fugaku's interlude 1.0
When Uchiha Fugaku first met Namikaze Minato, he was under the impression that he was to start training with Miharu-sama. The day had been broken by the birds spiraling the skyline, and Fugaku had unconsciously woken up too nervous to sleep before the light rose.
His mother waited for him, she looked down her nose at him like she always did.
He knew his place. He knew he was the heir-Uchiha and mighty. There was also the awareness that if he faltered, his mother would replace him with another child.
His mother was the daughter of the clan head before, despite his father being the clan head. She was the one Fugaku knew to listen to, for she was the one he had to gain approval from.
"Do not disappoint me, Fugaku."
He would have rather died. Fugaku was young, but that much he knew.
Miharu-sama was imposing, larger than life. She had been a war hero during the Warring Clans era and during the first shinobi war. The hero of the battle of Ten Bridges. The Woman Who Rose The Clan.
She had also taught his mother and his father. And every other jounin the Uchiha clan had produced for Konoha. The old woman was no-nonsense, and she never wasted her time on people she could see no worth in.
That was why Fugaku had no idea who the civilian was when he walked in. It did not make sense that someone as grand as Miharu-sama would lower herself to someone who was not clan.
Fugaku did not like him.
From the moment Miharu-sama sat the strange little civilian down beside him and handed him a brush, Fugaku knew something was off. The boy was small and soft-spoken, his blonde hair messy, his hands uncalloused. He did not belong in Miharu-sama's home.
And he called her Baba-san. The mighty warrior in front of him would smile at him and let him.
And yet, Miharu-sama treated him with the same patience she did Fugaku—perhaps even more. That was unacceptable.
Fugaku was Uchiha. He was meant to be better than this child. So why was he expected to sit and study alongside him? Why did Baba-san let him in?
And why, why, did the civilian boy keep looking at him with that infuriatingly curious gaze?
Minato was… different.
He wasn’t strong, he wasn’t fast, and he didn’t even know what chakra was. Didn't know how to act around shinobi; didn't know how to speak right. Or when not to speak at all.
And yet, Miharu-sama let him stay. More than that, favored him. She corrected Minato’s speech, let him sit in on lessons meant for Fugaku, and even scolded Fugaku for snapping at him.
Fugaku hated it. Hated him.
Every time Minato fumbled over a word or failed to understand something obvious, it made Fugaku’s skin crawl. He wanted to correct him, fix him, and push him into something better.
Because if Minato could be here if Miharu-sama allowed it, then Fugaku had to be better than him.
He watched the other boy struggle, his hands too weak to draw the characters out well. A soft voice, muddled by a young tongue, repeated a name over and over again.
Namikaze Minato.
Minato looked at him with eyes sky-bright. It was weird, most people did not meet his eyes, even if he was young, he was to be clan head.
And who looks Uchihas in the eyes?
"What does your name mean?"
No one had ever asked him that before. He was Uchiha Fugaku, the clan heir. The one who would succeed both his parent's greatness he was-
This was not something you asked. His name meant something. So Fugaku did not answer out of principle and gripped his brush harsher as he continued to write his own kanji by the other boy.
The opinion of a civilian child should not bother him, or the slight against him. It shouldn't, yet, Minato infuriated Fugaku.
So Fugaku sneered. He bothered and demeaned Minato with every other breath, and all the other kid did, despite everything Fugaku had seen from others his age, was blink at him.
And then he would ask some inane questions.
It was as if whatever the Uchiha did, did not matter. His words had no effect on Minato except to make the other smile when he would answer him. He would ignore Miharu's raised eyebrows and sneer more because he knew that it was only a matter of time before Minato was going to be taught to stop smiling.
Minato wanted to see a kata.
Fugaku refused. Civilians weren’t allowed. It was a shinobi thing, a clan thing. His mother would skin him if he showed Minato a Uchiha kata.
But then Minato’s blue eyes widened, and he whispered, “I will cry, and Baba-san will get mad at you.”
Fugaku’s stomach dropped. Minato never cried. He never asked for anything. And if he did, and Miharu-sama found out-
Fugaku caved. He only stumbled a little bit, as he had trained his clan's taijutsu far more than the Academy ones.
When he was done, he froze at the sight of pure awe on Minato's face. Who was too young, too dumb, too Minato to hide his emotions as he should? Like-
"That was so cool!" the other boy looked a bit wild and purely happy. "You are so cool!"
What? The shock of it all, the falling feeling in his gut hit him suddenly. Instead of the praise enlightening him, like he assumed it always felt, he felt exposed like a lightning jutsu.
Then, stupid Cousin Akita showed up, and Fugaku hated him more than he could ever hope to hate Minato. The other boy was cruel, and when they were sent to train together he often bruised and hit Fugaku harshly- for he got away with it. His mother would only look at him in disappointment as if he was the reason his skin was bruised. He quickly learned that she was right and that he would need to be stronger to stop Akita from hurting him, himself.
It was just how the Uchiha were.
Fugaku did not flinch when Akita sneered at him and did not let his expression crack. He had long since learned that showing weakness was unacceptable. The feeling of his cousin's disdain was something more expected than whatever else the other teenager could throw at him. He knew his place, what he could endure. The words laid on his shoulders and he welcomed them. Fugaku would push himself harder and endure.
But Minato-Minato did not know that rule.
Minato stepped in front of him, tiny and ridiculous, and pointed a stubby little finger at a trained Uchiha shinobi and said:
“Go away! You are mean.”
Fugaku’s entire body froze. This idiot!
No one had ever done that before. No one had ever stood between him and cruelty. Not his father. Not his mother. Not Miharu-sama. No one.
Akita’s sneer deepened, and his chakra flared-Fugaku felt it press against his skin, suffocating. But before anything could happen, Miharu-sama appeared. And she took Minato’s side.
Minato was too stupid to understand that what he had done was unbelievably reckless. He grinned up at Fugaku as if nothing had happened, as if he hadn’t just broken a rule that had been drilled into Fugaku since birth.
And then-
“Your kata was very good!”
Something sharp twisted in Fugaku’s chest. Hours of katas being reprimanded and torn apart pounded against Minato's words.
The boy was an idiot, he was a civilian baby. He had no idea what a kata was supposed to look like, what-
It was wrong. It was wrong. No one said that. No one gave praise without expectation. No one had ever told him he was good enough.
Fugaku’s throat closed up, and instead of acknowledging Minato’s words, he ignored them.
He gripped the other boy with his hands, and he looked at the baby fat on Minato's face, and somehow the feeling of his bony shoulders- and he knew.
He knew then and there that he would teach Minato not to be an idiot.