Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

I died again. Great.

In one life, Harper Moore got hit by a truck walking between campus and the cheap convenience store with the good instant ramen.

In another, Uzumaki Kazemi's eyes snapped open, all of two and a half years old, with the realization that she had been reborn. At least this time her hair looked like someone was committing arson, that was cool. 

Aged 39

Uzumaki Kushinada had always thought her daughter was a little off. She was just a little too quiet. A little too distant. Until one day, her eyes lit up, sharpening, and she truly began to bloom. And Kushinada had never been gladder. Her third child had worried her for years, and now she was finally beginning to become herself in a way. She stared around with open wonder and curiosity. She laughed, smiled, and played with her older siblings Ryujin and Kukurihime.

Aged 43

Uzumaki Kaito didn’t have as much time as he would like to spend with his family. He had to work from dawn ‘til dusk and barely had time to eat or sleep. But he always made time. He had the excuse of ‘heir lessons’ to spend time with his quiet little Hime, trying to build her confidence in her own public speaking. Someday she would have to take his place, but hopefully not for a few decades. He wanted her to be prepared, and at least twenty. He had only been a teenager when he had first begun to muddle his way through leading, and he didn’t wish that on anyone, let alone one of his dearest children. His second eldest, his son Ryujin, was loud and brash but exuded confidence and smiled freely, with innocence only children had. He had appeared sadder, now, though he did not know quite why. And little Kazemi, his baby daughter, with her sparking purple eyes and adorable little pouts and love for learning. She seemed to pick up kanji on her own, and he had been giving her harder and harder texts to see just how far she could make it on her own, before asking someone for help.

His job was hard, but the people he loved made it worth every second of hardship. He worked to protect his family, and he would continue to do so until the day he died.

Aged 7

Kukurihime had a lot on her plate. Her father was the head of Uzushiogakure, and someday the responsibility of leading would fall onto her shoulders. And she didn't feel like she'd ever be truly ready. Ryujin, her younger brother, was very charismatic and was beloved by all. And now that Kazemi had gotten past her shy stage she'd begun to show signs of being super smart. And in comparison, Kuri was just...average in comparison. But she was the oldest, and that meant she would do her best to rule. Because that was her job.

Aged 6

Ryujin couldn't do calligraphy. He didn't know what it was. He couldn't concentrate like his awesome older sister Kuri. He wasn't very smart either. He knew this. But still...it hurt when he realised he wasn't good at fuinjutsu like everyone else. Kazemi wasn't even three and she was already learning her kanji. He hadn't passed his hiragana and katakana until he was 4, and her hands were so small but already more stable than his. Kuri had managed to make her first seal when she was 3. And it had worked. He'd barely managed a paint bomb.

Aged 2.5

Kazemi read another book on fuinjutsu, her parents assuming she didn’t know most of her kanji yet. Unfortunately for them, she had learnt at least the basics in her previous life after spending a couple of months abroad in Japan to study AI and programming over the summer, allowing her to work her way through books on fuinjutsu she totally shouldn’t know about. She got along with her siblings, both were ridiculously smart if kids in her last life were any indicator. She hadn’t had any of her own, but her older brother Mark had a pair of 8 year old twins who were nowhere near as smart as Kuri or Ryu. They could do compound interest, squares and Kuri was even starting to learn factorization of all things.

Her mother was wonderful. At first, she’d looked at Kazemi sadly for some reason, whenever she thought she couldn’t see her. But she’d always smile and hug Kazemi. At time went on, those secret sad smiles had grown proud and happy. She took her to try new teas, and to see the ocean with whirlpools spiralling across the surface, a soft humming emitting from the seal covered walls, ink like endless kaleidoscopes painting the wall in an array of black.

She didn’t really see her father much in this life. He was always in his office, or in a meeting, and when he was at home it was to teach Kuri stuff in his study. But no matter how busy he was, every night, he’d come into her room to tuck her into bed and tell her that he loved her. Sometimes he’d even stay to tell her a story, with dark eyebags and a tired smile as he brushed her hair and sat by her. Whispers of dragons, and seals capable of creating other worlds, of the warring states era he had witnessed the last few years of, and of how much he loved her and their family as she drifted off into a restful sleep.

Kazemi was happy with her new life, even if she knew it wouldn’t last.

Chapter Text

Rainbow ink is a way of life. That’s the glorious truth I learned at age four. I had managed to dye my inks a plethora of colours, and oh the joy that had brought me. The colours were weirdly potent in basic seals, bright oranges made explosive seals far more powerful than expected, like I’d put them on steroids. The greens made wounds heal faster. For some reason, blue made flash bangs more flashy. There was no real correlation between the colours to be honest, but it was fun to figure out like a puzzle or algorithm for a language I hadn’t learned yet.

It was fascinating.

I drew my words carefully, embellishing the seal with the occasional logic gate or a little python code, because why not. After all, if I were to take no chances, I would make no progress, and no discoveries either. Naruto, meet Silicon Valley, chakra and programming, the most unhinged combination so far. The stuff I learned while interning is absolutely saving my ass here. No near death experiences mostly!

C++ was surprisingly useful for storage seals, while INTERCAL was burning in some grave somewhere, after trying to crawl its way out via my intrusive thoughts. I did, however, try to use COW as a joke, despite not knowing what any of the commands do. MOO MoO moO OOM am I right? They made for good fake seals to leave around outside of Uzushio, for unaware people to come across and attempt to use without truly understanding. Because, in every world, there is someone who is just that dumb. Don’t stick random USBs in your laptops, you will give them a virus. Especially if you find them on a beach. Or you will see a guy in a Halloween costume. Not really covering all of them.

Don’t pick up and activate random seals, kids. I don’t recommend it for your general health.

While my family didn’t know about my rainbow seals, everyone is really encouraging about me experimenting with seals, as long as I don’t set them off myself without them being checked. My new mother and older brother Ryujin were probably my biggest supporters, my brother especially taught me how to read the less well known words and even lent me his dictionary. My mother and I had constant training for calligraphy and art for some reason. I had frankly never cared or had time for art as Harper, skiving the classes I considered less important to my future as a programmer and engineer, but surprisingly in this life I was able to draw a little more than a stick figure, though I miss modelling software. It’s weird to realise how much I relied on modern technology for literally everything. I haven’t even seen a microwave yet. Why are there no microwaves? My kingdom for a microwave! Damn they don’t even have Shakespeare- I can’t reference anything.

I sighed, continuing to draw another hot pink seal in honour of the Barbie movie I had died before being able to see, and now had unresolved questions about. I was planning to go to it with my friends after eating my instant ramen, but now that would never happen. I just hope they didn’t give my ticket to Olivier. Screw her, she stole my ticket to the Matrix marathon. She doesn’t deserve it. And yes, I am petty enough to hold that grudge for 4 years. My last watch through of every Matrix movie is forever tainted by having to buy terrible seats last minute after she took it, and sit like 4 rows behind the rest of my friends behind this really tall guy next to a couple who kept flirting and in front of a kid. I don’t like sitting behind them in aeroplanes, I really don’t like sitting behind them in movie theatres. I still don’t know how the heck someone smuggled a 6 year old into a 15 rated movie. At least they were taken out by their parents when they started crying because they ran out of popcorn.

I mourn the ability to go to see movies and reference pop culture. Bar the occasional joke in English, I haven’t been able to do much more than recreate the occasional Vine, and I mourn that. Just as I mourn Vine itself.

Someday, I will recreate Hollywood. And Ufotable, because their animation was amazing, while I watched Marvel implode in comparison.

I looked out of the window as permanent ink dripped onto the rug, but that’s ok because I’m small and can get away with just about anything. The gift of no longer being the middle child of three girls and two boys came with a blessing of great lenience from my parents, and the fact that I probably wouldn’t need to take out student loans for uni, this time around. Though there aren’t really any universities in the elemental nations, bar apparently two which were based on the border between the land of iron and the land of fire, and on an island in lightning respectively, and didn’t really teach anything outside of finance and politics, and were almost exclusively attended by males from important (read, wealthy or at least semi-noble) families. Because, of course, girls are best respected in shinobi villages (and the land of Iron), and they don’t tend to leave them and instead either work in village, become a kunoichi/samurai, or end up as a housewife, though it’s usually at least two out of three at various stages of life. Women in the capital and in other more rural areas, however, were treated as a method of gaining political alliances and producing the next generation, though that’s kind of to be expected seeing as to how we are so behind the times I don’t even have a landline telephone, and my father is the leader of this place. No wonder my social life is lacking. That and the fact that I may or may not have slightly, maybe, a little, messed up my first meeting with other kids ‘my age’, because frankly I don’t want to colour in your book with you Susan (Tamako but whose asking), and if you draw outside the lines again maybe I will have you exiled to a nunnery (temple?) but frankly it may have been a…slight overreaction to a kid. I need more friends in their 20’s but frankly that would be kinda weird on their end to be seen with a random ankle-biter (which I’ve only done once, no matter what Ryu says, and he was the one who tripped over our honourable mum’s painting, because I’m too old and absolutely have all the fine motor skills of an eight year old, someone double my age).

All in all, though, I can’t complain. Because though I may be slightly covered in bright orange, and have stained both the rug and the wooden floor irreversibly, I’m enjoying life for the first time since I got my high school diploma. I may still feel the occasional pangs of homesickness, and want to have a phone, but my new family is amazing.

Which is why I shall commence plan; Freedom of Uzushio Corporation by Kazemi… yeah, I may need to change that name.