"If I had a wish," said Kakashi drily, "I'd wish that Naruto and Sasuke got along better."
"Hmmm. Okay. Here goes."
"Wait, what?" asked Kakashi as he felt SOMETHING change.
"Matrilineal?" asked little Sasuke Uchiha. "What the heck does that mean?"
One of the doctors paused. "Where did you hear that?"
Sasuke frowned. He wasn't sure what to say as it hadn't been a conversation he was supposed to overhear. Well, he could always do the obvious lie. "Read something about the Sharingan being that."
"Well, it's true," said the doctor, who worked with the Uchiha clan fairly frequently. "Matrilineal means the Sharingan is passed along the female line. If a male Uchiha marries a non-Uchiha woman the chance of passing on the Sharingan drops to one-in-twenty. If the mother is an Uchiha and the father is not, it's roughly fifty-fifty chances. If both are Uchiha descent, it raises to nearly 100% chance of the genes for the Sharingan being passed on to their children."
"Oh," said Sasuke, frowning as the five year old considered that and discarded it. Girls were a pain anyway.
"What was that?" asked Kakashi.
"A change in the timestream. Changing the Sharingan from patrilineal to matrilineal isn't a very big change, right? They tended to retire their women from active ninja duty anyway, just to keep the bloodline from dilution."
"Oh?" asked Kakashi. "How would that change anything?"
"Why? Why did you kill them all?!"
"To measure my strength."
"See?" said Kakashi. "No change."
"You didn't notice anything different?"
"No, I've read the reports, there's nothing different about that," noted Kakashi. "Sasuke ends up a mess after that... Wait. Did Itachi look different somehow?"
"No. That would have been too obvious. However, the clan hasn't been entirely culled by Itachi due to the matrilineal nature of the Sharingan gene. He arranged to leave both Sasuke and his little sister alive."
"Oh, well, that's good, I... 'little sister'?" asked Kakashi.
"Because of the matrilineal nature of the Sharingan, they decided to keep trying until they got at least one daughter. Also, Uchiha clan girls have a certain reputation."
"What? You're kidding. You mean-"
"Silk Hiding Steel. Yamato Nadeshiko. Whatever tag or trope you want to use."
"Oh," said Kakashi, sagging in relief.
"So Sasuke has a sister who is one year younger than him, and who happens to like Naruto. A lot. Who has repeatedly beaten up her big brother for being mean to Naruto."
Naruto blinked. "Now THAT I'd like to see."
Sasuke grunted and went to a post, settling down into a stance.
"Ah. Oniichan. You're back. How did it go with team sorting today?"
"I'm on Team 7 with a screeching harpy and that wastehead."
"Which 'harpy' and which 'wastehead'?" asked Sakaki, stepping out of the house while peeling a carrot.
"Sakura Haruno," said Sasuke, just glad it wasn't Ino. If it had been Ino he'd probably have to peel her off of him regularly. How troublesome that would be.
"At least it isn't Yamanaka," consoled Sakaki, unknowingly echoing Sasuke's thoughts. "Maybe I can get her a hooded jacket or something to cover that hair for stealth missions. So who's third?"
"Uzumaki-" began Sasuke, who then dodged left.
KA-THUNK! went a peeling knife into a post.
"Ara, my hand slipped," said Sakaki, putting a hand to one cheek.
"What DO you see in him?" practically growled Sasuke, not fooled at all.
"He's hardworking, exercises, has the Uzumaki bloodline," said Sakaki, counting things off on her fingers, "never gives up, never backs down from a challenge, is inventive, and he's got cute eyes."
"He's an idiot," said Sasuke, after checking to make sure she didn't have any sharp objects in her hands.
"Well, he's certainly not a Nara," noted Sakaki.
Sasuke was struck, as he frequently was, by how close Sakaki resembled their mother. And the thought of her together with Naruto was enough to-
Sakaki's hands dipped into her apron pocket and emerged with things that all shared qualities like "sharp" and "pointy" and that he knew from experience were painful when they hit. Not that his sister would repeatedly stab him with such. No, she'd be more like to stab him once and then start beating the ever-loving stuffing out of him once he'd slowed down some.
"He's an idiot," stated Sasuke, preparing to dodge. "He's useless. He has no talent for ANYTHING."
Sakaki considered that and put the sharp-pointy handfuls of death back into her apron pocket.
Sasuke wasn't fooled. His sense of danger just kicked into second gear.
Sakaki was suddenly holding a shinnai in her hands. "Oh? Did I hear my beloved big brother telling me that he was going to help his hardworking team-mate develop the skills necessary for them both to survive?"
"Uhm, yeah," said Sasuke. "Something like that."
"Ah," said Sakaki, tugging on an invisible wire and pulling the peeling knife back to her hand as the other hand put the shinnai away. "That's what I thought. You're such a good big brother."
"Uhm, why would she like me?" asked Naruto. "I mean nobody likes me. Like that I mean. Not that I'm complaining."
"Actually there are three girls who like you, not counting Sakaki Uchiha."
"You're kidding me," said Naruto.
"Four if you count Ayame, though she views you like a little brother and anything else is extremely unlikely to develop."
"Who?"
"Not saying. One sees you truly and admires you for your faults and your determination in overcoming them. One sees you as someone who faces adversity every day and seeks to overcome that challenge. The third just thinks you're really cute and wants to cuddle you. None of them really count as girlfriend material right now due to you all being too young for such things. A fourth hasn't met you yet, but would find your chakra patterns mesmerizing."
"Aw. C'mon. A hint?" asked Naruto.
"Nope. So that takes care of Kakashi's wish. Now for Naruto's. To be awesome. Awesome jutsu. Something that can't be stolen easily. Weaponmaster. How to do this differently..."
"How about something besides a weapon?" asked Kakashi. "You wouldn't believe how many kunai he's lost in target practice."
"He has? Oh. So he has. Okay, probably have to backtrack out that scene with Neji and Tenten. And - okay. Maybe this will do."
Read the comments on this episode
(Posted Thu, 09 Jan 2014 16:01)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.