In the ninja world Yamanaka Rei lives by two simple tenets. Power is freedom. Freedom is everything. Rei wants freedom and is willing to risk everything for it. OC Self-Insert.

000

It wasn't until Rei was four months old that she figured out her bizarre new life as a baby had landed her in the Naruto world. That was also when she realized she was a Yamanaka from the Yamanaka clan.

Needless to say her mind was blown. Or overwhelmed. In either case her mind stopped working for half a day in complete and utter disbelief before her tired baby body dragged her under for another nap.

When next she woke up she had soiled her diapers again. It was an unpleasant feeling, both the human waste and the utter helplessness of being a baby once again. She couldn't speak. She couldn't take care of even the most basic of necessities on her own. In fact she couldn't even get from one end of her crib to the other without extreme difficulty. Rei was forced to take the only recourse open to her.

She cried. While her body might be weak her lungs seemed to be the singular exception.

It was only a minute or two before her mother showed up. It was the middle of the night and she looked a bit worn around the edges but she still managed to smile adoringly down at baby Rei. Rei found herself beset by feelings and instincts she had not expected to possess. Safe. Warm. Touch. Love. Smiles good. Even though she had the memories and awareness of an adult her body seemed geared to instinctually form an emotional connection with her new mom. After careful consideration Rei decided to just go along with it and enjoy it.

It really worked out the best for everyone. Besides she could break the attachment later should it prove to be necessary. People broke away and had falling outs with their parents all the time after all.

After being cleaned and breast fed (it was criminal how comforting that was) her mother Emiko put her back in her crib and Rei pretended to fall asleep. When her mother left and the door shut behind her tiny Rei opened her eyes and set about contemplating her situation.

In her previous life she had read some of Naruto which is how she recognized the setting. In the distance she had seen the Hokage monument and that along with the Konoha headbands and everyone calling her parents 'Yamanaka-san' had finally broken through her denial. Somehow she had been born into the Yamanaka clan… and not just to any Yamanaka. While she couldn't remember if Ino's mom's name had been Emiko she knew her dad's name had been Inoichi. Rei's dad's name was Inoichi. It wasn't hard to do the math.

So Rei had to wonder; did she end up being born in place of Ino? Rei wasn't entirely comfortable with the thought. There really wasn't any way to know for sure one way or the other though. Not until she knew a lot more information that she didn't currently have.

Dread settled in her stomach as it all began to sink in. There was a good chance she was the Yamanaka clan heir. Not really what she wanted to be at all. Ideally she would have been part of a clan but some relatively unimportant member who would still receive all the benefits of being a 'clan kid'. Being the clan heir meant expectations. A lot of expectations. Expectations she had no inclination or desire to meet.

It also meant… a lifetime of war. A lifetime of fighting and killing. Quite possibly a very short lifetime. While lots of people thought the Naruto world would be a great place to be reborn (all the SI fanfictions point to that) the truth is that the price for being a ninja was too high in Rei's opinion. Ninja didn't retire. Ninja fought for the village until they died or were crippled enough to be forced into less active roles. There was no 401k and retirement to Arizona or Florida. No reprieve. No end in sight.

Being born into a ninja clan meant she was expected to die serving and fighting for Konohagakure. She had no choice. Fighting and dying for something she didn't know or care about was to be her lot in life.

Fuck. That. Noise.

It didn't take long for tiny Rei to decide the course her life would take. To her it seemed the only sensible option open to her if she didn't want to spend the rest of her life under the thumb and expectations of Konoha. She had to become strong enough to leave the village and make it on her own. Strong enough that no one would be willing to come after her. Strong enough that she could carve out a life for herself somewhere that didn't involve a lifetime of servitude to a totalitarian military dictatorship.

"Strong enough" was vague and Rei had always liked to quantify things in concrete terms. So she decided she would need to become S-Rank. While everyone else always lived in fear of Hunter-nin and the ninja villages S-Rank nin could do pretty much whatever they wanted.

Rei thought of the most prominent examples. Tsunade. Orochimaru. Every member of Akatsuki. They all gave the finger to their respective villages and could travel the world with relatively few worries knowing they could handle pretty much everything that was thrown at them. They didn't have to fight, kill and die because the Kage told them to. No one else but those stupidly strong S-Rank ninja could get away with living like that. Maybe Kakashi or Might Gai could but anyone weaker than that would most likely fall prey to teams of Hunter-nin or live in constant fear. It was then that Rei realized her own truth about the ninja world.

Power was freedom. Freedom was everything. Rei had no intention of being just another tool for Konohagakure.

And the canon story? The Madara and Infinite Tsukuyomi stuff? She wasn't sure how it ended but she did know that Naruto and crew took care of everything. Maybe Rei would help. However everyone had gotten along fine without her the first time. If she could help she would. But she wasn't setting out to save the world. Rei just wanted the option to choose her own path in life.

Now she just had to figure out how to become an S-Rank kunoichi as fast as possible. How the hell was she going to pull that off?