A/N: Sorry for the long wait. I simply lost all inspiration and had no idea what to write. Honestly, this chapter is a product of my procrastination tendencies since I was supposed to study for my exams. It's little rushed, and my writing style has changed, but I hope you like it anyway. Writing from a child's POV was pain.
A quick question: Uchiha Massacre or no Massacre? I kind of really want to write it, but Meika doesn't strike me as someone who would be OK with killing her family for the village. Maybe for Itachi and Sasuke she would, though, I don't know. Thoughts?
Read and review.
Uchiha Itachi looked like a red prune.
Meika was…mildly freaked out, when she wasn't too busy being almost deliriously happy.
She had a brother.
She had a little brother. The thought alone made her grin madly.
She'd never had a brother before. When she had been Harriet, Ron and Neville had come close, very close. They were the nearest thing she'd ever had to a family, them and Hermione, Ginny and Luna, all of them having survived the Ministry, Sirius' death and subsequent war together. They were the leaders, the generals, the ones who made the tough decision, so they were allowed to be weak, emotional and vulnerable only with each other. They were a family, strange and dysfunctional and more than little co-dependant, but a family nonetheless.
But they were not blood, they had not shared her childhood, the abuse and neglect and that made all the difference. They were Harriet's family, but they had never been able to understand her, not completely.
Itachi would not be able to either, thanks to her previous life, but he was her little brother, and that… well, that made him hers in a way she had not had since Sirius died.
Hers to look after, hers to protect, hers to care for.
She'd never had that before, either.
She'd never had someone to protect, not in that way.
Ron, Neville, Hermione, Ginny and Luna were her equals. Maybe not as powerful, or a fast to draw a wand, but they did not require her protection. They never had. The rest of her soldiers were… not expendable, not exactly, but she was ready to sacrifice them for the greater good of the civilians. And the civilians themselves… well, she did protect them, at the cost of the lives of her people, of her friends, but they had always been an abstract concept. Not there.
Itachi… Itachi was there.
"Meika-chan, would you like to hold your otouto?"
Meika hesitated. Mikoto and she were the only ones in the room, since both Kushina and Fugaku were at the war front, fighting, and Mikoto's screaming and cursing had effectively chased off the Elders hoping for an heir. Though, the messages were sent to the Uchiha Clan Head that his wife was in labour, and Hokage-sama had granted him five months leave.
He still wasn't with them. Meika had never saw him as her father and she understood his reasons, but his absence still infuriated her. The whole matter of the war made her uneasy, truth be told.
Meika fidgeted uncertainly. "Can I?" she asked. She was only two years old in this life, after all. And the baby looked awfully fragile, all swathed in white cloth, only the small, red face peeking out.
Mikoto's smile was gentle. "Come here," she said, and moved sideways on her bed to make place for her. Meika clambered up with some difficulty – she was happy that she was able to walk, but her height left much to be desired – and leaned into the familiar warmth of her mother.
The tiny bundle was passed to her hands and Meika gasped. He was so small. Small and soft and warm in a way that made her smile radiantly. He did look like a prune, even more from this close, but his Uchiha onyx eyes were bright and intelligent and his slowly flailing arms, grabbing at the inky darkness of her hair, made her giggle.
"He's cute," she said.
Mikoto laughed airily, but there was a tinge of exhaustion in the lines of her face, the dark shadows under her eyes. "Yes, he is. You were cute too, Meika-chan, when you were born." Mikoto drew her closer and the girl knew she was remembering Fugaku's reaction. She leaned further in.
She was aware of the political implication of Itachi's birth. Her gender and her eyes made her ineligible as an heir, at least in the Elders' eyes, and Itachi was a replacement. Still, she could not resent him, and neither could Mikoto. He was a treasure, her brother, a part of her family, and she'd never really cared for stupid titles anyway, not beyond the advantage they gave her in the political arena after the War.
Mikoto cared though, had always cared, Meika could tell, and the rejection of her daughter had hurt her more than it did Meika herself.
Meika looked at her, too shrewd for her age, as she steadied Itachi in her hands and pulled him to her chest. "You should sleep, Kaa-chan," she said.
Soft, onyx eyes gazed at her from the beautiful face. Mikoto looked thoughtful. "You will look after your little brother, won't you, Meika-chan?" Her voice carried more weight than the question really deserved, but Meika understood.
She would protect him. From Konoha's enemies, from threat inside the village, from grasping Clan member, from Fugaku himself if she had to.
She nodded solemnly, her emerald green orbs meeting her mother's warm gaze. "Always, Kaa-chan."
Uchiha Meika-hime had very pretty eyes.
Shisui told her so. "You have pretty eyes." His father's hand tightened on his shoulder at the disrespect, but Meika smiled brightly. Her eyes looked even prettier when she smiled, lighting up like coloured stones he had seen in his mother's prized necklace.
"Thank you," she said happily. She was a small thing, shorter than him, which delighted him – there were not many children his age in the Clan and he had always been the youngest – with oval face of Mikoto-sama and straight dark hair of their family.
Mikoto-sama was smiling too. It was a nice smile, but it reminded him of the one his Kaa-chan wore when she talked with Obaa-san. Kaa-chan did not like Obaa-san at all. "You have a very nice boy, Daiki-san," she said, and at least sounded like she meant it. She bent down to look in Meika's eyes. Her smile was real for her daughter. "Meika-chan, Fugaku and I have some business with Daiki-san. Would you like to play with Shisui-kun?"
Shisui's eyes widened. Mikoto-sama was talking to the little girl like she was adult, all polite with her questions, and Meika understood her anyway. Wasn't she just two years old? But they did call her a prodigy, so she was supposed to be real smart, maybe as smart as Shisui himself.
They called him a prodigy too.
He grinned at the girl, delighted.
Finally, somebody who got it!
Meika-hime was still smiling at him. She dipped her head in Mikoto-sama's direction, a movement that looked elegant on her mother, but strangely cute and doll-like on her. "Yes, Kaa-chan. I'll show him Ita-chan."
The matriarch's smile widened and gentled. "You do that," she said and stood up to meet eyes with Shisui's father. "Come, Daiki-san. Fugaku has been expecting you." She left, almost gliding over the ground, and his father followed with a last squeeze of his shoulder.
Shisui looked at the girl.
As soon as her mother left the room, she sidled closer to him on quiet feet and tilted her head to look up to him. "Shisui-kun, right?" she asked and he nodded, a little intimidated. She was short and delicate-looking, pale-skinned and dressed in a pretty dress, but her eyes made him think of Noboru-jisan, who had come back from the war front unharmed, but different. He'd once tried to stab Shisui's father with kunai when he was approached too fast. "Do you want to meet my little brother?"
She had a little brother? Someone even younger than them?
Shisui nodded enthusiastically.
He followed her into the house, through the twisting corridors and into the nursery. There was a small crib inside, made of some kind of honey-coloured wood, and they tip-toed closer to take a look inside.
Ita-chan was small. Shisui, since the first time had gone well, said so. "He's small. And cute."
Meika's smile was wide and bright. Her eyes shone. "Isn't he just?" she said and caressed the baby's cheek with a gentle hand. She sounded clever. Weren't two year olds supposed to babble and gurgle while toddling around? Shisui didn't know. He'd never done that, but he heard Kaa-san say he was supposed to.
Maybe that was what being a prodigy meant.
Shisui glanced at the girl, who was still looking at Ita-chan in interest. "Are you smart?" he asked.
She looked up at him and shrugged her little shoulder. "Everybody says so. And you?"
He also shrugged. "Everybody says it to me too."
Her green eyes were sharp as she looked at him. "The adults want us to be friends, you know."
"I know. Otou-san said I must make you like me since you'll be important to the Clan later on," he admitted, scratching his neck sheepishly. She seemed like a nice enough girl and he didn't want her to be angry at him for lying,
She blinked at him, surprised. "Ah." She offered him a big, genuine smile. "Well, then. We should be friends." She offered him a hand. He shook it solemnly.
After a few minutes of looking after Ita-chan – he really was cute, even while he slept – Shisui broke the silence. "Say, Meika-hime," he started as she looked up, seemingly bewildered at the title. He didn't get why she was confused. Her dad was a Clan Head, she was his daughter, so Shisui was going to call her hime, because she was. "Do you like pranks?"
He didn't know what a two year old girl could do to help him, but Meika seemed to be someone who would find a way anyway.
Her smile lit up her whole face. Her pretty eyes were glittering. "Come, Shisui-kun. We should talk."
Shisui followed after her without thinking.
