Karura played with Temari and Kankurō while Chiyo went to talk to some older people at the picnic tables. Jiraiya quickly found himself surrounded by women as he regaled them with tales of his adventures. The Leaf village had a policy that once a publicly offered mission had been completed, unless otherwise stated the shinobi is allowed to talk about it with anyone they want. The rules used to be stricter but Shinobi discussing missions with their families and an attempt to look more friendly to the public at the end of the day won out in hopes of driving up revenue.
Most of Jiraiya’s stories were about bodyguard missions. Guarding a princess from assassins, protecting a wealthy merchant from mountain bandits, preventing a spy from infiltrating a fancy party. It was fun watching how Jiraiya changed his tales to better suit the tastes of his audience.
Listening to Jiraiya while I scanned the horizon made me take stock in my own stories I could tell. The fact that I was a reincarnated IT worker from another world was interesting, to say the least, but was also something I long ago decided to keep to myself. I turned 25 just last month making it that I had lived longer in this world than my last.
Early in my childhood, I wrote down as much as I thought useful from my previous life. As much as I could remember about the Naruto manga, technology, and fan theories, but I regretted not writing down more. I wish I had written about culture and my own life. Names of the people important to me, places I had been to, and wish I could have gone. The smells, sounds, and tastes from my former life.
Every once in a while I’m walking down the street or in my office, lying down for bed and it hits me, for just a moment I can recall a feeling of something innocuous. New car smell, the taste of New York pizza, the sound of a bat hitting a baseball. Out of the blue, it hits me like a truck and just as quickly fades away. I try to grab hold but like cupping water in my hands, it only delays the inevitable.
When I discovered what had happened to me and the world I was now living in, I freaked out a little. Thankfully a weird kid at an orphanage is not an unusual sight. Chakra came easily to me letting me get private housing in the village. Spending my whole previous life without chakra just to be sent to a world bathed in the stuff made chakra obvious to me.
“Keep making a face like that young man and you are going to look older than me,” Chiyo said as she sat down besides me on a beach recliner.
“Sorry, thinking about…stuff. Weren’t you talking to your friends?”
“Friends! Those old bags of bones? I can’t stand the guts of half of them, No when you’re my age it’s basically just roll call on who's still alive and kicking. Can’t really talk to any of them for too long. Any topic we come up with has been discussed to death and we are too old and stubborn to change our minds on anything meaningful.”
Chiyo leaned back on the recliner and let out a sigh of relief. Without looking at me she told me to make shade for her so I cast an earth jutsu to make a Minecraft-inspired beach umbrella. “Karura is right, you do have useful tricks up your sleeves. So you going to talk to me about the “stuff” you were thinking about or are we just going to sit here in awkward silence?”
With a huff, I spoke “I was thinking about regrets.”
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“Ahh, Yes, Any shinobi worth their headband got plenty of those lying around. Anything specific or just life in general?”
“General mostly. If I can point out one thing…I don’t think I’m as strong as I should be. In the past…I was too weak to make a real notable difference. Theirs a saying called the butterfly effect. That even something as small as a butterfly flapping its wings can eventually make a hurricane.”
“And you’re wondering where’s your hurricane?” Chiyo says as she waves at the beach and surrounding greenery.
“Yeah, I know. I was bragging about this to Jiraiya earlier. I was just moping I didn’t get my “Hurricane” sooner. A lot of…A lot of people would still be here if…if a lot of things.”
“Hmm, I can see that.” The silence loomed over the both of us for a few moments before Chiyo started again. “When you first came to this village two years ago, I confronted you. I asked what you hope to accomplish being in this village. Do you remember what you responded with?”
“I remember you being a fair bit ruder than what you just described.”
“Minor details, You responded with that you wanted to see what could be accomplished if two villages set aside their disagreements and used our ability to harness the power of chakra to create, rather than destroy. That was the goal you set out to accomplish, and look at where we are now. Back then I thought you were a naive fool but in two short years and one ugly family dispute you helped rectify, I know now I was a fool for doubting you.”
Chiyo leaned up from her seat and looked at me. “You share that same dream many shinobi have. The wish to grow stronger but unlike most who wish to protect or destroy you wish to create. You should be proud of what you have accomplished. Regrets come with the headband but don’t let them drown you. Focusing on the regrets diminishes your accomplishments and lessens the importance of the people you help. As medical ninja, we have both saved hundreds of people but we rarely think about the lives that are here but the ones we lost.”
Taking a moment to let Chiyo’s words sink in I nodded my head, “Thank you, It means a lot to hear you say that.” My mood improved a little as I looked at the smiling villagers walking around under the desert sun without a care in the world. Shops had opened around the lake selling beach supplies and ice cream. It was still a ninja village but a lot of the underlying darkness that used to loom over people receded into the shadows.
My good mood also receded when I spotted the hurried-looking messenger making a quick pace towards Jiraiya’s and my direction. The man's pace was a brisk power walk but the shinobi looked like he wanted to go faster but the crowd hindered him. A quick guess told me that something had happened and I was to be told immediately but the fact he didn’t have guards with him nor was he running says that I wasn’t in trouble nor was there an emergency. I’m the ambassador of the Leaf Village, a fuinjutsu expert, and an above-average medical ninja. Either something has happened in the Leaf Village, or perhaps a barrier issue has popped up and my knowledge is needed.
I waved down Jiraiya who reluctantly untangled his arms from so newly disappointed ladies and moved to intercept the messenger. “The Kazekage has sent me to escort you and Lord Jiraiya to his office, there has been an incident.” The man said with a grim look painted on his face.
“Any details, Should I bring anything?”
“It’s best you hear it from the Kazekage.”
Jiraiya walked up behind me “Something happened?”
“Still finding out, we need to go with this guy to the Kazekage office.”
Jiraiya looked the sand shinobi up and down before responding.“Well, let’s not keep the man waiting.”
***
I wanted to speak, shout, do anything but I just stood in the Kazekage office like a statue. I’ve spent 25 years in this world, trying to make an impact. The biggest tragedy in Naruto. The event that kicks off the fates of countless shinobi, so many lives have been lost and will be lost because of this, and I failed to stop it.
I wasn’t even in the village when it happened. I chose to come to the Sand knowing that this could happen. Minato shook my hand and looked me in the eye and wished me good luck at the gates of the village before he was coronated.
Rasa stared at me with an expression that gave nothing away while my mind went a mile a minute. My brain flooded with ideas of ways I could have prevented this from happening but another voice in my head shouted, saying I needed to do something, to stop gawking and to take action.
I turned to Jiraiya who I could tell, mentally, was in another place. I put my hand on his shoulder and spoke before I even knew what I was going to say. “Give me two hours to pack up, I’ll have us home by nightfall.” Jiraiya made a sound of acknowledgment as I left the office.
As I closed the door I knew I should have thanked Rasa for the news and asked to leave not just the office but the village itself but my mind was too busy. I tried to distract myself with the logistics of packing up my apartment slash office but the news kept hitting me like ocean waves. I failed, The nine tails escaped its seal, and Minato, the fourth hokage died defending the village.