Chapter 2
Can you activate your sharingan for a minute or two? It would be useful to memorise exactly what we discussed." Madara asked while cleaning up their dishes.
" People are just going to bug you with questions if there are inconsistencies in our stories - us too, or course, but we can mostly excuse ourselves from any conversations. You can't." Izuna explained, drying a bowl.
Sasuke shrugged, still sitting on a chair that was too high for him and then obeyed.
He had made a deal with them, after all , compared to
pretending that he was their brother ( which would be hard and Sasuke had many negative feelings about ) trying to be part of a clan he never met ( and didn't feel like he would deserve to belong to) and trying to save his clan, showing people his Sharingan just like that to another Uchiha shouldn't be a big deal.
And Izuna had already seen it, after all.
Still, it made him feel strangely vulnerable and sad.
Back home, if Itachi hadn't become a monster, a kin-slayer, if the clan was alive and relatively well people would gave congratulated him on achieving it. There were some rituals and new privileges that came with the sharingan too, as well as in most cases celebration parties. As the clanheads son, albeit the spare one, Sasuke would have definetly had one of this parties where he would have been expected to interact with his clan and likely asked to activate the sharingan too, again and again.
But now the only Uchiha he would show it too were people he didn't even know outside of history books and didn't quite know how to interact with or if he could trust them...
Sasuke was pulled out of his spiraling thoughts by Izuna excitedly commenting " Wow you have three tomoe already."
Sasuke...handn't known that. Last he had checked it had been two. He raised an eyebrow in inquiry.
"...Last I checked I had one? Then again that was before the artifact and coming here."
" Hmm. It could be that you didn't check enough. It could be that it's because that were additional emotional events. The sharingan stages get activated due to intense emotions or, after the first one, practice, although not if people don't have enough chakra. " Izuna commented, putting the ( now fully dried dishes, Sasuke must have zoned out) back where they probably belonged. Izuna paused for a little while, then unquired "By the way, did anyone ever teach you how to use the Sharingan?"
Sasuke shook his head no. " I didn't have it before that night after all...and people didn't teach me much. Probably because I was the youngest if the clan and not...talented." He mumbled.
He shrugged and tried to pretend that he was totally okay with that, like he often did nowadays. It should be fine. Being mad at dead people wouldn't solve anything and Sasuke had more important things to worry about than something as trivial as feelings.
" They should have! " Izuna exclaimed, loudly. Then, in a more gentle tone, he added " But we can teach you things now, including about Kamis gift."
" Really?!" Sasuke inquired. If they actually taught him things like they said it would be useful. Then again people often made empty promises.
" Really. I swear it on...Tomatoes." Izuna said.
" Do you like them too?" Sasuke asked, wary. He liked Tomatoes, sure, but some people couldn't bear it's deliciousness ( like his father for example) at all and he didn't know.
" Definetly!" Izuna answered enthusiastically which prompted Sasuke to agree with a " Hnn. Okay, Thank you." He gave a little smile.
" That's all well and good but let's talk about other things after we finished the cover story, we don't want to strain Sasukes eyes " Madara interrupted, crossing his arms.
Sasuke raised an eyebrow. " I read long books with them on without breaks? A little eye strain doesn't hurt."
Madara sighed. " Yes but the chakra strain from the eyes can. It's not recommended to completely drain your reserves when you are still young. That can hurt your chakra system."
" Technically yeah but people just ignore that so I do too. " Sasuke explained. " Besides I kind of strained my chakra system on purpose? I mean I needed a huuuge amount of control which means lots of chakra exercises..." quiet, a bit ashamed, he continued " andI needed to sleep to learn which meant draining my reserves till Exhaustion everyday... plus as you know to get here I used other people's chakra remains that I am still carrying in me and to be honest I don't know if that's doing anything to my chakra system...so really a little eyestrain to add couldn't hurt too much."
He looked utterly unworried about this, being totally factual.
Madara made a face that showed way to many emotions compared to the usual blank Uchiha mask. A mixture of worry- Sasuke didn't understand that one, really, fury and exasperation.
Madara took in a deep breath.
" I understand why you did what you did and I commend you, really. But I heavily suggest that you don't train more than your body can take and that you don't always train alone because I think nobody ever thought you about how to approach that...In a way that won't hurt you, long term."
" But if you want me to stay here and survive..." Sasuke heavily intoned the last word. " I need to train and lots, too. I have no experience, the only mission I ever went on was this time-travel one which is more a duty than a mission and dozens of people could just kill me with a snap of their fingers. Besides you guys literally battle with Senju-with huge reserves, like constantly and I bet you do missions too! So you can't tell me you never depleted your chakra." He crossed his arms, pouting.
" That is true." Izuna aknowledged. " But we also have something called rest days and bed-rest from chakra Exhaustion. And Madara never runs out of chakra, he's a freak like that But when I do and I don't obey the bedrest order he'd literally strap me to the bed and throw me in the Koi Pond as punishment when I am better later. So unless you want to meet them you should try to not argue with him on that. He's as stubborn as a mule."
" I never said you couldn't train. Just that I want someone to check in with you so that you don't overtrain and literally get yourself killed or hurt beyond a standard we can heal. I don't know how good medical jutsu is where you are from but here it's bad." Madara added.
" Uuh. " Sasuke interrupted. " I memorised a few medical jutsu books, I can write them down if you want. And I bought the latest one with me, well, the latest my clan had in Konoha anyways. It was written by a senju though, the last senju ninja so I don't know..." He paused, trying to conveine what he want by gestic and mimic alone.
Madara picked up the track. " That would be useful, thank you and we can just not tell people it's from senju, ideally we don't know where it's from and your mother just discovered it. " Madara nodded to himself, pleased. " But you still shouldn't overtrain or get injured if you can avoid it. That goes for both of you." Madara said, sternly, voice oddly authoritive.
Then again it kind of fit him, after all, Madara was Clanhead at the moment.
It was just pretty weird to obey. Sasuke was used to his clan and his father and it was really weird to see other people taking their places.
It was absoloutely logical, though, and he would just have to try to deal with that until Madara and Izuna would decide to let him go.
Sasuke sighed. " Fine..." He eventually agreed.
Izuna was more enthusiastic, stating " I always am."
" Good." Madara nodded, satisfied. Now let's return to discussing your cover story."
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They talked about that and other things and only when Sasuke was rubbing his eyes, increasingly, they stopped.
" I gues you should go to sleep soon...it may be way past your bedtime, you had a long day and tomorrow will be exhausting" Madara commented.
Sasuke groaned. " I don't have anything like that. It's stupid."
Madara shrugged. " It's not, sleep is pretty important. And unless you are on a mission you absolutely should get enough, especially when you're still a kid. "
"I know..." Sasuke admitted, voice quiet and defending. " Kami knows, I couldn't concentrate at all when I couldn't sleep for three days. But I can't sleep unless I deplete my chakra and you told me I shouldn't. "
" How about a genjutsu then?" Izuna suggested.
Sasuke shrugged. " But you said that would be unhealthy too. I really don't know what you guys want me to do." He complained.
Izuna came near and slowly, giving Sasuke the chance to escape, pet his hair.
Sasuke stared at him, eyes wide. It was weird to be touched again, in a context that didn't mean trying to hurt him. And sure Izuna had done that already, in the cave, but that was probably just to wake him up or check if he was alive. This was more...purposeful, like some people showed affection, like his Mother and some of his Aunties did to him...
He gulped, subconsciously leaning into the touch but he didn't notice and neither Izuna nor Madara commented on it.
" You are clan and a kid, Sasuke. Plus, we are going to claim you as your brother. We just want you to live here, to be mostly healthy and eventually one day maybe be content .Even though that is incredibly much to ask and is going to be hard. So just...try your best to listen to us, okay?" Izuna asked him, voice soft and low.
" Hnn...that could be difficult." Sasuke said. He didn't comment on the " we want you to be content " part, The siblings already knew his past and how Uchiha operated, they knew that it would be very hard to ever be content after what he experienced.
" But...I can try. As long as you keep your side of the deal we discussed."
" Good." Izuna pet his hair again and gave him a smile.
" We shall." Madara added.
" It's getting late, we should really get you something to change into and let you sleep now." Madara repeated.
" I have stuff." Sasuke retorted, pulling out a t-shirt and sweatpants from the depth of one of the pockets of his coat.
" Good. Then come on, I will show you to the bathroom."
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Sasuke woke up when Izuna snapped the genjutsu he placed him in- something about pirates whose treasures where tomatoes- and was immedeatly wrangled into the bathroom by Madara.
The man helped him wash, which was embarrassing and totally different in comparison to home.
People here didn't know the joy of electricity yet, Sasuke mused.
They washed themselves in this with water heated by katon and showered by dunking their head into said water or dumping more water on their head. Luckily they did have toilets though they seemed to work differently and drains.
After that, the man tried to tame his hair albeit unsuccessfully. While Sasukes mother had somehow managed to wrangle it into different hairstyles when Sasuke was younger, Sasuke himself hadn't really tried, only combing it sometimes out of habit.
Sasukes hair ended up looking like it always did and he really didn't mind.
Then Madara gave him new clothes from who knew where which seemed more in style to this time as far as Sasuke knew, asked him to change and left.
Sasuke did and was then, after he left the bathroom wrangled into eating.
What they ate didn't look like typical breakfast, the reason being, as Sasuke learned from Izuna, because it was lunch.
" It was very late when we stopped talking yesterday and you really needed some sleep." The man said between two bites. " And we had to do some organising anyways, let me tell you calling a clan meeting spontaneously is some work."
" Hnn." Sasuke aknowledged.
" Anyways, the meeting is in the afternoon so you have a bit of time to do whatever you want, besides leaving, now."
" I could write down the things I remember from the medical jutsu books or the jutsus I memorised from the clan library?" He suggested, hesitating. It was one if the things he should do while he was still here, after all. He didn't want to deal with people commenting on his training and he didn't quite know what on earth else he would want to do.
" Sure. If that's okay with you can you start with the medical books? Oh and you can just sit with me in my office." Madara suggested, prompting Sasuke to nod before stuffing a tomato onto his mouth.
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Madaras office reminded Sasuke of his father's which immedeatly made him feel both sad and better.
Madara worked through a lot of paperwork diligently but still found time to talk to him, ask him if he had enough paper ( five times), if he didn't want to take a break and do something else( four times) if he wanted something to drink( three times) and if he wanted to visit Izuna ( two times) and if he wanted to eat something (once).
Sasuke gave short answers, got new paper twice,didn't take a break or drink or ate anything and just focused on writing down one of the books he had memorised.
He was interrupted in this routine by Madara once again.
" Sasuke, you should stop now."
" Hnn?" Sasuke looked up from his writing.
" We have to leave in fifteen minutes anyways. And before we go you should at least drink something." The man insisted. "
"...I can write for the fifteen minutes." Sasuke protested.
" No. You just wrote for five hours straight without taking a single break. You should rest at least a little bit." The tone jn which Madara said that made it clear that this wasn't a request, it was an order, so Sasuke begrudgingly put his writing utensils down.
" I'm not done yet though." He couldn't help but pout.
" You can finish another time." Madara insisted.
" Now come on, at least drink a little water."
Sasuke obeyed.
" Sasuke?"
" Hnn?"
" And good work today. You did well." Madara ruffled his head.
" Are you ready for the meeting?"
Sasuke nodded. " Course. You made me memroize everything yesterday, did you forget that already?"
Madara rolled his head. " I meant emotionally."
Sasuke inclined his head.
That was a bit of a dumb question. How could he ever be emotionally ready to meet his but not really his clan? But Sasuke hadn't really been ready to time travel or meet Izuna or Madara and still did it ( even though that is worked and that he met them was by chance.)
Truth to be told, he hadn't quite been ready for anything since that night but he still lived on.
Sasuke also didn't want to sound rude, though.
After a pause Sasuke answered. "I might panic if they activate their sharingan."
Madara nodded. " I know. It's in your backstory though and we will tell them not to. You are going to be okay."
"...okay."
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The clan meeting took place in a huge hall in a separate building that, according to Madara, doubled as a sort-of storage and distribution room for food come winter and a storage room in general for everything that could be useful but wasn't in use at the moment- Sasukes clothes came from here, for example.
Sasuke hnned, appreciating the information and looked at everything with huge eyes.
Madara and him were standing in a large round room built out of stone. On all sides there were huge stairs, huge enough that adult people could sit on there, looking taller than Sasuke could jump ( without chakra).
He stared at the stairs in wonder.
" The stairs are for sitting." Madara commented. " We do our meetings here if the matter concerns the whole clan. Because nobody knows you yet and as our brother you will be one of my heirs your Introduction has to take place here too. We also have performances here sometimes, especially if it is an important festival and this is also were people practice for it."
" Performances?" Sasuke asked in wonder.
" Yes. Some people like to do plays. Some clansmen are talented in music too. And we have fire dancers and the like. " Madara smiled.
" Aaah." Sasuke aknowledged. " We had that too, at the sungod festival for example...though I didn't see it often."
" Well. You can see it a lot of times here..."
" Hnn."
There was a moment of awkward silence while both were just waiting for the people to come in.
It didn't take long and more and more people entered the building from another entrance and started settling in, chatting, sometimes running and also giving Madara and Sasuke curious glances.
Sasuke gulped. It was...well...weird to see so many Uchiha ( living ones, not corpses that haunted his dreams and memories) again.
Izuna entered cane through the entrance Madara and Sasuke used and stood by their side.
" It's going to be fine, kid. Just say what we practiced, okay?" He said to him.
Sasuke nodded. " I'll try."
Soon the time that Madara had specified had finally come and Madara started speaking, voice louder than usual-probably enhanced with chakra.
" Hello my fellow clanspeople. We are here today to introduce you to someone. This is Sasuke." He gestured to him. " Izuna found him on the way back from a mission. He is definetly Uchiha. "
Then he made a sign that they had agreed on beforehand which meant that Sasuke should actuvate his sharingan for a bit.
" Anyways, his parenting is a bit of a mystery but we strongly suspect that he is a descendant of Uchiha Tajima, our father- I mean look at him- and so he will henceforth be Izunas and my brother."
Then he turned to Sasuke. " You may introduce yourself now. "
Sasuke nodded and bowed. " T-thank you. Hello, it's nice to meet you. I'm Sasuke. Before my mom passed away two months ago I was living with her. Mom did all kinds of jobs wandering around. She taught me about chakra, my heritage...and that it is a bit unsafe for people like me to exist outside of their clan so I figured I'd try to find you when she passed away. Well...Izuna found me first. I'm glad to meet you today."
" I ask that you please don't activate the sharingan around him without wanting for now. The last time Izuna did this the kid had a panic attack, probably because of all the rumours about our famed dojutsu and because he wasn't sure if we would take him in or kill him. People outside our walls don't always talk kindly about us as you know. You can now speak or comment. " Madara said.
Sasuke was just relieved that his part was mostly over when mumbles and chatter broke out and a lot of people asked questions.
All the while, he couldn't stop marvelling about how alive these people were.