The bags below my eyes felt like they dragged my entire face down with their sheer weight. I had barely slept a wink last night, plagued by anxiety and haunted by disturbing, short flashes of half-dreams whenever my eyes stayed closed for too long. I was bursting at the seams—I needed to talk to someone about all of this. Badly.
Note to self: bitch to Enma about how unfair it was that my normal life was cut short in favour of being reincarnated—by mistake, at that—into a world where I could die at any moment.
Scratch that, actually. Knowing him, he'd take my words a bit too seriously and kill me off before my bargained time was up. Ugh. I just needed to complain to someone before pure stress killed me.
I missed Shuu.
Since his big fight with Neji, my best friend had been noticeably absent from my daily routine. I wasn't even entirely sure he was showing up to class with how little I had seen of him. It had been at least a week since his punishment started, and I had felt every day without the idiot around. Shuu may have had the emotional intelligence of a ferret, but he was the most dependable friend I had here and I couldn't think of anyone better to vent to than him.
After classes ended, I found myself staring at the entrance to the Uchiha compound yet again. The place had become something of a second home to me at this point, but I still felt apprehensive whenever I stood here at the very entrance. Sighing, I headed in with my head bowed.
Though he was no Sasuke or Itachi, Shuu had still landed a pretty bougie deal in the compound, what with his mom being the sister of the clan head's wife and all. The outer perimeter of Shuu's house was enclosed by a clay wall, giving them a sense of privacy that was nonexistent in the Uchiha houses of lower statuses. I approached the outer wall of his property when a ruckus from within the walls caught my attention. Sidling up against the wall I was closest to, I tried to listen in on the conversation.
"Have you learned your lesson yet?" I heard a gruff voice bark. "Do you understand how your actions affect the image of our clan?"
I hazarded a peek around the wall for a split second, seeing a kneeling figure in front of a group of men. It was Shuu, crouching in dogeza before a man with stress lines visible even from yards away. Beside him was Shuu's father.
I whipped back around the wall, my heart hammering in my chest. The man speaking to Shuu had an intense aura so thick, I felt slightly cowed by it even from my distance. Such a man could only be…
"That's what you get when you cause trouble," came a whisper to my right. I jumped half a foot in the air, but thankfully managed to stifle a yelp of shock, as well as the subsequent sigh of exasperation as I met the eyes of my classmate. No matter what I did, it seemed that whenever I ventured into the Uchiha compound, Sasuke was always near.
I turned away from him without answering, trying to listen in again. From the sounds of things, today was the end of Shuu's detention period. "The Uchiha clan has weathered enough of this type of behaviour from you and your sister. Another incident, and your training will be suspended for even longer." I winced at the severity of Fugaku's words.
I finally turned back to Sasuke, who was still leaning against the wall next to me for some reason. Morbid curiosity? "Is clan punishment always this harsh?"
A troubled expression passed over the boy's face before he nodded. "Otou-san doesn't discipline the other kids, just me, my nii-san, and our cousins."
I frowned. Dimly, I registered the voice of Shuu's father Taro, who seemed to have joined in the berating session. "Well, I think it's too much."
Sasuke looked taken aback for a moment, but regained his composure and replied, "He embarrassed us and got in trouble with the Hyuuga clan. He deserves punishment." If I didn't know any better, it almost sounded like Sasuke was trying to convince himself.
"Shuu learned his lesson a long time ago when they made him walk around with a limp and a black eye after the fight," I argued. "This is just a bunch of grown-ups ganging up on a kid."
"Well, this isn't the first time he's done stuff like this. He's always causing trouble and bringing down our clan's reputation," retorted Sasuke pridefully. I could sense the big clan pride creeping in. "I-if he stopped being stupid, maybe he wouldn't be such an embarrassment, and my tou-san wouldn't have to punish him." He finished on a smug note, as if I'd been forced into a corner and would have to just let him win the argument.
Anger coursed through my veins. It was one thing for me to call Shuu an idiot as his best friend, but another thing entirely for his estranged cousin to do so to bring him down. Did Sasuke think that just because we'd hung out a couple times without Shuu that I'd suddenly throw his cousin under the bus and laugh with him? "Who do you think you are? Don't call my friend stupid, only I'm allowed to do that. And all Shuu did was make a mistake—he's a kid, you know. We're allowed to do that," I snapped. Then, mockingly, "Even the almighty Uchihas make mistakes sometimes."
Sasuke bristled, his face flushing with indignation. I sensed a ticking bomb before me but my stupid pride kept my feet glued to the ground and refused to let me stand down to a six-year-old. One of the only advantages of being a teenager in a tiny body was the false braveness—maybe what I was doing would seem admirable to another kid my age, but in my eyes, I was basically staring down a baby cousin in the midst of a tantrum.
Besides, he'd pissed me off. I had thrown all caution to the wind.
A taller figure swooped in before Sasuke could form coherent words and placed his hand on the boy's shoulder. I flicked my eyes away from Sasuke's livid expression to the eerily calm ones of Uchiha Itachi's. As if by magic, Sasuke calmed down a bit when he noticed his brother had entered the picture—now his expression bordered less on murder and more on a fist-fight.
"Sasuke, what's wrong?" Itachi asked carefully, but one look at him told me that the teen already knew what had happened and was asking for posterity's sake.
I heard the scuffing of sandals from right behind me, startling me and jolting me out of my murderous state. It was Kouko, the busy bee genin kunoichi I hardly saw anymore. When she noticed Itachi and Sasuke, she, too, put her arm around my shoulder almost protectively. "Did something happen?" she murmured to me. I bit my cheek and didn't answer, which was an answer in itself and one that Kouko picked up on.
"Now, Sasuke, calm down and apologize to Asagiri-san," I heard Itachi urge Sasuke, who looked betrayed that his brother appeared to be taking my side.
"She should apologize first," he complained petulantly. "She started it." I rolled my eyes, not even going to think about how inaccurate that was, then felt a pinch in my shoulder.
"She will," Kouko assured him. "Futaba-chan?" She fixed me with a meaningful stare, one that said don't fuck this up for me and my brother. I had to swallow my pride; I knew how precarious the relations between their family and Sasuke's were.
I looked intently at the ground, taking a few calming breaths, then gritted out, "I'm sorry."
Itachi nodded appreciatively, always the well-mannered icon of the clan. "It's your turn, Sasuke."
Sasuke looked more bashful now that all eyes were on him. He was reluctant to respond, obviously still upset that I'd insulted his daddy's disciplinary practices, but reluctantly mumbled, "Sorry."
Itachi smiled ever so subtly, as if amused by the station. Then, he looked at me. "I swear you're the only one that gets him all worked up like this, Asagiri-san. It's almost refreshing," he said teasingly.
I wasn't sure how to respond to that, but luckily I didn't have to, as the entourage of Uchiha seniors had started to file out from Shuu and Kouko's residence. At the front was Fugaku, whose pointed glance at his sons compelled Itachi to bow shortly at us before ushering his little brother away with him. And just like that, they vanished, leaving the acrid taste of an argument lost on my tongue.
Kouko relaxed her grip on my shoulder, puffing out a sigh. "You really know how to get into trouble, don't you?"
"It wasn't my fault," I said defensively. "He went after Shuu. What was I supposed to do?"
She shook her head exasperatedly, then took a few steps back so I could face her properly. I saw the meticulously polished hitai-ate brandished across her forehead, meaning she was on duty today, and she looked like she was just about to head out for a mission, if the numerous scrolls adorning her waist were anything to go by. With her arms crossed and brow furrowed, she replied, "Futaba-chan, they're the clan head's heirs. We may be more...easygoing than others in our family, but you still can't go around meddling in private business whenever you feel like it. I know you care about Shuu, but fighting it out with his cousin, the son of the clan head, might not reflect well on us. Do you understand that?"
Kouko's frank words made my face heat up in shame. I had acted like an actual six-year-old in the moment when someone my age should have been able to recognize the potential consequences. All Sasuke had done was spit out a few playground insults, but I could have permanently affected Shuu's entire family. "Sorry, Kouko-nee," I murmured.
A rueful smile replaced the serious frown, and Kouko patted my head placatingly. "Fugaku-sama may seem strict, but he's no tyrant. The fact he even offered to train my little brother was an act of generosity. He knows our parents are retired genin, so we don't have the benefit of asking them for help, and he fills that role for us.
"But there's no denying that Shuu can be a little...overzealous," Kouko said tamely. "Fugaku-sama—and the clan—is hard on him because they see his potential, that's all."
Shuu was the one being scolded in the yard right now, so why did I feel like the one being schooled?
"Well, I've got to head out for a mission, but good luck with Shuu. Make sure he doesn't destroy any of the bonsai trees in the yard, our haha-ue really likes those." Without any further explanation, she promptly left me standing in front of their yard.
Destroy?
Then, like a storm wrapped up in the form of a human boy, Shuu emerged from the yard. He wore a dark expression, fists clenched at his sides. When he eventually noticed me standing dumbly off to the side, his glare lessened a bit, but his anger was still extremely apparent when he came up to me. "You've been here the whole time?" he asked simply.
"Maybe," I answered vaguely, measuring his reaction to my words before continuing, "Hey, fight me."
The serious expression dropped entirely, and Shuu balked at me for a full beat before sputtering, "W-what?"
"I said fight me. You're in a bad mood, I'm in a bad mood, and I haven't sparred with you in forever." I pointed in the direction of the nearest training field, remembering Kouko's warning about the bonsai trees in the yard. "Let's go."
We walked in silence towards the training field that had become familiar to me over time. When we got there, Shuu still looked to be at a bit of a loss, so I cracked my knuckles and decided to give him a bit of a helping hand.
I took a deep breath and readied my stance, then thrust my hand into Shuu's gut. The boy stumbled backwards with a muffled oof, and that was all it took for his rage to return and the spar to begin. Soon, I found myself defending myself from his rapid-fire strikes with everything I had.
Shuu and I trained together quite a bit before we'd entered the academy, so it always felt like we had an understanding of each other's taijutsu methods that kept both of us on our toes whenever we sparred. Since Imiki stopped teaching us, Shuu's strikes had become less fluid and familiar and more sharp and precise, which I could only assume was a hallmark of the Uchiha taijutsu method. Coupled with his current fury, the force of every jab was bruising even as I blocked them with an equal ferocity.
It was an ugly spar where each blow was packed with pent-up frustration. I got a few good hits in on him, which only added fuel to his fire and spurred him on to get a few more good hits in on me. One particularly vicious chakra-loaded downward kick created a small crater in the ground a hair's breadth away from me, and I retaliated with a swift kick to his knee, attempting to knock him over so I could pin him.
With every blow dealt and received, I felt a bit of my built-up irritation fade away until I was out of energy and could do nothing more than let myself fall into the rubble we'd created. A faint thump next to me indicated Shuu had done the same, and now we were both lying down, staring up at the sky and panting.
"I think I won," I breathed in the silence.
Shuu laughed. "No way! You fell down first." We both sat in silence for a few more moments, smiling tiredly.
I had finally stopped sweating when Shuu spoke up again. "I'm tired of this bull. Every time I get in trouble, they tell me what an embarrassment I am to my parents," he growled. "And then they cut off my training, and I'm not allowed to go outside. I never asked to be born into this family, you know, but they think I have to be some perfect freak…like Itachi, or Sasuke. I'm not them!"
This was the first time I'd heard Shuu speak like this. All Uchiha kids seemed to be so proud of being part of such a high-status clan, but on the same coin, being the weak link of the family couldn't be easy. Not that I'd call Shuu a weak link by any measure, but being the direct cousin of the two child prodigies of the clan head was a difficult position to be in, one that had haunted Shuu since he was born after Itachi and before Sasuke.
"Well, I'll show them," he continued. "I'll become the strongest shinobi in the clan—no, the whole village, and then they won't be able to touch me." His usual confidence was back by the end of his declaration, and I smiled when he thrust a fist skyward in a silly gesture of determination. Shuu wasn't the type to wallow in his own misery for long...I could learn a thing or two from him.
The peaceful silence returned. I contemplated spilling my guts like I had so desperately needed to earlier. Could I trust Shuu with this information? What if he shunned me like the seniors in the village did my aunt when she was young?
I shook my head, eyes shut tightly. This was Shuu we were talking about here. If there was anyone in this universe that would take me for who I was, it was probably him. We'd had too many big blow-ups in the past for something like this to destroy our friendship now, right? "Shuu, can you keep a secret?"
"Oh?" He turned his head to look at me, eyes lighting up with interest. "What kind?"
"An important one," I clarified. "Promise me that you'll keep everything I say secret."
He looked a little unsure, but agreed eventually, his curiosity winning out over his suspicion.
I inhaled through my nose. "My aunt told me that we're from Amegakure." I waited for the reaction. When no explosive name-calling occurred, I hazarded a look at my friend, who was still looking at me expectantly. "Got any dead uncles that hated Ame-nin?" I joked halfheartedly.
Shuu snorted, rolling his eyes. "Shut up. Are you done?"
"W-well," I continued, unprepared for the encouraging response, "she meant that our clan was originally from Ame, but she and my mom escaped to Konoha during the war. And one of my teachers figured out we were from Ame, and that's why he hates my guts."
"Dick," Shuu muttered. I hummed in agreement, frowning at the memory of Hyouroku's glare. "That's it?"
Well, actually, my aunt's old teammate may be stalking me and seems weirdly obsessed with us, and I don't know why, and I'm getting these anxiety attacks because I still can't remember the future, and I only have four years left to live, and did I mention that I'm a teenager from another world? "Yeah, that's all."
Shuu rolled onto his tummy, getting close enough to me to muss up my hair, ignoring my protesting as he did so. "That was lame," he retorted. "So what if your family is from Ame? You were born here and you live here now, right?" He propped up his chin with his hands as he added, "Besides, your mom and aunt left Ame. If people here get mad at them for choosing to leave, then they're the ones with a problem, because that doesn't make any sense."
I was left a little dumbfounded by Shuu's surprisingly insightful take. "But what if we're spies?" I pressed.
"You?" Shuu burst into laughter, and I couldn't help but feel a little insulted. "Didn't you get ratted out by my brat cousin for failing to spy on me today? Ame is doomed if you're a spy."
"Hey!" I pouted. "I could spy circles around you. I just choose not to because I'm a good person."
"Sure, sure," Shuu jeered. "Whatever you say, Futaba. Now come on, let's get something to eat." He rose to his feet, slightly unsteady. "I've been in this compound for weeks, and I'll go crazy if I don't get outta here right now."
I followed suit, feeling my knees protest as I carefully navigated the mess we'd made of the training field. Shuu's words were still echoing in my brain, taking their time to sink in. "You know, Shuu, I've taught you well," I decided proudly.
"You haven't taught me shit," he said, always quick to get in the last word. "This is all natural-born genius."
another week, another chapter ∩(´∀`∩) i love shuu don't mind me
also ive edited ch 17 because it's been brought to my attention (by...me) that akamaru wasnt born until kiba was about 9…. sorry about that inconsistency ;
on a general note, i hope that wherever you are in the world, you're staying safe.
thanks for reading!
