((The science is wrong. I did that on purpose. Kyou only has a highschool education.))
The air was taking a turn for the chilly, carrying leaves of red and gold in playful swirls across the forest floor. It was autumn, and soon Kyou would be four. She had no idea when exactly, of course, because no one ever celebrated her birthday the way she had in her previous life, but that was fine. She remembered being born in autumn, so, once the first snows fell, she just added another year to her life. Easy.
What wasn't easy was the stupid Iceball.
She really shouldn't have brought it up. It was all Satan cared about, now, and she'd lost her precious 'but I'm a water type' excuse. Her chakra control exercises got harder as her father lost patience and she went to bed sore and exhausted late at night only to rise and repeat it all at the ass crack of dawn every morning. Her cousins took the opportunity to be even bigger assholes than normal, calling her all manner of names and poking fun at her inability to master the Clan jutsu even with her sharingan.
It was an all around bad time.
Her only respite came when the Clan took on larger missions. All the active duty adults and boys older than five left the village, and Kyou could wheedle out of group training since she was so obviously better than the other kids her age. On days like that, she almost always found herself at the river.
It had nothing to do with the possibility of certain Senju boys being there. Not at all. Except, yeah, it did. The river was a good place to practice her unorthodox jutsu away from prying eyes, and a ready source of water for her other training.
Like now, she was seated on the river bank, alone, with a jug of water nestled between her legs. She'd long ago mastered moving water with her chakra—an exercise she likened to Naruto's Rasengan training, with the water balloons—and had graduated to manipulating it in other ways. She took her role as the only Uchiha waterbender very seriously, though she sometimes lamented her uniqueness. Any other element would have made her life so much easier, but no, she had to be super special. Peh.
She placed her hands on the sides of the jug, the clay cold under her hands. Slowly, gently, she coaxed her chakra into it, the water's own inherent energy welcoming hers like an old friend.
In her past life, she'd been a lack luster student at a prestigious school. Just one of a hundred nerds all forced into the same space. While her peers competed over the .01 percentage that would decide valedictorian, she'd been perfectly satisfied with the mediocre prize of four extra science credits. No big deal. Not like she used them for anything. All her scholarships went down the drain when college proved too stressful for a student accustomed to effortless excellence.
Now, though, her high school awesomeness made her the most educated person on the planet. And by golly she was gonna use that education, this time!
Her understanding of physics told her that the whole "wind + water = ice" rule Shuji tried so hard to shove down her throat was nonsense. Complete and utter bullshit. Even an actual four year old from her old world would know that.
So, instead of trying to access another kind of chakra she probably didn't have anyway, she focused on getting the water to occupy less space. By decreasing the space between water molecules, she would lessen the amount of movement they made, thus forcing them into a solid shape, thus making ice!
It was science!
And it worked! Mostly. She usually ended up with a layer of ice on top of slush, but it was proof that this weird Naruto world used the same laws of physics she was used to—it just broke them whenever it felt like it.
This time, she was determined to get a solid block of ice. It would be the perfect thing to show Satan and waylay the inevitable beating that followed failure.
She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and focused. Ice. Ice. Solid, non-slushy ice. Come on, water, you can do it! Be a solid!
"What are you doing?"
Her eyes flew open and something cracked ominously. It was the jug. The jug cracked. Water spilled out from the holes in the clay all over her kimono. She leapt her feet with a startled yelp, and someone laughed.
She threw her hottest glare at the pair of brothers on the other side of the river, willing her rage to reach them.
Itama choked on his laughter, tanned skin paling several shades. Tobirama pulled a kunai from thin air and brandished it at her, red eyes cautious and afraid.
What?
Her anger faded in the wake of confusion. "Um, guys? What's wrong?"
"You cannot be serious," Tobirama spat. "What was that?"
"What was what? Seriously, what's going on?"
She stepped forward only to have Tobirama force his brother back. She turned, looking over her shoulder for a possible threat.
"I don't get it," she called over to them. "There's nothing here, guys—oof!"
Her face was pressed into the dirt, the sharp edge of a kunai against the back of her neck. Tobirama pressed a knee to the small of her back, pinning her in place with his superior weight.
"What the fuck," she exclaimed, spitting out mud and random detritus. "Seriously? What's wrong with you?"
She could just barely make out the red of his eyes from the corner of hers.
"Don't lie," he hissed in her ear. "You did something. I felt it."
"I didn't do anything," she insisted. "You're the ones who broke my concentration—and my jug! If anyone should be mad, here, it's me!"
"Aniki," Itama's soft, quivering voice cut through their argument. "I-I don't think Kyou-kun meant to do it."
"Do what? I have no idea what you're talking about!"
"See?"
Tobirama didn't look at his brother, but his grip on Kyou did loosen. She took the opportunity to kawarimi with a large pottery shard, the old jug already filled with her chakra, anyway. She made a big show of dusting herself off, using the time to calm her nerves.
Holy shit, Tobi was fast. How the fuck did a six—seven?—year old get that fast? Suddenly, she was reminded that, one day, she'd probably have to fight him. Shit.
She looked down at her muddy kimono with a groan. "Baa-chan is gonna kill me."
"Ne, Kyou-kun," Itama began hesitantly. "Do you know what you did?"
She rolled her eyes. "Obviously, not."
Tobirama glared at her over crossed arms. "You expect us to believe that?"
She began removing her kimono, the wet fabric clinging to her skin as she stripped down to her loin cloth—little kids were sexless beings, so they shouldn't notice her secret. "The truth doesn't stop being true just 'cause you're too proud to recognize it."
Kyou dunked the kimono into the river, the freezing water biting at her hands as she swished it around to clean it. It was still a bit muddy when she pulled it out, but it was better than before. Calling on her chakra again, she called to the water in the fabric, pushing it to do what it was already doing, but faster. The water drained from her kimono, obeying the call of gravity and rejoining the river in a steady stream rather than slow drips.
"Woah, Kyou-kun, how are you doing that?"
She looked over her shoulder at Itama. "Chakra."
Tobirama snorted. "Obviously."
ObViOuSlY. Peh!
She stuck her tongue out at the pale boy, taking cruel pleasure in the mud on his high waisted hakama.
When she put the kimono back on, it was damp, but not horridly so. It would dry before she left for home.
"You guys wanna tell me what just happened, or...?"
The brothers shared a glance, clearly having one of those silent conversations siblings were known for. If she knew them better, she might have been able to decipher some of it. Alas, this was only, like, the fifth time they'd seen each other. It was more than she'd expected, to be sure—she figured Tobirama would forbid his baby bro from fraternizing with potential enemies. Instead, he just...came with him? He just sat in corners mostly and did his own thing while Kyou and Itama played ninja games and stuff. This was the most he'd ever spoken to her, now that she thought about it.
"You hit us with killing intent," Tobirama said at last, scowling so deeply it would probably become permanent—oh, wait.
She cocked her head at him, taking a moment to lament the world where kids knew what killing intent felt like. Then,
"Oh."
A flush crept up Tobirama's neck. "'Oh'? That's all you have to say?"
She smiled sheepishly up at him. "Um, I'm sorry? I honestly forgot I could do that."
She had. Her amazing genius wasn't the only reason she had no friends, after all. Hell, Satan had named her after the horrifying skill—the day she'd learned that, she sabotaged all his sandals. The beating had been worth it. Alas, all her attempts at harnessing her anger went to waste. It activated whenever it wanted. She was just glad its favorite victim seemed to be Izuna.
"Wait, that's just a thing you do?" Itama looked horrified. "Even most adults can't use it like that!"
"If you knew you could use it," Tobirama interjected. "Then why didn't you realize you were doing it to us?"
She shrugged, crouching down to pick up the pieces of her water jug. "I just normally only use it on my family, I guess. It's not really something I can control, and I haven't been around you guys long enough for it to happen, yet."
"On your family?"
Kyou laughed in the face of Itama's incredulity. "What? They're assholes. They piss me off and get hit with KI. I have a temper, ok? It's no big deal."
"How old are you?"
Tobirama's question was so unexpected, Kyou cut herself on the edge of a ceramic piece. "I'm almost four," she answered around the finger in her mouth. "Why?"
Itama's horror and surprise finally became one, unnamable expression in stark contrast with his brother's perpetual grump.
"You can walk on water, perform kawarimi, use your chakra to manipulate water, and use killing intent at three years old? You must be some kind of—."
"Freak?" The grin on her face was a feral thing, all pride and challenge. "Monster? Aberration of nature? A bad omen the Clan should have left out in the snow to die? Please, tell me. I promise it's nothing I haven't heard before."
His glare lost some of its bite, red eyes wide from her tirade. "I was going to say genius."
She snorted. "I've been called that, too. It's never a compliment."
Unless her grandmother said it, but still. Satan didn't count.
"Kyou-kun," Itama's face was so comically sad, his sorrow rolling off him in tangible waves. "Do people really say all those things?"
She huffed. "Yeppers. I told you, my family is primarily assholes."
The heterochromatic boy perked up. "So, not everyone?"
Jeeze, it was really important to him, huh?
"No. My Baa-chan is nice. And, I guess, my mother's never said anything mean to me, but she's never said anything to me, period, so I don't know if that counts."
"Kyou-kun."
She waved off his pity like a persistent mosquito. "It's fine, it's fine. Don't worry about it. I'm sorry I blasted you with hatred, or whatever. Can we talk about something else?"
Itama looked like he might pursue the issue, but Tobirama came to her rescue.
"What were you doing when we interrupted you? It looked like a chakra exercise."
She sighed bodily. "That's because it was. I—." She cut herself off. Fuck. How much could she tell them without outing herself as an Uchiha? Sure, they were sympathetic now, but Uchihas were enemy number one. All their five days of friendship would go down the drain if she spilled too much.
Still...Tobirama was the greatest suiton user of his generation, right? Or was it ever? Either way, he might be able to help her out...
Hrm.
"Ok, here's the thing." She sat on one of the larger rocks, crossing her legs and propping her elbows on her knees. "I'm the only one in my Clan with suiton chakra. Everyone else has either katon or raiton."
"Woah," Itama said, popping a squat on another rock. "That's so weird!"
She snorted. "So I've been told. The problem is," she continued, barreling over Itama's frantic apologies. "My Clan has this coming of age jutsu everyone has to learn before we can take missions or go out to fight. It's katon, so I suck ass at it. I convinced Satan to let me try a water variant, but I suck ass at that, too." She spread her hands in a 'what can you do' gesture. "He'll probably beat me within an inch of my life if I can't get it by the time winter rolls around, and I'd rather avoid that if I can. Think either of you can help me?"
Given their stunned expressions, maybe being so frank about her situation was a bad idea.
"It's fine if you can't—."
"Tobi can help you." Itama said it with such surety, his confidence all but illuminating the air around him.
Maybe...maybe the animators hadn't been exaggerating when they worked on Hashirama. Itama bounced from emotion to emotion with an elasticity that made Kyou's head hurt. If his brother was anything like him, she felt very sorry for Madara.
She looked at Tobirama, surprised to find him looking at her. "You don't have to," she said while sincerely hoping he would. "I can figure it out on my own."
He hummed, red eyes calculating in a way she'd never seen before. "What are the hand signs for the jutsu?"
"Hey, now I can't just tell you that! You'll figure out what Clan I'm from, and I kinda like this whole plausible deniability thing we've got going."
The Look™ he gave her made her feel all kinds of stupid. A first, as far as this new life was concerned. "Plenty of jutsu share hand signs. Just tell me."
Hmph. Fine then. "It's Snake Ram Monkey Boar Horse Tiger."
His hands blurred as he performed the signs. Nothing happened. Not even smoke.
Was she...better than Tobirama at the Fireball???
He huffed, then tried again, ending the jutsu on Dog, this time. Nothing happened, but he seemed satisfied with something.
"Try ending on Dog."
Ok...?
She had no idea how that was supposed to help, but he was the one with an entire scroll full of forbidden jutsu he invented, not her. She did as she was told.
Immediately she noticed the difference. Her chakra was actually answering her call! It built up in the back of her throat and she opened her mouth to let a horrifying stream of water out. It came out her nose, too, so nasty. Ugh, she wanted to gag.
But it was progress!
She wiped her face and grinned at the older boy. "That was awesome!"
His smug look of superiority was tainted by the slightest flush on his pale cheeks. "It was simple. Tiger is for fire, Dog is for water."
Wait, really?
"I had no idea," she said honestly. "Satan never told me anything like that."
"Who's Seitan," Itama asked innocently.
Her good mood soured.
"He's my father," she said with a sigh. "His name's actually Shuji, but I call him Satan."
"Why, what does it mean?"
"Hmm, I guess the closest equivalent would be Saidai Mao."
"Ultimate Demon King!?!"
She laughed at Itama's expression. "Yep! It suits him perfectly."
"Your father will beat you within an inch of your life if you don't get this jutsu down by winter?" Tobirama sounded confused, and she was momentarily proud of old Butsuma for keeping his kids as sheltered as they were.
"Yeah. That is, if he doesn't kill me outright."
"What kind of father would kill his child?"
Oh, Itama.
"The kind who already has." She grit her teeth as the memory replayed in her mind's eye, perfectly clear with sharingan sharpness. "He killed my brother, you know, because he wasn't perfect. He was born with only one hand, so Satan killed him for being useless and then told everyone he's died of illness. Nobody bothered to check the coffin."
Itama was horrified, as expected, but Tobirama looked ill. Ah. His albinism might have been treated similarly, had he been Satan's child. Lucky him.
Maybe...she should stop traumatizing the poor boys.
She leapt down off the rock and smiled up at Tobirama, the expression genuine for once. "Thanks so much for your help, Tobi-san. I might actually live to see spring, now."
Just one more, for the road.