I own the character of Riku Uchiha. Everything else belongs to someone else.
Chapter 2 - It's All Downhill From Here
Shit. Fuck goddamn crap damn bugger bitch ass darn.
This is bad. This is very, very bad. I don't want to be a ninja. The last thing I want to be is a ninja, especially in this world. But now that I have the Sharingan before even entering school, I'm virtually guaranteed a slot in the shinobi forces.
Am I being punished for something? Because whatever I may have done in my past life, I'm pretty sure that it wasn't bad enough to warrant this.
But I digress.
Word of my condition quickly spread throughout the compound as I tried and utterly failed to calm down the squalling meatloaf that was my baby brother. Seeing my plight, the lady that delivered my brother took him from my arms and gave me a crash course on how to handle him. I had handled infants before, but that was when I was a teenager, not when the child I trying to carry was half my size. She had just finished showing me how to feed and burp him and was telling me how to properly swaddle him when a teenage ninja came in with a serious expression on his face.
"Riku-san, come with me," the dour young man commanded. "Kurasa-sama requests your presence immediately." Now, I had no idea who the hell Kurasa was, but judging by the suffix, he was most likely the previous clan head before Fugaku, and probably Sasuke's grandfather. I wasn't particularly eager to meet the man, but when the head honcho "requests" your presence you'd best drop whatever it is your doing and show up ASAP, so I followed Sunshine to the clan head's house. Pretty nice digs if I do say so myself, but I didn't have much time to admire the scenery as I was practically dragged along by Sunshine to Kurasa-sama's office. Stopping in front of a closed door, Sunshine rapped on the frame and waited for a response.
"Enter," a deep, gruff voice beckoned from within. Sunshine slid the door open and guided me in. The place was pretty Spartan in design, with only a desk, some chairs, and a couple shelves stuffed with scrolls and papers against the wall. Kurasa Uchiha himself was one scary son of a bitch. His face was rough and wrinkled, seemingly carved into a permanent scowl. His black eyes were like two lumps of coal as they bored into me; I fought the urge to fidget under his gaze. Even the duck-butt hairdo didn't detract from his intimidation factor; nice to know where Sasuke inherited the hair from though. "You may leave," he said to Sunshine, who bowed before departing, leaving the two of us alone. Joy. "You are Riku, correct?" he asked as he motioned me to take a seat.
"Yes, sir," I confirmed as I took the offered seat.
"I've been told that you have the Sharingan. Show me." Well, this guy doesn't beat around the bush. I pointed out to him that I didn't know how to activate it, so he told me to channel chakra to my eyes. I did so, and there's actually a noticeable difference between Sharingan-enhanced vision and the normal kind. You know how the really good, really expensive Hi-Def TVs have that really sharp, high-clarity image that practically makes your eyes ache? That's what it was like seeing through the Sharingan. Everything is so much brighter and crisper, it's amazing.
But I digress.
"Interesting," Kurasa hummed as he studied my eyes. As the seconds dragged on, I had to resist the urge to fidget. Seriously old man, it's getting creepy. Finally he looked down and turned his attention to whatever paperwork was lying before him. "You will be tutored to ensure that your education is at an acceptable level," he said without looking up. "In three months' time, you will attend the Ninja Academy. I expect you to do well there." And there it was. I knew it was coming, but it still sucked to hear it.
"I need to look after my little brother," I pointed out. As I spoke, I cut off the chakra flow to my eyes, making the world seem relatively dull and faded.
"I will send someone to care for the child," Kurasa replied without breaking stride. Damn, so much for that excuse. Well, time to take the plunge…
"And if I don't want to?" Kurasa's hand paused mid-stroke, but he still did not look up.
"If you don't want to, what?" he asked stonily. I gulped nervously at his tone, but pressed on.
"What if I don't want to be a ninja?" This time he turned to look at me. Slowly he stood up, towering over me as his eyes glimmered red from an activated Sharingan.
"Listen to me well, boy," he said, his tone halfway between a hiss and a growl. "You are an Uchiha, a member of one of the most powerful clans in the village. I will not have this clan disgraced by your childish cowardice. You will attend the ninja academy, and if you deliberately fail your studies, there will be consequences. Am I understood?"
"Consequences" is such a loaded word. It can imply so much while actually stating absolutely nothing. Even though Old Man Kurasa didn't actually threaten me with anything, my imagination is churning with possibilities, the greatest of which is sitting on a street corner with a blindfold entertaining people with my lovely falsetto.
So yeah, with a choice like that, there's only one thing to do: Bow your head and say, "As you command, Kurasa-sama." This seemed to calm him down, as his eyes faded back to their natural black and his expression relaxed from thunderous to merely grumpy. "My son Fugaku will be teaching you. Expect him at your house at six am sharp tomorrow. You are dismissed." With that I stood up, gave a bow, and bugged out as fast as decorum allowed. The faster and further I got away from that guy as I could, the better I'd feel.
Well, as of 6:00 AM tomorrow, any hopes I had of having a nice, peaceful, normal life officially goes up in smoke. Hoo-fucking-ray.
After getting a couple more lessons on childcare from the delivery lady and picking up Obito, I trudged home with a baby slung across my chest. Once I got home, I carefully set him down on my bed and placed pillows around him so he wouldn't roll off. Can newborns even roll at all? I don' t know.
I looked down at the sleeping infant and thought…well honestly, I didn't know what to think. On the one hand, this kid would grow up to be one of the greatest monsters in the Naruto universe. On the other hand, he didn't start out as a monster, and looking at him now, I just can't see Tobi. And for better or worse, he is my brother, so it's my job to look out for him. Maybe I can figure out a way to keep him from ever becoming Tobi. But if I did, then I would completely derail the canon, and did I really have the right to do that?
Ah, fuck it. I'll worry about that shit later. I got an early day tomorrow so I should get some sleep.
Obito had his own room set up across from mine. I didn't want to leave him by myself, but I also didn't want to camp out in his room, so I ended up dragging his crib across the hall into my room – not an easy feat, considering the damn thing probably weighed as much as I did. I found a stepstool and carefully lowered Obito into his crib. I gently brushed his wispy black hair, causing him to stir and make little baby grunts.
"Guess it's just you and me now, kid," I murmured as I stepped down. I managed to scavenge an alarm clock and set it to go off at 5:00 so that I may enjoy my last scrap of freedom before I shut off the lights and crawled into bed, eager for a good night's sleep.
I swear, I am going to fucking kill that brat.
About half an hour after I went to sleep, Obito started crying. It turned out that he needed his diaper changed, joy of joys. As a quick aside, back in my old life, for reasons I never quite figured out, my sense of smell was pretty much shot. I literally once stood next to a dumpster filled with rotting fish and I couldn't smell a thing. My point is, as I was changing my baby brother's diaper, I found myself longing for those days again. For cripe's sake, how can such a little baby make such a god-awful stench? Ugh…
After dealing with that shit (ha!) and putting him back to bed, I got to sleep for another hour before he started crying again. Turned out he was hungry, again! After spending 15 minutes trying to figure out how to properly prepare the formula, I managed to feed him and burp him. That whole process took about an hour, plus the time it took me to put him back to bed. Another hour or so later, he started crying again, this time for…fuck, I don't know. He wasn't hungry, he didn't need his diaper changed, and I even gave him another pat on the back in case another burp was trying to work its way out. Nothing, I couldn't figure out what he wanted, so I eventually resorted to awkwardly rocking him and humming tunelessly to try and calm him down. He settled down eventually…after about two hours of non-stop wailing. This whole process repeated itself a couple times over the course of the night, with me getting no more than a couple hours of sleep at a time. Next thing I knew, I had an alarm clock ringing in my face. That bring-ing-ing-ing was the death knell of my old life.
Grabbing my trusty stepstool, I trudged into the kitchen to make breakfast. Sadly, there was no coffee to be found; I did find some green tea bags though, so that was something. Peeking into the fridge, I found some rice and various leftovers, so I slapped all that together into an ugly pile that kinda sorta resembled a meal to my sleep-addled mind. Sitting down with that and a large cup of extra-strong green tea (I think I used four or five bags) mixed with enough honey to make Winnie the Pooh jealous, I tucked in. Of course, about halfway through my meal, my darling brother started crying again, so I had to go take care of that.
At about quarter-to-six, I heard someone knock on the front door. Having just fed and burped Obito, I decided to take him with me when I answered. Standing in the doorway was a girl, about thirteen by my guess, with a Konoha forehead protector and chunin vest.
"Hi there, I'm Mikoto," she greeted cheerfully. "I was told that there was a baby that needed looking after here?" she inquired. I blinked at her for a few seconds as my brain finally processed what she said. Why did that name sound so familiar? …Oh right, Sasuke's mom. Small world. I stepped aside and beckoned her in.
"Here he is," I said as I passed Obito to her. "His name's Obito. Can I get you anything?"
"Tea, please," Mikoto answered as she looked down at the baby in her arms. "Obito, huh? Well you're a cutie, aren't you, Obito-chan?" she cooed as she sat down at the table. Obito gave one of his squeaky baby grunts in response.
"Cute?" I snorted as I prepared a cup of regular tea for her and another cup of super-duper tea for myself. "Freakin' hellspawn is more like it."
"That's not very nice!" Mikoto chided me before turning her attention back to Obito. "Your nii-san's a big meanie isn't he, Obito-chan? Yes he is, yes he is," she said in a baby-talk voice.
"Just you wait 'til you have kids," I retorted as I set her tea before her. "See how cheerful you are after being up at all odd hours of the night feeding them and changing diapers that really should be classified as chemical weapons or something." Grimacing at the memory of that horrible stench, I sipped down my super-strong, super-sweet "tea."
As Mikoto continued to coo over and coddle Obito, I pointed out where the various supplies were and when I had last fed him. All too soon, I heard another knocking at the door. With great trepidation, I opened the door to see – oh look, it's Sunshine! On his part, the dour-faced guy looked like he wanted to be anywhere but here.
"Riku-san, come with me," he ordered shortly before turning around and walking off. Shutting the door behind me, I dashed to catch up to him as he led me to a large clearing near one of the compound walls where dummies and other training equipment were set up. Turning to me, he crossed his arms and said, "First off, the ground rules. First, you will only address me as 'sir' or 'sensei.'" As you wish, Sunshine-sensei. "Second, we will be meeting here every day at six 'o clock sharp until you enter the academy; do not be late. Third, there will be no complaints or backtalk. I have better things to do than babysit snot-nosed brats, so I will not tolerate any whining. Am I understood?" Jawohl, mein Kommandant. Christ, who pissed in your Cheerios this morning? "Now begin your stretches, you have ten minutes." After ten minutes of stretching my muscles, Sunshine turned to me again. "Now, one lap around the compound."
"What?!" I exclaimed in outrage. "This place is huge! You really expect me to run all the way around it?"
"What did I say about complaining?" Sunshine snapped with a glare. "One more word out of you and it'll be two laps. Now get moving."
Gritting my teeth to keep from saying anything stupid, I took off at a light jog. Even with my slow, even pace, my short and inexperienced legs soon tired out, and I eventually collapsed about one-quarter around with legs that felt like they had been dipped in napalm. Sunshine kneeled beside me and sneered in disappointment before slinging me over his shoulder and hauling my weary ass back to the training area.
Unceremoniously dropping me on the grass, he tossed me a bottle of water and ordered me to drink. Well thank you, Sergeant Hardass. Five minutes later my legs had recovered enough that I could stand up, though I was still a bit wobbly.
"Next I will be testing your accuracy," he said as withdrew five shuriken and kunai from various pockets on his person. "Strike those five targets," he said, pointing to indicate the wooden circles in question before handing me the weapons. Being careful not to cut myself on them, I took careful aim and threw them as hard as I could. Three shuriken and two kunai hit the center, but all ten projectiles struck the targets at some point. For almost a minute he just stared at the targets impassively.
"Mmm, acceptable…for a normal child," he finally ruled. Glancing down at me, he added, "But not acceptable for one who holds the Sharingan. I assume you don't know any ninjutsu or taijutsu?" I shook my head in denial. With a put-upon sigh, he said, "I thought not. Very well, for the next three months I will be tutoring you on these skills. For now we will be doing taijutsu. First, you must…"
Pain is life, and life is pain.
That was what coursed through my mind as I trudged home at sundown, zombie-like in gait. I ached in places that I didn't know existed and my body felt like one enormous bruise. I shuffled in to see Mikoto playing with Obito at the table. With barely a grunt of greeting, I flopped into a chair and promptly face-planted into the table.
"Are you okay?" she asked in concern.
"Not really," I grunted in response. "Hurt everywhere." Next thing I know, I have a small tin of…something set next to me. "Whuzzat?" I groaned.
"Muscle balm," Mikoto said, "for the pain." I grunted in thanks before grabbing the tin and pulling it closer to me. "Are you going to be okay? Do you need me to stick around for a bit longer?" she asked as she placed a hand on my shoulder. With great effort, I pulled my head up and started to unscrew the tin lid.
"Nah, I think I'm good. Thanks," I replied as I began to lather the goopy medicine on my arms. It was pretty potent stuff; I had barely put it on before I felt the ache in my muscles melting away into blissful numbness.
"If you're sure…" she said as she set Obito down next to me. "I just fed him, so he'll be fine for now. See you tomorrow, Riku-kun. Bye-bye, 'Bito-chan!" she cooed, giving the baby a tap on the forehead before departing. I watched her leave before turning back to my wide-eyed baby brother.
"Looks like you had a better day than I did," I noted dryly as I continued to apply the balm to my aching body. Immediately Obito started to make that whimper that heralded another crying fit. "Oh, son of a—" I groaned. I quickly wiped the excess balm goop off my fingers on my pants before picking him up and started rocking him. "What's wrong with you now?" I groaned as Obito began to hit his stride. "She just fed you, so it's not that." A quick sniff showed that he didn't need his diaper changed, so that just left his because-I-feel-like-it cries. Okay, need something to calm him down. Think, think, think, think, think, think. "Dancing bears, painted wings, things I almost remember…" I started singing the first song I could think of to calm him down. "And a song someone sings, once upon a December…."
I wouldn't call myself a great – or even a good – singer, but it seemed to be working, since his cries were receding in both volume and intensity. I kept going, and by the end of the song he had gone from sobs to whimpers to tearful hiccups. I started singing "Beauty and the Beast" to keep him calm as I carried him to our room and lowered him into his crib.
"Well, we managed to survive today, kid," I muttered to the sleeping baby. "Let's see if we can pull it off again tomorrow." Hopping off my stepstool, I went into the kitchen to slap together a small dinner before washing up and flopping into bed, immediately falling into a deep sleep.
For three months, that was my routine. Get half the sleep I needed due to my brother, meet Mikoto, and go with Sunshine to get my ass pummeled into the ground before rinsing and repeating. I never thought I'd say this, but by the end I was actually looking forward to attending the ninja academy. It couldn't possibly be worse than the crap I'd already been suffering.
...In Sunshine's defense, I have been improving. I can now do one-and-a-half laps around the compound before wiping out, and my aim has improved somewhat. I even learned a couple of small jutsu, which was cool.
Mikoto was a huge help during that time. She was perfectly happy taking care of Obito, and she was getting regular C-Rank pay for essentially being my on-retainer babysitter, so it wasn't like she was losing out on income. Speaking of her, I took Obito with me, so she escorted me to the academy so she could take him off my hands when I got there.
About two weeks ago, Obito's brain had finally woken up and he started getting livelier. And in the past three months I had been neglecting my appearances, so my hair was longer than I was normally comfortable with. Unfortunately, this combination of factors meant that for the whole walk to the academy, Obito was trying to yank my hair out and eat it. Kid had quite a grip on my locks too, ouch.
When we got there, there was a crowd of kids saying goodbye to their parents in front of the building. Most of the kids seemed to be in the neighborhood of ten years old.
"Well, I guess this is where we part ways," I said as I passed Obito off to Mikoto. He seemed to have other ideas as he grabbed two fistfuls of my hair and tugged hard. Ugh, I am so getting a haircut tonight.
"Aww, he misses you already," Mikoto laughed as she helped free my hair from Obito's death grip. Taking one arm, she proceeded to wave at me. "Say bye-bye, Nii-chan! Bye-bye, Nii-chan!" she said in a high voice. Obito looked away and shoved his free hand into his mouth and proceed to drool all over it. Gee, I love you too, brat.
"I'll see you tonight," I bid them farewell as they left. I turned to face the academy and tried not to fidget in anxiety.
"Who was she?" a voice beside me asked. I turned to the questioner and saw a blond boy. He seemed older than me but younger than the rest of the kids; I'd peg him at about eight. He seemed familiar, though I couldn't quite figure out why. "If you don't mind me asking," he added quickly. I shrugged in acceptance.
"She my…cousin," I said after a moment of thought. I never bothered asking just how closely related we were, but we were both Uchiha, so cousin seemed to be the best word to use. "The baby was my brother. She's babysitting him for me."
"Really?" he asked. "Why aren't your parents looking after him?"
"Orphan." It was an honest question, and there was no way he could have known about my situation, so I answered as casually as I could. He still flinched appropriately at that revelation.
"Sorry," he groaned.
"You didn't know," I said with another shrug. After a few seconds of awkward silence, I stuck my hand out to him. "Name's Riku. Riku Uchiha." Seriously, why did this kid seems so familiar?
Glad for the change of subject, he took my extended hand with a wide grin. "Nice to meet you, Riku-san," he said cheerfully. "I'm Minato, Minato Namikaze."
…Oh, that's why.
And there's chapter 2 of Into the Fire. Don't forget to leave a review.