Prelude 1

Fugaku Uchiha wasn't around very much when Itachi was born. After all the entire village was in the middle of war and all able bodied shinobi were required on the battlefield and Fugaku was nothing if not honorable. He would fight any battle, no matter how long or hard, if it were for the good of Konoha. Unfortunately for his family that meant that for the first three years of his son's life Fugaku only saw him five times.

The first time he had been given a leave of absence from the battlefront in light of the impending birth. The day he arrived was her birthday. When he arrived at his home she was in the kitchen chopping onions for dinner. She stopped, looking up at him with a light smile adorning her features.

"Welcome home dear."

She went back to chopping as he walked over to her. Standing behind her he placed a large calloused hand on her large belly and the other on the knife in her hand, effectively halting her chopping. She leaned into his chest sighing contently as he buried his face into her hair.

"Mikoto" he murmured.

They stood there for a few moments in quiet content until Fugaku turned her to face him. She happily placed her arms around his neck as he placed his on the counter behind her. Suddenly he swooped down to place a chaste kiss upon her lips, silently remarking how different it was to have a big baby bump in the way. The last time they had been together was seven months ago and she had been remarkably smaller then.

When he finally pulled away he gazed into her obsidian eyes with an unreadable expression. He stepped away, lightly touching her cheek before he began walking to the stairs. When he reached the foot he turned to her and said, "I'm taking you out tonight."

'June 9th' Fugaku thought as he lay in bed next to Mikoto. 'My child is to be born June 9th.'

Tomorrow would be the 2nd meaning his child was due in seven days. He would be a father in one week assuming everything went according to plan.

The next day brought about a surprise to the head clans member as he came to realize Mikoto had not bought a single item for the baby.

"I wanted to do it with you" had been her excuse.

So that afternoon they set out to a well known baby store in the complex. They picked out a crib, a highchair, and pretty much everything else Mikoto said she "needed" in order to care for a baby. In spite of the fact Fugaku thought half of it was unnecessary he never argued with her once. He would merely raise an annoyed eyebrow when she asked the clerk to put something particularly ridiculous on the list. (Namely the elephant shaped baby bath. 'Why can't she just wash the thing in the sink"?) He never voiced these opinions though only paid for the items and filled out the paperwork for the delivery services.

"Thank you Fugaku-sama," The clerk bowed deeply "And congratulations on your pregnancy."

The day after that Fugaku woke up to find the items already delivered and Mikoto unwrapping everything giggling and squealing like a school girl. She had invited her friend Kushina Uzimaki over, who was also on leave, and they set about decorating the room insisting he take part.

"This is a very important part of the nesting process for the mother" Kushina stated like she was one of those damn baby book. "Decorating the baby room…" Fugaku tuned the rest of what she said out opting to instead carry some of the more heavy things upstairs into the nursery.

The following morning Mikoto dragged him back to the store saying something about "Baby Proofing" the house.

"Surely one little baby can't cause that much damage.' He mused inwardly.

After Mikoto was satisfied with amount of locks in her basket Fugaku paid and they returned home. Mikoto immediately assigned him the task of placing the locks while she made lunch.

"Why in the hell do we need to put a lock on out toilet" Fugaku fumed, trying to think of all the things a baby could possibly do to break a toilet. Babies weren't that destructive. As he crouched trying to figure out how to secure said lock in place Mikoto stood by the door chattering happily about her excitement.

The next three day passed in similar fashion and before he knew it it was June 9th, the baby's due date.

Mikoto had been driving him crazy with all of her crazy demands. He had to bite his lip to keep from snapping at her in his annoyance. He knew why. Deep inside he knew why she felt the need to have everything taken care of before his leave was up.

With this thought in mind Fugaku halted his badly draw painting of a giraffe on the nursery was and drew Mikoto into his arms abruptly. She let out a small "eep" effectively cutting off the rest of her sentence. (Or rather her ramble as Fugaku would have called it.)

As Mikoto looked up into her husband's eyes questioningly she saw he had that look that he had reserved only for her. From the first time she had stared into those obsidian eyes full of love towards her she had never been able to resist him. When he brought his hand up to brush her bangs away from her face she looked down, suddenly unable to conceal the sadness and fear that had been threatening to consume her ever since he had been sent away to the war. Fugaku trailed his hand from her ear to her chin and tugged making her look at him again. She averted her eyes trying not to look it his, trying not to cry. When she finally built up the courage to meet his gaze her control broke and the tears came flooding out.

"Fugaku I-I –"

She was suddenly cut off as his lips crushed down on her own. The hand that had been holding her chin moved to tangle into her hair, pulling her closer in a more passionate kiss, while his left did the same from her waist. Wrapping her arms around his next attempting to draw him closer, Mikoto close her eyes, allowing a river of tears to flood out.

Eventually Mikoto pulled back burying her face in his neck and let out a choked sob. Fugaku in turn wrapped both his arms around her back and held her in a firm embrace. When that seemed to do nothing to calm her tears he pulled her face up and kissed her forehead and then her nose and finally he kissed her cheeks over and over kissing away her tears as they fell.

"I love you."

It just barely came out a whisper but she heard. Suddenly halting her sobs she lifted her face to gaze into his eyes. She pulled her hands up to cup both sides of his face.

"I love you too, Fugaku" she said softly and planted a soft kiss on his lips. When she didn't move away Fugaku deepened the kiss, once again pulling her into him.

It was at this exact moment that little baby Uchiha decided it was time for him to make his depute. Mikoto felt a cramp in her stomach as though someone were grabbing onto her insides. She pulled away from Fugaku reluctantly and sighed.

"I think it's time."