwing kunai at a wooden post, there was a clang behind her mother, and Eri was flung backwards into her mother's chest as Kushina leapt away. As always, Eri did what she was prone to do in confusing situations: she cried.

Immediately, Minato appeared before Kushina and cooed at Eri before picking her up and holding her in his arms. Eri felt her tears dry as she smiled at her father. "To-chan!" She nuzzled her head against his neck, enjoying the familiar smell of pine and casually ignoring how dirty and sweaty he was.

Kushina cocked her eyebrows and crossed her arms. "Eri really wanted to see to-chan, ne? But Eri, come to kaa-chan. To-chan needs to train." Eri pouted, but willingly returned to her mother's grasp.

"Ah!" a loud voice shouted. "You scared her, Bakashi!"

Eri turned to look for the source of the voice, and was mildly surprised by what she found. A boy with spiky dark hair —an Uchiha—jumped up and down. He wore ski goggles around his eyes, which were connected to orange ear mufflers. He jabbed a finger at another, silver-haired boy, whose lower half of his face was covered by a mask.

"Stop, Obito-kun," a soft voice said. Eri turned to see a girl with short brown hair and purple streaks on each of her cheeks restraining the boy with the goggles. Slowly, Eri looked back at the silver-haired boy, the goggles, and the purple streaks.

"To-chan," Eri called for her father's attention. Minato looked down at her fondly. Eri slowly pointed at the children and asked, "Names?"

Minato chuckled, and shifted Eri to his other arm. "Hatake Kakashi, Uchiha Obito, Nohara rin. And team, this is my daughter, Namikaze Eri."

The three kids exchanged a strange look. Rin was the first one to approach Eri with a warm smile. "Hello," the eleven year old held out a finger. "Nice to meet you, Eri-chan."

Eri stared at the finger curiously, and slowly reached out to clasp onto it tightly. Eri smiled back, "Hello." Rin's face brightened.

"Ooh, ooh!" Obito leapt over to Eri's side, and pushed his index finger out, mimicking Rin. "Hello Eri-chan! I'm Obito!"

Eri stared at Obito. (This was the man who would kill her parents?) A deep and dark fury rose within the deepest pits of her stomach, like a volcano erupting violently for the first time in several years. But when she looked into Obito's eyes, the fury disappeared just as quickly as it rose. Eri clenched onto Obito's finger tightly, willing the hatred to come back just so she could hate him for the sake of hating a soon to be murderer—but nothing happened.

Eri loosened her grip (which hadn't been very tight in the first place, to be honest). Who was she kidding? She knew it wasn't the kid's fault. It was Madara's manipulation, that sneaky I'm-never-going-to-die, cockroach bastard, who would change Obito. He didn't deserve her hatred at the current moment, being the innocent kid he was. She eyed him cautiously, and finally gave him a lopsided smile, "Hi, Obito."

Obito quickly whipped around to smirk at—wow, he was really small and different from her memory—Kakashi. Eri stared at the silver haired boy, who she knew would grow up to be one of the greatest ninjas in the world. The boy stared at her strangely, as if analysing her carefully, before he slowly walked over. He didn't offer a finger for a shake. "Hi."

Eri stared at Kakashi for a second before saying, "Hi Bakashi." She could hear her father stifle a laugh, while Obito burst out into loud laugh. Kakashi's expression didn't visibly change, other than his eyes narrowing just a few millimeters. It probably wasn't appropriate for a 23 year old to aggravate an 11 year old just because he'd shown less adoration, but as Eri had learned, she could get away with a lot of things just because she was a toddler.

"Now, to-chan needs to train," Kushina chided Eri quietly, and shuffled over to a nice shady area. Kushina waved at Minato, and turned to Eri. "Sleep, baby," she cooed. And Eri, as she always was tempted by that soft voice, allowed herself to lie in Kushina's lap. But she didn't hesitate to give Obito one last careful look before she drifted off to sleep.