In a bedroom of a simple two-bedroom apartment in Los Angeles, you could hear the buzz and hum of a typical Android phone: "Hum... hum."
Suddenly, a hand reaches out from the comfortable confines of the bed for the phone in a desperate attempt to stop the noise, but alas, it falls from the nightstand to the ground, continuing its annoying melody.
"Ha!... Why did I even put an alarm on today?" Jamy muttered to himself.
Jamy, short for James Anderson, a 24-year-old med school resident about to enter his second year in his specialty, which is Pathology, is not something typical seen in today's age, especially for his young age—pun intended.
"Yawn... Hummm." With a comfortable stretch filled with the cracking of joints, Jamy gets up to start his typical morning routine in front of a mirror that reflects the haggard look of a short, black-haired youth, with eyes that tell great tales of exhaustion.
Jamy splashes his face with cold water, waking himself up for good. "Haa... I have been sighing a lot lately. Well, who told me to pursue a career in pathology? Oh right, that was me, haaa."
After finishing his morning routine and preparing a bowl of cereal to start the day with some energy, Jamy sits at a table in the kitchen while checking if he has any pending emails or messages. "No emails, huh? Not like I have anything to do study-wise.
I mean, the orientation for the second year starts in two weeks; that's as good break as any, I guess." While he watches some reels on Instagram and devours his cereal like he hasn't eaten in days, the clear sound of a notification 'bling' brings him back to reality.
"!!!?" In the Discord app, Jamy finds a message from a friend he hasn't been in touch with in years.
[ MorganOfBalance ]: Hello there! I hope I'm reaching out to the right person here. Jamy, is this your account?
[ JamyTheTruth ]: Woah! Morgan, is that you? From high school, as in the mad lad of Call of Duty?
[ MorganOfBalance ]: The one and only, hhh. Those were the days, man. So how's life been treating you? You got lucky with a girl, or are you still solo like me? 🤔 And definitely not to forget that asthma. Does it still act up, or did you get better, hopefully?
[ JamyTheTruth ]: Don't get me started on life 😑. Yes, still solo, and my asthma still sucks ass. Can't go through the day without my inhaler. Well, how about you? What have you been up to these years? Still in that band?
[ MorganOfBalance ]: Nope! The band broke up about two years ago after the main guitarist, Rob, was found taking those pills, if you know what I mean. I still write songs and sometimes do some gigs here and there. Thanks to your freelance skills from back in high school, you showed me I'm basically never out of money. Let me guess, you're still studying, right? 😐
[ JamyTheTruth ]: What!? How did you know? 🧐
[ MorganOfBalance ]: Man, for the smartest guy I know, you act so dumb sometimes. When you told me you were gonna try for graduation in high school at 16, I wasn't surprised, knowing you being a study machine.
[ JamyTheTruth ]: Hhh, well, you know me. Can't get enough of studying. I'm almost in the process of completing my residency in Pathology; then I'll see where to go from there. But I'm a bit exhausted these days; I don't have the best body, I guess.
[ MorganOfBalance ]: Phew, Pathology. that's a word that'll never come out of my mouth twice, but that's cool. Hope you continue doing well, and seriously, take care of your health.
[ MorganOfBalance ]: That's enough about life and my ramblings. We should really hang out like the old times, if you have any free time, that is. 😆😆
[ JamyTheTruth ]: I have free time, you motherf***er. 😡🤬 But I don't think this week is viable. I'm trying to unwind a bit from all the lab work and relax and watch some shows or something. Maybe next week; I'll call you then.
[ MorganOfBalance ]: Woah, woah! I'm joking here, hhh. You seemed so stiff, so I tried to change the mood a bit to get you out of it. But your suggestion is good; I'll be waiting then. Maybe call some old friends. And talking about shows, have you seen that "Boruto: Naruto Next Generations"? The art is good 👌, but the story, not so much.
[ JamyTheTruth ]: I know, like, who doesn't know your antics? But thanks, it did help 😁. To me, "Naruto" ended with the old generation; this is just some fan service at this point. I prefer reading some good old fanfics.
[ MorganOfBalance ]: You're welcome, and yes, fanfics can hit hard, man, if you find a good one. Well, it's been good talking to you again. I'll be waiting for that call next week. Bye!!
[ JamyTheTruth ]: Yup! You speak the truth, brother, hhh. Have a nice weekend. 👐
"Hhh... He's still so chaotic, but it fits him alright." Shaking my head in mock defeat, knowing well he'll call me tomorrow morning just to mess with me, "Hummm." 'I've been thinking of what to do with my free time lately, and what he said about Naruto made a spark go up in my head.' "Well, it won't be my first time rewatching it; still, it will be better than what we got nowadays."
So after finishing his breakfast and double-checking for emails again, Jamy waddled like a penguin to the room next to the bedroom, aka "study and relax room," finding a bean bag and sinking into it with a great sigh. 'Haaa... best purchase ever.'
Looking to his left side and finding his MacBook on a low table, he reached out to it and grabbed it. "Let's see here. Where should I start? From the beginning of the story or Shippuden?" 'I guess it doesn't matter anyway; I remember the story like the back of my hand. Eidetic memory is a curse sometimes.' Yup, you got that right; Jamy does have that perk.
In fact, Jamy is an orphan; that's why he resonates so well with the story of Naruto. In his younger days in the orphanage, he was mocked because of two things: being weaker than most kids and his mature behavior of always reading and playing as much.
Because of this and the bad management of the orphanage, it was overlooked that he had asthma until it was too late, leading to him having an asthma attack that landed him in the hospital for weeks.
'Those are some bad memories, huh? Would it have changed anything if I had been checked much earlier?' The answer to that question is as obvious as the sky being blue, but Jamy didn't like to think about it too much.
"From the beginning, I guess, but I'm definitely skipping those filler episodes." It was already about (09:30 am) in the morning, so he thought about going through the first 2-3 episodes before thinking of any lunch plans.
"Okay, let's do this one last time." To Jamy, this was gonna be another binge-watching run of his favorite show, but it was gonna be far more than he'd ever hoped for.
By the end of the second episode, Jamy had the funniest, most childlike smile in a while. Even if he saw it himself, he'd deny ever making it. This wasn't just a show to Jamy; to him, it meant much more. It was his light when he was in the darkness, his wind when he was lost at sea—ok, you get what I'm trying to say.
"That was so good!! I should've done this ages ago. Well, episode 3, here I come, hummm?" 'Why isn't it working? Did the streaming service crash?' "Oh right, the internet cuts out at (10:30 am). I should really get that fixed."
'More waiting, I guess. I wonder what it would be like to have chakra. Hmm, when you think about it, me and Naruto are the opposite of each other. He got the body, I got the mind. He got the yang, I got the yin—true balance. Hhh, that sounds like a dumb fanfic name. His control problem would be of the past, of course—not completely, and that's because of Kurama's constant interference.'
At that moment, Jamy made a wish he didn't even know he had because deep down, he didn't like his current life. Sure, he had money to spare and a straight path to a rewarding career, but his only regret was seeing kids running with all their might, wind rushing on their faces. Oh, how much could he pay to experience that for himself?
Tired and feeling a slight strain in his chest, "Oh boy, that's the start of an asthma attack for sure. Phew." Struggling to breathe and trying to find his inhaler in his pocket, he suddenly remembers, 'It's on the nightstand. How could I have forgotten it? This never happened before—weird.' He tries to get up, but at that moment, he loses balance and tumbles to the ground.
Feeling pain in his left side of his chest, he thought, 'What!? My heart hurts, but that never happened before. Sure, my heart is weak, but not this, not like this.'
At that moment, the internet came back, and the third episode started to play, accompanied by that cheesy song he usually skipped. He began to lose consciousness slowly while staring at his MacBook's screen. 'So this is it, huh?' Tears streamed down his face, a question for none to answer. 'I wish I could've accomplished something, changed the world somehow, made a difference even if it was just a little bit. But deep down, I already gave up on myself a long time ago. What would I give to feel the air rushing on my face?'
While James Anderson's life hung by a thin string, almost snuffed away, his eyes never left the screen, staring with absolute focus. His mind was working at a capacity almost inhumane, superhuman even. 'I want to live. I want to adventure. I want to have friends. I want to love.' These thoughts repeated in his mind faster and faster like a broken record. Seconds felt like minutes as time slowed to a crawl, and then he saw it—the window of Naruto's apartment. One final tear fell.
A raspy voice echoed in the room for the last time: "I...I just wanna b-be like you." That was the end of a simple soul from Earth, for now, that is.
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In a room filled with sunlight, a blonde youth woke up groggily and confused. He pulled his arms up and stared at them for a second. Suddenly, pure pain flooded his mind. "Ahh... What is happening to me?" Sweat dripped from his forehead while he clenched his head in a desperate attempt to stop it. Then, like magic, it stopped as if it had never existed.
"Huf... Huf... Huf." 'What was that? What happened? I was just on the ground one second ago.' He halted his thoughts when he felt something weird. 'What are these memories? No, no way, no freaking way!' He got up and ran with surprising speed to the bathroom that was in his memories. He pushed the door quickly and stared at the mirror in front of him.
"HOLY SHIT!!!" he yelled with full force at what he was seeing.
What was facing him was a face complete with sky blue eyes, and whiskers on each side .
How the hell is this possible? 'I'm dreaming, definitely dreaming.' So he pinched himself for good measure, and it hurt. One lone tear slipped from his eye. He thought to himself, 'I don't know who you are or what you are, but thank you for what you did for me.'
He went back to the bed and sat on it to collect his thoughts a bit—pun not intended. "Haaah... what you have gone through is not a joke at all. They make it seem trivial in the anime, but oh boy, that's a package and a half. If not for this weird feeling deep inside me that keeps telling me to never give up, I would crumble like a sack of potatoes." 'That's definitely Asura's chakra influence at play.'
I guess there will be no Jamy or James Anderson anymore. 'I'm Naruto, Naruto Uzumaki.' Chakra is weird to say the least; it's like a fever that feels good, if you know what I mean. 'Hhh, just for fun, let's try Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu.' "So all I need to do is form the (tiger) seal and focus on dividing my chakra equally. Hmm, feels easy enough." He performed the seal and focused on making three clones, not fully believing he would get it the first time. Then, with a surprisingly little amount of smoke, three versions of him appeared.
At this point, the gears in his head started working fast, and he looked at his three clones and said, "Are you all thinking what I'm thinking? If so, let's say it all at the same time." The clones and he nodded their heads in agreement and inhaled at once, """PERFECT CHAKRA CONTROL.""" "CLONES ARE AWESOME!" he exclaimed.
He and two of the clones looked at the third clone in the middle with deadpan expressions. The clone replied, "C3: What? Am I wrong?" They stayed like that for a second, then all four of them laughed, """"hhh hhhhh."""" That's what I'm talking about—woohoo!
I dispelled the clones and immediately received their perspective memories, and I had to say it was something else. "Never mind that; let's try something. I have a feeling it will work." He recalled the exact feeling when he summoned the clones and concentrated for a second.
This time, however, he did it without using the (tiger) seal. 'Let's see, chakra moved like this, hummm.' "Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu!" As expected, with a puff of smoke smaller than the previous one, three clones appeared. "Wohoo, let's gooo!" He and the clones high-fived each other more times than he cared to count—hhh.
This was it—the start of a new adventure, a new life. But before he did anything else, he had to address this heavy and oppressive feeling of deep hatred in the back of his head. "I guess it's time to talk to the big bad fox."
Thank you for reading my work, and I hope you like it.