Hey guys, sorry it took so long. I began working on the chapter on the day I released the first one, but... eh, duty calls.
Fair warning, the pace will be a bit quick because there won't be too many events before Nijiko becomes a genin, except for one obvious event.
Anyway, I'll let you guys get to reading. Thank you for the reviews, follows, favorites, etc.!
Chapter 2: Fact!
Fact!
Shisui-nii apparently loves me. I mean, that's what older brothers are supposed to do right? But I'd kind of thought that there would be a bit of awkwardness since he doesn't visit a lot, and my mom isn't his mom. However, there was none! Hell, I'd say he gave off the "over protective older brother who will light your future boyfriend's house on fire" vibe.
When Shisui's birthday came around, the first thing he did was hug the stuffing out of me. I had to beg him to stop, which only made him squeeze me more since the last time he saw me, I couldn't speak much. He'd told us that he would be around a lot more since his schedule won't be as busy these days. Thus, my mom said it was okay for Shisui to take me out or spend time with me whenever he was able to.
Step one in changing history: Get attached to main players in the story line.
Later on Shisui's birthday, he'd asked my mother if he could take me to the Uchiha compound. I saw the slight hesitation in my mother's eyes, but in the end she allowed it. So here I am, piggy backing my older brother, playing with his hair while we were strolling through the Uchiha compound.
Fact! Apparently this messy yet soft and un-matted hair seems to be generic since Shisui's is just like mine. Just shorter and a different color, of course.
To be honest, Shisui was walking at a moderate pace, so I was slowly falling asleep at how relaxing his back was. That is, until I felt him stop. I looked up, and we were standing at the entrance to a home. From the front, it looked huge. However, I knew it would probably be a lot bigger once we got inside.
"We're here, Niji-chan." My older brother said, taking a knee to allow me off of his back. I complied and got off. He then went to the door and knocked on it twice, and not even three seconds passed before the door opened.
Standing there was Young Itachi Uchiha, holding a little Sasuke in his arms. "Shisui. Happy Birthday." He said, a smile grew onto his face.
His mother, Mikoto Uchiha, came behind him and also greeted us. "Oh, happy birthday Shisui-san! And who is this little one?"
That was obviously pointed at me. Shisui looked down at me, "Can you tell them your name?"
I nodded at him and turned my attention to my (apparently) distant cousins. "My.. name is Nijiko." I'd said, purposely pausing to seem like I was contemplating on how to introduce myself. I added a bow to be polite.
"Aw, this must be your little sister you spoke of. She's adorable!" I blushed at Mikoto's gushing. "Does her hair always do that?" she asked, pointing at my head.
It was around three in the afternoon, so the sun was high in the sky. She must have been pointing at my hair having basically a soft rainbow mixed into the pure white from the light shining on it. "Kaa-san says it always do that when light is in it. That why I am called Nijiko." I said in response.
I could almost feel Mikoto gushing. Sheesh, I wonder if she does this with Sasuke... then again, I'm pretty sure she has to keep her composure around her husband. "Come in, both of you are always welcomed here." she moved aside, allowing us to go inside their home.
She began leading us to their living room, where she had us sit down and began making tea. Itachi sat next to us with Sasuke still in his arms. Him and Shisui began talking about some mission he'd just returned from in the Land of Water.
Fact! My calculations were correct, Itachi is four years younger than Shisui, meaning that he's seven years old right now. And there is a five year difference between Itachi and Sasuke, which means Sasuke is two right now. Thus, I am a year older than him. And speaking of that now, that means once I enter the academy, I'd be in the same class year as team Gai.
Well that will be interesting.
For the rest of that day, me and Shisui hung out in the head Uchiha household, eventually Fugaku came by to greet Shisui, and then turned to me. Itachi explained who I was and Fugaku made a grunting noise then gave me a questionable look. That sort of set alarms off in my head. Did I do something to him some how despite me being only three?
Eventually he went off to attend to his own business and Shisui had to take me home. Mikoto told Shisui to let me visit more often, and that my mother could come if she wanted to also.
Once we got back, my mom gave me some paper and told me to try to write my name in Kanji. I assumed it was to keep me occupied because apparently Shisui wanted to speak with my mother about something. I kept my eyes on the paper, acting like I was completely focused on calligraphy but I was listening in on what they had to say.
"So, how did she like going to the Uchiha compound?" my mother started.
"She seemed like she had fun. My best friend Itachi has a younger brother that's only a year younger than Niji-chan, so those two hit it off a bit. Not to mention, Mikoto-san adored her."
My mom made a surprised "huh" in response to that. "Mikoto? If I remember correctly, her husband is the current head of the Uchiha clan. How did he take Nijiko's presence?"
"Well," Shisui's hand moved to the back of his head. "I wouldn't say he was particularly excited. He looked a bit skeptical, but that was it."
"I see, that's a relief. I thought he wouldn't want her there period."
"No, no Shiroka-san. That's not it. The problem is the possibility of her awakening the Sharingan." I immediately made an "of course" face. After all, how can the Uchiha Bullshit without the Bullshit-gan.
Personally, I have no problems with the clan, neither do I have any problems with the Sharingan. I actually find the amount of things and people it could screw with very funny. My problem was that the Uchiha could at least attempt to learn of a different way to handle their kekkei genkai problem.
My mother said and I noticed she glanced back at me. Luckily she didn't know I was paying attention. "I understand that part at least. The Sharingan is something precious. They already had to accept the fact that Kakashi Hatake has one of their eyes, I don't think they'll allow another." She then embraced Shisui in a short hug before thanking him. Shisui gladly returned it and left, but not before giving me one more hug.
Hm. I guess I can safely assume that I need to start getting my shit together. I mean, I'm here.. in this world... now. The knowledge I have isn't going anywhere no matter how much time passes, thanks to my memory.
Fact! My photographic memory did NOT remain after I was reborn. Sadly. But, every memory from my previous life still doesn't really fade. I wonder how that worked... however even though I can't just look at something in a second and instantly have it memorized anymore, I do still have an incredible memory. And who knows, if I'm lucky/unlucky, I will somehow unlock the Sharingan and I actually will be able to memorize things in an instant again.
I sighed and looked at my paper as my mother came behind me to see if I'd written my name correctly. She praised me for being able to write it correctly, and so many times but it was obvious that my calligraphy is shit. That would be something I'd need to work on just in case I'd want to look into Fuinjutsu, but there's a high possibility that I won't. Too intricate for me.
I have a lot to think about.
"Nijiko-chan, you're doing really good for your age." Itachi praised, his Sharingan was active and staring at me and sasuke sitting in a meditative position. Well, he was staring at our chakra.
Once Shisui took me to the compound a bit more than three years ago, he insisted to my mother that once I was old enough I should train with him, Itachi and Sasuke. My mother, to my surprise, agreed automatically. Why? Apparently, she'd wanted to return to her Shinobi career as soon as possible.
It seems that she spoke with Mikoto about keeping me if she or Shisui were unable to and she gladly agreed... mostly so she could smother BOTH me and Sasuke now. Plus I'm pretty sure that by doing that, Fugaku could keep a closer eye on me. The more I watched Fugaku, the more I thought he was actually a decent guy, just really strict... and he shows no emotion. He has his own ways of caring for things I guess.
However, back to my mom, I have no idea what the point of going back into the field was. I mean, of course I knew the point as far as a higher income went, but...
Fact! When Mom's birthday came around, her wish was to introduce me and Shisui to someone.
Guess. Come on, guess! I bet you have no idea who. Neither did I. My new Step-Father. His name is Issei Makoro. Now this was a surprise to me because I didn't even think Mom was looking to re-marry. Like… why. I mean, I guess I have a father figure now, but I'm so used to it being just me and mom living in the house… and occasionally Shisui. Now we've got another.
Anyway, the reason I said I didn't get why mom returned to the work force is because she went right back to maternity leave. Yes! Maternity leave. She was pregnant again, when I was around four. Then about a month and a few days after I turned five, on March 20, my little sister was born. Issei named her Ushio, and I liked the name. I had to give him points for that. And since Ushio of course isn't an Uchiha, she'd have my mother's surname and not Issei's.
Fact! I found out that mom wasn't a clan-less shinobi. I don't know why but I always thought she was clan-less and was one of those people who didn't have a surname, or at least not a very notable one. However, that's not the case apparently. I was half Uchiha for a reason, usually if an Uchiha mates with someone from a clan that isn't very high in the social scaling, their offspring would still be considered pure Uchiha, or if that clan doesn't also have a kekkei genkai. It's the same rule with other major clans also. Being called a half-ling basically says that you are from two major clans.
It's just that… mom's major clan isn't originally from Konoha, to my utter surprise.
Here we are now, six year old me meditating with Sasuke under the super-sharingan-vision of Itachi who was holding a sleeping Ushio. He was teaching us chakra control so we'd get an early start before entering the academy.
At least, that's the excuse I gave. I'm not very good at making excuses, but I needed to be able to start having the ability to make a difference. I remembered all too well that there were going to be shinobi from Kumogakure coming to kidnap Hinata, and I couldn't do anything about it. What was I supposed to tell someone? "Hey um, I have solid info that there will be an attempted kidnapping of Hinata Hyuga during Kumo's supposed attempt at a peace treaty, only to be thwarted by her father who ended up killing the Kumo shinobi and thus needing to sacrifice his twin brother because Kumo wanted Hiashi's head in return for killing one of their forces."
I don't know about you guys, but that's not a solid plan unless I want a Yamanaka poking around in my brain, which I don't think would be good for neither me nor whatever poor Yamanaka that would be stuck with entering my twisted dimension of thoughts and memories.
Luckily, Mom was still on duty at the time, and one of those in charge of making sure the interaction between our village and Kumo went smoothly. She was able to successfully spot a non-friendly ninja making their way to the Hyuga compound and able to stop him before he was able to make off with Hinata. Fortunately she wasn't overrode with parental protection adrenaline like Hiashi was and didn't kill him. Instead, he was taken to T&I and the truth was squeezed out of him. Of course, Kumo denied everything and claimed he acted on his own, so we couldn' t really make any accusations.
That entire ordeal made me realize that time isn't going stop and allow me to continue thinking about what I should do. I had to make decisions and make them quickly. So of course I decided that I'd do my best to make things better this time. I mean, Mom's already changed something from the original time line, so why not continue.
"How come you're so good at this?!" Sasuke shouted, breaking his meditative position in a fit of frustration. This, of course, caused Ushio to wake up and start crying.
"I don't know, I just sort of.. do it." According to the basics of chakra control, most people who have smaller chakra reserves have the best control, while those with larger reserves take a bit longer with controlling their chakra. Though, according to both Itachi and Shisui, me and Sasuke have slightly larger reserves than the average at our ages. But, I could control my chakra just fine. For me it's like moving… it's natural, and I have a feeling I know why.
Itachi began gently bouncing Ushio in his arms, resulting in her calming down and returning to sleep. He was amazing at handling babies apparently. "Sasuke, the more you get angry, the harder it'll be to get to her level. Calm down. And do not wake Ushio-chan again."
Sasuke mumbled something incoherently. I think the reason I'm so great at this chakra control thing is because it's something that is foreign to me- to my body. I've never felt chakra before in my old life, while people here have been born with it for centuries now. They're so used to it that it's not something you know exists within you until you're told about it, while I've been feeling this weird yet comfortable sensation since my attention span graduated from baby to adult again. I can feel the circulations and chakra coils in my body, being able to feel it like that just allows me to control it easier. To me, it was like a small flowing brook and all I had to do was redirect the flow a bit.
I'm also pretty sure that I'm a sensory type ninja. Cause I can damn well feel other people's chakra and even the chakra in the air. I'm just glad that I wasn't born with super sensitivity to chakra or something, otherwise that would be a problem.
Itachi sighed and walked over to sasuke, taking a knee in front of him. He then raised his free hand and poked Sasuke's forehead with his index and middle fingers. I'd always thought that that was just something Itachi did, but apparently he got that from Shisui-nii. "Sasuke having a sort of rivalry is good for a person. However you won't get better by always comparing yourself to Nijiko-chan."He stood up and turned on his heals to begin walking toward the exit of the Uchiha training grounds. "A rivalry is a good drive, but not a good goal. Set a goal for yourself, and if you meet that goal, I'll consider teaching you the Fireball jutsu early. Now lets go, I have a mission tomorrow and I need to get ready."
Sasuke's eyes lit up and a smile became plain as day on his face. We stood up and followed Itachi. Even though all was well right now, I knew the Uchiha coup was still being planned, and I know Itachi and Shisui-nii are talking about it.
Fact. Three more years.
Three more years until the Uchiha Massacre is set to take place. And this in turn means that…
Fact. Three more years until the death of my older brother.
Hope everyone enjoyed. Like I said, a bit fast paced. Please continue reviewing, I'm still an extreme novice at this so I try to do my best to please!
And I'll try to release the next chapter faster, but I give no promises. I'm on vacation right now with my besties, so I will have a lot of time to write.
Cya next time!~ 3
P.S. You'll find out Shiroka's clan soon. Unless you guys can guess what it is. I didn't intentionally leave any hints in the chapters, but there is a thing or two that I think could give you at least a general guessing range. So go ahead, guess in the reviews!