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On June twenty-third Uchiha Mikoto is told, after seventeen agonizing hours of labor, that they don't know if she gave birth to a boy or a girl.
“What the hell do you mean you don't know?! Are you fucking stupid?” Fugaku growls.
The medic takes a step back. “We thought something was strange about the sex of the child in fetal blood tests, of course, but it wasn't until just now that we realized the . . . issue. Your child has . . . I'm not quite sure what to call it. Hmm, their body is rather strange. Similar in some ways to both male and female reproductive organs, but not quite one or the other. We will need to run more tests on the child's blood to determine the correc—”
“The child is a boy,” Fugaku tells him, “and that is that. Leave us.”
///
It is February second, and Sasuke (“Mito,” Mikoto insists, because it is the name on their birth certificate) is nearly six years old. They are witness to a very loud argument between their mother and the shinobi who work at the academy.
They leave with a sheet of paper with their schedule printed on it.
Their last class of the day for the next six years is labeled simply “kunoichi class”.
They wonder what it is.
///
It is June twenty-first, two years later, and Uchiha Sasuke (Uchiha Mito, his mother always corrected) is sitting in a pool of blood.
They are sobbing, because they just—they just. They can't hate Itachi if they try.
Their older brother, who used to comfort them after arguments their parents had with each other (there's just no way my little Mito is a boy, are you crazy, Fugaku? And Sasuke is clearly not a girl, Mikoto. Did you lose your brain along with your sanity when you gave birth?)
Sometimes their grandparents would chime in, saying that Sasuke is “intersex”, whatever that means, and that the Uchiha family doctors could do a surgery to make them . . . normal, if they wished.
(Fugaku and Mikoto always denied the suggestion. Always.)
///
It is November seventh. Sasuke is ten years old, and they are arguing with their health class teacher.
“Some people have both,” he says, and his teacher is so, so mad.
“Sasuke, sit the fuck back down,” the man says, and Sasuke grits his teeth (he wishes Iruka-sensei could teach this class instead.)
And even though Sasuke is loud and defiant, they aren't punished. They can feel everyone glaring holes into their back as they sit down.
He isn't allowed to take kunoichi classes anymore after that day.
///
It is January twenty-third. Sasuke is twelve, and they are panicking, shirtless before a mirror because what the hell is their chest doing, they're a boy, their dad said so, why are there breasts, dad can't be wrong he's the clan head he—and Sasuke is leaving a lifeless compound to meet their jōnin sensei for the second time.
And later that day, Sasuke is nearly hyperventilating at a library table and looking through health textbooks to see if he is normal because maybe their grandparents were wrong, “intersex” isn't even a thing, it's not in here it's n—
Sasuke doesn't sleep much that night.
Sasuke doesn't sleep much at all anymore.
///
“Sasuke-kun!” Sakura grins, wrapping her arms around his neck.
Her Sasuke-kun looks so handsome today! She squeals.
Sasuke-kun is very tense. Maybe he'll calm down if she talks to him! She nods to herself and speaks, “When I woke up this morning, my mama made miso soup! I brought some, if you want to try it! Here, it's—”
“Sakura,” Sasuke-kun says. Sakura blinks. He's talking to her! She nods happily for him to continue. “Get away from me.”
She flinches, loosening her hold on him. He takes the chance to get away.
Sakura frowns. Is Sasuke-kun—
“Just go away,” he says, and that—that just hurts! Sasuke-kun is so mean! Why does he—why does he hate her so much!
She huffs and walks away from him. “Fine! I won't give you any of Mama's miso then!”
Sasuke-kun shifts his feet, clenching his fist so tight it turns white.
Sakura sits down and pulls a nail file from her weapons pouch. It's really good miso, and now it'll go to waste because Sasuke-kun won't eat it, and she's on a diet so she can't either!
He's so mean.
///
Naruto bounds into the academy building with a cheerful gaze on his surroundings.
Chūnin exams! He can be a chūnin! That means better missions, Sakura-chan said so! Maybe if he becomes a chunin he can save a princess and then he'll become hokage because he's so awesome!
That'd be so awesome!
He can—
“Oof—” Naruto falls to the ground. He looks up to glare at the perpetrator. Sasuke . “Sasuke, you bastard! I was walking there, you can't just—”
Sasuke scoffs, and he enters the academy building without him or Sakura.
Naruto thinks he is imagining the hesitation at the door.
///
“You can be free,” Orochimaru tells them, and Sasuke can't help but to glare at him.
They can't be free if they go with Orochimaru, either, right?
So what's the point in even listening?
They can't be free here, or in Oto, and they could never be free by chasing after Itachi.
But what if they—
///
“You won't gain anything by going with Orochimaru,” Kakashi says.
Sasuke turns their gaze away from a jacket on a hanger to glare at the man. “Why the hell would I go with him? Do you think I'm stupid?”
“Thought you wanted to kill Itachi,” Kakashi responds, and it isn't a question, isn't an answer.
“When did I ever even imply that?” They ask, frowning. “Why would I ever want that? Why would you even think something like that?”
Kakashi merely shrugs and disappears.
Sasuke sighs, and grabs the oversized jacket.
They think it reminds them of Kiba, that Inuzuka from their graduating class.
The boy did always look warm with the jacket.
///
“Don't you dare leave us, Sasuke, I thought we were finally friends! You can't just abandon us! We're your team, your family,” Naruto shouts at Sasuke.
Sasuke clenches his teeth and they try so hard to not get angry but they—they just.
“Friends? Team? Family? Is that what you call all of that? Huh? I've only had one friend in my life, but I can sure as fuck tell you that we were never friends. And, a team? Are you serious ? Do you really think being on the same team is important? Being teammates or comrades or whatever doesn't mean shit immediately becomes good, Naruto. It doesn't mean things are going to be good ever. Being teammates doesn't equal being important in each other's lives. You can't influence anything important that I do, and I hope I can't influence anything you do,” Sasuke seethes, stopping for just a moment to breathe and see Naruto’s reaction.
The boy is slowly moving forward, he looks so mad, so upset, and.
And Sasuke just.
Just . . .
Sasuke continues, “I've never had a family, Naruto, and I certainly don't have one now. It's not abandonment if there's nothing to abandon in the first place. And I wasn't a real ninja anyway. My birth records are fake, fake and incorrect. Uchiha Sasuke never existed.”
///
Naruto blinks, and Sasuke is gone.
Team 7 never finds its missing member. Neither does anyone else.
“Sasuke is gone,” Naruto says as he and Sakura and Kakashi enter the boy's house.
“Sasuke is gone,” Sakura murmurs as she very carefully avoids thinking about the bloodstains covering the floors.
“Sasuke never was,” Kakashi corrects as he shows the two the birth certificate sitting on the dining table in the next room over. “Mito is gone.”
///
“There have been zero sightings in more than two years. Even our strongest missing nin are spotted occasionally in several different countries. The Uchiha is legally presumed to be dead,” Tsunade tells them just over a year later, on the day of their fifteenth birthday.
Naruto can't say he’s surprised. He can’t even say he cares anymore.
Sasuke—Mito—is gone. And Naruto doesn’t care.