Izaku slowly opened his eyes, finding the same ceiling he had stared at the day before. Even though he could speak some words, he chose not to, much to his parents' confusion and disappointment.
Izaku had forgotten how infants react and behave, even at what age they start speaking. To avoid suspicion, he decided not to push his luck until he was at least one year old. As part of a potential Shinobi clan, any display of extraordinary intelligence might lead them to nurture him into a weapon, thus deciding his fate.
Izaku had always been very protective of his freedom and liberty. While it brought more responsibility over his actions, it was the essence of his way of life.
Hungry and thirsty, he decided to crawl downstairs. It was unusual; normally, his parents were already in his room before he woke up, but today, they seemed preoccupied.
As he was about to enter the guest room, he heard an outsider speaking.
"...and we think that they are planning to take action in the next three years."
'Take action? A battle plan?' thought Izaku as he overheard the stranger's words. 'Great, I might really be in the Warring States period. Shit, Must've been planning to attack the Senju or maybe their ancestors if my guess about changed names is right.'
"And I suggest we withdraw our spies in the other great nations to make them think twice before they start." Hearing that, Izaku's eyes widened, his heart pounding and sweat forming on his brow. He couldn't understand what was meant by "great nations." He hadn't considered the possibility of their existence during the Warring States period, or maybe he was wrong about the lore of Naruto before the Warring States, like the Kusagakure thing with the black box.
"I will think about it, but we need to gather more information about the whereabouts of other nations. If we withdraw them now, we could miss some crucial information because this would blow their cover." Izaku became confused, questioning if this was some kind of twisted joke, a different dimension he had been thrown into, or hypothesizing that the timeline was after Boruto and Sasuke and they were some sort of great-great-great ancestors.
"Thank you, Takahisa-sama, for reserving me time, but I would like to ask you, why is your child spying on us?" Izaku perked up, taken off guard. He didn't understand the choice of words when the stranger said "spying" rather than "waiting for his father." He thought maybe he had made some noise behind the door or the person had great listening abilities, but what came next made him realize more about the reality of his situation. "And from his chakra peak, I would guess he understood everything we were discussing," continued the stranger.
'Ah yes, chakra signatures and all that bollocks. Shinobi world. I really need to make my bloody brain understand that I am not in the 'normal' world anymore,' thought Izaku, annoyed by his ignorance and carelessness.
Takahisa looked at the door and smirked. "You can come in, Izaku. Don't worry, I am not mad. You are dismissed, Gokaku-san. We can discuss this matter another time." Gokaku stood up and bowed slightly before walking to the door. As he opened it, he saw the baby who had been spying on the conversation with an indifferent gaze and then left the mansion.
Izaku couldn't help but feel uneasy about Gokaku. But it wasn't the time to dwell on it; he needed to get to his father.
Izaku always kept his happy façade. It might be useless now because of what happened, but he decided to proceed with it anyway. He found it rather impressive how naturally it came. Maybe it was because the emotions in this body were multiplied due to him being a toddler, or perhaps the Uchiha blood gave a perk of heightened emotions.
Takahisa stood up from his seat, wearing the same blissful smile as Izaku, walking straight to him and lifting him up into a hug. "Come here, lil' shit, spying on people, ey?" Izaku laughed at his giggles. Despite being a grown-up, he sometimes liked the feeling of being a toddler again. "Oh yeah, you like peeking on people. Come on, we're heading out. Must've been boring staying here like a princess, wanna go out luv'?" Izaku hugged his father tighter while the other laughed.
As they walked down the compound, Izaku observed the different buildings. Some were modern-like with an Edo-era touch, while others were entirely Edo-era. The tallest building he had seen so far was a two-story structure.
Along the way, he saw men and women bowing while children smiled at them. They arrived at a grocery store and bought some fresh fish, vegetables, and utensils.
Izaku noted something useful: the compound was small, probably not more than 1 square kilometer, with no more than 200 inhabitants. Reflecting on the day, he theorized that it might be an inter-clan marriage where the Utsukuro clan married into the Uchiha clan, forming a marital alliance. More information would reveal the truth in time.
2 Year, 7 November
Fifteen months passed, and Izaku found himself exploring the house, sometimes wandering around the compound with his father whenever Takahisa had time away from his paperwork. However, most of his time was spent meditating.
Some might find it suspicious, but with his father running hundreds of laps each morning and meditating once a week, it could be seen as simple imitation. Yet, Izaku often questioned why he was meditating.
Izaku had no doubt that Takahisa had excellent chakra control, as part of having Uchiha bloodline, but he kept meditating. Izaku guessed that there might be more to it than what was shown in the series.
Initially, meditating was boring for the toddler, causing him to fall asleep within five minutes due to brain exhaustion. Now, he could meditate for up to two hours just fine. The strangest thing was that even though he still couldn't use chakra, he could sense it in everyone around him. He realized this ability when, after meditating for about an hour, the sensing feeling suddenly stopped and then resumed as if nothing had happened. Izaku thought about writing down everything he knew about this new world, where everything normal back home was abnormal here.
But the key word here was 'thought.'
He still didn't know how to write, so he asked his father to teach him how to read. Takahisa asked him why, and Izaku replied with the famous line, "I want to help Daddy!"
'Damn, being a baby is just amazingly easy to trick sum,' Izaku thought gleefully. What he enjoyed most during this phase, however, was choosing his first words.
It might have been silly, but that moment was something he would cherish for the rest of his life.
Flashback
Izaku was sitting at his baby table, getting fed by his father, Takahisa. For what felt like the hundredth time over nearly two months since the day Izaku had been caught spying, Takahisa repeated the familiar encouragement. "Say dad," Takahisa said, smiling sweetly despite his mounting frustration. "Just look at my mouth. D a d, daaad. You see? Try."
'You know what? Fuck you! Watch this,' Izaku thought, his patience wearing thin.
As Takahisa finished feeding him, he got up, but in the process, the plate fell to the ground, causing a loud clatter of plastic.
Caught off guard, Takahisa's frustration peaked. Not only had his son refused to speak, but he also seemed stuck in his toddler phase way past the norm. Unable to contain his irritation, he cursed, "Shit."
"Shit," echoed Izaku.
...
As Takahisa tried to process what just happened, Izaku gleefully smiled down at him. He had planned it all—the fall of the plate-of which was his izaku's fault- his father's frustration, and the habitual curse that followed whenever something went wrong.
Takahisa turned slowly, seeing Izaku as the embodiment of mischief, especially with his creepy smile. One might be traumatized for life. 'Hell yeah! You want me to speak? Here you go, piece of shit!' But then Izaku noticed the expression on Takahisa's face: surprise, disbelief, and... fear.
He couldn't understand why his father was so scared all of a sudden. It was just a simple word, nothing to dwell on.
"No, no, no, don't ever say that, okay? Be a good boy and don't ever say this, okay sweetie?" said Takahisa, his face growing more complicated.
Izaku, however, thought that while they were at this stage, why not add fuel to the fire.
So, he decided, all the while laughing and hitting the table, to say, "Shit!"
Takahisa, tired of all this petty drama, chose to take up his responsibility as a father and take the matter into his hands to discipline his son. It might be his fault, but he was still a man with kids, so he shouted, "NO! Don't ever say that. It's a bad word."
Unfortunately, Izaku, who had caused this fire, thought that he might as well add more gasoline to the forest fire, thus starting to fake cry.
Seeing that, Takahisa already started regretting his decision, the matter already spiraling out of control. He needed to take the situation back to the status quo. "Oh, sorry, luv'," he said, kissing Izaku's forehead and whispering, "I didn't mean to say it like that, but it's a bad word. I'm sure you understand. Never say it in front of your mothe..."
"Say what?"
Another family member of Izaku, Miss Akiko Utsukuro, walked in. She had brown straight hair and onyx eyes. However, her angelic face and figure might be deceiving to those outside the family. She was indeed a fierce woman, more an embodiment of tough love than his father, which somehow reminded him of his past mother.
Turning slowly, Takahisa adopted his usual smile but was sweating real bullets in the process. "Nothing to worry about, luv'! Nothing really!"
"Really? Then why did you tell him to..."
"Shit," Izaku interjected. He knew he might get beaten, but it was really a good show. It wasn't every day that he saw his oh-so-worshipped father scared of a woman.
His father might be kind and easy-going, but he knew when to set boundaries and did not take a step back when he knew he was in the right. However, this time, it was his fault indeed.
"What? What did he say?" Akiko turned to him with an enraged expression, glaring daggers at her husband. Izaku also felt the pressure coming from his mother.
Turning to his son, Takahisa that their current difference, mattered not when facing certain death, he whispered with a worried face, "I dam- I know you wanted this to happen, but right now, I think we should get out."
"Where do you think you're goin-" Just when Akiko was about to grab Takahisa, Izaku nodded.
Takahisa started running for dear life around the apartment. Turning a corner, he surprisingly performed one-handed seals, and a clone appeared, nodding to him. Izaku rested confused at the scene but understood when the clone went outside 'A decoy eh?', and they headed to the second floor to hide. Takahisa placed his son in the wardrobe and stayed beside him.
Three minutes later, Takahisa turned to Izaku with a worried expression, slightly scared. Izaku was confused for a moment, but then he realized why his father was worried. The wardrobe opened suddenly, and they saw his mother, slightly angry, or rather madly angry. Now Izaku understood why he looked at him like that, but the weirdest thing was that, while Izaku could sense people, he didn't sense her. Luckily, she didn't seem to notice the boy but dragged his father out.
"Ey, ey, ey, chill, chill!" Takahisa said, holding his arms in surrender while Akiko glared daggers at him.
"Chill? the fu-" stopping midway as she looked slight to the direction of her child, she continued, "What do you mean chill!? His first words was 'shit' ! not 'dad' not 'mom' but 'shit'!" She menacingly stepped forward as Takahisa fell to the floor.
"Yeah, I know, but look! It wasn't my fault! He said it, not me." Izaku looked at him with a betrayed expression. While he knew he had done him dirty, Izaku never knew his father was such a snitch! He broke the bro code!
"What? What do you mean!? I know you and your moronic problem with curses, you little piece of sh... and don't you dare say it's because of my angel!"
While watching the scene, a mother beating a father with strength Izaku never knew a woman could possess, he couldn't keep himself from the laugh bubbling inside him, so he started laughing.
The two stopped their scene, looking at him with a look of distress from his beaten father and a look of madness from the mother. Then she abruptly changed her demeanor, squealing and crushing her son in a hug that was a fair representation of her character.
"Oh, look at you, my baby boy! You are the cutest! You wouldn't say that, right? It's your father's fault, not yours!" As Izaku looked at his father for some sort of help, he could only see the smug look he wore when he saw his own flesh and blood crushed in her hug.
Flashback ends
"Good times, good times indeed," muttered Izaku as he walked down the compound. When he had asked for reading lessons, Takahisa hadn't expected him to grasp kanji and start reading in only six months. He knew it might be a VIP trip to become a copycat of Itachi, but as the saying goes, "Any whom that want to protect peace, shall prepare for war."
Izaku didn't harbor any grand ambitions; in fact, he only wanted to live in peace. Yet, he couldn't deny his interest in the world he lived in—the chakra, the history, the life. It was all extremely intriguing. After all, who wouldn't be excited at the prospect of breathing fire like a dragon? Naruto had been his favorite anime when he was a teenager. Sometimes, he had dreamed of being in that world and being a hero.
Returning to the subject, Izaku thought that reading was a good asset, thankful to finish the task early on. Because of that, he was on his way to the library of his clan, a gold mine for his curious self.
However, all that ingenuity brought him loneliness instead. As a book nerd, he was classed as boring by the kids in the clan. It wasn't much of a problem, as Izaku couldn't stand being with them. Once, in a family gathering, children were all brought together to play, but in that short amount of time, he already felt a drop in his IQ. So, he decided not to dwell on the matter.
As he arrived at the library, a small establishment that was quite empty, he entered through the front door. Walking down the rows of bookshelves, he arrived at the receptionist, who was already asleep at the desk.
Izaku pondered whether he should wake her up or not but decided that his curiosity was the priority. He tapped on the desk that was taller than him. The moment he did so, the black-haired woman woke up abruptly. She shouted, "Ah! Welcom—" but stopped herself when she saw no one until she looked down at the short-haired child.
Curiously, she found it rather cute that his serious expression made him look like an adult. "Hello there, need anything, cutie?"
Izaku stared back for a moment, annoyed by the blatant mockery of his height. He might be a kid, but it still stung to be judged by it. He sighed. "Hello, miss. Can you give me the direction to the history section of the library? It would be much appreciated."
The woman raised her eyebrows, finding it amusing how eloquently a child like him spoke. Already feeling self-conscious about how this kid had beaten her at being an adult, she laughed.
"Alright, that way," she pointed in the direction between the bookshelves, but she continued, "If you could spare the time, could you tell me how old you are? And of course, your name?"
Izaku, still looking at her with indifference, stated, "Izaku Utsukuro, two and a half years old." Before continuing, the librarian raised an eyebrow. "Would you please tell me your name?"
"Ah yes! Yui, Yui Utsukuro, nice to meet you." She extended her hand to shake his little one. Izaku reciprocated the gesture, "The pleasure is mine."
With introductions over, he walked in the direction Yui had pointed. He might act like a polite sometimes, but he only used this side of himself to avoid spreading bad rumors about his family.
As he browsed the books, he saw quite a few interesting titles: "The Mysteries of Hashirama's Death," "The Great War: The Calamity," "Turbulent Years of the Warring Clans," and so on. While intriguing, what he truly wanted were documents about his clan.
As he continued his search, he found it: "The Utsukuro Clan: Born for Peace," covered by the clan emblem—three inverted red tomoe with a white ring surrounding it on a black background. The title might have been a ray of hope for Izaku, but he knew that things could be different depending on how they played out.
As Izaku opened the first page, he came across two emblems he knew very well. At first glance, it seemed more like the book would discuss the warring clans period, given the names on the previous pages. However, what he read next shocked him.
Before the age of hidden villages, there was the Warring States period, where the famous Uchiha clan fought hundreds upon hundreds of battles against their rival clan, the Senju clan. The constant warring caused numerous casualties, and one man brought up the subject of peace during a clan gathering, but he was never heeded.
However, a few did listen, and those few decided to fake their own deaths and united to desert without anyone knowing, under one man: Nirinobu Uchiha. Having hated war due to the death of his sister, he promised her that he would bring peace to the clan. Before he could talk to the Uchiha's leader, he heard that Madara Uchiha, the heir, also dreamed of peace. He thought this would be a great opportunity, but as he listened to his fellow clan members, he came to think that the majority was doomed to be in a cycle of hatred.
Nirinobu rationalized that he would try to observe every clan member until, two years later, he would bring 36 shinobi with him into the 'death' door: 19 male shinobi and 17 female shinobi. They traveled out of the Land of Fire and made their hideout in the depths of an uncivilized area. It was hard, but they found it to be their heaven.
But nothing went as expected. After nine months of isolation, they encountered a group of shinobi who were later identified as Senju. When meeting one of them, everyone tensed and backed into their respective groups, expecting a move from the other. Fortunately, no one dared to move. The Senju had just escaped a battle the day before, and the Uchiha didn't want to fight again. So they started talking. The more they talked, the more they eased up. Through their conversations, they discovered that both groups were fleeing war, having made the same decision at nearly the same moment.
Later that day, they agreed on a non-aggression pact between deserters. They wanted peace. Months passed, and they started making friends with each other. At the time, one would have said it was impossible for a Senju and an Uchiha to have a friendship.
The hatred between those two clans was too strong. In the beginning, it was hard because every single one of them had lost a lover, a daughter, a father, a mother, a family member fighting each other. The hatred remained at first but slowly dissipated as they started opening up to each other, knowing each other, sharing the same pain. In the end, they accepted each other and made peace within their hearts.
For five years, they lived normally, but tensions started to rise again over hunting terrain, training areas, goods and food, river territory, etc. At first, they thought this would be the end of the peace, the cycle of hatred continuing endlessly.
But fortunately, the leader of the Senju, who would later be known in the history of the clan, after some research, as Minamoto Senju, suggested to Nirinobu Uchiha a marriage contract. The idea was that the child resulting from the union would be the true heir and line of succession for both clans.
Even if neither of them had a daughter or a son, they would ask one of their clan members to volunteer. The Uchiha would choose a male and the Senju a female because the Senju had more females than the Uchiha. Later that week, the first line of succession would be known as the Utsukuro clan. Any outsider who did not have either Senju or Uchiha blood couldn't be part of the clan. This choice helped manage both clans and their territories, leading to a fusion and shared area.
At first, there were some problems, mainly from the Uchiha, but these were quickly resolved.
Three years later, the union produced the first heir, a child then two years and nine months old, named Mariko Utsukuro.