Note: I know there isn't a lot of backstory and that this will skip large periods of time. It's the style of this. Got questions? I have answers.
Best Friend
Yukiko loved Otogakeru. It was home. She loved the way people would see her and wave. That they would greet her, not just because she was the daughter of their leader, but because she was a child that drew attention everywhere she went. But most of all, she loved that she had friends. Friends who played with her and spent time with her. For Yukiko, Oto was perfect.
It was a perfect day. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, and the few clouds in the sky provided the perfect amount of shade for an seven year old. Yukiko sat at the edge of the stream, her small bare feet dipped into the shallow water. The academy had just been let out and now she was waiting for her father to finish his work so they could have dinner. Some bushes rustled not far away, causing Yukiko to jerk her head and see who was coming.
From the bushes a young girl emerged. Her blond hair hung to her shoulders and was held back by the forehead protector engraved with a musical note. Yukiko grinned and waved at the girl.
"Mika! You're back!" Yukiko cried. Mika sat down next to the younger girl and smiled. "How was your mission?" She asked eagerly.
"It was easy. We just escorted some guy to a nearby village." Mika said. "What are you doing here Yukiko? You're usually with your father right now." Yukiko's smile faltered a bit before she answered.
"Daddy has to work late today. I'm waiting for him to finish." Yukiko kicked her feet lightly causing the stream to splash. Beside her, Mika took out a kunai and idly turned it in her hands.
"You know, Yukiko, you're very lucky." Mika muttered. Yukiko stopped splashing and looked at her friend.
"Why?" The small girl asked with genuine curiosity.
"Because," Mika began, "You have a family that loves you and friends who care for you." Yukiko frowned at her words.
"But you have friends too Mika!" She countered. Mika shook her head,
"I don't have any family though." She whispered. Yukiko's eyes started to water and she leaned over and gripped Mika in a hug. She held onto the older girl as tightly as possible.
"Don't be sad Mika. You can be my sister. I'll get daddy to adopt you, and we'll be best friends forever!" Yukiko looked up at Mika, expecting the girl to be happy. Instead, Mika was sneering at the smaller girl and pushed her away.
"You think I would want him as a father? That man is the one who had my family killed! It's all his fault I can't be happy." Yukiko stumbled back, her eyes wide as she stared at her long time friend.
"Mika, what are you-" Yukiko was interrupted by the Kunai in Mika's hand as it flew by and left a gash on her arm.
"Now I'm going to take away his happiness!" Mika screamed.
Yukiko stumbled and fell onto her back as Mika made her approach. The genin had taken another kunai from her weapon pouch and was poised to kill.
"Goodbye Yukiko. I always hated you." She threw the weapon.
If the kunai had landed in its target, Yukiko would have died in seconds. But in the moment before it did, the small girl rolled out of the way and grabbed the weapon that had landed with a thunk in the grass. Mika came at her with yet another of the weapons. Yukiko barely managed to bring up the one she held in time to block it. The clash was short. Mika jumped away when she knew she had been deflected.
Yukiko trembled. A full on fight was too much for a seven year old academy student. She held out the kunai with shaking hands, trying to prepare herself for the oncoming assault.
Mika shook too, but with an anticipation of the kill to come. At long last she would be able to avenge her family. Her beloved family who had been killed at the orders of Sasuke Uchiha. The anticipation was bubbling inside her. She just wanted to kill the little wretch and get it over with.
Mika lunged, madness consuming her. When she had almost reached the pathetic child, she screamed and dropped her kunai to grip her stomach. Blood pooled from the fresh wound. Mika looked up. Yukiko stood not a foot away, the kunai she had held was now embedded in Mika's intestines. The older girl fell to the ground gripping the area around the wound. She was going to die.
"He killed them." Mika forced out gripping her stomach. "And you finished the job." She inhaled a sharp breath and began coughing, blood mixed with her spittle.
Yukiko watched helplessly as her best friend bled to death on the ground. She could only stare wide eyed as the girl she had spent so much time with took her last breath. Yukiko fell to her knees and grabbed the dead body, trying to hold on to something that had never truly been there.
Three hours later, after searching all over Otogakeru, Sasuke stumbled upon the sight. Yukiko was gripping a corpse, weeping and muttering apologies to the now dead genin. Sasuke tried to pull his daughter from the dead body, but she refused to let go.
"No! I can't let her go away. I have to save her! Daddy, let me save her! Please!" Sasuke gripped his daughter as she burst into hysterics. He managed to pry her from the bloody corpse, but she just continued to shout.
"You can adopt her, and she'll be my sister and we'll be best friends forever and she'll be happy and have a family! I just have to get her. Daddy, just let me get her. She needs me, Daddy!" Sasuke gripped his daughter.
"Yukiko, she's gone." He whispered. Yukiko paused for a moment and turned to her father. The once coal black eyes had changed color. No longer did her eyes have a deep abyss that drew everyone in. Now her eyes were a dark crimson, and the telltale sign of the magenyeko sharingan stared back at her father. Sasuke pulled her into a tight embrace as the small girl sobbed into his shirt.
The bloodstained body of Miko watched with lifeless eyes as a father comforted his daughter, who would forever have this moment ingrained in her memory.
