Risa yawned, her brain feeling fuzzy as she snuggled into the warmth surrounding her, pulling the blanket further around herself. Her pillow was strangely warm and firmer than she remembered. Old Risa had loved cuddling up to it whenever she read.
She paused.
That was right... she wasn't Lilly anymore. She was Risa. Her small hands moved, pulling at the curiously soft fabric covering her heated mattress, her confusion growing as she tried to piece things together.
What had happened again?
The memories of earlier came back in a rush.
Waking up. The orphanage. Naruto. Drowning. Kurama. Inner... and Senju Tobirama?
Sounds of pages being turned broke through the stillness, the feeling of eyes on her making her hairs stand on end. She'd barely noticed it up until that moment, but something became increasingly obvious the longer she lay there.
Her mattress was moving.
Not very much, but the motion was there... and it was regular, almost as if it were breathing...
Her fingers dug in, her brain freezing as she patted the mattress again, examining it curiously with her hands. She needed to figure out where the hell she was, and her eyes felt like they were glued shut, so touching her apparent new mattress was one of the few methods she could think of to work out what was going on. Her palms padded against hard muscle, her brain short-circuiting as she realised exactly what it was she had her hands on.
Were those abs?
Really nice ones?
'Get your mind out of the gutter, idiot.' Inner's voice blared out in her mind, and something told Risa she'd have to get used to her strange, slightly more mature personality doing that. She'd no doubt get bored, stuck inside her mind with nothing to do. Though Risa would admit, she didn't mind the company. It felt nice to have someone to talk to about everything... someone she wouldn't have to hide from... even if it seemed she had the personality of a middle-aged man. 'You're far too young to be thinking about things like that.'
Shut up.
Risa stiffened, hands tentatively pushing at the seemingly living mattress as she pushed herself up onto her elbows, knees digging in. Her eyes cracked open, sleep lining them as she peered around the room she was lying in.
It was the visiting room of the orphanage, technically, where all the adoption paperwork was supposedly signed when new budding parents came along. It was sparsely furnished, simple cream wallpaper, wooden floor, two sofas, a coffee table and a nice blue rug. Though there were two sources of buzzing, two chakras which almost drowned out the noise of all the other ones nearby, one of which she was lying on top of. Presumably to keep her warm and keep an eye on her at the same time. She doubted anybody would be stupid enough to just leave a toddler unattended after they'd just had a nice unplanned swim in a freezing lake. That would just be idiotic and asking for trouble.
"Nii-san, did you just get felt up by a toddler?"
Her sleep-crusted gaze honed in on the owner of that voice, eyes narrowing on the figure.
Black hair. Moderately long bangs on either side of his face, a choppy fringe covering the rest of his forehead. Ponytail. A face which could be mistaken for a girl's, but the voice couldn't. He was definitely a male. Which meant there was only one clan it could possibly be...
Uchiha?
"Izuna..."
The body she was lying on rumbled, black eyes flickering over to glare into the matching set as her mattress put his newspaper to one side.
Izuna?
Risa blinked, taking a few moments to mull over that name and the ridiculously spikey hair of the man she'd been lying on.
As in... Uchiha Izuna, brother of THE Uchiha Madara.
Dammit, why were the Uchiha so pretty? Why did they get all the good genes in the Naruto world? Though, more importantly, why the hell had the scary Uchiha been acting as her pillow and mattress rolled into one? Not that she was saying he didn't do a good job at it, but—
She froze, thinking over what had just happened, realisation striking in seconds.
Oh God... She'd just had her hands on his abs.
Sure, they'd been covered by that blue high-collared mantle he'd always seemed to wear in canon, but still...
No. Bad Risa.
She was three-years-old technically, which meant she wasn't supposed to be thinking about things like abs and other body parts. Heck, she probably wasn't even supposed to know what most of her body did or have an unfounded attraction to nice ones... but unfortunately, or fortunately, she didn't quite have the mentality of a three-year-old. Sure, she was as cheerful and happy-go-lucky as one, but she could still be serious when she needed to be... and a tinsy bit perverted too.
A soft smile lit up her face. She liked this distraction... it helped her not to think about the chaos her life had become... helped her to feel a little more ordinary. Well, as ordinary as one could feel in a world of rampaging forty-story tall monsters and the tiny squiggles which could seal them.
Besides, it wasn't like it was everyday you got to nap on top of one of the main villains of the Naruto series, so Risa was totally just making the most of it. Totally.
She mentally shrugged.
Inner could not judge her for this. Not in the slightest.
'On the contrary, I can and I will,' Inner added snootily, reminding her that she could hear everything Risa thought.
She could never hide anything from Inner.
'Correct, so don't even bother.'
Risa sighed, head falling back down to rest against the warmth that was Uchiha Madara's chest region, ignoring the curious eyes she could feel on her as she thought over exactly what it was she was witnessing. Uchiha Madara and his brother had not only both seemingly survived the Warring Clans Era, but somehow they were still wandering around looking like they hadn't aged a day since then. She wasn't going to stress about the details. Not yet, at least. She had far too much to cackle manically about before driving herself into unconsciousness via any means necessary. Her head was already hurting. But the way she saw it... She was in the ninja world. People could breathe fire, seal gigantic beasts away with weird scribbles, and move faster than the speed of light without breaking the sound barrier.
Looking into all those interesting new topics was something she had to look forwards to, despite the headache it would no doubt bring. She needed to look forwards to something.
She'd already somewhat come to terms with the fact that she was in a strange new world which didn't line up with the manga it was supposedly from. Things were different.
She was also, by all rights, a toddler to the rest of her new and downright terrifying world. One who shouldn't even know what the words 'felt up' actually meant. A grin almost twisted at her lips. She was totally going to play the cluelessness up to the max, and act like the sweet adorable three-year-old she was on the outside. 'That's what I've been trying to tell you to do...' Inner reminded, and Risa could just picture her sitting on the edge of her seat, ready to watch the show unfold. Carefully, she sat up, slowly pulling herself off what had been a rather comfy pillow, wincing as her feet slapped onto the cold wooden flooring.
"Seems the munchkin is finally awake," Izuna said with a foxy grin, crouching down till he was on her level.
Risa tilted her head, an odd form of playfulness welling up inside her, perhaps due to her new childlike form... or maybe it was to do with the apparent merging of Lilly's and Old Risa's personalities. "Ojisan... What does 'felt up' mean?"
Rather than shying away from the question, like she'd expected, he slung an arm gently around her tiny shoulders. "Well, when a man and a woman like each other a lot—"
"Izuna." Madara's voice rang out again, sharper that time, eyes narrowed on his younger brother.
"Aww." He pouted. "You never let me have any fun, nii-san."
"Take her back to Hashirama's brat," he ordered, ignoring his brother as he picked his newspaper back up, covering his face from view. "She wanted to check up on the child once she woke up."
"You do know the Labrador will be in here in seconds once he finds out you no longer have an excuse to ignore the rest of the kiddies," Izuna said, ignoring the confused face Risa was wearing as she glanced between their apparent argument like a meerkat.
What the hell were they on about?
Labrador? What did a dog have to do with anything?
No. She shook her head. No more questions... she couldn't take much more before she hit boiling point... and she didn't particularly want to start laughing hysterically in front of anyone... seeing as how she'd be living around them for the foreseeable future.
"Come on then, munchkin," Izuna spoke, grabbing her tiny hand in his much larger one, pulling her out of the room and into a far more familiar one.
One that was filled with noisy toddlers and various other small children. They were giggling and doing other annoying things too. Things Risa was in no way shape or form going to take part in.
Finger painting?
So last year.
Building blocks?
No thank you.
Jigsaw puzzles?
Maybe, if there were actually any that were more than six pieces.
"Tsu-chan!" Izuna all but sung, skipping towards a tall, extremely well-endowed woman with blonde hair tied back in two familiar ponytails. He looked oddly happy, the smile on his lips out of place when she considered the scowls his older brother had sent his way.
Risa was quite quickly beginning to wonder what on earth had happened to the younger Uchiha brother, pushing away all the different questions which arose. There was a time and place to deal with those – and it wasn't there. The anime had portrayed him so differently... but then she hadn't seen much of his life outside of the numerous battles. He was just so cheery for an Uchiha and he spoke in actual full sentences rather than just grunting.
Then again, Madara hadn't once said 'hn' yet.
Yet.
Tsunade sighed, looking oddly fed up as she turned to face them. Risa could hardly blame her – she'd probably be annoyed if she had to put up with the obnoxious bundle of Uchiha happiness. Madara hadn't deigned to make an appearance with them, having stayed back in the nice quiet room. She kind of wish she'd just stayed there. No doubt it was a bit awkward, using the man as a mattress, but it was quiet and it would've stayed that way. There wouldn't have been any screams or yells deafening her, and she probably could've just moved to the other sofa and started reading. Of course, the universe just had to decide Izuna would be there to take her away from the small piece of solace she'd found.
"She's awake then."
Risa's eyebrow rose. Was it not obvious enough?
"Come on then, brat," she said, turning away, walking off down towards the room where all the first aid equipment was kept. Risa followed, not bothering to watch as Izuna went back to play with the rest of the kids. For an orphanage, the equipment they had on hand to deal with injuries was oddly plentiful. No doubt it was thanks to Tsunade. She'd always been pushing medicine forwards, especially with the hospital in Konoha, only now it seemed to apply to her new place of residence too. Well, it could only be a bonus for her. If she'd had to survive off a few plasters and no antibacterial, she'd probably wind up with an infection in a matter of weeks, with all the cuts and scrapes she was no doubt going to get from her self-inflicted training. Her luck seemed to have failed her the minute she entered Risa's body – her body, now. Falling into an ice covered lake only proved her point.
Though she couldn't deny the satisfaction she got from having the Kurama stuck inside her mindscape.
Wait.
What did her seal look like? Was it similar to how Naruto's was? Would it let her use fluffy chakra? And, more importantly, did she have the healing factor and the boost in reserves?
That could quite possibly save her life if she did... though she supposed it was all down to what seal had been used. The gates looked exactly like the ones from the anime, so it was possible the Eight Trigrams Sealing Style had been used. Risa paused, her brain working overtime, and Inner noticed. She was far too close to breaking point as it was.
'The Eight Trigrams Sealing Style belonged to the Uzumaki...'
But had Uzushio been destroyed in this time?
That was the real question. Apparently the Founders were alive this time around, and that could've changed everything.
'Stop worrying about these things, Outer,' Inner said, sighing deeply. 'When we're old enough to toddle about the village we can go and look up the history section in the library. We can look forwards to finding out all that information in the future... we just need to be patient for now – adjust.'
Risa smiled.
Inner had her back.
'Damn straight.'
"Most brats don't smile when they come into this room, you know." Tsunade stood in front of her, staring down at her with a calculated gleam in her warm brown eyes. It was strange, comparing how she looked in the anime, and how she looked in real life. For one, her proportions were no longer obscene, though she was still incredibly pretty. No wonder young girls were always saying they wanted to be like her. Skilled and beautiful.
'Turn off your inner pervert, already, Outer.'
I am not perverted! Risa hissed back. Just because you can't appreciate the finer things in life...
'Seems like you've inherited all the perviness from Lilly. I'm rather glad I got away without that part of her personality.'
Risa rolled her eyes, mentally of course. She wouldn't dare do that in front of a woman who could kill her with a flick of her finger. She did have some survival instincts buried in that brain of hers, no matter how much of it was occupied with coming to terms with her weird situation.
"Now. Lift up that shirt," Tsunade ordered, yanking her back to reality. And what a reality it was... "I need to make sure that lake water didn't have any adverse effects."
She did as she was told. Something in the older woman's tone told her it was best to obey. That and the fact the blonde was probably the strongest kunoichi alive.
Not for long.
The thought arose without much prompting, her mind having already come to the conclusion of what she needed to do if she wanted to survive... no matter how hard it was. Risa set her jaw, glaring determinedly at the wall.
She was going to do it.
Her lips wobbled. She wasn't some naïve little girl. She knew the risks. She knew she might die... might experience fates worse than death.
She was going to have to become a shinobi.
Her fists clenched. It wasn't like she could just remain an ignorant civilian. Not only would she regret it forever, but she could die far too easily. Risa had never liked being helpless. It wasn't in her. In fact, it was a vow she'd made as Lilly. She'd never be weak and helpless again... she'd never choose that path. Not voluntarily... and choosing to be a civilian was doing just that. She'd learnt self-defence as Lilly for a reason, because that was what it had taken to be regarded as strong in that world. As Risa, though, it was a completely different story.
She was going to have to kill.
Air rushed out from behind clenched teeth, heart pounding along with her brain as she made the connections – figured out what she needed to do.
Just so she could survive in this mad, mad world.
'Maybe out goal should be to promote world peace?' Inner chimed in, having sensed her distress. 'It might make it easier to survive in this insane world.'
Risa resisted the urge to snort.
Her? Bringing about world peace? Hardly.
'What's with the pessimistic attitude?' Inner asked, and Risa could just picture her resting her head on a hand. 'You're supposed to be the optimistic one, you know.'
"Right," Tsunade's voice pulled her out of her thoughts. "Looks like you're all good to go."
Risa nodded, jumping off the small bed she'd been sitting on. The less time she spent between those four small walls, the better. She didn't like the clinical smell of the cleaner used in places like that. It kept out the germs, yeah, but something about it unsettled her. Probably something from her memories from Before.
She couldn't keep calling them Lilly's.
They were hers too. They were simply from Before, just like Old Risa's were from After.
She didn't know the significance of the events separating the two. Those memories were still eluding her grasp, despite Inner's assurances that she was helping her too.
Risa wandered out of the room, turning sharply around the next corner, seeing stars as her head collided with something equally hard. Her back hit the floor, eyes staring blankly up at the ceiling as the pain sunk in, and she finally registered the miniscule buzzing of whoever was now lying opposite her. "Oww." She sat up, pushing herself to her feet, pausing when the small figure in front of her started crying. It was no wonder she hadn't been able to hear the girl's chakra, especially with the other much louder sounds going on around her.
Feet slapped against the wooden floor, a small figure rounding the corner, and she recognised him on sight. How could she not? A headful of spiky blonde locks, bright cerulean eyes and three whisker marks on each cheek.
Uzumaki Naruto.
Or rather Namikaze Naruto in this world.
"You OK?" He padded over to the pair of them, offering a hand to the fallen girl, pulling the slightly smaller girl to her feet.
The other girl rubbed her head, nodding frantically before she ran down the corridor, heading back to the noisy room.
Risa sighed.
It seemed her plan to avoid that room and everyone inside it wasn't going as well as it should've. Naruto proved that much.
"Hi," he chirped. "I'm Naruto, nice ta meetcha."
She nodded slowly. "Um, likewise..."
He tilted his head, spikes of hair swishing from side to side. "Like...wise?"
'Simple words, Outer,' Inner muttered. 'Simple words.'
Risa rolled her eyes. As if she needed to be reminded by her snarky Inner. "It means same. It's nice to meet you too," she said. Since when had likewise become a difficult word?
'Since now, you idiot.'
I love you too Inner, she whispered mentally, smiling as she got a slight chuckle back. Operation befriend mental construct was going well, though she wasn't sure she'd needed a plan for that in the first place. Inner had been friendly from the get-go. Though she'd have to start on Operation Fluffy later that night though. Kurama apparently couldn't communicate with her outside of her mindscape, it seemed. Either that or he was ignoring her, but she doubted it was the latter.
Why on earth would Rama-nii-chan want to ignore her?
"We should head back," Naruto said, grabbing her by the hand before she could make a speedy getaway, dragging her back towards the sounds of yelling and annoying giggles. She was not looking forwards to this. Not in the slightest. Scowling, she let herself be dragged out of the darkened corridor and into the bright room. It was the play room crossed with the living room, where they all usually hung out when they weren't in their bedrooms. Not that she'd done much of that before. Not that she wanted to do any of it, if she was completely honest with herself.
Red eyes caught her own from across the room, a mop of silky white hair half covering them as Tsuki stared at her pleadingly. She was sitting by one of the table with a crayon in hand, looking almost as scared as Risa felt.
The buzzing in the room was ridiculous, and she pinpointed the source almost instantly.
Senju Hashirama.
Risa wanted to back into the corner quietly and pray he didn't notice her. It was already hard to breathe and he was still a good few metres away. God help her if he came any closer. Madara's chakra hadn't been anywhere near the level his was...
'He was probably supressing it,' Inner said, ever the voice of reason. 'I don't think ridiculously large amounts of chakra are good around kids... Haven't you noticed?'
Noticed what? she questioned.
'The chakra signals of all the shinobi around us. They feel muted.'
So why isn't his? she grumbled, biting her lip as Tsuki slid out of her chair. Risa froze. The source of that god-forsaken buzzing was moving closer, all thanks to Tsuki.
She was running towards her and bringing Hashirama along for the ride.
Though it seemed like she was ignoring him for one reason or another. Perhaps that was why he looked like a kicked puppy.
'She looks scared.'
Oh. Risa blinked in realisation. Tsuki was scared of him too, although it seemed she wasn't that much of a sensor. She was running without any problems. Risa, on the other hand, could hardly move her legs. Her body was rigid, instincts screaming at her to get the hell away from that man. He could kill her in an instant. Any of the shinobi in the room could, if she was completely honest, but with him the feeling was ten times worse.
Probably because of his unrestrained chakra.
"Anija!" Red eyes so similar to Tsuki's own glared at the brunette. "Supress your chakra – just like I told you to before we got here." He rolled his eyes as his elder brother rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "They're sensor types."
Risa stiffened.
Tobirama had figured her out in an instant.
Her brain blared the warning signals.
He was the one she'd have to be careful of while he was there at the orphanage. The infamous Senju genius. She bit her lip, meeting the dark eyes which peered at her curiously. Hashirama smiled gently, his expression apologetic before he turned back to his brother. "Where's Madara?"
"Where do you think?" Tobirama scowled.
Risa got the odd feeling he did that a lot.
The elder Senju was gone in a flash, voice ringing out down the halls as he yelled the name of his best friend. "MADARRAAA!"
Risa sighed. That was one problem dealt with. Her eyes flickered over to the white-haired man, before she spun to face her new friend who was still hiding behind her. "Whatcha want to do?"
Just a couple more hours, she told herself. Then they'd be gone.
She just needed to survive till then.