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narusasu ficlet
This was originally prompt 15 for my additional five prompts on the AU meme, but then ... it's not actually AU, as in it could and does still take place in a naruto-the-series universe. So I think i'm gonna have to write another one for the prompt, just like I already had to write ANOTHER schoolfic one because I can't post a Locker Room Therapy'verse ficlet with a bunch of unrelated stuff ahahaha ocd.
It was a REALLY wide interpretation of the prompt anyway. >_>;;;
"As of today, the Uchiha clan is no more. The name shall be struck from all our records, and any who may claim the name declared our enemies. Their deeds and lore shall be forgotten. Their material property..."
Sasuke stares ahead, unflinching.
He knew the punishment would hurt going in. He knows he deserves it to hurt.
They can't take being an Uchiha from him. But what they're refusing him -- it's deeper. His place in the tapestry of names, one leaf on the family tree. He's cut adrift, floating alone until he falls and dies. He and his legacy.
"As for the matter of Sasuke, missing-nin..."
He doesn't blink. He doesn't change expression. He starts listening again, though, involuntarily. His personal name calls him back, though the other one stings.
"As of today, Uchiha Sasuke is deceased. No-clan Sasuke is as of now forbidden to share any of the history of the Sharingan, the history of the Uchiha, or even his own, except under express order of the Hokage. Do you understand the sentence?"
His eyes narrow then, just a little. He can only see a blur where the judge's face is supposed to be, but the man's voice wavers for a second and then turns harsher, reminding him of his place, or trying to.
"Do you understand the sentence?"
"I do," he says, after a suitably disdainful pause.
They cannot execute him for real. So instead they're killing everything he represents. The idea of him. It's ridiculous, a game of I'm-not-talking-to-you-anymore coming from people he never wanted to talk to anyway.
It hurts anyway but he'll die before he lets them see.
"The sharingan being an asset to the village, No-clan Sasuke will be entered into another clan register and adopted as such. He may not be the primary caregiver to any children born thereafter, and his access to those potential children shall be limited at the clan head's discretion, as his behavior dictates. He may not be legally responsible for those potential children -- the clan head shall be the legal tutor. He may not..."
Sasuke listens to the litany of may-nots and thinks that he'd rather steal a good kunai and make himself physically unable to father children, if Sakura won't sterilize him when he asks. Their psychological profiles say having children was important to him, but they don't get it. He wouldn't have cared if none of his children inherited the sharingan. Not as long as they were his children.
If his role in their life is to be reduced to breeding stock then he'd rather not have any.
He watches the judge and he thinks that perhaps they have found the best punishment, though accidentally. He gave his oath he wouldn't escape -- suicide or otherwise; but if they had killed him that would have been fine with him. Instead he'll just never have family again. A life sentence of peaceful loneliness.
Sasuke smiles in acknowledgement of the irony. Well-done, really. The man drones on.
"After a vote, the family the council has found the clan most suitable for the task is--"
"Mine," says a voice from the Hokage's lodge. It rings so harsh Sasuke doesn't recognize it right away.
It's like a sudden flash of fire, breaking the cold, civil hostility. Sasuke's back stiffens. He doesn't turn his head to look. He would just see a blur but he wants to anyway, even though he hasn't moved or stared anywhere but straight ahead, right through the jury, ever since the trial started.
The council is in an uproar, shocked, gasping. It takes a long time for civilized quiet to fall again. Disapproval stays thick in the air, silent but heavy.
The voice just ignores them. "I don't know who was on that list," and I don't care, it doesn't say, but everyone hears it anyway.
"You can't just--"
"I just did."
"There are processes! Rules!"
"Vetoing them."
Sasuke stares ahead still, even though this time it's to hide the storm he feels again.
He should have known.
"You're not Hokage yet!" someone yells in offense.
Sasuke huffs out an almost silent laugh, incredulous and yet totally, utterly unsurprised. They've lost the argument already. He's the Sixth, all but crowned. He's the son of the Fourth. And he doesn't care about any of that shit.
God.
He lands on the tiles with a sharp click and he stands there in front of Sasuke, and Sasuke closes his eyes because everything is so blurred. And he says, "As of today, you are Namikaze Sasuke."
Sasuke keeps his eyes closed.
"... Come on. Let's go home."
So he opens his eyes again and he says, "Okay," and it is.
I remember reading that in Japan sometimes homosexual men would adopt their lover into their family, so that they would be on the family register and share the same name/clan allegiance. I forget where I first saw that and I must not be googling it right because I can't find the explanation again, though. sob sob sob. Anyway.
It was a REALLY wide interpretation of the prompt anyway. >_>;;;
"As of today, the Uchiha clan is no more. The name shall be struck from all our records, and any who may claim the name declared our enemies. Their deeds and lore shall be forgotten. Their material property..."
Sasuke stares ahead, unflinching.
He knew the punishment would hurt going in. He knows he deserves it to hurt.
They can't take being an Uchiha from him. But what they're refusing him -- it's deeper. His place in the tapestry of names, one leaf on the family tree. He's cut adrift, floating alone until he falls and dies. He and his legacy.
"As for the matter of Sasuke, missing-nin..."
He doesn't blink. He doesn't change expression. He starts listening again, though, involuntarily. His personal name calls him back, though the other one stings.
"As of today, Uchiha Sasuke is deceased. No-clan Sasuke is as of now forbidden to share any of the history of the Sharingan, the history of the Uchiha, or even his own, except under express order of the Hokage. Do you understand the sentence?"
His eyes narrow then, just a little. He can only see a blur where the judge's face is supposed to be, but the man's voice wavers for a second and then turns harsher, reminding him of his place, or trying to.
"Do you understand the sentence?"
"I do," he says, after a suitably disdainful pause.
They cannot execute him for real. So instead they're killing everything he represents. The idea of him. It's ridiculous, a game of I'm-not-talking-to-you-anymore coming from people he never wanted to talk to anyway.
It hurts anyway but he'll die before he lets them see.
"The sharingan being an asset to the village, No-clan Sasuke will be entered into another clan register and adopted as such. He may not be the primary caregiver to any children born thereafter, and his access to those potential children shall be limited at the clan head's discretion, as his behavior dictates. He may not be legally responsible for those potential children -- the clan head shall be the legal tutor. He may not..."
Sasuke listens to the litany of may-nots and thinks that he'd rather steal a good kunai and make himself physically unable to father children, if Sakura won't sterilize him when he asks. Their psychological profiles say having children was important to him, but they don't get it. He wouldn't have cared if none of his children inherited the sharingan. Not as long as they were his children.
If his role in their life is to be reduced to breeding stock then he'd rather not have any.
He watches the judge and he thinks that perhaps they have found the best punishment, though accidentally. He gave his oath he wouldn't escape -- suicide or otherwise; but if they had killed him that would have been fine with him. Instead he'll just never have family again. A life sentence of peaceful loneliness.
Sasuke smiles in acknowledgement of the irony. Well-done, really. The man drones on.
"After a vote, the family the council has found the clan most suitable for the task is--"
"Mine," says a voice from the Hokage's lodge. It rings so harsh Sasuke doesn't recognize it right away.
It's like a sudden flash of fire, breaking the cold, civil hostility. Sasuke's back stiffens. He doesn't turn his head to look. He would just see a blur but he wants to anyway, even though he hasn't moved or stared anywhere but straight ahead, right through the jury, ever since the trial started.
The council is in an uproar, shocked, gasping. It takes a long time for civilized quiet to fall again. Disapproval stays thick in the air, silent but heavy.
The voice just ignores them. "I don't know who was on that list," and I don't care, it doesn't say, but everyone hears it anyway.
"You can't just--"
"I just did."
"There are processes! Rules!"
"Vetoing them."
Sasuke stares ahead still, even though this time it's to hide the storm he feels again.
He should have known.
"You're not Hokage yet!" someone yells in offense.
Sasuke huffs out an almost silent laugh, incredulous and yet totally, utterly unsurprised. They've lost the argument already. He's the Sixth, all but crowned. He's the son of the Fourth. And he doesn't care about any of that shit.
God.
He lands on the tiles with a sharp click and he stands there in front of Sasuke, and Sasuke closes his eyes because everything is so blurred. And he says, "As of today, you are Namikaze Sasuke."
Sasuke keeps his eyes closed.
"... Come on. Let's go home."
So he opens his eyes again and he says, "Okay," and it is.
I remember reading that in Japan sometimes homosexual men would adopt their lover into their family, so that they would be on the family register and share the same name/clan allegiance. I forget where I first saw that and I must not be googling it right because I can't find the explanation again, though. sob sob sob. Anyway.
no subject
But -- the fic! It starts out hurting so much, and all the legal-ness and the coldness and Sasuke forcing himself to stay still and take it even though he's trying so hard to pretend it doesn't matter, and then Naruto goes and throws it all in disarray and makes it better. ♥
(Also, Namikaze. I love that name.)
As for the thing about adopting into the family... I've read it in actual books too, but I've also seen it in
Here. (http://luriko-ysabeth.livejournal.com/7864.html?thread=4792#t4792)
One of the several books on historical Japanese homosexuality (I forget exactly which, offhand; it might have been Male Colors or Comrade Loves of the Samurai) mentioned that now and then, a man would adopt his wakashu (young man) into his own family, to be enrolled as his own younger brother.
Other research I was doing on pre-Meiji weddings turned up the fact that the real proof of a wedding would be when the bride was enrolled on the groom's family register (or the other way around, if they were adopting him in). The family unit was the important thing, the enrollment in some cases did not take place until after the first child was born, and divorce consisted of removing the wife (and children) from the register, making them no longer part of the family (although the father could then adopt them back in.)
The family register thing is still the essential element of a marriage in modern Japan, and that is all that needs to be done to be married (sort of the equivalent of going down to the registry office). As an example, in Gakuen Tokkei Duklyon, the Chief comments on the loving-wifely-bentou Kentarou has made for Takeshi, and Kentarou replies that he hasn't had the pleasure of adding Takepon to the family register yet.
In other words, the adopting of one's lover into one's family, squicky as this may seem at first glance, is in effect a legal method of more-or-less marrying said lover (while leaving both parties free to make a traditional alliance marriage as well).