A/N:
I gotta admit, this story got a lot more views than I was expecting! So thank you to everyone who took the time to read this!
Chapter 1: Baby years are Humiliating
Stories always had some sort of beginning. They were however, usually not this humiliating generally. Turned out, there was a good reason that our baby brains don't remember those first formative years.
I was unlucky enough that I did.
There were good moments, and there were bad. But the worst memory really took the cake. It was from my most early days. From when I still hadn't gotten a proper grasp of how time passed.
The worst moment was when I figured out what fueled the ninja's super-powers. It wasn't anything grotesquely horrifying like eating the hearts of babies, but it was still terrifying. It also fully convinced me that what was happening wasn't one massive hallucination. It convinced me that yes, this was real life and whatever thing that powered these ninjas? It was real.
You'd think that it would've been the best moment of my baby years because who doesn't like a good superhero power-origin story? You know since powers don't just sprout from nowhere. Like Superman and his whole plant-like deal by getting power from the sun. Spiderman was bitten by the worst mutant spider ever. X-men and their mutant genes. So on and so forth. Going by that logic, I really should have known that ninjas had a source for their flashy moves too.
I hadn't even considered it. Until a very rude wakeup call.
It was literally a wakeup call. A wakeup call because we had been happily sleeping then. Itachi was on baby-sitting duty that night. Sasuke was in a sling in his arms and I was trusted to remain in a baby-basket against his side. It had been Sasuke's basket but the little brat had kicked up so much of a fuss that we had to change. I could see that Sasuke was spoilt rotten already.
Itachi on the other hand had to be some kind of genius because he looked like he was five. Who the hell left a five-year-old unsupervised with a pair of babies? Our parents apparently. What the heck they were doing I haven't the faintest clue but I kind of worried about Sasuke and Itachi's continued health if they thought this type of behavior was totally acceptable.
Turned out, they had good reason to leave the kiddies alone all night long.
It was the middle of the night when I woke up. As a baby I didn't feel much. Warmth, hunger, fatigue, wet diapers… humiliating, but nothing much else. Babies were rather well cared for in this place. So I was understandably terrified when a blanket of energy seemed to fall upon us and with that blanket came pain, fear and a general… foulness that had not only Sasuke but me bursting out into tears.
It was like phantom pain. It was a sensation that was like my skin peeling off of my body in the most painful way manner impossible. It was like I'd been dunked entirely in boiling water. It hurt. It hurt but at the same time it didn't because it didn't have the bite of real pain. It was like a much too vivid memory of it. That prickling sensation that you felt sometimes when you remember an old injury but ten thousand times worse.
I screamed because I had no clue what the hell it was and it was scaring the daylights out of me.
I'll never know how he did it because little Itachi who could barely fit just Sasuke in his arms hauled the both of us out of the Uchiha compound to join in the evacuation. I may have figured out how he did it if I wasn't too busy wailing. Whatever the hell it was hurt. It hurt and there wasn't even an understandable cause for the pain. I had no clue where it was coming from, no identifiable reason of why there was suddenly so much hurt. No explanation for the blanket of something that was threatening to suffocate me like a boiling plastic bag over my face.
It was chaos and even in my wailing I knew that much. The bells clanged in a rhythm that could only mean emergency. It was repetitive, piercing and even as I screamed my lungs out with Sasuke we weren't being shushed. Itachi didn't have the time. He didn't have the time to settle us, didn't even have the time to make sure we were comfortable. He was just running.
I didn't see much from that night but I heard more than enough.
I knew the sounds. The sounds of chaos, of panic. Civilians screaming. Soldiers barking orders. The scrambling footsteps. Hurried and stumbling, disciplined and purposeful. Loud explosion-like thumps of stone hitting earth.
It was the sounds of invasion.
I screamed and screamed because something terrible was going down and I felt like I was being burned alive by an invisible force.
There was a bone deep terror. Of panic, of worry. The standard things in a crisis. Where was my family, where were my loved ones, how likely was I going to get hurt, how likely was I to die. What were my options, were there any options.
But there was another type of fear. A fear that was primal. When you were facing some sort of invisible threat. Like the dark, or seeing something that wasn't exactly threatening but just looked wrong. A sort of primal fear all humans had for something that was without explanation.
Except it was burning me alive.
I couldn't understand that terror. Until I suddenly could.
It was a sound. A sound that could only be described as a roar that cut through all the other sounds of chaos and panic.
I screamed along with the roar because what the hell was that.
Itachi didn't slow down. He ran faster.
I couldn't tell you how long that all lasted because to me, it never really ended. The terror didn't end, the mind-numbing horror didn't end and the energy that was threatening to burn me alive was suddenly everywhere.
Even when the chaos settled, even when Itachi stopped running, even when we were returned to the arms of our parents without a physical scratch.
The next chunk of time was a muddle of terror and confusion for me.
There was a lot of crying. Quite a few hospital visits that I was sure made things worse because there was so much more of that energy in the hospital and it freaked me out.
I also think we moved houses during that time but I couldn't be quite sure. I didn't pay much attention.
Eventually though, the hospital trips settled down and while I still cried pretty much twenty-four hours a day, everyone seemed to be waiting whatever the hell kind of terror I was going through out.
There was a lot of talking over my head. In that hushed low-worried voice that I didn't really care about at that point because I was too busy bawling my eyes out trying to figure out why the world felt so wrong.
It did eventually abate though.
I adjusted to the whole 'wrongness' of the situation and while the feeling of some sort of energy sent unpleasant shudders through my mind, I wasn't freaking out at the slightest hint of it.
It was… disconcerting. Unpleasant. Like being submerged in warm-cold slime. That really gross temperature of not quite warm but not quite cold that just… rubs you the wrong way. It was a physical sensation but at the same time it just plain wasn't. Like phantom pain almost.
The crying died down when I slowly managed to process that the weird feeling was just… well, weird. The terror accompanying that faded away and while concentrated amounts of the stuff at the hospital still sent me crying for my mother, day-to-day crying stopped. Hospital trips were the worst.
Things… didn't really go back to normal. It was more like the feeling of discomfort and wrongness became the new normal and I just learned how to deal with it better.
Once the blind terror had abated, I just had to sort of… live with it.
What else was I supposed to do?
The hospital trips stopped and I was kind of just stuck with some weird perpetually ruffled sixth-sense for… something or other.
It wasn't exactly the most ideal way to live but as time went by, it became… not expressly better but more easily handled.
Human minds tended to try and avoid insanity. Constantly freaked out about some sort of unknown energy-thing that always felt off was a good way to spiral into insanity. So it was both a conscious and unconscious effort to focus away from the new and disturbing status quo.
Sasuke and Itachi provided for very handy distractions.
My perception of time might be skewed or something but to me, Sasuke started baby babble… early. Almost terrifyingly early. Did babies usually start trying to talk before their first set of teeth grew in?
I didn't have a clue. But Sasuke was doing it and so it should stand to reason that meant I should be doing it too.
That's the wonderful thing about having a twin. Just look at what the other guy was doing and copy that.
Our parents got all excited about it too. And yes, I'd finally admitted that the people I'd dubbed Hopefully-mother and Hopefully-father were actually my parents in this life. About time I know.
Since I didn't want to be left behind by Sasuke, or be branded a moron for the rest of all eternity, I started babbling nonsense too.
It was through all the babblings that I figured out what language everyone spoke here. Japanese.
There were a lot of 'kaa-san' and 'tou-san' repetitions which was what clued me in. I'd taken a few Japanese classes back in my old life as Fleur because Fleur's sister was the weaboo of the family. I remembered the basic greetings, way too many honorifics, the titles given to various members of an immediate family and a few random smatterings of vocabulary. Like the word 'kabocha' which meant pumpkin. The most random and useless thing to remember I know but it stuck with me because it was so random and useless.
Since Sasuke was making the 'ka' sound quite well, I decided that my poor father deserved some love too and opted for making the 'to' sound.
Easier said than done. Sasuke had snagged the easy one.
Itachi was also gunning for a 'nii-san' but I'd feel kind of bad for my father if we managed to spit out the word 'brother' before 'dad'. Itachi would just have to wait.
To make sure I didn't progress freakishly fast, I let Sasuke go first. It took him a solid week but he got there. He even made my mother cry with his first shaky
"Kaa-kaa!"
That had my mother squealing and nearly squishing the living daylights out of poor Sasuke. I joined in on the fun.
"Tou!"
I completed it with grabby motions towards my father. Good choice too because my mother was in literal tears at that point and gushing all over us. My father had me securely in his arms so I was safe from being squished. I think Sasuke was turning blue though.
Reaction wise, my father's stern-faced blankness wasn't all that impressive. I'd probably have been highly discouraged and really hurt by it if he wasn't literally holding me to his chest. From here, I could see quite plainly that his ears were a brilliant fire-engine red.
His face was still stone-cold though. It was… oddly hilarious.
Itachi ended up pouting. Sorry bro. You're next. I promise.
Itachi was not next. Teething was next and it hurt like the a of a bitch. Sasuke wailing didn't help things.
Hello sleepless nights. Again. Joy. At least we suffered together.
We did get through it in the end though. Barely.
Turned out, teeth really helped with the whole 'talking' thing which was great. 'Nii-nii' was finally forced out and that made Itachi's day so there was that.
Sasuke was a bright kid. After his first word he had started to make remote sense by spitting out single words and pointing at objects. I decided to do the same. Mainly because that was my limit too. Japanese grammar was a little confusing for someone who had spent a lifetime of speaking English. Everything seemed to be arranged differently. Everything was done on a trial-and-error basis but immersion was truly a great way to learn another language. That and when you literally had no other choice.
The first birthday wasn't all that celebrated. Mainly because it was the birthday of two babies. Sasuke and I just sat around missing out on all the good stuff. I wanted to wail because that fried chicken looked really good. We got baby formula instead. It tasted like sour off-ripe fruit.
Potty training was… well, it was a lesson in humiliation and the only thing I could be thankful for is that they actually had flushing toilets. No idea how since everything else looked like it was from stereotypical samurai-era Japan, but I wasn't very eager to go question it. I honestly wasn't. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth and all that. I took small comfort from the fact that Sasuke had more 'accidents' than me. This would have been blackmail gold if I wasn't wetting myself as well. Like I said. Humiliating.
I actually took to crawling and walking faster than Sasuke did. Mainly because Sasuke was a pampered little thing that didn't know that he was supposed to start crawling and not just rolling around. He needed a little encouragement in the form of example-by-twin.
It fell generally to poor Itachi to make sure that us two babies didn't get ourselves killed now that we had locomotion going. For a kid he was actually doing very well. Or perhaps that was because I mostly helped the poor guy out and didn't go anywhere that wasn't baby-friendly. Unlike Sasuke the brat who nearly crawled off the porch and into the koi pond one time. Honestly, that child. It had been a rather spectacular save on Itachi's part. I had applauded him. Sasuke the little brat giggled and tried to do it again. We were promptly hauled back into the house after that. Guess they didn't want us outside near the ponds. Wonder why.
Sasuke seemed to be following my example so I decided that we should get us walking. That turned out to be easier said than done because baby Sasuke was quite happy just crawling about. He didn't even want to stand for heaven's sake. Talk about a lazy baby. He was a cute giggly lazy baby so he could be forgiven.
I on the other hand had obtained quite a few bumps and even the single bruise in my quest to stand on two legs. I could have dealt with a bruise. Hell, I could have dealt with a broken bone just fine as Fleur. Turned out, baby Uchiha didn't do well with pain. I had burst out crying. Wonderful. Also humiliating. Very humiliating.
I was still working on the whole standing thing when Itachi apparently was old enough to go to ninja-school. I kid you not they have ninja-school.
Welcome to the world of anime I guess. Ninja school. For heaven's sake…
Sasuke was most definitely not pleased by this and had thrown a rather long tantrum because Ita-nii wasn't there. I had been the one giving the kid sniffling puppy eyes as he walked out the door. I was pretty disappointed too. Itachi was always a good source of entertainment. He was very susceptible to the puppy eyes. And he was scary-smart. No, literally so smart that it was scary at times. Which meant he could figure out what we wanted just from a few grabby motions and garbled babbling. Itachi's great. Kaa-san coddled us a little too much. Or maybe that was just me. Yeah, that was probably just me. I was over thirty years old damn it. I was way too old to be cooed at.
The first day without Itachi around, Sasuke was inconsolable. The little brat wouldn't stop wailing no matter what my poor mother did. Sorry Kaa-san, Itachi was Sasuke's favorite.
When Itachi came home from his first day he was promptly used as a pillow by Sasuke and if removed would prompt the baby to start wailing at the top of his lungs. I shot Itachi the most betrayed puppy eyes I could. He left me alone with the wailing baby. How could he? I gave him the eyes that made it abundantly clear I blamed him for this whole mess.
Our parents seemed to find this hilarious. Guess Kaa-san wasn't too broken up about not being Sasuke's favorite.
Sasuke was most definitely not amused when Itachi took up training outside the academy too. He was barely home for dinner most days.
By the time we were two I had obtained a decent grasp on the Japanese language that everyone here seemed to speak. Sasuke was getting quite good too although he generally only stuck to baby babble. Sasuke was still insisting on crawling though. I had mastered standing. Walking only resulted in tumbles. I was doing better than Sasuke. For a kid who couldn't stand he had done a very good job of somehow clambering up a chair and then promptly falling off. Itachi had performed a spectacular dive-catch. So spectacular in fact that Sasuke now thought it was a game and had to be scolded to the point of crying to get him to stop trying to kill himself via chair.
I worried for this child at times, I really did.
Also by the time we were two, Itachi being the ridiculous ninja-genius that he apparently was, graduated from the academy after just one year. Apparently it was a Big Deal, capitals needed. So, older genius brother that now knew how to kill people with pointy things. If Fleur hadn't been a Marine in a past life I would have been freaking out about now. As it was, I was only disturbed by the fact that he was seven. No really. He had his birthday a month ago. From what I could hear, it had caused quite the stir in the village and the Uchiha clan were like proud mother hens. If you knew what to look for that is.
Uchiha were subtle like that. My father was exhibit A on that front. I'd figured him out by now. He was pretty much the most awkward parent on the face of the earth. He sucked at interacting with children simply because he didn't know what to do. And he was easily embarrassed by obvious signs of affection. Like the time I gave him that plucked flower from the yard. He'd kept the flower and his ears had stayed a solid red for a good half-hour.
So yeah. Uchiha as a general rule cared. They just sucked at showing it. I was betting that we had a reputation for being assholes.
By the time we turned three it was time to introduce us to the 'wider' society. See, apparently ninja clans had a tradition. Because of the high infant mortality rates that occurred during the Warring Era children weren't really presented to society until they hit three years of age. By that age they could mostly walk and talk and was considered smart enough not to do something stupid and get themselves killed. That didn't stop kids dying though. Hence the Shichi-Go-San ceremonies. They were like mile-stones. Children were celebrated for hitting the ages of seven, five and three. Thus being three we were being celebrated for our wondrous achievement. It was more of an achievement on Sasuke's part than mine. I honestly worried about that child because of all the times he'd almost managed to off himself.
Because apparently the Uchiha clan were some sort of noble-ninja-clan the event was formal. Formal as in traditional dress. I hadn't even realized that they made kimonos this miniature.
The ceremony itself was boring. We weren't the only kids there but we sat smack bang in the middle of the front row. Apparently our parents were important.
No, not apparently. Our parents were important because it was Tou-san that stood up to give some sort of long speech about the future of the Uchiha clan and how he would lead it. I didn't really get the whole message, too many 'adult words' thrown around. Hey, I was three. My vocabulary wasn't exactly the best. There were some words that you just didn't throw around when three year olds were in the room.
The kids got restless real quick but were just as quickly glared into submission by their respective parents. No one wanted to make a bad impression at some super-important clan event I guess.
After the speech was over we were all lined up one by one at the front. Like some sort of toddler conga line. Except nowhere near as fun.
Sasuke and I were somewhere in the middle.
Then we got shuffled across the front of the room with Tou-san giving each kid a fan. Yeah. Fans. Like the table-tennis-rackets that was apparently the clan symbol.
Sasuke went ahead of me and got his fan and a pat on the head. Then he shuffled ahead with the rest of the herd.
"Welcome to the Uchiha Clan Chiyomi." Tou-san said giving me a head-pat too and handing over the fan. I bowed like every kid before me and scuttled off the stage so that the next impatient three-year-old could get their fan.
The fan was heavy. Metal. Not those flimsy paper things. This was hefty metal. What the hell? Who the heck made fans out of metal? Even the decorative ones I'd seen in my past life were made from paper. Expensive-ass paper but still paper.
When fan-giving ceremony was done we sort of sat through another speech before we were finally allowed to leave. The fans were promptly taken up by our parents. Apparently they were of some kind of importance. I decided to ask.
"Kaa-san, what that?" I pointed to the fan and my mother smiled down at me. She was a beautiful woman on most days but today was a special occasion. She was radiant.
"This is a symbol that you are part of the Uchiha clan Chiyomi." Kaa-san said with a smile. I didn't really get it but I figured it was like some sort of glorified membership card. So I nodded and took Sasuke's fist out of his mouth. The kid was still sucking on his hands. Oral fixation anyone? I was going to have to do something drastic to break him of the habit. I had caught him trying to shove a dirt-covered hand into his mouth more than once.
"Sasu-nii. No." I say and Sasuke gives me kicked puppy looks. Too bad I had taught him the kicked puppy look and was the supreme overlord of them. Oh yeah, I'd also found out that I was the baby of the family. Sasuke was a whooping sixty seconds older. It sucked. I was three decades older than this brat and I was the baby of this family? I was of the opinion that it sucked more than being reborn in some sort of cartoon.
Talking about cartoonish things, apparently three years old was considered old enough to start ninja training. I'm not even kidding. Apparently it was common and well, a lot was expected because great big brother Itachi was already toddling around throwing kunai and shurikin at our age and it was about time we caught up.
It went as well as could be expected when you gave three year olds something to throw around.
We got lectured about how this was going to affect our future and it was for our own damned good so take it seriously. Sasuke was near tears and I was feeling guilty as well. It probably hadn't been a good idea to goof off. So obviously at least.
The next day we didn't goof off and throw the practice-shurikin in random directions. I actually managed to hit a target. It wasn't dead center but it was close.
"Good work Chiyomi." Tou-san said patting my head before going over to correct Sasuke's stance. I frowned a little. I didn't know what type of parenting this was but wasn't it a bad idea to only praise one child? Still, Fleur never had any kids and only had one little sister that had been a fashion designer so it wasn't like she was an expert on family relations.
Or maybe it was just my father being the awkward parent that he was again.
It was obvious by the end of the week that I was showing more talent at throwing pointy objects than Sasuke. Mainly because when Sasuke finally hit a target intentionally I was getting bulls-eyes nine out of ten. To make matters worse, all Sasuke got for that achievement was a brisk correction of his stance. Not the 'good job Chiyomi' I had gotten when I managed the same feat.
By the end of the month I felt absolutely horrible. Sasuke was still stuck on his single kunai and shurikin where as I had been graduated onto throwing two at a time. The second one missed a lot more than the first but it was still two. If it was just progressing at a faster rate I wouldn't have given it much thought. It was the fact that our father had some rather questionable parenting strategies. If you didn't come in first place you didn't get praised. Basically, if someone achieved something before you then it wasn't anything noteworthy. First or nothing was the feeling I got. Poor Sasuke had been frustrated to tears trying to get his blades to hit the mark. Itachi tried to help, he really did giving Sasuke the praise that Tou-san wasn't handing out but it was different. Sasuke wanted his father to pat him on the head and tell him that he had done a good job like he had seen the man do for Itachi and I. He wanted his father to be proud of him and not just tell him what he was doing wrong.
I was revaluating my father's character to be sure. Was I wrong and just reading too much into things? Was my father not awkward and just an asshole? Dear lord I hoped not.
I felt horrible. Horrible because I was only so good thanks to Fleur. I was only so good because of a past life-time. Fleur had been a marine. Having good aim was pretty much a given. It had carried over, the techniques, the snap-judgements. Hell, my more mature mind picked up on what worked and what didn't a lot faster than Sasuke's three-year-old brain. I was pretty much cheating and poor Sasuke was starting from scratch. If I had known, I would have backed up and let Sasuke get the achievements. The poor kid needed some recognition for his efforts. It was too late now. Too late to pull back because I had already shown talent. Son of a bitch. I couldn't even slow my progress because Tou-san could tell when I wasn't doing my best and the ensuing lecture wasn't pleasant for anyone in the immediate area.
I promised myself that I would be dismal from the get-go at the next ninja art our father showed us.
It turned out, that the next thing shown was basic stretches and katas for the Uchiha clan's style of taijutsu. Swift Paw didn't sound remotely frightening but apparently it was a formidable style. I hadn't really argued but kept an eye on Sasuke's progress.
The basis of the Swift Paw was a supple body ready for both attack and defense. It wasn't too hard to fake being dismal at it. There was a careful balance to be had. Too soft and you'll be beaten to a pulp, too stiff and you'll be beaten to a pulp.
Sasuke got the right balance with a few tries. I remained stubbornly on either side of the extremes.
I got scolded a lot as well as quite a few disappointed looks because I should be getting this. I remained stubborn and they praised Sasuke more. The kid was over the moon he was so happy. Worth it. I could handle the lectures.
Thank god this world adhered to some form of common sense. The principal to making good soldiers wasn't to break them into itty bitty pieces every time they fail. It was a careful balance of carrot and stick. Tou-san's carrot and stick was praise and disappointment. Over who know how many years someone must have figured out that you couldn't actually beat 'ninja' into a kid. Well, you could try but you'd end up with a shit ninja that would probably bite your head off the first chance it got. Unstable, skilled at killing, and bitter were not good combinations.
So yeah, I had almost been expecting a Spartan training program going by how backwards and ridiculous the rest of this world was but thank god I'd been wrong. I still think that shooting fireballs was the most un-ninja-like thing you could do though. I mean… seriously? Anyone ever heard of stealth? No?
What I found harder to handle however were Kaa-san's insistence on manners. The Uchiha were a clan with a ten foot pole stuck up their ass on a good day and a twenty-foot-pole on a grumpy day. How to sit, how to eat, how to bow. I was going to be raised a proper lady this time round apparently.
I paid attention because my mother could be terrifying when she was annoyed. She had this way of smiling at you with her eyes closed that told you to obey or start running for the hills. Since I couldn't outrun her, yet, I sat in the seiza position and endured the tea-ceremony instruction. It sucked. Sasuke wasn't a girl. He didn't know my pain.
The worst thing was that I couldn't downright refuse my mother either. Mainly because…
"Chiyomi! Chiyomi! Look what Kaa-san made you!" Kaa-san said enthusiastically showing me another new yukata. It was nearing summer and that included wardrobe changes. Kaa-san was ecstatic to have a girl to dote on. Apparently Itachi had stopped being cute and Sasuke was trying to follow in his big brother's footsteps. That left me. Life as the baby of the family ladies and gentlemen.
"It looks great Kaa-san!" I replied with a smile even though I thought that the bright pink obi was pushing it a little. Bright pink? Seriously? Wasn't this a clan of ninjas? "Do you want me to try it on?"
"Of course! Come on, let Kaa-san help you." Kaa-san said with a smile that lit up her entire being and who could say no to that? Although she smiled and said that she was proud of her sons for trying so hard at such a young age I saw that she was lonely. Her husband was constantly out at work and when he was home he was training the kids. Her eldest son was a genin after just one year at the academy and was now running missions under a Jounin. The Jounin wasn't an Uchiha had had only come to the house once to introduce himself.
"Good morning Uchiha-san." The Jounin had said with a bow as Kaa-san opened the door. He was tall but he just… was forgettable. Not hideously ugly but no head-turning pretty-boy either. Black hair, slightly-tanned skin, brown eyes. Forgettable. Which in my opinion made him more ninja-like than the seven-foot-tall guy I'd seen walking around in full red samurai armor. Talk about sticking out like a sore thumb. Kaa-san had called him an Akimichi whatever the hell that was.
"Oh my, can I help you Shinobi-san?" Kaa-san had asked. Apparently it was the polite way to refer to an unknown ninja if you weren't an active ninja yourself. That had been drilled into me after I had shouted 'Hey you!' at a group of genin that had bumped into me in the street. Kaa-san hadn't been at all pleased at that incident. It was the incident that had started this whole 'manners education' thing.
"I am your son's Jounin-sensei starting today. Is perhaps your husband home?" It was polite to ask apparently. I thought that it was sexist. A woman could hold her own just fine. However apparently because Kaa-san was now a housewife… well, let's just say that tradition was seeped deep in the Uchiha clan.
"I'm sorry, he's at the Police Station at the moment. He should be home soon though, can I offer you some tea while you wait?" Kaa-san offered with a smile. Tea, another etiquette thing. Ugh. I got the hell out of dodge in case Kaa-san wanted me to join in too.
"That would be wonderful Uchiha-san. Thank you."
With that he was let in and us children were being shut out of the tea room. That was the first and last time we saw Itachi's Jounin-sensei. Not the friendliest of ninjas. But I have to say, I'd yet to meet any friendly ninjas. Which may or may not because I generally only interacted with Uchiha and we weren't the friendliest of people… nah.
With Itachi running missions all day every day Sasuke felt the need to do something himself. So he turned to training all day every day. Training couldn't be done indoors. Especially when you were throwing around very pointy objects. So more often than not he was in the training fields or in our back yard which was filled with a maze of koi ponds. Tou-san had a slight obsession. Just a slight one.
I was literally the only one in the house on some days and I think Kaa-san clung to me a little. I dealt with it because I felt bad.
Didn't mean I liked to have my hair done every day. No matter how gentle a parent was, it always hurt at some point in the process. Elaborate braids and the like although fancy-looking actually took quite the effort. Kaa-san insisted and I couldn't really find a reason to refuse so… I was stuck.
Sasuke and Itachi should consider themselves fortunate. They weren't the ones that had to deal with tea ceremony and flower arrangement. The tea was bitter and I didn't really see the point of flower arrangement. Sure, it was considered an art form but… there were so many layers of meaning to the thing. Flowers had their own language, a language that I was required to learn. I mostly remembered that some flowers were actually edible and took an interest in the ones that were apparently poisonous.
Kaa-san to her credit had tried to get me more interested by pointing out that flowers could be code. I was of the opinion that it was suspicious as heck for two people to be giving each other flowers out of the blue. There wasn't really any cultural excuse for it, not any more from what I could see at least. I mean, no one that ever came to visit us brought flowers. Also, since according to kaa-san the flower language was a staple for all well educated women, it really made the whole code thing redundant. Not a code if every woman on the street knew it.
Since I was reborn and I was a child again, I figured that I might as well hit every childhood dream of mine. Especially since I was now in a world where kids at the age of twelve and thirteen were released into the world with deadly ninja-weapons. Enjoy childhood while I could because it was a given that I was going to the ninja academy when I was old enough. Pretty much everyone in the Uchiha clan did. It was almost a requirement. Doubly so if you were the child of the Clan Head.
So, before my grim future as a child-soldier came about, I decided to make good use of my second childhood to have some fun. The Uchiha compound was too dull anyway. And so began Uchiha Chiyomi's reign of terror in the Uchiha Compound. That's what I was going to call it anyway.