Namikaze Minato's soul does not belong to his world, he was once an orphaned teenage girl who lived a tragically short life and suffered an even more traumatic death. Waking up in wartime Konoha, a heavily militarized village, is more nightmarish and disturbing than anticipated, so he's become something of a withdrawn, anxious child despite being mentally older. He's got one thing clear, though—he won't experience such defenselessness, such helplessness again. And, really, it's not like he has any other options.
Any Port in a Storm
is a self-insert original character Naruto fanfiction written by DasWarSchonKaputt (however that is pronounced) in August 2015 and hosted on Archive of Our Own. Having stopped on May 2023 at chapter 21 of who knows how many, it's now a Dead Fic.
Tropes:
- Anaphora: In "Cloudburst", Minato recalls his previous life in the real world with much bitterness, given that she was murdered. To his 4-year-old reincarnated consciousness, this means he has Flashback Nightmares about his death, of which the aftermath is described as follows: "This is what it means to wake up. It means unrelenting terror, a mess of his bloody death and most poignant memories; it means a childhood of nightmares that grip his mind tight and refuse to let go." The 'it means' is repeated thrice (with the first actually making it part mesodiplosis) to highlight the consequences of waking up in another body in a world you thought fictional.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: The Self-Insert OC character is a young, orphaned girl who died in a tragedy. In her last moments, all she could think was to wish she could have been fast enough to save herself and a loved one. She reincarnates as Minato Namikaze, the fastest ninja in the Naruto canon; who, we gotta remember, dies fairly young too despite his combat prowess. The narration name-drops this trope verbatim at the end of the prologue's first part after the main character ponders this.
- Boxing Lessons for Superman: The Konoha ninja recruiter advises a 4-year-old Minato to get a hobby to further his hand/finger dexterity, such as knitting and playing the flute, in preparation for the Ninja Academy. This is aimed at allowing him to weave hand signs for his jutsu faster.
- Energetic and Soft-Spoken Duo: Uchiha Mikoto and Minato follow this dynamic. Due to trauma, Minato verges on being an Empty Shell a lot of the time. Add to it his passiveness, the fact that he's sparse with words and not very interested in socializing with people (immature children, particularly, given that he's mentally older). By contrast, Mikoto is energetic, has a hair-trigger temper, and can get very loud. She's prideful and tends to take the reins on their friendship.
- Fan Prequel: Any Port in a Storm follows a self-insert of Minato from when he was drafted to the Ninja Academy at 4 years old up to his canonical death, at the very leastnote . This means it transpires 12 years before canon.
- Grew a Spine: A key part of Minato's development is to stop being so passive concerning his own life, which means he has to learn to have his own goals (e.g., becoming a ninja not because he was war drafted into it, but because he wants to stave off the helplessness and maintain his friendship with Mikoto). Once the war ends, he manages to stick to this wish despite causing a falling out with his mother. Later, he's too indifferent to confront the Uchiha for their entitled ways and their weird attitude toward his jonin sensei, Azusa. When she dies protecting him, he snaps and essentially starts a blood feud with them by bringing them her decapitated head under the nominal reason of protecting the Sharingan but actually calling them out for pressuring her into joining their ranks.
- How We Got Here: The story starts with Minato waking up in Konoha's Torture & Intelligence department to be psychologically evaluated by Jiraiya after the former exterminated Iwa's forces in his last battle. Then we go back to when Minato was four and a retired ANBU was in the middle of informing Minato's mother that he was expected to join the Ninja Academy in a couple of years as part of Konoha's war draft.
- Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: All the chapters are titled after climatological phenomena—particularly, those related to clouds and storms—such as "Cloudburst", "Dew Point", "Cumulonimbus", and "Föhn Wind".
- In Spite of a Nail: In canon, Namikaze Minato was a once-in-a-generation kind of prodigy, allowing him to graduate at 10. Still, he was sociable and approachable. This fic's self-insert does manage to maintain this prodigy status, but due to her single-minded focus to become as powerful as possible out of trauma, Minato ends up graduating two whole years early. This means he doesn't meet Kushina in the Academy, nor does he get Jiraiya as his three-genin cell jounin commander. Instead, he becomes Asuza's sole apprentice. After panicking over fucking the timeline over, events like his sensei's dying to save him and ensuing year spent as a floater gening ensure that he earns a still loyal Orochimaru's support. Said character moves some strings, and Minato is assimilated into Jiraiya's genin team along with the year's two dead last Academy graduates.
- Parents as People: Minato's mother, Namikaze Masako, is a civilian woman who tried her best to protect her son from being drafted into Konoha's ninja forces. When, due to Minato's precocious genius, she's forced to confront that there are no other options than to enroll her 4-year-old son in the Ninja Academy, she reacts in a mixed way. At first, she sets out to remain emotionally available for him, knowing he's trying to mask how scared he is. She welcomes and encourages Minato's friendship with Uchiha Mikoto. Then, when at 6 he actually starts ninja classes, she takes as many double shifts in her job so she can pay Minato's service termination's financial compensation to Konoha. This, unfortunately, makes Minato feel neglected as she's rarely home. When the Second Shinobi War ends some months later, Masako all but tries to force Minato to withdraw from the Academy and gives him the cold shoulder when he decides not to. This, however, stems from wanting to see her son safe and happy. This goes on until, after he graduates at 8, he is assigned his first C-rank mission. Her prolonged absences made Minato unable to find her to inform her of this in person, which makes her regret her prior behavior. Masako then resolves to be as understanding and as supportive of his ninja career as she can. Their mother-son relationship slowly rebuilts itself from there, even if it's clear Minato no longer truly counts on her.
- Reincarnate in Another World: An unnamed girl from our world tragically dies at age 17, wishing she could have been fast enough to prevent the whole situation. When she comes to her senses (a process that takes about 4 years), she's a toddler version of Minato Namikaze in the world of Naruto. He first believes he's going insane but slowly comes to grips with his new reality and sets out not to die defenseless again.
- Sliding Scale of Proactiveness: As counterintuitive as it might sound, Minato places on both ends of the scale at the same time. On the one hand, he knows that The Powers That Be (both the ones that made him reincarnate in the universe of Naruto and Konoha's own militarized government) demand him to become a ninja, so that's what he does. He does what's asked of him and goes through the motions, vaguely following the canon as much as he can remember. On the other hand, his traumatic death in his previous life fuels him with a powerful desire to become a capable ninja so he won't feel helpless again, so he puts an earnest effort into his training.
