Title: nine point eight

Rating: T

Summary: Uchiha Itachi chose his village over his clan, steeled his heart and chose peace over his own blood. Izumi did not. (By the natural order of things, a young girl would one day willingly lay down her life for her love, and along with it, the lives of all her kinsmen. But I was not that girl; I was not that Izumi.) [SI/OC, Uchiha!OC, AU]

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Warnings: Language, violence, etc.

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nine point eight

"03: limelight"

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Time is ticking.

I briefly chance a small glance upwards, only to see that rambly-sensei has his head bowed over his desk, for all intents and purposes appearing to be wholly focused on grading papers from the other children in his class. But I know better than to blindly assume that grading papers is enough to remove the bulk of his attention from me, much as I wish for the contrary to be true.

… I can imagine it, sort of. Uchiha Izumi, four-almost-five years old, a little girl who didn't just finish the preliminary assessment tests at the top of her class, but completely aced it. And if rambly-sensei's rush to shove these other tests onto me in such a hurry right after of the first day of lessons was any indication of things, I had probably left the rest of my class behind in the dust by a significant margin, too… unintentional as it had been at the time.

Izumi, you stupid little girl!

Regret. Right now, I was experiencing so much regret. Not that regret was helping with anything at the moment… but still.

So much regret.

Objectively, if we're only just talking about the issue of these test questions themselves, it's not much of a problem. Of course it's not a problem. Why would it be? Heck, I'm pretty sure that I can complete all of these test questions on the assessment blindfolded. So it's not a problem, it's definitely not the problem. The test itself is not the problem. All these questions for practically every subject on this assessment test are simple enough, but that's not the problem–

Actually, no, wait.

… Scratch that, scratch that, scratch that. Y'know what? I take that back. Backtrack, rewind. The test is exactly the problem here.

See, it's just that the problem with the test isn't the difficulty of the test itself. Quite the opposite, in fact the problem lies precisely within the fact that the test is too easy. Way, way too easy.

… No big surprises there; seeing as how this is a test meant for children, for five year old children, but herein lays the issue at the heart of this all:

I'm not a child.

I'm not a child, I know that. Would you congratulate an adult for acing an exam meant for children in elementary school? No? Yeah, I didn't think so. I'd only thought to maybe skip around a bit at first, leave a few questions blank, but–

But the test questions are all so easy that they might as well all be the same in my eyes, for the most part. I'm lucky that rambly-sensei's only response to catching me go through the earlier assessment tests in class so effortlessly is to slap another pile of assessment tests on me; I can't even begin to imagine how much of a clusterfuck it would be if he caught me blatantly trying to sabotage my own scores. Especially now, not when he'd already pulled me out for having scores that were higher than the norm.

If anything, he was probably already onto my growing trepidation by this point –though hopefully he only had it pinned down as a little girl being nervous for being called out for another test by her sensei.

Fuck.

… Not to mention, I was pretty damn sure that they had some scale of measurement for the relative ease or difficulty of each question; if I chose to skip questions randomly here –then they'd know that I was deliberately trying to lower my own scores, which would then beg the question of why I would ever think to do that, and if they decided to investigate, if they–

"How are we doing on the test over there? Almost done, Izumi-chan?"

I give a small start at the sudden interruption into my increasingly-panicked thoughts. There is a small smile on rambly-sensei's face when he looks up from his papers. If there's something a little weak in my responding smile, well, it's not like there's anything I can do to regain control of this situation anymore.

… If I'd ever even had any in the first place.

I repeat: Fuck.

"Um, I-I'm almost done, sensei," I respond automatically, voice high and mind racing but not really being able to find it in myself to care about it at the moment. What am I supposed to do now? What can I possibly do?

The man's smile simply widens as he nods and turns back towards his stack of papers. "Well, that's some very fast bookwork you've got there, then; very impressive, Izumi-chan. In that case, let's just give it another ten more minutes before we move onto the physical portion, alright?"

I freeze.

… Hold on, you mean you were just testing me to see how far along I was in finishing this test… instead of actually expecting me to have finished the test by this point?

It takes great effort to restrain my lips from twisting into a grimace as something heavy thuds in my chest, and if the next few marks I make with my pencil are a little darker than all the others, well.

Well.

… I wonder if this is what it feels like to dig your own grave.

I… I really, really don't want to be marked as a genius, because I'm not. I'm not a genius. I'm just… normal. I had always been normal, average, and even just the thought of being marked as special for something that I'm really not is… it…

It doesn't sit well with me, I admit, earning something that does not come of my own merit. It also scares me, because I have a faint idea of what it means to be marked as special in a world like this, a world ruled by shinobi. Just take a look at Uchiha freakin' Itachi, for crying out loud! And I am also perfectly aware that the only reason why I might seem to be a genius at this point is simply because of my mentality as an adult, instead of there being anything about me that really points towards me being an actual genius in the way a true prodigy is.

Put simply, right now I only seem special because I'm a grown woman in a little girl's body, and most people currently see me as a little girl, as little Uchiha Izumi. It's true to a certain extent, since I am Uchiha Izumi –I am Uchiha Izumi, the daughter of Kobayashi Ichiru and Hazuki– but if there is one thing that remains true about the Uchiha Izumi that I am today, it's that Uchiha Izumi, when things come down to it–

–is nothing special.

Uchiha Izumi is nothing special.

… I might seem special now, sure. But in a few years? When children my physical age finally grew up and matured and lost their innocent outlook on the world? When they developed their own skills and talents, found their individual specialties and callings? When they grew into their own potential at long last and realized their strengths, when they became capable of standing tall and proud on their own two legs with their heads held high?

What would make Uchiha Izumi any different from them, then?

… Aside from fearing the thought of being marked and singled out as special for questionable purposes, I… I also fear being first marked as special, then found to be lacking a few years down the road, when it would be inevitably discovered that Uchiha Izumi is just… Izumi.

Plain, boring, run-of-the-mill Izumi.

Because what would happen to me, then? What would happen when someone thought to be special really isn't, what would happen to them, then?

(What can happen to them, aside from being discarded? Disposed of? … And that's only if there aren't any suspicions raised along the way, if there isn't…)

My reasons for not wanting to be marked as special are perfectly valid, I think. And it's only now that I've already been marked as special by rambly-sensei that it really hits me, how such a small, careless misstep on my first day of school has led to such a situation. It's not a perilous, life-threatening danger yet, but there's no denying that it's dangerous all the same with the potential to escalate further, and I quietly resolve to myself to never, ever run headlong into anything ever again without double, triple checking everything.

Never, ever again.

…

For now, though… I'll be honest:

I dislike it.

I fear it as much as I dislike it.

I thoroughly fear the thought of being any more special than I was already found to be. But, like rambly-sensei had mentioned earlier –he is a teacher, and he is a teacher for a very good reason. Moreover, he's a ninja. How many observations had he made of me already? How many conclusions had he already been able to drawn?

It… it's practically impossible for me to try and pull the wool over his eyes by this point, galling as it is, and in retrospect I can see how laughable my original plan was, to attempt to fool my teachers into thinking that I was only the average clever four year old.

I still have a chance, though. There's a small, slight chance that sensei won't actually notice if I hold back, if I deliberately mess up on a few problems or purposely decide to be inaccurate. But there's also a good chance of him noticing if I try to pull anything fishy, and given that there's not even twenty-something other children in the room to distract him anymore…

Which would be more dangerous: To be discovered as special and treated accordingly, or to be marked as suspicious for knowingly sabotaging one's own assessment scores in a ninja academy?

I take a moment to mentally wallow in despair, before rambly-sensei's voice breaks through the forefront of my thoughts again.

"Time's up. Let's move onto the physical test now, shall we?"

There's no good choice for you to choose from. Because of your own stupidity, you only have a bad choice and one that's even worse to choose between. So which one will it be, Izumi?

"… Okay, sensei."

I hand rambly-sensei my test papers with a numb sensation in my fingertips, and it's kind of funny, how such a simple little movement feels like shaking hands with my own impending doom. Impending Doom. If rambly-sensei notices anything off, he still doesn't say anything about it –he only flicks his eyes down to scan the problems briefly, flipping through a few pages at random, before he sets down the small stack of papers on his desk with what looks to be a small, satisfied smirk quirking at the edge of his lips.

… It's probably not a good sign.

"Follow me, Izumi-chan."

The physical tests that follow –the first portion are rather similar to the exercises from class earlier, but in higher intensity. Longer runs, harder sets, shorter breaks in-between. By the end of it all, the muscles in my body are burning… even in places where I didn't even know that I had muscles before. Ow.

And then there came the sparring portion at the end with rambly-sensei, which I fail, epically, much to my utter delight in the aftermath of it all, even if I hadn't quite appreciated it at the time.

See, aside from the fact that I haven't exactly been taught any formal kata yet, aside from the fact that I have zero experience in actually fighting, previous life included in that count… there is the small truth of the matter that I only have the body of a four year old child. Sparring, with a grown man and full-fledged chuunin?

… Yeah. 'You've gotta be kidding me' sounds like a pretty good summary for something like that.

To his credit, rambly-sensei had given me the equivalent of what he probably thought to be an encouraging smile… before he then proceeded to toss me around the dirt sparring ring like a rag doll. A rag doll that had already been put through the wringer by all the earlier exercises in the physical test, might I add.

Oh, I tried, of course. But it mostly ended up being all just half-baked attempts at blocking and punching whenever I could, more of the former than the latter, without any real idea of what I was doing. The clear-cut beat-down from sensei came as a solid reality check for me; even though I was leaps and bounds ahead of my classmates, ahead of all the other four and five year olds –like being better than toddlers was anything to be proud of– it wasn't enough, wasn't enough. Even though I had begun to train my body for the life of a ninja under the subtle nudging of my sneaky ninja parents, training for a fight and training by actually fighting were two very different things.

(Really, who did I think I was? Uchiha Itachi? Who was I kidding?)

Even though rambly-sensei was most definitely pulling his punches and likely just testing my reflexes by 'sparring,' it was something I would have to take steps to rectify on my own initiative. I doubted that sparring matches were anything that my parents had in mind for me as fitting training for a four year old kid…

"Not bad, Izumi-chan," is rambly-sensei's final verdict. "Your reflexes are… passable, but we'll definitely have to work on your sparring skills, ne?"

"Ashfkabrblargh," I respond, voice muffled from having my face pressed against the ground from the strange pin-hold that sensei has me in.

"… I'll take that as an agreement." Sensei shakes his head and lets out a sharp bark of laughter, before removing his knee from my back and oh god, fresh air.

There is a part of me that wants nothing more than to just roll over onto my back and lie there the moment the last of my tests has ended, panting like a dog. There is another part of me that quails in fear at the thought of my mother finding out about it, though, so I struggle to heave myself to my feet again, all the painful groans and complaints of my body be damned.

Oh, the things I do for the sake of the Uchiha name.

The chuunin sensei simply looks at me for a moment while a stand there trying to catch my breath, and it's… nerve-wracking, almost. I hadn't tried to hold back at all for the physical portion of the test; I didn't have much to be holding back in this department in the first place, anyways, so that was a bit of a moot point. It's pretty clear that this last test was an absolute disaster, the sort of disaster that there was no working around for me. Surely, it would bring down my scores by a fair bit.

… Why is he still staring at me, though? Was there anything wrong with what I did? … Did I unintentionally let something slip again?

Ugh.

(Please, let it be anything but that…)

"You're dismissed for the day," rambly-sensei finally says. The nervous knot of tension in my chest loosens. "It might take a bit for us to… process your results, but you've done remarkably well today, Izumi-chan. You should be proud of yourself."

Proud of myself?

… Che.

Believe you me, sensei, this entire exam is anything but a victory for me.

(Even so, I have no one to blame for it but myself. It's all rather depressing.)

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"How was your first day of school, Izumi-chan?"

Had I possessed even a single shred less of self-control over myself, I would've burst out laughing hysterically at my mother's innocent question. As things stood, though, I simply gave a meek little smile to the woman before bending down to remove my shoes.

"… It was okay, kaa-san," I respond instead, neatly setting my shoes aside by the doormat. "Sensei held me back for a couple of extra tests after class today. It was… um, interesting."

Pfffft, interesting. Kaa-san, you have no idea.

"Oh?" the beautiful woman raises an eyebrow, lips pursing as a teasing light enters her eyes. "'Interesting,' is it? … Did you find it hard? Is that why we're looking a little scruffy here?"

"Kaa-san!" It's easy enough to raise my voice into a plaintive protest, one that makes her openly laugh as she pats my head affectionately like any parent might do to their child. For a moment, I close my eyes and lean in to her motion, and I can pretend that I am just a simple little girl who came home from her first day of school.

The moment doesn't last long.

"So, how do you really feel about your first day, Izumi-chan, hm?"

The words themselves are innocuous enough. How do you feel about your first day, Izumi-chan? But given the reputation of the Uchiha Clan, the expectations heaped upon its children…

Of course I have no doubt that Hazuki cares for me, of course there is no doubt in my mind that she loves me, that she loves her dear little daughter.

(Hazuki loves her husband, loves her daughter, and loves her clan, too.)

"I think I did alright on sensei's tests," I respond, ducking my head down and trying my very best to keep the quiver in my voice to the absolute minimum. "… The written ones, at least. Not so much on the physical portion, though. Sensei hits really hard, kaa-san!"

The beautiful woman laughs again. "Don't be silly, Izumi-chan. How are we going to become a strong kunoichi if we can't even take a little pain, hm?"

It's easy as breathing, then, to curve my lips into an obligatory childish pout and draw out the indignant high-pitched notes of "Kaa-san!" But… nonetheless, I cannot deny the way something in my chest freezes a little at her absent-minded words. Because even though I know she means well, something about it still… hurts, just a little, in a way that is nothing like the pain of burning muscles or bruises from sensei's kicks.

(In a way that the pain from sensei's lessons cannot even begin to compare to. Strange, isn't it?)

"Tou-san will be back a little late tonight, I'm afraid." Oblivious to my inner thoughts, the lovely woman pats my cheek and straightens to her full height again, an elegant motion that is smooth and graceful. "Would you like to come out with me and buy some senbei tonight, dear?"

"… Senbei?"

"Mmhm. From Old Koku's shop down the street."

Oooh, Koku-ojii-san's senbei? A rare treat for us, considering that his rice cracker shop is practically on the other side of the clan compound. The rice crackers usually tended to be served with tea in our house for when guests came over, but once in awhile my mother would bring back an assortment of senbei to eat as a snack after dinner. I latch onto the distraction my mother unknowingly offers as tightly as I can, vigorously bobbing my head up and down.

… It helps that Koku-jii's senbei is tasty. Especially the seaweed ones.

(Part of me can't help but wonder if this is Hazuki's tacit way of apologizing to her daughter for her seemingly-harsh words –but then again, it's just as likely that she had already planned to buy some senbei tonight beforehand, and I'm just over-thinking things too much… as appears to be somewhat of a reoccurring habit by this point, unfortunately.

Best not to dwell too much on it.)

There are several other Uchiha clansmen that we bump into, on our way to Koku-jii's senbei shop. Hazuki stops every so often for a few lines of conversation when running into a familiar face, but even for those who we do not know on a personal level, there is at least a slight nod of acknowledgment in greeting.

I used to think that it was unnerving to walk through the Uchiha district. After all, there was always a voice in the back of my mind constantly reminding me that the majority of these people, normal and unassuming as they appeared to be on the surface, were all trained killers. A family of dark-haired, dark-eyed killers who all shared the same blood in their veins, it was–

'Unsettling,' I think is what I mean to say.

But…

But it's hard to hold onto such a mindset, when you know who they are. Shou-nii might always looks stern and scary and a little like he's constantly constipated, sure, but he's the one who helped us retrieve a rubber ball from the branches of a tree that day the children's games got a little carried away without so much as a word of complaint, even teaching us a few tricks while he was at it. Taka-oji-san has a habit of feeding stray cats when coming home from work at the Police Station. Sai-oba-san likes to pass out small batches of dried fruits every so often to the children who play games in the empty field around the corner of her house. Her dried persimmons are delicious.

… But still, I know they're dangerous. All Uchiha, even those who are shopkeepers and regular civilians, know some degree of self-defense. We might not all be ninja, but that does not mean all of us are untrained, given the world we live in.

I know that.

I know that, and I'd warned myself so many times before with hundreds of reasons not to get attached to them, to people like these. It's not worth getting attached, not worth it. They would all die in less than a decade if our lauded clan heir decided to go on his killing spree to massacre the entire clan. So what would even be the point?

(There's no time. There's no time.)

What would even be the point, indeed.

As I sketch polite bows and smile and murmur niceties by my mother's side as a good daughter is expected to do, for a moment, I am struck by a jarring sense of startling clarity: What the hell am I even doing?

Why?

Why, why, why?

If we're all just going to die in the end, then why do I even bother–

No.

Remember, Izumi? Remember what you promised? You're going to live. That's why you're doing the things you're doing, isn't it? No more doubting, no more faltering. Enough is enough.

…

By the time we reach Koku-jii's shop, I've finally managed to gather myself together again. It's a good thing that Hazuki had been mildly distracted by stray bits of conversation; I don't think I would've been able to explain myself to her, had she asked. I slip outside with a packet of senbei in hand while my mother is engaged with shop talk with a few others in the store, patiently waiting for her to finish so we can go home. But even with the newfound treats in hand, it's…

… tiring.

Yes, tiring is a good way to put it, considering everything that's happened today. Tired, uneasy, scared, terrified, but… like hell if I'm going to just give up even with all the odds are stacked against me, or my name is not Uchiha Izumi.

… I really need to keep my fingers crossed for what happens at the Academy tomorrow as a result of the clusterfuck that is my assessment test…

"Sooo, what's up with that glum look over here?"

I choke.

Or, well, it's a close call, at least. I very nearly choke on my senbei, and proceed to almost-trip over my own two feet out of sheer surprise when I spin towards the voice that had sounded right next to my ear. Had I really been so far lost in my own thoughts that I'd tuned out my surroundings?

… Crap. That is not a good habit to have.

"Hey, hey, easy there!" the young teenager laughs, mischief riddled in his voice but a light hint of concern glimmering in his eyes. "Sorry, did I startle you, little cousin?"

Dark-haired, dark-eyed, just like nearly every other Uchiha in the family. He seems to have gotten better luck than me in terms of what he got from the Uchiha gene pool; whereas I seemed to take after my father more in terms of features, his were more the well-defined elegance of 'classic Uchiha' just like Hazuki. I might not know just how closely we're related on the family tree, but it wouldn't be inaccurate in the least for him to be calling me 'little cousin.'

… It's strange, seeing such an open smile. Or perhaps not open, per se, but certainly free. The unfamiliar Uchiha who'd come up behind me on silent footsteps laughs a little at the ensuing flail-flounder motion of shock I go through to try and catch my balance again, neatly catching the packet of senbei I very nearly drop and flashing me a sharp grin that shows only the very faintest edge of teeth.

"There you go," he presses the senbei back into my hands, "'Kay, a penny for your thoughts, little cousin? You looked like you were ready to stare a hole into the ground just now –Koku-jii won't appreciate something like that right in front of his shop, I'll tell you that."

Urk?

"A-ano," I stammer, flushing a little from the good-nature teasing and still very much off-kilter and off-guard by the cheery cousin who'd all but suddenly materialized next to me out of thin air, for all I knew. "Ah, u-um, wouldyoulikesomesenbei?"

… And then my mind catches up to my mouth, and my cheeks burn, because that is not what I meant to say.

This is so embarrassing!

The awkward silence that falls between us only lasts for a single second, but then my unfamiliar cousin's face breaks out into a grin.

"Nah, s'alright." The hair-ruffle he gives me is rougher than tou-san's, but there's a distinctly light and cheery air to the motion that runs counter to the fondness that is ever-present in my father's own. "Thanks for the offer, though. Oi, Koku-jii! You've got a little lady waiting by herself in front of your shop! What, too cheap to be affording indoor heating or something? That's kinda just sad, Koku-jii."

"BRAT!" I cringe; for all that Koku-jii is getting on in age, the old man certainly still has a healthy set of lungs on him. "Just come in here and say that to my face, you little–"

"Causing trouble are we, Izumi-chan?"

Oh, thank god!

I promptly whirl around, "Kaa-san!"

Hazuki shakes her head, a teasing smile spreading over her lips. "Oh, of all the things to take after your father for. My, my, what in the world have I done to raise such a little troublemaker?"

"Kaa-san!"

The woman laughs at my pout. "Alright, alright, Izumi-chan… ah. I see you've made a friend out here?"

The teenager offers a bright-eyed wave. "Hi there, Hazuki-oba-san! So this is the Izumi-chan I've heard so much about?"

"Yes, this is my daughter. Thank you for keeping an eye on her while I was inside," A note of warmth colors my mother's voice as she turns towards me with a soft smile and nudges me forward from behind her leg. "Come on now, don't be shy. Let's tell Shisui-nii thank you, Izumi-chan, okay?"

"Thank you, Shisui-nii," I parrot obediently at my mother's urging, politely folding my hands on front of me and bowing–

–hold on just a fucking second here.

'… Shisui?'

.

.

…

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EDIT 7/23/17: Corrected misspelling of 'senbei' in the text.

Author's Notes:

Third chapter complete. Or technically fourth, I guess, but this is titled as the third chapter, so let's just call it the third chapter and leave it at that. 5k+ words this time.

Also, apologies for the delay in updates. Something very unfortunate and unexpected came up in RL last month, but I've mostly managed to work through it all by this point. Thank you for your patience.

In this chapter: Continuing on with Izumi's experiences on her first day of class, running into Shisui at the senbei shop (that's what the Itachi/Shisui question from an earlier chapter was for, in case anyone happens to be wondering about that). And that's a wrap for now! Next chapter we might actually be able to get to the Kyuubi attack, so I'm kind of excited for that, actually. Even if it doesn't quite end up happening in the next chapter, well, it should still be coming up pretty soon. So. :D Please look forward to that!

Any thoughts on how Shisui is being portrayed so far? We don't see much of him from canon, unfortunately, so I'm partially going off headcanons for how I think he might act here.

No other updates aside from nine today, sorry. I'll try to get an update out for wild current next week, but please don't quote me on that. On a side note, I will also be attempting to be more active on my tumblr these days, just so I at least get some writing done –a lot of what's over there are random things I reblog and small tidbits of writing that I haven't necessarily posted as a story here on FFN. Please check that out if it sounds like something you might be interested in. :)

Currently trying to get into the swing of writing by reading more fics. So, asking around for fic recommendations here again, please! :D Recommendations for any SI/OC fics are welcome, and any fandom is fine, too, I'm not too picky about that. (… I'm one of those people who tend to get into new fandoms via fanfiction, of all things. Is that weird? :'D)

On a side note, I'll also be doing my best to leave a review for whatever I read, because reviews are love. ;3 Just trying to go for a little variety with what I read here, so it's fine with me if you decide to rec your own fic(s), too.

QUESTION: How do you suppose the Kyuubi attack might turn out in nine-verse? ;3

Till next time,

XxZuiliu