Chapter Text
Humans were complex beings whose whole self cannot be described with mere words. The eyes of each beholder can only gleam a fraction of who they truly are, thus leading to conflicting accounts of a person's true character. Similarly, it can also lead to matching accounts, depending on who they are.
But she was sure, no matter what, within this family, each eyes of each beholder contains the hate, jealousy and spite against one another. How can a family, that stirs its most toxic of traits and mixes it upon every generation born, hold an untwisted love for each other?
It said something when the first and only thing she remembered waking up as a baby, was the weeping, whimpering face of her mother. The pitiful sorrow for her when she was born as a girl, not as a boy.
Pity for her mother had first washed over when her brain finally developed enough to make consciousness a feasible aspect. But she couldn't bring herself to have the motivation to do something about the clan. While memories of her past life were locked with the only key being to rely on her growing up and having her brain develop, she could vaguely remember the stress and fatigue of having to continuously work to keep herself and her father afloat, the mental weariness that came as her future was already decided and her dreams and ambitions were squashed before she could even know the concept of such things.
There was no difference in her current life. She already knew, from the moment she was born into the Clan, that her future was already chained in expectations and tied to the existence of her Clan.
It didn't help that she had the highest Cursed Energy pool among the Clan. On top of having to maintain her pristine appearance, there was already expectations of her as a Sorcerer being formed. There was no doubt that when she gets the Ten Shadows, it will only fuel the sentiments further.
Now wasn't that a harrowing thing to do to a child?
She would have probably been petrified and anxious, if she had actually cared. All of it had been drained up in her past life, unfortunately. She didn't even know why she was continuing to live or doing the things she was doing.
All she could do while sitting on the floor of the house outdoors, staring at the courtyard, was be lost in the sinking mental stability of her mind, disassociating with reality as time passed by.
Stand properly.
Sit properly.
Walk properly.
Act properly.
Be still when not moving.
Do not talk unless addressed.
Have an unassuming expression.
Always be three steps behind a man.
Those were the core values imparted upon her. Even with her immense Cursed Energy pool, proper manners and grace was expected upon her. Without a doubt, they were incredibly strict and rigid. Anything less considered them as a lesser being, driving them down further the food chain. Etiquette and politeness was expected when being greeted with the presence of people in superior stations.
But in her case, she acted not out of respect, but out of avoiding trouble. She didn't care about her clansmen in any regard, but she preferred to stay out of trouble. It would lessen the constant mental drain she suffers at every waking moment. Something she needed, as a five year old child.
"Have you manifested a Cursed Technique yet, Museigen?" Naobito, the current head of the clan, asked after she had retrieved him his gourd. Wrinkles were prominent in his face but his hair was still black. She was sure that his appearance in the canonical show only started when he started pushing his 60s, but he was currently 47 years old. "It's your fifth year, after all. If not, then it'll happen by the sixth year. If you have a Cursed Technique, that is."
"...May I try to use it, Naobito-sama?" Museigen asked, bowing her head down.
Naobito grabbed the gourd and looked at it with a smile. "Go ahead, Museigen. Let's see if you've manifested a Cursed Technique and what it is."
She looked down at her hands. Instinctively, she joined them together. Through the light shining down from the outside, she shaped her fingers and hands together for the shadows to project the shape of a dog on the floor.
"...Divine Dogs."
From the shadows, a pair of wolves emerged. One white and one black, their eyes were hollow and they were more larger than her. Though, that was a low bar to pass, considering she was but a five year old child at this moment in time, when she manifested the Ten Shadows.
Naobito stared at the Shikigamis in stunned silence, staring at the symbols on their heads. For the first time she had ever seen him, he looked absolutely shocked at the sight before him.
The crown jewel of the Zenin clan had finally returned home.