They're the Same Picture
It was getting late when she finished eating dinner. She glanced at the clock. Emma hadn't been too hungry tonight, so in a rare inversion of Uné's usual routine, she had finished her homework before even getting started on the cooking.
Without lazing about first, Emma brought the dishes to the kitchen and cleaned without further adoo. Hm. Outside, the streetlights had already gone on. It was something she'd only noticed in the dimness of the kitchen.
Even though the people in this world had already invented perfectly proper glass windows, most of the ones in her home were wood and paper, basically stick-covered holes in the wall with a sliding paper panel.
If you wanted to keep the insects out, you couldn’t see out the front of the house. Emma wasn’t too cut up about it because there wasn’t a lot to see on the street at night, anyway; she’d already checked in on her iné saplings when she got home. They had already let the water back in. He had been supposed to show her how.
Anyway, the windows were a weird choice. Maybe it was this world’s weird taste. Wouldn’t be the first time. Money was a little tight at the moment, but eventually she would have to see if anybody had invented fly screens.
As she wiped down the wet sink top, Emma looked at the time. She wondered if she should go to bed. Come to think of it, she hadn't cleaned the floors this week.
Emma made her way to the storeroom. The sliding door rattled a little as she pulled it opened, retrieving a broom made of bundled straw and a dustpan.
A little restlessly, she made her way from one end of the house to the other until she finally made it to the genkan, which was Chinese for ‘place where you take off your shoes’. It made sense that they had a special word for it, since all Chinese people hated shoes in their house. Vietnamese too, she supposed. Xinh had not been happy that time Emma walked in with her boots on.
Emma paused for a moment expectantly before she headed back to the storeroom for a rag and wooden bucket. Wetting it just the right amount, she started scrubbing the dustless floors of the house.
She probably couldn't have imagined doing something so tiring back in her first life, but Uné was made of sterner stuff. She methodically scurried through the house, scrubbing every surface that wasn’t tatami until it was clean enough to eat off of.
It was way past her usual bedtime now. Gosh, why were there so many chores to do today?
Emma was about to start cleaning the windows when she heard the front door open. Dropping everything, she quickly ran into the genkan and leaned against the wall, giddy, but also a little nervous.
“I’m home,” her brother said absently.
"Heard you got demoted," she blurted out.
"…Was it Rin?"
Tsk tsk. Emma smiled. It was sad. Even with a crush on Emma’s brother, Rin had simply been unable to help herself. She was a scorpion—unable to stop herself from stinging the toad.
…Also, it was good that her brother didn’t seem too cut up about the whole demotion thing. Emma could privately admit that had contributed just a tiny bit to the smile. Maybe six percent?
“How many snitches do you know?” she asked.
Her brother eyed her from where he was taking off his shoes.
"You've gotten a lot more abrasive recently."
Bleh, he was trying to say that Uné had been a bit of a timid pushover, and it was weird that she wasn’t any more. Well, a lot had happened after all. Even excluding the stuff he couldn't know about, like his sister reawakening her memories as a brilliant Australian girl.
“You’ve gotten a lot stingier with your words recently,” she said, rather than defend herself. As her teacher said, counterattack was the true shinobi way. Defence was a trap, and hesitation was defeat.
Instead of replying like a normal person, he eyed her some more—very mysterious, so cool—before he shrugged.
Just a few months ago he actually did most of the talking between the two of them. Somehow things had reversed. Well, not somehow.
When ‘Emma’ had first ‘reactivated’, she did think about hiding the changes. For all of about three minutes before she realised that it was a fucking stupid idea, and probably impossible, anyway. She’d never taken acting lessons before, and she would have needed them if she was going to be pretending that snot-nosed, booger-eating seven-year-olds were intimidating in any way.
Uné had become less shy because she realised that little kids were literally little kids, and her brother’s weirdness had grown out of control because there was no real adult in the house besides her, and she wasn't ready to raise a kid yet.
…There were two orphans in the house, and she was the only adult of the two.
That was a thought.
For a moment, neither said anything. Only silence and the smell of cleaning chemicals filled the space between them.
She broke the silence first.
"What did they demote you for?"
Her brother looked uncomfortable.
“How are you doing at the Academy?” he asked instead. Shinobi…!
And what did that have to do with anything?
Emma narrowed her eyes.
“Are you picking a fight?”
“...You really have gotten more abrasive.” He scratched his head and mumbled something to himself.
Emma put her hands on her hips and stretched herself out to her full height, waiting for him to say something. She was taller than him. She was older than him (in life experiences). There was no such thing as an older sister who lost to a younger brother.
Her brother fidgeted for a bit before taking out…
“This is still yours. If you want it.”
She didn’t. Or hadn’t wanted it, at least.
Her chest constricted uncomfortably. It was a cringe attack. Embarrassment.
Emma focused on keeping her breathing even.
No matter how upset Uné had been, she probably shouldn’t have thrown it away, or called it stupid. That was just… shameful.
“I can teach you to use it.”
Then again, she’d been legit six years old at the time, so maybe Emma was being too hard on herself.
She wasn’t six any more, though.
“I should probably let you know that I’m planning to become an iné farmer,” she announced. As a 14 + 6 = 20 year old woman, it was about time she started thinking seriously about her future.
Maybe there was still a while until the Academy course was over, but it was plain as day to Emma that she wasn’t cut out for the shinobi life. Might as well prepare for life as a farmer now .
“...Huh?”
For some reason, Niisan looked positively bamboozled.
“It’s the Hatake tradition,” she said.
That was true, too. No matter what her dad and her brother were like, she fit in fine with the rest of the clan. Becoming an iné farmer was a fine future; everybody said so.
“...Huh? B-but…”
Help, her brother was so shinobi-pilled that he’d forgotten most of the family were just farmers. The Hatake Clan was a farming clan; it was literally in their name. Their house was surrounded in iné fields for goodness sake.
Aside from looking bamboozled, he also looked… disappointed. That wasn’t what she was expecting.
“Farming is important work for the village,” she continued, trying to sound challenging. “Besides, I’m good at it.” Dad had said as much. Sadly, still not as good as her brother, but the difference between their ability to farm wasn’t nearly as huge as the gap between them when it came to maths or kung fu wizard stuff.
He hesitated, searching her expression for something, before he eventually nodded.
“If that’s what you want…”
Emma scratched her neck.
“It is.”
There was a heavy pause. Her brother spoke first this time.
“You should keep this. It was supposed to be yours, anyway. And you might change your mind.”
He held it out to her.
“Thanks,” she said, taking it from him, but not looking at it. “But I doubt I will.”
As he moved past her towards his room, he paused for a bit and looked back.
“Goodnight, Uné.”
“Night.”
…Damn. She’d only just realised that despite recognising the counterattack, her brother had still successfully changed the subject. That was a well-known secret technique from Kumogakure.
Not in the mood for anything else now, Emma brushed her teeth then returned to her own room.
Changing into pyjamas, Emma sat on her bed.
She looked towards her study. It was still perched on the desk, as she’d left it. She got up from bed.
Emma was gentle and careful when she stored it away that night, but she still never wanted to see it again.
＊＊＊
Uné woke up drooling. The dango had just been a dream. Dad always bought some whenever he came back from a mission, so Uné was looking forward to the next time.
Then Emma was fully awake for real. She grunted, cleared her throat a little, then a little more, rubbed her bleary eyes before finally crawling out of her futon. Dango. She could buy some herself the next time she was in town. She had access to the household funds now, after all.
After a quick wash-up in the bathroom she was making breakfast again. Her brother was, of course, nowhere to be seen, so it was breakfast for one. Halfway through the food she realised she kinda wasn’t feeling it, so she opened the fridge and dumped the untouched eggs into her lunch box.
It was still a little early to leave the house. Emma squatted on the engawa and stared at the iné paddies just outside. The light of the morning sun was reflecting off of the water that they’d added back into the paddies.
A faint fragrance wafted by. She ran her finger along one of the plants. Nice and healthy.
It was the ‘shussui’ period now, which meant the iné was growing ‘ho’, the edible part. Iné plants could get crazy thirsty because of all the hoes, so you were supposed to flood the paddies to take care of that.
It was also meant to stop the plants from burning up during the summer.
Sounded stupid, but apparently it’d worked for hundreds of years already, so Emma wasn’t going to gift a horse in the mouth.
The plants in the paddies were covered in little flowers by now. This was the most important period in iné farming. Dad taught her that last year. The flowers weren’t very pretty, but if they pollinated well, Uné could look forward to a good yield.
In a week or two after that, they’d let out the water from the paddies and then it would be time to harvest. Emma fell back onto her butt and squinted. She could already imagine the fields of gold.
If things went well with her practice paddies, next year she could try farming a few of the proper ones.
There was nothing wrong with being an iné farmer. Maybe she wouldn’t get as much respect as being a shinobi like her brother would, but that was just the brainwashing. And it wasn’t as though that was a guarantee. All the adults had turned on Uné’s dad at the drop of a hat.
Emma poked the plant again. The timing for draining the water was supposed to be a little tricky. Uné’s dad was meant to show her when, but one of the aunties or uncles was prepared to do it in case he was away on a mission anyway.
Emma blinked. She wondered how her brother’s paddies were doing. They were on the other side of the house.
Considering how busy he was, she wouldn’t be surprised if they were a mess.
Ah, wait, jokes. He probably had all the time in the world now. He was demoted, after all.
Maybe they’d even get to harvest together.
Emma stood up from the wooden verandah and stretched. Maybe it was time to head out.
After grabbing what she needed, she put on her shoes and locked up the empty house behind her.
“Ittekimasu.”
That was Chinese for ‘I’m heading out now’.
＊＊＊
When she arrived, the Academy classroom was already noisy with chatter.
“Uné-chan! Good morning!” Rin waved brightly at her. For a moment, Uné saw fields of golden iné under the sun. It was a mystery how Rin was so cheerful in this heat. Probably a six-year-old thing. Wait, no, Uné was six too, and she certainly couldn’t access this magic well of infinite energy.
“Good morning, Rin-chan.”
As Emma took a seat next to Rin, her friend’s expression clouded with concern, but she didn’t say anything. Uné nodded to herself. Good.
Rin glanced at her a few times, obviously something on her mind. Uné tried to ignore it while they made small talk, but it was getting more and more ticklish.
"Spit it out, already, you're making me anxious," she said dryly, looking at Rin’s bothered expression. Emma didn't remember having this many worries when she was Rin's age.
Rin's eyes darted nervously around them for a moment. She leaned in to whisper.
"H-how has your Oniichan been doing?"
Emma paused. Ah, her brother? Right, the whole getting demoted thing that Rin 'confided' in her about yesterday. Gosh, Emma was really still half-asleep if she'd forgotten a second time this morning.
"Uh, yeah, he's fine, I guess,” she mumbled. Well, probably.
Rin patted her tiny little chest with her tiny little hands and sighed in relief.
"That's good. I was really worried."
For some reason she glanced at Uné's eyes a few times. Ah, right. They were probably still red. Crap, and now the skin suddenly felt really sore. Why did these things only happen when you remembered them?
“My eyes are red, right? Isn’t that because you keep spying for my brother? Night after night, I lie there with my eyes wide open, worried that you’re watching me from somewhere.”
Rin’s round face turned surprised, then flabbergasted.
“No, I’m just worried… And I haven’t even been to your house before!”
That was true. She was a Nohara, after all.
Emma’s clansmen probably wouldn’t appreciate Emma bringing over the enemy to steal their clan’s hidden farming techniques. Emma thought she could handle Rin, but it was too much trouble trying to argue otherwise for permission. Plus, Uné had been pretty spineless.
“Worried, huh?” Emma poked her with a smile. “Is that what we’re calling it when you need an excuse to talk to my stupid brother?”
“Geez, it’s really not like that!”
"Why are you being mean to Nohara-san!"
Huh? Emma looked up to find a silver-eyed girl standing akimbo. Ah, no, ‘white-eyed', actually. One of the Hyuugas in her class. Err, Wakana? No, Wakayo.
“Why are you saying things like that?” the older girl continued. “She's clearly just worried about you!”
“Ah, no, she’s just…” Rin-chan tried to say something, but Hyuuga bulldozed through.
“My parents told me about what your dad did!”
Emma froze.
“Huh? What did Kakashi-kun’s dad do?” asked another girl.
“A-ah, um, nothing,” Hyuuga floundered. “But anyway, just because you’re sad doesn’t mean that you can be mean to people for no reason!”
“She’s not being mean,” Rin tried. “She’s—”
“You’re being a push-over, Rin-chan! That’s when you let people get away with doing bad things!”
“Nohara-san is just concerned about how you’re doing!” someone agreed. One of the girls named Midori. The one from the Kazami clan. Emma would remember that.
“As your elders, we can’t let this go.”
“Geez, it’s really not like that!” Rin exclaimed.
Hyuuga raised a dainty brow. “You’re too soft. Do you think we’re picking on her?”
“She’s in the wrong!” Midori shouted.
“Aren’t we always inviting you two to play with us?” added the other Midori, in a rare show of solidarity.
"You never used to talk even when we wanted you to, but now that you do, all you say is mean things!"
"And always making these snide comments about Rin.“
Somehow more girls had wandered over to join in.
”Also, Kakashi-kun is a genius! You should have more respect for your older brother," added yet another, although who even asked her for her opinion, Emma didn't know.
To be honest, Emma hadn't thought all these kids had been listening in on her conversations with Rin.
“Actually, I heard it too. The other day she called Rin-chan a traitor…”
Emma rounded on the speaker. Great, even a boy had joined in.
It was that kid from the Nara’s subordinate clan.
I’ll remember this, Genpachi…
“I used to think she was a good, shy girl, but…”
“It just takes some time for her true colours to show, huh?”
“Yeah. We spent months trying to get you to talk. Now you’re finally talking but you’re just being a meanie to Rin-chan all day.”
“Um, I-I… Err…”
Oh, she was not being very elequant right now. Must’ve been the lack of practice from speaking to classmates.
…Was that how they all saw her?
Emma felt her lip tremble and realised in horror the space behind her nose was beginning to burn.
No. She was twenty . It didn’t matter how old this brain was, she was not going to embarrass herself in public! Never! You hear? Over her dead body!
Emma started to bawl.
“What’s going on here?!”
Oh great, another small child here to watch her humiliate herself.
“As an Uchiha, I won't tolerate bullying!”
Uné mostly remembered Uchiha Tekka for being the class monitor. Emma thought he was one of those children that liked to act like an inpartial arbertraitor.
The Uchiha were a powerful, old shinobi family, one of the founders of the village, and they took care of the policing around here. To be honest they were on the decline, but they were still scary enough that nobody would pick a fight with them head on.
“What? Who asked you? And we’re not bullying anybody, you idiot! Maybe if your eyes were any good, you’d see that!”
Oh, except for maybe the Hyuuga.
“A group of big eight-year-old girls like you are shouting at a six year old. What else do you call that?”
Emma sniffled, then furiously rubbed her face as the argument continued without her.
The Hyuuga and Uchiha really didn’t like each other. Uné had never really thought too much about it. Now that Emma was thinking about it though, it was probably because they were both old clans trying to be the ‘special eye’ guys.
You never heard them feuding with the Sarutobi or the Fuuma, even though they were just as old, and probably just as strong in the case of the Sarutobi.
It was just like how the Midoris in her class liked to emphasise how different they were from one another. Or like how Xinh hated being mistaken for Chinese, even though anybody could tell you that Vietnamese people were basically the same thing. Same holidays, same looks, they even lived in Cabramatta together. It was the hype of stupidity to make such a big deal about it, if you asked her, but insecurities weren’t so hard to get over, unfortunately.
When Emma had pulled herself together a little, she realised that a pudgy arm was wrapped around her. Emma only just realised she'd been curling in on herself. Ugh, did Uné's cowardice no-no bounds…?
After a moment, she sent Rin a grateful smile, then patted her hand fondly.
Fine. Emma would leave stupid her brother in Rin's care, then.
She honestly thought Rin could do better, but if it was what the girl wanted…
Maybe bland druggo eyes and wearing masks for no reason was considered stylish in this world, even though it was dead ugly. Kind of like how people used to wear baker boy hats when Emma was a baby.
Bang.
The classroom door suddenly slid open with a slam. Everybody flinched, mid-argument.
“I won’t let you bully Rin-chan!”
Oh, but it was just stupid Obito. That was weird. He almost never arrived before Sensei.
“Get to your seats.”
Ah. That was actually Sensei this time.
Tekka glanced coldly at Obito, then turned back to Wakayo.
“This isn’t over.”
Rin gently pulled Emma by the arm, and Emma let herself be guided to their usual seats. Obito sat on Rin’s other side and asked what was happening in whispers, but a glare from Sensei stopped that.
After one last sniffle, Emma settled down and pulled out her completed homework for submission.
Well, at least it was over for now. Hopefully Tekka and Wakana would keep feuding and forget all about her. Also, maybe Emma would be a little quieter from now on while making her in-jokes with Rin.