Itachi will hear, she thought.
The stray thought was silenced almost as quickly as it had first appeared. Later, when she had the time to think again, Mikoto would find it ironic that even in this moment, where she were arguing for her right as a kunoichi, her mind would remember her duty as a mother. However, she had been a kunoichi longer than she had been a mother, and before all she was an Uchiha; she was just as good at ignoring her impulses as everybody else in her clan were.
Maybe even better.
But right now, even though she was clutching the fragile form of her youngest son tightly to her body, the kunoichi in her would not step back.
“Fugaku…”
“No, Mikoto.”
Her husband’s jaw were clenched tight, and behind his already swirling Sharingan she could see a very uncharacteristic desperation shine through. Everybody was on the verge of loosing control of themselves at this point, and she knew that she shouldn’t push the matter, it would only make things worse, and it wound definitely not help Fugaku when he left to join the battle, but the kunoichi still wouldn’t stay still. She was twisting and screaming inside of her, banging on the walls which Mikoto usually kept her behind, more demanding than ever.
Those were her family out there, her friends. How could she just sit back and do nothing!?
“But Fugaku, I…”
“You will go to the caverns.”
“Listen to me, please…!”
He turned around, his back tense. “I will say no more.”
At least her control was still enough to keep her from yelling at him. His pride wouldn’t allow him to overlook that.
“I understand,” she mumbled, looking down into Sasuke’s curious eyes. She swallowed, her whole soul shaking with guilt; how could she even think about leaving this frail life behind and go into battle? No mother should even think about that as an option.
But she wasn’t just a mother.
Fugaku stopped at the entrance to the room.
“Stay safe, Mikoto. Protect our sons. If I know that you are with them, I will not worry.”
He really was a strange man. Luckily, she knew him well enough to be able to tell that this was his way to tell her that he acknowledged her strength and capacity as a ninja, and that he trusted her.
But not enough to let her fight.
“Stay safe, Fugaku.”
And he was gone.
“Itachi…?” Mikoto called hesitantly. The child entered the room through the other entrance – he’d been listening just like she thought - looking up at her with expressionless eyes. “Where are we going?” he asked, his voice way too collected for such a small child in this kind of situation.
“To the caves,” Mikoto answered hastily, as she put Sasuke down on his blanket before she made a quick run to the kitchen to fetch some food and Sasuke’s bottle. Adding it to the pile of extra clothes, she hurriedly stuffed it all into a small backpack, before she sunk into a crouch in front of her oldest son and placed her hands on his thin shoulders.
The mother inside her wanted her to die for doing this.
“Itachi? Do you think that you could find the way there by yourself?”
But she wasn’t just a mother. She was also the Uchiha clan’s strongest kunoichi.
Itachi watched her silently for a moment, his black eyes too calculating, too wise for such a small child, before he nodded. He stepped away from her, bent down to fling the bag over his shoulder, before he picked Sasuke up, gently positioning him against his shoulder. Mikoto helped him to fasten the padded straps of the baby-harness to keep Sasuke buckled tightly against his big brother’s body. Before he turned away, he looked up at her again and smiled, that smile that actually almost felt real to her, and she smiled back even as she felt the tears burn behind her eyes. The kunoichi inside her regarded her with pride as she nodded, the mother screamed in desperation.
“Make sure to find Obaa-chan,” she told him, her voice steady. “She’ll take care of you.”
“Hai, Kaa-san.”Itachi turned around in the doorway, hesitated and looked back at her. For a moment, the mask of the genius fell, and as she looked into his eyes, she could see – just for a second – the haunted and terrified little child who was so scared, so confused. Then his eyes hardened, he nodded and smiled again, before pushing the door aside and disappearing outside.
Mikoto’s heart felt like it was about to be torn into a million pieces.
oooo
The streets were packed with people, civilians and former kunoichi who had chosen to stay with and protect their children. Mikoto chose the roofs. She felt safe under the still familiar weight of her chuunin-vest and her katana that she hadn’t used since her days in the ANBU; before she and Fugaku had been betrothed. Like this, she could fight. Like this, she would fight. As long as she had a single breath left in her body, she would never allow something like the Kyuubi no Youko to harm anything that was precious to her.
The further away from the village she came, the louder the sounds of fierce battle sounded. She activated her Sharingan as she scanned the forest ahead of her. She should be able to see… There! Something that resembled a big flame lashed out from behind a small mountain, twisting and turning against the black night sky. And then another one, and she understood that what she was seeing was the Kyuubi’s tails.
…the tails. They were huge! How enormous was this beast?! Mikoto stared hard and swallowed, but she didn’t slow down.
And then a loud roar wrung its way through the sounds of people yelling, and she had to pause for a moment, landing in a soft crouch in a treetop, and just stare in horror as the great Demon Fox became visible behind the hill.
…shit.
Shit.
They had to stop this thing before it made its way to the village. It’d crush it with flick a flick of one of those tails.
She reached back to grab hold of her katana, but a voice from the treetop beside hers stopped her.
“Close-range attacks won’t work on it. You’ll get killed before getting a single hit.”
Mikoto glanced at the man, measuring him up for a moment before letting go of the sword.
“Then I’ll have to use Katon…”
“Fire won’t work either. The other Uchiha’s has already tried. It’s very resistant against fire.” He looked at her, his blue eyes open and honest. It threw her off for a moment; Mikoto wasn’t used to people being so open about their feelings, especially not their sadness and regret. Or their fear.
He turned completely towards her. “You have two sons back in the village, don’t you? I think that it would be better if you were with them.”
She clenched her teeth. “I’m not ready to give up yet!” Mikoto said.
“There’s nothing you can do; You’d be sacrificing yourself in vain, and…”
“I still have my lighting-element, right? That’d work on it!”
He blinked. “I didn’t know that you had two elements, Mikoto-san,” he said, raising an eyebrow.
“Well… I haven’t been trained to use the other one, and I don’t really have any techniques for it either,” she admitted, biting her lip in embarrassment. So, she’d be useless to them in the end, after all.
He nodded. “I see. That is unfortunate.” Eyes narrowing, he turned his head towards the battle. The Kyuubi’s roars were getting angrier, and a cheerless smile ghosted over the blond’s lips. His next sentence were spoken in a too low voice for her to hear, but since she already had her Sharingan activated, she managed to catch the words anyway.
“So it’s time soon, huh…?”
Before she had any time to ponder this, he turned back to her abruptly. “Actually, I think that you could be of some use to me yet, Mikoto-san,” he said. She stared at him wordlessly, wondering how it was possible for someone to change so completely from one moment to another. While he had seemed dejected only a second ago he was now composed and calm, his eyes burning with determination, his jaw set.
“Y-yes?”
“Here, come with me.”
He leaped from the treetop, heading quickly for the centre of the battle, and she followed, concentrating on keeping up with the man rather than worrying about what was going on around her as the number of wounded people on the ground below them increased as they came closer to the raging demon.
He stopped by a small clearing, which apparently had come to be used as a tactical base of some sort. He walked straight up to a small group of youths, who were talking quietly amongst each other. They straightened up as he came closer, and a young, silver haired boy approached them. He was accompanied by an equally young girl, who were cradling a small bundle in her arms.
“We’re ready, sensei,” he said. Mikoto looked at him – she knew who this was. Hatake Kakashi, the boy who had “stolen” the Sharingan and become a small legend in the entire village. Many of the Uchiha resented him, but Mikoto just regarded him curiously. He seemed so young. Way too young to be out here, fighting this battle.
This was the future that awaited her sons.
If she managed to save their future.
“Kakashi, Rin,” Yondaime greeted the two youths. “Mikoto-san will come with us.” He looked at the girl named Rin. Yes, she knew about her too. She was the one who had preformed the transplantation of the Sharingan. She was said to be a very skilled medical-nin, although she didn’t seem to be more than maybe two years older than her teammate. “She will help you with him, please tell her the details while we get in position. And Kakashi, I want you to who her your Chidori; I don’t want to send her out there completely defenceless,” he added.
The boy raised an eyebrow as he turned towards her. “I didn’t know that there were any Uchiha with other elements than fire,” he said.
“There usually isn’t,” Mikoto said softly, stepping forward. Yondaime patted her shoulder lightly, then he moved over to Rin.
“How is he doing?” he asked, leaning over her to look down into the bundle. His blue eyes glazed over slightly as he raised a hand to let it ghost over the bundle, but he didn’t actually touch it.
“He was screaming so much that I had to ask Kurenai-san to put a genjutsu on him,” the girl mumbled. “I think that he is hungry,” she added, looking up into the man’s eyes with a pleading expression on her cute face. He sighed deeply.
“We can’t feed him,” he said regretfully. “I don’t know exactly what the jutsu will do to his body, but it is probably better if he doesn’t have anything for his stomach to throw up and choke on.”
Mikoto gasped as realisation hit her. “Yondaime-sama!” she said, hurrying over to him and Rin. Terrified, she stared down into the bundle, took in the small features; pouty mouth and soft, soft golden locks curling around the baby’s face. His eyes were closed, but she could tell anyways that when he opened them, they would be blazing blue. Just like his father’s “Th-that… That is your son!” she breathed, looking up at the man, her eyes wide and disbelieving as Sharingan faded in from the pure shock. The mother inside her writhed; tried to once again take control. She didn’t understand completely what he was planning, but he could tell from his eyes, and from the eyes of everybody standing around them, that it wasn’t certain to get a happy ending.
Not certain at all.
“Yes,” he said slowly, once again letting his fingers linger just a few millimetres over the baby’s face, as if he were actually afraid to touch him.
…like it would break his heart to touch his son.
His bangs were falling around his face so that she couldn’t see his eyes, but the sound of his voice was more than enough to let her understand how he felt. The mother inside her cried out in despair. “I can not risk anyone else’s child for this.”
“What is it that you are going to do?!”
He turned towards her, and he seemed so distant, further away than a person who was standing only a few feet away from you ever should seem, and his eyes were so sad, so sad.
“I am going to save Konoha, Mikoto-san,” he said. Then he turned away, the robe blowing out behind him as he started to walk towards the group of people standing at the edge of the clearing.
Then Kakashi were beside her, gazing up at her with his one visible eye, regarding her silently. When she finally managed to collect herself enough to meet his gaze, he nodded and stepped back a bit. “Make sure to watch closely with your Sharingan, Uchiha-san. It’s not that complicated, but it can backfire easily if you don’t get it completely right.”
oooo
Mikoto could feel Rin’s eyes on her back, and she wondered if the girl really thought her to be foolish, like she suspected that she did. She had so much to lose from dying here; two sons whose lives she wouldn’t be there to see.
But this was not the time to feel regret. A loud “POOF!” was heard, and a pillar of jutsu smoke rose over the trees a few hundred metres to the side. She clenched her teeth and gathered chakra to her legs, leaping up from their hiding place. Rin followed soon behind her. The sudden movement stirred the baby out of his genjutsu-influenced sleep. A surprisingly strong wail reached her ears over the sound of the demon’s roar, and she shuddered. To hear a baby’s scream in this kind of setting…
This is so wrong.
Kyuubi no Youko was only a few hundred meters in front of them. Mikoto glanced at the forest around her; there were shinobi in every tree, women and men, young and old, silently waiting, staring at the young man who stood upon the large toad, his hands already beginning the complicated dance of seals for a new, forbidden jutsu that no one had even heard the name of before. Mikoto swallowed, looking away, ahead, at the beast.
Just as predicted, the Kyuubi had now turned towards the new threat, already making itself ready to leap. She grimaced, her thoughts on the poor youths who were supposed to draw this furious monster’s attention towards themselves to allow Yondaime to finish the preparations for the jutsu that were supposed to finish it all.
She doubted that she would have been able to do that, even with Kakashi’s formidable jutsu. The demon seemed way too huge, untouchable. Would it even notice their assault?
Battle screams could be heard as the brave shinobi and kunoichi charged. She thought that she could see the Kakashi’s Chidori somewhere at the other side of the demon, but at this point, she wasn’t certain at all.
The demon suddenly screamed. Mikoto couldn’t tell how she was separate this sound from the other, but she could. It was angrier, with a desperate hint to it, and she could tell that the Kyuubi was surprised to have been hurt enough to really feel the pain. Her palms begun to sweat as she tried to push her feet harder against the branches. “Hurry,” she yelled to Rin. “He’s already begun!”
“I’m coming,” Rin called back.
Yondaime was already on his knees when they finally landed on the giant toad’s back. Mikoto watched as a heavy tremor raked through his body, blood flowing from his mouth. Beside her, Rin gave a dry sob as she could do nothing but to stand by and watch as her sensei fought all the way to his death, and the baby cried louder than ever.
“Rin!” he gasped around the blood. “I’ve gotten a hold of it, but it’s trying to break lose. Bring him here!”
“Yes!” Rin ran over to him, and Mikoto followed. She watched in horrified fascination as the girl unwrapped the boy and held him out for the man to use his own blood to drawing a spiral on the child’s naked stomach. The boy cried, waving his arms around in the air.
“Don’t cry…” Yondaime mumbled tiredly, biting his lip as he reached the end of the swirl and started on the strange, zigzagged marks around it. “Don’t cry, Naruto, it’ll be over soon.”
Then he clasped his hands together, raising his eyes to stare over the forest as the nine-tailed monster. It fought hard to get past the – weren’t there supposed to be at least thirty? – five shinobi who were fighting hard to not allow it to reach the toad and it’s passengers.
“Gamabunta, Mikoto! The signal!” he called. Mikoto hurriedly made the seals of the Katon, at the same time as the toad drew a deep breath. Her jutsu hit the jet of oil, and a huge flame flew over the trees, setting half of the forest on fire, blinding her almost completely. The air was quivering from the heat; she squeezed her eyes shut to protect them.
She snapped them open as a fierce yell of pain tore through the roar of the fire. Mikoto whirled around to see Yondaime fall forward, his entire body quaking. “Sensei!” Rin screamed, tears streaming down her face as she pushed herself closer to her teacher’s fallen body. Mikoto hurried over to them, grabbing hold of Rin’s shoulders. The girl continued to cry, pressing Naruto close to her. Mikoto suddenly realized that the baby was unnaturally still and silent. Her gut twisted, and her hold on Rin’s shoulders tightened.
“Rin!” she urged. “The baby!”
“Oh god!” Rin gasped, backing away from the man to stare down at the child. The seal on his stomach were glowing like a flame; three deep wounds had appeared on each of his smooth little cheeks, and while his face was crimson from the blood, his lips were blue. “He’s not breathing!”
“Do something!” Mikoto said, shaking the shocked girl. She realized that they had in fact no idea if the jutsu had really worked; the demon could very well be out there, behind the flames, healthy and in the process of killing every single surviving shinobi and kunoichi on it’s way to the village. “You’re a medic; I know that you can save him!”
“I… I…” Rin stuttered, her face blank and pale, hands trembling as she slowly put the baby down on the toad’s back. “I can’t…”
“Yes you can! Yondaime-sama trusted you!” Mikoto crouched down behind the girl, and let her arms encircle her to pull her into a tight hug. She didn’t dare to think about what might happen if the baby died before the sealing was complete; the markings on his stomach were still glowing, and the wounds on his paling face seemed to deepen ever second that passed. As of something was trying to claw its way out of his body... She squeezed her eyes shut. “He trusted you with his son’s life, Rin! What kind of kunoichi are you not to keep her last promise to her Hokage?!”
A tremor raked through the baby, and the two women tensed. Rin sat frozen for another fraction of a second, and then suddenly, she became a blur of movements. Her hands formed a seals so fast that Mikoto had to activate her Sharingan to be able to follow them. In what seemed like only a moment, the girl had completed one of the most complex combinations of seals Mikoto had ever seen, and she leaned forward to place her hands firmly on the child’s body. She grimaced.
“What is it?” Mikoto asked worriedly.
“I… I can feel it. It is trying to break lose…” Rin mumbled. “It is so strong… And Naruto is so weak…” She ground her teeth together, as chakra begun to pulse around the baby’s body, trying to make its was into him and reach the damaged tissue, get his heart and lungs to work again. Mikoto watched over Rin’s shoulder; she was still holding her girl in a loose embrace, all while praying that he would live, please, please let him live, don’t let him die, not like this. He’s just a baby!
“Oi!” a deep voice suddenly called. “Are you two done yet? I’m breaking the rules already to stay here when my contractor has passed away!”
Mikoto threw a glance over her shoulder towards the toad’s head. “A little bit more,” she pleaded. “Please. We have to save the baby.”
“Do it someplace else!”
“We can’t move him!”
Right then, Rin suddenly slumped forward, Mikoto hurriedly grabbed hold of her to prevent her from falling and crushing Naruto. “Rin?” she asked, confused.
“I…” Rin panted heavily as she slouched, completely powerless, in Mikoto’s arms. “I… He’ll… be alright…”
“Really?!” She looked down at the baby, who – to her indescribable relief – had gotten the colour back on his face. There was still blood on his cheeks, but the wounds were not gaping anymore. The seal were black and cold on his stomach, and as she watched, he rolled his head slightly to the side, his mouth making small movements as if he were sucking on something. Having seen the same expression on both of her son’s faces, she knew that he was dreaming. Probably about being fed.
She smiled, relaxing. Rin sighed.
“Uchi… ha-san?” she asked silently. “Can you take him? I don’t… think that I’ll… make it.”
“What are you talking about? You’re just fine!” Mikoto said, turning the girl in her arms to face her. Her skin was deadly pale. “Rin! What happened?! What did you do?!”
“It’s a… jutsu…” she mumbled. “You transfer the patient’s wounds… to someone else. His internal damage was too great to heal… and his heart wouldn’t start beating otherwise.”
“Transfer… Why didn’t you transfer them to both of us then?! If it were too much for one person to handle…!”
Rin smiled and coughed a little. Blood dribbled from her mouth down her jaw and throat. “I didn’t… think about that.” As the smile faded and she turned her gaze upwards to the sky, she mumbled, too silent for Mikoto to be able to hear – once again, she saw the words with her Sharingan.
“I’ll tell Obito… you said hi, Kakashi-kun.”
“Hey, Uchiha! I’m really sorry, but I can’t hold this up anymore!” That was the only warning she got before the big toad disappeared in a puff of smoke. Panic surged through her as she stared to fall through the air. She couldn’t see because of the smoke, but the suddenness of all of it had apparently startled the baby awake, and his terrified yell allowed her hand to find him anyways. She grabbed him and pulled him close, her other arm encircling Rin’s body as she waited for the ground to meet them.
Further down, the smoke wasn’t as thick, and she managed to manoeuvre herself so that she landed in a pile of fairly soft dirt. Although “fairly soft” didn’t necessarily mean “soft enough”, as she would be forced to notice. It took a few moments to register the pain in her back, but when she did, it was more than enough to make her choke out a small cry of pain, before the world faded away completely.
oooo
She didn’t even try to explain to Fugaku what she had been thinking, when she finally awoke in her hospital bed, a whole week later. As soon as she opened her eyes, he grasped her hand, asking her silently how she was feeling. She smiled at him, her voice rough from too little use as she tried to tell him she was just fine. When he had assured himself enough of that, he had stood, turned, and walked away. She followed him with her tired gaze until he disappeared through the door to the hospital room. The nurses shook their heads as he passed them, mumbling about how insensitive he was and that he didn’t show enough appreciation for the great sacrifice his wife had almost been forced to make, but Mikoto just smiled. He had been there when she woke up; that was more than enough.
And it was probably better this way; if he asked her to explain herself and she told him that she had chosen to obey the part of her that was a Kunoichi, who wished no more the be loyal to her village, and not the Mother and wife, he’d probably just be more upset.
She wasn’t even sure that it had been the right choice herself anymore.
Her back had been broken in the fall, she were told, but thanks to a few very skilled med-nins, all the nerves and splintered bones had been put back together almost perfectly. She’d be able to walk, and live a normal life again, but only as a normal woman, a civilian housewife and mother. She would never again be able to pick up the role of being a kunoichi, her body would not be able to handle the pressure, especially if she tried to use jutsus based on her lightning-element. That most certainly wouldn’t do anything good to the nerve system in her spine.
Still, even without the hope of ever being able to do a kunoichi’s duty to her village again, Mikoto understood that she had been one of the lucky ones. With hard work in rehab and patience, she would be all right. Her entire family was alive and well.
Or so she thought.
It wasn’t until two days after she left the hospital that she was told that both her older sister and brother had been killed in the attack. Her mother was sitting on the floor, her face serious as she tried to hold back her tears. Mikoto looked at her, her eyes calm as she listened to the usual tale of bravery and sacrifice and how her siblings had made the clan proud.
When her mother had told her enough to convince herself that she actually believed in those words, Mikoto finally spoke.
“What is going to happen to happen to Shisui?” she said. “He’ll be left all alone now that Onii-san is gone.”
Her mother looked surprised. “Well, he’ll be staying here with you, of course!” she said.
Mikoto shook her head. Although it hurt her to refuse Shisui – he was such a lovely boy, a little bit too wild and free to fit into this strict clan, maybe, but he had a big heart – she had too many reasons while she couldn’t take care of him right now.
“I am very sorry, mother. I would love to have him, but I need to take care of my own family first, and it’s going to be hard enough right now that I’ve hurt my back, even without the extra mouth to fill. And you know that Fugaku didn’t get along with Onii-san; he won’t like it if we accept his son in our home. He thinks that Itachi spends too much time with him as it is.”
“Well, who’s going to take care of him then?!” her mother asked.
“Why don’t you take him, mother?” Mikoto suggested. “It’ll do you good to have a child in your house; it’ll keep your mind occupied.”
Her mother chewed on her lower lip. “Actually… you might be right. I could use an extra pair of hands.” Suddenly, she lit up. “Yes, yes of course! Shisui will stay with me, what a wonderful idea! He’s ten years old already, I’m sure that there’s a lot of things that he’ll be able to help me out with at home!”
Mikoto sighed. Shisui would hate becoming someone’s worker, but there was probably no helping it. At least it was better than living alone, or on the street.
oooo
A family as big as Konoha should be able to heal quickly enough, one would have thought. There were a lot of people there for you, many who were in the same situation that you could talk to; almost everybody had lost someone close to them. But obviously, it had been more thoroughly broken than she thought. A long time passed before you were greeted by casual smiled in the marketplace again.
The kunoichi inside her urged her to find out exactly what had happened to little Naruto after that night; she hadn’t seen him since, and she had to say that she was more than worried and urgent to find out what had happened to the child who had been the tool which had saved them all. She needed to know that he was safe, if it was the kunoichi or the mother who felt that way, she wasn’t sure.
But she knew for sure that it was the mother and wife inside her who saw how her husband’s jaw tightened every time that she brought the topic of the poor child up. The mother inside her saw the way that the child in Itachi squatted every time his father banged the sliding door shut when he left. The mother inside her regretted it every time Sasuke woke up from her and Fugaku’s fights during the night, his confused and scared scream filling and tearing at her heart.
The mother in her needed her to find her mind’s strength again, to be strong enough to not do anything. Maybe that way, she’d be able to heal the family which she was responsible for ruining.
The mother inside her needed her to be silent.
And she owed it to them, didn’t she?
oooo
Owari
oooo