Just like with Thunderstorms, I decided to make this it's own fic, just because it's technically completed. XD Enjoy.
A/N: Alright, so this is an idea that came to mind one day about Ichiko. It was just so mind-shattering, so unbelievably FUNNY and cruel to boot, that I couldn't resist. ^.^ Funny, it all started with me thinking about Ichiko's hair and then it grew into THIS. Now, you will find out just how mean I can be to my characters sometimes... XD I is evil! *evil laughter*)
Title: LateBloomer
Words: 968
Characters: FemItachi (Ichiko), Brief Mention of: FemKisame (Kishi), FemSasuke (Sakaye), FemObito (Okimi), FemFugaku (Fusako)
Warnings: None
Pairings: None (=.= . . . I DO NOT like Uchiha-cest, okay? Don't come looking for it here.)
Disclaimer/Claimer: While the original Naruto characters do not belong to me, these GenderBender creations are mine. Do not steal them.... EVER.
'This' means Thoughts
"This" means Talking
Ichiko Uchiha had a body to die for. Everyone knew that. Especially the Akatsuki and her partner, Kishi, who most often saw the teenager without her cloak. The younger Uchiha, Sakaye, was very much the same as her older sibling, and it was assumed that this was common amongst the clan, a hereditary trait if you will, that Uchiha women developed young and fast.
This was not necessarily true.
Believe it or not, Ichiko had been a very, very late bloomer.
Ichiko cringed to remember those days (Internally, of course. Uchihas did not cringe.) when she'd been flat as any boy her age. In fact, she'd often been mistaken, by people who didn't know her very well, to be an effeminate boy.
This is one of the reasons she'd grown her hair out. From a young age, she'd had long hair. As a child, she had let it fall about her shoulders, even though it tended to get in the way during training. This even followed to her becoming ANBU, until her mother had threatened to chop it all off if she didn't pull it back, lest it hinder her during missions, though the Uchiha had a perfect record.
With that hanging above her like the blade of a guillotine, Ichiko pulled back the long ebony locks, increasing the amount of time she was thought to be a guy. For even at the age of thirteen, the teenager was as flat as a board with no sign of anything coming soon.
At times, she found herself remembering her older cousin, who had died during a mission at the same age as her, and envying the girl for her rapid development, several sizes larger than herself and with curves, a feature the thin Uchiha lacked at the time.
By the time Ichiko killed her clan and joined up with Akatsuki, she felt the situation was hopeless. Even if she did develop anything, it was bound to be that she would turn out to be lean like her mother and not curvy like her cousin.
Even spying on her little sister nearly two years later left the older girl despairing, as the younger Uchiha seemed on the same track as their deceased cousin, and that Ichiko would be taking a different train.
The Uchiha even let her hair down again just so nobody would mistake her for a boy like when she was younger, though they still did anyways. (5'7" and fifteen years old? Who wouldn't?) It really seemed she was doomed to be underdeveloped and 'guyish' for the rest of her life...
Or so she thought.
A mere few months after spying on her sister in the leaf village and almost two years after joining Akatsuki, Ichiko developed... and fast.
What the Uchiha had waited years for, happened in a mere few months.
By the time it was finished, the dark-haired girl was drop dead gorgeous with curves any girl would kill to have, nothing like the, as Kishi had put it, "scrawny, flat-chested, little brat" that she had arrived as.
Now that it was impossible to mistake her for a boy, Ichiko realized how impractical it really was to keep her hair down. So, feeling confident and proud, she pulled it back in her familiar ponytail for the first time in three years.
Her wardrobe changed too. Throwing out all her baggy shirts and pants (which had done nothing for people thinking her a boy), she replaced it with clothes typical of many teenage girls her age: semi-tight shirts that were low-cut to hint at her "assets" and capri pants that clung to her hips.
Though, as internally excited and relieved as the girl was that she wasn't doomed to a life of looking like a feminine boy, those years without had done their damage.
After the high her rapid development had given her had worn off, Ichiko found herself suddenly more self-conscious of her looks, as beautiful as she had become.
When before the Uchiha had worn her Akatsuki cloak as little as possible, she reverted to her old habit of wearing it anytime she left the base (something that had developed during her 'boy' years) and reluctant to remove it unless hidden in the room of the inn she and Kishi were staying at, the mission required them not to, or when safely tucked away at the base. Rarely was it otherwise.
Although Kishi found it difficult to understand why someone would want to hide a "perfectly good body" as she put it, no matter how many times Ichiko tried to explain it to her, the older woman just put it off as the Uchiha being a teenage girl, clearly remembering her own insecurities at that age, ones she still had in fact.
So, as it went, Ichiko grew into herself, becoming the envy of the girls and catching the attention of the boys, a trait she found herself wishing she could live without.
But seeing her sister another two years later and developing rapidly from when she'd last seen her (meaning fan boys galore), left the elder Uchiha feeling satisfied that her younger sibling was suffering the same.
So, yes. Ichiko was gorgeous and yes. She had a body any girl would kill to have, but as we now know, she did not become like that for a very long time.
And you know what they say.
"The prettiest flower is, oftentimes, the one that is latest to bloom.."
A/N: Sorry for those of you who have to read this again, but all the same, I hope you enjoy.