Chapter 87: Naruto 1

[AN: Okay, just like with the ATG world, or the HSDK world, Carl's name will remain Carl. I know it makes some people cringe when using an English name in an Asian setting, but it amuses me and I don't really care.

Just be happy I'm not going to be having Hinata call Carl Nissan all the time.

And since I'm not going to be using honorifics, since I doubt I would put them in the right places and times, I'm going to try to be using English terms like heir, miss, lady, etc..]

When he first woke up in the morning, he didn't know where he was. Or why his pillow was so damned uncomfortable. He was used to big pillow cushions that his head sank into, not this firm thing that felt almost like a rock.

He sat up and took in his surroundings. The firm pillow that was so uncomfortable and yet oddly familiar at the same time was a small tan colored rectangular thing. It was a firmly packed pillow with no give around a base of what felt like wood.

Looking around, he saw that he had been sleeping bundled up in some blankets on a mat directly on the floor, not a bed. Looking around the room, he saw that he was in a very square looking room. All the angles on everything was very right angle, was the impression he had. There were sliding doors, the walls looked like they were made out of very light material that could easily be punched through. The room was done in whites and browns.

Carl looked down at his body and saw he was in a very small child's body.

'The last thing I remember is talking with Cordelia about the Jump Chain just before leaving the Buffy the Vampire Slayer world. I had no idea what was going to happen, but I certainly didn't expect to suddenly be in a child's body in what looks like a Japanese style room. And I'm what, four? Five years old?' Carl thought as he was looking down at his small body.

A small four year old body that seemed to be in unusually good shape, now that he looked at it. Like having six pack abs fitness level. Pushing the blankets back, he got to his feet and started poking around the room, looking for clues. There was a bookshelf with scrolls stacked on it on one side of the room.

'I guess that makes it a scroll shelf, not a bookshelf.' Carl chuckled quietly to himself. His years of hunting vampires and demons while in Sunnydale and L.A. cautioned him to keep quiet until he understood his odd situation.

And he definitely felt odd and out of place. He had a sensation that he was forgetting something. That it was just on the edge of his awareness. If he could only reach it.

Picking up one of the scrolls, he realized that he recognized a lot of the characters, even though he never picked up any Japanese back in Sunnydale. He had been too busy learning magic and training with the girls to pick up too many languages. And those he did learn were ancient languages that helped him with magic and fighting demons.

Scanning through the scroll, he saw that it was a training manual for basic exercises and stretches that would prepare the user's body for the Juken, the Gentle Fist style.

'Gentle Fist, isn't that the Hyuga's martial art from Naruto?' Carl was shocked, looking around for a mirror. Now that he thought about it, his hair was unusually long as it swished around his head while he had been looking around. He usually kept it cut short. Not to mention that it was now black, as opposed to the brown he usually had.

There was a chest and some drawers near the scroll-shelf that Carl rummaged through, finding quite a few sets of clothes in his size, some "toys" that were basically primer ninja tools, and he finally came across a mirror. Looking at his face in the mirror, he saw that he had the classic Hyuga look. His iris and pupils were the same pearl-white color so they looked like one solid color.

His face was a pale white, he had black hair that hung straight back off his head and draped over his shoulders. And he looked like a cute stern little chibi. Even when he tried to smile, he looked stern. The Hyuga clan was known for being without humor.

'Must be the Hyuga curse, or something.' Carl thought in bewilderment, completely confused about how he got from the BtVS world to here.

And it was while he was staring in his pearl colored eyes, that suddenly the sense of oddness and disorientation disappeared with a snap and he remembered his entire life here in the Hyuga clan of Konoha.

He was Carl Hyuga, the heir of the Hyuga clan.

'It must be a Jump Chain thing. I can't see them naming me "Carl" otherwise unless some outside force interfered.'

His father was Hiashi, his mother was Himari, and his twin sister was Hinata. His mother Himari was pregnant and due to give birth in the next three months.

He was four and a half years old today.

Carl started remembering more. He remembered his daily routine from the time he was one. A caretaker would come and help him get ready for the day, doing his morning toilet and face washing.

He would eat with his family, then he and Hinata would train. Their training was directed play where their "trainer" would start instilling the skills and habits needed to survive as a ninja in this world.

People in his old world would be horrified to see them starting to "train" children as young as a year old, even if it was disguised as play time. But the fact of the matter, when Carl thought about it, was that if a clan wanted to survive the cutthroat world of shinobi, they needed their children to have every advantage they possibly could.

Especially when they were part of a clan that had such coveted eyes that people were willing to do nearly anything to get the eyes. Cut out the eyes, steal genetic material, or even seduce and have a child off of them.

If surviving as a ninja clan meant that they disguised training as play time so that their children's bodies were strong and able to learn ninja skills that much earlier, than that's what they would do.

Looking through his memories, he saw how kind his mother Himari was, and how Hinata took after her. But just because those two were kind and gentle didn't mean they didn't have their strong points. Hinata could be incredibly stubborn when she wanted something, and he, as her older brother, usually gave in to her pouting puppy dog eyes.

A moment later, Carl sucked in his breath in shock. The incident at his and Hinata's third birthday party pretty much went like in the canon story, except that the Kumo ninja tried to kidnap both him and Hinata, instead of just Hinata.

But that Kumo ninja was still chased down and killed by Hiashi very quickly. And just like in the Naruto story, Hizashi gave up his life to appease the warmongering of Kumo.

Carl was filling in a lot of blanks here, since as a three year old the adults wouldn't talk about such serious matters where he could overhear.

Maybe in other worlds the adults would carelessly talk in the hearing of little kids so he could have gained a lot more information concerning the event. But this was a ninja village. They knew how precocious some clan children could be, so they were much more cautious.

No, the thing that tipped off Carl was that in his memories his father's brother suddenly stopped coming by with Neji for play/training time. And at the same time their cousin Neji suddenly became much more standoffish, not wanting to spend time with them.

'Aish, now that I've got these memories and feelings of kinship with Neji, I can see how Hinata could have still cared for Neji during the Chuunin exams even though he was a complete ass to her.' Carl sighed.

Cousin Neji was a good friend and older brother figure to both he and Hinata; he was a year older than them and acted like an older brother. And it wasn't like a switch was flipped when Neji's father died and he suddenly hated the two of them. It was a much more gradual change that had been happening over the past couple of years.

Seeing the memories of the past year and a half in one go, he could see how there was a general downward trend in Neji's behavior and attitude. Some days he would be friendly, some days he would be withdrawn.

It was likely because of the B.S. branch house slavery thing going on that Neji grew more and more withdrawn over the past year and a half. And if that trend continued, things would just get worse and worse.

In the canon version of events everything probably took a sharp downward turn when Himari died in child birth, leaving Hiashi grieving and unable to take care of five year old Hinata and baby Hanabi properly. Which left his family, especially Hinata, open to the political machinations of the clan.

Or at least that's what Carl was assuming and guessing.

It probably benefitted someone to subtly sabotage Hinata's confidence and feelings of self worth over time while Hiashi wasn't paying attention. And after breaking Hinata's confidence and ability to fight properly, whisper a few words in Hiashi's ears about how unworthy Hinata was, especially compared to Neji, and Hiashi would be swayed by seeing Hinata's poor performance.

And the worse Hinata's confidence got, the more poorly she would do in training with Neji, leading him to have a worsening attitude towards his "unworthy" cousin. Add in someone whispering poison in his ear about fate, and it made sense how their relationship had slipped away into what it was in canon.

'A perfect convergence of multiple things going wrong all at once and people nudging things to destabilize it even more.' Carl sighed. 'And just how was I able to see the signs of all these political and underhanded schemes from just a few clues? Why am I so positive that I'm right about it all? It's very strange, but it seems as clear as day to me.'

Carl placed the scroll back on the shelves and sat back down on his bedding. He knew he didn't have much time before the servant would show up to help him prepare for the day. He was desperately thinking of some way to derail this whole train wreck.

'Damn, why did I focus so much on combat and ritual magic?!' Carl frustratedly punched his bedding. 'I should have learned some more medical knowledge. Maybe then I could heal my mother here and stop a lot crap from happening.'

It felt pretty bad to know that the boulder was slowly and inexorably rolling down a gentle slope towards a big cliff. If he could just stop it before it got to that point, he could prevent a lot of sadness and heartache in his family. But he just didn't have the skills to do so!

He knew there was amazing medical jutsu in this world, but that didn't help him, not at all. There was no doubt that Hiashi already had the best medical personnel available for when Himari gave birth to Hanabi, but it hadn't made any difference in canon, his mother still died.

There was no way for him to gain enough medical knowledge in the 2-3 months they had before the tragedy.

He was pretty sure Tsunade could help his mother stay alive, but what could he, a four year old, do to get her to come to Konaha and be willing to help?

Absolutely nothing, that's what.

'I guess the only thing I can do is to pick up the pieces afterwards and try to keep this family together.' Carl sighed, pretty much resigned to it. He really was powerless to do anything about it as a freaking four year old.

"Carl, it's time to wake up." The voice of the servant, Nuo, came from the other side of the sliding door.

"I'm up." Carl followed his memories and quickly got dressed and followed Nuo to the bathroom, taking care of business and washing his face and cleaning his mouth.

He soon found himself kneeling at the table with his small family.

"Good morning Carl." Hinata gave a sweet smile at seeing her twin brother.

Carl sighed a bit inside at the sight. She had no idea what was coming for them, or that their mother would die soon. It was best to not indicate anything was wrong. Let Hinata enjoy the next three months as much as possible to store up good memories.

"Good morning Hinata." Carl smiled back at her and then greeted his parents. "Father, Mother. Good morning."

Carl picked up his chopsticks and began eating, following the etiquette that resided in his brain. The mealtime was not a time for talk, so he too kept silent, even if he was looking at his family out of the corner of his eyes.

He suddenly got a shock to his system, as he finally realized how much his vision had changed. He was able to see pretty much 360 degrees around him at all times, as long as he paid attention in a certain way. A trick of concentration allowed him to focus his vision in any direction, or to just see the wide 359 degrees at once, though that was taxing on his mind. He didn't need to turn his head to see behind him, he just needed to shift his focus.

There were so many memories over the past four and a half years that he hadn't fully grasped everything that he "remembered". Now that he focused on the subject, he remembered learning that the Byakugan always gave its user the incredible expanded field of view. They didn't always see chakra or have the x-ray vision enabled, but their expanded view was always on.

It was only when they fed chakra to their eyes that they gained the ability to see chakra, see in x-ray, and have the telescopic or microscopic vision. And feeding chakra to their eyes to activate those abilities is what caused the veins around their eyes to bulge out, giving the visible clue to their use of their dojutsu.

And from what he read and remembered from lectures, even the ability to finely see all the chakra tenketsu points and pathways was something that needed a lot of training. It wasn't something that happened naturally.

In fact, all their eye's abilities needed a lot of training. Even the ability to focus on more than one point at a time to take advantage of their nearly 360 degree vision for situational awareness needed plenty of training.

'These eyes are so badass!' Carl smirked inside at the ability to be watching his back while not appearing to.

Thinking back over his lessons, he remembered that many of the Hyuga that focused on being scouts put in more effort on training their telescopic vision. Most of the medics focused on microscopic and x-ray vision to assist them with diagnosing injuries and other medical conditions. And the combat forces mostly focused on training their combat abilities in conjunction with their ability to see the chakra pathways, which is what they needed to see for the Gentle Fist style.

It was a rare thing for someone to be highly gifted in all aspects of the Byakugan, because it took so much training time to reach the really impressive accomplishments that specialized training gave them.

'And that specialization and mutual reliance is probably one of the reasons the main house elders are so desperate to keep the house together, even if they have to resort to slavery.' Carl sadly thought about his clan's situation.

He could see the pragmatism inherent in that decision. He didn't like it, and he definitely wanted to change the way the Hyuga did things. He would just have to work extra hard, since as a nearly five year old he couldn't do anything about it for now.

'Guess in addition to my normal training I've got to study some Sealing arts, if I want to be able to change the tradition of the Caged Bird Seal.' Carl pondered as he continued eating. 'Cause I'm sure the elders here wouldn't help me figure out how to get rid of it or make one without the pain inflicting function to control the Branch House, or the death inflicting function. It really is despicable that they resort to that pain control slavery thing to control their own family.'

The meal soon finished and Hinata grabbed his hand, pulling him out of the room with her in her exuberance to start a day of training.

"Come on, Carl! It's time to do some training!" She sing songed.

Carl looked back over his shoulder to see his mother smiling gently after them, while his father nodded his head stoically, but with an air of being pleased.

It was nice to see such a carefree Hinata, even if it was a shock at first. He was so used thinking of her as a timid and shy girl because of the show. But apparently before the tragedy of her mother's death and the continual environment of verbal and emotional abuse she was a lively and vivacious little girl who was excited to play train with her brother.

Carl kept up with her as they made their way to the training "play" ground, enjoying listening to her talk about how mother had shown her how to press flowers to preserve their beauty and how to process plants to extract their essence for use in making pastes.

'That must have been where she got the skills and desire to make medicinal pastes and ointments, from our mother.' Carl realized.

They soon arrived, and Carl followed the memories in his head of the various stretches and calisthenics. It was odd though, he felt like it was much easier to get through the various sets than it was in his memory. Even his memories of the previous day showed he struggled to get through the entire thing.

"No fair, how are you still going?" Hinata was even panting on the side, while he was still going strong.

"I dunno, Hinata. I just feel so full of energy today!"

"Humph, well I'm not letting you leave me behind!" The cute little sister of his stubbornly said as she continued pushing herself.

"Don't worry, you won't be left behind, cause you're doing great!" Carl called out in an encouraging manner. He wanted to make sure his sister had the confidence she lacked in the show. He liked this cheerful version of her.

'I guess waking up my memories of the previous life had some kind of effect on me?' Carl pondered over his newfound stamina while he and Hinata were doing their cooling down stretches, but had no real answers, only guesses.

He still didn't know what was up with the jump chain. He had left the BtVS world and come straight here. Shouldn't there be some jump document for him to fill out, like what he had done before entering the BtVS world?

As he was freshening up and preparing for the book learning part of the day, he had a thought pop into his head.

'What if I picked some kind of drawback that made me lose my memories?' Carl gasped. 'Why the hell would I do that to myself? Past Carl, you jerk!'

It was a close thing, but he almost yelled that last bit out loud.

It took a while for him to steady his breathing. And calm down.

Obviously his memories were returning, or he wouldn't have remembered enough to freak out in the first place.

So his first set of memories returned when he was four and a half. Does that mean he has to wait another four and a half years until he's nine so he can remember more?

Carl groaned. He'll be in his second year of the academy by then, if that's the case.

'Well, there's not much I can do about it.' Depression was evident in every line of his body at his helpless inability to make it happen any faster.

After the morning training session, they had a bath, ate some lunch, and went to the study where they began their studies.

And that was a bit of a cultural shock for Carl at first, the family bathing situation. If he didn't have the memories of his time growing up, he would have been shocked that he and Hinata would bathe together and that they would be joined by their mother and father daily in bathing after morning practice.

Carl figured it was one of the cultural and family bonding things. He just internally shrugged and went along with it, since he already had plenty of memories of it happening.

Once they had finished eating lunch and were in the study room, he looked curiously over on the other side of the study room where Hinata was happily practicing her writing skills. She seemed in good spirits, even though she was doing something so boring. In fact, he hadn't seen her not happy once today.

Even in his memories, she only rarely got sad. And that was mostly so she could convince him to do something for her.

'Huh.' Carl was shocked at his thought. 'Maybe that's why she so gravitated to Naruto. His upbeat attitude reminded her of what she used to be, the happiness and cheerfulness that she lost in the face of the abuse and campaign to break her down in her own clan after her mother died. She admired Naruto because unlike her, he kept up a cheerful façade in the face of so much mistreatment, even if it was only mask deep.'

Picking up his own brush, he began his own practice. Copying a scroll served the purposes of both practicing his calligraphy skills and reading practice as he absorbed the information in the scroll.

But the odd thing was that he found himself retaining the knowledge from the scroll so much easier than he should have been able to.

'Huh. Is an excellent memory another perk that I just don't remember yet?' Carl thought. 'If that's the case, then it is likely I've got a whole lot of skills that I don't actively remember yet. And isn't that amusing, I have an improved memory but can't remember getting it.' He faintly smiled at the small bit of humor.

"That's enough calligraphy and reading practice for now, Carl, Hinata." Nuo said. "Pack up your supplies for now. You've got a bit of free time before dinner, but we'll expect you to be ready for Byakugan training afterword."

"Okay!" Hinata chirped as she literally hopped to.

"Yes." Carl smiled at his sister's exuberance while he followed suit, except for the hopping.

The training later that night was various exercises on how to vary the chakra being sent to their eyes and how to learn to control their eyes' various functions. They were introduced to the various exercises they could do to strengthen their Byakugan's various abilities.

It was really easy for Carl to figure out how to do it. It was almost instinctual and incredibly easy to control his chakra usage. He was quite surprised at that. He thought he would have to train a lot harder to get as good as he was. But after practicing it once, he was already figuring out how to improve and do it better.

Hinata pouted a bit when she found out how much better than her Carl was doing. So he spent some time appeasing her and giving her tips and hints. She was very talented in her own right, and was soon progressing faster and faster. Hinata was very good at working under positive reinforcement.

Carl wasn't being biased or anything, but he thought that Hinata was much more talented in pure Byakugan usage then Neji. (He was totally being biased.)

In his memories Neji's skill seemed to be focused on using the Gentle Fist combat skill. That's where he shone.

Which is what everyone that was a scheming bitca was going to be using to break down Hinata's confidence. Even from just his memories and one morning of training he could see that her body type and skills didn't lend themselves to the standard Gentle Fist. She definitely needed alternate forms.

He was actually working himself up into a fine fit of anger, thinking about how the Hyuga clan, in a completely different reality, ignored the arts, skills, and techniques that suited his sister so they could push her around and abuse her. They worked hard to break her down from the cheerful girl she was currently into someone so timid that she couldn't even bring herself to introduce herself to someone she admired and wanted to get to know, namely Naruto.

'Breathe, Carl.' He commanded himself. 'Breathe, and calm down. There's no use getting mad at a bunch of idiots that haven't had a chance to do anything yet. Or those that are in a different reality and further up the time stream.'

He was soon calm again. He was trying not to focus on the issues with his clan, it would just set him off again.

This day was just a damned emotional rollercoaster for him.

He was still adjusting to finding himself with new memories and in a totally different world so abruptly. It was a shock to his system. And it didn't help at all that anytime he saw random tidbits of information he could immediately deduce how to use it for all kinds of shady reasons from political machination to breaking a person, to ruining their reputation.

He didn't even know just where all these ideas of how to manipulate people and take control of a political entity like a clan were coming from! And he couldn't stop the ideas from popping in his head! It was maddening!

He couldn't even properly enjoy a day of being a kid, training and studying with his twin sister without realizing all the ways she was screwed over by the clan in the hypothetical future.

If he didn't have any memories at all of the original comic and show, he was sure that he wouldn't be thinking of all these things that filled in the blanks between what is and what could be. All the dirty tricks they played on his cute little sister!

As Carl laid in bed, trying to sleep, he hoped that once all these ideas of the dirty dealings had popped in his head once, they would leave him be to enjoy his second childhood of learning how to be a sneaky snake, er.. a competent shinobi.

Finally, he slept.

"He's finally fallen asleep." Hiashi stated redundantly aloud to his wife. He knew she was watching over their troubled son just as much as he was. It was unusual to see him so upset over something that they couldn't deduce the cause of.

"Do you have any idea what was bothering him so much today?" Himari queried from where she was sitting in their bundle of blankets and mats, cradling her unborn child in her stomach.

"No." Hiashi paused where he had been pacing back and forth. In public he would never show the slightest bit of worry or unease so as not to allow any weaknesses to be seized upon by their enemies. But he loved and trusted his wife and her council, so he allowed himself to relax behind closed doors.

When he saw her frowning, Hiashi stepped to her side and placed a comforting hand on her back, rubbing circles to soothe her.

"Whatever it is, we'll be here to resolve it when he brings his worries to us." Hiashi comforted.

Himari's brows smoothed out as she looked up at Hiashi with a smile of appreciation for his words of comfort.

"I just worry what would happen to my family if anything were to happen to me." She whispered. "This pregnancy…feels different. My body feels weak, like it could give out at any time."

"Nothing will happen to you." Hiashi almost fiercely stated. "Everything will be fine, you'll see."

Realizing that it was her turn to comfort her spouse, she dropped her worries and smiled winsomely up at her husband.

"Of course, dear. Now, come to bed. It's time to sleep."

Hiashi obliged and climbed under the covers on his side of their bedding, settled down with his wife's head on his shoulder.

"If our son is still upset tomorrow, then I'll assign someone trusted to investigate anyone who has any contact with them, and find out what was said to upset him." Hiashi finally stated. His wife didn't say anything, but he could feel her relax even more into his side, as there was now a sold plan to address their concerns of why their boy was acting so unnerved and upset all day long.

"Carl, it's time to wake up."

His eyes snapped open, confusion evident in them for a moment before memory returned and they cleared up. He had just left the BtVS world and was now in the Naruto world.

"I'm up, Nuo. I'll be out in a moment." Carl called. He heard the old servant Nuo settle into a waiting stance beyond the door.

'Huh, how did I know that just from the sounds of his movement? Ninja stuff I guess.' Carl dismissed. So many new things were happening to him, that if there was one more, it wasn't such a big deal. Just roll with the punches.

As he dressed and did his morning toilet, he pondered over his odd situation. After a night of sleep, as little as it had been, he felt much more rested and centered. He felt fully capable of facing this new world and his odd circumstances.

It helped immensely that he had a support structure of the Hyuga clan to watch over him and see to his needs. His memories of his new family here comforted him. He had a caring, if stern, father, a gentle and kind mother, and a cheerful twin sister that made his days fun.

If he was some nameless orphan with no resources or people he could lean on, he would probably freak out quite a bit. Especially knowing that this was a world where great physical and chakra intensive battles happened. If he didn't have a clan to teach him combat, he would really be worried about surviving here!

The only reason he had survived so much and been so successful for the past 10 years in the BtVS world was because of the capable friends and allies he had. Not to mention that he had ambushed most of those threats from the shadows before they knew he was there. If he had to fight them in straight up physical combat, he would be killed in one hit!

And while he was now in a world that focused on and relied on physical strength and combat power, he was happy that he was in such a powerful clan as the Hyuga that could teach him how to be a powerful melee fighter. It would shore up his weakness and allow him to survive, that was for sure.

Given enough time to prepare a ritual and set up an ambush, he was sure he could take out even S-rank threats with his magic. The problem was that this was a world of freaking ninja! There was no way they would give him the chance to set up said ambushes, nor would they carelessly walk into those ambushes without a care!

Not to mention that he needed some kind of sympathetic link to them to do any kinds of ritual spells against them without being there in person. And trying to do anything sneaky around them, like stealing even a bit of their hair or blood, would immediately get his throat cut. Or worse, tortured and experimented on.

So it was all the more important that he learn all the ninja skills he could. And having the opportunity to learn the Hyuga style of combat that could keep him alive long enough against big threats to pull out the magic to tip the scales was priceless.

'But it's not like I'm actually going to be facing those huge threats.' Carl thought. 'Since I've only got 10 years in each world, and being the same age as Hinata, I'll probably end up leaving this world at about the age of 15, in the middle of Naruto's training trip with Jiraiya. Those huge threats don't come around until after he gets back, which was when I'd be around 16 if I stayed long enough in this world. Well, aside from the invasion during the chuunin exam. I'll have to create a plan for that later on. Even if the plan is as simple as sneak attacking the enemy while keeping as safe as possible.'

Finished with his morning routine, he joined his family for breakfast, enjoying the tranquil atmosphere.

With his mind at ease, Carl settled easily into his memory's routine. In the morning was physical training with his sister. After lunch was study time and training various skills related to knowledge and the scholarly arts. And in the evenings before bed was the time spent training their Byakugan eyes.

Thinking about their daily schedule gave Carl many insights into the Hyuga clan and life in Konoha in general.

He knew both from the Naruto show back in the day and due to his lessons here in the Hyuga clan that chakra was a mixture of mental and physical energy. It was good to keep those two energies balanced, especially for the Hyuga style of combat which required a great deal of precision.

So one part of their day was devoted to physical training, one part was devoted to mental training. And because so much of their clan identity, life, and security precautions were focused on their special eye's dojutsu, the last part of their training was focused on training their eye's abilities.

One of the things that was interesting to Carl was that their study time wasn't solely devoted to studying ninja skills and arts. After thinking about it, he realized that any kind of study that focused on the mental aspect of a person would do. And as one of the two biggest noble clans of Konoha, it was important for them to keep up a certain amount of respectability.

So their study time wasn't only memorizing ninja skills or playing shogi. He and Hinata also practiced the art of painting, calligraphy, and playing a musical instrument, in this case the both of them practiced playing the Junanagen, the 17 string koto, or at least a scaled down version for their small sized hands. Their hands and arms couldn't stretch far enough to play the full size version yet.

Carl was impressed at how talented Hinata was at the musical instrument. She was only four and a half and she was already so good! He made sure to praise her for her skills, trying to make sure her confidence was strong, in case they ran into the same problems later that happened in the original storyline; where the clan tried to break her down mentally.

There really must be something to chakra being able to mature ninja bodies early, or something along those lines, for such young children as they were to be able to learn so much so quickly.

One of the things that surprised him over the next several weeks was how easy everything was coming to him. Both his physical training and mental studies were so easy. He only had to glance over a scroll once and it was imprinted in his memory. He only had to see someone performing an exercise and he could immediately duplicate the feat after only one try.

Granted, it wasn't perfect on his first try, he still had to do repetitions to perfect the moves. But he understood the concepts and ways he had to move to accomplish the movement or attacks and improved at incredible speeds.

Even figuring out how to use and train his Byakugan was utter simplicity. Especially once he practiced watching chakra flows with his eyes. Once he could see what someone's chakra was doing when they demonstrated a skill, it was incredibly easy to break it down and figure out how to do it himself. He could then use his eyes to guide Hinata in how to mold her chakra, so her training speed was improved as well.

It almost scared Carl to death at first, since he didn't previously have such a talent for learning, and anything unknown could be dangerous. Then he slapped himself when he realized he was freaking himself out for no reason. Obviously he still had buried memories. So he probably had a perk that was able to be used, even if he didn't actively remember it.

So Carl's daily struggle wasn't memorizing and learning the things he should, it was holding back from showing off how good he was. He really didn't want to get the reputation of a "genius" here in the ninja world for a number of reasons.

Not least of which was that it made him a target for all those enemy ninjas or bounty hunters that were perverse enough to like such a challenge, or took "pleasure" in ending a genius' life before he blossomed into an actual threat.

Too bad Konoha didn't just call every single genin hopeful a "genius" to flood the market and confuse the spies as to just who were the real talents. Of course, if the stupid teachers and bootlickers could actually refrain from bragging and crowing about the smarter ninja trainees, a lot of problems would have been solved right there. Loose lips sink ships and all that.

But that was something that just couldn't happen because of human nature.

Another important reason he held back was because he didn't want to damage his beautiful twin sister's confidence. He was working so hard to build her up and make sure she trained right. He didn't have time for some ass kisser to come along and belittle his sister's accomplishments just to try to puff up Carl's sense of self importance in a strategy to brown nose the heir of the clan.

And it wouldn't work like said brown noser wanted anyway. Carl would not be flattered in the least. Instead he would see it for what it was: an attack on his beloved sister.

There was only one response for anyone who attacked his family: end the threat.

In this case it didn't necessarily mean killing anyone who attacked Hinata like that. But he would not allow anyone to do such actions against his family.

'A Juken strike to the balls should do just fine.' Carl sometimes darkly thought. He was pretty sure he wouldn't act on such thoughts without provocation. 'Maybe I should go for the knees first? The balls are a bit extreme for a first time offense. Save that for round two if they don't get the hint.'

So Carl's days consisted of keeping his blossoming skills under wraps to remain more average while helping Hinata train. Also spending time with his new parents at meals, in the baths, and during occasional training sessions with his father, and spending time with their mother in the garden on their occasional break times.

Strangely enough, he found that it was quite easy to keep his skills hidden. It was only his own boredom and desire to test the limits of where he was that caused him to have a hard time holding back sometimes. But anytime he looked over and saw Hinata's happy face, he easily found his motivation. He didn't want to ruin that smile.

Before Carl knew it, three months had passed since he regained his memories. And his mother went into labor.

All of his fears and doubts came rushing back. Because he knew that it was very likely his gentle and loving mother would be dying in childbirth in the next day or so, and there was nothing he could do about it.

Could he keep Hinata strong and happy afterwards? With their mother dead and their father going cold and distant? With their newborn baby sister to watch over? With the vultures circling around them and trying to pick them apart?

Would he be able to do it?

These doubts circled around Carl's mind as he, Hinata, and Hiashi waited outside the birthing room, waiting for the news.

Hinata was holding his hand tightly, knowing that the situation was tense.

Hiashi paced back and forth, wincing every time he heard his wife groaning in pain.

Carl breathed deep, hardening his resolve to protect Hinata and Hanabi from the vultures at any cost.

And then Carl felt a strange disassociation in his mind. It felt like he was floating inside his own body.

And he suddenly remembered the time he spent in the Cosmic Warehouse after he left behind the Buffy the Vampire Slayer world. He remembered his choices of how to furnish his Warehouse and why. He remembered picking his body modifications that enhanced his base body and especially enhanced his senses.

And just before he was going to find out the next world he was jumping to, the flood of memories cut off.

"Carl, are you okay?" Hinata worriedly asked him.

Carl only then realized he was sprawled in his chair bonelessly, having almost collapsed from the memory.

"Yeah." He shakily answered Hinata.

Just then the door opened and one of the doctors came out. He tried to whisper to Hiashi, but Carl heard just fine. He had Tier 4 senses, after all.

"There were complications, Lord Hiashi. Your wife is fading fast, though your new daughter is fine. If you want to say goodbye to your wife, now is the time."

Carl was struck by a realization. He had the medical bay in his Warehouse! He could save their mother!

He immediately jumped to his feet and ran to his father, pulling along Hinata, who was still grasping his hand.

"Father!" Carl urgently said, grabbing his father's hand tightly to gain his attention from the shock he just received. "You need to clear out the room so only mother is there! I've just learned something that can help her recover, but it must remain a secret!"

His father gazed down at him, almost absentmindedly, while the doctor scoffed scornfully at Carl.

"I'm sorry Lord Hiashi, but there is nothing that can be done for your-urk!"

The arrogant tone and words coming from the doctor was cut off as Hiashi attacked as fast as lightning and knocked the arrogant man unconscious. The doctor offered no hope and had already consigned his beloved wife to death. Even if it didn't work out for the best, he would grasp onto the hope his son offered him. He had no time to deal with obstacles that would try to ruin any chance his wife had to live.

"Come!" Hiashi said as he strode forward and opened the door. Carl and Hinata followed along behind him. "Everyone out. Now!"

Such was Hiashi's stern facial expressions and radiated Killing Intent that the medical personnel and servants didn't question him and immediately ran for it.

The moment the door closed behind them, leaving only Hiashi, Carl, and Hinata standing there, looking down at Himari's weak and barely conscious body and Hanabi in a crib to the side.

Without explanation Carl simply opened up a portal in the wall.

"Carry mother inside, father. There is a device inside that can save her!" Carl immediately pulled Hinata over to pick up the crib with Hanabi inside. Carrying Hanabi, and with Hinata following along, he entered the portal.

Hiashi didn't hesitate either at the strange sight; this was the only chance his wife had to live. He gently picked up his wife, following along.

Carl was momentarily taken aback, as he saw that the Warehouse was absolutely packed full of items that he didn't remember. There were also a few doors and an airlock in the walls that he had no idea where they went.

Shaking off the confusion as unimportant for the moment, Carl led the way over to the medical bay.

"Place her on that bed there, father."

Once his mother was on the bed, Carl activated the scanning and healing function. The family of three, which included a sleeping newborn, waited while the process completed in less than five minutes.

"Dear, where are we?"

Carl saw his father sag in relief when Himari woke up and spoke with unexpected vigor in her voice.

"Mother!" Hinata cried and jumped on the bed to hug her mother.

There were a lot of things she didn't understand about what had been happening, but Hinata knew that her mother had almost died just now. The relief that her much loved mother was going to be fine was almost overwhelming.

Carl caught his father looking at him.

"What is this place, Carl? And how do you have access to it?"

"Father, I…" Carl trailed off. What and how much of his unique situation to explain? A reasonable explanation that wasn't too heavy was called for.

"As I was sitting with Hinata, memories suddenly flooded my mind. Memories of my past life in a different world as a completely different person. The version of me in that life had the ability to access this dimensional storage. I tried it out and could open a doorway, so I knew the memories were real. I remembered the healing bed he had, and knew it could be used to save mother."

Carl moved over and fiddled with the controls as he printed out a report on his mother's scanning results in a language his father new.

"As for why I suddenly have these memories and ability, I have no idea father. I'm just grateful I received them in time to save mother. According to this device's scans, mother was poisoned with a slow acting poison."

He handed the printout to his father. Hiashi's face became even more stone-like as anger threatened to rise at the evidence of a plot to kill his wife. The issue of his son suddenly waking up memories of his past life and having such a strange place was suddenly much less important than the fact that someone was trying to kill his wife.

Reading over the report, he saw the type of poison that was used. It was an expensive one. Which meant that any records of the poison being sold within the past several years were likely still around. He had a lead to find out who it was that was poisoning his wife. He would follow that lead back to whoever dared plot against his family, and they would pay.

"Hiashi? What's going on?" Himari asked from where she was laying on the table cuddling Hanabi while Hinata leaned against their mother.

"Nothing to worry about just now, dear. How are you feeling?" Hiashi deflected for now. They could talk about it after she had some rest.

"I feel wonderful, actually." Himari got up, still holding Hinata in her arms. "Which is quite strange because I just gave birth, and was on the edge of…" She trailed off, not wanting to state it so bluntly where Hinata could hear.

"But you're fine now, which is all that matters." Hiashi smiled.

Carl did a double take! His stern father actually smiled!

"Father, we should have Hanabi undergo a scan too. If mother's poison was passed on to Hanabi, we want to make sure it is healed immediately." Carl said after recovering from the shock caused by seeing Hiashi smiling.

"A good idea, Carl. In fact, we should all undergo a scan, just to be sure." Any skepticism Hiashi may have had about the fantastical med bay was alleviated by seeing how quickly Himari was healed.

Several minutes later, the whole family was scanned and healed. The results had shocked Carl, since they were so unexpected.

Hanabi's results had showed that she had suffered only a little bit from second hand exposure to the poison that had nearly killed their mother. With the small amount she had in her system, as long as she wasn't poisoned again, she wouldn't suffer from it. The poison would work its way out of her system within a few weeks as long as she wasn't constantly being poisoned.

It didn't take any longer to purge Hanabi of the poison than it did for Himari.

Hiashi's scan showed signs of the buildup of a narcotic that would have affected his mood in subtle ways, leading him to becoming colder and emotionally remote.

Carl thought about how the Canon story would have gone and wondered about the undercurrents that were never shown in the original story. Hiashi was a highly trained jonin, an A ranked ninja, at least. If the poisoning had been any less subtle, he would have immediately noticed. But being emotionally cold and distant in the wake of the death of his beloved wife? That's something that he would have just taken as grief, and continued his routine, coping as well as he could.

Hinata and Carl were showing signs of being drugged with something that would have affected their coordination and confidence. The more difficulties they had with their coordination and training, the more it would affect their confidence. And they would be more open to criticism and blaming themselves for not being good enough.

While he felt a little afraid at the insidious plot against his family, he was also feeling furious inside. With a little focus to shift his vision to watch his parent's faces, Carl could see that his father and mother also saw the implications in the plot.

Hiashi's wife dies, leaving him grief stricken and emotionally distant. His children show they are untalented, allowing the criticism of the Elders to intensify. This weakness in Hiashi's leadership lets the Hyuga Elders gain more power and say in clan matters. Hiashi, unable to muster the emotions necessary to remain close to his children, leave them open to attack and belittlement. Meanwhile the path is open for the clan elders to manipulate and train Hanabi as their puppet ruler.

Within 15-20 years they would be able to gather enough sway in the clan to depose Hiashi as the clan leader, put Carl and Hinata in the branch clan with the Caged Bird seal due to their unsuitability as heirs, and have Hanabi be their puppet leader. She would be groomed to listen to them and marry one of their sons, bringing the line of succession to their family.

A long reaching plan that was years in the making and execution. Carl was disgusted.

After everyone went through a round of healing, Carl's family exited the Warehouse and returned to the birthing room. He saw the significant exchanged looks between Hiashi and Himari, saying without words that he would take care of rooting out the traitors while she remained to protect their children.

Carl had closed the portal, and acting on an impulse he didn't understand at the time, opened up a pinholes sized portal on an out of the way fold of his clothes. He wasn't sure why he would keep it open, but it felt like the thing to do.

"Carl, Hinata." Carl and Hinata's attention snapped to their father. They paid special attention due to the serious tone of his voice. "Tell absolutely no one about this, especially about Carl's ability to summon up this dimensional space. You never know when someone might be listening, so don't even talk about it with each other. Do you understand?"

"Yes, father."

"I understand, father."

"Good. Now, stay here with your mother. I have some things to do." Without waiting another word, Hiashi opened the door, exchanged loving glances with his wife, and closed the door.

Carl followed his mother and Hinata back to the bed, where they sat on either side of her, cuddled up to her side as she carefully picked up Hanabi.

"Doesn't your sister look cute?" Himari cooed at her new daughter.

"Yes, both my sisters are too cute." Carl chuckled aloud. Hinata giggled at the compliment.

"What's her name?" Hinata asked as he carefully touched her sister's hands, marveling at how small she was.

"We decided to name her Hanabi."

"She's so cute." Hinata cooed, looking at her sister. "We're going to have so much fun, baby sister Hanabi."

"Yes, she is cute, isn't she?" Carl whispered as he enjoyed the time just resting with his family. His mind, though, was wandering all over the place.

He had seen how packed the Warehouse was, with mysterious doors in the walls, shelves packed to the ceiling with storage boxes, and some odd machines that he couldn't make heads nor tails of. Just how many worlds had he been through before he arrived here? And why was his memory only returning a small chunk at a time?

How was his father doing in rooting out the poisoning plotters? And would they try to use more force once they realized their schemes were found out?

"Don't worry so much, Carl. Your father is quite capable. And now that he knows about it, they cannot escape him." Himari whispered to her son, trying to ease his worries.

"Okay." Carl smiled up at his gentle, kind, and beautiful mother. He could handle waiting calmly if his mother could.

And if he got too bored, he and Hinata could play some ninja games, which was training in disguise. Everything was training.

'Now why does that sound so familiar? Everything is training indeed.'

[AN: Going into this world I kept wondering and thinking about which fanfiction world I should base this Naruto jump off of.

I had just recently read Perfect Lionheart's Chunin Exam Day, which if you haven't read it is a Groundhog Day type story where Naruto keeps repeating the same period of time over and over. Until he makes the rank of Chunin he keeps going back to the first day of the Chunin exams. It is a very entertaining read, especially some of the things he does to relieve his boredom in a world that Just. Won't. Change!

I toyed with the idea of basing this arc on that fanfiction, since I like a lot of the things that Perfect Lionheart put in his fic about how the world works and how the people are. And while I may yoink some ideas from him and other sources, I thought it too difficult to mesh a time loop that Carl isn't in on with the Jump chain.

It would probably have looked something like this:

Carl sees that Naruto is acting different from normal. He ponders all the reasons that could be causing Naruto's unusual behavior and sudden showing of skills. Deciding to act on it, he approaches the blond genin.

"Hey, Naruto. Are you stuck in a time loop?" Carl asks.

"Whoa! How did you know?" Naruto asks in shock.

"Oh, I dunno. It was a guess. Thanks for confirming it though. So, how many repeats are you on?"

"This is like, the 15th! I don't know what's going on? Can you help me?"

"Sure! Let's get some training in. Show me what you've got."

Carl sees that Naruto is acting different from normal. He ponders all the reasons that could be causing Naruto's unusual behavior and sudden showing of skills. Deciding to act on it, he approaches the blond genin.

"Hey, Naruto. Are you stuck in a time loop?" Carl asks.

"You know, you still haven't told me how you know?" Naruto asks in shock.

"Oh, it was a guess. Thanks for confirming it though. So, how many repeats are you on?"

"87! I'm starting to get annoyed. It's so hard to get any training around here!"

"Oh, have you tried…"

Carl sees that Naruto is acting different from normal. He ponders all the reasons that could be causing Naruto's unusual behavior and sudden showing of skills. Deciding to act on it, he approaches the blond genin.

"Hey, Naruto. Are you stuck in a time loop?" Carl asks.

"You know, I'm not even going to ask anymore. You never tell me." Naruto pouts in resignation.

"Well, it was just a guess, but thanks for confirming it though. So, how many repeats are you on?"

"473! Say, could you help me with [fill in the blank]?"

"Sure, let's head to a practice field."

"…So, how many repeats are you on?"

"672. What do you know about [fill in the blank]?"

"Well, that's an interesting question. Why don't you tell me where you left off and we'll go from there."

"…So, how many repeats are you on?"

"2478. I'm on a vacation loop right now, so I'll pass on training for the day."

"Aright. Doing anything fun I can get in on?"

"Sure, let's go get a super prank ready to get back at…"

So you can see why I didn't really want to go that route. From Carl's perspective the first month after he entered the world the time loop would be broken and then he's got nothing to do for the next ten years except chill. Which doesn't make for a very gripping story.

So now that I meandered off the plot, the whole point was just to say that I'm just making the story up as I go, so it's not based off any one fic in particular, but an unholy combination of all the tropes that I find amusing or like.

With the healing of his mother and the knowledge of a poisoner somewhere nearby sending Hiashi on the warpath, Carl has already derailed whatever plot would have existed in whatever fanfiction world I decided to use anyway. And he hasn't even gotten all his memories back yet. Once he does, then he'll really start meddling, bwahahaha!

*cough* *cough*

Right, then. Once again, thanks for reading!]