Needless to say, the shit I got in was colossal. My father was profoundly disappointed, as I had been such an 'outstanding student', according to him. I always felt pretty normal, even though I was at the top of the class. As punishment he made me do twice the usual training, so after I finished I was dead tired.
My mother on the other hand, was entertained. Of course, she didn't say so. She put on the most stern face she could muster, and scolded me thoroughly. I could tell from the sparkle in her eye that she was having a hard time not laughing.
Itachi just shook his head with a small smile on his face.
The next morning, the incident was all but forgotten by the adults as the rain began to come down and wash away the paint.
Despite the adults putting it behind them, I had a bit of a grudge against Naruto. I'd have to figure out a way to get back at him, even though I knew it would start a ridiculously long and drawn-out prank war.
The day pretty much passed without incident. I spent most of it glaring daggers at Naruto, and wracking my brain to come up with a plot for my holy retribution. He just glanced at me and chuckled when he met my eye.
Ino looked suitably abashed about the previous day's events, but every now and then she would chuckle too. It was clear that she didn't get in much trouble, which shouldn't surprise me. Inoichi is infamously lenient with his daughter, so I should have realised that Ino would get off with less than a slap on the wrist.
Today I decided to sit at the back of the class, by the windows. It wasn't my usual seat, but the most people did about it was give me a curious look, before shrugging and deciding that I must have a reason for sitting somewhere else. Or at least, that's what it seemed like to me. No sense worrying about that when there is much more important issues at hand.
Issues like Itachi.
Issues like the Uchiha Massacre.
It struck home that time was fading faster than I thought when I saw Itachi return home in what looked like Anbu armor. I didn't see him in his mask, but the wrist guards and shin guards were a dead giveaway. And the exhaustion. But all this served to do was inform me that I needed to get my shit together, and start planning on how to avoid that debacle. If I was six now, it means I had two years to prepare for the massacre.
Of course, I knew I couldn't prevent it. I would only be eight when it happened, it was unrealistic to think that I could stop Itachi, then stop my father from starting a coup. What I could do, though, was prevent Itachi from breaking Sasuke's mind. But there was a nagging thought that I just couldn't seem to shake. Itachi might not leave me alive. Or worse, he might not leave Sasuke alive. I say worse, because things worked out (kind of) for the best in the original Naruto story. If Sasuke wasn't there for it, how much would change? Everything.
So I sat at the back for privacy to plan, after I gave up on glaring at Naruto. I needed to take stock of the things I knew.
Number one, Fugaku and the other clan members were planning (or were going to be planning) a coup d'etat against Konoha and the Hokage. Two, Shisui would try to use his Kotoamatsukami to convince the other clan members to stop the coup. Three, Danzo (that asshole) would take Shisui's eye, and attempt to take the other one. Four, Shisui would give his remaining eye to Itachi before committing suicide, thus awakening Itachi's own Mangekyo Sharingan. Five, this would be the final catalyst sparking the Massacre, as it is the only remaining option.
There was a rather limited amount of options before me. The first thing I could do was try to make ties with the village, in hopes of raising the opinion the hold of the Uchiha clan, thus hopefully preventing the coup entirely. If I couldn't manage that, then I could try and prevent Danzo from having an opportunity to steal Shisui's eye. Maybe that way he could use his Kotoamatsukami on the clan, and prevent the coup himself. Failing that I could witness Shisui's death myself, and console Itachi. I'm not sure what purpose that would serve, but it felt like something I needed to do. He's my brother, after all. I had let my last brother slip through my fingers, and I really didn't want to die at the hands of my brother again. Two for two isn't a good record. After that all I would really be able to do is prevent Itachi from finding Sasuke and me. Hopefully I could find us a place to hide, without Sasuke or Itachi becoming suspicious of me.
I couldn't decide on which option would be best, so I chose to just do them all, in chronological order. Now, how would I be able to raise my standing in the village, and increase the opinion of my clan? It came to me pretty quickly. The answer lay within one of my greatest obstacles.
Uchiha Obito.
I know, I know. I must be crazy, right? Obito would never help me.
No shit.
But he made excuses all the time, stuff like helping an old lady cross the street, or carrying groceries for some family or whatever. Things like that could help. I could be generally altruistic and kind, all the things I tried my hardest to be on my first go-around. It was getting around the time that a person would show tendencies like that, I figured. I never learned much about developmental psychology, but I could make a decent guess as to when these changes occur.
I spent the rest of the class time pondering on all the things I could do. The people I could help, the ways I could help them.
By the time class ended I could feel a few sets of eyes on me. I was busy staring out the window, so I decided not to acknowledge them. My eye started twitching when they didn't realise that I wasn't interested in interacting with them now. Then, because of course one of them would do it, Naruto poked me in the face.
"Ugh." Was my eloquent response.
"What's up, Kagami?" He asked. "You didn't sit with us today, and you've been daydreaming the whole class."
"Yeah Kagami-kun, what's wrong?" Ino asked concernedly.
"Or is something even wrong? You were pretty deep in thought." Sasuke stipulated. "Were you thinking about someone? Your girlfriend?"
When he said that my hand slipped out from under my resting face, and my face smashed against my desk. That wasn't the kind of response to my brooding that I had expected from Sasuke. Of course, Ino's response to his teasing was about the way I would have expected from her.
"G-G-Girlfriend?!" She screeched, grasping me by the shoulders and shaking me violently. "Who is she? What does she look like? How can I be like her?!"
"I-Ino-san," Sasuke started hesitantly, "I was just kidding. He doesn't actually have a girlfriend, I just hoped to snap him out of the funk he was in."
"Oh." She said timidly, releasing me from her death-grip. "Of course. I was just, uh, just kidding!" She laughed weakly. "I've got to go home to help out with the shop, so I'll see you guys tomorrow!" She walked out of the room and closed the door. Soon after a faint thudding sound could be heard from outside the classroom. I also thought I could hear someone muttering "Stupid" as some kind of mantra.
"Don't worry Sasuke-nii, Naruto." I said. "I'm just kind of worried about Itachi-nii. He's been getting a lot of missions, so he must be pretty stressed out. It's hard to tell, but I just know he is. I guess it's not worth worrying too much about though, I'll just be extra nice and helpful, you know!"
"Yeah, I guess you have a point." Sasuke said. "If you need any help with Itachi-nii, let me know! I'd love to help cheer up Nii-san!"
"I'd like to help Itachi-san too, dattebayo!" Naruto said, excited at the prospect of helping people.
"Yeah yeah," I said, "I know you guys will be great help! But I've got to go too, there are some errands I need to run before going home tonight. I'll catch up with you two later, okay?"
They nodded in agreement, and I hopped out the window, bypassing Ino who was still banging her head on the wall beside the door.
It's been about three months since I started helping out every passerby that I could, and I felt great about it. My grades were suffering due to my constant lateness, but I didn't mind. When my mom found out about why I was always late to class, she got over it right away. She still chastised me about tardiness, and not to get into any kinds of trouble, but her heart wasn't really in it. My father mentioned something about a deceased member of our clan who acted in a similar way to me, but he still considered me to be a prodigy. In his eyes, it didn't matter which of his sons were at the top of the class as long as one was. And it wasn't like I was dropping to deadlast, I just went down two spots in the rankings because of my attendance issues. My scores were still the cream of the crop, and my mental state couldn't have been better.
Sure, I had a bit of a rocky start with my helping strangers. But that didn't get me down. When I started, the vast majority of people didn't want my help due to their distrust for my clan. The occasional older person would hear my offer of help though, and gladly accept. I would walk them across the street, or carry their groceries.
Soon enough, more and more people began to accept my help. It didn't matter to me if I was walking people's dogs, helping out in their shops, or helping to prepare breakfast for the young kids of some of the people I helped more often. I quickly found myself being accepted into other's houses, offered lunches or breakfasts, and being asked to stay for dinner.
I declined these offers, with a few notable exceptions.
First of these exceptions was Ayame and Teuchi at Ichiraku's Ramen. I helped them carry some of their supplies into the back room of their shop, or deliver orders to people around the village. Every now and then, they would send me on my way with a bowl of steaming ramen as a reward for my help. The reason I accepted their recompense was simply because they were some of my favourite people in the village. They were kind, funny, and open to anyone. They were good people.
The next exception was one old lady, whose name I never quite caught. Something lead me to believe I recognised her, but I was never able to pinpoint it. I would carry her groceries for her, and she would give me a lollipop as a reward.
The final of these was the Yamanaka clan. More specifically, the family of the clan head. Ino's mother, Noriko, was always kind to me despite my heritage, and the stigma that came with being an Uchiha. Inoichi on the other hand would cast suspicious glances my way every now and then, but I could tell that it wasn't about me being an Uchiha. I wasn't totally sure what it was about, but I just got a feeling that I didn't want to cross him. There were unspoken boundaries that I was to respect, even though I was never told what they were. But I would help out around his shop, and he appreciated that. Every now and then, the Yamanaka's would invite me to dinner.
It was always a simple affair, but the food was really good. I had been tempted to refuse the first time Ino told me her parents wanted me over for dinner, but I caved to her puppy-dog eyes. That really was an unfair advantage. The way she would pout when she wanted something reminded me a little of Jenna, my girlfriend from my past life. It kind of hurt to see that, even though my memories of her were something I would cherish as long as I had them.
In the end though, I would always cave in to Ino, and send Sasuke home telling my mother and father that I would be home later, and would do extra training because of how sudden my absence was. I knew they never liked how sudden it always was, but there wasn't a lot I could do about it. It's not like we could text.
Over the past three months, I started to change the way I looked. I asked to grow my hair out, and got permission from my parents. At this point, it was shoulder length, with bangs that covered half of my right eye. The bangs were fairly straight, but the rest of my hair was wavy, almost spiky even. I wore the typical Uchiha high-collared shirts of course, and black standard ninja pants. The shirts were a deep purple colour, with the Uchiha symbol proudly emblazoned on the back.
I was also close to an inch taller than Sasuke, which was something I liked to brag about incessantly. I was hoping I would be tall in this life. In my previous one, I was only average height, but with my genes I suspected that I would be above that. I am not embarrassed to say that height was one of my biggest hopes for this world. I wanted to stand out, to be noticed. To be significant.
I know, not very good things for a ninja, right? But look at Kakashi. He stood out like a sore thumb, and he did pretty well for himself. Mei Terumi, future Mizukage of Kiri stood out too. So did Jiraiya. Pretty much everyone who was powerful was noticeable. If I couldn't achieve this noticeability based purely on my body, I would further increase it with my clothing choices, once I was out of the academy. I would also increase the intensity of my presence, and hopefully my chakra.
At six and a half years old, I didn't have a whole lot of chakra. That wasn't to say I had less than the others in my class. No, I had significantly more than everyone with the exception of a certain blond, and our teachers. Maybe this was a result of my strong mind, and the training i started when I was young, strengthening my body. After all, chakra is the energy produced by the union of spiritual and physical energies. If you have a strong spirit/mind, and a strong body, you will have a strong chakra.
Equipped with this knowledge, I strived every day until late at night to improve my mind and my body. I would train until I couldn't train more, and then study until I was made to stop by my family. I might fall behind in the rankings, but I would work hard to ensure that I kept my standing as best student. I wouldn't let anyone be better than me.
It was going to be hard to be the best, being surrounded by future powerhouses like Naruto and Sasuke, but I would be damned if I would let either of them beat me without putting up the fight of a lifetime. I was hailed as a prodigy of the calibre of Neji Hyuuga, and I was eager for the days I would be able to fight with him. Versus or beside him, it didn't matter to me. He was the first milestone I had.
Once I decided on that, I started to research the chakra pathways within every person, and the tenketsu therein. If I could reverse-engineer the Hyuuga's Gentle Fist, I would have the ace in the hole necessary to defeat Neji.
It only took me about two weeks to memorise the placement of the tenketsu in the average body. It was apparently different for everyone, but I was sure that once I awakened my Sharingan that I could train myself to recognise the centers of chakra within people. After that, it was just a matter of expelling chakra through my hands to inject it into a person's tenketsu. Perhaps there would be some unexpected results, due to my lack of Hyuuga chakra, but the day where I could find out was far in the future.
So I devoted my time to helping people, studying, and training.
"I'm sorry. I'm so, so, so sorry. Tyler..."
What's this?
"I wish it could be me, but I can't let that happen."
There was a flash.
There was pain.
There was Jenna.
I remember this.
She was crying, my brother was crying. I think I was gasping, but it was more of a wet sucking sound.
Oh, so that's where he shot me. In the lung. Does that mean I drowned in my own blood? That sounds unpleasant.
As I felt my life slipping away, I felt Jenna kiss me one last time. As she pulled away, I could see blood smeared on her lips. It was mingling with the tears streaming from her eyes as she wept for me.
I shook my head, and gave her a weak smile, grabbed her hand, and squeezed.
Out of the corner I could see my parents in shock at what they saw in front of them. I saw my mother sink to her knees, as my dad just stood there. He looked vacantly at me, tears falling from his eyes.
Were his eyes always that grey? I guess it's weird what you notice when you're dying again.
I felt my heart slowing. I saw Jenna backing away.
I saw my brother raising the gun again.
It wasn't at me.
It was at Jenna.
I shot awake, screaming at the top of my lungs.
My eyes were burning, and tears were streaming from my face now. My head was pounding, and I could still feel the pain in my chest. It was terrifying, knowing the pain of slowly dying. Remembering in vivid detail the events that lead to your own death. The betrayal of a loved one, the desperation felt when you realise that nothing you can do would keep you attached to the world.
There was something I didn't notice the last time I experienced that. I didn't register him pointing the gun at Jenna. Just remembering that I saw that made me increase my efforts to scream my vocals chords to shreds. It was a wordless scream. Just terror, hurt, desperation.
At some point I realised that my whole current family was in the room Sasuke and I shared. I didn't stop screaming.
Eventually, when I couldn't scream any longer, I noticed that someone was holding me. I didn't really expect who it was. It wasn't my father, nor was it my mother. It was even my twin.
It was Itachi.
And he was crying with me.
After a while, I calmed down. My breathing returned to a ragged gasping. I looked around my room to find the light of the rising sun illuminating the room. My mother and father were consoling Sasuke, assuring him that I was going to be alright, that it was just a nightmare that I had.
Itachi felt me relax, and leaned back so he could look me in the eyes. When he did, he gasped. I think it was the most emotion I'd ever seen on his face. It seemed to be a mix of worry, pride, and… Confusion?
"Itachi-nii, what's wrong?" I asked, my hoarse voice barely more than a whisper.
"Your eyes, ototo." He began. "They're… You've awoken your Sharingan."
My mother, father, and twin all stopped what they were doing and looked at me in shock and awe. My father's head rocked back as though he had be slapped, my mother gasped, and my twin brother just ogled.
And that's how, on the morning of my seventh birthday, I awoke my Sharingan.
A/N: It's been awhile, eh? Glad to be getting back to this story. I like the idea of writing an OC Uchiha. One thing I've always been fascinated by was the Sharingan, and coming up with ways to describe how it works, how it feels to use. It's something that I look forward to exploring in this fic.
I hope the chapter was long enough to satisfy you people, and I hope you enjoyed it in general. I spent a decent amount of time writing this, I guess.
Without anything else to say, favourite/follow/review at your own discretion. I'm willing to accept any advice given, or at least consider it. Also, let me know what kind of abilities Kagami should have. What his Mangekyo should be able to do, what it would look like. Even his affinity. I have some ideas, but I'd like your recommendations as well! If you have any ideas, feel free to leave them in a review, or PM them too me. Questions will be answered as well, so ask away!
~RahvinsCage
