#shigure earned those degrees in a past life and he's gonna use them damn it

[vermillioncrown]

Naruto si-oc...?

it's so self-indulgent y'all gonna spit blood

nrt is one of those worlds where if you're just a regular dude with nothing, prepare a coffin as soon as you leave elementary school.

also, i gotta leverage my knowledge and skillset. best way to do so? sharingan (will explain in a bit)

=

lore is that reincarnation is rare but not unheard of (even in canon nrt). but in the uchiha clan specifically, a reincarnator/transmigrator cannot fucking hide from the clan.

those that have not properly moved on from the pure lands, have not properly washed their previous life away and have been called back, are called 'sleepless'. and it's always obvious to the uchiha bc this tends to happen when a previous life has ended in such a traumatic manner that earthly burdens still cling onto the soul.

sharingan eyes awaken with trauma. if you have a kid that awakens their eyes without probable cause and they're just... not right, you got a 'sleepless' on your hands.

life and death, and their place in the cycle, are highly revered (ie, why izanami to counter izanagi), so when a 'sleepless' reveals themselves the clan knows but they are to be left to their own devices. treated like polite ghosts, as long as they do not cause harm to the clan. they've lived and died, and while the clan takes care of their own, this is not their time.

it's to protect both the clan from outsiders ("what??? ahahaha there's no necromancy wtf aaaaa!!!") and the peace of the dead. to outsiders, these clan members look like persona non grata within their clan.

it's also easy to catch out 'sleepless' in the uchiha bc their physiology is made to accommodate the sharingan's advantages, so any past life mental advantages (the precociousness of accelerated development) really show themselves.

=

okay that's the setup. how did i up the ridiculousness?

=

keeping the fucking moon shit bc it's a great excuse for zetsu going around, trying to make perfect sage genetics bs

what happened to all the senju? they just slowly disappeared? with them and the uchiha being co-founder clans of konoha, it's not like they wouldn't start having liaisons between each other.

in comes a senju bastard-uchiha oopsie baby (a double bastard, if you will), surviving by a sliver of a chance. the baby is weak. albino. it's the middle of the second war.

fortunately for the baby, their grandfather is uchiha kagami (first ripple: somehow uchiha kagami lived past the ripe age of 25 to have his own kid). takes one look at the kid, the lineage, and thinks "that's like a baby tobirama-sensei". the baby is kept with the uchiha as the senju bastard mother has no family clout, and the uchiha father is needed back at the war front.

uchiha shigure (drizzle, autumn shower) is taken back to the clan.

as the second war goes on and ends, baby grows into quiet toddler, the other uchiha scoff at kagami for raising this double-bastard-doesn't-even-look-like-an-uchiha child, defective, of course you had a soft spot for lord second, ugh you sentimental -

the toddler has been too quiet recently. his face scrunched, hands pressed over eyes, a low whine of pain -

what kagami thought were albino red eyes were first-stage sharingan eyes (how long have they been on?! he should have been more observant, but the toddler's such an easy kid, keeps entertained without others, and-)

a clan meeting is held. 'keep watch', are the only orders.

so uchiha kagami keeps watch over his grandson. it's still easy. he needs to tell him to turn off the sharingan more often than not ("it's not healthy for a growing child" and the face of neutral displeasure he gets is... hm.) it's more natural for kagami to test the waters, so to speak - phrasing that might be a bit more mature, complex, to see if shigure can follow along.

maybe not always the first time, but never more than twice is needed.

it's as if liberty was given for shigure to talk. because, wow, can that child talk. about anything and everything.

and he uses his eyes for the most innocuous things.

"shigure-kun, there's nothing in the water. you'll hurt your eyes."

he's been staring at the fountain for the last hour.

"this spout is the most... perfect spout. look at that water flow - ... it's..." shigure's face starts scowling. "- that word. what's that word? smooth. perfect. layers. hmm... no. ugh, is the character the same -"

... okay.

=

it's not until the nth convoluted dialogue that kagami finds himself entangled in by his grandson ("- but what about... mmmm same thing?? same, multiple thing -" "-redundancy?" "yeah, redundancy? if the first location fails -" on village infrastructure and piping) that kagami brings up a point at the next clan meeting.

"i ... think i know who -"

the other uchiha cut in

"you know the rules, let the dead rest -"

"how can that be, there's never been a case of -"

"who -"

a steadying breath. exhale.

"senju tobirama."

...

...

fucking pandemonium erupts.

=

on uchiha shigure's end:

as shigure grows older, and grows in a clan that seems to just... know and he can't hide what would be his biggest secret in, he just doesn't give a shit. the clan's not too bad; they're kinda weird and cagey, but his 'grandpa' is nice and listens to his rambling. gives into curiosity and learning, with the eyes to facilitate it.

'i can see shrimp colors now, and i'm unstoppable' is their thought

cognitive biases exist, and what happens to be a former naruto-weeb trying to test the limits of the universe -> looks to be an unshackled senju tobirama allowed to go on a research binge. differences in perspectives based on cultural background and societal upbringing turns into uchiha kagami having flashbacks to his sensei's wackass sideways thinking that you'll never see coming.

pragmatic to a fault. blunt. but protective and caring in his own way.

the final sticking point - elemental affinities. it's not completely genetic, spirit affects it as well (big thing on nature/nurture, product of environment, blah blah blah)

so genetic predisposition would yield a fire affinity.

but the spirit yields water.

=

"he's lord second, i'm telling you-"

money exchanges hands, but "stop calling the name of the sleepless, it's bad luck-"

"technically not the name, but -"

"oh, we're so cursed now -"

=

"... do you think we can... leverage him for... advice, maybe, on -"

"- let the dead keep their peace -"

"- would he even help us?"

"- why would you make the poor man lead again?!"

=

besides the fuckery hidden in the clan meetings, the uchiha children are taught to "be polite to shigure-kun" but to not mention him outside the compound. they know nothing.

-> all the kids end up thinking he's the clan ghost (like, literally a ghost) that only uchiha with their special eyes can see.

doesn't help that shigure is kept inside whenever the sun is too bright, and tends to wander at night.