Chapter Text
Naruto was skipping down the streets of Konoha, tiny three-year-old legs bouncing him down the road. He ignored all the glares and harsh whispers that followed him wherever he went. Slipping behind the Yamanaka flower shop, he decided to watch the ninjas practicing in the nearby training grounds. He noticed a tall blonde man making a strange hand sign and stopped short, watching the man with as much focus as he could, the look of concentration on his face was so out of place that if anyone were to see it they would think the child an imposter. Naruto had recently learned that hand signs were what made jutsu work. Naruto had been saved from a mob not too long ago by a silvered haired man wearing a mask, who had then let him cuddle with some puppies. That had inspired Naruto to want to be a ninja as well.
The man had used a cool water jutsu on his mob and ever since Naruto had been on the lookout for jutsu he could do. And here his chance was, an easy hand sign for him to do. So the young boy rushed home to the building his Jiji gave him. Currently, there were five other people living in his building, masked like the silver-haired man had been. They were kind and took care of them in their own awkward way. But Jiji had let Naruto be his own homeowner, so no one could try to kick him out like they did at the orphanage.
Once Naruto finally got home, he rushed into his apartment and noticed it had been cleaned by someone. Naruto jumped up onto his couch, sat cross-legged and got ready to test out his new jutsu. After hours of trying to get the hand sign to do something, Naruto was hungry and frustrated so he finally made the sign just one last time, putting every bit of energy his body contained into it. Surprisingly he started glowing, blue light surrounding him with wisps of red floating by.
And suddenly there was an explosion and Naruto was blacking out.
Naruto awoke in what looked like a sewer. The air was stale and the water was slimy against his feet and ankles. Naruto turned around in shock, the way behind him was closed off. He started running, wanting with all his might to get out of there. It was dark and he never liked the darkness.
He stopped when he came to a large cavern-like room. Pipes were everywhere, along the floor and crawling up the walls and spread across the ceiling. He noticed there was a woman standing in front of a giant cage. Long red hair down her back and a black kimono with silver and gold koi swimming across the fabric lazily. The woman turned around, pale skin and wide brown eyes looking down at Naruto in sorrow. “I am truly sorry for what is to come, but I am here now. I will do everything I can to help you, only if you will let me.”
Naruto looked up in confusion. Where were they and why was this pretty woman, in a beautiful kimono, in this sewer. And why was there a cage looming behind her? “Hey hey, Nee-chan, why are you here? Where is here?” Naruto questioned, she hadn’t looked at him like most of the villagers did and that made her a good person in his opinion.
The woman looked surprised before letting out a soft snort as she came forward, resting her hand onto of Naruto’s sunshine bright locks, gently scratching his scalp. “My name is… Hakuoh, and this is your mind.”
Naruto couldn’t help but look around in disgust, why was his mind a sewer?
“Don’t worry about that for now, we will work on changing it in time. The first thing I want you to do is to imagine a couch or some chairs for us to sit on.” Hakuoh instructed, guiding the young boy when he asked questions on how to do it until they were finally sitting across from each other in a pair of uncomfortable wooden chairs, both an obnoxious orange. Hakuoh couldn’t help but smile fondly at the young boy.
“Using an unknown jutsu was really foolish Naruto, but I can’t help but think in this case it was a good thing. However, promise me you will never do something like that again.” Hakuoh stared at the toddler until he finally blushed and looked down at his dangling feet, mumbling a Yes Nee-chan , before looking back up at the person across from him in curiosity. After a few seconds, the pretty lady nodded to herself, as if gathering her thoughts.
"First off, you wanted to know why I am here, and to be honest I don't know how I got here other than you using that jutsu just now. I…" the lady paused for a moment, seeming to think over her words. "I'm not sure how to explain it, to be honest, but I come from somewhere very far away."
"Like outside the village?" Naruto asked, jumping up and down in his seat. He had always wondered what kind of things were to be found outside of the giant walls of the village. His Jiji had read him stories about places all around the world, of adventures and heroes. It was part of why Naruto longed to be a ninja, so people would see him as a hero.
"A lot farther than that I'm afraid. But I know a lot about you, and now that I'm here I'm definitely gonna help you as much as I can." She promised as she grinned at him. She had a dimple in each cheek that only showed when she smiled. Naruto also noticed that there was a lot of spot like things that covered her nose as well as her cheeks. Naruto had never seen spots like that before. But he wasn't thinking about that too much. He was more interested in the fact that she said she was gonna help him. Did that mean she didn't hate him?
The lady frowned, moving to kneel in front of his chair. She placed a hand on each of his knees. "Of course I don't hate you Naru-chan, I know we don’t know each other yet, but I care about you. And I know the village is full of people who are mean to you because they are afraid. But I’m not afraid, got it?" She said, a promise in her every word as she slowly wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tight to her chest. Naruto couldn’t help as he started to tear up, burying his chubby face into her slender neck, the scent of ozone and jasmine on her skin.
Hakuoh allowed the boy to hold on as long as he needed, had wanted someone to allow the young boy this for so long.
Hakuoh hadn’t always been called that, but when they realized where they were, they had taken up the name, finding it fitting. Hakuoh had once lived in a world very different from this. A world where this one had been nothing but a story. Where Naruto had been a story written by Masashi Kishimoto, and they had grown up with it, anxiously waiting for each new installment. Not only that, but they had read a multitude of fanfiction, some of which were self-inserts as well as multiple time travel fix-it fics. But Hakuoh had never thought they would find themself in the middle of one of their favorite fictional universes.
Hakuoh was too lazy to accomplish anything if they were stuck in the kind of fic where the original character took over Naruto’s body. They would have probably just spent all their days hiding under henge and hoping their fate wasn't the same as in canon. But this could work, here Hakuoh could help with the things that needed them the most. Naruto needed someone to be there for him, even if it was just the voice of a dead person from another world. But Hakuoh could also use their knowledge to help the future, to save all the characters who had tragic lives in canon. She wasn’t far enough back to save Sakumo, Obito, Rin, Minato, or Kushina. But there was Hizashi, the Uchiha, Itachi, and even Shisui. And if they were very very lucky they would be able to save Obito, Nagato, and Konan. They deserved so much better than Kishimoto gave them. So many of the characters (no, people, Hakuoh corrected) they had come to consider precious.
And Hakuoh would do anything they could to help. If that meant getting Naruto to try the many training cheats they had read in fanfiction or to use their knowledge of the future to ruin everyone's plans. They would do it.