A slightly more comprehensive chapter, this time round. A little more explaining of the Uchiha clan structure, and some showing off. Because I'm an Uchiha, plebeians.

Today marks the day I turn three years old. I can now walk, talk, and use the toilet by myself without falling in one out of three times.

And I rock at chakra funny-face. I can make a pig.

Also, I will actually be experiencing my first party. Not my birthday party, but the head of house's something something party.

…What? Do you think my mom tells me all the details?

No birthday parties? Yeah, we're not big on celebrating those over here. Mostly we just get an extra yummy meal or something small. It's not like a coming-of-age ceremony after all.

Huh? I should be more disappointed?

…Now why would I be? It's normal.

What's with that face? Come back here and say it to me straight!

Oh whatever.

(Coward)

Anyway, as I was saying, I'm turning three and am considered old enough to be presented to the head of house. Previously, I was too small and disaster-prone, so they'd kept me hidden away at home. Away from polite company.

So yeah, I'm wearing this nice traditional Japanese yukata. It's comfortable enough, I suppose.

It's navy blue. I like blue. And there's the Uchiha Uchiwa crest on the back. I look so cool!

Blue is a boy's colour? Er…no. It's an Uchiha colour.

See what happens when you assume? You make an ass out of yourself.

That's not the proper saying? What? You make an ass out of you and me?

No. It's just you.

So I'll be going to the party now. In my navy blue yukata. And yes, it's summer, so I'm not out of season or wearing too little.

Break a leg? Are you challenging an Uchiha? You wanna take a piece of me? Huh? Huh?

Uchiha pride? Well, duh, I'm an Uchiha, it's natural to be proud of our prestigious heritage.

Brainwashing? What are you going on about?

…Whatever. I'm going now.

xXXx

…So I just met Itachi.

He's seven-years old now to my three. So he's not only a genius, but four years ahead of me.

…Yeah, I didn't have any hope anyway.

Funny thing about it is that I was the only other kid at the party. Shisui? He's actually much older than Itachi. He's…fourteen? I think.

Did I talk to Itachi?

…No. Fugaku-sama kept glaring at me, so I stayed away from the first branch in general. Mom kept me close to her, like she was expecting an ambush or something.

…Maybe she was.

Sasuke was nowhere to be seen, so I'm guessing he isn't of 'presentable' age yet. He's only two anyway, and if he's a normal baby, that means drooling and crying and regular, petty, baby behavior. If they're lucky, he won't know how to throw things yet.

Anyway, they had this jutsu presentation thingy which was basically a stage for Itachi to show off his geniusness. He already knows Goukakyu and can do Ryuuka and Hosenka. He's also in the middle of Karyuu Endan, which is shit scary. And a B-rank jutsu.

Dayum he's good.

All the better to kill us off with. Ugh.

I'm being really calm? Really?

Ehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehe…

Shut up. Don't remind me.

xXXx

Mom's started me practicing on handseals. (I think the jutsu presentation hit a nerve) Obviously, the ones I'm learning are for the Goukakyu. Why the Goukakyu? Because it's the traditional coming-of-age jutsu, duh!

I'm too young to come of age? What do you mean? Age doesn't really matter, power does. Besides, it's tradition.

How am I doing?

…Well. So-so.

I mean, I can mold my chakra just fine. (There's no pig seal though, Boar is not pig) I can even sort-of push it out now. It's just that…

I don't have enough chakra.

I'm three years old, you really think that I'd have massive chakra reserves?

Goukakyu is a C-rank jutsu!

Huh? Do you even understand the difficulty of C-rank? I think you're underestimating out ranking system. There's a reason why C-rank missions are usually for experienced genin and chunin, you know?

…Team 7 is not a good example of what is 'normal'.

Also: Sasuke learnt Goukakyu at eight. In a week, yeah, but still. Eight years old.

I'm three.

I'm also like, way, way ahead of schedule. All because molding chakra is something we should start learning at four, but I started at like, two.

Because, as I've said: Uchiha are crazy.

Correction: my mom is crazy. Technically, I shouldn't have learnt chakra molding until three, because that's actually borderline not advisable due to my system having just stabilized. Or could maybe still be in transition.

…Yeah, I just realized I could have died from chakra funny-face. Way to go, mom. A+ parenting…

Anyway, I'm doing okay on the jutsu, not getting any further than a little bit of fire-element chakra. I managed to puff smoke just a while ago. It looked like I was having a cig. Hehe.

It was exhausting though. My chakra was immediately cut in half after that.

Gosh I'm so tired right now …

Children are supposed to be more energetic?

…I just spent half of my chakra practicing a jutsu and the rest on a chakra control exercise. You really think I can be 'energetic' right now?

Well screw you.

By the way, since reaching three years of age, I've been able to keep thoughts in my head for a lot longer than previously. Which means that I've had some time to think about what my memories were telling me.

I haven't passed out yet, but mom keeps telling me that I look a little too listless.

What was I thinking about?

The Uchiha massacre, of course.

Itachi kills the clan at age thirteen, which is six years away. Sasuke's going to be eight (a few days after he learns Goukakyu, guess I should watch out for that sign) and he'll be totally mind fucked. I'm one year older, so I'll be nine.

That's two years before I graduate the Academy.

Hm? Sasuke graduated at 12?

Ah yeah, you forget this too: Naruto retook the exam three times.

So does that mean Sasuke failed three times too?

Actually…no.

…Actually, I'm not sure what's up with that either. I think he took the previous exams early? But it still begs the question of how he got approval for that…weird.

But anyway, I'm going to graduate at 11, because that's the average age for Uchiha graduates.

Hyuuga too, now that I think about it. Hinata's kind of an…anomaly.

Actually, most clan children graduate early, be it a few months or a year. But sometimes the Hokage wants certain teams formed, and then he tells their parents not to let them take the exam too early and stuff…

Yeah, things here are pretty shady.

(I overheard my mom ranting about that, 'coz she had to go through the same thing in her generation, which saw an influx of Uchiha children)

Sasuke graduating late could be because of that or because he didn't get enough clan training to give him a heads up.

That's kind of…sad.

Anyway, I think that he's probably going to enter the Academy at 6 (same as me) and it'll take care of the general education requirement for genin.

General education requirement? What? You've never heard of it?

Er…you didn't think that being a genin is that easy, did you? You need at least basic math, history, literature, etc etc. Most of it is insurance when you fail, so that you at least get a decent enough education out of it that you don't have to play catch up as a civilian.

Retake? Well of course you can retake, but you only redo the last year of the Academy when you do that, and that's mostly the ninja portion of the education. Fun fact: the Academy actually churns out plenty of failed genin who go on to work as liaisons for shinobi or in the other not-quite civilian, not-quite shinobi sectors of the workforce. It's kind of why nobody blinks an eye whenever they see someone racing across the roofs.

Our version of civilians isn't really like say…the Capital's version.

Civilian Academy?

Now why would you even think that such a thing exists? This is a Hidden Village of Shinobi, and every person here has at least knowledge of how to mold chakra.

If they don't want to be shinobi? Then they just flunk out in the last year, duh. Why would we go the lengths of separate educational routes when we want as many shinobi as possible?

The Academy is too small?

Have you seen it? It's HUGE.

You didn't see that many students?

…I'm not even going to answer that. Idiot.

Me? I'm going to miss out on clan training too?

Well why do you think I'm starting so early? I'm a year ahead in chakra molding, and five years ahead of learning Goukakyu. I mean, right now it's mostly doing the handsigns and making sure my chakra follows the correct shapes, but yeah.

Why am I so quick?

I'm a genius, duh.

Joking.

The real reasons are not as fun.

My mother is actually the head of the fourth branch. That being the branch that specializes in chakra control.

Some people say that that's why a woman is the head, but I say that they're just jealous. Besides, we of the fourth branch are awesome. That's why most of us learn Goukakyu faster than the rest.

…Well, not at three, but mostly around five years old. The drawback is that yeah, we have the same problem as Sakura.

Tiny chakra capacity.

That's why, by five years old, we can do Goukakyu, but it's less Great Fireball Jutsu and more just Fireball Jutsu. Or sometimes…fire ping pong ball jutsu. Or one Hosenka fireball.

Whatever, as long as you manage to spit out flame, you pass. Technically. Everyone reserves the right to make fun of you if you do a poor showing though.

Yeah, yeah, Sasuke's from the clan leader's branch. That's actually the first branch, but it's not always that the first branch is clan leader.

…Okay, most generations they are, but not always.

First branch specializes in power. They're basically the chakra powerhouses of our clan. They've also got decent control and intelligence, making them the most well-balanced branch in the whole clan. And with the amazing progress Itachi's been making, leadership looks set to stay in that branch.

…Yes I know we're not going to live long enough for that to happen. Shut up!

That's mostly because they always make sure to marry carefully, of course. Mikoto-sama, Fugaku-sama's wife, is from the seventh branch, which just recently sprouted what looks to be a tentatively inheritable second affinity of lightning.

That's actually very useful. When a parent has a secondary affinity, the child usually has one, regardless of whether it's the same. Nine out of ten times it's the same, but sometimes it isn't. When a secondary affinity has been in the family for at least three generations, it's considered inheritable.

Not to say that we don't marry carefully, but we don't usually get first pick.

I know, I know, sounds like picking breeding stock, doesn't it? The truth is…

It is.

The Hyuuga do the same too. Don't look so surprised. It's how we make sure that the clan stays strong. Of course, we don't interbreed that heavily, and we always make sure to inject new blood into the clan. Quite a few of the recent generation are technically half-Uchiha and are being raised by the Uchiha parent. The secondary affinity from Mikoto-sama's branch was one of the contributions of such an arrangement.

You're asking me if I'm the same?

Ah, you noticed that I keep mentioning only my mother.

That's right. I'm a half. But my father comes over from time to time to look after me when mom is too busy with clan duties. He's an ANBU I think. He let me play with his mask before.

What's his name?

…I don't know. Nobody told me. I just know he's my father and call him 'tou-chan' whenever he's over. He has a boar mask, by the way.

I think he was from mom's genin team, though. They get along very well even though they're not married.

But here's another advantage I have: I have more chakra than regular fourth branches. That's, of course, thanks to my Dad. Mom has a decent pool for a jounin, but she specializes in genjutsu, which isn't as chakra consuming. Dad, on the other hand, seems to be a ninjutsu expert.

(Don't tell mom, but he taught me a Goukakyu shortcut)

The third advantage isn't great. It's actually pretty awful.

That's the attitude between parents.

Consider Sasuke and I.

My mother conceived me as a…well basically I'm not a child borne of love. I'm actually supposed to help keep the branch leadership in our family instead of passing it to my older cousins.

Sasuke, on the other hand, is actually a rare second son. Mikoto-sama and Fugaku-sama's marriage was an arranged one, but they're only required to have one heir. Creating sibling competition…isn't encouraged here. The ones who have more than one child are those who have absolutely no chance of inheriting any mantle of leadership. So Sasuke is a rare love-child.

Lucky him.

But anyway, that means that he doesn't have as much pressure as I do. And, as second son, he's technically not allowed to surpass the first.

Unless of course, Fugaku-sama decides to change heirs…

But yeah, that's why I'm so much more ahead of him. It's pretty different being firstborn.

…I still have no chance against Itachi though.

If there's any contradiction, I guess you'll have to pass it off as writer's creative influence. Hehehe. Someone said that chakra isn't 'natural' and that it's from the Shinju tree thing...but I never read further than Shippuuden, and that chapter is one of the number 600s so... Besides, I'll just make it such that our world has chakra for some other reason then. Hehehe.

Anyway, I've decided not to go too far back in the past, because I don't want to repeat the same device I've used previously, which is making changes pre-canon and taking waaay too much time filling in blanks. I'd just like to jump into the meat of things here. That's why I gave myself a little less time AND an indomitable deadline. ^^

Hope you guys like this chapter~

Memory25