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Eclipsed Affection

Summary:

In the hidden village of Konoha, Ren, an outsider to this world, finds herself entangled in a web of mysteries and ancient secrets. When a haunting dream connects her past life to Orochimaru, she discovers more than just her way back home. As veils are lifted, Ren must grapple with the shadows that lurk within Konoha and within herself, forging a destiny that transcends the boundaries of time and secrecy. Updates weekly on Wednesdays.

Notes:

Hi Everyone,

Last year I started writing the sequel for “In Another Life” (IAL). However as I started to write I came across too many of my own writing failures and plot holes so characteristic of a young writer. I started writing IAL while I was a teenager, to deal with my own grief, and so you can see that in my writing and the ages of the characters. So while a sequel to it is still in the works (and I am very excited for it), I figured I needed to do my original story justice before I could continue. “Eclipsed Affection” is that attempt.

While the initial scenario of Ren’s Isekai remains the same, you’ll notice that from the first chapter on, the story diverges completely and ultimately takes a more mature tone as Ren deals with the nuances of life in Konoha.

Thanks to all of you who have been patiently waiting for me to write more. I’ll be interacting more in this space as I post chapter updates. Prepare to have your heart broken in new ways.

 

-Author

Chapter Text

This work is dedicated to all the girls who endured lives devoid of comfort and sought sanctuary from a fictional villain. 

 

Preface

 

Jiraiya exhaled slowly and settled himself on the stump of an old tree. He took off his gloves to rub his cold cracked hands. The blizzard had finally settled down to a more gentle, windless snowfall but his hands still ached. The land of fire was much warmer than here, and the gloves he’d received had proven to be next to useless at these temperatures. He sighed deeply and looked out beyond the horizon. The snow covered the still smoking small village in front of him and gave it a decidedly false sense of serenity. 

 

His heart grieved for the massacre that had occurred only hours before on the people within this town. He wondered silently at what had probed such senseless violence.  

 

“Hey,” 

 

He looked up and saw Tsunade walking toward him from the right. 

 

“Did you find any survivors?” she asked wearily, her tone suggesting efforts on her end had not been successful. 

 

He shook his head and looked down at the red snow at his feet before answering solemnly. “No, there’s no one left.” 

 

The corpses he had been looking through for the past hour had left his boots stained in red. He attempted to wash his shoes and cover the red snow with the fresh white, but the blood showed through regardless.

 

When she approached him, he stood slowly and offered her the seat, but she declined and instead looked ahead at the row of broken homes with her arms crossed. 

 

“This is horrendous…”  she said quietly. He looked in her eyes, wondering if she might become emotional over it, but she was better at being composed than he was. Her beautiful face was unmarred by the sadness she felt. 

 

The Kou people had always been friendly and hospitable to the Land of Fire. They often exchanged in trade, and frequently offered refuge for Konoha shinobi passing through, as had been the case for them only two days prior. He looked away wondering whether enemies of Konoha had decided to take their rage out on these peaceful people because of them . He wished in vain that his shoes could be rid of their blood. 

 

If only we had come through today, If only…

 

“I see Orochimaru,” Tsunade said, silencing the conversation in his head. “It looks like he’s carrying someone.” Jiraiya looked up and made out Orochimaru in the distance. He squinted, Orochimaru had a kid in his arms. Jiraiya closed his eyes and prayed it wasn’t just another corpse… 

 

 As their comrade came closer Jiraiya noticed the kid lift her head up and look at them before resting on Orochimaru’s shoulder again. Jiraiya let out a sigh of relief. 

 

“That poor thing…” Tsunade said beside him, reminding him that surviving may have been a bigger curse to this girl than dying alongside her people. 

 

“Is she injured?” she asked once Orochimaru was within earshot.

 

“No, but she’s not dressed for the weather,” he answered as he approached his comrades. 

 

Jiraiya took off the pack he was wearing and pulled out a thin blanket. It was no winter coat, but it would be better than nothing. As Orochimaru neared them, the kid stared at Jiraiya with disinterested, tear-stained eyes. He smiled in a vain attempt to make her feel better while Tsunade and Orochimaru exchanged information. She had the proper shoes and pants, but the sweater she wore did not cover her neck or hands. She did not shiver, but whether that was due to an external or internal numbing he couldn’t be sure. 

 

Of the three of them he was certainly the best with kids, Orochimaru and Tsunade often reminding him that it was because he was a big child himself. He held out the blanket, and addressed Orochimaru, “Why don’t you give her to me?” 

 

The girl’s eyes widened at that remark and she tightened her grip around Orochimaru, not wanting to let go. The sudden tension of the girl disrupted Orochimaru and Tsunade’s conversation. Orochimaru looked down at her, his free hand moved to gently rest on her head suggesting to her to lay against him again. She did so and relaxed.

 

“Just give the blanket to me.” Orochimaru demanded wearily.

 

Jiraiya handed over the blanket to his comrade, surprised that the girl preferred Orochimaru over him. That had never happened. 

 

“Thank you,” the girl replied hesitantly to both Orochimaru and Jiraiya as she took the blanket from Orochimaru and wrapped her upper body in it. Jiraiya nodded with a smile on his face. 

 

“So, what’s the plan now?” he asked. 

 

“There’s an empty cabin just back there where we can start a fire and figure things out,” Tsunade suggested, pointing in the direction she came from. 

 

Orochimaru nodded and followed her lead to the abandoned building, Jiraiya walking behind the both of them. 

 

When they entered the cabin, the young girl looked up at the surroundings and then whispered something in Orochimaru’s ear that only he could hear. He turned his head and told the girl they wouldn’t be staying too long. She nodded slowly. When they entered the main living area he put the girl down on the ground as they prepared to start the fire. 

 

Jiraiya cleared the fireplace and Orochimaru placed the new wood to burn, the girl staying near his side, one hand gripping his vest throughout the process as if to tether the two of them. Orochimaru was surprisingly patient about the behavior and made no effort to untether the two of them until the fire was ready. When he encouraged her to warm her hands, she was hesitant to let go of his vest so he carefully grabbed her hands with his own, pulling her gently in front of him and placed them near the fire. He rubbed her hands with his own, protecting her from the brunt of the heat until her fingers had returned to a normal color. 

 

Jiraiya realized that the girl was older than he had previously thought; being carried like a little kid had misled him. She looked to be about eight or nine he considered. Jiraiya wondered about his own youth and why they, as three teenagers, had been sent on this mission… Was he really only a teenager? He felt older than that… 

 

“Leave her here for a moment and let’s talk in the back,” Jiraiya suggested once the four of them had warmed up. The girl looked at Orochimaru, obviously nervous about being separated from him. Orochimaru put a hand on her head and assured her he would be back in a minute and not to worry. He smiled at her, not his nasty smile either, and the girl nodded slowly and turned towards the fire once more.  

 

What an odd interaction. Who was this girl that she had managed to make Orochimaru seem… gentle ?

 

Once the door was closed behind them, Orochimaru was the first to speak.  

 

“I’m taking her back to our village,” as though it wasn’t a matter of question. 

 

Tsunade probed. “...And do what? Convince Saratobi sensei to let her in?”

 

“Exactly.” 

 

Tsunade scoffed. “Goodluck doing that. Do you know how many orphans already exist in Konoha? What good is it to add to that growing number?” 

 

Orochimaru’s facial expression remained stoic. “I’ll train her myself.” 

 

“To be what? A ninja ? Have you any idea if she even has the potential? The Kou are not Shinobi. They are artisans, musicians for God’s sake!”

 

“She has the potential,” he added. 

 

They waited a moment for him to expand on how he knew that, but he kept that information to himself. 

 

Tsunade continued to reason with him. “Look, there’s a town just a couple of hours south of here, that’s a much better place for this girl to grow up. Then she can be near her home.”

 

“Her home is destroyed, Tsunade. What’s the point of having her grow up near it?” Orochimaru replied bitterly.

 

“What’s the point of bringing her home with us?” Tsunade asked, looking at Jiraiya then, who had been considering both sides. “Back me up Jiraiya. Tell Orochimaru that he is being delusional because he finally met a kid that’s not scared of him.” 

 

Jiraiya felt awkward as the attention in the room shifted to him. He looked back and forth between his two comrades. Tsunade was right in her facts, but something… something about Orochimaru’s adamance to train the girl himself impressed him. Most of the time Orochimaru was so cold and distant and had no interest in any other being besides himself. Jiraiya was probably considered his closest friend, and even he had no idea what was going on inside Orochimaru’s mind most of the time. Ever since his parents died he brushed off the deaths of others so callously that it shocked even the most hardened soldiers. But seeing Orochimaru smile at that girl, Jiraiya wondered if she knew something they didn’t.

 

He cleared his throat. “I think that…  there’s really no point in keeping the girl near here. There’s always the chance that the attackers could return and try to kill her too after all…” 

 

Tsunade shook her head in disapproval. “I can't believe you two... Fine. But when the hokage rejects her entry, and you have to break her heart by telling her, I hope you remember what I said.”  She sighed and then opened the door to exit. 

 

Orochimaru gave Jiraiya a single solitary nod of thanks. It was the best form of gratitude he could hope for. 

 

They exited the room and Orochimaru rejoined the side of the girl. Jiraiya watched as Orochimaru crouched down to be at her eye level and extended the offer to bring her to his village. Jiraiya couldn’t help but wonder if this was the beginning of some very important chapter in his friend’s life.

 

Chapter 1 

Artwork by @parkinfree

Karen Chavez sat uncomfortably in a wooden chair in the center of a damp room. She folded her hands on her lap as her captors had graciously not elected to use the built in cuffs on the arms of the chair. She tried to hold still; this chair creaked with any movement. She wondered if the noise was purposely meant to unnerve the seated. 

 

There were five others in the room, surrounding her in their own more comfortable chairs in a circular fashion. They whispered to one another. Candlelit spotlights were pointed to illuminate her to the spectators and prevented her from seeing anything beyond their basic outlines. 

 

One was sitting directly in front of her, an older man by the sound of it. She had had a day to digest her unbelievable circumstances and had her suspicions as to who he was, or at least who he pretended to be. She hoped desperately that she was wrong.

 

The whispers faded.

 

A voice from the back right side of her spoke. “Ka, Ren, You have been brought before the council for the Sandaime Hokage to determine your fate.” When she had first woken up to this nightmare she had fumbled in confusion and introduced herself with only her first name, “Karen”, and the person that had talked to her had thus mistakenly assumed that her surname was Ka and first name Ren. ‘Chavez’ sounded strange in Japanese and she was already an odd spectacle from the looks of it. It wasn’t worth correcting now.

 

She heard a thud of what sounded like the bottom of a cane hitting the floor. The perpetual pit in her stomach that formed upon her arrival reminded herself of its existence. One of the spotlights moved and pointed at the man in front of her so she could now see him clearly seated in front of a table. 

 

He began speaking to her. 

 

“How old are you, child?” She was no child, but he was the age where he could comfortably call anyone a child without it sounding strange. 

 

She swallowed. “I am twenty four, sir”. 

 

“On what day were you born?” 

 

She had to consciously think about how to say the numbers in Japanese. Was it kugatsu or kyuugatsu for September? It had been a few months since she had used the language and didn’t need to make the novice mistake of using the wrong words. 

 

“September 21st, 1999–” 

 

One of the men scoffed in the back and whispered something to the person nearby him. The Hokage, as he had been called, revealed nothing and seemed to write something down in a file that was in front of him.

 

“I’m told you are an advanced student of genetics at a… university.” He lifted the paper closer to his face for better reading. He said the Japanese word for university, daigaku , but tilted his head slightly as though he did not understand or otherwise did not believe it. 

 

“Yes sir, I am in the second year of my advanced program.” If he wasn’t familiar with the word university, then he certainly wouldn’t know the word for PhD. 

 

“Miss Ka, are you aware of how you arrived here?” 

 

She paused for a moment, wondering what they wanted her to say. “I was hoping you could tell me, sir. I only remember being at my school and then… seeing a flash of blue.” It was true. She had spent the last day trying to dig deeper than her dull walk home from the library, but it was as if the connection to the memories had been severed.

 

He stared deeply into her eyes for a moment and then looked at his file again. “My men found you just inside the village limits. You caused quite the commotion in the trees. I hear… several were knocked down when they found you laying there. They’d never seen anything like it.” He looked to one of the witnesses who was in the left corner of the room.

 

“...Oh.” Was all she could manage to say. Ren had to keep her calm. One of her fears was that this was an elaborate kidnapping scheme. She must have been snatched and brought to this “village”. There wasn’t a large population of Japanese speakers in her college town, and certainly not enough to form a strange cult. She could tell by the humidity that leached through the walls that she was not in the southwest of the US anymore. This climate felt more like the east coast, or like Japan itself in summer. 

 

“Are you sure you don't remember anything ?” His question brought her out of her mind and felt probing. Like he wanted her to say something else. But whatever this ruse was, she had not received a script for it. 

 

She looked him in the eyes. “I wish I did.” 

 

They sat in silence for a minute as he continued to stare into her eyes, measuring her integrity she supposed. 

 

The person sitting to the right of the Hokage cleared his throat and spoke in a near whisper. “Shall I take a look at her, sir?” 

 

Heads nodded around the room. The Hokage reached up and rubbed his temples with one hand. He sighed. “I suppose, Inoichi.”

 

The man, Inoichi, stood up and walked towards Karen. He had long blond hair pulled up in the back. Karen’s eyes widened in fear, what was he going to do to her? 

 

“Will this hurt?” She found herself asking as he neared her. She looked around the room desperately for a sympathetic eye. 

 

Inoichi answered her evenly. “So long as you don’t resist, no.” He placed a single hand on the top of her head. She closed her eyes, bracing for the worst. 

 

She felt a warmth at the top of her head. An odd, wet sensation trickled down her spine and suddenly she could see inside her mind. She was standing in the center of a hazy sphere. There were two walls of what looked like wooden drawers or filing cabinets on either side of her.  On the outside of the sphere, directly in front of her, she could see an outline of this Inoichi, looking as it were, for weak entry points of the sphere. She could feel, after a moment, that he had placed a second hand on her head, but on the inside of the mind he was still looking around the opaque sphere unsuccessfully. 

 

She had never experienced anything like this. What power on earth could grant someone access to the mind like this? A few more seconds passed, and nothing changed except that his frustration was palpable. Then just as it had started, it ended.

 

Karen opened her eyes and could see Inoichi, muscles flexed, sweating. He turned to Hokage and solemnly shook his head. 

 

An elderly woman, to the left of the Hokage, sighed deeply. “It is as we feared…” 

 

A man near the back, more enraged than disappointed, added. “Of course it is, we would have to be fools to think–” 

 

“Silence.” The Hokage spoke evenly. All heads turned towards him and quieted instantly. The Hokage sat looking down at the file in his hands. “Call Genma in to remove the girl while we discuss.” 

 

Someone knocked three times on the door behind Karen, and it squeaked open. An exchange of words happened and she was shuffled out into a smaller separate holding room. The guard, Genma, stood at the entrance, to prevent her from leaving. 

 

What had just happened?

 

She wracked her brain at this strange interaction.That man– the Hokage, he really did look like the Hokage, the one from the Naruto manga she had read in Middle School– what was he probing for?

 

This had to be a scam right? The alternative was unbelievable. But even as she thought it, her kidnapping cult theory felt like the more unrealistic option now. 

 

What other explanation was there for what just occurred inside her mind from Inoichi? People can fake costumes, even takeover towns– but that interaction inside her head? There was nothing, no drug that she knew of that could simulate that. She looked up at the face of that man guarding the door, Genma. Even he looked oddly familiar to her. She had never known his name from reading the manga, but she recognized his face. Facial structures, even the way he chewed on the toothpick were too oddly accurate to be ignored. 

 

She blinked her eyes and looked down at her hands. Her eyes darted to an unfamiliar scar on her left wrist that trailed nearly the entirety of her inner forearm. Her right index finger brushed the scar but felt no pain or tenderness, signaling to her that it must be an old wound. Questions filled her head:

 

Where did I get this? Why does this council seem so frightened of me? 

 

It is as we feared…

 

What do they fear? 

 

She didn’t get time to think about it long before another knock came at the door. She stood without being prodded. Just as before she was escorted to the center seat. 

 

“I have reached my conclusion regarding your... peculiar entrance into our village.”

 

Karen gave a single slow nod. 

 

 “You understand that it is a security risk of ours to just let you go after something of this nature has occurred.” He paused for effect– “Although you do not appear particularly dangerous, we would like to monitor you for sometime. If your memory regarding the entrance returns, the information may be useful for our security. In the meantime… we will put you to work. I will assign you a mentor, and you will expect to work with them and other shinobi to be a help in the maintenance of our village.” 

 

Shinobi. There it was– the final nail in the coffin. There were some disgruntled noises by the council’s members. Clearly they had not reached a unanimous agreement. She certainly could not blame them. For someone guilty of breaking and entering a village that took pride in being hidden, she was getting away absolutely scot-free. 

 

“Yes sir.” She found herself saying quietly. 

 

Karen couldn’t say how she felt at that moment: confused, seemed the only accurate adjective. She looked into the Hokage’s eyes to gather his intentions, but they remained a mystery to her; A crystal ball she could not read. 

 

He closed his file and the matter was settled.

 

 

After the council's deliberations concluded, Ren was given restrictions to abide by and a fake backstory complete with a faraway hometown in a country friendly to the Land of Fire. Genma, the guard who had escorted her, then stepped forward to guide her out of the room. As they walked through the dimly lit corridors, Karen's mind buzzed with questions and a growing realization that her life had taken an inexplicable turn.

 

They were briefly outside, long enough to confirm her climate suspicions. High humidity, but not quite mid-summer levels yet. Upon reaching the door of her assigned apartment, which was surely purposefully close to the Ninja headquarters, Genma gestured for her to enter. "This is where you'll be staying. Tomorrow, your mentor will meet you here to start your duties."

 

Karen nodded, feeling the weight of today’s interactions settling upon her. 

 

“I need to give you this before I go. Hold out your wrist." She did so. He placed on her what looked to be a bracelet, that once locked in, fit snugly around her wrist.

 

"What's this?" Karen questioned, eyeing the unfamiliar device.

 

"It's a chakra tracker. You need to wear it at all times. It's for your safety and ours," Genma explained. "Don't even think about leaving the village without permission. This will ensure we can find you if needed."

 

"Understood," she said, a sense of confinement settling in.

 

"Good. I'll be leaving you now.” He walked to the door and seemed to hesitate, tapping his fingers on the frame. He turned to face her. “Look, follow the rules, and things will go smoothly." 

 

Left alone, Karen examined the tracker on her wrist, a reminder of her restricted freedom. She took a moment to absorb her surroundings. The walls were plain, the furniture simple, and the atmosphere distinctly different from her previous reality. The experience in the council room, the probing within her mind, and the term "shinobi" echoed in her thoughts. She couldn't deny the striking similarities between this world and the fictional realm she had read about in Naruto.

 

As she ventured to a small bathroom within the apartment, Karen decided to look at herself in the mirror for the first time since arriving. To her astonishment, she noticed discrepancies that sent a chill down her spine. While she was certainly looking at her own face, her hair was much longer than she remembered, and the scar above her eyebrow, a defining feature of her appearance, was conspicuously absent. Her index finger reached up to her eyebrow, feeling for a familiar texture that did not exist. 

 

She stared at her reflection, grappling with the dissonance between her past and her current reality. The realization that she might not be the person she thought she was struck her with emotional force. The weight of this realm travel, the council's scrutiny, and the mysteries surrounding her identity pressed upon her. She couldn’t bear looking at herself another minute. 

 

She heard the noises of children outside, and wandered to the small window in her apartment. 

As she peered outside, she caught glimpses of people moving about their daily lives—shinobi and civilians alike. The traditional architecture and bustling streets confirmed what she had begun to suspect. This was really the Naruto Universe, a place she had only known through pages and screens, and now she stood amidst its reality.

 

Observing the villagers, Karen felt a pang of despair for the world she left behind. The vivid memories of her family, her friends, and the life she once knew played like a movie in her mind. A sense of longing gripped her heart as she acknowledged the potential impossibility of returning to her own world.

 

The weight of reality settled heavily on her shoulders. She sank onto the simple wooden chair, tears brimming in her eyes, but not yet feeling safe enough to cry. The overwhelming truth that she might never see her family again was the heaviest burden to bear. She mourned the life she had lost, the familiar comforts that now felt light-years away.

 

A realization struck her: she was alone in a foreign world, surrounded by unfamiliar faces, with no clear path back to her own reality. It was a harsh truth to accept.

 

After some time she stabilized her breathing and stood up. Ren had always been adaptable, life had thus far required it. Much was out of her control, but she could decide how to navigate this unexpected journey. She had to have gotten here somehow, surely a route home must also exist. Resolve flickered in her eyes as she acknowledged that she had to adapt, evolve, and perhaps find a way to make a place for herself in this new existence.

 

As the sun dipped below the horizon, casting an orange glow over the hidden village, Karen took a last glance outside. The determination to face the challenges ahead mingled with the sorrow of what she had lost. She closed the curtains, leaving the quiet apartment to envelop her in darkness as she embarked on an uncertain future in a world she thought only existed in fiction.