Title: Kaleidoscope
Chapter V
Rivalries are a funny thing.
During our first year, we focused on theorization and the simpler hand seals, dedicating only a few days to actually practicing it. After all, was common knowledge that even if someone could replicate the hand seals for a particular jutsu, but doing so without knowing the theory behind said jutsu, it would only lead to the user to aimless finger weaving and waste of chakra. The principles and how to execute the E-rank techniques were also taught, since most of them were considered to be general skills for most shinobi. Chakra manipulation took a bit of time to discuss since it was rather broad, and also one of the basics, so it wasn't a complete waste of time. Afterwards, we learned how to exercise our control over it, as well as the basic moulding of our chakra. The identification of genjutsus were one of the more dangerous things we learned, and after learning how to know whether or not we were trapped in one, how to manipulate our chakra for it, and the basic way on how to dispel it, Madoka-sensei tested us individually on it in one of the empty classrooms.
Whenever we did throwing exercises, we would be handed a number of shuriken and kunai to and try to aim for the wooden board with a large circle painted on it a few feet away from us, with our sensei correcting us on how to hold the weapon, as well as the proper throwing motion. Tenten was the best at this, but I managed to hit the mark most of the time. Our sensei would be attacked by a stray kunai once in a while, but that clipboard of his usually bears the brunt of it.
When it came time to go attend the kunoichi classes, I stayed with the rest of the class as they played in the grounds, or did light training a few yards away. Since I was the only one who didn't sign up for the alternative classes, I was the only girl with a bunch of boys. Instead of feeling intimidated, I made most of them subservient to my demands with a glare after I easily pummelled one of the cockier idiots into a twitching mash of flesh when they tried to make fun of me, while the others just watched on. They didn't try bullying me anymore, since they had accepted that my place on the proverbial classroom food chain was well-deserved. I felt zero remorse in beating up a kid, since we were, physically, the same age.
By the end of the year, I was the top student in the class, and even if the older clan members' were gloating about it in that silent, covert way of theirs, I found it absurd. Believe me when I say that that is nothing to proud of; I did get into a prestigious university in my ex-life and was doing very well before my arrival in this universe, so if I actually didn't ace subjects made for a bunch of brats who were still learning how to write their name in kanji, then I was a dunce in the highest possible degree. Of course, when I told Shisui my thoughts, excluding the 'came from another universe' since he'd send me to the shinobi-equivalent of a mental hospital, and more of the 'the geezers are being ridiculous' part, he just shrugged and said it was normal for them to be proud of my achievements.
"Hey, especially me." He jerked his thumb to his chest, puffing it out dramatically as he easily supported my weight with one arm. "You have no idea how happy I am that you're doing this great."
"Why?" I let out a jaw-breaking yawn, settling more into my perch, looking like an imperious queen sitting on her throne. Morning spars with Shisui as my opponent were difficult and a bitch to the body, but doing it every day just made it a smidgen easier, and I knew I was steadily improving, so I did it religiously. "Is it because you're going through that phase where all of the kid's achievements seem like a reflection on how you raised it?"
He didn't even have the humility to deny it. "In a way. For the clan, this shows how talented the latest generation is and how bright the future is." He poked my cheek as he grinned. "For me, this proves that I'm a damn good influence on you as your brother."
"If a 'good influence' is a person that curses around children, then you must be the damn deity." I muttered, ignoring the swat for my 'cursing'. "I'm just happy we get to celebrate with Itachi-niisan and Sasu-chan in that dango shop."
He became silent as he thought about it. The lovely peace was lulling me to go take a nap. "That too… I can see why Itachi likes that place so much…" Noticing my dozing off, he smothered me with his palm, easily waking me up for a while as I suddenly smelled the palm of his hand. "Oi, oi, oi. Don't fall asleep on me now, Reina. We're almost there."
I glared at his palm before licking it, shifting my glare onto him as he removed the offending appendage.
"Ew. Really Reina?" He asked, wiping it at the back of my shirt. "And you said you were mature."
"Just be grateful I…" I had to pause to let out a yawn, tears gathering at the corners of my eyes. "Ha… didn't bite those sausages of yours instead… dummy."
"These 'sausages' can still attack you anytime." A pause, then, "But you and Sasuke don't like it too much, do you?"
I pressed my head against his sleepily, looking at the path ahead of us. Itachi had a sweet tooth, which was evident every time we asked him where he wanted to have a snack. I even thought at first that that was one of the reasons why he got so ill in canon, but since he ate those kinds of sugar-laden foods in moderation, I had to keep looking into the possible diseases he could contract. Still, I had no regrets forcing him to take extra vitamins and eat healthily every time we happened to eat together. Last time I ate with his family, Itachi had almost forgotten about it since he was the one preparing the dinner. It made sense to have him cook that time, given that he was the one that invited Shisui and me. I openly glared at him over the steamed crab, causing all of the older Uchihas to carefully hide their amusement over my actions. Even Fugaku was smiling, although it only lasted for a second. "Meh. I like dango, but it's not something I would look for everyday. Sasu-chan just hates anything sweet."
He let out an amused snort. "Polar opposites, those two. Then again, so are we. I'm kind, caring, selfless, considerate…" He gave me a smile, his eyes crinkling at the sides with what could be considered as affection, if one ignored the context of what he was saying. "And you're you."
"Don't forget very humble, Aniue." I mumbled sleepily, rubbing my eyes lethargically.
I didn't need to have my eyes open to know that he was still smiling at me. "That too."
As expected, Sasuke started training with me a few months before he had to go to the Academy. By then, Sasuke was still a tad shorter than me, but I knew he would catch up in a few years. While I squished his cheeks together when he started showing attitude as I helped him disinfect his cuts, I thought, 'Fuck that, Sasu-chan's still my cutie chibi.'
We would spend most of the mornings together during the break in-between my first year and second year, running through the basic katas while somebody older, usually Daiki-baka or Mikoto-san, would supervise us. I didn't see the point in them overseeing us, since we wouldn't be trying to actually hurt the other unnecessarily, but if it does anything to ease whatever their worries were, then so be it. I felt a slight twinge of guilt since I didn't fight Sasuke seriously during these spars, even when he tried his best, and I would only block his attacks and actually aim a few hits and kicks after a montage of his attacks.
Fugaku told us that these spars weren't being implemented for us to knockout the other quickly, but it was designed to simultaneously increase our stamina and test our endurance through long periods of continuous fighting. After a while, this became part of my warming up schedule, apart from the other things I usually did.
Since we were used to the adults watching, every time they weren't around, we started mock-roughhousing with each other, but since we were just kids, it only ended with me carrying him by piggyback to his house since he missed getting carried, even when he denied it with a vehemence typically seen with brats his age.
Later, when Sasuke left for his shurikenjutsu training, I would practice with the fire jutsus I read about in scrolls as a fun break from the more physical part of training. In mastering the Great Fireball Technique, the C-rank ninjutsu opens a plethora of possible variations with different ranks. I started training with forming the hand seals correctly, increasing my speed every time. I didn't want to be caught in the middle of a seal during battle, so speed was a necessity for me. The intensity of the flames were something I wanted to control as well, so I had to practice how to either increase or decrease the intensity while in a controlled setting before even thinking about performing while in the middle of combat. The arsonist in me was getting excited at the idea of creating my own variations, so I was diligent with my training.
If I had enough time and enough willpower, I would also start practicing on using chakra to muffle the sounds of my footsteps when I walked and, as an extension, when I ran. It took a while to get the hang of keeping a continuous flow of chakra down to my feet, but seeing some of the police force members almost shit their pants each time I kept surprising them whenever I escaped from under their noses was worth the extra effort.
Part of being an Uchihan brat, I was trained to be able to wield a variety of ninja tools, from the senbon to the nunchaku. Daily practice was necessary, since most of the tools had very sharp edges that could accidentally slice any too-slow fingers off. That didn't mean I could avoid getting sliced when I practiced as a child, so my fingers and arms were in a perpetual state of bandage, and remained that way just to avoid having to keep redo them every day.
A month after Sasuke's first day in the Academy, I found him sitting in the kitchen, his bag resting against the table as he alternately downed a glass of milk and ate breakfast, my own set waiting for me. We kept staring at each other for a good few minutes as I sat down and ate my breakfast with him, before standing up to grab my bag.
It was only when I was putting on my sandals in the porch did I actually acknowledge him.
"What are you doing?"
"Of course you forgot." Sasuke sighed as he leaned against the frame, already sounding whiny. "Mother told you yesterday that I was going to walk with you to the Academy starting today."
"I remember that, Sasu-chan. I was referring as to why you were drinking my milk." In Mikoto-san's slightly skewed point of view, I was her youngest son's favourite person to be with after Itachi, but since half of the time we spend together comprised of me 'punishing' him via cheek squishes, childish kisses, and hugs, I haven't been able to tell if that was actually true or just another figment of her imagination.
"Shisui-nii said I could have some."
"He also said that I should stop trying to maim Yōichi-san when he's not training me, but you don't see me listening to him all the time." I told him, standing up to do more stretching, trying to relieve the soreness I felt. Climbing cliffs as an alternative to spars with Shisui were things that were to be expected, but I still dreaded them to an extent. "Be a dear and hand me my bento, Sasuke."
Obediently, he trotted back into the kitchen, re-emerging with said bento. I patted his cheek as thanks while I placed the bento inside my bag, before stepping outside and beginning the walk. Sasuke fell into step with me, automatically grasping my hand with his. As we walked, Sasuke regaled me with stories of how his first month went and what they were being taught, until he offhandedly mentioned how some of the girls were acting weird during class, with one trying to talk to him after class. As a girl who had classmates of the same gender and same mindset, I immediately understood what he was talking about even when he didn't, and I couldn't help but laugh at his situation. Sasuke was so cute, so gullible, and so impressionable that I just want to take his cheeks between my hands and squash them together. I also want to corrupt him, and laugh like a maniac at the horrified look on the boy's face.
"Sasuke, you little heartbreaker, you~" I cooed, turning to walk backwards so I could face him and pinch his cheek, all without letting go of his hand. "And it's only been, what, a few days? You are one fast operator~"
He harrumphed, rolling his eyes at me. "Don't be a moron, Reina. I don't have time to deal with them. I have to catch up to Itachi-nii, and you have to catch up to Shisui-nii."
"Right, right." Within shinobi clans, sibling rivalry goes up several notches as the siblings get older and the people who compare said siblings starts talking louder. Even Shisui and I aren't immune to it, and he's almost a decade older than me. The logic behind that still eludes me, but since it's been that way ever since the dawn of time, it's hard to argue against 'tradition'. "Do you have any rivals in class already?"
"No one in my class can even do the Clone Technique properly. How could any of them be my rival?" He sniffed, looking ahead of us. Slowly, he turned to look at me, his expression obviously curious. Given the topic I had started, I had my suspicions as to what he might ask, but I decided to hear him voice it out. "Do you have a rival in your class, Reina?"
Was a rivalry that was started by our clans considered? "I think so."
The long –awaited (and highly-betted) match against Neji didn't happen until the middle of our second year, after months of skirting around the idea of having the students be allowed to fight other students of the opposite gender so soon. While the Academy did have a relaxed mores with regards to mix gendered sparring, it was mostly done with the older students, since they were about to graduate, and not us kiddies, who still had a few more years until we were expected to join the shinobi workforce. I could understand the reasoning behind it: there was an extremely low chance that we were going to face same gendered opponents in the real world all the time, so we had to be trained to anticipate that possibility while our minds were young and malleable. However, as I watched how most of the girls tried and failed to stop their rampant blushes as they faced Neji in mock battle, I could understand why the teachers weren't too thrilled at the idea of supervising this farce of a skirmish.
Oh, the anxiety of a child experiencing their first crush… especially if you're the teacher of said kiddies.
But it was amusing, watching my classmates fight against each other since most of us weren't used to fighting somebody with a completely different fighting style, so most of the time was spent dodging and looking like headless chickens. Still, it would've been better if I was allowed to orchestrate a betting ring amongst the students since everyone even children knew the power of capitalism, but after Madoka-sensei subtly threatened me with mandatory kunoichi classes with some glasses-wearing kunoichi named Suzume until I graduated, I gave him a saccharine sweet smile and quickly focused on the fights.
Other than very specific spars, Neji wasn't allowed to use the Gentle Fist fighting style during battle to level out the playing field, so it was interesting to see him figuring out ways to overcome his opponents as he took them down with a few hits. When I had my own spars with my classmates, I would quickly defeat them through a quick onslaught of punches and kicks, and since I was one of the agiler and more combat-happy students, it was hard to outmanoeuvre me. Nobody was safe from my sadistic tendencies, be they a boy or a girl.
It was easy to see very few were excited to have me as an opponent. Well, Neji also wasn't well-liked during these moments, but that couldn't really be considered as a consolation.
When it came time for Neji and me to fight, I couldn't tell who was more hated between the two of us at that moment. In the end, they all came to the conclusion that since the two 'evil monsters' of the class were going to fight each other for the first time, they were going to milk the 'main event' for all its worth. Hence the loud cheering for whoever they thought deserved the beat down more.
I, unfortunately, forgot that since this was something that was highly anticipated ever since we both signed up for the Academy by our respective clans, Madoka graciously let Neji use the Gentle Fist for this match alone. And after my arm got hit two times in a row, I started to curse internally at this shitshow.
Fighting against a Gentle Fist practitioner, even looking like a child who was as cute as a damn button, was a painful experience. I could understand why this was the most feared taijutsu style in Konohagakure, but I didn't back down.
Was I doing it for the Uchiha clan's honour? Not really.
Was it for the respect of all kunoichi? For those who weren't viewed as highly as the rest? Nope.
As I grabbed his arm after kicking him thrice on the stomach, I twisted him into a headlock. Amidst the mix of the cries of both revelry and disappointment from our fellow children, I felt like a BAMF.
Is this how Shisui felt every time his enemies fled with their tails in-between their ass cheeks the moment they realized who they were up against? If it is, then sign me up for this shit.
After Madoka-sensei stopped us from going at each other again since five minutes passed, I turned to look at Neji, who was just as tired-looking as me. As he made/forced us do the seal of reconciliation, I grinned at him while he narrowed his pale eyes at me in return.
I knew this was the start of a beautiful… something.
And I wasn't the only one who thought of it.
Since Neji was considered to be too young to know this, he wasn't allowed to unblock the tenketsu he struck on my arms and parts of my torso. Instead, I was sent to Konoha Hospital to get my chakra pathway system returned back to normal with the help of an older Hyūga who happened to be a medical-nin. He took one look at the small purple bruises on my arms as I entered his office and ushered me to take a seat so he could heal me, making banal conversation to pass the time as he prodded, turned me over, and poked.
Poke. Turn. Poke. "How did you get these injuries?" Poke. Prod. Poke. Turn. Poke.
Oddly enough, this was slightly relaxing… "Class had a sparring session."
"Ah. Did you win?" Even some of the medics were interested? I clearly underestimated the power of boredom brewing within the shinobi ranks. Add the fact that he was also a Hyūga, and you get vested interest in the development of the children.
"It was a tie." I clarified, not wanting to give Neji a bad image, especially in the company of his clansmen. Kid might be a menace in battle and had quite the attitude problem, but I even I had to respect his skill in taijutsu, and how he executed it.
As I walked out of the hospital, I was greeted with the sight of a running Rock Lee, looking up at the hospital's signage. It was only when his gaze shifted down did he see me, instantly brightening.
Wait.
What was he doing here?
Before I could even think of a reason, he stopped in front of me, looking at me with what I could distinguish as awe.
"That was an amazing display of skill between two rivals!" He said loudly, a few notes away from actually shouting. "It truly was an astonishing spectacle! Oh!" He took a step back, his eyes going over the whole length of my body. "I forgot that you are injured! I am sorry! Are you feeling alright, Uchiha-san?! Do you need to go back to the hospital?!"
"I'm fine, Lee-san. It takes more than a Hyūga to take me down." I had to shake away the feeling of confusion. The details I knew about Rock Lee's current life were few, but I did know he lived quite far from the hospital. "What are you doing here anyway?"
"I volunteered to bring you your bag, since Madoka-sensei said the class would've ended by the time they let you leave!" With that, he presented my bag, still whole but slightly rumpled from his run across the village. "I also placed our homework inside!"
I slung the offered bag on my shoulder. "Eh… I thought he said that essay was the last one for the week…" I scrunched my nose at the idea of more work to do. In my peripheral vision, I saw Lee was still standing next to me, practically vibrating in place. I gave him a grateful smile, relieved by the fact that I didn't need to walk all the way back to the Academy just for my bag. "Thanks for bringing me my stuff, Lee. For that, let's go get ice cream. My treat, of course."
At first, he brightened at my suggestion, his eyes even glittering at the thought. All of a sudden, he lowered his head, hiding most of his face underneath the shadow of his bangs. "There is no need, Uchiha-san. I wouldn't want to trouble you. I better be on my way!" Before he could bolt away from me, I managed to grab him by his long braid, effectively stopping him. I tugged at his braid twice to get his attention.
"You're not troubling me since I'm the one offering, and this is what friends do." I explained to him as I dragged him towards the nearest ice cream kiosk, not letting go the braid-turned-leash until he stopped trying to escape my clutches. When the word 'friends' left my mouth, I felt him tense up, before slowly turning to face me. He looked petrified, and I couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at his reaction as I released his braid. "What, you don't want to be friends?"
Awaking from his apparent trance, he aggressively shook his head. "No- no, of course I want to be friends with you, Uchiha-san! It's just that I never had friends, so-"
This was something we had in common. I knew that I didn't have many actual friends outside of the Uchiha clan, and since most of my free time was dedicated to training like a madwoman inside the district, it wasn't too much of a stretch to the imagination. Acquaintances I had plenty; friends, not so much. "I shall be your first friend!" Grabbing his hands in a weird fraternity clutch, I shook his hand. "Heyo, Lee!" Despite my teeth chattering from the overenthusiastic shake, I couldn't find a reason to actually frown at the boy in front of me. Even though we have classmates for a year, we never really found a reason to actually interact for an extended period of time with one another during class since we were usually thrusted into different groups, so this was our first actual conversation. And besides, the smile of pure happiness on his face made my dizziness worthwhile.
"Hello, Reina!" By this time, the two of us started to celebrate our newfound friendship by-
"Rei-chan?" I could only spare a glimpse at my brother, but I could tell that he seemed confused. "Why are you hopping in front of the hospital like a lunatic? Where did you hide the body?"
"I'm celebrating, Aniue." I gave him a frustrated look while I jumped in a circle with Lee, not letting him destroy this moment. "And why do you keep thinking that I did something bad?"
"It saves time."
After a few minutes of continuously jumping in a circle, Lee and I had to stop our celebration, since we were both getting tired. I turned to face my brother, who really was waiting for me to finish my little 'performance' with his own look that was equal parts faux exasperation and genuine amusement. "Are you here for a check-up, Aniue?"
"Not today. I heard from Izumi that you were in the hospital because of an injury." He knelt down at us, taking in the condition of my body carefully with obviously worried eyes. Oh, to have a semi-doting, rabidly overprotective brother really was a bane and a boon at the same time. "But I guess it's a false alarm."
"You managed to grab her attention when she was on a date with her boy toy?" I've encountered the older Uchiha girl before, but our interactions were brief and rare. I couldn't say for sure, but I felt like there was an uncomfortable barrier between us. It started decreasing bit by bit when she started dating her darling of a genin teammate, so I was never sure what the cause was in the first place, though I wasn't that keen in finding out. "In any case, I really did need to go, but I'm all better now. See?" To prove a point, I quickly made a proper fist with my right hand and punched his shoulder. I sadistically revelled in hearing his wincing, although he kept his smile in place. "If I was injured, punching you would be too painful for me to do~"
"I could tell, since you were jumping around with…" He drifted off as turned his gaze towards Lee, who was standing behind me, watching us with wide eyes. I wasn't sure how (in)famous Shisui was outside of the clan, but he was considered to be a genius shinobi even by the clan's standards, so there might be chance that Lee has heard of him. Be that as it may, I started the introductions.
"Aniue, this is my friend. His name is Rock Lee." I pulled Lee forward, so that Shisui could see him fully.
Lee took a step back, eyes brimming with self-confidence as bowed deeply in front of my brother. "Pleased to make your acquaintance, Reina's brother! I am Rock Lee! I am one of her classmates!"
Shisui surveyed him quickly, before offering a friendly grin. "Nice to meet you too, Lee-kun. My name's Shisui, and it's about time I finally get to meet a friend of hers." He reached out to place a hand on top of my head, using enough force to make me sway from side to side as he spoke. "I hope she hasn't been too much of a beast towards you."
Lee shook his head frantically, and I was half-expecting him to get dizzy with the force of it. "Reina has been nothing but kind to me ever since we became friends!" It was a declaration that would've usually been peppered with white lies, if not for the fact that we've only been officially friends for a few minutes.
"Really?" Shisui glanced at me suspiciously. I merely smiled back. "If you say so, Lee-kun."
"I would never lie, Shisui-san!" Lee looked proud, even though lying was a part of being a shinobi. Lee was never great at sneaking around and keeping a low profile, even when we practiced that in class. It was hard to ignore a very eye-catching little boy with a fiery enthusiasm that could rival a bonfire.
"That's a good trait to have, especially when it comes to friends. I hope that never changes, Lee-kun." Shisui gave him a kinder smile, his eyes turning into slits. Changing the focus of the conversation, he adopted a thinking pose. "So, if a wild Reina isn't hiding a body, what is she doing here?"
"I got hurt during a spar, so Madoka-sensei sent me here."
"So Izumi was right…You got hurt? In a spar?" Shisui looked shocked at my confession, something which stroked my ego a bit.
"Only when I fought the Hyūga boy in my class." I assured him, patting his hand.
"It was an amazing fight! You should've seen it, Shisui-san!" Lee grabbed my hand, raising it up in the air. "She never backed down! You would've been proud of your sister!"
"Rei-chan, you're such a good girl!" Shisui smiled boyishly at us, scuffing a hand through my hair. Having a semi-doting older brother was a blessing.
But not all was fun and games, especially within the district.
There was an underlying tension that should've been easily ignored by the younger Uchihas, except for me. Maybe it was in the way how non-Uchihas hanging around the district were becoming scarcer as the months went by. Maybe it was how stricter (if that was even possible) the elders were with our training. Or maybe it was in the increasing number of meetings the adults who were active shinobi were mandated to attend.
It was after those meetings did I manage to spend some time with Shisui, sitting on the porch and looking at the moon. And judging by his unsurprised expression, he was expecting me to find him. Maybe he could tell that I knew, or had an idea of what was happening. Sometimes, I wasn't so sure anymore with Shisui.
"Aniue…?"
"Hm?"
"What does being a shinobi really mean?" I hesitated, trying to find any way to follow up. "For you, I mean."
It took a while (and a nudge) for him to answer that, but he did with a wry smile on his face. "Well, being a shinobi means to be someone who protects the peace from within the shadows."
"So we work in the dark to serve the light?" I shifted my gaze towards the walls that held the clan, quoting from the Assassin's Creed franchise. I never thought I'd be able to use it, but being a shinobi is similar to being an assassin, minus the inconspicuous haystack needed for a leap of faith. "That sounds… ominous."
I felt his hand rest on the back of my head, petting me gently.
"Everything's going to be fine, Rei-chan." He held out his pinky. "I promise."
As I wrapped my own pinky around his, I thought that maybe, just maybe, I could fool myself into believing he was right.
Omake: Crush
Shisui had accepted the fact that his sister was strange, even for shinobi standards.
He has made his peace with that, especially after seeing her beat up a raccoon in her crib. If anything, he even approved of her uniqueness since it stopped her from developing some of the clan's more negative mentality.
But, as he watched her go around the house covered in red liquid that was, thankfully, not blood but juice, for an extended period of time, looking for something amongst their family's items while she hummed what she calls her 'work song', he realized that this particular behaviour was too bizarre, even for her already out-there standards.
Daiki told him over breakfast to leave her be, since it wasn't affecting her studies, Daiki himself, or her training. The self-important jackass just couldn't give an actual shit, could he?
When he asked Sasuke if he noticed she was being weird(er), the kid shrugged and said that he didn't notice anything when they were walking back home to the district from the Academy, so maybe he was reading too much into it. However, he did remember afterwards that it was considered normal for the duo to be seen being followed by one of those ducklings they kept as she waved around a pole with somebody's stolen underwear as the flag, so her weirdness was a common occurrence when the two were together.
Mikoto-san suggested that perhaps she was feeling sick, so off the siblings went to the hospital for a quick check-up. All he got there was a debate as to whether or not it was alright for her to slap somebody's cast while they were recuperating from a broken leg. She argued that it was just a light tap to wish them a speedy recovery, and he would've believe her if he didn't see the maniacally gleeful look that flashed in her eyes when she did whack their casts hard with her fist, her cherubic smile lulling them into a false sense of security.
One of his fellow jōnins teasingly suggested that maybe she was in love with someone, so he better start getting ready for the wedding and the in-laws, his mind went reeling back to the meeting he had with the clan head a year back regarding the keywords 'Reina', 'arranged', and 'marriage', resulting in him experiencing a near heart attack and mental shutdown, even though he had come to accept it after intense interrogation and observation on her behalf. As he watched Nagaki flail around trying to remove the explosive tags Shisui stuck to his back as revenge, not realizing they were all fakes, he thought about it logically and calmly. The only boys she talked about that weren't Sasuke and Itachi were that Neji kid she was pitted against every time, her Aburame seatmate, and her friend with the crazy brows.
"Just ask her what's wrong." Itachi commented on the matter, the snow serenely drifting down onto the ground. It was one of the few moments where the two were free to relax and not worry about the missions that were too dark to discuss. "It can't be as bad as what you're imagining."
"You know better than anyone that there can be anything inside that twisted mind of hers. I had to read a book on how to raise small animals because she acted like one during the first few years." Shisui raised an eyebrow, glaring at him. "Do you not remember the raccoon incident?"
"Of course not. That incident made the elders sure that she would become a fine kunoichi."
"Or how about last week, when she actually tied up a boy to a tree as she threatened to singe off his toes while she stuffed peppers down his throat?" Shisui heaved a sigh as he buried his head in his hands, looking less like a feared shinobi, and more like an older brother. "Sometimes, I just don't understand what's going on with that little psychopath… and you know I mean that with all the love in the world."
"In her defence, that boy was trying to disrupt a nest. But I do see your point." Itachi gave him a smile that seemed empathetic, but he knew him too well to know it was anything but. "What more when she grows up?"
"Gah… I don't even want to think about that…" He rubbed his hands into his eyes, willing away the image of his sister going through the hell called puberty and him having to deal with it. He'd like to think he could handle it by himself, but he had a gut feeling that he'd try to convince Mikoto to deal with her when the time comes. "As much as humanly possible, I would like to believe that she is still my cute and naïve baby sister, no matter how delusional it may sound like."
Itachi glanced at him. "I remember you calling her 'naivety' as 'fake innocence'."
"That wasn't me; that was what Fugaku-sama said about my sweetheart of a sister." He tried sounding serious, but Itachi could see him desperately holding back a boisterous laugh. "And you know he's biased about her. Him and your mother, mind you."
"Of course my father has no basis for his beliefs. I'm sure it was pure coincidence that a few of the elders saw Reina with an empty jar of flaxseeds the same day Yashiro was sent to the hospital for extreme constipation. Surely it wasn't because he wrongfully accused her of being the accomplice of the blonde child that keeps defacing public property." Hearing the usually straight-laced Itachi say all that without changing his expression was enough to break Shisui's composure and start laughing. Even Itachi had to chuckle at the mere thought of Reina being completely blameless, even though her reasoning for her retribution was sound, since she was with his mother and Sasuke the time the crime was committed. After the laughter died down into a comfortable silence, Itachi was the one who cut in. "Regardless, I stand by my suggestion. It's not like your answers are going to fall from the sky."
Suddenly, they heard a quiet "No, no, no… oh fuc-", making them look up at the tree. A few clumps of frost fell to the ground, before they were suddenly covered in snow themselves.
The girl of the moment was now in Itachi's lap, clutching a kunai in her left fist while the other held a butcher knife, looking more like a killer snowman than an actual girl even as she tried to shake off the snow.
Shisui watched as Itachi brushed some of the remaining snow out of her black hair, letting her shift so she was comfortable. He gave her a fond smile, despite the situation. "Good afternoon, Reina."
"There's my little butt-kicker!" Shisui greeted, easing back as he narrowed his eyes at her. "Escaped from Yōichi-san's clutches again, I see."
"Hi, Aniue. Hi, Itachi-niisan." She ignored him as she greeted back, saluting them with the steel edge of the butcher knife. "I'm here for my bi-weekly assassination attempt, as well as an important message for you." Sticking out a tongue at Shisui's bark of laughter, she took her kunai and poked Itachi on the chest with the handle while she laid the blunt edge of the other knife on his neck. "Gotcha."
"Well then, let's call this attempt 'almost successful'." Itachi mused, lifting the pouting girl out of his lap and onto her knees. She started her assassination attempts against him a few months after he became a chūnin, so this was nothing new. Why she was doing it could either be because she was jealous of Itachi spending time with him, or because she was bored and wanted to up her game when it came to scaring people. Since it was impressive to know that she was getting better at sneaking up at people, it was fine in his perspective. "Are you taking good care of that succulent plant I gave you?"
She nodded, looking proud. "I make sure it gets the right amount of sunlight every day." Despite her direct and very vocal hatred for most flowers, it didn't extend to succulents. If anything, she adored them. "And I think one's poisonous, since Kagen-san developed a rash when I told him to puncture it."
"Is he alright?"
She shrugged, looking more interested at swaying the knife around than talking about the condition of one of their clansmen. "I don't know. I had to go the Academy by then, so I didn't see what happened to him."
"Reina." Itachi levelled her with a scolding glare, before flicking her forehead, ignoring her surprised yelp, making her drop the kunai into Itachi's hand. "Be respectful towards your elders."
Rubbing at the sore spot with her free hand, she paused, pretending to think about it. "Nah. And don't bother convincing me otherwise, Itachi-niisan. I only respect those worth respecting, whatever their age might be."
The corners of Itachi's mouth twitch upwards, but decided to keep silent, only petting her head while patting her cheek as a response. Shisui watched how the two interacted, and at how his sister basked in the attention, knowing that although she had a friendly and very tactile nature, she was rarely empathetic to most. Hell, she was the one who would joke that since she had warm hands, it would mean that she had a cold heart, and he couldn't help but laugh with her. At least she knew how to joke around, unlike some of the people he had to interact with on a daily basis.
"Oh, and Itachi-niisan," She announced, unknowingly breaking Shisui out of psychoanalysing her even further. "I almost forgot to tell you that Fugaku-ji's looking for you." Reina was already crawling over to where her brother was sitting so she could rest on his lap next.
The two gave each other a surprised look, with Shisui offering blithely, "He knows you don't have a mission today, and it couldn't be for a report since it's been a while since your last one. Any idea why, Rei-chan?" Shisui asked as he placed her weapons on the ground next to them instead of letting her keep her grip on them. It wouldn't do anyone good if she accidentally stabbed him.
She made a humming noise. "He said something about visiting Mikoto-san's parents. He also said it was a secret, so I shouldn't say anything about it anymore."
"Alright. Thank you for being the messenger." He stood up, giving her one last pat to the cheek before nodding his leave towards them both. It was only when Itachi was at the point where he still could be clearly heard by the siblings but would be hard to chase after did he speak up. "Oh, and Reina," He was looking over at them with a half-teasing smile, immediately filling Shisui with nothing but dread. "Your brother has something he wants to ask you."
Despite how highly everyone regards him, Shisui thought as he glared at the back of his best friend's head, he can safely say that Itachi can be a devious, underhanded jackass of a bastard when he wanted to be.
At this, Reina stood up, cocking her head to the side as she voiced out what was eating him, looking like the very picture of innocence. This was the same look she gave when she slapped that chūnin's cast, so he knew he should be wary of what she might say and do. Volatile, she is.
"Reina," He strained himself mentally as he stood up as well, trying to think of ways on how to broach her recent actions with her. He wasn't sure if this was something even worth broaching, since there had been times her actions were a result of pure ennui. Deciding on the safest route, with his forefinger scratching his cheek awkwardly, he started with "Why were you going through our family's belongings? Do you need... help?"
She blinked a few times, before smiling up at him. "Nope! I found what I wanted already!" She raised one hand to pat him on his hand. "But thanks for offering, Aniue."
"Oh?" Still safe. He was still in the safe zone. "What were you looking for, then?"
"Just pictures."
"Pictures?" 'Nothing odd about that,' he reasoned to himself, 'nothing at all'. This was still in the scope of actual normalcy, even for their small family. He's done the same before when he was younger and wanted to remember them, and so can she whenever she wants to know more about them. "Of our parents?"
"Of Senju Tobirama."
And any sense of normalcy he hoped for were dashed into oblivion.
Why did he expect anything else?
"What?" He wished that his words didn't convey how shocked he actually was, but that he was nonchalant and accepting.
Luckily, it seemed she was indifferent to how his tone sounded too high for a supposedly offhand response. "I even had to go through most of Grandfather's belongings just to find the better ones, since you told me he was a member of his escort unit." She formed a square with her fingers, peering up at him with one eye squinted. "You do look a lot like him."
"So I've been told." He sighed, deeply regretting the turn of this conversation, but disregarding any notion of leaving the matter be. He started this (technically, Itachi started this, but by this time Fugaku's already giving the younger a talking down for whatever reason the head might think of), so he'll fucking see it till the end, no matter how scarring this will be for his own psyche. "What was the cranberry juice for then?"
She dropped her arms, her smile still present. "Ah, that! I heard that cranberry juice looked an awful lot like blood, and since the sacrificial rituals required the dancer to be soaked in it, I figured that it would be alright for me to be soaked in blood-like liquid." She explained cheerfully, as if the words coming out of her mouth were close to normal. Then again, what she perceived as normal was questionable at best.
"Rei-chan, you know I'm not…" He had a hard time grasping for the right word in this fucked-up scenario. He didn't even want to think about where she heard those words, but knowing her, she probably thought of it herself. "… well-versed… with those kinds of jutsus, but I have a feeling that whatever you're planning to do isn't going to work. So please don't do it."
"Aww… too bad…" She puffed out her cheeks, looking like a kicked puppy about this revelation. "I guess I'll have to be content with the fact that his magnificent likeness will always be forever present within the photos of him."
"That, and at the Hokage Rock." Shisui reminded her as he nudged her back to the district, biting back his laughter as she crossed her arms in front of her chest, pout still evident. After a few minutes of walking, and him watching as she sulked all the way, he gave her a smile that he hoped was comforting. "I didn't know Lord Second's your favourite Hokage."
"I like Lord Fourth too." She corrected him, making an effort to walk the same way as him. There was still a smidgen of sadness in her expression, but bits of her happy-go-lucky self started reappearing the more they walked together. "The others are okay, but Lords Second and Fourth are the coolest!"
"It makes sense that you would admire them, Rei-chan. They were great shinobi, after all." It's expected for the kiddies to idolize someone older, and if isn't one of the parents or a relative, it's usually the Kage of whichever village the kid belongs in.
"They're also the badass men I'd love to fu…" She stopped in mid-leap, turning paler than usual when she noticed her brother's abrupt halt, as well as his rapidly darkening expression. "Aniue…?"
"You'd love to what?" He loomed menacingly over her, daring her to complete it. He roughly placed his hand on top of her head, forcing her to look at him in the eye, his fingers pressuring at her scalp in warning. "Reina?"
She gave him an even brighter smile, one that was obviously trying to reassure him. "To befriend, Aniue."
"Right." Moving his hand to pinch her round cheeks hard, he gave her a smile that didn't reach his eyes at all. "Off to the temple with you~"
He wasn't that surprised by her sudden sprint in an attempt to escape him, arguments mixed with obscenities being screamed into the air. He was, however, surprised by how difficult it was to actually catch her, even resulting to him body flickering at times. He could tell that she was going to be a speed demon in the future, and he wasn't sure if he was ruing or awaiting the day when she would finally master the Body Flicker and find other ways of utilizing it. It depends on the situation, really.
By the time he caught his runaway of a sister, he went beyond the point of 'bringing' her to the temple to going back home, and her trying to reason with him instead of running away.
"You both look and act absurd right now." Odd thing for her to say, since she was the one hauled over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, lest she finds away to escape. She could get creatively violent when she became desperate. Case in point: her using a bigger version of the Great Fireball Technique against him, causing him to instinctively react as if she was an actual threat and effectively trapping her to a tree's trunk with a few well thrown kunai. "It's just a crush!"
"A 'crush' is you wanting to be closer to the one you're crushing on. What you're doing goes beyond that: you're creating a plan to rob their graves!"
He could feel her rolling her eyes at him. "Why would I rob their damn graves?! Yes, there is a factor of me wanting to see them in person, but I did say I was happy with just their pictures. Ergo, Aniue is being ridiculous." She emphasized her words with a punch to his back, before muttering under her breath, "Besides, I like my men alive…"
"Reina…" He growled, the warning evident in his tone.
A beat of silence, before he heard her let out a breath. "… I'm sorry. I know you're just being an older brother." She tugged on his shirt, the way she does when she wants to be properly carried and forgiven at the same time. Relenting to her pleading eyes that he knew she was giving him (and no, it wasn't because he was getting soft. It's his sister, asshole. He'd bet his life savings that nobody halfway decent could fully ignore the pleas of a younger sibling), Shisui fixed his way of carrying her with a gusty sigh, tucking her head into his shoulder as he walked them back to the district.
Despite everything, the sole comfort he had about this whole insane debacle was the sheer impossibility of her actually meeting Senju Tobirama and Namikaze Minato.
For once, he's thankful they weren't alive anymore.
Hallo, my Tumtums.
Feel free to request an omake, or to ask any question.
'Crush' is one of the longer omakes. The others are significantly shorter.
And… I'm back from thesis hell, and creative-block. Haha…