Chapter 4

Moonlight and Meteors

Said she, taking herbs in her hand,

Mullien, Lambs-Wool, and Lilly-Of-The-Land,

"What can we speak that has not been said?

What can live that has not been dead?

~The Second Book Of Akash, Verse IV

The cool moonlight streamed down through the trees, dappling the ground beneath the oaks with silver puddles, pooling like liquid in the open meadow. The forest was deathly quiet. Yuki suppressed the urge to move an errant lock of hair out of her face and instead concentrated on masking her chakra signature. He's not to the right...not to the the left...not in front or behind...he's not above me. Where did he—

Yuki's mental calculations were suddenly interrupted as a hand emerged from the earth and grabbed her ankles.

"You let your guard down!" Sasuke shouted triumphantly as his head materialized from the ground.

Yuki smirked. "Hn." Her form disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving Sasuke clutching at a log. Before he could congratulate her on her stealth, he was forced to dodge a barrage of kunai. Sasuke grinned before melting back into the shadows; it was time to plan his counter-attack.

I can't use lightening or fire; that would give my position away for sure, Sasuke mused. Or... can I? He covertly made a few hand signs and created a shadow clone. As the real Sasuke disappeared in the darkness, his clone wielded a bit of lightening chakra—

And then, the clone was promptly taken out by the precise throw of Yuki's shuriken. Sasuke grinned. So that's your position... He applauded himself on his excellent diversion as he funneled chakra into his feet. He leapt directly behind his daughter, chucking half a dozen kunai in her direction. Just when Sasuke thought he had cornered Yuki, she disappeared in a puff of smoke. A blunt object struck him from behind; it more surprised than harmed him, and before he could gather his wits again, he had been bound in ninja wire.

Yuki stood in front of him and pouted. "Come on, dad! You didn't have to go easy on me just to make me feel better."

Sasuke bit his tongue; he was glad they hadn't landed in a patch of moonlight, or she would have seen the color rising in his face. "Hn. You actually got me that time," Sasuke muttered as he extracted himself from the wire and dusted himself off. He shook his head; he wasn't totally pleased at his inglorious defeat at the hands of a ten-year-old, but he supposed that his pride in his eldest daughter would outweigh his embarrassment...eventually.

His daughter harrumphed and crossed her arms over her chest as she leaned back against a tree. "Either you're lying or you're getting soft in your old age."

Sasuke chuckled. "Have you considered the fact that you've actually improved?"

Yuki ground her teeth. "Not possible. With the rejects I have for teammates, the opportunity I have for improvement is slim to none. So I suppose that means you're becoming infirm... decrepit even."

Sasuke chucked a kunai at his rebellious progeny, which she gracefully caught with a flick of her fingers. Yuki smiled. "What, dad? Can't take the 'old man' jokes?" Sasuke grunted in offense and Yuki actually chortled at his show of wounded pride.

Sasuke moaned and threw himself down in a patch of moonlight in the open field, only to gaze blindly up at the night sky. Yuki grinned and sat beside him, twirling a kunai. "What, we're done sparring already? Did I tire you out, grandpa?"

Sasuke snorted. "Listen, you keep up with a toddler all day, and then we'll see who can spar like the energizer bunny."

"The energizer what now?"

Sasuke exhaled slowly. "Never mind." He sighed again. "Yuki-chan, look up at the sky."

Yuki rolled her eyes but didn't chide him for the fact that he used the dreaded c-h-a-n honorific after her name. She lay down on the moon-drenched grass and looked up at the flickering constellations. "What am I looking at?"

"See any meteors?"

"No."

Silence ensued. Crickets chirped in the distance; an owl hooted in the trees somewhere above their heads.

"What about now?"

Yuki sighed. "Nope."

Sasuke fingered the ends of his scarf. "Are you sure you don't see—"

"Gah, dad, could you be any more annoying!" the preteen moaned. But suddenly, her breath caught, and she practically shouted, "Oh! Oh! Oooooooh! Snap!"

"Mmmm?"

"I just saw a meteor! It was awesome! Oh! Wow..."

Sasuke grinned. She may act like the big bad Uchiha, but inside, she's still a ten year old girl. Sasuke himself had been twelve when he and his teammates were made genin, but he had been one significantly fucked up mental case at the time. But despite that fact, and the reality that he had gone up against high-level ninja and even killed a few before his thirteenth birthday, he still managed to engage in somewhat normative, and even playful, behavior from time to time. When team seven tried to unmask Kakashi-sensei was one of the more notable occasions where Sasuke actually cracked a rare smile. I'm glad that the hard exterior falls away from time to time...

"Yuki, what does it look like?"

"What?"

"The meteor."

"Oh." She furrowed her brows in thought. "Like a giant red and yellow streak across the sky." She frowned at her maladroit description. "No...more like a golden ball with a glowing tail...um, or like...a shooting star, but brighter, and streakier. Can you picture it?"

"Uh-huh," he lied. "You should make a wish."

"A wish? That's kid's stuff!" she huffed.

Sasuke shook his head. "Haven't you ever heard the story of when Naruto and Hinata had trouble having a second child? They wished on a shooting star and were finally able to have Hoshiko. Say what you will, but wishing on shooting stars works," he murmured in an authoritative voice.

"Oh. So that's where Hoshiko gets her name from... Hoshiko, meaning 'Star Child'..." Yuki was thoughtful for a moment, but then protested, "Ok, but that was a star, and this is a meteor—"

"If you wait too long to make your wish, the magic will run out."

That shut her up. He could tell her brows were creased in thought. Finally, she sighed and leaned back in the grass.

"Did you make your wish, Yuki-chan?"

"Uh huh."

"What was it?"

Yuki shook her head and retorted a bit crossly, "I can't tell you that. Then it won't come true. You're the one always going on about how to wish on stars...or meteors...or whatever." She stretched her arms up over her head and sighed again before venturing, "Otousan?"

"Hmm?"

"Are there...exercises you can do to awaken the sharingan?"

Sasuke tilted his head. "Not that I know of..."

Yuki sighed deeply, and from her disappointed tone, Sasuke had a much better understanding of what she had probably just wished for. "In a hurry?"

She ignored him and countered, "How did your sharingan awaken?"

Sasuke tried to keep his expression smooth, but he couldn't help but clench his teeth. After all, his sharingan activated the night of the Uchiha massacre, during a bout of mangekyo-sharingan induced insanity. Needless to say, he wasn't keen on telling her that little fact. While the events of the Uchiha massacre were somewhat common knowledge, there were still some details that were not, and he preferred to keep it that way. At least until Yuki is old enough... Maybe I'll tell her everything when she becomes a chunin...

But of course, he didn't properly use the sharingan until the mission to the Land of Mist...so it wouldn't be lying to overlook what had truly awakened his doujutsu. "I was twelve and protecting Naruto. I nearly died."

Yuki nodded, having recently overheard her parents reminiscing with the Hokage about this particular incident one night as they drank sake in the Uchiha's kitchen. Yuki mused aloud, "I read that it usually takes an intense catalyst to activate the sharingan early..." Here, she sighed. "But I'm afraid I won't be receiving any high classed missions with my lousy team."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "First of all, I was sent on a high ranking mission by accident, and if you weren't paying attention the first time, I'll tell you again— I almost died. It's not a bad thing to wait until your ocular jutsu awakens on its own. There's no hurry. Second of all—" He was about to defend the honor of her teammates, Kami help him, but Yuki interrupted him at that moment.

"You don't understand at all," she huffed and crossed her arms over her chest. A hapless cricket jumped onto her forehead; Sasuke felt sorry for the creature as Yuki took out her consternation upon its person with a violent swat of her hand.

He gently murmured, "You're already an accomplished ninja. I'm already exceedingly proud of you, and even if you never awaken the sharingan—"

"That's just it! What if it never activates! What if..." At that, Yuki shut up, realizing she had already revealed too much. Sasuke could feel the frustration and sadness radiating off of her as she pulled her arms tighter across her torso.

Sasuke sighed and tried again. "If it never activates, you'll find other jutsu to develop. You're already far more advanced in fire jutsu than I was at your age—"

Yuki sighed, exasperated beyond measure, and broke into Sasuke's speech yet again. "How can I be the proper Uchiha heir without the sharingan? I can't, that's the answer." Yuki rolled over on her side and faced away from her father.

Ah. So she was worried about being good enough to be the next head of the Uchiha clan. Sasuke congratulated himself on finding out the root cause of her latest bout of angst and ventured, "Yuki. You're ten. You have plenty of time—"

It seemed that Sasuke was not going to be able to complete a full sentence at all that night; Yuki vehemently derailed his train of thought once again and hissed, "No, no I don't. It's already clear that you're favoring Takeo, the precious male child— you're always going on and on about how he's going to lead the clan one day. Hell, you even named him 'Warrior Hero.' You named me freaking 'Happy Snow.' Do you know how non-threatening 'Happy Snow' sounds? Do you? Even if I have the good luck of facing a high ranking enemy ninja, as soon as he learns my name he is going to laugh in my freakin' face." Yuki paused for a moment, ostensibly to steady her voice, before continuing, "It doesn't matter how hard I train. Because I lack a certain piece of genitalia, I'll never be good enough." For you...

The unspoken end of her sentence rang in the pregnant silence between them. Sasuke heard his own words reverberating in his skull: "Some day, Takeo-kun, you will carry on the Uchiha line and name, my little one." "Thank Kami there's another man in the house. You won't be naughty and cruel like your sisters, will you?" Sasuke could have slapped himself right then. He had spent the last ten years trying to be the opposite of his father in every way— his father, who never treated him as more than Itachi's shadow— but apparently Sasuke had ended up acting just like him. If he was honest with himself, he knew that his daughter's words had a bit of truth to them.

Yuki huffed, then propped herself up on her hands and made to leave, but Sasuke firmly grasped her wrist. He began, a bit guiltily, "Yuki. You're ten. Takeo, your supposed arch rival, is barely two. I'm going to be honest with you, I hadn't given any thought to who's going to be—"

"Any conscious thought. Anyone with a pulse knows it's going to be Takeo, because let's be honest, female kunoichi will never be as strong as their male counterparts." She yanked her arm back and stood up.

Sasuke exhaled slowly, trying to think something he could say for damage control. "Yuki, have you ever wondered why you were placed on a team with two kunoichi, yourself included? When there hasn't been a team with more than one female member in the past 50 years in this village?"

She stood with her hands on her hips and glowered down at her father. "Hn."

"Because you are considered just as strong, if not stronger, than anyone in your class, male or female. So the council felt justified in putting Cho on your team; they knew you'd be able to cover her back."

Somewhat mollified, Yuki lowered her arms, though her glower of doom continued. "Hn."

Sasuke, an adept ninja able to read underneath the underneath, understood that she was really saying: That's all fine and good, but what do you think of me?

He cleared this throat. "I think it's time."

That piqued her curiosity. "Hn?"

"How would you like to have your own summoning contract? The cat summons are still pissed off at me and won't let me near them— they've been waiting to sign a contract with another Uchiha for the past twenty plus years."

A little unsteady on her feet, Yuki, cautiously lowered herself back down to the ground. "So you think I'm responsible enough for a summon?"

Sasuke nodded. "We'll start training tomorrow afternoon."

Yuki grinned.

Sasuke continued, "But we should probably head home now. It's late, and—"

"Let's just spar one more time before we go. Please, otousan?"

Kami. I'm exhausted. She's going to kick my ass again and chalk it up to me going easy on her. Or to me being ancient and feeble. Gah.

"Ok... But don't go too hard on me Yuki-chan?" Sasuke just couldn't say no to his eldest daughter, who chortled at his pathetic plea for mercy.

"What did I say about using the 'c' word after my name?"

Sasuke sighed, fishing a kunai out of his pocket. "Gomen, Yuki-san."

Yuki nodded approvingly and weaved a series of hand signs. "Fire style! Fire ball jutsu!"

a/n whew! Nothing better than eating organic heirloom tomatoes from the farmers market and writing fanfic on a lazy Saturday morning. Extra special thanks to my beta, uchiha.s, who kicked my butt editing this chapter (in the best way possible, lol)

Also, thanks for all your support- I'm really floored by the positive reception this fic has enjoyed thus far:)

In other news... I just started a live journal account; if you want to hang out there, the link is on my profile:)

I'm half way through editing chapter 5...but I'm feeling awfully lazy...lol, crack that whip otherwise known as leaving a review, and I'll see what I can't do about updating again before the weekend is out:)