Reborn as a Nara

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C H A P T E R      1
— Samsara and Rebirth

Poppy.

A flower that symbolises sleep, peace, and death. Her mother liked it and said it resonated with her but frankly, Anastasia thought of it as pure bullshit. But she indulges her mother, like how she indulges her delusions of reincarnation, her thoughts on rebirth, and her wish to reunite with her father in the afterlife. Her mother was so dedicated to life after death that she named her child Anastasia, meaning Resurrection.

She couldn't fathom the idea of being a life after death, death was simply the permanent cessation of all the biological functions that are used to sustain a living organism. When the functions stopped, it was time to leave, gone. Your purpose in the world is gone, it doesn't matter how many might remember you but your time is up, there was no afterlife.

There was no after, you simply exist and then you don't.

Perhaps that was why she was chosen, perhaps this was the reason behind this situation.

It was five in the afternoon when she slipped on her feet and took a dive off the building. Her eyes fixed on James and Rhode as they both gave her equally horrified looks. There was a widening of her eyes, the quickening of her heartbeat as she fell to her death. Her life did not flash by as people would call it, but rather, she thought of her mother and then she simply closed her eyes and accepted her end.

Because she believed there was no after, this was her end and it was time to accept it.

It felt like falling asleep, for a moment, until it didn't.

"Shirayuki, name her Shirayuki. Shira with White, Yuki for Snow."

That was not a voice she was familiar with. She had died, she was quite sure of it, as it was quite impossible to survive a fall off a rather tall building. Her mind was working rather quickly, different in comparison to her rather lethargic look on the outside. Her eyes tried desperately to adjust, the bright light wasn't helping, and her efforts of talking were all in vain.

"Look at her, already moving her pretty mind," a soft voice penetrated into the silence.

Anastasia wanted to make an expression to show her displeasure but ended up only being able to scrunch her nose up in distaste. Where was she? Did they not realise that a person who had just woken up from a coma should not be exposed to bright light instantly?

Also, where was her mother?

Anastasia would have thought that of all people, her mother would've at least recorded a voice message and had it played by someone to talk with her. Running a thousand scenarios in her mind, Anastasia still couldn't figure out where she was, where her friends were, and where her mum was. More importantly, what situation was she in?

And then she felt it, a touch on her forehead followed by a sentence that left her completely gobsmacked. "Our daughter, Shirayuki Nara. Welcome to the world." And Anastasia wonders, what did this mean?

("My name is Naruto Uzumaki and I'm going to be the Hokage!")

Whispers in her memories, something was trying to tell her but she couldn't hear it properly. Anastasia closed her eyes and slept, she'll deal with it in the morning. She'll wake up from this odd dream and she'll see her mother again, maybe even joke with her friends about surviving a fatal fall.

She doesn't wake up from a dream. Because it's not a dream at all, it was never a dream.

(Because she didn't survive the fatal fall.)