Change | Minato Namikaze

一

A gasp emitted from the girl's lips, her amber eyes snapping open. Ravens scattered from the tree she lay beneath, startled from her sudden outburst. The girl sat up, a sharp pain flashing through her skull from the bright sun invading her vision. "Where am I? This isn't my room?" Indeed, this was not her room.

Airi Kazuto last remembered falling asleep in her room after an emotional night finishing the Naruto series, wishing that somehow it could have turned out differently. While the ending was happy, she wished that—despite the characters not being real— the characters didn't have to go through so much. Naruto could have grown up with parents, Itachi shouldn't have felt the need to do what he did. Blinking back tears, the girl shook her head.

The girl stood up, looking at her hands, they were calloused and scarred. She didn't recall ever doing anything to get these. Airi wasn't one for doing much hard work.

"Ah, you're awake!" Exclaimed a voice from beside her, she turned her head to find a small, floating dog beside her. It was translucent and pale, the colors of its fur faded.

"Are you a ghost?!" Airi screeched in fear, scooting away from it.

"You could call me that! But, that's not the term I would use."

"W-what are you, then?" She asked, her body slowly relaxing when she realized this small spirit wasn't going to harm her. It floated towards her, settling just before her feet on the grass surrounding them.

"I'm a Dimension God," it began to explain. "I hop dimensions, saving ones that are in trouble, this dimension is what you would call 'The Naruto World.'"

"Huh?" Airi merely blinked, not sure whether she should laugh or cry.

"I know it sounds insane to you. Just let me explain. You passed away in your original life, and your soul was reborn into this body. You still have the same name and appearance as in your past life, 'Airi Kazuto'. All that happened was your memories from your past life were unlocked by yours truly."

"Why would you do that?" Airi couldn't imagine a good reason as to why she had to live with this knowledge.

"This world, as you saw in the show, is in trouble. With your knowledge, you can save this timeline. It's considered a miracle that someone like you was able to be reborn here." While Airi may have been upset by the Naruto ending, wishing that everyone had a more fortunate ending and certain people were still alive, she never expected (nor wanted) this. She didn't believe that she could handle this burden that was being placed on her shoulders.

"Why me? Why not someone stronger and more capable?" Throughout all of her past life, she was always so sick and weak. Which is probably how she died, succumbing to the chronic heart condition she had been suffering from ever since she was four.

"This version of you is strong and capable. If you haven't yet noticed, those callouses on your hands are from intense training by the ANBU Commander. He took notice in you about a year ago when he saw you perform both lightning and fire-style jutsu. Which is uncommon for someone with no family history of Shinobi."

Airi attempted to remember what this small creature was talking about, but nothing came to mind. All she could remember was falling asleep with "Empty Heart" playing on her speaker while reading a fanfic. The only memories she had were of her past life.

"I don't remember anything from this world. Only my past life."

"Huh? Really?" The creature levitated into the air, hovering before her face with his paw underneath his chin. "Well this is an unforeseen side-effect..."

"What do you mean unforeseen?!"

"I've never unlocked anyones memories from their past life before. So, I didn't know it would happen."