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Mikoto knows that her family is a little too complicated. She’d known for a while; even before marriage, she knew firsthand how the dynamics within the Uchiha clan were, but she wouldn't change her role as a mother and wife for anything else in the world.
Or just one matter she'd love to change. She’d love to soften even more the edges of Fugaku, her serious husband still thinking that "hardship helps to forge their characters” in relation to their sons, the stubborn man thinking that being almost all the time critical towards Sasuke is what their sweet, little pup needs for a great future.
On her way to the kitchen, deep in these thoughts, Mikoto’s mind ponders about her family before her pointed ears raise and her nose twitches, perceiving something.
“Sasuke, dear?” But any other words quickly die when she turns around and can see someone behind Sasuke, a cute little pup too. Smaller, the same age, but so different: while her family ears are triangular in shape and, as wolves, their black ears are instinctively always standing up and aware of their surroundings, the little thing’s ears look harmless, painted in a beautiful shade of orange fur, too fluffy and hanging loosely for now, both of his ears fold over his blond head while the small shoulders are trying not to shy.
Oh, a kit, a little fox. Kushina-san’s son. Born in a family with mixed-hybrid parents, he’s probably not familiar with the smell of a household like theirs, a famous clan pack of wolves with a centuries-old history.
“Oh, Sasuke? Is that a new friend, dear?” She smiles with a soft expression, reflecting yet proud for the image in front of her, her son really making an effort to socialize with other pups outside his safe circle, and maybe the red-haired woman is about to knock on the door. Or so she thought.
“I told you, Mom! He tried to hunt me, so I showed him I could hunt him first.”
Did he? And… hunt? They don’t 'hunt,' but Mikoto remembers her son telling her something about being faster than yesterday and the day before, but she thought Sasuke had been talking about trying to catch a toad or something similar. She even laughed at him a bit, bringing her hand to her mouth to hide her laughing, telling him it was better to leave it alone.
But it was never about a toad.
Mikoto tilts her head to her side, trying to catch more about the other pup’s features. The 'prey,' apparently.
The problem with hunting practices is that they’re now part of the old times as these practices, collectively, remain nowadays prohibited —if some of the Uchiha clan killed others some generations before, it was mostly for honor and to prove to others how strong they were, not for food. In fact, even if her family’s favorite food remains being meat, their source is the fridge; it’ll never be little things that belong to other families.
Maybe Itachi is telling his little brother about old unfit-kid tales? Or maybe ‘hunt’ means ‘playing’ for kids nowadays? She kind of remembers a TV show like that playing the other day.
Or maybe Sasuke is referring to ‘treasure hunting’ with those big blue eyes of the little fox —like jewels.
You see, being a mother isn't that easy, especially when one of her pups is always doing unsupervised things on his own to prove himself. So it's time to find unknown answers; no one is knocking on the door, and no other presence is perceived by her sharp senses.
“Dear, we should get him back home, don’t you think? He must have someone looking for him… Also–”
“No,” Sasuke says before she could tell him that they don’t ‘hunt.’
Mikoto lifts an eyebrow, seeing with clarity how Sasuke’s hand reaches to hold the other’s wrist, cheeks flushed but shifting a bit as if hiding more of the kit.
Is she a bad parent if she only finds this cute? Sasuke’s child eyes reflexively send a different expression to her for a moment. More intense, disagreeing with his mother for the first time ever. Mikoto’s eyes widen but not with incomprehension. She might actually die out of love, cute aggression filling her heart.
Her pup looks so cute!
“But what if he gets into trouble? We have to call his family first.” Sasuke can’t remember little Naruto-kun from when they were babies, can he? With busy lives now, Mikoto had expected they met in a few years later.
“Oh—!” Mikoto hears the other boy suddenly chirping, blinking and last brushing his initial shyness off, yet holding hands but stepping forward to place himself beside Sasuke, about to bow in courtesy. It doesn’t happen, no other word leaves the little blond’s mouth; Sasuke makes this silly —the cutest— type of tiny warning growl.
“He said he wanted to see my new game board,” Sasuke says, but soon a pout is on his lips, eyes looking down in plain embarrassment. Mikoto knows he’s just realized about his little 'misbehavior,' his cheeks reddening more.
Sasuke can’t even think of how to backtrack, a ‘sorry’ probably stuck in his throat.
Mikoto sighs softly, eyeing the surprised face of the other boy. Uchiha and their sudden possessive feelings... She will have to talk to her dear son, but she can let it pass for now. That’s another problem; Sasuke’s too cute and she spoils him so much.
“Okay, but–”
She cuts herself as Sasuke moves, not missing the permission. She watches as both kids go upstairs, her boy dragging the little fox behind him to probably find Itachi and show him his 'hunting.'
“Come on, dummy.”
"Don't call me that!"
Ah, well. She can’t say she didn’t expect another rebel son, but she can only smile while watching Sasuke with a new (first) friend.
Time to also call her old friends before Kushina-san burns it all, thinking her kit has been wrongly kidnapped.