Chapter Fourteen: A Funeral For One
Mikoto stood at the outskirts of the village among the trees. She had to find a secluded area. There's no way she could create a memorial in a more trafficked part of village. People would desecrate it immediately.
Her father wouldn't get a funeral. He wouldn't get a headstone. He wouldn't get anything. He was an enemy of the village. A despicable man who deserved to die. Anger welled in her eyes. He wouldn't be remembered.
Carefully she lit a candle and looked at her pitiful had set it up around a stone with some incense and a candle burning. In front of the stone she had put a stick of dango, her father's headband with the genjustu inscribed in the back, and a photo. It wasn't much, but it's all she had to remember him by.
She felt a hand on her shoulder.
"Naruto-sensei!" She said in surprise, "What are you doing here?"
Naruto didn't say anything. He kept his hand on shoulder and looked at the memorial.
Mikoto took his lead and also said nothing. She continued to look at the stone and think about her father with dry eyes.
Then she felt another presence.
"Uncle Hiashi?" She asked.
He looked at her and nodded, standing by her side as a comforting presence.
Then came Hinata, then Neiji, then Hanabi, then Sakura, then Kakashi. Even Sai had deigned to show up.
Mikoto stared at everyone, "What are you all doing here?" She asked in shock, "He was an enemy of the Hidden Leaf."
Naruto smiled at the girl, "Oh Mimi-chan," he said in a soft voice, "We're not here for him."
Mikoto's eyes welled up with tears, "Everyone," she gasped. She turned back to the memorial, "Everyone," she said again. And then she collapsed to her knees sobbing. Naruto knelt next to her and rubbed her back.
Mikoto carefully picked pp the photo that showed the two sixteen-year-olds with their two-year-old daughter. She let out a shuddering breath.
"I was a mistake," She said quietly.
"Mimi-chan!" Naruto began, but before he could say anything Mikoto held out a hand, interrupting him.
"Let me finish," She said quietly.
Everyone listened to her as she began her short eulogy.
"Of course I was a mistake. My parents were barely children themselves when I was born."
Hiashi looked at her sadly. To think his long lost sister had a child so young.
"But they did their best," Mikoto continued with a nod, "They did. They were always there for me. And even after mama…" She paused, "Papa was always there."
Everyone looked at the girl sadly as she continued.
"Papa once told me that he made a lot of mistakes. So many that he can't even count. But there's one mistake he's proud of…"
Mikoto smiled as she stood up. In one hand she held her family photo and in the other she held Itachi's scratched headband.
"I'm going to continue to make him proud," She said as she carefully tucked her photo into one of her pouches, "I'm going to get stronger."
She took the headband in her hands and tied it around her forehead.
"As a Shinobi of the Hidden Leaf."
Everyone stared at her as she stood tall in front of her father's memorial shock plastered across their face.
It wasn't her bold statement that surprised them… no.
It was something else.
The headband shimmered on her forehead and her braids flowed down her back, swaying in the wind.
Her eyes glowed.
Her right shone white with veins protruding and her left eye glowed red with three tomoe's swirling around the center.
She now glowed with the power of Konoha's two strongest clans; the Hyuga and the Uchiha.
