Mikoto was talking pleasantly to one of the Uchiha matriarchs about politics and Mikoto's pregnancy when Aoi jogged up from around a corner. Although not an Uchiha, Aoi had been on her genin team and Mikoto's status as the clan head's wife - and before that, the previous clan head's only child - had given her the authority to make sure Aoi was allowed onto any of the Uchiha grounds whenever he liked.
"Aoi-kun," said Mikoto, turning with a relieved smile.
"Mitchan, sorry I'm early," Aoi said pleasantly. "Hey, Uchiha-san." The old woman Mikoto had been talking to gave a haughty sniff.
"I'm sorry, Keiko-sama," Mikoto said to her relative. "Aoi-kun and I planned on having lunch, and I completely forgot the time. We can finish this discussion later, if you like."
"It's fine," Keiko said bluntly. "You tell Fugaku-kun what I said, understand?"
"Of course, Keiko-sama. It was a pleasure speaking to you." The old woman made a 'hmph' noise and walked away. As soon as she was out of earshot, Mikoto turned on Aoi. "What the hell's going on?" she whispered.
"Sensei's house, come on." Aoi made to leap up onto the nearest rooftop, but Mikoto's strong grip on his shirtsleeve stopped him. "What's wrong?"
"The doctor doesn't want me using chakra in case it messes with the baby. If someone sees me, I won't hear the end of it."
Aoi rolled his eyes. "So use a henge."
"I'm in a part of the village full of sharingan users, asshole," Mikoto hissed. She'd spent the last week being terribly polite to her family, who all thought they knew what was best for her. The fact that she could be direct with her best friend was a relief. "Come on." She took off at a run, still in excellent shape despite the fact that she'd retired from active ninja status. Aoi kept pace beside her until they reached the end of Uchiha-owned land, when he leaped up to the nearest rooftop. Mikoto followed along on the streets for a bit longer before joining him.
Orochimaru's home was surrounded by woods; they transitioned smoothly from running along roofs to leaping from branch to branch. Finally, in the clearing where the house was located, they both dropped gracefully to the ground.
Mikoto looked out across the yard and covered her gaping mouth with one hand. "Oh my..."
"You can see why I was worried, right?"
Their sensei and one of the three great sannin, Orochimaru, was leaving his front door with his arms piled full of loose papers and scrolls. Two of the kids on his most recent genin team were using fire jutsu to burn a huge pile of materials - more than just paper, judging by the terrible smell - and water jutsu to keep the fragments of flying, burning debris from setting the rest of the lawn on fire. The third genin was in a tree, using a fan and wind jutsu to dissipate the smoke before it stretched past the treetops and alerted the rest of the village to a giant fire.
"Is that... his research?" Mikoto breathed.
Aoi looked just as freaked out, despite the fact that he must have seen it before he ran back to the village to retrieve Mikoto. "Sano's out on assignment, so I figured I'd grab you and see what the hell was going on."
"Not that I don't appreciate it, but couldn't you have just talked to him by yourself?" Orochimaru spotted them from across the lawn as he dumped what he'd been carrying into the fire. He waved them over.
Aoi shrugged at Mikoto and began walking. "I figure if he's gone crazy, it's one of us to die tragically and one to go back and warn the village- not it.
"Not- fuck," Mikoto muttered. "I can't believe you'd doom a pregnant woman."
"Better you and the fetus than me," said Aoi cheerfully. "Hey sensei, feeling sane today?"
"Just as funny as it was all the other times," Orochimaru replied dryly. He gestured back at the open door to his home. "The research I need destroyed is all on the living room floor. I don't want the baby minions seeing it, but you two can help me bring it all out." As Mikoto peered around her sensei and into the house, he added, "Don't worry, I destroyed all the organic research already."
"I'm going to pretend that was a joke," Mikoto decided. "Hahah, sensei. Very funny."
"You always try to pretend I'm joking," Orochimaru complained, following his students back into the house. "When I want to keep a prisoner for dissection. When I try to send you on suicide missions. When I ask if I can have your eyes after you die."
"That's love, Mitchan," Aoi pointed out as he picked up a great pile of scrolls. "He's going to wait for you to die before he steals your eyes."
"Yeah, but why do you think he kept trying to send me on suicide missions? Thank god I retired to be a housewife."
"Don't remind me." Orochimaru grimaced. "What a waste of all your training. I could abort your fetus and you could re-enlist, you know."
"It'd be more convincing if I thought you wouldn't just keep my dead baby for study purposes." Mikoto sent chakra to support her arms as she grabbed a large pile of papers. She glanced at one and regretted it; it described the vivisection of an enemy combatant with a unique bloodline limit. Cutting your enemy open while he was still alive to study his organs was definitely against the Five Countries Convention, so Mikoto sighed and tried to forget she'd seen it.
Orochimaru was sly, cunning, and manipulative with nearly everyone in his life, except for his former teammates and his first team of genin students which had been comprised of Mikoto, Aoi, and Sanosuke. When he was with one of those five people, Orochimaru acted true to his self - and his self was a creepy scientist with aspirations of grandeur. After two years of being a genin under his supervision, and then countless missions with him as a chuunin and then a jounin, the creepiness didn't really bother her anymore. She ignored whatever he said as long as he didn't actually break any laws in front of her.
It helped that Orochimaru honestly thought the world of those five people. No matter his personal feeling or any arguments, he had the utmost respect for the other two sannin and would do anything to keep his first three students safe.
Any child of one of those former genin was probably free game, though. Mikoto glared and jerked a hand up toward her face when she saw Orochimaru eyeing her stomach. "Eyes up here, asshole."
"Let me dream," Orochimaru said pleasantly. They dropped another load of wood and paper into the fire, the heat not bothering Mikoto in the least. "Don't ruin my perfect day."
The way one of the genin was using the katon jutsu, obviously stolen from the Uchiha, (not that Mikoto had any room to talk about stealing jutsu,) was definitely bothering Mikoto. "Purse your lips more, or you'll burn your throat!" Mikoto yelled. The kid jerked in surprise and sent a stray stream of fire toward his teammate, who evaded it and punched the first one for it.
"Have you finally developed a conscience?" Aoi asked as they turned back to the house. "That would be a perfect day for me."
"Don't be ridiculous," said Orochimaru happily. "I've been made Hokage."
Both Aoi and Mikoto froze in place. "What?" they both asked in unison.
Orochimaru kept moving, ignoring them as they turned towards each other. "Holy shit," said Aoi. "That's why he's getting rid of everything! All these files are evidence that he'd just turn the village into a giant laboratory!"
"You know, Suna's offering a lot of money and a free house to anyone with a bloodline limit that wants to move there," Mikoto said nervously, one hand on her slightly bulging stomach. "Sano's got my coloring. He could be my brother, you could be my husband... we could start a new life."
They looked over at Orochimaru. The pale, snakelike man was humming.
"Away from here."
"Far, far away," Aoi agreed.
"Get over your panic attacks and give me or the baby minions a hand," Orochimaru ordered. "I've got work to do before I take office."
"We are so screwed," Mikoto moaned as she went to get more burning material. One of the papers, at a glance, seemed to be about combining the Shodaime's DNA with a fetus's to give a child the mokuton ability. At that one, single glance, Mikoto could tell that it was yet another experiment that was morally abhorrent and incredibly illegal, by the laws of both Fire Country and Hidden Leaf Village.
But Orochimaru was her sensei, and he was trying to get rid of it.
Mikoto sighed and tossed it into the fire.
Author's Notes: I was thinking about how the official guidebooks say Mikoto was a jounin, and what she must have done before she retired to have kids, and I ended up writing this.
In this timeline, while Fugaku was busy trying to teach Itachi about the honor of the clan and how to use the clan jutsu, Mikoto taught him how to make deadly weapons out of easily available materials and what kind of ethical violations most ninja are willing to allow you to commit as long as no one actually sees you do it. She called it 'arts and crafts time' and 'people studies'.