RiaN Chapter 20 (Patreon)

The twelve-year-old girl glared at me like I had done something terrible. I tried my best to ignore her, but after almost an entire day, I had to ask. “Umm… Did I do something to make you mad?” She didn’t say anything, just looking forward now, ignoring me after she’d been looking at me all day. I was about to go back to my seat when she asked. “Why you?”

I asked. “Why me, what?” She went back to ignoring me as I sat down, but this time, she stood up and walked to me. “Why are my sisters talking about which one gets to marry you?” My brain short-circuited as I asked. “What?” 

She now looked confused as she continued. “Our family is a medium-sized clan, so forming relationships with other clans is very important to us to the point that many of my sisters were betrothed a few days after they were born. So I was wondering why they were all making a big deal about marrying you, someone from the Uzumaki clan, a clan that we already have strong ties with.”

Kite’s guess was as good as mine. Kite was a rare Might member who had the ability to use ninjutsu. She was about equal to an average civilian when it came to jutsu, but it meant she was still far above most of her family members. I was pretty oblivious to what was happening in class. Besides my friends in the heir class, I didn’t talk much with the elite students.

I hadn’t spoken more than five or six sentences to anyone(except Talia, who often challenged me to spar). I just didn’t feel that connection with them that I did with people I watched in the anime. Naruto, Choji, Shikamaru, Sasuke, Kiba, and I all hung out and fished or played once they all learned how to do shadow clones. I hadn’t done much hanging out, but recently, Kushina said I was almost passable with fuinjutsu, so I was allowed more time outside of learning from her this year.

“I’m not sure why. I haven’t heard anything myself, so if you figure out why, please tell me.” The blonde-haired civilian nin, Shiho, slid her chair back, making a sharp noise that made everyone stare at her. She blushed before turning to us. “I know why. It’s because he’ll become his own clan once he graduates. The clans are all trying to get their daughters in before the clan grows in size. Right now might be the only time they’ll be able to form connections to your clan.”

I could see the tinge on her cheeks as she spoke to me. She was the quiet and shy girl in the class. She corrected her spiral glasses as she finished speaking, but she wasn’t the only one who chimed in, as Hinata also spoke. “I was wondering why my family was making such a big deal about you.” She got up and moved back to the open seat beside me. “So, most people have to make their own clan by having twenty-five members. Why do you get one for yourself?”

I knew, but I wasn’t sure I was even allowed to talk about it. “I know why, but I’m not sure I’m allowed to tell anyone why they’re doing this.” It made sense to me, they wanted more/better vessels for the jinchuriki. As a person who can mitigate the fallout of a jinchuriki just by touching it, I was yet another minimizing factor toward other villages. I was the equivalent of an off-switch for the nukes around me, but I was also a nuke myself.

I had kept my usage of the energy a secret. The only people who knew I was able to convert tailed beast energy into something different were me, Kushina, my parents, and the few other powerhouses of the village who helped fight Nagato. She seductively brushed the hair off her shoulder, it would have been attractive if she wasn’t a twelve-year-old girl. Hinata wasn’t the shy, short-haired girl from the anime, but the outgoing, long-haired, popular girl. The other Hyuga girls move closer to stay around her as they take the normally empty seats around me. I honestly didn’t know how to act with them, they’re talking as if it’s completely normal to have their husband chosen for them at this young age.

It involved the culture, but I didn’t believe in it. “I… Don’t agree with this. I’ll determine who I marry. It doesn’t really make sense for people to decide who is going to marry me when I’m the person who will determine it in the end anyway.” A lot of girls were looking at me, and even someone as thick-headed as me could see the blushes on their faces as I made myself clear.

They were all twelve years old, and I felt zero attraction towards them. Sure, they were cute, and I knew they’d most likely grow up to be beauties in the future, but I had avoided getting close to any of them because it felt a little too much like grooming if I did. 

Talia was the person I probably had the best relationship with in this class, and that’s because she didn’t have any feelings towards me, just viewed me as a rival, as I was the only person in the class who could challenge her in taijutsu. I held the advantage, but if she was allowed to use her sword and shield, the advantage was to her.

My eyes widened as I saw the sheepish expression on her face before she averted her eyes… Was I really popular? The girls didn’t scream my name like they did in the anime for Sasuke. I had tried to put on a quiet background character act, but it turned out everyone thought I was being cool and aloof. Just like with Sasuke, the more I didn’t care, the more they cared about me.

I made another declaration to avoid any more awkwardness. “I plan on getting as strong as I possibly can before I turn eighteen, so I don’t have time for relationships. If someone tries to force a relationship before I’m ready, there’s no way I’ll choose them.” That seemed to calm everyone down, until I spoke again. “...I like competent girls by the way…”

I didn’t want to deal with the Sakura problem, where someone on my team was useless. I didn’t have the protagonist aura that Naruto and Sasuke had. I wouldn’t fall in love with anyone who could end up a stain on the floor because she was weaker than a basic thug hired by Gato. 

I hadn’t seen much of Sakura, I just knew that her relationship with Ino hadn’t soured like it did in the anime. The girls still chased him, but now that having more than one wife was normalized, teams of girls were chasing after him. Sakura and Ino were a team, but the dynamic had shifted to a leader/subordinate situation because being in a clan was more important in this world.

I got out of my own head as the teacher asked me a question that I answered. I was getting back into my normal routine, preparing for the taijutsu spar, when a note was passed to me. 

‘Tama. I won't chase you because that’s not something you want. But I hope you’ll think of me when you look for a wife to pass on you’re Uzumaki blood. XOXO Karen.’

I can’t help but sigh as I knew this would start the cold war of women professing themselves to me, as I could see many of the Hyuga reading the message through the paper with their byakugan. I received twenty similar notes by the end of the day, some from different grades and classes. For the first time since she was inside my mind, I heard Ahri chuckle. “Fufufu. Things are getting interesting.”