I combined chapter 1 and 2
Note: 'Thought' "Speech"
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"Why am I always so unlucky?" Loki sighed as he sat calmly on the ground, showing no intention of fleeing as Alioth rapidly closed in on him.
This was no ordinary Loki, but it was Kid Loki. The one and only Loki in the multiverse who managed to kill his adoptive brother Thor. Something that was apparently not supposed to happen, a nexus event, and an anomaly.
After killing Thor, Kid Loki was arrested and pruned by the TVA and ended up in the Void with many of his other alternate selves.
Among the Lokis, Kid Loki was immensely powerful and respected due to him managing to kill Thor in his timeline, which earned him the unofficial position of King of the Void. He also befriended several other Loki variants, including Classic Loki, Boastful Loki, and Alligator Loki, living with them in a secret underground bunker.
During their time in the Void, the group focused exclusively on surviving the looming threat of Alioth and had to fight rival Loki variants countless times.
It was during this time that he made a startling discovery. He was a reincarnator from earth.
His memories of the previous life came too late, when he was already pruned into the void.
Although he knew the universe he was in was the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the plot and trajectory, there was not much he could do to change his situation. He could only keep on surviving in the void until the MCU Loki and Sylvie inevitably end up in the void, during the Loki series.
Although he was very respected and became the leader of their group, he was not the strongest Loki, but was abnormally strong for his age.
During his time in the void, he obsessed over becoming strong and intentionally battled others in the void to hone his strength, and also learned some techniques from the other Lokis in his group, especially Classic Loki.
He stubbornly believed that with enough strength he could change everything. Unfortunately, things did not play out like in the series.
They got cornered by Alioth before even getting to meet MCU Loki and Sylvie. To let the others escape, he decided to sacrifice himself and attract the attention of Alioth while the others escape.
He was never a selfless person or anything like that in both lives, but Kid Loki believed that if not for him, the others would survive and live long enough until the Loki series kicks off.
After all, he was the one who in pursuit of power kept initiating battles with other residents of the void to hone his strength. Even though he was being careful and planned everything well by calculating Alioth's location and movement patterns when he went out to fight others.
For some reason, Alioth suddenly changed his movements and cornered them. He made the decision to let the others survive and after ensuring their escape, he let himself be consumed by Alioth.
In his final moments as his very existence was being erased, memories of both his lives flashed through his mind in a slow motion including his forgotten ones.
He realised that in both his lives, he accomplished nothing at all. Despite living two lives, it feels as though it was all for nothing. He stood for nothing, lived like a hollow shell too caught up in his own regrets and jealousy. Although killing Thor felt like a huge accomplishment, deep down he knew that he regretted it.
His regret does not mainly come from the TVA pruning his universe, it comes from the very act of killing his brother. Thor had always been stronger than him as the biological son of Odin and Gaea, two powerful Gods at the top of the food chain.
Although Loki always schemed and tried to kill Thor, he knew deep down that he would fail every time with Thor's ridiculous physique. The weaker version of Thor in MCU even survived being directly blasted by the full energy of a dying star.
Thor treated him as a brother and had genuine love for him, even though he would hate to admit it due to jealousy of Odin's favour to Thor, he in fact did have genuine affection for him. It came as a major shock when he was able to successfully kill him.
Maybe the shock was too great as his previous life memories started to flash in his mind, he didn't even resist the TVA at that time when they came for him.
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Hayami Shiba
"Oh my, oh my."
"Aww, my bundle of joy, you're so adorable!"
Hayami gushed over her cute son, lightly pinching and rubbing his cheeks while playing with them.
Her son, Itsuki, just looked at her with the same deadpan expression that is out of place for a child of six months, as always. But she was used to it.
Her son was anything but ordinary; he only makes noise when he needs to eat or have his diapers changed. Started crawling at just five months, he even showed signs of intelligence that shouldn't belong to a child.
Eyes are the windows to the soul; his eyes also did not belong to that of a child. This made her come to the conclusion.
Her son was special.
She did not mind his weirdness and instead thought it was a good thing and a sign of him being special.
'Worthy of being my baby!'
She would think with excitement every time Itsuki did something special.
She and her husband, Yuto, were kneeling in front of their son, who was sitting on the ground staring at them in silence.
"Honey, don't you think our Tsuki-chan is so handsome?"
"Yeah, he is the cutest baby I've ever come across in my life." Her husband replied.
"Tsuki-chan eats well and is such a good boy. I wonder if he will become a shinobi when he grows up."
"It doesn't matter; whatever he wants to do in the future, we shall support him. Take a rest, Hayami; I will make something to cook." Yuto said as he got up and made his way to the kitchen.
__________
It's been a year since Loki, who now goes by the name Itsuki Shiba, had been reborn.
He never would have imagined getting another chance; after all, being erased by Alioth is different from death. It means your entire existence ceases to be; your very soul is wiped out.
Becoming a baby again felt absurd, but at least he did not forget his past lives this time around, which was a huge plus.
Itsuki was able to conclude that he was reborn in an anime universe he loved so dearly in his first life, Naruto.
A world riddled with wars, death, and destruction, the life expectancy was so low it was concerning.
He knew that he was born during the time period between the first and second shinobi wars. His father, Yuto Shiba, being a ninja, and his mother, Hayami Shiba, being a civilian.
Yuto Shiba was most likely at the bottom of the food chain when it comes to his strength and rank, most likely an elite genin or chunin. And was a part of the puppet brigade.
He judged this by how poor they were. If he was strong and had a decent shinobi rank, their financial situation wouldn't be the way it was, so he was most likely just a cannon fodder.
The hardest thing to adapt to was his new parents.
'Being overly friendly.'
'So cringeworthy.'
'This feeling, I don't know what to do.'
His parents in the first life were detestable human beings. The woman who gave birth to him suffered from domestic violence from his father. She then turned around and took her frustrations out on him and let him get a taste of exactly what she was experiencing.
As for his father, he was a drunkard who regularly beat him and his mother up just for existing. His mother almost killed him once during middle school when he suggested they flee and move far away from his father.
In his second life as Loki, he found out about his true lineage as a frost giant early, unlike MCU Loki, who found out late. His adoptive parents were so much better than his biological parents in the first life.
But since he found out about his true heritage, he doubted their love. It may be true that they did treat him as their son, especially Frigga, who doted on him and taught him a lot.
But after finding out about his adoption, this love he received from them felt fake, rehearsed, and maybe conditional, like there was an agenda.
Maybe they wanted to use him as a bridge between Asgard and the frost giants and solve the simmering tensions without spilling blood. Odin had started to prefer diplomacy over warfare during that time, after all. Maybe they wanted to feel the satisfaction of having the son of Laufey regard them as their parents to spite him.
In conclusion, no matter how much love and care he received in his second life, he second-guessed it and didn't dare accept it unconditionally. The only person who he had no doubt loved him unconditionally was Thor.
Now in this new life, his new parents completely threw him off loop. Even though they were poor, they never spared any expenses and did their best to cater for him despite them living very frugally. They bought him expensive toys, clothes, and good food.
'How foolish.' He scoffed.
His mother scooped him into her arms and held him gently.
"Itsuki, be a good boy, okay?"
"It's way past your bedtime; your father will not be coming home today. He is on a mission."
Hayami said gently.
'I wasn't waiting for him.' He thought.
'Is it because I am a baby now? It feels like I am getting dumber.'
'My emotions are constantly all over the place and my thoughts are getting shorter.'
'When this woman pats me, I unknowingly fall asleep.'
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Year 2
From the very beginning, since his rebirth, Itsuki had been trying to mobilize his chakra, and it was extremely hard and seemed impossible.
As someone who had extremely good control of his body and magic in his past life, it felt weird and foreign to be able to feel his power and not be able to use it, let alone mobilize it.
Although as Loki, he was extremely talented and had huge potential, his magic reserves and stamina were dwarfed by Thor. That is why he had to practice very, very much to be able to have better control of his body and magic to ensure that there is no wastage whenever he is in battle.
As he grew older, he noticed that with his growing chakra and better control of his body, mobilising chakra becomes easier, even if only for a little bit and not enough to do anything.
Despite all of his setbacks, there is a silver lining. He could use his sensory abilities.
This unexpected change happened half a year ago and he could cover a radius of five metres with his sensory abilities which were slowly getting stronger.
He was able to sense that his mother possessed average chakra amounts while his dad's chakra was stronger than hers, he was a ninja after all.
With his growing chakra reserves, Itsuki noticed how his chakra reserves showed no signs of slowing down, while his body was being left behind.
'Chakra is a mixture of spiritual and physical energy. With my experiences of past lives, I must have an astonishing amount of spiritual energy.'
'This could easily lead to an unbalanced chakra, specifically an imbalance toward the spiritual (Yin) half potentially causing mental instability, weakness, and a reduced ability to control elemental chakra for ninjutsu.'
'Maybe this is why I've been struggling to control my chakra.'
He knew that all of his speculations were just theories. He was still too young, maybe his chakra ratio will get to 50/50 in both yin and yang, it was too soon to come to a conclusion after all.
_________
Year 3
Itsuki was now three years old, and his control over chakra had improved a lot. He could now mobilize it enough to stick leaves to his body, a basic exercise for chakra control.
As he feared, he faced issues with chakra imbalance. His spiritual energy dominated, making it hard to balance with physical energy. He spent hours each day meditating, trying to even it out.
His parents noticed his quiet nature but chalked it up to him being thoughtful. Hayami often caught him sitting still for long periods, eyes closed, and she smiled, thinking he was playing pretend.
Yuto, when home from missions, tried to teach him simple games, but Itsuki preferred watching and learning silently.
'I need to build my physical side,' he thought. 'Running, climbing, anything to boost yang energy.'
He started small exercises in secret, pushing his tiny body to limits without drawing attention.
One day, while Hayami was cooking, Itsuki practiced in the yard. He focused chakra to his feet and tried walking up a tree. He fell after two steps, but it was progress.
'Better than last week,' he noted.
His sensory range grew to ten meters. He could feel neighbors' chakra, faint but present.
Yuto's chakra felt steady, confirming his chunin rank. Itsuki planned to ask for training soon, without revealing too much.
__________
It had been three whole years since Itsuki was reborn and a lot of things had happened.
First of all, he has roughly figured out the timeline. The first shinobi war ended seven years ago, and the second war will take place about twenty years after the first one.
This means that by the time it happens, he will be around sixteen years old and below twenty. He needed as much time as possible to become stronger and wasn't sure if by the time the war takes place, his strength will be enough.
Since his father was a low-ranked shinobi, he barely had a better head start than an average civilian. Itsuki has read almost all the books in the house, including shinobi-related ones, and felt frustrated at the scarcity of information about some ninja-related topics that were truly helpful to increasing his strength.
But it made sense; it would be unrealistic to be able to easily access some important information.
He wanted to find a solution to his yin imbalance apart from strengthening his body, which would automatically increase his yang/vitality to at least match his yin.
During these past three years, although he interacted with other kids occasionally, he never really had any friends or anything like that.
He mostly ignored them, which made his parents worry a lot about him, especially his mother. But he couldn't force himself to keep on interacting with some brats and pretend to have fun or friends just to reassure his parents.
'Why should I inconvenience myself just to please someone else?'
In this new life, he secretly vowed to himself never to live a life amounting to nothing like his previous two lives. He was going to live for himself, and no one else.
If someone disapproved of his choices, he wouldn't care. Although he cared about his new parents to some extent, it doesn't mean that their approval or expectations will let him cage himself in some self-imposed emotional prison.
If Itsuki were to be honest, Yuto and Hayami were simply too good to him, and he felt uncomfortable. He felt that way not because he was resistant to affection or true bonds; he was just afraid of plunging himself into the abyss of disappointment.
The harder he cares, the harder he will fall, should the unexpected happen. And for this reason, he seldom spends much time with them.
'At this rate, I will never be able to repay their kindness.'
He discovered that his parents had been saving money on the side for him to use when he was older to live a better life.
This was why they always seemed so poor. Although they live frugally, they never spared any expenses when it came to him.
Sunagakure, despite its importance, was notably poorer than the other major villages. This poverty was not simply due to mismanagement or political failure but rather to the harsh environment and geographical location of the Wind Country, where Sunagakure was founded.
Rain was very rare, and the soil was dry and infertile. Because of this, agriculture was almost impossible, and Sunagakure couldn't produce enough food or resources to support itself.
Furthermore, the desert climate and constant sandstorms made travel and trade difficult. Which limited Sunagakure's access to other markets and alliances.
It was already hard to make a living in such a village. With their silly actions, they made things even harder for themselves trying to secure a better future for a child who they didn't even know if he will be grateful or what.
Inside the round mudhouse of the Shiba family, Itsuki, Yuto, and Hayami were having dinner while chatting. Itsuki was quiet and only talked when they asked him questions; it was a normal thing they all got used to over time.
Itsuki thought it was a good time and cleared his throat, interrupting them.
"Ahem… Dad, can I ask you for a favor?"
They were both stunned and exchanged a glance.
"Of course, son, you could ask me for anything. It is rare for you to ask for something."
Yuto, though surprised, answered quickly with anticipation and happiness. His son was always too mature and never asked for much, making them feel inadequate as parents. The last time he asked was when he requested Hayami to teach him how to read and write.
'It is finally time to fulfill my fatherly role; please ask for anything, son. The harder the better.' He was elated.
"Can you please give me some shinobi training?"
There was a stretched silence.
'Is it too much to ask?' Itsuki thought with a bit of concern.
With his parents losing their brain cells when it came to him and how much they cared for him, he assumed that it would not be too difficult to convince them.
Yuto put down his chopsticks and gazed at his son with a rare serious expression, making him a bit uncomfortable. "You wish to become a shinobi?"
"Yes."
"So, when did you decide that?"
"It has been a while now." Itsuki said after some thought. It's not like he could be entirely truthful and say that from the moment he was born and freak the hell out of his poor silly parents.
"I see, it is a good thing to have a goal you're striving to achieve. Truthfully, I've noticed that you have an above-average chakra capacity and have the potential to become a ninja. Your mom and I discussed whether to introduce you to some form of early training multiple times to give you a head start and dropped the issue."
"Huh… Why didn't you ask me?" He was a bit surprised his usually silly father could tell he had an above-average chakra, but not much; he was still a solid chunin with experience after all.
He was also confused why they simply didn't ask him if he wanted to become a ninja or if he was willing to receive some training instead of discussing it themselves and dropping the issue just like that.
And it was a bit out of character for them, specifically his mother, to even consider letting him do something that could put his life in danger.
'Or did I misread something?'
"Son, I don't know if you've noticed it yet, but you are different from the other kids; you are very intelligent and act mature. With your character, we feared that the moment we brought up ninja training, you would overthink and assume that we wanted you to become a ninja, pressuring you to accept even if you didn't want to."
Hayami nodded. "Yeah, we didn't want to pressure you. We just want you to do what you want without any burden or weight of expectations. As long as you're happy."
Itsuki was at a loss for words and overwhelmed. He always thought of how he would only live for himself and sought no one's approval, and now his parents say this.
'Did they somehow read my mind or could tell what I was thinking?' But he dismissed that absurd thought.
He should have been happy, but he had mixed feelings. Why did his new parents have to be so…
"Tsuki-chan, are you okay?" Hayami asked, seeing him spacing out.
Truthfully, she didn't want her son becoming a ninja and risking his life in the future, but she knew that getting in the way of his dreams and goals would hurt him in the long run.
She thought about it.
Even if she prevented him from becoming a shinobi and he actually listened to her. Will he truly be happy with how his life turns out to be in the future?
The thought of robbing her own son's happiness suffocated her so much. She actually didn't care if he grew to resent her if it happened; as long as he was safe, that's all that mattered.
'But some people would rather die for their dreams and getting in the way of their dream would be like killing them.' She thought.
It was something she and her husband knew too well, as it almost happened to them. The burden of expectation, the crushing weight of disappointment, and parents' opinions and actions had once almost plunged Yuto into an abyss of despair.
They both didn't want such a thing to happen to their son.
As first-time parents, they did not even know if they were doing a good job with their son or what. They didn't even know if they were qualified parents, especially with a special child like Itsuki.
But if there was one thing they were sure of, it was not repeating the same mistakes their own parents did.
If Itsuki was going to dive into the dangerous shinobi path, they as parents should at least do their best to prepare him and give him an advantage, a head start to increase his chances of survival.
"I'm okay… I'm just surprised you considered a lot." Itsuki said.
'The money they've been saving was probably for my shinobi path, wasn't it?'
"Of course we have; it is our duty as parents to make life easier for you." Yuto said proudly.
"So when do you wish to begin?"
To be continued…
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AN: Known characters' ages
Tsunade: 11 years old
Jiraya: 11 years old
Orochimaru: 11 years old
Rasa: 1 year
Chiyo: 28
Ebizo: 27
This is my very first chapter of my first fanfiction. I already have a plan and outline for the direction of the story, but the first chapter is strangely hard to write. It was hard to figure out what to write about, my thoughts were everywhere and I had to constantly delete and add content.
If you have any suggestions, advice or anything to correct, please comment as it would help me improve myself.
If you have any non canon lore about Sunagakure that you know, please drop it here maybe it would be helpful for my fanfiction. There is little information about Sunagakure to be properly used in fanfiction and I have to create my own stuff. As long as it fits well into Naruto, be it culture, jutsus, politics, kekkei genkai and clans etc. Please drop it and I will try using it.
English is not my first language, so I have to use AI to fix my grammar. It is a bit hard to put what I envisioned into words so please be patient with me.
Okay, enough ranting.