A strange new life

I led Ino toward the inconspicuous bar-slash-restaurant entrance. We crossed the administrative district into the commercial area and landed in front of an out-of-the-way alley. I knocked at a regular-looking door. A young woman, elegant and serious, opened it.

Ino looked around, at the lack of signs and what looked to be just a regular house door, at the pretty Kunoichi looking at us.

“A private room at the back, please,” I repeated Kakashi-sensei’s words almost verbatim.

The kunoichi nodded. “Please, come in.” It might have been my fake confidence or the flak jacket.

She led us inside, past the booths, and to a room at the back. We entered what looked a lot like a private dining area. I could feel Ino’s burning curiosity, then her wilting.

Unlike the first time I was here, the place wasn’t empty. There were not many people, but all of them blazed with chakra. Jonin stared at Ino and me. Some shook their head, others just glanced and looked away, some shrugged.

I took Ino’s hand. The Kunoichi led us to one of the private rooms and asked the same question I expected.

“Should I take your orders now or come back later?”

I didn’t know the menu. Last time, Kakashi-sensei ordered for me. If everything else failed, I had my seals. “Bring us something light for dinner,” I asked. “No alcohol,” I added after she bowed.

“It will be just a moment,” she said and left, closing the door behind her.

Ino rounded on me. “What’s this place, Hinata-chan?”

I scratched my cheek. “I dunno,” I answered truthfully. “Kakashi-sensei brought me here when he explained my last mission.”

We stewed in silence for a bit before I sat. The room’s layout reminded me of those modern hotpot restaurants, with comfy seats around a center table, only there were no cooking utensils.

That gave me a good idea. Ninjas were a paranoid bunch, right? Maybe opening a hotpot restaurant? That way, even the most paranoid of ninjas wouldn’t have what to complain about; they’d be cooking their meals, after all.

Ino scuttled closer and sat by my side instead of across, shoulders touching mine.

I cast away thoughts of restaurant lines to focus on the blonde. I didn’t mind the contact; I liked it very much, but wasn’t it too much? It was like she was afraid I would disappear if she weren’t near or touching me.

She sighed. It was deep, shuddering.

“What a mess,” she said, hand pulling the hair out of her face. “I thought he would...”

I thought back on the shitshow the visit had been. “Me too.”

That also led me to think about Mom. I didn’t know if I was happy or sad. I didn’t know her reasons, but the more I thought about it, the harder I twisted the knot of ugliness in my chest—seven years.

We didn’t talk for a long while until there was a knock.

“Please, come in,” I called out.

The waitress entered carrying out food: stir-fried veggies, eggs, rice, soup, and grilled fish. It smelled nice and not what I had expected, even if I didn’t know what I was expecting.

She arranged the food between us. From behind her, another waitress entered carrying steaming water and tea leaves. Both waitresses bowed and left after the food was served.

Ino looked at the spread, picked up a plate, started serving.

Only after seeing the other shinobi did I realize this might not have been the best place to talk about such dire secrets.

For a moment, I considered calling the whole thing off. There was a justifiable reason to delay, to tell Ino the place wasn’t the best, and to find somewhere other people wouldn’t have the chance of spying on us. I recognized that for what it was. I was afraid and trying my best to avoid the conversation.

I got up, placed my hands on the wall nearest us. Under her interested eyes, I replicated the seal I’ve seen Kakashi-sensei use a few times to ensure privacy. I did the same to all the walls around us.

The difference was immediate. The sound from outside died. My version of the privacy seal even blocked chakra perception. It had taken a bit of thought on the trip back from the land of the badgers to figure out how the kidnappers did it in their prison, but replicating the effect wasn’t hard once I did.

I wasn’t leaving things to chance.

After placing the seals, I dug into the food Ino had served.

She didn’t question or hurry me. We ate in silence and drank bitter tea.

I tried to build my courage.

I’ve kept this secret for so long, even when I knew I shouldn’t have. This was too big, too overreaching. Even so, it was my secret to keep or tell. My decisions and meddling had cost lives. I wasn’t sure that, in the end, I made things better. I could have done more if I had told the truth, but I still believed that if I had, I’d not be here anymore, one way or another.

Was it too much to ask to live the way I wanted? I just wanted to be a ninja, do cool ninja stuff, bake sweets, maybe snog some pretty girls.

But, to snog a pretty girl, I couldn’t lie to her. I mean, I could; nothing stopped me from spinning a lie to Ino and not telling her anything. But I didn’t want to. Hug-chan was right. If this was ever going to work — and I knew it wouldn’t, teenage crush never lasted — I didn’t want a relationship built on lies.

Even if I couldn’t tell all the truth, there were things I don’t think I’d ever tell anyone.

Ino had stopped eating a while ago. She was studying my face. I could see the worry in her eyes. That only made it more difficult for me. It felt like I was deceiving her somehow.

I opened my mouth, closed it, cleared my throat, tried again.

Her expectant eyes bore into me.

I turned away, rummaged through my stuff, took out a few of my sweets. Without looking at Ino, I popped them out and placed them on the table before us.

Ino’s attention shifted from me to the cupcakes. She took one, nibbled, let out a small moan of food pleasure. But she soon turned back to me, waiting.

I knew I could have just said I wasn’t ready, and Ino would understand. I could have deflected again and talked about anything else. Ino would follow my lead, pretend we weren’t here to talk about secrets.

“You have to promise me,” I hated that my voice didn’t sound as strong or confident as I wanted. “That you’ll not tell this to anyone else.”

The pretty blonde nodded. “I promise,” she said.

I took a deep breath and shook my head. She didn’t understand. “You can’t tell anyone. Not your father or your mother, or any friends, not even to a flower. No matter what I say, promise me, please.”

That got the message across. She squared her shoulders, cupped my hand on hers. Looked me in the eyes. “I promise.”

“I think,” I broke eye contact, licked my lips; they were dry for some reason, “that I might not be Hinata.”

Ino’s breath hitched. She gripped my hands tighter, but she didn’t let go. I didn’t dare look at her face, even if I could feel her chakra spiking and moving. Was this what Karin felt all the time?

“What do you mean, Hinata-chan?” There was an emphasis on the name when she said it.

I took a deep breath. It came out shuddering. I blinked a few times, turned, and faced Ino, who still hadn’t let me go. Her eyes were wide, her mouth slightly open. The walls felt like they were pressing down on me.

“Not like that,” I said.

Ino tilted her head. Nodded. Waited. Still held my hands.

“I think I’m Hinata,” I said, trying to avoid looking away. Why was this so difficult? “I remember living in the compound and being taken away, but I also remember other things.”

Silence trailed. Ino squeezed my hands.

“What other things?” She asked. Her voice was soft, almost careful now.

“I have this whole other set of memories,” I said, licking my lips again. I looked away, then forced myself to meet her eyes once more. “In them, I’m not Hinata, but someone else.”

“What do you mean, Hinata-chan?” Ino repeated her question without emphasizing the name this time.

I held in the urge to look away. “It’s like a dream, I dunno,” I said, pulling my hands from Ino’s. She let it go without resistance. I waved, hands moving without purpose, trying to explain something I didn’t know how.

“I remember following Hiashi to meet the visiting guests from the other village. I remember someone pressing something over my mouth and nose,” I said, “and the next thing I knew, I was inside a tube in the laboratory with this whole new set of memories.”

Ino looked at my waving hands, nodded.

“I was only three when they took me,” I said, looking away. “And in these memories… I don’t know if I’m Hinata or if I somehow took over her body. Sometimes, it feels like I stole her body,” I admitted.

The words tasted like burnt cupcakes in my mouth. Like saying them made it real. I shuddered.

This wasn’t something I liked to think about. Not one bit. Was I someone from another world reincarnated and merged with Hinata? Or was I somehow another life she had? I had no idea how things worked here. I knew reincarnation was a thing; I need only look at Naruto and Sasuke, but did it also include souls from a different world? Was this even a different world?

Ino pulled me into a hug. I didn’t resist. I placed my head on her shoulder, closed my eyes.

Why had I decided to talk about this again? Oh, right. Massive crush on the blonde. And Hug-chan, the traitor, made some excellent points about honesty. I wanted to slap Hug-chan.

“That isn’t all,” I said, my head still hidden on her shoulder. Ino’s fingers threaded through my hair. It felt nice. I shuddered for a whole different reason this time. “From these memories, I know what will happen in the future, and the things I remember, what will happen, it’s—”

Ino gripped my hair like she was also afraid.

“What happened, Hinata-chan?” she whispered, voice shaky and barely above a breath.

I pulled away a little, looked her in the eyes. “Remember your promise,” I said. Ino nodded. She looked spooked out. I laid my head on her shoulder again. It was easy to talk like this.

“In the world of my memories, Danzo stole one of Shisui’s eyes. Shisui’s eye can brainwash anyone without them knowing it. Danzo then turned the whole village against the Uchiha clan and ordered Itachi to kill his whole family.”

I remember meeting Itachi. His smile. How he helped serve dinner, the happy, almost peaceful look in his eyes. I remembered him from the original story, killing his whole family because he’d been ordered to.

“Only Sasuke survived,” I whispered.