Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters in it.

A/N: Because…he's the only Uchiha I haven't mentioned in a story yet. And contrary to what you might think after reading the first line, this story has (almost) nothing to do with Itachi and Sasuke. I know, I'm just as shocked as you are…

Sister

o0o

"So..does this mean you're a real ninja now, nii-san?"

Obito reached up to touch his forehead protector for the hundredth time that day, as if making sure it was still there and not some figment of his imagination, and grinned proudly. "Yup! You watch, sis-I'm gonna be the greatest shinobi Konoha has ever seen!!" He struck a pose.

Seven-year-old Mikoto giggled. "I guess that means you want to be Hokage, then?" she asked.

Obito's face lit up, as if the notion had never occurred to him. "Yeah, that's it! I'll be Hokage!!" He ruffled his little sister's hair fondly. "Thanks for the idea, Miko!"

She grinned. It was impossible not to when her brother was so happy.

o0o

Mikoto jumped off her bed when she heard the door open. Obito was being assigned to a team today, and she couldn't wait to find out who he would have as teammates.

She hurried downstairs and stopped short at the unmistakably grumpy look on her brother's face. "What's wrong, nii-san?" she inquired, concerned.

"Oh. Hi, sis," he greeted her glumly as he sank into a chair.

"Did your team assignment…not go well?" she pressed, choosing her words carefully.

Obito sighed. "I guess you could say that. I got put with Rin first, so I thought it'd all turn out fine." His unhappy expression lifted briefly at the memory, and Mikoto stifled a laugh. Her brother loved Rin; even though he wouldn't admit to it, it was so obvious!

"But then we got stuck with.." His face clouded again. "…Kakashi." He spat the name as if it were poison. "Stuck-up jerk. Everyone fawns over him, though, because he's a genius. He's so perfect, the little ba-" Obito eyed his sister and hastily changed what he had been about to say. "-er..bonehead," he finished lamely.

"I'm sure he's not that bad," Mikoto insisted. "Maybe you just need to get to know him."

Obito sighed. "I doubt it, Miko. But hey-since we're teammates now, I'll have waaayy too much time to 'get to know' him." He pulled a face.

Mikoto patted his shoulder sympathetically. "It'll be fine," she said firmly.

o0o

"You made Chunin!" Mikoto squealed, having given up on her attempt not to gush. "I'm so proud of you!!"

Obito, now eleven, blushed. Sometimes he had trouble remembering just who was the older sibling here. "Who woulda thought, huh?" he said, grinning. "I can't believe I actually made Chunin.."

Mikoto frowned. Despite her brother's constant insistences that he would become a great ninja, she knew well that he still doubted himself greatly. It drove her crazy. Why couldn't he just believe in himself more?"

"Nii-san…"

He turned to her and was rewarded by a smack upside the head, even though Mikoto had to stand on tiptoe in order to reach that high. "Hey!" Obito yelped, clutching his head. People always went on about Mikoto's 'sweet disposition', but those people had never been on the receiving end of one of her hits. He pitied the man who decided to marry her in the future.

"Quit being so pessimistic!" she ordered, eyes blazing with a fire that most rarely saw. "You're a great ninja, but you won't get anywhere unless you believe it!"

"All right, all right!" Obito complied, backing away slowly in case she decided to hit him again. "I believe it!"

"Let me hear you say it," she pushed. "Say, 'I am an awesome ninja, and I will be Hokage someday!'"

"I am an awesome-" He paused. "'Awesome?' C'mon, sis, that sounds lame!"

"Do it," she ordered, giving him the Evil Eye that all women have.

"Okay," he sighed. "I am an awesome ninja..and I will be Hokage someday."

"That's more like it," his sister declared in satisfaction.

o0o

"I can't believe Kakashi made Jonin!" Obito exclaimed, again.

Mikoto sighed. "Nii-san," she said plaintively.

"What?"

"Get over it."

Obito groaned and resumed pacing around his room.

"Did you get him a promotion gift?" Mikoto asked.

Obito stopped, then cast his gaze to the ground and mumbled something unintelligible.

"What was that?"

"..Yeah," he admitted. "But I'm not going to give it to him! He'll just keep lording it over me that he's Jonin and I'm not!"

"That's ridiculous," Mikoto insisted. "Why don't you bring it to him tomorrow, since you're being deployed on a mission then anyway?" she suggested.

"…Fine," Obito grumbled. "But if he makes one snarky comment, I'm gonna stick a kunai right in his-"

"Nii-san!"

o0o

"Be careful," Mikoto said.

"I'll be fine!" Obito told her cheerily. "Man, I'm excited…we're being deployed to destroy Kannabi Bridge, did I tell you?"

"Only about a thousand times," Mikoto said, but she smiled.

"Going behind enemy lines…" Obito got a dreamy look in his eye. "Maybe this'll be the mission that makes me a hero, d'you think?"

"Maybe," Mikoto replied. "But you've gotta get going first or you won't make the mission at all!"

"You're right," he conceded. "Besides, I told Cousin Uruchi I'd help her out with her garden first, and I don't want to think about what she'll do to me if I don't." He shuddered.

"Go on, nii-san," Mikoto said, her voice softening. "I'll see you when you get home, okay?"

"Yup," he agreed, mussing her hair in their typical pre-mission ritual. "Love ya, sis. I'll see you when I get home."

"I love you too, nii-san," she murmured, watching him leave.

It would be hours before she opened the hallway closet to get something and saw a messily wrapped box on one of the shelves. It was Obito's promotion gift for Kakashi, and he had forgotten it.

o0o

The morning after, Mikoto answered the door and saw three unexpected visitors.

Namikaze Minato; also known as the Yellow Flash, her brother's sensei. Inuzuka Rin, Obito's long-time crush and a highly skilled medical ninja. Hatake Kakashi, a prodigy and never spoken well of by Obito. All three were her brother's teammates.

Mikoto knew immediately that something was wrong; she had seen these three enough to know that. Minato's usual foxlike grin was gone. The cheery expression that had seemingly always been present on Rin's face had been replaced with darkened eyes and a quivering bottom lip. One of Kakashi's eyes had been covered, and things looking remarkably like tear tracks stained the skin underneath his visible eye.

Obito wasn't with them.

Mikoto froze, then remembered her manners and forced a smile before inviting the three inside.

They say at the kitchen table, and Minato seemed, for once, at a loss for words. Mikoto felt her insides twisting into knots. "Where is my brother?" she asked them with uncharacteristic bluntness. Her voice shook, tone laced with fear. "Where is Obito?"

Minato opened his mouth, but Kakashi stopped him. "Let me do it," he said quietly. Rin moved to put an arm around Mikoto's shoulders. Kakashi cleared his throat.

And then he told her that her brother was dead.

o0o

Time passed in a haze. Mikoto made herself stop crying after the first day, but rarely left her room. Her parents made no attempt to coax her out; they lingered in their own horrible grief. Their son, their beautiful child, was dead, crushed under unforgiving stone, and soon they would have to bury him and accept it all.

After the funeral, Mikoto watched Minato bow his head sadly, watched Rin sobbing without restraint into her sensei's arm. She saw Kakashi slip away quietly as soon as doing so was decent, and followed him.

She watched in silence as the boy hailed as a genius leaned against a tree and cried, trying his best to muffle the noise.

The next day, she visited the Hatake house and gave Kakashi his promotion gift.

"O-Obito must've forgotten to bring it," she explained, failing to keep her voice under control. "H-he was awful at remembering stuff like t-that."

Kakashi nodded, keeping a cool exterior. "Thank you, Uchiha-san."

He opened the gift and blinked. Repeatedly. Mikoto leaned over and, seeing what was in the box, frowned. "What…exactly…is..that?" she inquired, with some of her old sharpness.

"Uh-nothing," Kakashi responded hastily, hiding the bright orange book behind his back.

Mikoto sighed heavily. "It was probably a joke gift," she said. "I can see him buying something..perverted like that, just for a laugh." Her mouth trembled. She said her goodbyes and made for home.

o0o

The marriage was an arranged one, and Mikoto supposed it could have been worse.

Uchiha Fugaku was stiff-seeming, unsmiling, and generally appeared sullen. Mikoto was sure that her brother would have been furious about their parent's choice of son-in-law, had he not been killed so many years ago.

The thought of how her brother would get along with her new husband brought a smile to Mikoto's face.

Even now, Obito still made everything seem less dark and serious.

o0o

She had sons, five years apart, and they were beautiful.

It made her happy to know that they would always have each other, quiet Itachi and little Sasuke. They would always be brothers.

Mikoto vowed to protect them, her precious children, no matter what. She swore to herself that she would do whatever she could to keep them both safe, so that neither would have to suffer the pain that she had at eleven years old.

The pain she felt when she was told that her nii-san had died in the line of duty, protecting people he held dear.

o0Owari0o

A/N: No matter what I attempt to write about the Uchihas, angst always finds its way into the story.

Personally, I think the relationship between Mikoto and Obito was canon, because Obito was too old to be Sasuke and Itachi's cousin (after all, he was on a team with Kakashi), and..well, I don't think he resembles Fugaku-baka at all.

Well, I hope you enjoyed! Reviews are so very appreciated, but feel no obligation. -SS