An Eye For A Heart (Naruto Reader-Insert)

Son

I look the same, you think.

Your reflection on your bedroom's body mirror tells you so.

Same hair, same eyes, same coloring. Once your childish characteristics mature, you've no doubt that you'll grow similar to yourself.

(Yourself, before you died.)

You barely look like this life's current parents. Undoubtedly Mikoto's and Fugaku's son, only because you're born with a twin that looks like them. How fortunate, as it wouldn't bode well for Mikoto to be accused of being unfaithful.

Unprompted, you wryly smile at your own predicament-- eyes crinkling but no teeth showing.

No matter your attempts, your smile never looks sincere; fake, and you think it's fitting for this world that shouldn't exist.

(It's all fucking hilarious, because you just had to be born in a doomed clan from Naruto.)

And you ask yourself,

What is the point of all this?

~*~*~

Mikoto tries to get close to you, to rekindle the bond you once had before your Awakening. You don't let her, and she doesn't force herself.

She tries the same with Itachi, but unfortunately, the boy is just naturally aloof and awkward, and you internally laugh at Mikoto's luck on birthing children with socializing problems.

Eventually, she gives up, and you wonder if this is the reason why Sasuke would be born-- for Mikoto's desire to be a mother.

Hah... This family is just cursed in more ways than one.

At least it's all temporary.

~*~*~

Your only interaction with Fugaku is through training, but you don't really mind. It's similar to business formality, and you know how to respond to it better than Mikoto's half-hearted attempts to form a relationship with you.

You don't underperform, but you don't overperform either. Being average is easier and a lot less stressful in the Uchiha clan.

Itachi is better, Fugaku tells you when he compared your performances.

Fugaku is... a very soft and tragic man, you will later learn. Unfamiliar with gentle gestures, but is still thoughtful and wanting the best for his sons, and shows it through callous ways that he identifies with his own brand of affection. No doubt, a side-effect of being born as heir; raised in a pressured environment of expectations that doesn't go away even when he's Head.

(Despite it all, he still loves, and that's what made his end so tragic.)

Itachi is better, Fugaku tells you because he wants you to take it as a challenge to improve. Competition is a good motivator within such a prideful clan, and the clan is what he knows best.

(Even at his death's door, instead of telling Itachi "I love you", Fugaku tells him "I am still proud of you".)

He doesn't know when to be Head or Father, so he defaults to the former.

(Being emotionally absent is easier; you would know.)

Nevertheless, you unsettle him with a smile he's starting to see more often lately.