Chapter Text
Naruto hadn’t had the most average life experiences in the world but he liked to think he had a good grip of how everything worked.
He had assumed, quite correctly, that when a man’s heartbeat stopped and air left his lungs for the last time that that man would be considered dead.
As in no longer able to continue living.
Passed away.
Done for.
It is, somehow, not quite the case for him.
The first thing he registered upon waking up from unconsciousness was the blinding white light, the sound of some baby gurgling noises and the feel of hands, impossibly, lifting him up and away.
This was not what the former Hokage had expected after closing his eyes with his wife’s teary but smiling face hovering over him and his kids—adults in their own right now, leaders, the next generation— on either side.
If he were honest, the ideal afterlife would have been an Ichiraku booth with all his favourite people pushed up together trying to fit in one row but ultimately having to drag chairs over. No wars, no paperwork, all the ramen in the world.
Pure bliss.
Swaddled in cloth and being past around like a mission scroll clued him in pretty instantly that his ideal afterlife would not be playing out.
A shame, to put it mildly, but he knew enough from being the ‘child of prophecy’ that life cycles had a way of finding people, especially him. The only real surprise was the fact he retained so much of his old life, not remembering anything of his time in his supposed first reincarnation as Ashura.
“Oh how beautiful! Look at those bright blue eyes! Such an expressive baby, I wonder if it has anything to do with her quirk?”
’Huh,’ Naruto thought to himself absently, preening and shamelessly showboating at the praise. ‘Is that what they call chakra now? That’s fun.’
As a go with the flow kind of guy, none of this really fazed him as much as it really should. Life had been crazier, after all.
The real adjustment came once it fully registered into his brain that the hospital staff have only exclusively used ‘she’ and ‘her’ when talking about him. Had he been younger and had not lived as long as he did, there was a real possibility he would’ve had a meltdown by now. So attached to a certain image of himself that anything that went against it was considered a personal failure.
Luckily, becoming a grandfather and retiree really helped a guy mellow out, become less headstrong and a hell of a lot more patient. The only real loss with this new life was the lack of his beautiful wife; that’ll be a heartbreak he likely will never get over.
Naruto was moving pretty fast now that he got a good look of his surroundings. People—or at least blurry giant figures he assumed were people— dragged him further and further away from his mother.
’I have an alive mother too, that’s right...’ He thought with a start, feeling as if his luck had finally started levelling out in this new world ‘So, I guess I’ll finally get to see what you were going on about Sasuke, all those years—‘
”Real shame the mother had to give her up.” One of the nurses chirped to his colleague over him. “Another orphan! At least this one doesn’t seem quirkless, that’ll look good for foster parents.”
‘Ah, never mind then.’ Naruto thought, pouting. ‘That’s two for two though, what are the odds of that?’
‘With you?’ Kurama said, suddenly, somewhere in the back of his mindscape. ‘I’ve learnt to just ignore odds, they clearly don’t apply.’
’Wow you’re here too!? Really can’t get enough of me huh, furball?’ Naruto thought, more fond than genuinely annoyed.
‘Trust me, this was not voluntary.’ Kurama blinked, looking around speculatory. ‘Hm, a girl this time, could be worse, I suppose.’
’What exactly would be worse?’
‘I could be stuck in an idiot with poor survival skills and a fashion sense that would make enemies want to pluck out their own eyes. Again.’
‘I liked you better when you hated me.’
‘Naruto Uzumaki’ (somehow got to keep his name, score) was sent to an orphanage in the heart of the city, it wasn’t the most secure or safest place in the world but it still beat the area he used to grow up in so he couldn’t complain much.
There was a roof over his head and a house chalked full of friends that found him to be a cute baby and, as the years went on, an absolute menace of a child. Older kids were usually roped into raising the babies along with the social workers and employees. It was a real communal thing that was probably the closest thing he’d ever get to being in a clan so he took the whole thing very seriously.
This orphanage specifically was a hot zone for bullying and harassment that most of the occupants couldn’t defend against.
That one nurse wasn’t kidding about the quirky thing, it turns out. Naruto had observed over the years being bottled and swaddled that people just—assumed you had special powers no matter how old or what you looked like.
Questions like ‘what’s your quirk?’ was so commonplace it was a little ridiculous how easily people gave away their special moves.
And don’t get him started on the ridicule the none quirky kids got subjected to. He may have had his own fair share of childhood bullies but at least none of it came with this side dish of pity that the adults were constantly dishing out every time they interacted with a quirkless kid. His orphanage was almost always filled with those around the age of four and up, all of them average in looks and believed to be quirkless.
If he had been subjected to that when he was a kid—the pity, the bullying, the adults not taking him seriously—he was certain he would’ve started swinging on just about anyone and anything and be labelled a villain right off the bat.
His childhood was pretty shitty but at least there was an actual demon in his belly, these kids just existed like that!
As Naruto’s third and fourth birthday came around, the questions started rising for him—or her now— too.
“Has your quirk come in yet?” One set of potential parents asked, eager and greedy. “We’d love to open our family to you, Naruto! Do you remember what quirks your parents had? Were they powerful?”
“—You look like a speedster! Tell us when the quirk comes in okay, sweetheart? I’ve always loved Ingenium.” Said another.
It was exhausting and, frankly, irritating as fuck having to juggle power hungry adults, jealous kids and figuring out what exactly she was going to say her quirk was.
“Some kind of power enhancement maybe?” Naruto posited, both her and Kurama throwing around ideas in their mindscape. “would—that explain clones though? What if I just said chakra powers, did that make sense?”
’Can you even still do clones?’
“Huh,” Naruto blinked. “No yeah, we should test that first. Actually, let's just test everything so we know what we’re working with.”
One demolished forest and several firefighter and police calls later (which turned into a legit investigation trying to find the ‘villain’ responsible and the termination of the orphanage staff that let a toddler go out the front door unsupervised) they were back to the drawing board.
“Hehe still got it,” Naruto mildly gloated, having just come back from an in depth interview with the police department. “Okay! So we have everything still, what the hell are we gonna call it?”
‘You’re gonna end up a convict with the rate you're going,’ Kurama said, grinning. ‘Already taken in and questioned like some common criminal, oh how the mighty have fallen.’
”This affects you too, ya know?” She said, rolling her eyes. “Don’t you wanna get back in the swing of things? For the last year all I’ve been doing is learning the alphabet, work with me here!”
’Well based on your intelligence I figured you felt right at home with your education right now.’
As she flipped off her oldest friend, Naruto grumbled under her breath. “I’ll be the smartest baby in kindergarten, fucking asshole…”
‘You’re having trouble finding a name because our abilities go far beyond the limited scope of this world,’ Kurama hovered closer to the bars. ‘You need something that can encapsulate the basics as well as your bigger moves.’
“Demon energy?” She tapped the side of her chin. “Demon…fox powers? Toad fox super—“
‘If you dare put me on the same level as those blasted creatures I’ll skin you from the inside, brat.’ Kurama growled, eyes glowing red.
“Touchy much?” Naruto murmured, her thoughts straying away from mentioning the kyuubi specifically, recalling that even some quirks had a bad rep in this world.
‘Quirk, no quirk, orphan, not-orphan, it really sucks being a kid here.’ He thought, grimly.
“—ruto! Naruto, are you listening to me!?”
They both startled, turning back to the real world. One of the volunteers that had always looked out for her was hovering, his arms folded in a very Iruka like pose, unimpressed with his inattention.
’Crap,’ Naruto thought, sweating. ‘Did you catch any of it?’
’Does it matter? You’re four, be four.” Kurama said, rolling his eyes.
‘Oh yeah.’
She made his eyes bigger, more innocent and not-guilty like. A look she had often been the victim of from her daughter once upon a time. Fiddling with her shirt similar to how she remembered Hinata did in their childhood.
”Did I…do a bad thing?” She wondered if she could even squeeze out tears for this? Would that help or make it worse? “I—I didn’t mean to…”
’God, you really were hands off with your kids weren’t you? Is this how you think a four year old acts?’
’Shut up.’ Naruto thought, huffy while still maintaining her forced pout.
The assistant volunteer was stern if not good-natured. He was apparently trying to get into the police force to follow his brother's footsteps and figured trying his hand at volunteering locally would help. Well 4 years later and with a very blond haired and blue eyed little shadow, he couldn’t say it wasn’t a learning experience.
Naruto thought that anyone paying her any attention was pretty cool in her book but to add onto that the fact he had the biggest fluffiest cat face she had ever seen both in this life and her old one? Oh he was going to be her new Iruka or she was gonna die trying.
Although he probably had a name, Naruto had only ever called him—
“Kitty…” She sniffed, blinking up at him. “I was just testing out my quirk…you—you said I should be proud if I had a quirk.”
“Naruto…” Kitty sighed, rubbing the back of his head. “What am I going to do with you? Don’t you want to get out of here? Why do you keep dodging adults trying to help? I heard you even insulted a seated officer today after the ‘incident’.”
”Well yeah, he kept calling me names.” Naruto scoffed, dropping some of the act once she realised it had little effect. “‘Little Might’ implies there’s a bigger might out there and that really pisses me off.”
”Oi, language!” And Iruka 2.0 lived up to the legacy of his namesake and delivered a truly impressive head strike against her. “That was definitely meant as a compliment, you little lunatic.”
”Didn’t sound like one…” She grumbled, nursing her injured head.
Looking down at her with a healthy mix of exasperation and fondness the older man only sighed. ”What’s this about your quirk? It finally came in, huh?”
”Yep,” Naruto tensed, hoping he wouldn’t ask the inevitable follow up. “I don’t know how to work it though. The octopus head cop even thought some rando villain came in and attacked me.”
“Yeah, I wonder why…” Kitty muttered, shaking his head. “That’s still—property damage aside—really good, Naruto! I always knew you had it in you!”
”You and everyone else.” Naruto huffed, pouting a little more genuinely. “What’s up with this place, ya know!? You guys go crazy over the weirdest stuff, who cares what kinda special powers you got? It’s how you use it, the people you save with it, the person you are—“
There was a hand dropped onto her head, confused, Naruto looked up to see the grinning face of her caretaker.
”Careful, kid.” Kitty said softly. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d think I was hearing the vow of a future hero.”
Naruto, soaking up the casual physical affection, didn’t really hear his statement, nor did she pick up the underline string of their conversation.
The faint pulse of fate once again connected her to a story that could not and would not let her be anything less than what she was; a hero the world wouldn’t ever forget.