A/N: Yeehaw bitches, guess who moved from Florida to California this week? This bitch!
(im so tired kill me)
-:-
Shiori has always been really, truly, extraordinarily shit at planning ahead. It was a genuine wonder she made it as far as she did through school, because her time management skills are nonexistent, and the amount of fucks she gives about anything she's not hyperfixating on are not much better.
Shiori is the literal worst person to get isekai'd into the anime known as Naruto. She's probably the worst person to have isekai'd period, as the last two years of her existence have proven, but Naruto in particular is a real shitstorm for her.
Shiori hasn't watched the series since she was just finishing middle school. She never finished the series. Most of her knowledge comes from wikipedia and ao3 binges at 4 in the morning.
And Shiori is an Uzumaki, living in Uzushio, with her loving family that includes her cousin Kushina.
And Shiori has anywhere from a couple months to a couple years before Kushina goes to Konoha to get a giant ass fox shoved in her stomach.
And Shiori is a two years old, who most people think is mentally deficient, and who is definitely physically deficient, and has no fucking clue where to begin on her Keep Uzushio From Getting Nuked Off The Face Of The Planet plan.
Shiori's too tired for this shit, and she hasn't even started yet.
(Fuck her life, fuck reincarnation, fuck god, and fuck Kishimoto's shitshow of a timeline in particular.
Why couldn't she have gotten reincarnated into One Piece?)
-:-
Talking is a lot of effort, and Shiori doesn't particularly like it. It leaves her throat aching and sore, which makes talking even worse. Shiori refuses to talk, although she has branched out into nodding and shaking her head.
(There's also the fact that she's fairly confident she's speaking Japanese, despite it sounding very much like weeb-ified English to her, and thinking about that too hard gives her a migraine.)
"What's your favorite color, Mochi?"
"...teal."
Kushina, as always, is Shiori's exception.
(Kushina has a smile that can light up galaxies, a hug that can protect her from the universe, and a gravity that keeps Shiori wanting to be worthy of it.
If this is what Naruto is going to be like? It's no wonder he's the hero.)
-:-
Seals are fucking amazing.
And kind of terrifying.
(She understands why Uzushio would be a threat to the other Hidden Villages. Seals can do anything, so long as you have the chakra, artistry, and puzzle solving to make them.)
Want to prank your cousins? We got a whole library of seals for you. Want to wipe your enemies off the face of the map? We can whip something up for you real quick. Want to literally fight god and win? Yeah, sounds reasonable. Give us a week.
(Fucking. Terrifying.
Shiori is going to learn everything. She has to.
She's on a timer, after all.)
-:-
Kushina is a goddess, and as soon as Shiori is big enough to be taken seriously, she's building a shrine.
The kid brings her enough paper and ink to write a library, and shows her the basics of the Uzushio seal language. The spiral, the symbol of their clan, is actually just the most important symbol in most of their seals, as it keeps things running without having to constantly pour chakra into it. It works as a feedback loop, and it gives a central point to balance out other factors of the seal around. There's angled lines that show which symbols are supposed to interact with each other, and in which order. There's symbols which are utterly foreign, and then there's just regular kanji, and then there are geometric designs that have different meanings based on positioning, and-
Shiori loves it. She loves all of it. It's like learning a new language, or discovering a new artform, or creating secret codes for fun.
And the best thing of all? The rules are all just guidelines.
You can make anything a seal as long as the emotion and intent is there through the flow of the array. There are dozens of seal masters with utterly indecipherable arrays, because they built their own seal language.
Shiori learns the building blocks, and then she takes off. She adds the alphabet, morse code, logos, everything into the seals she makes. Half the time, they don't work at all, and the other half they work in completely unexpected ways, and it's great.
Everything is a puzzle, a game, a piece of art.
(The adults walk by, pat her on the head, and smile when Kushina explains that they're supposed to be seals.
"Aww, that's so cute! She's trying to copy you, Kushina!"
Kushina smiles, and doesn't say that Shiori has started looking over her seals to make sure they'll work. She doesn't tell them that every basic seal Shiori makes in Uzushio standard started going off flawlessly about two months in.
Shiori smiles at her Kushina-nee, and doesn't say a word to anyone that isn't her.)
-:-
Kushina is the worst.
"I know you don't like him, but Uncle Arashi is really good at seals! C'mon, you two can nerd out together, and I won't have to go through boring lessons anymore."
"Not boring," Shiori pouts, to which Kushina rolls her eyes.
"For you, maybe. Not all of us are baby super geniuses, Mochi. You worked on that light and glitter seal for six hours straight the other day. I don't have that kind of patience."
"Disco seal," Shiori corrects, because she doesn't want to admit that Kushina has a point. "Just bring me books."
Kushina makes a very complicated face.
"I'm… not always going to be here, Mochi."
Shiori freezes.
(There goes the timer.)
"You're leaving?" Shiori's voice is wobbly, and fuck, she wishes she could say it was an act, but Shiori is too lazy for stuff like that. She can feel her throat getting tight, her eyes getting hot with tears.
Kushina is quiet as she bends down and picks her up. Shiori buries her face in her red hair, trying to hold it together. She doesn't know how much time Uzushio has left, how much time the Uzumaki have left, and she's relieved that Kushina won't be here when it falls, she is, but the fact that she's leaving means that it's soon and Shiori is terrified and-
"Take me with you?"
Kushina hugs her tighter and-
"I'm sorry, Mochi. Granny's getting sicker, and Auntie Nanami is going to be Clan Head after her. She's going to need you here as Clan Heir."
Fuck, Shiori hadn't realized that, but that's something to freak out about later because-
"I don't want you to go. I don't want to be alone."
"I know, Shiori. I'm sorry."
(And Kushina holds her tight.
And Shiori clings to her shoulders.
And the two Uzumaki princesses cry, because the world isn't fair.)
