A flock of dark-feathered birds flew overhead, casting patterned shadows over the grass as a girl watched from afar, wonder in her eyes.
Children wondered, children watched, children learned.
It was a day of bright sunshine and a cool, sweet breeze that smelt distinctly of pine.
"Chieko!" Somebody called from behind her. The little girl sat still, obstinately in the grass, her small hands fisting into it as she ignored the maidens call.
"Chieko! Chieko Uchiha!"
Chieko's lower lip protruded and quivered as two hands hooked themselves beneath her arms and lifted her up. She let out a shrill, angry scream and quarrelled with her caretaker.
"Ehhh Chieko- Chi-kun, come now. It's time to return. It's not safe."
Little Chieko sobbed angrily and relented, but in her heart she was rebelling. It was perfectly safe if the birds were flying. She was put down onto her short, stubby feet and herded into a group of little children. Mostly girls.
Some of the other girls her age were taken away to be taught how to be like the adults around her. Chieko had never been considered even. She was not skilled and at the raw age of five, it made her envious of the other girls who had gone from being wide eyed to sharp eyed and silent. Chieko wondered what they were taught exactly.
"Chieko!" Scolded one of the elderly women, seizing her arm and pulling her along to keep up with the others, "You always misbehave and you never listen to us! Stupid child!"
Chieko did not look up at the old woman, pridefully. Like every Uchiha, she was proud. They never had to be taught to be proud, they just were. She stared ahead, her wide grey eyes watering as she relented to not looking up at the old woman that was pulling her along.
They passed a group of other children, heading in the direction from where she'd been dragged away. To be taught, Chieko assumed.
Her eyes met those of a boy a few years older than her, his eyes were sharp and observant and she knew straight away who he was. Absent-mindedly, she put her thumb in her mouth and looked away pridefully. She was as good as them at something else. She'd find out what it was eventually.
She watched people as she was pulled along, thumb in mouth, eyes wide. She saw in the distance, her oldest brother. She had four. Or five. She couldn't remember. She supposed she had five once. But they must have lost one of them.
She grinned and waved her pudgy arm but he did not see and the old woman pulled her further away until Chieko could no longer see him.
At night, they lay on small tatami mats in sorted rooms. All the children were divided into groups, depending on whose family they were. Chieko was in a room full of, presumably, her cousins. Some of the children whispered to each other, some misbehaved and pinched each other under the blankets, giggling. Chieko lay in a corner and watched the door, waiting for her mother to come. When the mothers arrived, all the children went silent and excitedly sat up or remained lying down as the mothers looked for their children.
Chieko's mother was, as she liked to think, very pretty, even by Uchiha standards. Her hair was pinned up in a bun and her neck was petite, she looked like she was made of porcelain actually. She smiled softly to her daughter as she sat by her and kissed her forehead.
Chieko loved meeting her mother, she would tell her about all the things she had seen, like how she had seen Misaki-niisama on the way and he hadn't seen her at all. And how the silly care-takers didn't know that seeing birds in the sky meant there was no immediate threat and so on and on.
Her mother would laugh and listen, often her eyes would twinkle in amusement at some of the things her daughter had the knack of observing.
It wasn't long before she'd be learning to take care of soldiers, the way her mother did. Chieko knew one of her brothers was very important and that had given her parents and her other brothers some reason to be…important. But Chieko never quiet understood why Misaki-niisama was so important. It made her angry but only because she could not say she was important for something.
Within a month, Chieko was being forced to learn how to throw kunai, control and manipulate chakra. The fire techniques were drilled into her head, she was taught how to run, how to conceal herself, how to be a kunoichi of dignity and honour. How to be an Uchiha.
She was huffing, exhausted, as she sparred with a boy her age. He had punched her in the stomach and she had angrily been evading all his attacks, kneeing him in the spot she knew all boys hurt more than girls.
She wasn't an unfair fighter. That wasn't the problem. She just didn't enjoy it.
Then came the day she was put onto a squad and sent out to fight. She was 12.
Chieko had been scared of many things but at this point, she was confused about what she should be feeling.
The other children with her were excited, happy, adrenaline-pumped. She felt it influencing her but at the same time, as they slipped into the darkness, she felt a dark fear plunder her courage.
As she heard the sounds of whipping flames in the distance and the heart-wrenching sounds of warring humanity, she felt her courage slip away completely into the dark of the woods.
Soon she was surrounded with noise and orange, burning bright light. One of the children by her fell as the others took on the ninja around them. Chieko watched, panicking. She couldn't budge and something hit her, knocked the breath out of her, she rolled to a tree and her head crashed into it and she screamed in pain. There were more men fighting near her, not too far she saw the flame-lit face of her eldest brother as he tore his arm through somebody, through another human being.
Chieko sat up shakily, bile rising in her throat as red dripped down his arm and he dropped the body. The corpse's face was staring at her, eyes wide and mouth frozen stiff in an agonizing, silent scream. It was watching her with a fearsome malice, like it knew she was running from the fight. It knew she was a coward.
Chieko felt her breath falter. The smoke around her was choking her. But she couldn't pull her eyes away. There were more people, more fighting, more dead people. She couldn't pull her eyes away from the corpses gaze. She almost expected herself to apologize to it for her cowardice. In her mind, it's expression turn to one of accusation and anger. She had to fight. She had to die too, just like he had. But as smoke filled her lungs, she had to move.
She stumbled over the corpse, her mouth parted as she went, crouching low. She was shaking and no matter how hard she tried, she could not control it. In the direction she was heading, everything was black. So black it melted with the sky. It was dark everywhere, as if she was stepping into the worldly embodiment of darkness. The moon that loomed over head tinged slightly red, the sky seemed to turn maroon. And then she was seeing a man leap at her and she moved to dodge, avoiding him cleanly. He moved again and she ducked just in time, lashing out to kick his knee-cap. He growled, his armour protecting him.
Being a small girl, she slipped around dodging his attacks easily. But her reflexes were quicker, she didn't realize it until she found herself plunging a kunai into his throat before he could spit water. The body crumpled and she fell with it, rolling down an ashy slope with the corpse. When she hit the bottom, she had hurt her head again and she bounced back onto her feet shakily. Seeing nothing around her, she rubbed her face, only feel to feel the sticky, ash-mixed blood come in contact with her face. She gasped and her hands quivered. Even as she stared in the strangely illuminated darkness at her hands, she felt her body alert of all things around her. Something made her duck and roll, dodging a much taller enemy. She let out a startled cry which startled her attacker. He looked at her, alien rose eyes meeting…deathly crimson.
He hissed out her clan-name like it was an accusation and she frowned in confusion, lunging out of his way as he attacked her, his silvery hair making him easy to see.
Not that she needed her normal eyesight.
He continued to come at her with physical attacks until he'd tired her out. Then he moved his hands so quickly, they would have been a blur to her if it weren't for her eyes. She hadn't realized her Sharingan had surfaced until she found herself combating his jutsu with her own, a huge cloud of steam erupting where her fire met his water. She held up her forearm to shield her face from the singing steam. But where she stopped to defend herself from the steam, he cut through it and launched himself at her, she twisted away, his blade cutting her side. She whimpered, falling away from him.
Huffing, she wanted to surrender. She was stupid, she was prideful but stupid. She wasn't honourable or skilled. She did not want to die in such a pathetic place.
"Stop! I don't want to fight you!"
Her girlish voice, soft and afraid made the rose-eyed boy freeze. He watched her with his stony expression, stalking towards her slowly, like a predator. She couldn't sit up.
"Please." She huffed, "I don't want to fight you."
He seemed to sneer, but it was gone in a second. Poker-face, she noted. It meant he was emotionally cautious. He began to approach her, striding purposefully.
She felt tears brim her eyes and slide down her face, "I only fought to defend myself." She choked out, craning her neck to stare at him as he paused, halfway to her. There was only the sound of a distant battle, metal clashing and jutsus whirling. A distant world from the singed darkness she lay in.
His voice cut through her almost-revery, cold as steel, boyish and young. He could have been Misaki-niisama's age. But somehow Chieko thought he was younger. She felt that he was guarded, calculated and cautious. He was an adult-like child.
"You're an Uchiha. Why would I spare something like you?"
She didn't have an answer to that and she clenched her mouth shut. Her lower lip quivered. He was just standing over her now, staring down at her. She wondered how much he could see in the dark. Suddenly feeling her pride revived, she bit out an awkward and stuttered retort.
"W-We're not things. We're just ch-children."
He didn't respond to that. She saw his dark form move, the blade reflecting the fires in the distance where the battle was carrying on. Recoiling, she closed her eyes and bit the inside of her cheek, wondering if it was already time for her to die.
But the blade never came down on her.
He was gone, the immense presence of his chakra vanishing within seconds. And Chieko lay there, bleeding out as her face paled and she felt herself go cold. She swallowed a lump in her throat, concentrating on her chakra. She knew how the medics used it to heal. Maybe she could try that and save herself for she loathed to die bleeding out after brokering herself away from death.