Birds tweeted above her.
Miko sat with her hands folded in her lap, eyes closed, thankful finally for a moment of peace. The smell of the flowers of all shapes and sizes tickled her nose pleasantly, and the shade from the tree and the cool marble bench she sat on was refreshing in the heat of Konoha's summer.
A leaf landed next to her.
The trickling of the stream echoed in her ears and for a moment she was seized by flashbacks of tumbling into a river. For a brief moment her chest heaved with quick breaths before she calmed herself. Just a memory.
She stood up slowly before surveying the gardens. It was coming along quite nicely, the plants were flourishing and most of the greenhouses were built. Trees formed a canopy that dappled the walkway and vines crawled up the sides of the stone walls, three Gazebos, and the Institute.
She continued on and the light rushing became louder as she made her way to one of the small bridges. She stopped on top of the arch, and looked down at the smooth creek stones. The creek was diverted from the nearby Naka river, and formed two Koi ponds at various places in the garden.
She wondered how Akira was doing now. What had been his last thoughts? The utter surprise of his face didn't leave much room for interpretation.
Just a memory.
Footsteps echoed under the bridge as someone walked along. They paused behind her for a second, before turning and also placing their elbows on the the railing.
"So, you and the Nara kid, huh? " Said Suzu in a slightly horse voice.
Yeah. About that. After Inochi delivered the evidence straight to the Hokage, there was no denying it anymore. But because it would cause a huge public upheaval to know one of their village elders ordered the kidnapping of three clan kids, the official story was he contracted an illness an died in his home. The eyes in his arms would be surgically removed and handed over to the Uchiha-along with a full apology from the Hokage. They had it hung in the clan heads house and put in all Uchiha establishments.
Miko wanted to scream to the heavens that no, she didn't want fucking eyes, she wanted her uncle, but there was another problem resulting from that. Very, very, pissed off clan elders who threatened to spill the beans to the rest of the clan about the eyes. And if the rest of the clan found out about their stolen bloodline, side by side with the kidnapped Miko and the dead Akira, there would be chaos. They would revolt.
So in a roundabout way Danzo would have achieved his goal after all.
Would have.
In order to placate the elders and firmly root Konoha to the village, she and Shikamaru, the Uchiha and the Nara agreed to an arranged marriage.
"Me and the Nara." She agreed. It must sting for her Aunt. For her to lose her other half out of this ordeal only for Miko to gain one. Guilt almost consumed her and she swallowed heavily.
Her Aunt made a gesture with her hands like she was going to chew her nails, but aborted and ran her fingers through her hair. She lowered the hand onto Miko's clasped one.
"Miko." She flinched. Miko half expected her Aunt to yell, but somehow the soft understanding was worse.
"Miko, I don't blame you. I don't blame you."
"You should."
"What would you have done? You avenged his death and I can't than you enough for that."
Tears welled up in her eyes and her throat burned. She wanted to yell and scream her guilt but it seemed like her heart was lodged in her throat. She didn't dare open her mouth or wails would escape. She had cried enough these last three months and she didn't want to subject an obviously harrowed Suzu to more. Her aunt, that beautiful grieving woman knew her dilemma.
"Miko, you can blame yourself but no one else is. We all heard what happened in the woods. You are a hero, Miko. A hero." How many people have you saved?
That was... true. The clan was okay. Not great now that all this had happened, but okay.
"Miko. Life goes on." Her aunt whispered. "Look at this garden. He will never leave us."
She raised her heavy eyes from the creek and finally looked her aunt in the face. As she had predicted, her cheeks were hallow and tear tracks stained her face. Purple smudges were under her eyes like bruises and her minty hair was darkened and unwashed.
But despite all that, she was glowing.
Absolutely glowing with health and new life.
Her hand made another gesture as if to ghost along her belly before moving a piece of hair behind her ear.
"Life is also short Miko and you never know when it's going to end." She said bitterly before her tone lightened. "If you truly respected Akira, do what he did. Do what makes you happy."
H-how did she know?
Suzu gave away nothing, a ghost of her past smile on her face. Wordlessly, she offered Miko her elbow. They walked out of the gardens together, stopping to smell the roses and check of her produce. As they walked out, they went past an inscription carved into the marble, arched above their heads.
This garden is dedicated to Akira Uchiha, the finest artist Konoha has ever seen.
"Father, I don't want to be a ninja." Miko said.
Fugaku Uchiha sipped his tea. Miko returning was one of the best things to ever happen to him. The weeks she was gone was pure torment and she came back not the same as she was beforehand. His daughter was tough and resilant, so to see her breakdown often was heart-wrenching in a way even the worst cases on the force weren't.
"You have the Sharingan."
"Yes."
He wanted her to be safe and happy. Already she had been through so much and he was scared she wouldn't recover.
"I know you can make it to chunin, Miko. Do that and I will see to it."
Miko flung her arms around him, before retreating to work out the details of what she wanted to do. As she walked out of the room she smiled for the first time in months. Itachi regarded her with an unreadable eye. She smiled and waved.
She may not have been able to save everyone. But she saved the clan.
She had done it.
The world was full of possibilities, just waiting to be snatched.
And as the Uchiha's brand new Public Relations head, she had a lot of snatching to do.
And thats it. The end of Miko.
It has been an honor and pleasure writing my first ever fanfic and it went farther than I ever hoped it could. You slugged it out through bad grammar and short chapters to make it here, so congratulations, reader. This one's for you.
As this is my last ever chapter, I want to know over all, how did this fic effect you? What did it change about your Uchiha views? What did you relate to what did you find cool or clever, and what did you appreciate?
Go all out in paragraph format if you can. This is the last so give it your all.
And If you liked this, don't be too upset it's over. I have other Naruto fic's and I particularly recommend Objectivity.
See you!