Even assuming that I had seven or eight years to work with, I doubted anyone would allow an Uchiha child near the village Jinchuuriki, not after what had just happened.
If I sought him out, if I tried to befriend him while supposedly knowing nothing about him, what would that look like to the villagers?
It would look like I was trying to get access to the Kyuubi. If the village elders didn't stop me, my clan certainly would.
They couldn't afford more suspicion, certainly not when they were actually up to something.
As for everything else, what use would I be against the Akatsuki, let alone against Obito, Madara, and Kaguya? Despite the manga's emphasis on the power of hard work, the two main heroes were reincarnated near-gods with the power of a bijuu and an Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan/Rinnegan combo. Even the Kage fell well short of Naruto and Sasuke's strength and had done little to change the outcome of the final battles.
The only thing I had to offer was information, but who would believe a child? What did it matter when I would be long dead by the time these enemies appeared?
It didn't.
I didn't matter at all. I was just another background character sacrificed during the hero's origin story.
But that, in a way, was freeing. I didn't matter.
Nothing I did mattered. So I could do anything I wanted with the time I was given.
And I was a child too, so playing around, having fun, and decidedly not thinking about the future wouldn't even be that unusual. I wanted to get out and learn as much as I could in this magical, fantastical world…that currently consisted of a single room and a reincarnated demigod in diapers.
As far as roommates went, Sasuke wasn't bad. He was a happy baby who got used to my presence soon enough and often cuddled up by my side to nap.
He slept for most of the day and night, but he was always wide awake when Itachi came to visit.
It didn't take long for me to realize that Itachi adored Sasuke. It was written in the way his face lit up when he looked at his younger brother, in the way he spoke softly to Sasuke and bounced Sasuke on his knee.
And Sasuke adored Itachi right back, smiling when he arrived and crying when he had to leave. Itachi always laughed quietly at Sasuke's clinginess, poking Sasuke in the forehead when he had to go and saying "Sorry, Sasuke.
Next time. "
Itachi was a kind and cheerful child, always smiling at Fugaku and Mikoto. But with Sasuke, it was different.
Itachi had latched onto him, a tiny and defenseless innocent that needed to be protected no matter what.
No matter what, Itachi would protect Sasuke.
It would have been easy to resent him for what he would do, but I didn't. He spent his days smiling, playing with Sasuke and me, and reading us books.
He balanced Sasuke on one leg and me on the other, slowly tracing out the words in picture books and making exaggerated sounds as he read the stories. There was no malice in him, no anger, and no spite.
He was just a little kid with his little brother and his little sister. No, I didn't hate him.
I felt sorry for him.
He was cursed by being a prodigy. And if I wasn't careful, I risked following in his footsteps.
I didn't want any part of that fate and so I watched Sasuke, using him as the gold standard for what my progress should be. When he started rolling onto his belly, so did I.
When he sat up, so did I. When he started crawling, so did I.
It was good for maintaining my cover, but it didn't leave me much to stimulate my mind. Limited as my options were, I spent much of my waking time playing with the 'warmth' I'd noticed before, which I supposed was my chakra.
I attempted the leaf-sticking exercise with some success. I used whatever was in reach including my clothes and blankets and occasionally Sasuke, though I was careful never to mold chakra where anyone else might see.
It was a good way to spend those early days, even if it was a little monotonous.
All the while, I was carefully listening and doing my best to pick up on the local language. I was absorbing new words rapidly, and after a few months, I was able to follow entire conversations with relative ease.
Eventually I gathered that Fugaku and Mikoto weren't my actual parents. My father, Uchiha Seiichi, was Fugaku's distant relative and had died during a mission almost six months ago.
My mother, Uzumaki Ryoko, had died during childbirth. Apparently they'd had to induce labor five weeks early in an attempt to save us.
They had saved me, but my birth mother hadn't made it.
Instead I'd been given to Mikoto, the only Uchiha mother who was still nursing. She named me Uchiha Kiyo after an old pre-Konoha ancestor, and she treated me as if I was her own.
Mikoto was a good mom, gentle and attentive, not even showing any obvious favoritism toward her actual child rather than the interloper who had been dropped unexpectedly into her lap. In fact, if anything, she seemed thrilled to have a little girl.
While Mikoto smiled and cooed at me, Fugaku remained rather stoic, rarely showing any obvious affection, though he did still smile at us occasionally.
I could see why Sasuke would struggle to earn his praise in the future.
I also noted the differences in their chakra. Fugaku was like a white-hot blade that sharpened whenever he focused on something.
Mikoto was softer, like candlelight. Itachi was like a campfire, warm and inviting.
And Sasuke…well, he was like the sparks from a piece of flint striking steel. Given time, I knew that those sparks would one day become an inferno.
One day…
I grew a little impatient waiting for Sasuke's first word, so I eventually bowed to boredom and beat him to it. Itachi was playing peek-a-boo with Sasuke and me, and Mikoto came in to ask if he'd done his chores.