Dreaming of sunshine

Prologue

Prologue
.

There is no death, only a change of worlds ~ Native American Proverb

.

My name is Shikako Nara, and I am going to tell you a story.

You see, my name wasn't always Shikako. It was... well, that hardly matters now. If you asked anyone around me, they would tell you that I have always been 'Shikako'. They could take you to my twin brother, or my parents, and they would tell you 'yes, that's Shikako. She was born in Konoha Hospital on the 22nd of September. I should know, I was there'.

And its true. I was born Shikako Nara, daughter to Shikaku and Yoshino Nara, younger sister to Shikamaru Nara by thirty minutes.

But I was someone else before that.

Tentatively, I'll say I was reincarnated. Even now, I'm not sure I believe it. Maybe this is just some illusion that my mind has cooked up - either before or after. I don't know. What I do know, is that it feels real. So I decided to live as though it was. If it's fake, then I have lost nothing.

See, the reason that it was so hard to believe, is that this world, the one I've been reborn into? I've heard of it before. Or more precisely, I've read it in a manga and I've watched it on TV.

This is the Naruto-universe.

Yeah. Imagine my surprise when I worked that one out.

As far as reincarnations go, well, I can't tell you if it's a step up or a step down. I had always been safe before, born into a safe family, in a safe town, in a safe country. Now, here was a world where things were rough and wild and even civilized people hired assassins. Was this a step down the karmic ladder? Had I been a bad person? On the other hand, for all that this world was terrifying, I had narrowly missed a worse fate - I had been born to Konoha, arguably the nicest shinobi village, to a good family.

I mean, in the stories, bad people are always reincarnated as ants and then stepped on, right?

I don't know. I also don't know why I remembered. I was an average person. I had siblings and parents, but no partner or children. I had a basic university degree and an average job. I left no outstanding legacies and committed no unutterable crimes. When I died, I doubt very many people noticed at all. I'm not the kind of person you want to rely on to save the world. Maybe some god up there has a weird sense of humour. Maybe it was just an accident. I slipped through the cogs of cosmic reckoning and wasn't important enough to be noticed.

I like that explanation best.

But like I said before, I was born to Shikaku and Yoshino Nara in the Konoha General Hospital on the 22nd of September as the younger of twins. It sounds so amazing when said like that. A spiritual miracle. The truth was, at the time I had no idea what was happening. I was twisted and squeezed and the comforting darkness in which I had rested was torn away. There was pain and cold and terror. There was immediacy. Things that hadn't seemed important were suddenly at the forefront of my mind; what had happened; where was I; was I alive or dead, hurt or injured; what was going on?

I couldn't tell.

When babies are born, their eyes are incredibly undeveloped. The entire world was a blur to me. It wasn't quite colour blindness, but the easiest thing to see was the stark contrast between light and dark. I could see shapes and edges but the world looked incredibly confusing.

I was scared. Terrified. I didn't know what was happening. I could hear, yes, but not understand what was being said. Had I suffered brain damage? Did I have aphasia? The thought terrified me. I can think few worse fates that to be trapped with no method of communication to the world around me.