Ink-Red Dawn
Disclaimer: Naruto and said characters do not belong to me.
Uchiha Mikoto's father had never anticipated a daughter, the name having been chosen after the Shinto god, Susanoo-no-Mikoto, in the belief of awaiting a son.
"The Uchiha blood runs strong within her." He had said at last, holding his newborn daughter as his wife smiled, exhausted but pleased. "She will do her clan proud."
And Mikoto had done her clan proud, graduating from the Academy top-ranked in her class, activating her Sharingan at age ten and reaching the third level eighteen months later.
She made chuunin the day after her thirteenth birthday, bowing her head to her Hokage first and mother second.
"It is a pity her father is not around to see it." One of her elder cousins reiterated, assuming she was out of earshot. A pity indeed.
Mikoto was fourteen years old at the time of meeting young Uzumaki Kushina. A former Uzushio-nin, all fiery red hair and distrustful grins.
"Be careful, Mikoto." The smaller kunoichi had cautioned in a sing-song tone, eyes dark in a way which belied her age.
Mikoto merely continued arranging her gear, eyes occasionally flickering to catch the smooth movements of Kushina's wrists and the strange seals forming beneath the sharp-tipped brush.
"I will. You needn't worry Kushina-chan. Its a very routine escort mission." She replied checking her kunai.
"All the same." Kushina huffed, smearing blood-ink onto Mikoto's eyelids.
Upon encountering an ambush by rogue-nin on the return trip back to Konohagakure, two of her teammates were killed by during the brief skirmish, while the wind-infused giant shuriken which would have blinded Mikoto, inexplicably veered off-course, the deadly breeze caressing her lashes as it spun on.
"I did tell you to be careful." The red-head mutters, not-unkindly as she helps Mikoto re-bandage her forearm. "You're just like Namikaze."
Privately, Mikoto believes she is nothing like Kushina's fair-haired, too-clever friend, who seems to disappear with his eccentric, but revered mentor more often than not.
"What's this about Namikaze?" She prompts instead, enjoying Kushina's twitch, and ignores the feeling of ink prickling at the back of her eyelids.
Uchiha Mikoto is twenty-two years old when she gives birth to her firstborn son, and though she does not know it at the time, it is the beginning of the end of the great Uchiha Clan.
"Uchiha Itachi." Fugaku says, a smile curving the corners of his lips. "He will do his clan proud."
"That he shall." Mikoto agrees, catching her son's dark eyes.
"Itachi." Intones Kushina softly, testing the name on her tongue as the baby reaches for her bright hair. She smiles, hands touching his face like he's made of glass.
"He will make his clan proud." Mikoto says, and cannot fathom the meaning behind the look that Kushina gives her.
It strikes Uchiha Mikoto as strange, as she kneels before her firstborn awaiting death, how she had forgotten the Uzumakis' uniquely precognitive abilities.
Author's Note: I haven't seen a great deal of fanfictions centred on Uchiha Mikoto and assumed that if I do happen to be coincidently be writing a great deal about Namikaze Minato, then the former Uchiha Clan deserves some recognition.