Chapter Text
Uchiha Aki comes into the world as silently as he leaves it. Grasping at thin air, coughing. Too small to protect himself. That’s what his parents tell him anyways. They put a lot of value on strength. His older brother, Torashi, soaks up these teachings easily. Aki, on the other hand, thinks too much (or perhaps too little).
The Uchiha clan is important, they tell him. He might be expected to lead it one day, they tell him and his siblings. He frowns. Responsibility sounds tough for a three year old. He sits silently through the lesson like he’s been taught. But he doesn't understand much of it.
“Don’t worry, Aki-chan,” his older sister, Mikoto, tells him, “They don’t expect you to lead anything unless Torashi-nii dies.”
Aki thinks this was supposed to be reassuring. In a weird way, it is. His sister understands the world more than he can imagine at this point. She’s regal, obedient, but still nice. Torashi, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to care much for niceties. Mikoto tells him it’s different for girls, but Aki likes to think he’s still nice. Mikoto laughs when he tells her that.
Torashi is different from Mikoto. Mikoto answers his question with ease. The few times Aki has tried asking Torashi anything, he was shooed away. The last time he tried, he was screamed at. Torashi is different from Mikoto, Aki knows. However, after studying more clansmen, he starts to wonder if it’s Torashi who’s different, or Mikoto.
Everyone is stoic and so very hard to read. Reading Mikoto’s emotions can be a chore on the best day. Understanding what another clansman is really saying is another can of worms entirely. They berate him for being blunt and to the point, but they can’t extend the same courtesy to him. Instead expect him to keep guessing at meanings behind flowery words. His parents put him in a class specifically to teach him this - but it predictably does not go well. He decides he doesn’t like flowers.
His birthday is in autumn. This is a fact many discover quickly after learning his name. Aki - born in autumn. Another fact is that the academy starts in autumn for anyone over the age of four. Aki celebrates his fourth birthday, and the next day ventures outside his clan’s quarters for the first time.
Classes at the academy are easy. Again, he tells this to his sister, his confidant. She laughs in the polite way she does. “We’re Uchiha, Aki-chan,” she explains in the way he thought only adults were able to say something without saying anything at all.
He hears the phrase more at the academy, however. “He’s an Uchiha,” they say when he answers a question correctly. “He’s an Uchiha,” they say when refusing to partner with him for sparring. “He’s an Uchiha,” they say when refusing to sit next to him. The phrase seems to have multiple meanings, Aki discovers. Being an Uchiha is more complex than being civilian-born, that’s for sure.
He switches classes for the first time early in the school year. The children here are older, but still as judgmental. Clans tend to stick together, but Aki moves around too quickly to find a clanmate to glue himself to.
At age six, Aki wonders what it means to be an Uchiha. He scowls at Uchiha Fugaku, clan heir. He is to be wed to his sister. Aki thinks he’s much too old and strict for her. His sister laughs like he has made a joke when he says as much to Fugaku’s face. He is serious.
“Fugaku-san understands me,” she says, hanging off his arm like a girlish doll. There’s something underneath her expression, but Aki can’t tell.
“I understand you,” Aki wants to say, thinks about saying. But if this were true he would understand why she’s not fighting marrying a man eight years her senior. Instead, he scowls, and gives Fugaku another look. His face has been stoic the whole time. Maybe if he’s willing to let Mikoto speak for herself, he’s worth something. Maybe.
Aki knows it’s an arranged marriage, that Mikoto has known of this all her life, but still he can’t wrap his head around it.
“This is what it means to be an Uchiha,” she tells him. “We’re molded into anything the clan needs.”
“The clan needs you to marry Fugaku?” Aki asks, scrunching his nose.
“Fugaku-sama,” she gently corrects. “Don’t worry about it, Aki-chan. Right now, the clan just needs you to do your best in the academy.” She ruffles his hair, and Aki doesn't complain about it.
Aki takes her words to heart, and graduates within the year. Alongside Inuzuka Akira and Nara Masako he studies under Hyuuga Kenji. A team filled with clan kids from branch families. Predictable on the surface. Under it, is another story.