"I want to know diverse facts about such things as;
galaxies or molecules or proteins or insect species.
I have an impulse to want to know the little details,
which are usually of no significance to non-specialists."

~ Robert J. Shiller ~

"I want access to the Aburame research labs and library!"

"Yes Naori," my father sighed, "you've mentioned. But that's not what Aburame-san was asking."

I just puffed out my cheeks, annoyed. That was totally what he was asking! That was the whole reason we were here, in this fancy Uchiha meeting hall, with me in my best kimono; to get this "engagement" formalized!

And how do we do that? By laying down our terms. (Not that we needed to schedule a whole fancy meeting for it.) Stupid clan pride making this into a thing.

"Your father is correct Naori-san, why? I wished to ascertain when you wanted access."

"Hn" A slight blush, "r-right. Sorry." I ignored the look of incredulity shot my way (an Uchiha who apologizes? Blasphemy!) and tried to think of a suitable time frame. How long does one wait to cash in on the prize they theoretically sold their future for? "...would next week be okay?"

Sppppsst.

I jumped at the stream of water that suddenly came from my right, followed by a series of coughs.

Did, did dad just do a spit take?

"Naori-dear," my Mother interjected, ever the voice of reason, "I think what Shibi-sama was asking, is when would you like to get married?"

"But that's not what he said." My parents just exchanged a look above my head, which was getting rather annoying! But I wouldn't be detterd, they could act as put out as they wanted, I know what I heard, and that wasn't it. "He asked when I wanted access to the labs."

"I apologize," my eyes cut from my parents to the imposing figure of Aburame Shibi, "I should have been more clear, why? You are but an academy student and so your knowledge of such procedures is lacking." His brow furrowed, "my intention was to ascertain when you wished to gain access to the clan labs, however it was equally implied that such a thing could not occur until after you have joined my clan."

Wait. What?

"Why?! That was the whole reason I agreed to this stupid charade!"

Smack

"Ow," I cried, rubbing the back of my head where my father had smacked me. I shot him a glare, "not cool, tou-san." His answering glare practically screamed, 'keep your mouth shut, or so help me, I will murder you.' If there's one thing being an Uchiha has taught me it's how to read glares. Well that, and the power of the all purpose word 'hn'. Still, he could glare all he wanted, I wasn't gonna keep quiet. There's no way I went through all of this formality to be told 'no' to the one thing I was bargaining for.

My mom must have seen the stubborn refusal in my eyes because she actually chose to answer me. "It's to protect their clan, Naori-chi. After all what's to stop you from learning all you can and then just breaking off the engagement?"

Which, I suppose made sense, from their perspective. From my perspective, however, the engagement wouldn't last past my 9th birthday anyway, either because I was killed by Itachi, or because the clan they'd made the deal with ceased to exist. So there was no real chance of me using their knowledge against them.

It was more just that I didn't really care for the specifics of a future I would never reach, instead I was far more concerned with the things I could learn in the here and now. My parents and Shibi clearly weren't seeing this, and so I felt my only recourse was to explain it to them. The Little Prince had it right, it always fell to the kids to spell things out.

"Integrity? Honor? The fear of the law?" Three identical faces of skepticism, "I'm serious! If you give me access now, then when the time comes I won't back out. You can write it into your contract-thingie," I waved towards the the blank scroll on the table between us. "Unless I'm killed I agree to marry Aburame Shino, provided I can have access to the labs, now."

The room went eerily quiet.

You could almost hear the cogs turning in everyone's mind as they tried find the best way to turn this to their favor. I'd probably get a major lecture about this later, I was sure I was giving up a lot of ground contractually. But I couldn't bring myself to care about the terms of the pseudo-contract. I just wanted access to labs again, freedom to ask questions and get real answers. I couldn't care less about this politicking.

The adults however...

"We'd stipulate an immediate alliance," my Father shot out, quick to lay out his proposal.

"An alliance shall be observed after the marriage. Why? It is not wise to venture into political agreements on good faith."

"Yes," my mother purred, "but what Naori has suggested harkens back to the most ancient of traditions. You would be lending a hand in raising your clan's future matriarch. As such our clans shall be more intimately connected than most. Given this, surely having a contractual agreement would be in the best interest of both parties? To avoid any miscommunications?"

Wow. I'm seeing where Itachi gets his gift for genjutsu from. That was some masterful misdirrction. Brava Madre.

"Your daughter has expressed interest in the Aburame Clan techniques, Shino has expressed no such interest in the Uchiha's. What, then, does your clan plan to offer should I consider an expedited...alliance?"

Again my parents did that annoying mind-reading thing where they just looked at each other and knew, before turning back to Shibi-sama.

"Real Estate."

Crazy parents, say what?

"It is well known that after the events 7 years ago, several homes within the district have become uninhabited. And you expressed an interest during the last council meeting in expanding your research into joint ventures. As a method of allowing some of your clan members in-village positions. The council rejected the claims due to infrastructure concerns, however they have no such jurisdiction over our vacant properties."

"This sounds promising. However," he cut in before anyone could rejoice, "what joint ventures do you propose? The land itself is meaningless, after all, without a method to supplement their income while remaining with-in the village."

Again silence descended.

This time, however, I was well passed my breaking point. These adults were being stupid and convoluted, so I decided to take matters into my own hands.

"Okay," I called standing up, "I'm making a rule; no more dramatic pauses, or I'm gonna leave." My dad grabbed me by the collar of my Kimono as if to prevent my from following through with my threat.

I ignored him.

"This is taking too long. So we're gonna talk, and then we're all gonna be happy. I'll get to visit the labs next week, Shibi-sama will get to set up jobs for the people who don't want to leave home for months on end, and Papa is gonna get a paper saying the clan has friends." I clapped my hands. "So why can't we just finish up?"

"...I think," my mother called sweat dropping, "the problem is helping Shibi-sama with those jobs Naori-chi. It's not enough to give him space in the Uchiha district without some sort of purpose."

I just shot everyone in the room a look of confusion. "Why not just set up Forensic labs?"

The room went eerily quiet. Nothing could be heard but the chirping of the Cicada and the rustle of cloth as Papa finally let go of my collar.

"Yeah," I mumbled, mentally going over the logistics, "the Aburame could analyze the chakra samples brought to them, right? Using their science know-how?" Shibi just nodded, sedately. "Oh! And I bet they could even help with tracking down trace evidence for analysis. They'd have to work with the police so it makes sense they'd work in the compound, and it's a lab job, so they'd be pretty stationary. That'd work, right?"

Shibi adjusted his glasses.

"We'd stipulate that the marriage commence when Naoki and Shino have each reached 18, or Jounin, whichever shall occur first."

"20, they should both be adults. And they need to be at least 18, even if they have reached Jounin."

"16, the mortality rate of jounin suggests waiting introduces an unacceptable risk level."

A pause.

"Hn."

My Mother just sighed before translating for the only person in the room not fluent in Uchiha, "we can accept 16 as a minimum age, if it can be stipulated that any children beyond the heir, that Naori bears, shall be remarried into the Uchiha clan."

I'm having children now? Plural?

"Any child who has awakened the Sharingan, prior to adulthood. But she must bear at least two children, and this clause is forfeit should the Aburame heir die prematurely."

Apparently I'm having children, now. I wonder if someone's told Shino?

"Of course. Now there is also the matter of her dowry…"

"Alright!" I screamed, so far beyond 'done,' "I'm off to tell Shino it's his turn to sit through this."

Chakra, is freakin' cool.

I know, I know, that seems really obvious, right? I mean, it's basically a super power; it let's you breath fire and scale mountains, of course it's cool!

But that's not what I meant.

Of course the things chakra can do are cool, but I'm talking about the stuff itself. Like, did you know that chakra actually has properties? It can be viscous or elastic, hot or cold, benign or caustic, hell, even the optical properties change depending on the ratio of spiritual to physical chakra. It reminded me of nanoparticles, in a way.

Chakra can have all these different properties, but it's also fundamentally the same thing. It can be manipulated, sure, but it's intrinsically made of the same 'stuff.' And how do I know all this?

Well, cause the Aburame are the coolest freaking clan! No, seriously, people never think about it, but do you know what Kikaichu eat? Chakra. So do you know what one of the things the clan studies is?

Chakra.

It's been a month since that silly meeting between all the adults, and I've been quick to make use of my new found freedom. Stopping by at the labs every day after school, and peppering the technicians with a million questions. Shino tagged along too, of course, it would have been pretty rude to leave my friend behind when I was headed to his compound. But he didn't take the same interest in the theoretical as I did, granted few people did even in that first life of mine.

This was fine in the beginning, everything was new, and I just had so many questions. But after more than three weeks of Shino following me around silently, I've decided to put my foot down. After all, this was not how friendship worked, and Shino is my friend.

"What do you want to do today?"

"..."

I chuckled at his look of complete shock. "You find the labs boring, right? So let's do something you'd enjoy for once!"

"...this is not necessary, why? Naori-chan's sole purpose in this alliance was to gain access to the Aburame labs."

I just tilted my head in confusion, "Hn. But what's that got to do with anything?"

"If you wish to visit our labs, you should be allowed to do so."

This boy. He really has no idea how this works, does he?

"And what about what you wan to dot?"

"...I wish to spend time with you."

"Shino!" I shot out, face flushing red, "you-you can't just say stuff like that! Not out of the blue!"

"I apologize, I was unaware you did not feel the same." He mumbled, trying to shuffle backwards, and it was all I could do to grab his hand, preventing his escape.

"Wait! Geez," I pulled him closer, "I can't get a read on you. Are you shy or aren't you?! You say stuff like that without batting an eye, and then the next second you're trying to escape out of nowhere."

"..."

"I mean, and here I was trying to show you I was a good friend, and cared about your opinions and what you wanted to do and all that jazz. Had to go and show me up, huh?"

"...I apologize?"

"Hn! What was with that whole, 'I was unaware of' thing? Let me tell you something Aburame Shino, you're stuck with me! You made the mistake of becoming my friend, and that means you're not allowed to just run away when you get embarrassed! Cause, guess what?" I yelled, cheeks still horribly red.

"...I am unsure as to what-"

"-I wanna spend time with you too."

Shino froze. His Kikaichu's buzzing pitched up an octave. I dropped my eyes to my hand still awkwardly clutching his jacket sleeve, and waited.

"...you do?" My breath hitched. This precious child. How could he make such a simple question sound so depressing?

"Of course I do!" I shot out, all thoughts of embarrassment pushed to the back of my mind. "We're friends aren't we? Your labs are cool, and I did want to see them, but that's what the alliance is for. I'm friends with Shino because of Shino." Suddenly a horrifying thought struck me, "U-unless...are you friends with me or is it because I'm Uchi-"

"Naori."

I jumped.

"I'm friends with Naori, why? She is herself. Not her clan, or her family. Naori is Naori."

"...Hn." I nodded.

"..."

"W-well, now that that's settled; what do you want to do today?"

A shy smile, and then, "...hunt Cicadas?"

My answering smile may have been a tad too sharp.

Itachi liked to think Sasuke was an angel. Some kind of precious child gifted onto the realm for the betterment of mankind. This was laughably far from the truth, of course, but in some ways my eldest brother was ridiculously blind.

If Itachi believed Sasuke was an angel, however, then Shisui thought I was a goddess. I was the youngest child of the clan head, another genius in-the-making, and yet, my very existence seemed to serve as a prank on the clan as a whole.

Nothing they could say would motivate me, nothing they could do would make me listen. I'd inherited my father's stubbornness, my mother's political indifference and Itachi's pacifism. I was an unchanging wall of 'nope' smashing my way through every preconception the Uchiha's had ever held.

And Shisui loved me for it.

It was a poorly kept secret that Shisui felt responsible for Itachi, like he was his own brother. Sadly this meant he blamed himself for everything, even Itachi's foray into the shinobi arts, (not that any of us were ever really given a choice in the matter) and the resulting weight it put on my brother's shoulders.

There's no denying, after all, that being a shinobi was stressful. All the more when you're a self-proclaimed pacifist.

So when I showed the "same tendencies" as Itachi, Shisui had naturally worried that I'd be forced to deny my nature in the same soul-splitting manner. Luckily, for the both of us, I hadn't truly been a 4 year old child at the time, but rather a 23 year old with a very defined sense of self.

"Killing isn't wrong if it's to protect someone you love, Naori."

"Self defense is a defense, Tou-san. It doesn't count if you're the person attacking. If you start the fight, then it is wrong."

A defined sense of self, and a stubborn streak a mile-long. The more the clan tried to push their ideals on me, the more I'd retaliate. After all, I wasn't some child desperate to prove myself, I knew who I was, and I knew what I was worth. And I wouldn't let anyone tell me different.

Not that they didn't try.

"Pacifism is weak," the elder spat, trying for the nth time to change my mind. "It is weak and unbecoming of this clan. The Uchiha do not tolerate weakness, do you understand me, girl?!" I just scoffed, there was nothing 'weak' about showing kindness. "You will not bring shame upon our clan by refusing to kill!"

"Alright." I muttered, eyes narrowing, "then I'll just have to bring shame by refusing to fight." I smirked as he started to sputter, apocalyptic in his rage.

Basically at the end of the day I was remarkably hard to control. Which, of course, ran antithesis to the Uchiha, the control-freaks that they were, but was right up Shisui's alley. So, yeah, my cousin? He thought I was the greatest.

And he'd shown me this by subtly supporting my causes, as we grew up. I refused to use deadly force? He'd help train me in non-lethal takedowns, I showed an aversion to Kunai? He bought me the more docile senbon. But perhaps the greatest memories I had with my cousin could be traced back to my fifth birthday.

Sasuke and I had been taken on a camping trip, or, well, a "training trip," to visit the Nekoma. It was meant to act as a way to desensitize us, prior to our starting the academy, and also to introduce us to the cats that we may one day work with. Of course, "training" in the Uchiha clan can never quite be bloodless.

Apparently.

Now, I'm no stranger to death. I don't like it, or appreciate it, or advocate for it, but it doesn't bother me. And there are circumstances I understand, the circle of life and all that, where death was just par the course. So hunting as a whole, while distasteful, was something I could do. If I eat the meat I have to be willing to kill Thumper, right?

But to train tracking, our eyes? To expect us to chase down rabbits to practice our speed, and then shrug off their deaths when their little hearts race too much? To not even bother with eating the fresh meat, since we'd already packed our lunch?

That was not something I could be complicit in.

And so, I wasn't.

My father was pissed, of course. He lectured me, and yelled, and threatened, and eventually, when all else failed, decided to send me to bed without any food. I'd been too pissed to point out that he wasn't actually allowed to do that. That he was the Chief of Police, and he knew he had a familial obligation to ensure I was safe and provided for.

I was too pissed, and I figured it didn't matter, since I was just going to turn around and sneak into the food come midnight. At least, that was the plan, but Shisui had a better one. A plan to ensure my father would stop complaining, that he and I would get a chance to have fun, and (most importantly) a plan that would allow me to tease Itachi and Sasuke for years.

For Shisui, that brilliant boy, taught me how to hunt for Cicadas.

Now, I think it's important to note that I'd never gone Cicada hunting in that first life. I knew it was a thing, but I'd never really looked into it. So I'd had no way of knowing that Shisui's definition varied greatly from the normal definition. Although, in retrospect, I can see how blindfolding someone and telling them to find a certain bug based only on how it's cries were pitched may have been a tad advanced. Or how hunting for a creature that blends in with nature, at night, may have been considered "training." But I hadn't known, and so I'd accepted it as normal, and fallen in love with the past time that tended to correspond with my birthday.

I'd graduated from Cicada hunting to other bugs, over the years, and can now capture fireflies with minimal effort. But the hobby still holds a special place in my heart, which is why I was beyond excited when Shino had mentioned it. Until I realized the truth of what Shisui had been doing.

"Have Cicada always been this stupid?"

"I believe so. Why? They are routinely unable to evade children."

"...I swear this was harder when I was younger...and blindfolded."

"..."

"Do people normally hunt them during the day? Shisui would always take me out at night, without a net."

"...then how did you reach them?"

"I'd have to climb the tree and then jump down. He taught me how to land without breaking my legs."

"You couldn't climb down?"

"I'd be holding the Cicada."

"..."

"...I suddenly feel like I've been played these past two years."

"I concur."