She knew she had died, but didn't care— well, she had lived with depression in her past life. For most of it, she wasn't classified as suicidal, but she wouldn't blink or try to save herself if death did welcome her. She had mental problems like any other person of her generation did. Most of that was solved with medication, drugs, or unhealthy coping mechanisms. Social media or society didn't really help with any of that as most of it was defined by people her age through apps. She still learned how to put on a face for society, play the happy-go-lucky girl to her family, and make it seem like she wasn't genuinely suffering on the inside (when she really was). Her life wasn't bad, nor good either. Every day was the same— go to school, play with friends, get a job, go to college, find a boyfriend/girlfriend, and settle down with a family. None of that seemed to interest her; it was all the same.

Nothing entertained her anymore.

Well, until shit got real. Being reborn with all memories intact was a mystery in itself. Being that this was different, she went with it. But, it all eventually would draw the same conclusion as the last. She was a child with a happy family, what did she have to complain about? (nothing because it was all the same). Anyone would be grateful for such an easy life. It wasn't like she was ungrateful, but she just couldn't find a purpose for her existence. The chemical imbalance inside her brain followed her into this life (of course it would, with her shit luck). Like why was she here?

This first real grasp of reality kind of just booted her small flick of what-the-fuck when this life's father began walking up a goddamn wall. He began to lecture her on chakra and its basic uses. She just spilled a happy smile and copied exactly what he did. It took a few tries, but she did it. Some part of her brain was there and telling her what world she reincarnated into. But she chooses to put it off because why not? There's nothing important from her last life she wanted to remember anyways.

Then it happened. It was a typical day where Izumi would go to the park and 'play' with the other civilian children (she knew her mother's clan hated her so she stayed away from those with a weird fucking fan plastered on their back). Then she would return home to her mother's cooking. Sometimes they would have dinner alone as her father went out on missions to play for the nice house they lived in. He was the second rank from the bottom of this hierarchy of ninja soldiers, according to Hazuki, her mother. There would be a day when she could decide to join those ranks by going to the academy or be a civilian like her mother. She had no desire to become a soldier, but civilian life didn't sound the best either. People in this world were very, very traditional. Most females married at sixteen to start a family with a working husband. But what if she didn't want to marry? Or even be with a man for that matter? She never really explored the tactics of romance or sexual orientation. It never appealed to her. Well, maybe she would get that chance in this life. Who knows what the future will hold?

Anyways, it was one of those typical days that bored her to death until the sun disappeared from the horizon. She didn't know what she was feeling, but it was something that made her freeze up for a solid minute before her mother shook her from that state. Everything happened instantly. One moment she was standing in the dining room and the next, she was under a wall unconscious.

This was the second time that reality had kicked her, but this time it had not been so gentle. What she felt earlier was the intense killing intent that made even the bravest of shinobi freeze up. Their house had been knocked out with one large gust of wind. The smell of dust and smoke clouded her senses. Tears welled in her eyes when she opened them because the air was so dry. She blinked away the tears, shaking her head to get a clear look at her surroundings. Her mother's face gazed into her. The white of her dead eyes put fear into her. She froze at the sight. Hazuki was dead and on top of her— she was touching a dead person.

Dead. She didn't know how to process that.

The perfect mother was now dead. Everything was taken in an instant.

What, how, and when? Tears welled in her eyes as several emotions severed her at once. Was this the spark she needed to feel alive? Had she wished for too much? Part of her wished this was one bad dream. Something inside her head was brimming, thumping along with her heartbeat. Each beat brought a new chemical balance to her brain. Something began stabbing her vision. Blurred with tears, she saw flickers of red along with outlines of black. Then it all fused into perfected detail, taking in everything. Her mind began screaming at her. All her senses began to go crazy, and she didn't know how to turn it off.

She wailed like a baby until she began to panic. She cried until a lone shinobi found her. That lone shinobi was her father and he was handling this better than her by magnitudes. The sight of his dead wife on top of his wailing daughter was something for a father to behold, but the soldier inside him scruffed those saddening emotions down like he had been trained to do. He used chakra to take the wall off his daughter (luckily she wasn't crushed beyond recognition like her mother), bringing her into a humongous hug.

Izumi felt relieved to see a familiar face in all this mess. She cried for what felt like hours until her eyes began to record everything again. Bodies surrounded them along with buildings on fire. Destruction, debris, and people laid lifelessly everywhere. She couldn't turn off whatever was making her memorize this. Her body froze with horror only to be let go again. Along with her father, they washed with another gust of wind. Her father maneuvered expertly in the air, hugging his daughter in his arms before she hit a cement slab standing upright from the ground from earlier wind gusts from the ginormous fox.

Izumi blacked out at the same time her father broke his neck.

Is this what she gets for not relishing in the perfect family life or each life that was presented to her on a silver platter?

All that destruction, death, and wind. God, she hates the wind. Why does it all seem so familiar? Ninjas, walking up walls, and giant fucking fox killing everything around it— fuck. At this point, she wants to punch herself for not realizing such an obvious fact sooner. All the familiarity she decided to ignore only came to bite her in the ass later.

Izumi cries for days in a hospital, but this time, nothing was the same.

Konoha had a shitty hospital, she decided a week into her hospital stay. Though, no hospital was perfect, especially for one that miraculously survived the attack.

The staff was annoyed by her when she wasn't even doing anything. All she did was lay in that damn hospital bed, and draw stupid little inappropriate drawings on magazines brought in by civilian nurses. The magazines weren't meant for her, but for them when it was their turn to babysit her sorry ass. If the nurses weren't such assholes, then she would have behaved. Her nurse liked to gossip with other nurses inside her fucking room when she tried to sleep. If there was one thing Izumi valued, it was sleep.

For days, she drew inappropriate scenes in her nurse's perverted novel that one particular old pervert that taught Naruto had written. The nurse should not be reading such material inside her young patient's hospital room, actually, she should be reading that shit at work. It wasn't professional. Unfortunately, that book was popular among civilians. Not so much ninja because of how cliche the plotline was, and they just didn't have the time.

She knew all of this because she will admit she got curious when her mother would always hide a certain novel whenever she entered a room. What did she do? Steal the novel from her mother's room (when she was sleeping of course). She will say that any young adult would go crazy over a hot sexy babe and a ripped male ninja going at it in various ways. Various creative ways she had no clue existed until reading the first volume.

Her drawings ended when the nurse announced her discharge. The staff levels were low, understandable. They handed her some papers for her to sign (because her parents are dead) and let her go. The whole discharge process might have been more organized if half the village wasn't obliterated and more ninjas were alive.

If she remembered, the Uchiha clan was forced to live together and segregated from the rest of the village so— "Hello!"

The sudden appearance scared the shit out of her. Behind her was someone about four years older than her and of the same clan. Izumi turned around (looking like a dried-up fish) and saw the unnaturally cheery Uchiha. "And who are you?"

"Your new big brother!"

"The fuck?" That's not supposed to happen. Shisui has no family, much less, I don't remember him ever approaching Izumi in the Anime or Manga. The fact that he is even here to pick me up is an oddity in itself. So, what the hell—

"That wasn't the reaction I was expecting cute lil' 'zumi to have," he cooed, COOED. And he gave me a nickname as if he knows me! "Don't look at me like that! I generously came all the way from home to pick up my cute little sister."

"Sister?" Izumi bit out in disbelief.

"Yes!" he announced. "My grandpa is your mother's parent, who is my aunty."

"My mother is dead," she pointed out.

"We know, that's why grandpa decided to adopt you."

Just what else could I fuck up in the timeline? (unintentionally, of course). "Do I get a choice in this?"

"Nope!" He smiled.

People whispered on their way back, giving them looks as if she was a germ that crawled back into their compound after popping in an antibiotic. Shisui only gave those people an 'innocent' smile as they walked by. Izumi kept her gaze held high, honestly, not giving a fuck. There are other thoughts she had to process at the moment. If she had to describe how the compound felt, it was like death. Bitter, alone, and dark. She experienced that once but doesn't intend to again.

Upon entering the house, a man with a cane greeted them with a grim expression. He was older than dirt and didn't look too happy to see them. Shisui kept his 'happy' gaze upon Kagami saying: don't scare her off. Except, the old man did the exact opposite, not expecting the venom back.

"Izumi, the bastard child of my idiot daughter."

Izumi cocked an eyebrow. "You could say that, or you can call me Inari Izumi, you know, my real name."

"Feh, your an Uchiha now. So act like it. Your father is a worthless piece of trash who stole my daughter from me. I don't even want to hear his name as long as you live under my roof."

Izumi sighed. Her mother always told her to treat her elder with respect, but she only gives respect if people do the same for her. It's a two-way thing (not common in ninja society). "Sorry, you unfertilized dirt, but I didn't choose to be adopted. You adopted me. My father did not steal your daughter from you, your clan shunned her which was all a choice. I will go by Inari Izumi if I feel like it."

All three of them stood there silent. Shisui looked at his new sister like she had grown an extra leg, the old man still remained unfazed but with a frown, and Izumi gave him an uncaring look.

"Did Hazuki teach you any manners growing up?"

"I'm four, so, still growing."

"Feh, whatever. Shisui, you brought this mess into our house you get to take care of it," he said, going back into his room. "Goddamn brats..."

"Don't take it personally, he's like that with everyone. Besides, he will warm up to you. He's actually softhearted once you get to know him."

"Well, you brought me into this mess, so you clean it up," Izumi quoted back. "Where's my room please tell me what is all going on with this adoption shit..."

"Language, you're a child."

"And your eight."

"But I'm a Jounin."

"Your still eight."

"C'mon, you little demon, your room is in the same one as mine, that's my bed, you get to sleep in the one below it..." And so the tour begins.

"Why do you get the bed with the window?"

"Because I need somewhere to return to my room without going through the front door. Sometimes grandpa likes to walk out in his boxers to make some coffee at three in the morning..."

What— "Why?"

Shisui quotes with hand quotation marks and the whole deep raspy voice. "I quote: 'it's my goddamn house, I can walk out butt-ass naked at any time of the day I wanna!' So, yeah, I enter through the window. You can too, but just make sure not to step on my chest when I'm sleeping."

Izumi nods.

.

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COPYCATS are usually communicating: "I want to be like you and feel like you. I want to have what you have."

They are usually missing a core sense of who they are and copy to feel less empty and vacant emotionally.

—Stylecaster