Pakin sat with his head cradled in his hands, as he worked through a tangle of thoughts in his mind.

  That’s the piece I’ve been missing. I don’t live in the Kingdom of Lightning, it’s the Land of Lightning. The Life Force/Spiritual Energy that the old Pakin was leaking was Chakra. The difference connotations of the word village between our rural village and a ninja village. The Japanese aesthetics and familiar symbols are all so familiar because I’ve seen them before. He felt himself spiraling. He needed something solid to grasp before he lost it, anything that could disprove the theory that was so outrageous it made his reincarnation into the body of a ten-year-old look normal. Maybe, if he asked Gera a question about the village she worked out of, he could save himself from drowning.

  Peeking out from between his fingers, he took in the scene playing out at the dining room table in his home.

  “I still can’t believe he said that in front of the whole village!” Gakin grinned as he spoke about Pakin’s outburst in the village hub, “What could’ve possessed you to say that, son?”

  Before Pakin could put together some kind of excuse, his mother came to the rescue.

  “He was just excited to see his dearest babysitter again!” Pakin let out the expected groan as Gera chuckled at the jab. Not finished embarrassing the men of her family, she pinned Gakin with a gaze. “But, don’t think I’m unaware of your ‘secret’ rule at the forge, my dearest. It’s not so secret when I’m in the back of the shop doing bookkeeping! You make Pakin recite it out loud every time you cuss in front of him at the forge, which is a lot.”

  Gakin managed to look accordingly chastened as he apologized and kissed his wife’s hand, swearing it would never happen again. Gera was thoroughly amused as she snickered at the family’s antics.

  “Really, don’t worry about it.” Gera made a dismissing motion with her hand. “It’s honestly the hardest I’ve laughed in a while. Plus, spreading word of your graciousness as hosts will surely wipe the memory from everyone’s mind.” Pakin highly doubted that. Fuwayama was small enough that even the dullest news was passed around for weeks.

  Feeling the conversation drop into a lull, Pakin decided now was his chance to ask the question.

  “Uh Gera, ca-ca-can I ask you about a ninja thing?” He stammered out.

  “Of course, dude! I’d been wondering why you hadn’t.You were starting to make me feel like I wasn’t the village's shining star for a moment.” Gera smiled at her joke, “Fire away, little man.”

  “What’s the name of your ninja village?” His hands lowered from his face to his chair, and he sat on them to stop them from shaking.

  “Kumogakure no Sato, but most people just call it Kumo. Also it's not just my ninja village, it's everyone’s ninja village. All us fancy ninjas” She pointed at her headband “train and work hard to keep everyone in the Land of Lightning safe.”

  The rush of panic Pakin had been expecting never came. Instead, a calm certainty washed over him, a simple acknowledgment of his circumstances.

  Yeah. I’m in Naruto.

  “Cool.” He breathed out as the tension seemed to leave his body. The tangle of thoughts was still present, but the anxiety was gone.

  “Yeah. It is pretty cool.” Gera gave him an assessing look, and he figured he wasn’t acting like much of an eleven-year-old.

  So, he let Pakin’s instincts take over as he thought of a few more questions to ask his cool babysitter-turned-ninja.

  “What’s it like going on missions?”

  Gera considered the question for a few seconds before answering.

  “ Usually it feels pretty good. I like getting to help folks, and I like getting to put my skills to the test. So, when things go right, I feel pretty good.”

  “Makes sense. What about when things don’t go right?” He didn’t know why, but Pakin just let the inappropriate question come straight out.

  “Pakin.” A crease grew on Gakin’s face as he frowned at his son. “Let’s not ask Gera such ugly questions when she’s just gotten home. I'll tell you about it later, but ninjas-”

  “Gakin.” Gera interjected, “It’s okay. He asked, so he probably already knows.”

  Gakin nodded, albeit reluctantly, as Gera turned and locked eyes with Pakin for the second time that day.

  The two engaged in a sort of staring contest, Gera’s eyes searched for something within Pakin’s. After a few tense moments, she seemed to find what she was looking for and nodded. Pakin couldn’t tell if it was to him or herself.

  “That’d take a long time to answer Pakin. I’m sure you have a few other questions like that.” She jerked a thumb over her shoulder. “Tell you what, let me have a grown-up conversation with your parents, and you wait out back. We’ll go for a late-night stroll, and you can pepper me with questions. Sound good?”

  “Okay.” Pakin got up, grabbed his heavy coat from the rack, and exited through the back door to brave the cold winter night outside.

  While living in Fuwayama, he’d gotten used to the cold that comes with living at high altitudes. That didn’t stop him from shivering as he moved out from under the porch to stare at the galaxy of stars above.

  Stepping away from the conversation, let Pakin really examine his thoughts and the strange state of his mind. He wasn’t happy with learning he was in Naruto World. Or did they just call it Earth? In fact, it was quite the opposite. He was rather upset.

  The world of Naruto was not a safe place. Giant tailed beasts destroyed whole cities in one night. Crazed, snake-person weirdos tampered with the laws of life and death. Secret societies plotted the downfall of nations and started world wars. Children were raised to fight as trained killers and sent out to either die or complete their missions.

  He remembered it all from one lazy, high school summer during his old life. He’d binged all of the original Naruto and about half of Shippuden. He’d always planned to finish, but other things had taken priority.

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  Who knew I’d be kicking myself over not spending my nights watching anime?

  Even if he did know how the series ended, he had no clue where he was in relation to those events. Also, he was two countries away from where the main plot took place. He didn’t remember getting to see much, if anything, about Kumogakure and Lightning until Shippuden. So, he couldn’t even begin to guess whether he was in the original anime or Shippuden.

  Maybe that was good? Perhaps the main story would stay in Fire and leave him and his new life alone.

  No. They’ll be coming here eventually, plus if shit is going down over there it’s probably no better in Kumo.

  This world wasn’t a TV show. That meant that even if everything was mild in Kumo, the tempest building in Konoha would have knock-on effects that would reach his happy little home on the border of the Land of Lightning. The more he thought about it, the more unsure he became. What if he were just in a world very similar to the one from Naruto? Then he’d have no clue what was going on and still potentially get turned into just another civilian casualty in some war between ninjas.

  It was all too much for the little blacksmith’s son standing in his hometown full of goats.

  “Whatcha thinkin’ about?” The words tickled his face as someone whispered directly in his ear.

  Pakin let out a screech as he jumped sideways in fright.

  Gera hadn’t made a single noise as she’d snuck right beside him and leaned in close enough to whisper in his ear. Had he really been so deep in his own thoughts that he didn’t hear the door open?

  No.

  “Right, ninja, sneaky.” Pakin said as he tried to rub the tingling sensation out of the right side of his face.

  Gera had donned a heavy coat similar to Pakin’s, made from goat leather and sheep’s wool. She stood smiling, clearly enjoying her prank, and motioned with her head towards the trail leading out the back of the property. “Let’s go.” That was all she said.

  Pakin just stuck his hands into his coat pockets, let out a sigh, and followed.

  They walked in silence for a good while. Pakin wasn’t sure how long, but they’d followed the trail out to the long flat meadows that ran above Fuwayama. Folks would bring their goats here in the spring to save on feed and encourage the herds to mingle.

  Right now, a carpet of snow obscured the ground below. It glittered beautifully in the starlight, and Pakin decided to come back and see it again some other time.

  Gera led him across the field, right up to the tree line. They walked until they came upon a shrine and a bench that had both seen better days. They stopped, and Gera smiled at the old shrine, but it was different from the one she’d worn since returning to the village.

  She walked up to the shrine and knelt down in front of it. Pakin joined her and offered a small prayer to the unidentifiable deity inside. She took a little longer than he did, but once she was done, they both moved over to the bench once she was done. She wiped the detritus from a spot and plopped down onto the bench. Pakin did the same, but with more respect for the object's age.

  “So, how was your midnight walk with your old babysitter?” She wiggled her eyebrows playfully.

  “It’s been alright.” He replied “Would’ve been better if you were a little taller, I don’t think I like short girls.”

  That got him a couple, surprisingly painful, slaps on the back as they both laughed. He didn’t know why, but something about Gera made him want to drop his childish facade.

  “Okay kid, we’re out here, so ask your questions.”

  “What did you and my parents talk about?”

  “That's a secret… for now.” She pulled a carton out of her pocket, and with a blur of movement, she stuck a cigarette in her mouth and lit it faster than his eyes could track. She took a deep drag, then blew out the smoke in one long stream.

  “Nice trick. How’d you get those? Aren’t you, like, sixteen?” Pakin asked. He remembered seeing a sign in the local general store prohibiting the sale of tobacco to anyone under 18.

  She finished a second, shorter puff before answering, “I’m a soldier. There are special rules for us.” She flicked her cigarette before stating, “That was easy. I didn’t take you out here for easy questions, Pakin.”

  “To be fair, you never answered my first one.” He knew now why he’d asked that question. Gera had come face to face with the violent reality of his new world, and he wanted to know what it looked like.

  “ ‘What do missions look like when they go bad’ right?” Her cigarette crackled, and she let out another long puff of smoke.

  He nodded, and she stared at what was left of her cigarette, hanging between her fingers.

  “It depends, when shit goes tits up it looks different depending on the mission. If it’s a chore run, or a delivery, or rescuing a cat from a tree, usually it’s because I did something stupid or got called into a special operation. That usually looks like a slap on the wrist or stern talking to from my platoon commander if I did something stupid.”

  “Makes sense. I didn’t know ninjas did everyday stuff like that.” He did, from the show, but it was easy to forget with all the other stuff that happened.

  “Jobs a job, and we can’t always be out doing sneaky ninja stuff.” She smiled at her own joke, but Pakin noted that it looked strained. “However, when we are doing the sneaky ninja stuff, tits up can mean a lot of things but usually it shakes out one of three ways.” Finishing her cigarette, she pulled a cute portable ashtray from her pocket. It had cats and sakura leaves on it.

  She held up her index finger on her right hand. “First, I get some scars and learn a few lessons I will never forget.” Her middle finger rose to join her index. “Second, someone I know dies. Sometimes I cry, sometimes I feel numb, sometimes I scream and hit things. But, like the first, I never forget.” Her ring finger came up next. “Third, I die. Hasn’t happened yet, but I’ve been told to avoid it if I can.”

  Her hand dropped limply into her lap, and she didn’t smile at her joke that time.

  “I see. Thanks for telling me.” It seemed insufficient, but it’s all he could think to say in response.

  “No problem.” Her head was upturned looking at the sky as she said it, but Pakin felt like her vision was probably somewhere farther than that.

  “Alright, my turn.” Some of her irreverence returned with the statement. “What happened to you? You seemed like a pretty happy-go-lucky kid last I remembered. It’s pretty extraordinary considering your circumstances at the time, but now that you’re cured, that pep in your step is nowhere to be seen. What’s the deal?”

  Pakin let out a long sigh as she finished her question. I wish I was old enough to ask her for one of those cigarettes. He’d never smoked in his previous life, but suddenly found the thought very appealing.

  He knew he couldn’t come out and tell her the whole truth, she’d either brand him as psychotic or she’d feel like he was fucking with her. That didn’t feel fair given what she’d just shared with him. So, he figured a partial truth would work.

  “Did they tell you what happened that day?”

  Gera shook her head in the negative.

  “Well, everyone else thinks I played too hard in the snow with a couple of other boys and passed out. Someone got my dad, and he carried me to Dr.Kucha’s clinic. Dr.Kucha made sure I was okay and ran some tests just to be doubly sure I was fine. Results came back, and miraculously I was healed. No more Chakra Wasting. No more limited lifespan. The kids I was playing with came to apologize. One of them cried so hard, I think he almost threw up.”

  Pakin thought he should be feeling some sort of trepidation about what he was about to say, but none appeared. So he continued.

  “That’s not what happened, at least from my perspective. I didn’t pass out in the snow that day. I died. I know it because I felt it. I died and somehow it didn’t stick. I don’t know if that’s what cured the Chakra Wasting or if it was pure coincidence, but what’s more important is that my whole world changed that day.” He turned to look at Gera, and this time he was the one searching for something in her eyes.

  “Now I feel like I’m much older than eleven, and I’m not too sure what to do about that.”

  Pakin searched Gera's eyes and saw understanding.