Bāsuto woke up in one of the upstairs rooms of Tazuna's house. After a quick moment to gain his bearings, he noticed what was off.

Kami's laughing at me right now, I can feel it.

As soon as he got out of the bed he moved to look in the mirror. Looking at himself, he sighed loudly. He looked quite different than he did before he died. Of course, there were effects he was expecting, like his hair colour changing, Then there were changes he was definitely NOT expecting. Just small little things like the fact he looked multiple years younger than before.

I should have expected this from kami. She was being so vague about it too. I hope you're fucking enjoying this

Before he could think any longer on his current appearance, he heard somebody coming up the stairs and closing in on the door.

The door knob twisted open, and Kakashi's head slipped through the crack.

"Oh Bāsuto, you're awa-" He trailed off when he saw Basuto's noticable change in appearance.

"What happened?" He asked, very confused.

"An unexpected variable," Basuto replied shortly, still staring at the mirror infront of him. He knew there was no point in trying to hide the truth now.

Kakashi gave a stern glare and closed the door behind him.

"An 'unexpected variable' in what? Stop being cryptic. I'm your sensei, I deserve the truth. You're not leaving this room until I get answers." He told the reincarnated child.

Bāsuto sighed, knowing he wouldn't be able to slither his way out of this.

"Fine, I'll tell you, however I'm giving the short version because I know I'll have to explain it again in the presence of the hokage." Basuto replied.

Kakashi nodded his head, agreeing to the the terms.

"I made a deal with someone, and that deal gave me the power to basically come back from the dead. They were quite cryptic about the rules and limitations of it, so I've been trying to figure out the specifics." Basuto explained.

Kakashi listened as Bāsuto gave his very short explanation, before replying in turn.

"What do you mean by 'coming back from the dead'?"

"Exactly what it sounds like. Should I ever die, like what happened yesterday, I come back. Of course, it would be insane should I actually have infinite lives, so I only have 9. After the ninth death, I don't come back."

Kakashi pauses for a moment in thought, before asking one final question.

"How many times have you died?"

Bāsuto considers this for a moment.

Do I tell the truth or start an elabrate set of lies and half truths?

"I've died 3 times already, making this my fourth life."

Kami, this is so going to bite me in the ass one day

Kakashi didn't seem to notice the lie, as he was to deep in thought. After a long pause, he finally acknowledged Basuto.

"Alright, we can get into more details back in Konoha, for now though, how are you going to explain this to your teammates?" He asked gesturing to Bāsuto's new age.

"Exactly what I told you." He said not really in the mood to talk anymore.

I hate talking, and yet these three are to the point of making my vocal cords sore.

As they walk down the stairs they are greeted by naruto and sasuke.

"Hey bās-WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU?" Naruto yelled at the boy.

Bāsuto, though saying he would explain it, decided not to as he was hungry and Naruto was annoying.

"Kakashi, explain." Was all the boy said as a reply before heading into the kitchen.

Kakashi, also not really much of an explainer either *cough* introductions *cough* decided not to explain either.

"I'll explain when we get back to Konoha, ok?" Was the only explanation the jonin gave to them.

Naruto goes to yell, but got smacked over the head by Sasuke.

"Ow, stupid teme!"

"Quit being so loud, Dobe."

Meanwhile in the kitchen Bāsuto was making himself lunch, considering he hadn't eaten in close to a day.

Now, where do they put the syrup... Ah, there it is. Right now I just need to turn on the stove an-

His thoughts were interrupted by Tsunami who walked into the kitchen with a sack of potatoes.

"Oh! Bāsuto, you're awake... and look a lot younger?" She stated in a questioning tone, rather confused by his appearance.

"A shinobi thing, nothing to worry about." He tells her, not going into details.

"Oh, okay then. I'm curious, what are you making?" She asks, changing the topic to a lighter note after noticing the boy putting a mix into a pan on the stove.

Bāsuto, seeing this as an opportunity to take attention away from himself replied quickly.

"Its a recipe I discovered. By mixing a few basic ingrediants. I make this mix here and when heated up it becomes more solid, much like a cake. I call them pancakes." He explained to her.

She became fascinated by them.

"May I try one?"

"Sure." Basuto replied to her, putting a pancake in a plate before handing it to her.

"And one last thing." He added, grabbing the syrup he had found before, putting it on top of the pancakes. He also gave her a fork to use.

She took a piece off and takes a bite, her eyes widening in surprise before she chews and swallows quickly, then grabbing another bite.

"Vis is delifush!" she told him while still eating a piece. While normally she was well mannered this was just too tasty to matter.

"Thank you, do you want a recipe?" He asked her, also now sitting down with his own plate of pancakes.

Her eyes widened before she immediately replied with a 'yes please'.

Their conversation continued for quite a while after that.

He was genuinely enjoying this coversation, even more then almost any other he'd had. Despite his normal disinterest in most things, he always had a certain love for sweet things, and he was glad he could indulge it. Though knowing his luck and his team it was obviously not going to last.

As if tempting fate with that thought just then Kakashi walked in to the kitchen. He looked between his student and Tsunami before shaking his head.

"Come one Bāsuto, we're leaving in a few minutes." He told the his student.

Bāsuto placed his plate in the sink before he went up to the room he was in before to go and grab his stuff. There wasn't much to grab, just his bag and a scroll or two. It was incredible how many seals you could fit into an inconspicuous backpack.

Quickly picking it all up and making sure the room was in a decent condition, he went back downstairs and towards the front door. He looked around the house one more time before leaving the house, him being the last one out after all. Before rejoining the group he could see heading away from him towards the bridge, he placed a simple genjutsu on himself so that he wouldn't get any stares from people who had seen him previously.

Walking back to the group, he noticed Naruto's stare. Knowing what Naruto was going to say, Kakashi replied to the unspoken question for bāsuto.

"It's just a genjutsu, Naruto." The sensei told his student.

Naruto made an 'ah' sound in understanding.

"I still don't get it." He stated.

"Nevermind, just come on. You're falling behind." Kakashi tells the blond.

He quickly caught up to the group.

eBy now they had made it to the bridge, where a group of towns people had come to give a farewell to their heroes. At the front of the group was Inari.

Him and Naruto went to each other to have a conversation that Bāsuto didn't pay attention to, before they both burst into tears shouting about something about never forgetting each other.

He also heard something about them naming the bridge the Great Naruto Bridge.

Bāsuto wasn't paying that much attention, as he had heard these conversations tens of times.

Just before leaving he saw a small speck of orange in the group of towns people.

Isn't that foreshadowing... I have a strange feeling things are going to change during the chunin exams.

¤◇¤◇¤◇¤◇¤◇¤

Bāsuto's P.O.V

"So you mean to tell me, you made a deal with an unknown individual to get multiple lives, didn't tell anyone and then become multiple years younger!?" Ibiki shouted at me.

God, this is why I didn't want to tell anyone.

I was currently in the Hokage's office being interrogated by Ibiki, my team having left awhile ago.

"Yes."

"WHAT THE HE-" He begins to shout before being cut off by Hiruzen.

"Save it, Ibiki. You can go now. I'll handle the rest." The Hokage ordered the scarred man.

Ibiki grumbled before bowing his head and disappearing in a shunshin.

"Now, I'd like to thank you for revealing the truth. On another note, will you be able to participate in the upcoming chunin exams in your current form?" The hokage asks addressing my great change in appearance.

"Yes, there won't be a problem." I tell the old man.

I swear to god if he bans me and my team from the chunin exams because of this-!

"Don't worry about not being in the chunin exams if thats what your thinking. You said it won't interfere, so I wont question it. I trust you, don't let it be misplaced."

¤◇¤◇¤◇¤◇¤◇¤

Ah, it's nice to take a break, though I know that were doing the chunin exam in twodays.

I'm currently testing out a few more things with 'the cube' that I had gotten just before the C ranked mission turned A rank.

By now I knew that everything worked. It felt good for something to actually go right for once.

Now that that was out of the way, time to go genjutsu one of the chunin into giving me the answers to the test in the first part. Its going to be pretty simple, I am pretty good at genjutsu.

¤◇¤◇¤◇¤◇¤◇¤

Let's see... step one of my chunin plan, interact with the sand siblings. That's one step that won't go wrong because I know exactly where they're going to be.

I look ahead from behind Naruto, as he had met up with Sakura when she was off. Konohamaru got into shit with her and I feel delighted, knowing everything is how it should.

I definitely didn't pull some strings to make sure sakura was off and definitely didn't mention her to Naruto.

I watch as Konohamaru bumps into Kankuro. He goes to grab the boy but I move in to stop him. I grab his arm with a firm grip which surprises him.

"I wouldn't. He's the Hokage's grandson," I tell kankuro.

His eyes widen in suprise before becoming haughty again.

"My bad, punk," He apologized to Konohamaru.

Wanting to let them know some of my power, and to not make Gaara look superior, as he goes to reveal himself, I call him out.

"You there, in the tree, Gaara. You should monitor your siblings better." I tell them knowing it would get a reaction. I was right.

"How do you know his name!? And how do you know we're his siblings!" Temari shouts at me.

"Anyone who has any knowledge on Suna should know who the Kazekage's children are." I tell them.

Gaara stares blankly at me.

"What's your name?"

"No. You'd have an advantage in the chunin exams." Normally I wouldn't give explantions to my answers but I know it would cause more problems to not explain in this situation.

I disappear in a shunshin. Just before leaving, I see a brooding Sasuke in a tree being upset about me stealing his spotlight.

I head to my house for lunch, having some dango. I blame my sugar addiction.

Well, this doesn't feel right. Too many things are going right. And because of Murphy's Law, everything is going to go wrong during the chunin exams. Great.

Lunch went by fast. And soon I was meeting up with my team to get the chunin aplications, not that my teammates knew that.

"Yo!" Kakashi says, appearing in front of our team.

"You're late again, sensei!" Naruto shouts at his sensei.

Wait a minute, is that who I think it is?

I see orange in the distance heading towards my team.

"Mah, mah, Naruto, I got lost on the path of life. Anyways, I've got something for all of you." He says as he hands each of us the chunin application sheet. I immediately took it and said a small thanks before leaving, also giving a small goodbye to them. I hurriedly walk away from the group, not wanting to interact with the person.

Fuck you kami. Of course. Fuck you. You had to, didn't you? Yep, kami is definitely laughing.

)-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-(

Fucking writers block
Ill have you all know this was the first sentance i wrote in this chapter, and didn't delete it at all. So I could see it the entire time I was writing this chapter.

Im sorry. Very very sorry. Hey, better late then never. God every single one of my authors notes at the end is just me saying sorry for the late updates.

Anyways, do you like how I started and ended the chapter with close to the same sentance, i thought it was clever. Also 2K+ WORDS?! I'm proud of myself. I managed to fit the entiraty of the end of the wave arc mission to the beginning of the chunin exams in one chappy.

Also foreshadowing much? I love doing this, now how many loose ends to tie up is that now, 5? 6? Oh well.

Ive made some minor changes to all the chapters and will continue to do so.

Anyways this is close to 200 words of authors notes. Ill stop now,

Thanks for reading, and see yall in the next chappy, merry christmas,

-JustSk8n

Edited July 25, 2020 by Anjo