Warnings: Sexism, isolation, alternate universe and gender swap, harmful to minors.

One - Duty

Uchiha Saori is four when her father tells her that she must provide an heir when she grows up.

This isn't surprising in the least. It's not even because she's a girl, like her grandmother says it is. Her brother, Uchiha Itachi, is a model shinobi, a shining example of the clan and their power. He kills with precision and takes few risks. However, he's not good with children, and he is always being called into battle for some reason or another. Saori, being his sister, can attest to his failure with children. Even young, she recognizes when someone is clumsy and too withdrawn. He pokes too hard, she tells her mother every once in awhile. Her mother laughs it off but doesn't deny it. Though the lines of her eyes are hard and sad every time she looks at her daughter after that proclamation. The Hidden Village is populous but too small. Always too small.

Saori takes to the duty because she doesn't know any differently. She is four and throws kunai with limited success. She expects to do better with time, for the few years she will be allowed to fight. She is four and reads better than her brother ever did. She has a lot of time to read.

Nothing really changes. She practices standing for battle and hiding in plain sight. She plays with her fellow children and stops squabbles without making noise. She climbs her brother's back while he's working and he tolerates it because she doesn't talk when she does. She just watches him until she falls asleep and that's when he knows how to be tender.

"Papa wants me to have a family," she tells him one day, forgetting to be properly respectful.

Itachi doesn't look up from his report. "He told me. I disagreed."

Saori tilts her head. Why disagree with their father?

"You ought to be given the choice, don't you think so?"

Saori chews her lip. "What if I want to?"

Itachi laughs and looks at her and a part of her more than anything wants him to never stop. "Do you want to?"

Saori pauses to pretend to think it over. Then she nods. "I want to do something you can't."

Itachi pokes her in the forehead. "That's not a reason to have children, Saori."

Saori pouts. It is to her.

Saori is five years old when she is told she will be arranged to be married.

Pair the spares goes whispered over her head as she walks through the compound, kimono fabric in the basket above shuriken. She thinks nothing of this, as she is five and heavy implications still go over her head so readily. It makes her mother scowl and finger the senbon she hides in places that Saori cannot even hope to guess.

"Are they making fun of me?" It's hard to imagine the kind aunts and uncles and elders teasing her the way Haruno Sakura gets teased for looking at her and for her somewhat large forehead. (It's really not that big, she just needs to frame her hair differently.)

Her mother pauses, preparing to say no, she assumes. Then something settles in her eyes. "They are."

"Why?" Saori doesn't hesitate to disbelieve her mother, even if she doesn't want to think wrong of her elders. Her black hair falls back over her eyes as she looks down at her sandals.

Her mother sighs. "I would tell you if I knew."

Saori pretends she isn't trying to chew her lip. Her mother is lying. She sighs before she lies like that, about big things. She hears it when Father wants her to go to the doctor for a test. She never does. Saori thinks it's a birth test. They want another boy, one who will admire her brother, one who will hide her from view.

Her mother doubts they will have one. Two is enough, she always says.

Saori wonders if two is. But that's not important now.

She doesn't know another will come. She doesn't know the future. What a relief.

What Saori asks out loud instead is, "Will my new husband be nice?" Because unless he dies in battle, or breaks the contract, she will wed a Hyuuga boy, one of the ones close to the heiress. She needs to know if he will be nice to her.

Her mother heaves a real sigh and replies with a simple, I don't know.

Saori mimics her and pretends the not-knowing isn't as scary.

Seventy-two hours before she joins the Ninja Academy, she wakes up to dress in her most beautiful kimono. It takes what feels like hours, especially with her mother's hands guiding her to do pieces herself. It feels clumsy, inaccurate, wrong. She knows in her stomach that she must not be wrong. This may be the only chance she has.

(Even though she is an Uchiha and will be a kunoichi, it matters not because she knows in her toes that she is reduced somehow is value. Just as the whispers say.)

Her palms are wet with sweat. Her mother wipes them and smiles.

"All will be well," she tells her daughter. Saori smiles a thin blank line. She is still only five, but she understands what she is doing. Not enough, but she knows it is significant. Her brother had taught her the meaning of that. Important, vital, or something like that.

"I will make it that way," she declares.

She is met with tinkling laughter that eases her heart as she finishes getting dressed.

Father meets them at the front door. Itachi is there as well, and his dark eyes are almost brown with fear and worry. It belies the uniform he wears, armor gleaming in the sunlight like it's never been used. Saori knows it has been. She looks with them all, unsure of whose hand to take. Will she have to walk on her own into this?

Then Itachi's larger hand takes hold of hers. She looks up at him, and the sockets crinkle into a smile.

"Together," he encourages.

Saori smiles shyly, feeling her fear fade. He supports her. Her big brother, the best big brother and the worst at being one, still cares. That's enough, it has to be.

The two of them walk.

(Years later, she will realize the implications of a brother giving a sister away, but she doesn't. Not yet.)

When they reach the following compound, she shudders. Chakra, heavy, pulsing, a network like a spider's web that reaches into the soul and to the root. Saori tightens her grip on her brother's hand. The Hyuga compound looms with power.

Itachi's voice breaks her from her stupor. "Ready?" Maybe he notices it, or maybe because he's so strong, he doesn't notice anymore.

Saori straightens. She will be as strong as him in this, if nothing else. "Ready."

He tugs once and she follows.

Once she looks around, it's clear that there is a difference, a separation. Some houses are more beautiful than others, some are more simplistic. Some are muted. Separation. Isolation.

Maybe it's just that they aren't Uchiha, but the alienation, the cleanliness of the streets, it's chilly for a flame.

Like her home, people stare at them as they walk, though it's definitely for a different reason. It takes everything in Saori's body to look ahead and not try to hide her eyes.

No wonder Hyuga Hinata-chan has an imaginary friend with such a bright personality.

The main house is lavish compared to everything else they have walked past. Saori frowns. There's no doubt that this is a main family home. Even the Uchiha main family house, though warm and cozy and special because it's her own, is hard to tell apart if you don't know the layout of the compound.

This one is not.

They are met by one Hyuga of many. Like the Uchiha, they tend to blur to together for strangers. Itachi lets go of her hand, and he looks sickened at the idea, almost green. She smiles at him, calling upon his battle-courage and father's strong jaw and mother's easy smile. She turns away from him, walking ahead to remove her shoes. They pat her down, searching for weapons. Why would they worry? Advance training means next to nothing when you were surrounded by people who could wreck your chakra, possibly for life.

The woman smiles at her, the expression bitter and angry. For what reason, Saori can't figure out. Instead she only flushes and looks away, nerves taking command for precious seconds. It's enough to soften the lines of the face and let the woman relax.

What strange people. She is no better than they are.

The meeting room has steaming cups of tea and soft cushions. She remains standing, listening for her brother's heavier footsteps as they pass the room. Saori keeps her eyes fixed on the other side of the door. She twitches but refuses to sit. Her first action must be proof of her loyalty, of her acceptance of the fate given to her.

It's that or be dragged kicking and screaming, and she cannot be seen like that. That's not an Uchiha.

So she waits, squirms without shame despite not wanting to. She waits until the door on the other side of the room opens and Hyuuga Neji walks in alone.

She does not shudder in fear of him. He is only a six year old boy. Sure, he's been to the Academy and training for a year, but he is no more ready than her, as far as she knows. Yet he looks at her so heavy, like she is a boulder he intends to break with a single move. Saori waits until the door closes, watches the brow crease underneath the headband. Confusion, she reads. Anger, heavy. Fear. Derision.

He used to not be like this, apparently. He used to be much brighter. Saori doesn't know much, but her parents' discussion had promoted worry and fear. That his anger would bring her harm. Saori doubts it. She may not know why he isn't the cheerful little boy he had been once, but he has to know the danger of breaking a pact between powerful clans. She hopes.

With that in mind, the second the door closes, she lets out a breath she hadn't realized she had been holding. Saori steps forward then to the side, until her small body consumed his vision. Saori bows. "It is nice to meet you, Hyuga-sama," she recites, as her father had made her. "I offer myself to you in greeting, as well as the ribbons about my wrist to bind us." She moves to her knees, then lower until her face is bent to the floor with the ribbons, identical green, are visible on her wrists.

Silence reigns.

Then after endless moments, he speaks, his high, childish voice almost comical against the sternness of his words. "Why do you kneel before me, Uchiha Sasuke?"

Saori freezes with fear. Is he crazy? Sasuke is a boy's name, a shinobi's powerful countenance. "I beg your pardon," she utters, remembering manners.

"The Uchiha clan head of my memory did not have a daughter." His voice is somewhat steady, but ears taught to hear recognize the wavering. "Are you pretending to be a girl in this life, Uchiha Sasuke?"

Pride flares with anger in her face and she lifts herself up from the floor. "My name," she says softly, but firmly. "Is Uchiha Saori. I am the second child of Uchiha Mikoto and Uchiha Fugaku. To consider me as any other is a grave insult, Hyuga-sama. Perhaps your memories, if I may, are quite muddled. If there is anyone who will be Uchiha Sasuke, I assure you, they would not be standing here."

His eyes narrow, not widen. Saori stares him right in the eye.

Then, before her, Hyuga Neji seems to crumble. He sinks to the floor, horror filling his face.

"Where am I?" he says to no one. "What is this place?"

A/N: wow it's been... quite a bit since I dove into this fandom. But, well, here we go! Requested by my friend Miyako, hope you like it bro. I'm not sure how far into the actual canon timeline we'll go into, if we go at all. But input is appreciated! Thanks!