Sorry for the long wait. This chapter was kinda rushed so maybe some of you won't like it, but I didn't want to leave you hanging any longer. Thanks for all of the reviews, especially those who answered some of my questions about Shusui.
Meika hated kanji.
"Look, sweetheart, this one says 'head'," Mikoto said, her voice encouraging, as her manicured fingers glided over dark, too complicated characters, reading them with enviable ease.
Meika scrunched her nose in frustration. Her new mother had decided that at almost two years old, she was smart enough to comprehend the basics of reading. And while she couldn't help to agree with the assessment, she was getting increasingly irritated with the lack of progress. Kanji was difficult, almost ridiculously so. There were hundreds, thousands of different characters, all incredibly similar to her eyes. She was accustomed to the simple writing of the English alphabet and the sudden jump from one to another was startling.
Su had taught her the spoken Japanese. She had never even mentioned the written part of the language.
She was all alone in this one.
"Can you tell me which one is this, Meika-chan?" Mikoto tapped one perfectly shaped fingernail against the scroll she used to teach her to read. Meika had the sneaking suspicion that it was actually a taijutsu scroll, considering the carefully inked pictures of defense positions.
Meika had realized early on that her ninja training had already started.
It begun when Mikoto decided that the gory, horrific stories about long-dead, legendary shinobi would be a good entertainment for her, then one and a half year old, daughter. She described the fights, talked in hushed, awed voice about powerful, earth-shattering jutsus, brilliantly cunning strategies and world-changing events. She talked about war, legends about demons and chakra beasts, and the general greatness of the ninja forces.
If Meika hadn't been quietly horrified at the level of indoctrination, she would've been impressed. That was positively Slytherin, starting them so young.
Her 'training' didn't end there. Her mother insisted on playing Cat's Cradle with her, along with a number of other games that improved the dexterity of her fingers. She spoke more often about 'cool' jutsus and used handseals a lot slower than Meika knew she was able to, always making sure her daughter could see them. For her first birthday most of the presents she had received were something connected with ninja profession. Toy shuriken and kunai, storybooks with shinobi in leading roles and even Kushina had given her a small, child-sized wooden katana, which made her realize that this early training was actually common for Clan children. Mikoto had recently even allowed her to come with her on her morning exercise, permitting her to awkwardly try and imitate the yoga-like routines that seem to increase her flexibility. Sneaking around was tolerated, encouraged even, as was eavesdropping. The general opinion seemed to be that if you were caught saying something sensitive by a child, you deserved it. Meika had a an awful suspicion that stealing and trap making would be next.
Basically, they were training her to kill since she was nothing more than a baby.
One the bright side, she wouldn't be sent to fight an insanely powerful man with fifty years more experience without any training this time. (Goddamn Dumbledore.)
Today they were working on her reading skills. They started three weeks ago and the progress was almost agonizingly slow, enough to make Meika want to rip the damned scroll to shreds. Only the fact that it could contain potentially valuable information stopped her, along with the fact that Mikoto would grace her with her very best 'i'm incredibly dissapointed at you' look that she had wrongly thought she was immune of. But apparently, Molly Weasley and Albus Dumbledore could not induce guilt like Uchiha Mikoto.
She squinted at the damned squiggles, trying to differentiate one from another. "It says... hands?" she asked, unsure, but quickly grinned delightedly when Mikoto flicked her nose approvingly.
"Yes, darling. You are a little genius, aren't you?" Mikoto let out an airy, bell-like laugh that seemed to brighten the room.
Ah, a genius. That word had been following her for quite some time now. Apparently she had started walking and speaking a little earlier than she should've, and she was just a touch too coordinated, just a shade too articulate. Mikoto had immediately declared her to be a prodigy, a genius, and even Fugaku had agreed before he was deployed to Kumo a month ago. She couldn't deny the pleasure she felt at the praise tough, even if she did have an unfair advantage. Harriet had been almost insultingly average at anything that was unconnected to Dueling, Warding and Flying, and most of those skills she had inherited from her parents. But here she had actual parents to praise her, so she... reveled in it.
It was so different from her childhood with the indifferent Dursleys that it made her giddy.
She really liked her new life.
Even if most of her new family were professional killers.
"Kushina, put that down! I don't want any sharp objects near my daughter for at least a year yet!"
Kushina pouted cutely, carefully putting the kunai down at the table under the force of Mikoto's onyx glare. Meika sighed in relief. She loved her godmother, she truly did, but the amount of childishness she could take from a fully grown person – no matter that she was technically a child herself – was severely restricted, making her very irritated. Her irritation only gave place to fear when Kushina started to play with sharp, pointy objects in close proximity to her new, extremely delicate body.
Thankfully, Mikoto was there to be a voice of common sense, like always.
"Aaah, but you allow her to play with the katana I gave her," Kushina whined, starting to fiddle with her calligraphy brushes instead of the kunai. She was full of nervous energy, twitching and jumping, and Meika suspected that she had recently came home from a stressful mission, or was on sugar high. Both were equally possible and had already happened before.
Meika continued trying to avoid the conversation, turning her attention to the said katana. It was beautifully made, carefully balanced and carved with the pattern of dancing flames and falling leaves. It was also quite a bit heavier than it should be judging by its size, so Meika suspected that it was reinforced with metal to help her with her strength.
Sneaky ninjas.
She didn't complain, tough. It will only help her in the long run.
Above her, Mikoto placed her teacup on the saucer with a sigh. "The katana is not sharp. The kunai are." The tone managed to convey her opinion about Kushina's intelligence quite nicely. Meika was impressed.
Kushina very obviously wasn't. In fact, she seemed to ignore the remark completely. "When could I start training her, Mikoto? It's been almost two years already. That's, like, eternity! She should at least be able to learn calligraphy."
Calligraphy. Hadn't it been a nice surprise when Meika realized that Kushina was incredibly adept at calligraphy. The same Kushina that regularly ate at least ten bowls of ramen, the Kushina that couldn't color-coordinate to save her life, the same Kushina who cracked dirty jokes in public only to see her too-proper boyfriend blush. That same Kushina, who seemed to detest any 'girly hobbies', as she called them, enjoyed calligraphy.
And she was very good at it. Her lines were fast, precise, not a drop out of place, everything the same shade of inky black, her characters neat and orderly, minimalistic. There was a strange beauty in the almost clinically accurate works her godmother produced, almost entirely without ornamentation, and it took a breath away from Meika every time she saw them.
Naturally, Kushina being Kushina, she used her talent mainly to write down the previously mentioned dirty jokes and leave them somewhere for Minato to see. It was hilarious to watch the lauded Yellow Flash stammering, tripping over his own words as he tried to hide his red face and reprimand his utterly unrepentant girlfriend at the same time.
And of course, she used it for Sealing. Can't forget the Sealing.
"Soon, I think," Mikoto answered, a proud smile stretching her lips. "She's improving faster than I expected."
Meika looked up at that, honestly surprised. Apparently the reading lessons were going really well. Huh, that was news to her, but she supposed that her adult brain must learn quicker than a child's would have.
"Anyway, enough about that," Mikoto waived away the previous conversation. There was a glint in her eyes that promised interesting news and Meika, suddenly interested, walked closer, leaning in to hear better. Her mother always had the best gossip.
Kushina, too, seemed eager. A foxy grin spread across her face. "Oooh, what is it? Did Inoichi finally grew a pair and decided to propose? It's about the damned time, dattebane!"
Mikoto shook her head and smiled fondly at the sudden frustration on Kushina's face. From what Meika had heard before, Kushina had placed a lot of money on Inoichi proposing this month. Apparently, the whole Village was in on the bet.
"Something even better," Mikoto said as she leaned back, lips curving into smirk, placing her hands on her stomach. A sudden suspicion formed in Meika's mind. "I'm pregnant."
Meika's eyes widened. Kushina's jaw dropped. Mikoto's smirk spread even further.