Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, and I never will. -sob sob-
When Uchiha Fugaku and who'd later become Uchiha Mikoto first met was when they were eight.
Mikoto was a sweet, shy little girl who had no friends. She was tiny with jet-black hair and eyes, beautifully pale skin reminiscent of smooth ivory, and was quite silent – except when she started crying, which she did whenever the older boys teased her.
Fugaku was a proud, talented little boy who also had no friends. Differently to Mikoto, he couldn't care less – people admired him, adults and children alike, but he chose not to be in their company. He simply didn't find them good enough for him. He was small – although taller than Mikoto – with rough, suntanned skin and hazel hair and eyes. He was just as quiet as Mikoto, but for different reasons. And he never, ever cried.
One day, when Fugaku was practicing Katon jutsu – because he wanted to be a grown man like his father, because that was so cool, even though he refused to say it out loud – in the playground, some older boys – who had just failed the genin exams and clearly wanted to find an outlet for their frustration – started teasing Mikoto.
Unlike the typical hero, who'd swoop in and rescue Mikoto, Fugaku continued practicing, making no effort to save her from the mean bullies
(even though he accidentally edged closer after each failed Katon)
since that was more like something Minato would do. And he'd never stoop to the level that he'd imitate an airhead like him
(even though he didn't like it when Minato tried to impress Mikoto and would often show how far he had progressed with his Katon every time he did so)
and that, Fugaku reasoned, was why he was struggling against all his natural instincts to just tell the older boys to go to hell.
"Look at her forehead," one of them laughed scornfully. "It's the size of Fire Country."
"You're going to fail as a kunoichi," another added. "Firstly, your forehead is so big that it'll be the perfect target. And secondly, you won't be able to hide from your enemies – since you're too weak to fight anyway – since you're so ugly they'll see you from far, far away."
Personally, Fugaku found Mikoto rather cute. Even with that large forehead of hers. But that, he decided, was something that could be left untold to the rest of the world.
"C'mon, little forehead girl. Aren't you going to cry?" the first taunted, and then punched her arm rather forcefully – at least enough to knock her over in the grass. "Aren't you going to shed a few tears for us, huh?"
"Go to hell," Fugaku suddenly found his own voice betraying him as it snarled the words menacingly.
They swiveled around, surprise evident in their eyes. Mikoto looked the most astounded out of the the group, her large eyes widening even further as she saw her sudden savior.
Fugaku cursed his bad luck. He knew he should have just stayed in the Uchiha grounds practicing instead of going to the playground.
"… What did you say, little kid?" the first spat.
"Hey, hey, watch your tongue, that's the Uchiha kid," the second cut his friend off nervously. "C'mon, let's just get outta here."
The first boy surveyed Fugaku closely, then spat in the grass as he and his friend walked out of the playground, shouting insults to Mikoto.
Mikoto continued sitting on her tiny bum in the dewy grass, gazing upwards at him in astonishment. A long silence followed, and then she said, somewhat confusedly, "… Thanks."
He stared down at her reluctantly, meeting her eyes for the fraction of a second before looking away again. "You're welcome," he muttered gruffly. And then he extended one of his hands, which was rather burned after all the Katon practicing.
For what seemed to be an eternity, she continued to stay put where she was, just goggling in mere disbelief at the palm of his hand.
"Are you going to get up anytime soon?" he asked irritably.
And then, her lips finally cracked into a wide smile. "Aa."
And just as he pulled her up, he couldn't help but sigh, "You're so annoying."
When Fugaku and Mikoto were twelve, and Minato confessed to Mikoto that he had had a long-term crush on her ever since they were eight, Mikoto was taken by surprise. Fugaku, however, was taken by jealousy, and refused to speak with his best friend and rival for several months.
One rainy afternoon, Mikoto showed up on his doorstep at the Uchiha mansion, and asked him to forgive her for whatever she had done to make him mad. He told her it wasn't her fault. Then she asked him to get mad at her instead of Minato, and to forgive her that way.
"You're annoying," was all he had answered.
But the next day, he treated Mikoto and Minato to ramen.
When Fugaku and Mikoto were fifteen, they met Uzumaki Kushina, a loud-mouthed kunoichi from Whirlpool Country, where they were going to accomplish a mission, namely finding a hidden scroll that had been stolen from Konoha recently. Kushina was to accompany the three-man team to find a suspected missing-nin, and just would not stop bickering with Minato.
Kushina was eventually sent to Konoha with her sensei, who cooperated with Jiraiya. She and Minato were to spend a lot of time together, even if they didn't get along.
In Mikoto's opinion, they made the perfect couple, and she decided to set them up by having them meet at the carnival with her and Fugaku, and then have dinner at Ichiraku's, making sure to pay for the dinner beforehand so that they didn't need to argue about who was going to pay. The plan was that she and Fugaku would ditch them at the carnival so that they'd be alone, making it seem to Kushina and Minato as though she was going to go on a date with Fugaku and was too nervous to be left alone with him.
She asked Fugaku if he was okay with the plan.
He answered, "You're annoying."
But he still helped her shadow them without any complaints and pretend as though he was in love with Mikoto so that they'd believe that he was actually taking her out on a date, even though it wasn't all an act.
When Fugaku and Mikoto were eighteen, Fugaku's parents suggested that he should get married so that he could get an heir. Fugaku agreed, but Mikoto became angry with him and stopped speaking to him. Fugaku didn't understand why, and Minato only shook his head and told him he didn't know anything about women.
Then Fugaku found her crying in the park where they had first met, and told her to stand up. When she didn't respond, he abruptly grabbed her hand and forced something upon it.
It was a ring. Bought with only a little piece of the Uchiha's riches, it was finely made out of the purest gold. Mikoto stared at the ring. And then, she simply said, "I didn't even say yes. And you didn't ask."
He rolled his eyes and bent down on one knee, parting his lips to say something ,when she giggled.
"You don't have to, you know. You already put the ring on my finger. And I didn't take it off."
To which he only muttered embarrassedly, "You're annoying."
But he still married her just half a year later.
About fourteen years later, a couple of months before what would be infamously known as the Uchiha massacre, a certain boy named Uchiha Sasuke had found Haruno Sakura crying in the very same park and saved her from bullies in a style quite reminiscent of Fugaku's.
"Thank you," she had murmured shyly, looking up at him with curious emerald eyes.
And he said the first thing that came to his mind. "You're so annoying."
Blah. Just a random drabble of mine.
I'm still on a semi-hiatus, but I'm writing some other (new) fics right now, such as the Study Group and Konoha Rehabilitation Center. I'm sorry to say that the Fear of the Light will continue being on a hiatus or even be discontinued... I'll consider put up the few finished chapters that aren't published yet, but I'll have to think about it...