Like every other warrior in their clan, Ryota was sent out on his first clan mission at age seven. Even then, as young as he was, the difference between his level of skill and the others was clear. By his fifth mission, where he activated his sharingan and dragged his last living teammate, who had four years of experience more than him, but no Sharingan, home-he finally began to understand some of his fathers lessons.
Being a Lineage Uchiha was a responsibility. They activated their Sharingans younger than the others, advanced it faster, and could even evolve it into its secret hidden form which would grant them the gifts their very Lineages were named after-Magenkyo.
It was something the other Uchiha, who could go their entire lives in battle without their bloodline limit awakening, could barely dream about.
There wasn't as much resentment as he'd been warned about.
His father spoke of the jealousy he would receive just for being a Lineage shinobi often. Non-lineage Uchiha had so many less options and resources than those with a lineage to support them, he understood why they would scorn those that did. But mostly, because lineage shinobi tended to be their squad leaders, elders, and generals, so that scorn was outweighed by respect. Regular Uchiha needed those with a lineage too much to loathe them completely. The few that didn't hate them a little, held them in outright awe.
Lineage shinobi were prized as lineage shinobi because they were the best of the Uchiha. They were the clan's heroes and their hopes. Especially those from a Named Lineage, like Ryota was.
Once there had been twelve Named Lineages, but their clan was down to five. The Amaterasu, the Susano, the Kamui, the Tsukuyomi, and the Izanagi. Supposedly, if someone developed a new skill with the Mangekyo, and managed to prove it was inherited by one of their direct descendents, then they could establish a Lineage of their very own, but it had been hundreds of years since the Kamui, the last named lineage, was Kamui was also down to three families, making it the smallest named lineage in their clan, and probably the next one to fall into obscurity.
The rest of the lineages were unnamed, simply smaller families within the Uchiha clan that could reliably activate their sharingans at a young enough age to make their survival more likely than other Uchiha. Named Lineages were willing to have intermarriages with the best of those unnamed lineages. If they could make enough of a difference single handedly in the war, or ideally, activate a Magenkyo of their very own, they were immediately offered spouses, as a way to climb into the upper crust of the Uchiha.
It seemed mindlessly ambitious, but the death rate of those from the Named Lineages were the lowest in the clan. Everyone did what they could to make the next generation stronger, more likely to survive the war. The knowledge that lineage shinobi tended to be the few that made it to old age was half of what fueled the jealousy of regular Uchiha.
Even so, he'd never received the pronounced contempt he'd witnessed other Lineage shinobi receive. Ryota thought it was because he took his duty as the strongest in his squad seriously. More than that, the Susano were protectors, they were the shields of their squads, or at least that's what Ryota tried to be. Everytime he brought a squad back home with everyone still breathing was a victory he clung to. Everytime he lost someone ached in his soul, a pronounced failure of his very purpose in life-Ryota was a Susano, he dreamed of activating his Magenkyo and becoming that shield in truth. It was that hope that kept him sane everytime he needed to find new squad mates.
It was losing that hope when he'd become too injured for the war efforts that almost made him drive a kunai into his eye socket. Especially once his mother huffed that even as a cripple he could at least still give her a good grandson.
Ryota hadn't wanted to get married. But he had been raised to be a good son, and in their clan, that meant having a son of his own as insurance, so that when or if, he or his father died on the battlefield, there would still be someone to take care of his mother. It would be a lie to say he didn't resent that. Especially once it cost him the ability to raise the daughters he already had. Daughters that his overly traditional mother didn't think mattered in the least.
Ryota's mother had been protected too well.
She didn't seem to understand how cruel she'd been to Akemi when she was alive, or how heartless she was towards her own grandchildren. She'd been taught all she needed to live a good life was to marry a good man and have a good son. She'd also been taught having a good life was all that mattered.
He didn't understand how she could be so naive. She was just so privileged. So fortunate. She'd never lost anyone. Ryota didn't think there was another soul in the clan as blissfully ignorant of the war they lived in.
His mother was the last child his grandfather had with his third wife. He'd lost all the children before her, and had no interest in raising anymore when he was on the verge of retirement and becoming a clan elder. So his mother grew up doted upon with both parents in the clan, was far too squeamish to be flagged as a potential Kunoichi, and was then married off to one of the three clan diplomats.
Diplomacy had the highest survival rate of any ninja track in clan-mostly because the constant state of war meant they didn't have any new diplomatic relations with any clans that hadn't already proven their loyalty to their contracts with hundreds of years of vassalship. His father only left the compound to renew contracts and supervise exchanges of provision, and if he hadn't been the bastard child of the previous Susano Lineage head, he would have never been so quietly privileged himself.
Ryota wasn't supposed to know that. His father gloried in the secrets he kept. But Ryota was hardly an idiot and he had long grown cold to the people who raised him and no longer saw them with any majesty of parental figures. His father was a selfish man who saw himself as well above all other clan members. His mother was a naive little girl in a grown woman's body. There wasn't any hope of either of them changing, especially not his mother.
His father liked her as she was, simple and childish as could be. He enjoyed being the shield between the real world and his wife, it made him feel powerful to have her so sheltered. It didn't matter what Ryota, as their only child, suffered because his mother didn't understand the world they actually lived in.
The worst thing that had ever happened to his mother was Ryotas possibly career ending injury. A situation that then became more embarrassing for her once she agreed to wed him to a bride from one of the lowest ranks in the clan. The only thing more humiliating, to his mothers manner of thinking, was if she'd wed him to a servant outright.
Despite his mothers belief that his previous marriage had become a stain on his reputation, Ryota knew marrying Akemi was the best thing that had ever happened to him.
Through his dearly missed wife, Ryota had experienced what life with a family was supposed to be. Someone that cared for him, that asked after him and his days. Someone who greeted him with a warm smile every morning they woke up together. Even after she passed, his wife's family still showed him more care than his own parents ever had. They had been the ones to make sure he and his children ate once the Susano elders tried to starve him into obedience.
Akane had even come up with a method that made him self sufficient even while injured. It had been such a relief to be able to feed his daughters with his own hands. Hinata and Haruki would never be a burden to him, but he could admit how terrible it felt to watch the soft baby fat on their cheeks shrink. It hadn't felt like he was living up to his promise to Akemi when he couldn't feed the twins properly.
He had so much respect and gratitude for his wife's family. The way they cared about each other. The simple warmth of their affection. If he could, Ryota would have happily moved into their humble home, and spent the rest of his days as Ayumi Uchiha's son in law, raising his daughters to be kind sweet women, like his wife had once been.
But, as much as he'd come to hate it, Ryota was a child of the Sasuno, and once he became healthy, he was once again a very good chip in his parents hands-one who's weakness they knew to exploit. While Ryota could leave the twins with Akemi's family while he went on missions, his grandfather was an elder who would happily bend to his mothers whims and use his power in the clan to make them hand over the twins, and so he knew they wouldn't be safe when he was in the field. Not really.
Then the daughter of the Tsukuyomi Lineage head had expressed some interest in marrying him. Amaterasu, Tsukuyomi, and Sasunoo were the three most powerful Sharingan Lineages in the clan, mostly because they were the largest. Having a marriage with the Tsukuyomi Lineage heads immediate family would elevate their families status among the Susano.
There was no way his vain parents would turn that down, even after Mitsuki made her plans of sending his daughters over to the orphan homes to train as Kunochi clear. She could justify her actions easily enough-she was a Kunochi herself, after all. Ryota was already outnumbered in his home, his parent's would be of no use to make sure his daughters were well taken care of, instead of raised as convenient servants and bodyguards for the Lineage heirs and their own future siblings.
If Akane hadn't come to him on her own, angry as she'd been, Ryota would have had to track down his little sister in law and ask her to take his daughters. Even if it felt like he was clawing his heart right out of his body, Ryota knew the horrors of war. He knew the terrible fate that awaited his daughters when he married Mitsuki, let alone what would happen to them if he married her and died in battle.
He didn't want his daughters to be Kunochi.
Ryota had promised Akemi, rubbing her pregnant stomach as they discussed the future of their children in bed, late at night, that he would be the best father he could.
He tried to remind himself that he was doing the right thing, that he was being good to Hinata and Haruki by letting them go to a home where they would be treasured as they deserved, instead of tolerated and used.
He still loathed himself for failing them so badly. For not living up to his wife's simple hopes for their family.
But as long as he took missions he could still send financial support to his daughters. He was shinobi enough to check on them without anyone else knowing about those visits, and he could trust they would be with a family that loved them.
From what he'd seen of Ayumi, and what Akemi had told him of her childhood, he knew she treated girls better than boys. She would also take into consideration what his children would want in life.
That became especially clear once he realized Naoya had used his status as a senior warrior to find his sister a bride instead of bringing one to the clan for himself. Something Ayumi knew, going by the affectionate way the girls held hands in front of their family. The couple would be raising his twins as their daughters, being a same sex couple and having children of their own being a much larger hurdle.
Ryota had never even entertained the idea of a same sex partner-his duties to his lineage had been set out clearly in front of him at too early an age. It was something every lineage, based on the existence of descendants as they were, considered taboo. It still happened among the regular Uchiha, but even then, it was simply looked down upon as youthful dalliance.
His former sister in law was all but married to another woman, and would even raise children with her. Ryota didn't think any other family in the clan would dare to be so bold. But he supposed, despite Naoya's presence as a Sharingan warrior and senior shinobi both, they weren't a family that would be scrutinized too closely or even looked down on too badly for not following tradition.
They simply weren't of a status where they were meant to be examples for the rest of the clan the way lineages were. Not even Akanes betrothal to the clan heir changed that. Women and men who married into lineages were simply considered part of their new lineage-no one cared about the families they came from.
To be honest, Ryota worried about Akane marrying Madara. He knew the suffocating nature of belonging to a lineage better than most, and he couldn't see his cheerful free spirited little sister in law enjoying the darker nature of those higher up in the clan hierarchy.
Not to mention all of the Sharingan purists who constantly made noise about how unworthy she was to lead the Uchiha when she didn't have the 'proof' she was the best of them. Even with Akanes fairly impressive skills in battle. Plenty of those in a lineage still looked down on her because of her lack of Sharingan. Ryota had never really paid attention to it before, but the higher up one went in the clan, the more their bloodline limit mattered.
A bloodline limit it seemed Akane had very little hope of ever activating…Ryota didn't want to borrow trouble, but he owed his wife's family too much not to do everything in his power to keep them safe. Which meant Ryota might have to investigate the less palatable among the lineage members.
Just in case.
If Akemi had taught him anything, it was that family was supposed to look out for each other.
X
Ryota is the Uchiha equivalent of that 'poor little rich boy' trope but he's got a good heart. His situation is pretty fucked up, but he's doing his best by his kids, even if that means acting like he's given up on them completely because he's not letting that evil step mother raise them-no sir, he's a family man. He and Akemi would have been very happy together but…plot and the horrors of war and what not.
More of the clan structure according to me explained, and if he lives Shisui's gramps could totally set up the Kotoamatsukami lineage for the Uchiha. Buuuuuuut this fic ends before that part of the timeline anyway lol.
Also yeah-the Uchiha clan has got to have Sharingan racists, like 'real Uchiha have Sharingan' has got to be a thing just because of my soul deep belief that the more privileged a person is the more beholden they are to their shittier nature. It's the only thing that makes our current society make sense to me tbh.
Akanes gonna have to deal with that and it won't be pretty-but we get to see more clan improvements and that always nice, right?