Family traditions

Sometimes, Sasuke wondered if the people of Konoha were under the impression that he was deaf. It would explain a lot if this were the case, but he had the rather sad impression that no, they didn't think he was deaf, they simply thought the rumors were true.

He really wasn't sure which was worse.

To understand his distress, one first must understand the basis. The Uchiha clan was very old and very steeped in traditions. These traditions were not always well known to those outside the family, but that did not mean that they went completely unvoiced.

Thus lie the beginning of many, many things he wished he could unhear.

He knew he'd been young when the clan had been killed. Knew deep in his bones that he had missed many traditions that were a deep part of being an Uchiha with the terrible thing He had done. But sometimes... the things he heard his family had done... They made no sense to him at all.

And so, the rumors of 'traditions.' Some were true, and many many more were not.

Heirloom jewelry that was passed from mother, then to son, then to his wife in a cycle? Yes, he was aware of that tradition, though He had been the beneficiary of that particular loop, and thus he himself had nothing to show to any prospective wife he might ever get.

Blind fighting? Yes. It was something he had a passing familiarity with in theory, though he didn't have the benefit of anyone to teach him. No, if he wanted to learn, he had the unfortunate choices of running into walls or making a total hash of it because he was alone.

Having to learn a Katon Justu before one could ever be considered an adult in the clan? Yes. It was the pride of many an Uchiha to learn their first and he remembered the day he finally mastered his. He'd been so pleased. Unfortunately, the only one who had been happy for him for his own sake was Him, something that made his chest ache even now to remember. So he tried not to.

Those were the traditions he knew. The ones that he had no hesitance in saying 'I did that' or 'My family was proud of that tradition.'

But others... Others confused him, and more still frightened him.

There was an unnerving rumor that said anyone who married out of the family would be tragically barren.

There was another that said that sometimes children born with eyes too bright to carry the sharingan would go missing.

Still another rumor that reached him said that the clan died with him because only the women of the clan had the ability to undo chastity jutsu on boy-children. That one, especially, frightened him, but he was much too young to worry about that as of yet. But what if it was true? What if they had something in place like the Hyuuga had to keep their bloodline unstealable? He tried not to focus too closely on the thought.

But the tradition that Konoha seemed to believe that was most worrying was when it came to the dead. After all, they were in the land of fire, and being cremated was honorable and agreeable for most of the population. There were clans that had other preferences, like the Aburame, but the Uchiha?

It had made him sick the first time he'd heard a rumor about this supposed 'tradition,' but he wasn't sure. He couldn't honestly say for sure if it were true or not. He couldn't recall even once going to a family funeral. Shisui had been closed to a select handful of people, so he was not invited. The last opportunity before that was when he was six, and his mother had told him he should not go. He'd been happy about that choice then, but now? Now he desperately wanted to know if it were true, and the scrolls he could access simply would not tell him.

The rumor in question? That the Uchiha ate their dead family. He dare not ask around. What if it were false? Worse, what if it were true? He didn't know, and was paralyzed with disturbed horror that either option was possible.

He'd seen some of the things in the family scrolls. Killing your nearest and dearest to get more powerful eyes? Hints at an even more demented version of that? He'd been scared to keep looking. He knew he should, that he should find out the details now, before he might possibly need them, but he simply couldn't do it.

So yes, he wondered. He wondered and wished that he dared to go up to people as they murmured their questions to one another if he would carry on this tradition or that, but he did not. He would not ask them how they could possibly know any tradition of his family. He would not ask them if they really thought the horrific things they sometimes passed from one to another were true.

He would not wonder if the praise was a way of them hiding their fear or disgust, or possibly it simply being them hoping dearly he was unlike his family in all ways.

He would focus on those few traditions he knew, the few that weren't tainted or disturbing, and he would cling to what he believed an Uchiha should be.

If he had to pretend that he was deaf to the whispers, he would. It was better to hear nothing than to realize that the rumors didn't only have a single source.

It was better, but it didn't mean he didn't hear. It didn't mean he was blind.

But it made him wonder, sometimes, about the other person who drew disturbing whispers like he did. Those whispers weren't followed by hasty smiles and praise but glares and turned backs, and he couldn't understand what could possibly be worse than the things he heard people whisper about his dead clan.

What could possibly top what seemed to be a good third of Konoha thinking he would eat people?

It was unfathomable to him, so he did what any rational being would do when faced with the blond. He treated him like the idiot he was.

Anything else was the boy's own fault, and no rumors, or traditions, had anything to do with it.

Still... that never stopped him from wondering.

Not once.

Note: So this story was inspired by some of the oddball family traditions I've spotted while reading stories in the fandom. And yes, every single 'tradition' noted here I've spotted in the fandom somewhere, in some story, and amazingly enough, they were always in excellent stories where it was clear that the author put a lot of thought into the universe at some point. Food for thought.