Legacy [ Naruto Reader-Insert ]

Mouse Trap

Simple labor, living hand-to-mouth, worrying and scrimping about how much you can save for tomorrow's food. An honest life where you don't have to worry about anything else, just how to survive to the next day. Without caring about being sent on dangerous missions and playing with the idea of death.

Just being a regular person, born to civvie parents, living in the business district of Konoha sounds pretty nice. No, farmers. No. Outside of Konoha, in a normal village. With normal, kind neighbors. A big gathering every weekend where everyone gets together to drink and be merry.

You'd help out with your mother's roadside inn and your father would be gone somewhere, perhaps lounging on the rooftops (you have no idea what your perfect imaginary father does for a living. he's just simply, there. A man without a face). Then you'd grow up to be a teen, on the cusp of adulthood. Rebellious, that's what you'd be. Staying out all night at the nearby village for a party, then coming back at the break of dawn.

Mother would scold you when she finds out. If she finds out. Father would just laugh, ruffling your hair in that affectionate way he always does. That's my girl. That's what he would say after he sees you sulking beside him on the roof of the inn. But Mother eventually makes up with you and talks to you all night, tucked together underneath your futon as she strokes your hair to sleep, in that same, gentle way she used to do when you were a kid.

(Then you'd grow into an adult, fall in love with someone and get married to them. Maybe someone older. Dark hair, tall, definitely tall. And the most piercing red onyx eyes. Maybe with hair that's tied back into a pony- Okay, you're gonna end this delusion here. He's gone. Shisui's gone. Gone. Gone. Gone. Stop thinking about dark haired, dark eyed men!)

A simple life as a civvie. You'd have gotten a nice, fulfilling childhood and kind, loving parents who spend a lot of their time doting on you to the point of suffocation. A life where you had choices on whether you got to live or die. Choosing the safe path. The easy path. Sure you have to play with the cards that you're dealt with, but in that life, you be allowed to make choices.

It has never felt like any of it was your choice.

You're a good shinobi, so you obey.

____

Obey.

Obey.

Obey.

____

"How did you know that it was love?" You whisper to Ataru, your body tucked underneath your sheets.

Fingers and face barely peeking out from the edges, like a thief scaling the edges of the wall. It's your favorite way to sleep, all covered up, feeling warm and toasty under the blankets. Unlike a certain someone (Yawaraka) who sleeps like a heathen, with their (Yawaraka's) blankets strewn haphazardly everywhere in the mornings.

You swear sometimes it'll just end up on you! You're definitely complaining, you don't like waking up all sweaty. One layer is enough to make you feel warm, any more and it'll just start to feel like you're in the seventh layer of hell! Mild exaggeration but you always get your revenge by kicking him in the thigh in the mornings and pretending you were rolling about in your sleep. His indignant face is hilarious to look at.