Twiceborn: A Tale of Two Friends

Chapter Two: Toddler Trials

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.